Page:The Northern Ḥeǧâz (1926).djvu/91

 He explained that in the preceding year also there had been plenty of rain, but the young locusts had destroyed the grass and shrubs, so that the Imrân had been obliged to move on with their flocks to the region of al-Kḏûr on the southern border of the aš-Šera’ range.

We reached the watershed of the valleys of al-Jitm and al-Mabrak through the broad defile of ʻElw al-Jitâma, and from 7.30 to 11.42 our main party remained beneath the steep wall of Ammu Zḳûḳ (Fig. 24). Jumping down from our camels, Tûmân and I took up the instruments we needed and with Ḥammâd made our way to the summit of Ammu Zḳûḳ. The ascent was difficult and even dangerous in places. We crawled among the granite ribs, frequently passing round vertical walls of rock, and scrambled between broken boulders, continually taking care not to set loose a stone that might roll down and wound or kill one of our companions coming up behind. After eighty minutes we reached a rocky ridge at an elevation of 1387 meters. Thoroughly tired, and breathing with difficulty, we sank down upon a rock, but after a short time recovered and set about our task.

To the east our view was shut off by the higher peaks of Ammu Zḳûḳ, and to the northwest it was barred by Abu ʻUrûḳ; but in all other directions we could see for a great distance. To the northeast, behind the elevation of Ammu Drejra, from which the šeʻîb of an-Naʻami proceeds, there extends the plain Ḫawr Ǧerîs, separated by the group of Sardân and Nuṛra from the plain of as-Sardân, which slopes to the southeast. South of Nuṛra the mountains of Ammu Saḫan and al-Muṭṭalaʻa are united with the broad ridge of aẓ-Ẓahr, and still farther south they merge with the mountains of Nedra and az-Zejte, which form the watershed between the eastern lowlands and the Red Sea. Below Ammu Zḳûḳ to the south, the broad šeʻîb of al-Ḳrejn extends from east to west—bordered on the east by the hills of al-Bṭâne, Ammu Lowze, and ʻAlaḳân; on the south by az-Zerânîḳ, an-Nḳejra, Abu Reḳâjeṣ, and