Explorations in Bible lands during the 19th century - H. V. Hilprecht

694 EXPLORATIONS IN BIBLE LANDS
for the journey from South Arabia to the Gulf of Akabah,
while they spent forty days on the way trom Hadhramot
(or the Frankincense Country) to Gerrha, opposite Samak
—
or Dilmun — one of the Bahrain Islands.
Presupposing a general knowledge of the geographical
position of Arabia 1 I may in reference to its physical features
confine myself to a few brief remarks. In no other
country on the earth are found such contrasts as here in
Arabia. One half of its vast territory is composed of sandy
deserts, — not, of course, entirely destitute of vegetation,
affording, especially after the spring rains, the roving Bedouins
a meagre subsistence for their camels, but which has
always proved unfit for any permanent settlement. Then
again, of greater or less extent, we find smiling oases studded
with palms, extensive fertile highlands and pastures, above
all the famous horse-breeding country of Nejd (the" Highland
" proper), tropical districts on the coast of the Red
Sea, the Indian Ocean, and the Persian Gulf; and finally
the wildly picturesque mountain regions with their long
ranges of peaks, which in the mountains of 'Oman (Jebel
Akhdhar, more than 10,000 feet high) and especially in the
Alpine region of Yemen are of truly imposing height, extent,
and beauty. Here, and still more in the central part of
South Arabia, the ancient Hadhramot, not far from the
coast were the Frankincense Terraces ; and not tar trom
them the land of the myrrh and of various spices and
perfumes; while at the present day, in the western part of
Yemen, especially in the district of Yafi'a, east of Yemen
proper, the delicious Mocha coffee is produced, so that the
name Arabia Felix, or " Arabia the Happy," is still, to a
certain extent, justified.
We mav speak even of a river system in this sun-parched
land, properly embracing the
region of the so-called wadis,
or river beds, which in midsummer are entirely dry. Not
1
For fuller information see the map of Arabia at the end of the book.