| General description | The Biʾr al-ʿUdhayb is located on the western side of the railway of Ḥijāz, on the north of the modern city of al-ʿUlā and in front of the ancient Dedan/al-Khurayba. It is a gorge belonging the rocky massiv al-ʿIkma. As Naṣīf (1988: 26) pointed out, it is to observe the presence of the 'rest of a wall or dam built for the purpose of blocking the flood of the small Wādī al-ʿIkma, or perhaps it was a wall blocking the entrance to Wādī al-ʿUlā on the north-western side (...). South of these remains there is a similar wall stretching from the base of Muʿallaq al -Ḥammādī to the base of the northern side of al-Kathīb (...). Between these two walls or dams there are liḥyānite inscriptions at the base of Jabal ʿIkma'. Al-ʿUdhayb is the southernmost site of the Darb al-Bakrah route, between al-ʿUlā and Madāʾin Ṣāliḥ. |