Monday March 6. [6 March 1911] At 5.30 Temp 54 Bar 29.75. Started off at 6 with a soldier and Sheikh Selman of the Beni Hassan to Umm el Gharraf, but presently heard of castles, came back, stopped the caravan, bought corn and set out for Ruhban. There was a strong wind and dust storm. We left the khan at 7.45 crossed the Jed'an road at 9.45 and the Ukheidir [Ukhaydir] road at 10.30 quite near the cliffs of Bahr Nejef [Najaf, Bahr an]. We looked about a little for the road and got down to Umm el Gharraf at 11.10. I did not climb up to the caves. There are 2 lots of them, most of them unapproachable. There is a {well} bir of bad water; it was all used up by the Arabs when we arrived. Our road now lay over the lake which is dry now and never has water. Irises flowering, blue. At 1 we got to a pool of very salt water and stayed there till 1.30 watering the horses. There was a young palm or two. I lunched in a raging dust storm. We found a pool rather less bitter at 2 and I left the men to fill the skins and went on to Ruhban which I reached a little after 3. It was nothing but a mud built enclosure, half ruined, the arches leading into the towers helped out with straw. When the Sheikh arrived with the caravan 20 min later I said "Oh Selman this castle is not old." He said "Oh lady before my beard was grown wallahi I saw it here." And no one was angry. I gave up the other castles 'Ateiyeh, Ruhbeh, Kheiyadiyeh, 'Aziyeh, finding that most of them were quite recent. But one of the sheikhs of the Nejef [Najaf, An] mosque told me that Kheiyadiyeh which is in a valley some 7 hrs from 'Atshan is old and Ruhbeh is Kadisiyeh though I expect little of it now remains. 'Ali and Selman told me that the Beni Hassan sow crops round Kheiyadiyeh. The wind dropped a little at nightfall. Selman is a very good soul.