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minerals, which will remain hid whilst the ignorance of 
the inhabitants lasts. They work some veins of sulphur 
that are open. 
Mecca is an open city, without any walls upon any 
of the sides of approach. It has a fortress upon the 
mountain named Djebel Djiad, which, in regard to the 
tactics of this people, might be looked upon as a second 
Gibraltar. It presents, however, nothing but a mon- 
strous assemblage of walls and towers. It appears to me 
to have been constructed at different periods, without 
order, and after an incoherent plan. It is the principal 
fortress of the Scherif, who has also two others, very 
ancient, which are flat, and of the form of a parallelo- 
gram, with a tower at each angle. They are situated 
upon the northern and southern mountains. 
The barracks of the Mogrebin and Negro soldiers 
of the Scherif, situated without the city, upon the road 
to Arafat, are also flanked by towers; but their position, 
at the bottom of a valley, and at the foot of a mountain, 
renders them incapable of defence. 
There are several insulated towers in the windings of 
the valley, which are capable of containing a small 
guard only. 
The Scherif had a palace near the temple, at the foot 
of the mountain Djebel Djiad and the large fortress, 
which was destroyed by the Wehhabites: he therefore 
now inhabits a large building, or rather a group of 
three large houses, in the neighbourhood of the moun- 
tain Djebel Hindi; before which he has placed a rustic 
battery of four small pieces of cannon. 
The Scherif possesses, besides these, the house he 
inhabited before he mounted the throne; it is situated 
near the barracks of the guards, opposite to the place 
called Aboutaleb, the front of which is prettily painted; 
