12 April 1929

[probably by Agnes Conway]

A.E.C. spent the morning on Al-Ma’aisera looking at all the tombs leading to the watch-room overlooking the barred Wady Marras Hamdan outside the town.  The tombs are particularly small, and there are many niches with facades too small for tombs.  When above the Turkomanya Wady, I saw a line of camels which turned out to the be the last of 300 or so, which had come from Hayil, a 20 days’ journey, with 50 Wahabis to look after them.  From Ma’an they went by Ain Hai and ain Khraje to El Barid, where they slept last night.  They went out by El Thughra on the way to Akaba and a 5 days’ journey to Egypt to sell the camels.  They said the Star Pass was too hard on the camels legs and so was the Siq.  This seems to imply that El Barid may have been the last station on the way to Petra on the Southern and Eastern Trade Routes, as well as the first station from Petra on the way to Gaza.  It was a first hand demonstration of the Trade Routes that we never could have hoped for, and a very fine spectacle.  The afternoon went on shopping chores and consultations with Mr Read [Head] about my camera.  The “Sybil” focus is all wrong and impossible to use.

Reference: [unsigned, but probably Conway, A.] 1929 (transcribed by A. Thornton). Petra Exploration Fund Diary. "Business Papers to be Kept", Horsfield Collection Box 8, UCL Institute of Archaeology, 12 April: 33. ​