i88i] A JOURNEY IN THE HEjAZ 513 



but a group of wretched huts, with the usual coffee 

 house and military post, its position is one of some im 

 portance from the roads which converge upon it, the 

 natural highway along the Wady, which is the gate of 

 the upper country, being here intersected by the Jeddah 

 road, through the hills on the west, and by another road 

 across Jebel Shemeisi, which leads into Wady Magra, 

 and so to Wady Naaman and the high road from Mecca 

 to Yemen. The strategical importance of the point was 

 at one time recognised, for close by the village, on one of 

 the many isolated rocky eminences that stud the plain, 

 rise the ruins of a well-built square fortress, with round 

 corner towers the usual type of an Arabic stronghold. 

 Our men could tell me nothing about this castle except 

 its name, Qasr el Gazia. Unlike the other fortresses in 

 the upper parts of the Wady, which were strongholds 

 of the Wahhabites, it appears to be of considerable age, 

 for I have since learned that it is an object of superstitious 

 terror to the Arabs. It contains hidden treasures, guarded 

 by a supernatural power which inflicts terrible punish 

 ment on those who venture to explore the secrets of the 

 ruin. 



The name of Wady Marr, or the valley of passage, is 

 explained by the natives from the fact that this valley is 

 the great watercourse through which the floods descend 

 ing from the uplands sweep in a tremendous torrent. I 

 fancy that the name is old, for Sprenger gives Marr- 

 Tzahran as the ancient name of the pilgrim station on 

 the road from Mecca to Medina, which lies in this valley, 

 and is now called Wady Fatima. The upper reaches of 

 the Wady above Hadda are well watered with copious 

 springs. Below Hadda, the water is ordinarily below 

 ground, but can be got by sinking wells, which were once 

 numerous. At present I think there is but one well 

 between Bahra and Hadda used for irrigation, cultivation 

 having gone back, as is the case in so many parts of the 

 Hejaz. The comparative luxuriance of the vegetation 



33 



