ARABIA'S MYSTERIOUS CITY.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVIII, Issue 7, 9 January 1937, Page 10 (Supplement)

ARABIA'S MYSTERIOUS CITY.

Shabwa And Its Fanatical People.

STORY OF QUEST TO PROBE ITS SECRETS.

OX previous expeditions in the South Arab.nn Desert, when I crossed the

J peninsula from the Persian Gulf to Yemen, I came across many stones bearing old Sabaeic inscriptions, sculpture and ancient cultural implements, writes Herr Helfritz. Passing through Hadramut, I heard of a township away off the track; Shabwa, which according to the tales of my Beduin, still preserved remains of a past glorious empire. I made an attempt to reach this city, but, like orie or two who had tried before, I failed to even approach it for the inhabitants of that region are extremely bellicose and distrustful of strangers. Xo money or other inducement will change their attitude. From the time of that abortive effort to reach the mysterious city my interest steadily increased, until the desire jto imcstigate the place became almost lan obsession. Shabwa. r came to sus- | pect. was identical with the Biblical I Sheba, whence the legendary queen set out in all her splendour to vUit the ' King of Israel. ; On my third expedition 1 landed at Shelter, on the Indian Ocean, and there organised my caravan. Outside the ; walls of the city Bedouin have founded settlements with primitive huts of | wood and straw, and a short distance I front one of these settlements a large ! caravan of (iO Bedouin and 200 camels ! rested before starting upon a march into the interior. I decided to join I forces with them. A large caravan, such as ours, can : move only very sjowlv, for as each camel front time to time halts for a moment's I rest or to ease its load, all the animals . behind are held up. It was high noon j when we halted the whole caravan in the i shade of some scanty bushes for a general | rest —and now for the first time I was | able to make a real acquaintance with j our Bedouin. Some of them had never

seen a white man before, l>ut amongst the crowd were one or two whom I liad met on earlier expeditions. They •seemed overjoyed to see me again, and the recognition was like the reunion of old friends. Immediately a comradely concord was created, and I was henceforward treated as one of themselves. So it was a large united community that from now on shared all the many fatigues of a tedicfus desert journey. Stories of Hidden Treasure. Space does not allow of an account of the long trek, and I will therefore take the reader to Shabwa itself, leaving the pictures reproduced here to give an idea of the type of country we crossed. The inhabitants of the poor settlement which stands to-day on the ruins of the old Shabwa, never, if they can help it, allow a stranger to enter the town. Superstition and poverty are their reasons. They believe that immense treasures are hidden underneath the ruins of the ancient city and fear that a stranger would seize them. Though they are incredibly poor, their only source of income being from the sale of the salt they find in the mountains, neither by ,gifts nor money can they be persuaded to allow anyone to bring a foreigner into their city. We had, therefore, to resort to ruse, and decided to take the city by surprise at night-time. In doing so we were successful. After having been en route the whole day and half of the night we approeched the city at 2 a.m. without having met a soul, as all the Bedouin stayed with tribes to celebrate a forthcoming festival. While I was doubting whether we should reach our destination this night at all, the ruins of a wall seemed suddenly to rise out of nothing, and then I realised that we had already almost entered Shabwa. I recognised some fortifications, decayed mud huts and a mosque with a conical roof, the horns of ibex being fixed on the four corners: An Unnoticed Entry. As nobody expected our coming, we were able to enter the town unnoticed. Carefully we climbed the little hill ana felt our way through the streets. None of us spoke a word, and almost noiselessly we went deeper into the city. Somewhere a dog barked, but then again all became silent. In front of a rest .house, to which Salim possessed this keys, we dismounted and led the [ camels into a little courtyard. Up a narrow staircase, which led from the

outer side of the house to a door opening into the interior. I entered the house. If all the painstaking preparations and all our efforts were not to prove worthless, none of the Shalnva's inhabitants must catch sight of me now at night.

The wooden window shutters of the room [ entered were closed, and though a faint glimmer of moonlight fell through the narrow loopholes into the room, it wa* quite dark here. After having brought in our few belongings, the door was quickly shut and bolted. For a short time to come we were safe. Safe in Shabwa! It took time to realise that I was indeed at the object of mv desires. 1 was so indescribably happy that I forgot to consider the dimmer of our situation. Though all wa<s still quiet here, the excitable population, should it discove.- us. would threaten us with death. At the break of the dny,

when it was still dark in our room, the din of crying voices awoke us. among which T could clearly hear Ambarak's. I looked through the loophole and saw trotting camel riders who approached the rest house, and soon eleven Beduin quickly climbed the stairs and entered

the room. They belonged to the tribe of the AI Bruek, and were led by Ambarak. who had collected them in his native village to help us. While wo were approaching Nhabwa he and his friends departed during the night—always two of them on one camel —and they reached the city by the morning.

"A Stranger Has Invaded Our City."

Their coming did not remain unnoticed by the population of Shabwa. First some young fellows arrived, and still half asleep and undecided whether to enter, one pushed the other into our room. Later more people arrived, among them the elder of the town. The small house became crammed and crowded with Beduin. As it ( was still dark, and I sat in a corner, I remained unnoticed for a while. Finally one of the townsmen came close to me and suddenly he tore the koftije from my head and cried: "Frengi, Frengi! A stranger has invaded our city." An awful noise broke loose which extended itself into endless arguments.

I disappeared in the meantime with my film camera and the Leica as quickly as I could, and tried to explore the exact position of the ancient Sabaeic ruins with a view to taking as many snapshots as possible. Saliin and two other Beduin accompanied me.

The town is built on three hills, each of them being a heap of ruins and mighty square stones now partly buried under the sands. Yet over the ruins of what was an ancient culture, a poor Bedouin tribe, which scarcely knows how to get the next day's food, "has built its poor mud huts, the walls of which are interspersed with well-kept stones of Sabaeic origin. "5-he three hills form a half circle and the rest-house is situated on one of the outer ones. A narrow street passing a battered watch tower leads from there to the peak of the hill. Here I got the first general view over the city. When I arrived there, women left their houses crying and cursing and throwing sand and stones.

We reached the second and central one of the three hills, and so far I had not yet made any important discovery. Again and again I insisted on being led to the inscribed stones, but apparently no one of my companions dared to show them to me. There was no time to be lost as the town was becoming more and more excited, and I was forced by my bodyguard to hurry. A Running Fight. On the way, however, I discovered the first relic of bygone days, a big squat stone on which the old Sabaeic characters were chiselled, and which served now as the threshold to a filthy goats' pen. But it was impossible to delay longer, so we hurried over mighty stones to the third lull, where I was rewarded for all our tedious efforts. In a little depres-

sion. not far away. I saw the beautiful ruins of the ancient Palace of Kings, the mighty walls of which only partly rose over tlie surrounding mass of boulders and sand. In spite of the efforts of my Hedouin to hold mo back, I ru-died downwards. Three Shnluva Hcdouins run excitod.lv towards me. and I hud just lime to do some filming before I was forced to leave, realising that it was high time to return to our rest-li.uisc. We narrowlv escaped t lie three Itcdoiiin by running in another direction, but before we reached the rest-house the first shots were fired.

Shabwa capital of the anciei.t kingdom of Hie Ilimvarites, named lull in.v the "city of t lie sixty temples," ami possibly [br Slu-ba of (lie Hil.le story, lies in the remote lladrumut region of South-western Arabia, anil while in inoilern ilays it has JMissesst'll nunc of its pristine greatness it has teen, at the same time, a place of incredible mystcrv, ils inhabitants' notorious xenophobia rendering it intenselv diltieult of access. Two JMiropeans have been there during the present year, however, anil il they have not learnt all its secrets, tin- veil over <>nr knowh-dge has at least been in part lilted. The tirst of these visitors was Hans llelfritz. who in this article recounts his impressions of Shabwa and his thrilling but unenviable experiences, as he was fcrcil.lv expelled within a few hours of Ins arrival. The second visitor was Mr. St. John I'liilh.v. the eminent Arabian explorer, who was inuch more fortunate in his reception as lie was t ravelling under the aegis of the all powerful King Ibn Kami. His in\cstigations into the size of the ancient city show that there can never nave been sixty temples or anything 1 ik<■ that number within the walls, so riinv was doubtless drawing on liis imagination in his description. Ihe ruins, too. have not stood the test of time. as. it now appears, they were constructeil of rock salt from neighbouring mines. In spite of this, though. Shabwa is of absorbing interest, and doubtless in years to come important revelations will be made.

Tn the rest-house itself everything was in a state of turmoil. Aii did not know how to detain the liedouin any longer for they, after having eaten all his rice, hinted very clearly that they would not let us escape. Immediately on our appearance Ali started to pack all our belongings. Xot before all this was finished did we leave the house. But now the Kedouin had started to light one another. Escape to Safety. In the turmoil 1 could not distinguish friend from foe. Every where, on the ramparts and 011 the roofs of the houses. IScdouin hid themselves and tired shot after shot, yet my men understood perfectly how to engage all their attention and so they saved Ali. Saliin and me from the worst. Hurriedly we left the unfriendly city, walking in front of our camels, which we used as cover. It took us quite a long time before we were beyond the range. About two miles in front of the mountain range we halted to await our escort. Happily united we were safe for the moment and we had only to negotiate two passes before all ditlicult ies would be finallv sett led.