Two Notes from Central Arabia

Abstract

As THE result of an excursion made by me in February 1948 from Riyadh XJLto the Aflaj province of Central Arabia (map facing p. 92), I am now in a position to amplify the description published in my 'Heart of Arabia' * of the extraordinary series of artesian lakes and ponds which constitute the outstanding feature of the province and which I was the first European to visit in the course of a journey made in 1918. Similar groups of artesian reservoirs, more accessible and therefore much better known and more actively exploited in the interests of irrigation, occur in the Hasa and Kharj provinces. In the latter an agricultural task-force of expert farmers from Arizona has for some years been engaged with striking success in developing an experimental farm of about 3000 acres by irrigation from the spring of *Ain al Dhila*, on whose bank a large pumping installation has been established. It is now known that the various artesian pools of this province link up underground in a single vast and apparently inexhaustible reservoir. Whether this is connected wdth the similar pools of the Hasa and Aflaj on either side by a subterranean river, as seems probable, still remains to be established by actual investigation. The Aflaj pools, more numerous than those of Kharj, are in general of the same character but are distinguished from them by the fact that one forms a lake of considerable dimensions?easily the largest sheet of water in all Arabia. In 1918, when my visit to this area was to…