The Darb Zubaydah was an old pilgrim trail originally built from Kufa, nowadays in Iraq, to the Holy city of Makkah in Saudi Arabia. Along the journey were numerous wells such as this one here which is only a couple of hours by car on modern asphalt roads.

Although I have probably passed by these wells twenty or more times over the years, it is only rarely that they have any water in them all all. Luckily, in December, 2008, I was accompanying one of my cousins and her husband on their way back to Hafr al Batin, when we found the wells as full as they can get. The result of this visit is the photo above which also appears in the British Museum publication, Hajj: journey to the heart of Islam, after one of their researchers found it on Panoramio.

The next well towards Makkah, at al Khuraba, is rather more interesting as there are a pair of circular wells which are joined together with a substantial arched sluice-house. They are slightly harder to locate as they are off the tarmac and around eleven kilometres from Al Aqiq.