'Handbook of Hejaz' [‎21r] (48/204)

Sherm Habugh. is an mlet, about two miles long, affording
excellent anchorage in from eight to twelve fathoms ; it is
perfectly sheltered from all winds and easy of ingress and
egress to sailing vessels during north-westerly winds. In the
entrance are depths of from eighteen to twenty fathoms, and
immediately outside no bottom at thirty fathoms. Rabugh
is the headquarters of the Zobeid section of the Harb and,
during the Pilgrimage, a main halting place with shelters
and a temporary suq.
Next in order comes
Jiddah, a walled town on a well-sheltered natural harbour,
almost exactly half-way down the Red Sea coast. The
entrance, through three lines of reefs, is, however, difficult.
It possesses quays, landing piers, and sheds along the sea-front
and is the port of Mecca- (54 miles by road, and slightly
under 50, crowfiy) and Ta'if, and the main avenue of pilgrim
access to Hejaz from the sea. Steamers, however, cannot
approach within several hundred yards, and cargo must
be discharged into dhows and lighters. The houses here,
as at \ ambo , are largely built of coralline. There are forts
at the seaward angles of the walls, and three main gates and
three posterns (sea-face); elsewhere the wall is strengthened
by smaller towers at intervals. The population is about
30,000, and includes a moiety of negroes and Somalis, most
of whom live outside the walls, as well as some Indians,
Greeks, and Jews ; about 300 British-Indian subjects are
registered, but exact numbers of all families are not recorded.
Non-Moslems are not allowed to go outside the walls. The
normal Turkish garrison was a battalion with two field guns.
The wells in the town are brackish ; but good water is
brought from rain-cisterns, or from wells and springs seven
miles away.
The bazaar (southern quarter) is well supplied. A petro
leum engine for a flour mill, turning out about eighteen hun
dredweights of flour daily, was reported to have been set up
and to be working in 1912; it is of British manufacture.