Tues 15. [15 May 1900] Off at 9 after many struggles. 3 soldiers, 'Ali,
Muhammad and Musa. We rode out of the Bab Tuma and through all
the gardens, stopping at 10.30 to drink coffee and at 12 at the Khan
Kuseir to lunch. From here we got onto the great plains with the Saffa
[Safa] before us and Dhumayr [Dumayr] on the end of the Jebel Kos.
Corn and desert but mostly desert. Stopped to water at the Kubbet el
Asafir and then up over the hills. There was a well of bad water on top
of the pass. At 4.30 saw Kuteifeh [Al Qutayfah] in the gardens below
us. The road to Aleppo [Halab] runs up from it to the north past a
Khan. Got down at 5 and camped near the beautiful spring by some
vineyards. A hedge of flowering pomegranates behind me. There is
a fine old Khan here, half ruined and occupied by soldiers. 'Ali has
been 4 times to Mecca [Makkah]. Muhammad is also a Hadji.