'Handbook of Hejaz. Prepared by the Arab Bureau, Cairo.' [‎28] (42/198)

entrances to the valley, where gates led into the town;
but walls and gates have disappeared, the names of the
latter only surviving, and the town is now quite open.
The roads from Medina and from Jiddah join under
Jebel Hindi, and enter the city by the west gate,
the Bab el-Omrah (formerly known also as Bab ez-Zihir
from a village of that name). The road from Yemen
approaches up the main valley, and enters the Masfalah,
or lower city, by the south gate. The road from the north
gate, the Bab el-Ma 'lah, leads from the upper quarter of the
town to Munah and 'Arafat. Considerable suburbs are
built out to the north of the city, and just beyond the gate
is the Ma/lah cemetery. Farther up the valley is the Beduin
quarter, Ma'abdah, and the camp of the Egyptian pilgrims.
The camp of the Syrian pilgrims lies to the north-west.
On the south-west, below Jebel 'Omar, is the other
great cemetery, Shebeikah, and the camp of the Yemen
pilgrims lies outside the south gate on the east side
of the valley. The length of the town from the south gate
to the northern suburbs is about two miles, and its greatest
breadth, across the valley and up the western slopes, is
about a mile and a third.
The great mosque, the Beit Allah, containing the Ka bah,
lies in the lower part of the town, and its vast courtyard
and colonnades break the line of the streets which run
longitudinally up the valley. On three sides it is completely
built in with houses, whose upper windows command a
v ^ e . w . coul 'tyard and the Ka 'bah. The Madrassah,
adjoining the mosque on its north-west and south-west
sides, and intended as lodgings for students and teachers of
Mohammedan law and doctrine, has long been let out
to wealthy pilgrims; lectures are now given between
pilgrim seasons in the mosque itself, and a poorly furnished
public library is maintained for the use of students.
Immediately above the mosque a broad street, the Mas'ah,
runs from south-east to north-west across the vallev, and
at either end of it are the sacred hills Safah and Merwah.