Rafha
Al-Thulaymiyyah, also called al-Haytham, was a station of Darb Zubaydah near today's border with Iraq. Its circular pool, about 32 metres across, has a double…
Al-Thulaymiyyah, also called al-Haytham, was a station of Darb Zubaydah near today's border with Iraq. Its circular pool, about 32 metres across, has a double wall and a broad stairway down to the water, and the early geographer al-Harbi recorded a settling tank and a mosque here. The pool lies about 10 km from al-Qa' in the desert north of Rafha, close to the pool of al-Jumaymah. 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.