RAILWAY BUILT FOR PILGRIMS 



163 



a means of travel in a country with a 

 fascination of scenery quite peculiar to 

 itself and unlike any other part of the 

 world. Instead of traversing populous 

 countries and great cities, it seems to de- 

 light in passing through immense soli- 

 tudes — through a country peopled mainly 

 by the spirits of the Arabian Nights, 

 where little surprise would be occasioned 

 in finding a roc's egg in some inhospi- 

 table, rocky valley, or in seeing a genie 

 floating in a stream of thin vapor out 

 of a magic bottle. 



The line commences at the traditional 

 parting-place of the great pilgrimage, the 

 Bawaubet Allah, or Gate of Allah, in 

 Damascus. For the first few miles the 

 line traverses the Hauran, running par- 

 allel to the French Hauran Railway. 

 From ancient times this district has been 

 an extremely rich one, and the Romans 

 used it as a granary. 



The deep, narrow ravines of the Yar- 

 muk, the ancient Hieroymax, which the 

 line follows in its descent to the Jordan, 

 present several difficulties of engineering 

 successfully overcome. Large numbers 

 of Italian, Montenegrin, Croatian, Greek, 

 and other European workmen had to be 

 employed on the difficult rock cuttings, 

 tunnels, and viaducts of this section. 



The Jordan Valley, where the line 

 crosses it, is 800 feet below Mediter- 

 ranean level ; but the difficulties of con- 

 struction cease when the Yarmuk Valley 

 has been successfully traversed, and the 

 ascent to the sea is made by easy gradi- 

 ents. 



South of Deraa the main line soon 

 leaves the richer corn land and enters an 

 upland, undulating country, the land of 

 Bashan, producing abundant grazing in 

 the spring. At that season troops of ga- 

 zelle roam about the country, and the 

 Bedouin, with vast herds of camels, are 

 found close to the line. 



The landscape gets bleaker as the train 

 moves south. The mountains of Moab 

 are passed some distance to the west, 

 and the trace is laid far out in the desert, 

 where the valleys are wide and easy to 

 cross, and before they deepen into nar- 

 row ravines as they enter the mountains. 



The old pilgrim route is followed very 

 closely throughout, and at the stations 

 the stone cisterns and reservoirs, to pro- 

 vide a supply of water to the pilgrims, 

 are noticed. Water becomes very scarce ; 

 in a few places wells have been dug and 

 water is raised by wind-pumps. For 

 some reason boring for artesian wells 

 does not seem to have been tried. One 

 attempt was made in rocky ground, and 

 when the drills broke no further attempts 

 were made. 



As the line approaches Maan an ex- 

 tremely desolate country is traversed. 

 Low ranges appear to the east, appar- 

 ently of sandstone or limestone forma- 

 tion, although the ground is strewn 

 thickly with black fragments of obsidian 

 along some sections of the line. The 

 ravines now trend eastward, to lose 

 themselves in a wide depression in that 

 direction, as shown in the recent maps 

 of this country by Prof. Alois Musil. 

 Maan is the first point since Amman 

 where water is procurable in any quan- 

 tity, either from springs in the small 

 town itself or from wells at the railway 

 station. The place is a large railway 

 center, with several stone buildings for 

 officials, a small shop for temporary re- 

 pairs, a hospital, and quite a good hotel — 

 a substantial building, rather small in 

 size. The small town, containing some 

 good stone and mud houses, is not visi- 

 ble from the railway, but lies beyond a 

 hill nearly a mile off. Two copious 

 springs supply the necessary water. 



Date palms are reared ; small gardens 

 with various kinds of fruit trees and a 

 few fields of corn are visible, but from 

 a little distance the place is little else than 

 a drab patch on a gray landscape. Its 

 principal distinction is its proximity to 

 the rocky city of Petra,* a ride of some 

 eight hours to the west among the Moab 

 hills. The climate of Maan is invigorat- 

 ing, both in winter and summer, as the 

 place stands 3,525 feet above sea-level, 

 surrounded by the dry, invigorating air 

 of the desert. 



The principal drawbacks are the severe 



* For a description of this wonderful rock 

 city see Nat. Geog. Mag., May, 1907. 



