“HIDDEN CITY”

Greymouth Evening Star, 24 June 1937, Page 16

“HIDDEN CITY”

WELCOMES R.A.F. ADEN, May 9. Shabwa, the “hidden city of Arabia,” ancient capital of the Semitic Himyarites, in the desert on the borders of British and Saudi Arabia, has been officially visited for the first, time by a British mission. Four Royal Air Force ’planes, comprising the mission under the command of Acting Air-Commodore W. A. McClaughry, returned to Aden last night, having successfully carried out the flight to Shabwa. The Hon. R. A. B. Hamilton, -who is the son of Lord Belhaven, is 2nd Political Officer in Aden, and he officially accompanied the flight as representative of the Resident, Lt.-Col. Sir Bernard Reilly. An interesting and vivid account of the visit was given to me to-day by Air-Commodore McClaughry.

“Taking off from Aden on Friday we spent the night at Beihara.” he said. “We took off again for Shabwa at 7 a.m. yesterday and arrived over the city an hour later. We dropped a message in a bag with long coloured streamers before landing—a difficult task owing to the lack of suitable ground. The message stated that we were on a peaceful and friendly visit. “On landing we found that our message bag had been tied to a pole on top of a 500 ft. high hill—-a sign of honour and welcome. “'Pile natives were primitive, friendly, cheerful, very poor, but of a virile type. There was much eye disease from cataract.

“We found signs of a previous extensive cultivation, now diminished. There, were obvious signs of an ancient civilisation in the foundations of largo buildings, probably temples. “Mounds indicated a. buried city, which is an archaeologist's paradise. “We found traces of numerous ancient caravan tracks to and from the city, proving substantially the story that the main route for the dealers in frankincense and myrrh from Dhufar, on the coast of the Hadramaut area, to Palestine lay through Shabwa. “The theory, too. that Shabwa is the ancient capital of the Queen of Sheba is, I think, quite likely. “The main industry of the people now is mining rock salt. The women pnr/l-lh, V in the fiel Is or tend (locks.”