[p.380]plain is bounded, on the East, with a thin line of low dark hills, traversed by the Darb al-Sharki, or the “Eastern road,” through Al-Nijd to Meccah:  Southwards, the plateau is open, and almost perfectly level as far as the eye can see.

Al-Madinah dates its origin doubtless from ancient times, and the cause of its prosperity is evident in the abundant supply of water, a necessary generally scarce in Arabia.  The formation of the plateau is in some places salt sand, but usually a white chalk, and a loamy clay, which even by the roughest manipulation makes tolerable bricks.  Lime also abounds.  The town is situated upon a gently-shelving part of the plain, the, lowest portion of which, to judge from the versant, is at the southern base of Mount Ohod, hence called Al-Safilah, and the highest at the Awali, or plains about Kuba, and the East.

The Southern and South-Eastern walls of the suburb are sometimes carried away by violent “Sayl,” or torrents, which, after rain, sweep down from the Western as

[p.381]well as from the Eastern highlands.  The water-flow is towards Al-Ghabbah, lowlands in the Northern and Western hills, a little beyond Mount Ohod.  This basin receives the drainage of the mountains and the plain; according to some absorbing it, according to others collecting it till of sufficient volume to flow off to the sea.  Water, though abundant, is rarely of good quality.  In the days of the Prophet, the Madani consumed the produce of wells, seven of which are still celebrated by the people.[FN#7] Historians relate that Omar, the second Caliph, provided the town with drinking-water from the Northern parts of the plains by means of an aqueduct.  The modern city is supplied by a source called the Ayn al-Zarka or Azure Spring,[FN#8] which arises some say at the foot of Mount Ayr, others, with greater probability, in the date-groves of Kuba.  Its waters were first brought to Al-Madinah by Marwan, governor in Al-Mu’awiyah’s day.  It now flows down a subterraneous canal, about thirty feet below the surface; in places the water is exposed to the air, and

[p.382]steps lead to it for the convenience of the inhabitants:  this was the work of Sultan Sulayman the Magnificent.  After passing through the town it turns to the North-west, its course being marked by a line of circular walls breast high, like the Kariz of Afghanistan, placed at unequal distances, and resembling wells:  it then loses itself in the Nakhil or palm-groves.  During my stay at Al-Madinah, I always drank this water, which appeared to me, as the citizens declared it to be, sweet and wholesome.[FN#9] There are many wells in the town, as water is found at about twenty feet below the surface of the soil:  few produce anything fit for drinking, some being salt and others bitter.  As usual in the hilly countries of the East, the wide beds and Fiumaras, even in the dry season, will supply travellers for a day or two with an abundance of water, filtrated through, and, in some cases, flowing beneath the sand. |