228 THE MOTIAMMEDAN PILGRIMAGfi. 



made for the accommodation of travellers, except 

 the watering-places, which are kept in tolerable 

 repair. Although reckoned sufficiently safe for 

 larg-e bodies, yet daring robberies are occasionally 

 committed by the Arabs. 



The sacred city of Medina lies on the edge of the 

 Great Arabian Desert. According to the strict pre- 

 cept of Mohammed, a circle of twelve miles round 

 the place should be considered as holy territory ; 

 but this injunction is completely set aside. The 

 town itself is well built : the houses are generally 

 two stories high, entirely of stone ; and not being 

 whitewashed, they have for the most part a gloomy 

 aspect. The main streets are paved ; the rest are 

 narrow, often only tAvo or three paces across. The 

 wall, which completely surrounds the city, forms a 

 kind of oval of about 2800 paces in circumference, 

 ending in a point or small rocky elevation, on which 

 stands the castle. This latter is enclosed by a thick 

 stone rampart, between thirty-five and forty feet 

 high, flanked by about thirty towers, and defended 

 by a ditch. It contains sufficient space for 600 or 

 800 men, has many arched rooms bomb proof, and 

 is supplied with excellent water. 



The suburbs extend on the v/est and south, and 

 tover more ground than the town itself, from which 

 they are separated by an open space occupied with 

 huts, coffee-shops, markets, and gardens. There are 

 very few fine edifices or public buildings, and those 

 here, as v/ell as at Mecca, are the works of the sul- 

 tans of Egypt and Constantinople. There is an 

 abundant supply of water by means of subterra- 

 neous canals and Avells, which are scattered over the 

 town. The number of inhabitants Burckhardt sup- 

 posed might be between 16,000 and 20,000 ; the 

 greater part of whom are of foreign origin, and pre- 

 sent as motley a race as those of Mecca. No year 

 passes without an influx of new settlers, attracted 

 by the hope of making gain in their religious traffic 



