'Arabia. Handbooks prepared under the direction of the Historical Section of the Foreign Office - no 90' [‎47] (62/148)

Arabia]
IY. ECONOMIC CONDITIONS
(A) MEANS OF COMMUNICATION
(!) Internal
(a) Roads and Caravan Routes
Communication by land between Arabia and neigh
bouring countries' is difficult, because along the
junction of the peninsula and mainland there is the
double barrier of the broad sandy belt of the Nefud
and the rolling steppe country of the Hamad or Syrian
desert. A further obstacle is the turbulence of the
nomad tribes, who roam over these two regions.
The routes to and through Arabia are determined
by geographical conditions and the pilgrimages.
Trade and strategic considerations are of secondary
importance in this connection, and industry is almost
negligible.
Geographical conditions prohibit almost all inter-
course^across the great southern desert, though caravan
lines skirt it and run from south-west to north
east across the peninsula to the north of it. In the
regions of the central north, as said above, the Nefud
and Hamad interfere with communications. The deep
valleys of wadis, or intermittent streams, impede inter
course from north to south in the northern part of the
Red Sea littoral, and, to a lesser extent, in the west
and south-west.
The pilgrimages form the great link between Arabia
and the outer world. Mecca and Medina, the Holy