dina the route usually followed descends the
W. Safra to Badr Hunen, whence it keeps near the coast passing Rabigh
and Khulesa to Mecca. The total distance, 1300 m., is covered in forty
days.

The Egyptian pilgrim route from Cairo, across the Sinai peninsula and
down the Midian coast to El Wijh, joins the Syrian route at Badr Hunen.
It also was formerly provided with stations and reservoirs, but owing to
the greater facilities of the sea journey from Suez to Jidda it is now
little used. Another important route is that taken by the Persian or
Shia pilgrims from Bagdad and Kerbela across the desert, by the wells of
Lina, to Bureda in Kasim; thence across the steppes of western Nejd till
it crosses the Hejaz border at the Ria Mecca, 50 m. north-east of the
city. It lies almost entirely in the territory of the amir Ibn Rashid of
J. Shammar, who derives a considerable revenue from the pilgrimage. The
old reservoirs on this route attributed to Zubeda, wife of Harun al
Rashid, were destroyed during the Wahhabi raids early in the 19th
century, and have not been repaired. The Yemen pilgrim route, known as
the Haj el Kabsi, led from Sada through Asir to Taif and Mecca, but it
is no longer used.

The principal trade routes are those leading from Damascus to Jauf and
across the Nafud to Hail. Other important routes leading to Nejd are
those from Kuwet to Hail, and from El Hasa to Riad respectively. In the
west and south the principal routes, other than those already mentioned,
are from Yambu to Medina, from Jidda to Mecca, Hodeda to Sana, Aden to
Sana, and from Mukalla to the Hadramut valley. Railway construction has
begun in Arabia, and in 1908 the Hejaz line, intended to connect
Damascus with Mecca, had reached Medina, 500 m. south of Ma'an. This
line is of great strategical importance, as strengthening the Turkish
hold on the Red Sea provinces. But the principal means of commercial
communication for a country like Arabia must always be by sea. Bahrein,
Kuwet and Muscat are in steam communication with India, and the Persian
Gulf ports; all the great lines of steamships call at Aden on their way
between Suez and the East, and regular services are maintained between
Suez, Jidda, Hodeda and Aden, as well as to the ports on the African
coast, while native coasting craft trade to the smaller ports on the Red
Sea and Indian Ocean.

_Commerce._--The total value of the trade of Aden for 1904 amounted to
over L6,000,000. The import