Gebel Dibag is a high dark ridge five kilometres south of Gebel Batoga, with a peak at each end. The north-west peak is 517 metres, and the south-east one 544 metres above sea-level. The Wadi Kunserob curves round its east and south flanks, while the Wadi Dibag lil Kunserob drains its eastern face into the same channel.
Gebel Shenshef is a mass of high dark hills between the Wadis Shenshef and Gumudlum, close to the Wadi Khoda. On one of its eastern peaks, situated in latitude 23° 44′ 5″, longitude 35° 22′ 40″, on the west side of Wadi Shenshef, and not so high as others further west, a beacon has been erected overlooking the ruins called Hitan Shenshef. There are wells in the wadi a short distance below this hill. The beacon is 290 metres above the sea and 115 metres above the wadi floor at its foot.
Gebel Dahanib is a mountain of dark coloured rocks (diorite and gabbro), situated twelve and half kilometres south-east of Gebel Kalalat and eleven kilometres north of the Wadi Khoda. Its summit, on which is a triangulation beacon, is in latitude 23° 45′ 44″, longitude 35″ 11′ 10″, and 1,270 metres above sea-level. Gebel Dahanib is surrounded by other mountains and hills, and access to it is not very easy. In order to reach it from Gebel Kalalat I had to make a journey down the Wadi Kalalat, along the coast-plain and up the Wadis Khoda and Allawi, a total distance of over eighty kilometres, although the direct distance between the two peaks is only twelve and a half kilometres. By ascending one of the heads of the Wadi Allawi until camels could get no further, I was able to pitch a camp 540 metres above sea-level and three kilometres south-west of the beacon, leaving 730 metres to be climbed on foot. The ascent, though tiring, was free from difficulties or dangers, and occupied two and a half hours. A galt, containing only a small supply of water at the time of my visit, exists a little further up the head of the wadi than where I fixed my camp. There is a good view from the summit, but in the winter months Dahanib, like all the mountains near the coast, is frequently wrapped in clouds for days together. Of seven days spent on the summit in February 1907, three were passed entirely in clouds, while only portions of the other four were free from fog or haze. It was on Gebel Dahanib that I first noticed the curious electric phenomena which may be observed at high stations when electrified clouds are passing close overhead, my attention being first drawn to them by a spark from the eye-piece of my theodolite striking me over the eye. At the same moment a rapid succession of sparks a centimetre or so long passed between my hand and the adjusting screws of the instrument, while both the theodolite and my hair hissed loudly. In this and all other cases of a like kind, I judged it best to suspend operations for a time and descend a little below the summit till the cloud had passed over.
Gebel Dahanib is drained by the Wadis Allawi, Um Tawil, and Shut, all tributaries of Wadi Khoda, which course for a considerable distance through the surrounding hills before reaching the main trunk wadi.
PLATE XIV.
Gebel Kalalat.
Summit of Gebel Faraid. (Granite).
Gebels Um Hegilig, Reyan, and Shut, are high hills situated between the Wadis Shut and Gumudlum, both tributaries of Khoda. Gebel Um Hegilig, a dark peak rising to 966 metres above sea-level, is almost exactly midway between Gebels Dahanib and Kalalat. Gebel Reyan, a little further south-east, is a group of peaks and ridges of which the highest point is 863 metres above sea. Gebel Shut, the most remarkable of the three, is a great cone rising to 930 metres above sea, about five kilometres north of the Wadi Khoda. A very large galt is said to exist among these hills, approachable from Wadi Shut; it is probably in one of the feeders draining westward from Gebel Reyan, which name signifies “the wet mountain.”