Page:The Northern Ḥeǧâz (1926).djvu/122

 is composed of countless pillars nearly all of the same height, some of which are hollowed out and lie in the river bed. At 3.22 we had the šeʻîb of Emtân on our left, while on our right, above the escarpment, were the uplands of Sbejlât and Šiḳḥ. At 4.12 we reached the defile of Ḳaʻedân Râbeṛ at the point where the escarpment of Ṣafra’-l-Bedʻ swings off somewhat to the southeast (Figs. 35, 36). The channel of al-Abjaẓ penetrates through the bend thus formed, thereby cutting the defile. The river bed, scarcely twenty meters broad and covered with a growth of dark green ṭarfa trees, is bordered on the right and left by walls more than fifty meters high, formed of horizontal, yellow, red, and blue strata. The rays of the sun were reflected from the southeastern wall, and there quivered a rainbow spectrum around the separate strips of color. Seen from the south, the defile produces an even more overwhelming impression. The southern façade resembles a gigantic fortress with olive-blue foundations, violet walls, and a high, slender, yellow, rectangular tower sharply cut with battlements and numerous round loopholes. Behind this fortress, far on the northeastern horizon, rises the purple mountain range of Lowz