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Saltpetre is plentiful, and a third "Sulphur hill" rises from the maritime plain north of the Wady Hamz. The principal ruins and ateliers number five; these, beginning from the north, are the Umm el-Karayat, the Umm el-Harab, the Bujat-Bada, the Kharabat Aba'l-Maru, and the old Nabathean port, E1-Haura.
Ahmed Kaptan fixed them, by solar observations, in north lat. 26 13', so that we made only one mile of southing. It ignores the porphyritic sub-range in which the "Mother of the Villages" lies: and it brings close to the east of it the tall peaks of the Tihamat-Balawiyyah' which, from this point, rise like azure shadows on the horizon. Finally, it corrupts Umm el-Karayat to Feyrabat.
We determined that the Marwah or "quartz-hill" of Umm el-Karayat was the focus and centre of the southern mining region, even as the northern culminates in the Jebel el-Abyaz. Further experience rejected the theory, and showed us half a dozen foci and centres in this true quartz-region. The main hill projects a small southern spur, also bearing traces of the miner.
"Behold Umm el-Karayat!" exclaimed Naji, the guide, pointing with a wave of the arm, his usual theatrical gesture, to the scene before us. Dismounting at once, and ordering the camp to be pitched near the ruins, we climbed up the south-eastern face of the quartz-hill, whose appearance was a novelty to us.
Umm el-Karayat, "the Mother of the Villages," derives her title, according to the Baliyy, from the numerous offspring of minor settlements scattered around her. We shall pass several on the next day's march, and I am justified in setting down the number at a dozen. The remains of the daughter are those of the "mother."
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