Othman Llewellyn's Arabia: a Guide to Mountains of Unusual Beauty

OTHMAN LLEWELLYN'S ARABIA: A GUIDE TO MOUNTAINS OF UNUSUAL BEAUTY

(Notes taken by John Ady based on the talk given by Mr. Llewellyn on January 17, 1991)

Those who attended the meeting held in January 1991, on the evening of the outbreak of the Kuwait war, when the speaker kept nobly to his promise to get to us from Riyadh, will remember his lyrical descriptions of the beauty of Arabian mountain landscapes. He had seen these during several years of extensive travel around Saudi Arabia on behalf of the National Commission for WilcJIife Conservation and Development (NCWCD), helping to select areas to be designated for protection for the value of their vegetation, wildlife and scenery. As a reminder for those who may be able to visit them, we include a map marked with the localities he described (Figure 1). We have added a few further places, all of them mountain areas of unusual beauty, with brief notes on their character based on his descriptions. This is neither a guide nor a guarantee of their accessibility. In most cases a four-wheel drive vehicle is essential to reach them.

1: Jabal Aja' & Jabal Salma

These are two separate but nearby mountain ranges, each a maze of pinnacles and domes of red, rose and lavender granite with many perennial and ephemeral springs. They are full of acacia and palm groves nestling in the heights of the mountains with one of the most wonderful displays of spring flowers in Arabia when the rains have been good. It holds a few small herds of ibex, also wolves and ratels, is said to have caracal and may have some of the largest colonies of griffon vultures in the world. The area is also on the migratory route of demoiselle cranes that pass over in flocks of hundreds. It is a refuge of Pleistocene life with the greatest biological diversity of any site in Najd .

• Jabal Aja is located immediately west and southwest and Jabal Salma 70 km southeast of Hail.

2: Majami' al Hadb The Arabic name, "clusters or catchments of domes" is a good description. Hundreds of smoothly rounded gray to pale rose granite exfoliation domes rise 4-500 m above the plain, contrasting strongly with the adjacent hulking black volcanic rocks. These are classical examples of the form. The rainfall is low but running off the domes, collects in runnels that support surprisingly dense vegetation, creating an island of good habitat surrounded by devastated countryside. There are even Afrotropical plant species to be found there. It has been badly overhunted with the result that the ostriches and rich ungulate fauna it once had are lost, the ibex only recently. Gradually these species will be reintroduced by the NCWCD.

• 100 km across desert due east of Ranyah, 300 krn east of Taif.

44 r Llewellyn's Arabia 3: 'Uruq Bani Mu'arid

'Uruq means long dunes, and these scenic 250 m high breakers of rose-colored sand, 100 km long, are the largest and longest longitudinal dunes on earth. Their wavelength is 1 to 2 1/2 km and the corridors between them, traversed in places by barchan dunes, are remarkably well vegetated and little grazed. They rise over the southern end of Jabal Tuwaiq whose dissected limestone wadi beds are un grazed and relatively well vegetated. Owing to their inaccessibility they are one of the most intact ecosystems left in Arabia. It was here in 1978-9, that the last reported sightings of Arabian oryx in the wild were made by pilots flying overhead. The dunes of 'Uruq Bani Mu'arid offer a very suitable area for the reintroduction of wildlife.

• On the western edge of the Rub al Khali, east of the Najran-Sulayil road.

4: Jabal ad Dubbagb

A precipitous granite pluton rising from 200 m above an exceedingly arid coastal plain through a range of life zones to 2,300 m high where it is often covered with snow. Its smooth spires have the appearance of glaciated country and the rock has beautifully delicate honeycomb weathering with many natural windows and bridges. Under the rock, streams can be heard and there are many seeps and springs supporting several endemic plant species. Magnificent Acacia raddiana and Juniperus phoenicia stand in the cirques. Hidden in a small valley near the summit grows a fragrant white tulip known from Siberia, Tulipa biflora, a Pleistocene relict found so far south only here, on nearby Jabal al Lawz and on one Egyptian peak. Ibex and caracal are also found on the mountain.

• 35 km north-northeast of Duba.

5: Jabal Qaraqir

Jabal Qaraqir is a labyrinth as rugged as Bryce Canyon in southern Utah but on a wider scale and twenty times as high. It is composed of reddish Quweira sandstone capped with yellowish Ramm sandstone (the formation which runs from Petra to Al Ula) and is covered with honeycomb weathering. There are permanent springs among the deep narrow canyons, one stream is 6 km long and seeps supporting hanging gardens of maidenhair fern. There are cascades of azure-leafed Capparis spinosa and the only thickets of wild oleander in the country. The inaccessible summits harbor herds of ibex that are thought to be the largest populations in Arabia.

• 65 km west of Duba on the Duba-Tabuk road, then 50 km south near Dissah.

6: AI Wa'bab

Al Wa'bah is a sunken volcanic crater 250 m deep and 2 km across. Its floor is crusted with accumulated salts banded like white agate when dry but after rain, with subtle shades of ochre I Llewellyn's Arabia I 3: 'Uruq Bani Mu'arid 'Uruq means long dunes, and these scenic 250 m high breakers of rose-colored sand, 100 km long, are the largest and longest longitudinal dunes on earth. Their wavelength is 1 to 2 1/2 km and the corridors between them, traversed in places by barchan dunes, are remarkably well vegetated and little grazed. They rise over the southern end of Jabal Tuwaiq whose dissected limestone wadi beds are ungrazed and relatively well vegetated. Owing to their inaccessibility they are one of the most intact ecosystems left in Arabia. It was here in 1978-9, that the last reported sightings of Arabian oryx in the wild were made by pilots flying overhead. The dunes of 'Uruq Bani Mu'arid offer a very suitable area for the reintroduction of wildlife.

• On the western edge of the Rub al Khali, east of the Najran-Sulayil road.

4: Jabal ad Dubbagh

A precipitous granite pluton rising from 200 m above an exceedingly arid coastal plain through a range of life zones to 2,300 m high where it is often covered with snow. Its smooth spires have the appearance of glaciated country and the rock has beautifully delicate honeycomb weathering with many natural windows and bridges. Under the rock, streams can be heard and there are many seeps and springs supporting several endemic plant species. Magnificent Acacia raddiana and Juniperus phoenicia stand in the cirques. Hidden in a small valley near the summit grows a fragrant white tulip known from Siberia, Tulipa bij7ora, a Pleistocene relict found so far south only here, on nearby Jabal al Lawz and on one Egyptian peak. Ibex and caracal are also found on the mountain.

• 35 km north-northeast of Duba.

5: Jabal Qaraqir

• 65 km west of Duba on the Duba-Tabuk road, then 50 km south near Dissah.

6: AI Wa'bah

Al Wa'bah is a sunken volcanic crater 250 m deep and 2 km across. Its floor is crusted with accumulated salts banded like white agate when dry but after rain, with subtle shades of ochre

45 Journal ofthe Saudi Arabian Natural History Society and lavender. The salt accumulates in a pattern of converging runnels, contrasting strongly with the dark volcanic walls. On its northeast side is an oasis of palms. To the east the Harrat Kishb is one of the most rugged of lava flows with good examples of ropy (pahoehoe) and rugged (aa) lavas. There are groves of moringa trees; wolves and hyenas and gazelles have been reported.

• Near the village of Al Hufr, 75 km north of Radwan on the Taif-Riyadh road.

7: AI Hijr

AI Hijr is the classical name for the region of Madain Salih and Al Ula. The area is composed of the same arresting sandstones as Jabal Qaraqir. These are on the east side of the plateau capped by Harrat 'Uwayrid which has ibex and gazelles. The landscape is not as grand nor as biologically rich as Qaraqir but the rock is eroded into sculptural fonns and is covered by filigree bands of honeycomb weathering. The scale of the wide bowl surrounding Madain Salih is impressive.

• Al Ula and Madain Salih are 300 km directly north-northwest of Al Madinah.

8: Hisma

The northern extension of the sandstone of Jabal Qaraqir but where Qaraqir is a mazy creviced mass, Hisma is a broken range of weathered red monoliths in space, thousands on thousands of separate blocks and peaks surrounded by rose and apricot colored sands. It is barren because of overgrazing and in winter can be cool. The plant associations are Syrian but there are at least two or three endemic species. There are still some ibex and gazelles and leopard are reported close to the Jordan border.

• Either side of the road from the Gulf of Al Aqabah to Tabuk.

9: Jabal Ral

An isolated pluton of pale gray and buff granite with magnificent honeycomb weathering like Jabal Dubbagh surrounded by some of the most overgrazed country in Arabia. Yet the mountain is hardly grazed at all. For over 200 years the Billi tribe have treated it almost as a hema and protected the ibex on it. It deserves support as an outstanding example of local conservation.

• 75 km southeast of Al Wajh.

10: Jabal Radwa

A very rugged reddish, granite mountain with forbidding spires and pinnacles and wadis that are filled with cannonball-like boulders. It carries juniper woodlands and perhaps the best and densest stand of dragon trees (Dracaena draco) in Arabia. On its north side (Jabal Kallab) ibex and idmi gazelles are still found together. Jabal Radwa is inhabited by a very secretive people

46 Llewellyn's Arabia who have little contact with the world. They produce a rare and prized honey and jealously protect both their grazing and the ibex on the mountain. Hence it is in effect a traditional conservation area.

• 40 km north-northeast of Yanbu.

11: Jabal Batharah (Jabal Ibrahim)

A great, gray granite pluton on the edge of the escarpment, best seen from the road between Bani Salad and Baha, with alpine meadows between its peaks. It is the southernmost refuge of most Palaearctic flora in Arabia, being like many such mountains, an island of relative coolness and moisture above the desert and so a center for relict communities. Its plant associations are unique and its scenery is some of the lushest in the country, with juniper woods and cascades of jasmine and clematis. lbere are beautiful views from the east side along the headwaters of Wadi Turabah bordered by thick Cyparis alternifolia and harboring quite large fish.

• 60 km north-northwest of Baha. Best approached from the east side.

12: Najran Highlands

A high plateau of granite which weathers to a tumble of dark cannonball boulders under ragged castellated sandstone buttes, all blackened by desert varnish. Vegetated with Adenium obesum, Acacia nubica, dragon trees, Balm of Gilead (Commiphora gileadensis) and compact dome-like shrubs of Euphorbia balsamifera. It also has outstanding groves of Zyziphus spina-christi and Balanites aegyptiac.

• West of Najran on the Abha highway and north of Najran on the Yadamah road.

Members of the Society would also like to add the following mountains to this list: 13: Jabal Shada al Ala

A steep many-pinnac1ed 2,000 m mountain isolated in front of the escarpment northwest of Baha, only 70 km from Jabal Batharah. A species-rich island of Afrotropical plants that has about 22% of the Saudi flora (460 species) in an area of only 50 sq km. There are also Blanford's fox, wolf, ratel, porcupine, caracal, genet and white-tailed mongoose here.

• West of the Mikwah-Qilwah road. 14: Jabal Qahar & Jabal Ash Shajarah

Two table-topped sandstone mountains (the same sandstone as at Habalah, near Abha) split by a remarkable orange colored gorge 300 m deep, 10-20 m wide and 3 km long. Limestone seeps in the walls harbor rare southern plants. Caracal may be found there.

• 80 km northeast of Baysh, which is on the Abha-Jizan road, via Haqu and Al Rayth.

47 Journal ofthe Saudi Arabian Natural History Society

15: Jabal Fayfa

A steep 2,000 m high mountain range near the Yemen border, the top 1,000 m cut into hundreds of precipitous farmed terraces. The wetter side is prosperous, the drier east side retains ancient circular tower farmhouses. The Bani Malik tribesmen of nearby valleys are the "flowered men" l of the Maugers' books. There are still a few botanical rarities on the peak . • 60 km east of Sabya, north of lizan.

16: Jabal Habalah & Jabal Qushairid

The nearest spectacular mountains to leddah (the Al Ifar valley beneath Jabal Qusharid is often incorrectly called Harithi). Sheer red granite stacks and pinnacles on the escarpment surge above juniper woodland. On the main migratory flyway .

• 5-10 km south of Al Hada, via Wadi Ghadirain.

.~, 54' 51' 60' 36' 39' 42" 4e' ~" & c \ /" " 28'

+6 I

Figure 1: Locations mentioned in the text

48 r

ATLAS OF THE BREEDING BIRDS OF ARABIA PROGRESS REPORT

The Atlas ofthe Breeding Birds ofArabia project has grown from strength to strength each year since it was launched in 1984. 1991 should be a watershed year for the project as in this year all data should be computerized and a draft for an interim Atlas finished. The project has so far collected reports from literature and museum sources. However, the latter sources are still almost untouched and the accession of these records to the database will be a major task for the project researcher Chris Tucker to undertake during the coming months.

The Atlas is now financially sponsored by National Commission for Wildlife Conservation and Development, Riyadh, which has provided funds for the computer system and the researcher, as well as logistical and other assistance for the Coordinator's surveys in Arabia. The NCWCD will also publish for the Atlas in due course.

The project Coordinator has now made ten atlassing surveys to Arabia (nine to Saudi Arabia and one to South Yemen). These surveys have generally been to those areas that are very poorly covered by other observers. The most recent trip in Spring 1991 was to the southern part of central Saudi Arabia between Bisha, Najran and Sulayil which is particularly interesting because in the whole contiguous region of about 100,000 square km there is not yet a single record in the ABBA database from any source. A full report and a short summary of all surveys are available.

Phoenix 7 was published in December 1990. It is probably the best issue yet and at 20 pages it matched in size the previous two issues. It contained several maps, artwork and photographs, articles on two new breeding species for Arabia, notes on the black-winged stilt breeding in Bahrain and crab plovers breeding in the UAE. Other articles dealt with mourning wheatear, taxonomy, potential reserves in southwest Saudi Arabia, the wattled starling, the Oman Natural History Museum and several other topics. Regular articles included "recent reports," "sites of interest" and the book review section which aims to review all titles relevant to the Arabian environment. If you have not seen a recent issue of Phoenix and would like a free copy of No.7 please contact the Coordinator. A number of other papers have been produced from data collected and now on ABBA files. The computerization of the information collected so far will mean that so much more can be provided to those who want data on Arabian birds or local regional information. It is also planned to introduce a personal print for each current observer that will show all the species breeding in a block of squares adjacent to their town.

If you would like to be kept informed of the progress of the ABBA project and especially about the publication of the interim Atlas please contact the coordinator. If any observers still have records that have not been forwarded for inclusion in the ABBA database, they should ask for a set of the project instructions and report forms. Where appropriate, reports to ABBA should be copied to the local bird recorder.

ABBA Coordinator:

Michael C. Jennings

49 Journal ofthe Saudi Arabian Natural History Society

CONTRIBUTORS TO THIS ISSUE

Dr. Ahmed Abo-Khatwa is an Associate Professor of Toxicology and a long time member of and contributor to the Natural History Society. Address: Faculty of Science, King Abdulaziz University, P.O. Box 9028, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.

Mr. John Ady is a landscape architect and lecturer in the Department of Landscape Architecture, King Abdulaziz University. Address: SED, P.O. Box 9027, Jeddah.

Dr. John Grainger is a botanist and conservationist who has worked at King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah, with MEPA and for five years with the NCWCD on the establishment of protected areas in the Kingdom. Address: 8, St. Edmunds Church St., Salisbury, England.

Mr. Michael Jennings is the originator and editor of the ongoing project, the Atlas of the Breeding Birds ofSaudi Arabia, supported by the NCWCD. He has collated ornithological data from the region for fifteen years. Address: 1 Warners Farm, Warners Drove, Somersham, Cambridgeshire, PE17 3HW, England.

Dr. Hosam Joma is an Assistant Professor in and Chairman of the Deptartment of Landscape Architecture, King Abdulaziz University. Address: SED, P.O. Box 9027, Jeddah.

Mr. Othman Llewellyn has worked in Arabia for ten years as an environmental planner and a landscape architect, first with the Hajj Research Center in Makkah and now with the National Commission for Wildlife Conservation and Development. Address: NCWCD, P.O. Box 61681, Riyadh 11575.

50 Summaries

SUMMARIES OF ARTICLES IN THIS ISSUE

Avifauna Changes in the distribution of Arabian birds are described by the author of the Atlas ofthe Breeding Birds ofArabia.

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Conference The Society's representation at a world conference of non-government environmental organization is reported. ~..,s;:- ~I ~I ..:..1 '• ...Ia.-'.Jl ~l.e. ~~ ~ ~I ~ ~ r~ ~.,t..

Mountains Many of the finest mountains In Arabia are described by a knowledgeable connOIsseur

Oil spill A conservationist recall the war-related oil spi11s in the Arabian Gulf and the strenuous efforts made to control the damage.

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Osher The poisonous and medicinal properties of this familiar weed are described by an Arab toxicologist.

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Villages Three oases ofthe leddah area are described. The role ofthe decrease in the quantity and quality of water in their changing patterns of land use and the government response to this change are discussed. -' ., ~ -.".. .. •~I ~~I aU 1>l:..il <.) aLJ.1 ~ ~l..::; .).J;) l.....!.iL:... . ;~ ~ <.) ..:..L:;...~ .:..~ ~ ~~

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