ABSTRACT
TRAVELLERS approaching Arabia by the Suez Canal and the Red Sea first sight the north-western part of the vast peninsula. Here, the granite peaks of the desert ranges, in reddish-yellow and violet shades, look over steely dark-blue waters from which leap countless
flying~fish. Farther south, the silhouettes of the south-western highlands, tawny or buff or silver-grey in different lights, are seen from afar across a low, arid coastal belt. Often the outlines of those mighty ramparts are softened by morning mist, while, in the late afternoons and evenings of the summer monsoon, huge mountains of cumulus cloud float above the terrestrial ranges. In the sunshine of midday all may be shrouded by an atmosphere filled with fine dust, or distorted in the hot trembling air. Probably few who pass up and down the Red Sea highway think of the ancient caravan route and the age-old cities lying but a few days' or even a few hours' journey from those coral-bound coasts: Mecca, holy city of a ninth part of the human race; Al Madina, guarding the Prophet's tomb; San'ii, itself centuries old, heir to a succession of civilizations extending back long before the birth of Muhammad or Christ; and the modern Arab skyscrapers of Shibam and other towns of the Hadhramaut.
