The Adites at one period controlled the gold and incense route from Inner Arabia to Syria, and the Koran credited them with erecting pillars, probably _mazzeboth_, in high places. “Hast thou not seen how the Lord dwelt with Ad at Iram, adorned with pillars whose like have not been raised in these lands” (lxxxix. 6). And again, “Build ye land-marks on all heights in mere pastime” (xxiv. 128). Ptolemy, the geographer (A.D. 140), located the Oaditæ to the east of the Gulf of Akaba, and named as their chief city Aramava, which was an important watering station on the way between Petra and Mecca. Aramava is perhaps Iram of the Koran.[79] The Adites as traders were succeeded by the Thamudites, who, according to the Koran, “hewed rocks in the valley” (xxxix. 8). The reference is possibly to Petra. According to tradition they occupied Aila.[80] A prophet of the Thamudites was Saleh, who has a special interest for southern Sinai, since the Benu Saleh, who claim descent from him, are among the oldest and most powerful tribes of the peninsula. Saleh in the Biblical record is named as third in descent from Shem, and as the progenitor of Eber (Gen. x. 24). The remembrance of the Thamudites survives in the present Diar (or land of) Themoud, in north-western Arabia, which includes the great Wadi El Korah which is followed by the pilgrims from Damascus to Mecca. In the Wadi El Korah lie the Medaïn (cities of) Saleh, and some distance south of these, is the pass which is associated with the destruction of the she-camel, the creation of Saleh. For the people of Themoud to whom Saleh was sent, did not accept him. They asked for a sign, whereupon he produced from the rock the Naga or she-camel that gave milk. “Let her go at large,” was his command, “and feed on God’s earth, and do her no harm. Drink there shall be for her and drink there shall be for you, on a several day for each; but harm her not, lest the punishment of a tremendous day overtake you. But the Thamudites hamstrung her, and repented of it on the morrow, for the punishment overtook them.” This story of the she-camel preserves the tradition of man’s right to the free use of an animal, which was indispensable to the well-being of the man of the desert. According to the Koran, it will be the end of all things when “the sun is folded up, the stars fall, the mountains rock, the she-camel is abandoned and the wild beasts are gathered together” (lxxxi. 1). In the year 1873 Doughty, coming from Damascus, stayed at the Medaïn Saleh, where he saw and described the well, now enclosed in a tower, where the she-camel was watered. He also visited the pass some way further along the road, the Mubrak en Naga, where the she-camel was killed.[81]