shows a highly irregular triangle of nine facets, forming an apex
at the east end of our "Owl's Hill:" the rises and falls of the
ground have evidently determined the outline. The palm-orchard,
whose total circumference is five hundred and thirty-six metres,
occupies a small portion of its south-eastern corner; and our
camping-place, further east, was evidently included in the
ancient enceinte. The emplacement, extending along the eastern
bank of the main watercourse, is marked by a number of mounds
scattered over with broken glass and pottery of all kinds: no
coins were found, but rude bits of metal, all verdigris, were
picked up north of the palm-orchard. Here, too, lay queer
fish-bones, with tusks and teeth, chiefly the jaws of Scarida and
Sparida (seabreams).[EN#67]

Descending the Shahib el-Bum, and passing a smaller black and
white block appended to its south-south-western side, we now
cross to the left bank of the main drain. Here lies the broken
tank, the normal construction of El-Islam's flourishing days. It
is a square of thirty-two metres, whose faces and angles do not
front the cardinal points. At each corner a flight of steps has
been; two have almost disappeared, and the others are very shaky.
The floor, originally stone-paved, is now a sheet of hard silt,
growing trees and bush: dense Tanzub-clumps (Sodada decidua),
with edible red berries, sheltering a couple of birds'-nests,
suggested a comparison between the present and the past. At the
east end is the Makhzan el-Mayah, or "smaller reservoir," an
oblong of 7.80 by 6.60 metres: the waggon-tilt roof has
disappeared, and the fissures show brick within the ashlar. Along
the eastern side are huge standing slabs of the coarse new
sandstone with which the tank is lined: these may be remains of a