554 Account of an Abyssinian Inscription [Nov, 



H. — Account of some Inscriptions in the Abyssinian character, found at 

 Hassan Ghordb, near Aden, on the Arabian coast. By Lieutenant 

 Wellsted, Indian Navy, attached to the Survey department. 



[In an Extract from Lieutenant Wellstep's Journal, communicated by the Right 

 Honorable the Governor in Council at Bombay to the Asiatic Society, and read 

 at the Meeting of the 5th November.] 



" On the morning of the 6th of May, 1834, we anchored in the 

 Honorable Company's Surveying Ship Palinurus on the Arabian 

 coast, in a short and narrow channel, formed on the one hand by a low 

 rocky islet, and on the other, by a lofty black-looking bluff, to which 

 our pilot applied the designation of Hassan Ghorab. Some ruins 

 having been perceived on the summit of the latter, a party shortly af- 

 ter our arrival proceeded to the shore for the purpose of examining 

 them. To avoid the swell which rolled along the opposite side of the 

 island, and produced a considerable surf against the seaward face of 

 the cliff, as it rose up perpendicularly from the sea, we pulled into a 

 small bay on the N. E. side, where the water was much smoother. 

 Landing on a sandy belt, which extended from the margin of the sea to 

 the base of the hill, we found ourselves amidst the ruins of numerous 

 houses, walls, and towers. The houses are small, of a square form ; and 

 have mostly four rooms, on a single floor ; the walls appear to have been 

 carried along the face of the hill in parallel lines, at different heights ; — 

 several towers also occur at scattered distances. The hill on this side, 

 for one-third of its height, ascends with a moderate acclivity, and along 

 the slope, the ruins are thickly scattered ; there are, however, no remains 

 of public buildings or edifices, nor are there any traces of arches or 

 columns. The whole have been constructed from fragments detached 

 from the rock, and from the several patches which remain, it is very 

 certain that the greater number must have been covered over with 

 cement ; both this and the mortar, from the action of the weather, 

 have almost entirely disappeared. The cement appears from the traces 

 yet left on the beach, to have been obtained, as it is at present in 

 many parts of the Arabian coast, by the calcination of coral. A fur- 

 ther examination during an extension of our walk round the side of the 

 hill, enabled us to discover that Hassan Ghorab was about 500 feet in 

 height, that it was composed of a dark greyish-coloured compact lime- 

 stone, and that it had been formerly insulated, though it was now 

 connected to the main by a low sandy isthmus, which had been blown 

 up there by the violence of the S. W. winds, and was evidently of 

 recent formation. The action of the sea might indeed be traced in the 

 cavities and hollows exhibited by a ridge of rocks now at some dis- 

 tance from the water, but which it was evident at no very distant 



