The Land of Midian, Vol. 2 by Richard Burton

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We rode sharply forwards, impatient to see the classical ruins,
leaving the caravan to follow us. The Girdi ("sand-rat") had
ceased to burrow the banks; but the jerboa had made regular
rabbit-warrens. At half-past seven we crossed a winding and
broad-spreading track, the upper Hajj-road, by which the Egyptian
Mahmal passes when returning from El-Medi'nah via the Wady Hamz.
A few yards further on showed us a similar line, the route taken
by the caravan when going to Meccah via Yambu', now distant five
marches. The two meet at the Wady Wafdiyyah, to the north-east of
the Aba'l-Maru range, which we shall visit to-morrow.

Shortly after 10 a.m. we crossed the deepest vein of the Wady
Hamz, urged the mules up the *stiff* left bank, and sprang from
the saddle to enjoy a first view of the Gasr (Kasr) Gurayyim
Sa'id.

Chapter XIX.
The Wady Hamz--the Classical Ruin--Aba'l-Maru, the Mine of
"Marwah"--Return to El-Wijh--Resume of the Southern Journey.

Before describing the Palace of Sa'id the Brave, I must devote a
few lines to a notice of the Wady Hamz. The Wady Hamz, which has
been mentioned as the southern frontier of Egyptian Midian, and
the northern limit of the Ottoman Hejaz, is the most notable
feature of its kind upon the North-Western Arabian shore. Yet
Wallin has unjustifiably described and inscribed it "Wady Nejd,"
confusing it with a northern basin, whose mouth, the Salbah
(Thalbah), we passed before reaching Sharm Dumayghah. He appears
to identify it with the classical Wady el-Kura. Sprenger clean
ignores the name, although he mentions its branches; and of
course it is utterly neglected by the Hydrographic Chart. This
main approach to the Arabian interior is not a fissure, like the
vulgar Wadys, but rather an opening where the Ghats, or maritime
chain, break to the north and south. Distant one long or two
short marches from El-Wijh, its mouth is in north lat. 25 55';
and it is said to head fifteen days inland, in fact beyond
El-Medinah, towards which it curves with a south-easterly bend.
It receives a multitude of important secondary valleys; amongst
which is the Wady el-'Uwaynid, universally so pronounced. I
cannot help thinking that this is El-'Aunid of El-Mukaddasi,
which El-Idrisi (erroneously?) throws into the sea opposite
Nu'ma'n Island. If my conjecture prove true, we thus have a
reason why this important line has been inexplicably neglected.
Another branch is the Wady el-'Is, Sprenger's "Al-'Ys" (pp. 28,
29), which he calls "a valley in the Juhaynah country," and makes
the northern boundary of that tribe.

Ethnologically considered, the lower Wady Hamz is now the
southern boundary of the Balawiyyah (Baliyy country), and the
northern limit of the Jahaniyyah, or Juhaynah-land: the latter is
popularly described as stretching down coast to Wady Burmah, one
march beyond Yambu' (?). Higher up it belongs to the
Alaydan-'Anezahs, under Shaykh Mutlak--these were the Bedawin
who, during our stay at the port, brought their caravan to
El-Wijh. Both tribes are unsafe, and they will wax worse as they
go south. Yet there is no difficulty in travelling up the Hamz,
at least for those who can afford time and money to engage the
escort of Shaykh Mutlak. A delay of twelve days to a fortnight
would be necessary, and common prudence would suggest the normal
precaution of detaining, as hostage in the seaboard settlement,
one of his Alaydan cousins. Water is to be found the whole way,
and the usual provisions are to be bought at certain places.

The following notes upon the ruins of the Wady Hamz were supplied
to me by the Baliyy Bedawin and the citizens of El-Wijh. Six
stages up the lower valley, whose direction lies nearly
north-east, lead to El-'Ila, Wallin's "Ela," which belongs to the
'Anezah. Thence a short day, to the north with easting, places
the traveller at Madain (not Madyan nor Medinat) Salih--"the
cities of Salih." The site is described to be somewhat off the
main valley, which is here broken by a Nakb (?); and those who
have visited both declared that it exactly resembles Nabathaan
Maghair Shu'ayb in extensive ruins and in catacombs caverning the
hill-sides.

Also called El-Hijr, it is made by Sprenger (p. 20) the capital
of Thamuditis. This province was the head-quarters of the giant
race termed the "Sons of Anak" (Joshua xi. 21); the Thamudeni and
Thamuda of Agatharkides and Diodorus; the Tamudai of Pliny; the
Thamydita of Ptolemy; and the Arabian Tamud (Thamud), who,
extinct before the origin of El-Islam, occupied the seaboard
between El-Muwaylah and El-Wijh. Their great centre was the plain
El-Bada; and they were destroyed by a terrible sound from heaven,
the Beth-Kol of the Hebrews, after sinfully slaughtering the
miraculously produced camel of El-Salih, the Righteous Prophet
(Koran, cap. vii.). The exploration of "Salih's cities" will be
valuable if it lead to the collection of inscriptions
sufficiently numerous to determine whether the Tamud were
Edomites, or kin to the Edomites; also which of the two races is
the more ancient, the Horites of Idumaa or the Horites in
El-Hijr.

And now to inspect the Gasr. The first sensation was one of
surprise, of the mental state which gave rise to the Italian's--

"Dear Columns, what do you here?
'Not knowing, can't say, Mynheer!'"

And this incongruous bit of Greece or Rome, in the Arabian wild,
kept its mystery to the last: the more we looked at it, the less
we could explain its presence. Not a line of inscription, not
even a mason's mark--all dark as the grave; deaf-dumb as "the
olden gods."

The site of the Gasr is in north lat. 25 55' 15";[EN#70] and the
centre of the Libn block bears from it 339 (mag.). It stands
upon the very edge of its Wady's left bank, a clifflet some
twenty-five feet high, sloping inland with the usual dark metal
disposed upon loose yellow sand. Thus it commands a glorious view
of the tree-grown valley, or rather valleys, beneath it; and of
the picturesque peaks of the Tihamat-Balawiyyah in the
background. The distance from the sea is now a little over three
miles--in ancient days it may have been much less.

The condition of the digging proves that the remains have not
long been opened: the Baliyy state less than half a century ago;
but exactly when or by whom is apparently unknown to them. Before
that time the locale must have shown a mere tumulus, a mound
somewhat larger than the many which pimple the raised valley-bank
behind the building. A wall is said to have projected above
ground, as at Uriconium near the Wrekin.[EN#71] This may have
suggested excavation, besides supplying material for the Bedawi
cemetery to the south-west. The torrent waters have swept away
the whole of the northern wall, and the treasure-seeker has left
his mark upon the interior. Columns and pilasters and bevelled
stones have been hurled into the Wady below; the large
pavement-slabs have been torn up and tossed about to a chaos; and
the restless drifting of the loose yellow Desert-sand will soon
bury it again in oblivion. The result of all such ruthless
ruining was simply null. The imaginative Naji declared, it is
true, that a stone dog had been found; but this animal went the
way of the "iron fish," which all at El-Muwaylah asserted to have
been dug up at El-Wijh--the latter place never having heard of
it. Wallin (p. 316) was also told of a black dog which haunts the
ruins of Karayya, and acts guardian to its hidden treasures.
Years ago, when I visited the mouth of the Volta river on the
Gold Coast, the negroes of Cape Coast Castle were pleased to
report that I had unearthed a silver dog, at whose appearance my
companion, Colonel de Ruvignes, and myself fell dead. But why
always a dog? The "Palace" is a Roman building of pure style;
whether temple or nymphaum, we had no means of ascertaining. The
material is the Rugham or alabaster supplied by the Secondary
formation; and this, as we saw, readily crumbles to a white
powder when burnt. The people, who in such matters may be
trusted, declare that the quarries are still open at Abu
Makharir, under the hills embosoming Aba'l-Maru. We should have
been less surprised had the ruin been built of marble, which
might have been transported from Egypt; but this careful and
classical treatment of the common country stone, only added to
the marvel.

It must have been a bright and brilliant bit of colouring in its
best days--hence, possibly, the local tradition that the stone
sweats oil. The whole building, from the pavement to the coping,
notched to receive the roof-joists, is of alabaster, plain-white
and streaked with ruddy, mauve, and dark bands, whose mottling
gives the effect of marble. Perhaps in places the gypsum has been
subjected to plutonic action; and we thought that the coloured
was preferred to the clear for the bases of the columns. The
exposed foundations of the eastern and western walls, where the
torrent has washed away the northern enceinte, show that, after
the fashion of ancient Egypt, sandstone slabs have been laid
underground, the calcaire being reserved for the hypaethral part.
The admirable hydraulic cement is here and there made to take the
place of broken corners, and flaws have been remedied by
carefully letting in small cubes of sound stone. There are also
cramp-holes for metal which, of course, has been carried off by
the Bedawin: the rusty stains suggest iron.

The building is square-shaped, as we see from the western wall,
and it evidently faced eastward with 25 (mag.) of southing. This
orientation, probably borrowed from the Jews, was not thoroughly
adopted in Christendom till the early fifth century, when it
became a mos. The southern wall, whose basement is perfect, shows
everywhere a thickness of 0.95 centimetre, and a total length of
8 metres 30 centimetres. At 2 metres 87 centimetres from the
south-western corner is a slightly raised surface, measuring in
length 2 metres 15 centimetres. Mr. James Fergusson supposes that
this projection, which directly fronts the eastern entrance, was
the base of the niche intended for the image. On each side of the
latter might have been a smaller colonette, which would account
for the capital carried off by us to Egypt. Thus, adding 2 metres
87 centimetres for the northern end swept into the valley, we
have a length of 7 metres 89 centimetres; and the additional half
thickness of the east wall would bring it to a total of 8 metres
30 centimetres.

The shrine was not in antis, and the site hardly admits of a
peristyle; besides which, excavations failed to find it. That it
might have had a small external atrium is made probable by the
peculiarity of the entrance. Two rounded pilasters, worked with
the usual care inside, but left rough in other parts because they
could not be seen, were engaged in the enceinte wall, measuring
here, as elsewhere, 0.95 centimetre in thickness. Nothing
remained of them but their bases, whose lower diameters were 0.95
centimetre, and the upper 0.65; the drums found elsewhere also
measured 0.65. The interval between the lowest rings was 1 metre
63 centimetres; and this would give the measure of the doorway,
here probably a parallelogram. Lying on the sand-slope to the
north, a single capital showed signs of double brackets, although
both have been broken off:[EN#72] the maximum diameter across the
top was 0.60 centimetre, diminishing below to 0.50 and 0.44,
whilst the height was 0.40. The encircling wall was probably
adorned with pilasters measuring 0.62 centimetre below, 0.45
above, and 0.11 in height: they are not shown in the plan; and I
leave experts to determine whether they supported the inside or
the outside surface. Several stones, probably copings, are cut
with three mortice-joints or joist-holes, each measuring 0.15
centimetre, at intervals of 0.14 to 0.15.

In the tossed and tumbled interior of this maison carree the
pavement-slabs, especially along the south-western side, appear
in tolerable order and not much disturbed; whilst further east a
long trench from north to south had been sunk by the treasure
seeker. The breadth of the free passage is 1 metre 92
centimetres; and the disposal suggested an inner peristyle,
forming an impluvium. Thus the cube could not have been a heroon
or tomb. Four bases of columns, with a number of drums, lie in
the heap of ruins, and in the torrent-bed six, of which we
carried off four. They are much smaller than the pilasters of the
entrance; the lower tori of the bases measure 0.60 centimetre in
diameter, and 0.20 in height (to 0.90 and 0.25), while the drums
are 0.45, instead of 0.65. It is an enormous apparatus to support
what must have been a very light matter of a roof. The only
specimen of a colonette-capital has an upper diameter of 0.26, a
lower of 0.17, and a height of 0.16.

Although the Meccan Ka'bah is, as its name denotes, a "cube,"
this square alabaster box did not give the impression of being
either Arab or Nabathaan. The work is far too curiously and
conscientiously done; the bases and drums, as the sundries
carried to Cairo prove, look rather as if turned by machinery
than chiselled in the usual way. I could not but conjecture that
it belongs to the days of such Roman invasions as that of Alius
Gallus. Strabo[EN#73] tells us of his unfortunate friend and
companion, that, on the return march, after destroying
Negran[EN#74] (Pliny, vi. 32), he arrived at Egra or Hegra
(El-'Wijh), where he must have delayed some time before he could
embark "as much of his army as could be saved," for the opposite
African harbour, Myus Hormus. It is within the limits of
probability that this historical personage[EN#75] might have
built the Gasr, either for a shrine or for a nymphaum, a
votive-offering to the Great Wady, which must have cheered his
heart after so many days of "Desert country, with only a few
watering-places." Perhaps an investigation of the ruins at Ras
Kurkumah and the remains of Madain Salih may throw some light
upon the mystery. In our travel this bit of classical temple was
unique.

Mr. Fergusson, whose authority in such matters will not readily
be disputed, calls the building a small shrine; and determines
that it can hardly be a tomb, as it is hypathral. The only
similar temple known to him is that of "Soueideh" (Suwaydah), in
the Hauran (De Vogue, "Syrie Centrale," Plate IV.). The latter,
which is Roman, and belonging to the days of Herod Augustus, has
a peristyle here wanting: in other respects the resemblance is
striking.

M. Lacaze photographed, under difficulties such as bad water and
a most unpleasant drift of sand-dust, the interior of the
building, the stones lying in the Wady below, and the various
specimens which we carried off for the inspection of his Highness
the Viceroy. Meanwhile we "pottered about," making small
discoveries. The exposed foundations of the north-western wall,
where the slabs of grit rest upon the sands of the cliff,
afforded signs of man in the shape of a jaw-bone, with teeth
apparently modern; and above it, in the terreplein, we dug down
upwards of a yard, without any result beyond unearthing a fine
black scorpion. The adjoining Arab graveyard, adorned with the
mutilated spoils of the classical building, gave two imperfect
skulls and four fragments. We opened one of the many mounds that
lie behind the Gasr, showing where most probably stood the ruined
town; and we found the interior traversed by a crumbling wall of
cut alabaster--regular excavation may some day yield important
results. A little to the south-west lies a kind of ossuary, a
tumulus slightly raised above the wavy level, and showing a
central pit choked with camels' bones: at least, we could find no
other.

And here I was told the Arab legend by the Wakil; who, openly
deriding the Bedawi idea that the building could be a "Castle,"
opined that it was a Kanisah, a "Christian or pagan place of
worship." Gurayyim Sa'id, "Sa'id the Brave," was an African
slave, belonging to an Arab Shaykh whose name is forgotten. One
day it so happened that a razzia came to plunder his lord, when
the black, whose strength and stature were equal to his courage
and, let us add, his appetite, did more than his duty. Thus he
obtained as a reward the promise of a bride, his master's
daughter. But when the day of danger was past, and the slave
applied for the fair guerdon, the Shaykh traitorously refused to
keep his word. The Brave, finding a fit opportunity, naturally
enough carried off the girl to the mountains; solemnly thrashed
every pursuing party; and, having established a "reign of
terror," came to the banks of the Wady Hamz, and built the
"Palace" for himself and his wife. But his love for
butcher's-meat did not allow him to live happily ever after. As
the land yielded little game, he took to sallying out every day
and carrying off a camel, which in the evening he slew, and
roasted, and ate, giving a small bit of it to his spouse. This
extravagance of flesh-diet ended by scandalizing the whole
country-side, till at last the owner of the plundered herds,
Diyab ibn Ghanim, one of the notables celebrated in the romance
called Sirat Abu' Zayd,[EN#76] assembled his merry men, attacked
the Gurayyim, and slew him. Wa' s' salam!

Here Egypt ends. We have done our work--

"And now the hills stretch home."

I must, however, beg the reader to tarry with me awhile. The next
march to the north will show him what I verily believe to be the
old gold-mine lying around El-Marwah. It acquires an especial
interest from being the northernmost known to the mediaeval
geographers.

El-Mukaddasi (vol. I. p. 101), in an article kindly copied by my
friend, the Aulic Councillor, Alfred Von Kremer, says, "Between
Yambu' and El-Marwah are mines of gold;" adding ("Itinerary,"
vol. i. p. 107) the following route directions: "And thou takest
from El-Badr ('the New Moon')[EN#77] to El-Yambu' two stages;
thence to the Ras el-'Ayn (?),[EN#78] one stage; again to the
mine (subaudi, of gold), one stage; and, lastly, to El-Marwah,
two stages. And thou takest from El-Badr to El-Jar[EN#79] one
stage; thence to El-Jahfah (?), or to El-Yambu', two stages each.
And thou takest from El-Jiddah (Jedda) to El-Jar, or to
El-Surrayn (?), four stages each. And thou takest from El-Yasrib
(Jatrippa or El-Medinah) to El-Suwaydiyyah (?), or to Batn
el-Nakhil (?), two stages each; and from El-Suwaydiyyah to
El-Marwah, an equal distance (i.e. four marches); and from the
Batn el-Nakhil to the mine of silver, a similar distance. And if
thou seek the Jaddat Misr,[EN#80] then take from El-Marwah to
El-Sukya[EN#81] (?), and thence to Bada Ya'kub,[EN#82] three
marches; and thence to El-'Aunid, one march." Hence Sprenger
would place Zu'l-Marwah "four days from El-Hijr, on the western
road to Medina;" alluding to the western (Syrian) road, now
abandoned.

And now for our march. On the finest possible morning (April
9th), when the world was all ablaze with living light, I walked
down the Wady Hamz. It has been abundantly supplied with water;
in fact, the whole vein (thalweg) subtending the left bank would
respond to tapping. The well El-Kusayr, just below the ruin,
though at present closed, yielded till lately a large quantity:
about half a mile to the westward is, or rather was, a saltish
pit surrounded by four sweet. Almost all are now dry and filled
up with fuel. A sharp trudge of three-quarters of an hour leads
to the Bir el-Gurnah (Kurnah), the "Well of the Broad," in a
district of the same name, lying between the ruin and the shore.
It is a great gash in the sandy bed: the taste of the turbid
produce is distinctly sulphurous; and my old white mule, being
dainty in her drink, steadfastly refused to touch it. The
distinct accents of the Red Sea told us that we were not more
than a mile from its marge.

We then struck north-east, over the salt maritime plain, till we
hit the lower course of the Wady Umm Gilifayn (Jilifayn). It
heads from the seaward base of the neighbouring hills; and its
mouth forms a Marsa, or "anchorage-place," for native craft. A
little to the north stands the small pyramidal Tuwayyil
el-Kibrit, the "little Sulphur Hill," which had been carefully
examined by MM. Marie and Philipin. A slow ride of eight miles
placed us in a safe gorge draining a dull-looking, unpromising
block. Here we at once found, and found in situ for the first
time, the chalcedony which strews the seaboard-flat. This agate,
of which amulets and signet-rings were and are still made, and
which takes many varieties of tints, lies in veins mostly
striking east-west; and varying in thickness from an inch to
several feet. The sequence is grey granite below, the band of
chalcedony, and above it a curious schistose gneiss-formation.
The latter, composing the greater part of these hills, is striped
dark-brown and yellow; and in places it looks exactly like rotten
wood. The small specimens of chalcedony in my private collection
were examined at Trieste, and one of them contained dendritic
gold, visible to the naked eye. Unfortunately the engineer had
neglected this most important rock, and only a few ounces of it,
instead of as many tons, were brought back for analysis.

A short and easy ascent led to a little counter-slope, the Majra
Mujayrah (Mukayrah), whose whitening sides spoke of quartz. We
rode down towards a granite island where the bed mouths into the
broad Wady Mismah, a feeder of the Wady 'Argah. Here, after some
ten miles, the guide, Na'ji', who thus far had been very misty in
the matter of direction, suddenly halted and, in his showman
style, pointed to the left bank of the watercourse, exclaiming,
"Behold Aba'l-Maru!" (the "Father of Quartz"). It was another
surprise, and our last, this snowy reef with jagged crest, at
least 500 metres long, forming the finest display of an exposed
filon we had as yet seen; but--the first glance told us that it
had been worked.

We gave the rest of the day to studying and blasting the
quartz-wall. It proved to be the normal vein in grey granite,
running south-north and gradually falling towards the
valley-plain. Here a small white outlier disappears below the
surface, rising again in filets upon the further side. The dip is
easterly: in this direction a huge strew of ore-mass and rubbish
covers the slope which serves as base to the perpendicular reef.
The Negro quartz, which must have formed half the thickness, had
been carried bodily away. If anything be left for the moderns it
is hidden underground: the stone, blasted in the little outlier,
looked barren. Not the least curious part of this outcrop is the
black thread of iron silicate which, broken in places, subtends
it to the east: some specimens have geodes yielding brown powder,
and venal cavities lined with botryoidal quartz of amethystine
tinge. In other parts of the same hills we found, running along
the "Mara," single and double lines of this material, which
looked uncommonly like slag.

The open Wady Mismah showed, to the east of our camp, the ruins
of a large settlement which has extended right across the bed: as
the guides seemed to ignore its existence, we named it the
Kharabat Aba'l-Maru. Some of the buildings had been on a large
scale, and one square measured twenty yards. Here the peculiarity
was the careful mining of a granitic hillock on the southern
bank. The whole vein of Negro quartz had been cut out of three
sides, leaving caves that simulated catacombs. Further west
another excavation in the same kind of rock was probably the
town-quarry. The two lieutenants were directed next morning to
survey this place, and also a second ruin and reef reported to be
found on the left bank, a little below camp.

We have now seen, lying within short distances, three several
quartz-fields, known as--Marwah, "the single Place or Hill of
Mau'" (quartz); Marwat, "the Places of Quartz;" and Aba'l-Maru,
the "Father of Quartz;" not to speak of a Nakb Abu Marwah[EN#83]
further north. The conclusion forced itself upon me that the name
of the celebrated Arab mine Zu'l Marwah or El-Marwah, the more
ancient (Mochura), which Ptolemy places in north
lat. 24 30', applied to the whole district in South Midian, and
then came to denote the chief place and centre of work. To judge
by the extent of the ruins, and the signs of labour, this focus
was at Umm el-Karayat (the "Mother of the Villages"), which, as
has been shown, is surrounded by a multitude of miner-towns and
ateliers. And the produce of the "diggings" would naturally
gravitate to El-Bada, the great commercial station upon the
Nabathaan "Overland."

Thus El-Marwah would signify "the Place of Maru," or
"Quartz-land," even as Ophir means "Red Land." A reviewer of my
first book on Midian objects to the latter derivation; as
Seetzen, among others, has conclusively shown that Ophir, the
true translation of which is 'riches,' is to be looked for in
Southern Arabia." Connu! But I question the "true translation;"
and, whilst owning that one of the Ophirs or "Red Lands" lay in
the modern Yemen, somewhere between Sheba (Saba) and Havilah
(Khaulan), I see no reason for concluding that this was the only
Ophir. Had it been a single large emporium on the Red Sea, which
collected the produce of Arabia and the exports of India and of
West Africa, the traditional site could hardly have escaped the
notice of the inquiring Arabian geographers of our Middle Ages.
The ruins of a port would have been found, and we should not be
compelled theoretically to postulate its existence.

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