Rafha
Al-Jumaymah was a station of Darb Zubaydah about 14 km east of Rafha. Its square pool, 30 metres on each side and 3.45 metres deep, filled with rainwater and…
Al-Jumaymah was a station of Darb Zubaydah about 14 km east of Rafha. Its square pool, 30 metres on each side and 3.45 metres deep, filled with rainwater and has eleven steps down its eastern side; in February 1910 it still held enough water for 12,000 men for several days. Beside the pool are a dry well, the foundations of other buildings and, a kilometre to the south, a large rectangular building that may have been a fort or caravanserai. Darb Zubaydah, the pilgrim road from Kufa in Iraq to Makkah, was laid out by the Abbasid caliphs from 751, and Zubaydah, the wife of Harun al-Rashid, paid for many of its wells, pools and rest stations, which is why it bears her name. Saudi Arabia and Iraq have placed it on UNESCO's Tentative List.