'Southern Nejd: Journey to Kharj, Aflaj, Sulaiyyil, and Wadi Dawasir in 1918.' [‎42v] (89/100)

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afternoon we passed an extensive group of ruins called Abu
Sahra, said to have been a town in days long past, at rather
less than three miles and camped one and a half miles beyond
the ruins in the mouth of the unimportant Ashairan Shaib.
Resuming our march, still northward, on the morning of
June 20 we soon passed the point at which the Saut diverges
from the Fara—the latter striking north-east between the Nafudh
(known as Ajniba) and the patch of bare stony upland already
mentioned, while we followed up the former, a broad valley of
firm loam between the upland and the edge of Tuwaiq.
Having marched some eight miles from our starting point
we came to a small forest of acacias and other trees, which
forms the boundary of the Hauta grazing preserve and im
mediately beyond which we reached and followed the tortuous
pebbly channel of the Wuthailan. About four miles further
on this channel strikes north-east along a projection Any method by which the earth’s curved surface may be transposed (or projected) on to a flat surface. of the
Tuwaiq slope, across which we continued our course to re-enter
the plain, now thickly wooded with acacias of various species,
after a short run of two miles. We now crossed the Tumair
Shaib, in whose upper course is a much frequented well, at
its point of debouchment into the plain, and a couple of miles
further on reached the Mawan Shaib and turned up it to the
ruins of the ancient settlement of the same name, where we
halted for the night and spent the whole of the following day
to give our camels a much needed rest.
The main body of the Mawan settlement lies in a wide
bulge of the Mawan valley, beyond which it extends upstream
for a distance of about two miles. The ruins consists of qasrs
built of mixed mud and masonry on and about the high cliffs
which surround the valley ; one qasr in particular built in steps
down the slope of the right bank cliff, with its upper wall and
towers running along the summit and commanding a wide
view of the plateau around has its lower walls actually in the
bed of the valley enclosing one or two wells, and was extremely
imposing, while opposite it on the summit of a tongue of rock
projecting from the left bank cliff stood another qasr of large
dimensions, a considerable portion of which was still in a good
state of preservation. The valley here contains a large number
of wells, some abandoned and others still in use affording a good
supply of water at a depth of four or five fathoms, but the
most striking feature of the settlement is an extensive pond of