Engineering Wonders of the World
Volume I

344 ENGINEERING WONDERS OF THE WORLD. Lack of Water. sand is broken only on the western horizon, where the mountains of Moab raise their peaks dimly into the heated air. For a considerable distance the going is easy enough, from the engineering point of view. The valleys are wide, and contain no steep grades ; the engineer could pick his path and lay his iron road in such a manner as to minimize the work to be exacted from the locomotives. But in one respect the country is difficult : it is practically waterless. During construc- tion every drop of water used by the army of workmen had to be con- veyed by train from the nearest well—in some cases many miles away—and stored in jealously guarded tanks. Here and there wells have been sunk with success, and windmills, urged by the desert breezes, raise the water into cylindrical iron reservoirs perched on masonry piers, which by their shape recall the Mar- tello towers to be seen along the south coast of England. In short, the task of supplying workmen, engines, and the pilgrims who, being too poor to take advantage of the line, still tramp the weary distance on foot, has been, and is, a problem of no mean order. As the railway approaches Ma’an, 285 miles from Damascus, it climbs steadily on to the back of a plateau more than 3,000 feet above sea-level. Ma’an itself is now Ma’an. quite an important place on account of its hospital, hotel, repairing shops, and other buildings, all substantially built in stone, and designed to resist at- tacks by any of the rebellious tribesmen, who own a very reluctant allegiance to the Sultan, and consider their private in- terests to be threatened by the advent of the railway. The villagers themselves, once dar- ing smugglers of arms and ammunition, have found a safer and equally lucrative source of revenue in the letting of their houses to railway officials and to the officers of the The Devil’s Belly. garrison stationed at the place, which may be regarded as the gateway of Syria, and is therefore important strategically as well as commercially. In time to come it may also find favour as a health resort, since the air, despite frequent dust storms, is very invigor- ating. Southwards of Ma’an the line traverses high ground more desolate, if possible, than the country already crossed—certainly more rugged and wild. Of vege- tation, except in a few little valleys, there is none; and here the transport animals of the pilgrims have perished in countless num- bers. On all sides are sand, boulders, and deep ravines. About 50 miles from Ma’an, at a point where the rails have attained an elevation of 3,700 feet, the plateau ends abruptly, and there is an almost precipitous drop of 500 feet into the wild ravine called, appropriately enough, Batn-el-Ghrul (or Batn- el-Ghoul), the Devil’s Belly. Standing on the edge of the sandstone escarpment, which runs almost 40 miles east to west, the traveller has a magnificent view of the great basin-like inland depression of the south, tinted with all the colours of the spectrum. This depression extends some 120 miles to'the gorge at Kelaat- el-Akhdar. Half-way down it rise the flat- topped isolated hills of the Haraat-i-Ahmar ; and towards the southern end is visible the great pinnacle of the Jebel Sherora, shaped like a boar’s tusk, and towering some 2,000 feet above the plain. On both sides beetling cliffs give a sharp outline to the basin. The scene, thanks to the clear desert atmosphere, is one which lingers long in the memory of the spectator. To the engineer the existence of the escarp- ment was a serious obstacle. The lower level had to be gained somehow. As time and money were alike valuable, a wide detour, which should take the ravine in flank, as it were, could not be considered. There was