orate from the Red Sea to the Wadi Bana, 30 m.
east of Aden. North of Yemen up to the Hejaz border the only authority
is that of E.F. Jomard's map, published in 1839, based on the
information given by the French officers employed with Ibrahim Pasha's
army in Asir from 1824 to 1827, and of J. Halevy in Nejran. On the south
coast expeditions have penetrated but a short distance, the most notable
exceptions being those of L. Hirsch and J.T. Bent in 1887 to the
Hadramut valley. S.B. Miles, J.R. Wellsted, and S.M. Zwemer have
explored Oman in the extreme east; but the interior south of a line
drawn from Taif to El Katr on the Persian Gulf is still virgin ground.
In northern Arabia the Syrian desert and the great Nafud (Nefud) have
been crossed by several travellers, though a large area remains
unexplored in the north-east between Kasim and the gulf. In the centre,
the journeys of W. Palgrave, C. Doughty, W. Blunt and C. Huber have done
much to elucidate the main physical features of the country. Lastly, in
the north-west the Sinai peninsula has been thoroughly explored, and the
list of travellers who have visited the Holy Cities and traversed the
main pilgrim routes through Hejaz is a fairly long one, though, owing to
the difficulties peculiar to that region, the hydrography of southern
Hejaz is still incompletely known.

Modern Exploration in Yemen.

The story of modern exploration begins with the despatch of C. Niebuhr's
mission by the Danish government in 1761. After a year spent in Egypt
and the Sinai peninsula the party reached Jidda towards the end of 1762,
and after a short stay sailed on to Lohaia in the north of Yemen, the
exploration of which formed the principal object of the expedition;
thence, travelling through the Tehama or lowlands, Niebuhr and his
companions visited the towns of Bet el Fakih, Zubed and Mokha, then the
great port for the coffee trade of Yemen. Continuing eastward they
crossed the mountainous region and reached the highlands of Yemen at
Uden, a small town and the centre of a district celebrated for its
coffee. Thence proceeding eastwards to higher altitudes where coffee
plantations give way to fields of wheat and barley, they reached the
town of Jibla situated among a group of mountains exceeding 10,000 ft.
above sea-level; and turning southwards to Taiz descended again to the
Tehama via Hes and Zubed to Mokha. The mission, reduced in numbers by
the death of its archaeologist, von Haven,