Mughitha al-Mawan
Mughitha al-Mawan
A station on the Kufan Hajj road between Ma'din al-Nuqra and al-Rabadha, matched in the field to al-Saqa'a: a square cistern with a settling basin, a round cistern, wells, and the footings of a qasr and mosque as Waki' described.
Plan your visit
Practical information verified separately from the historical record.
Before you go: Check with the operator or a local guide before departure; field access details have not yet been verified.
Why visit?
Shows Darb Zubaydah as cistern-engineering, and that a manzil is proved by Waki'’s list, not by the nearest dam.
Mughithat al-Mawan is a manzil on the Kufa–Makkah road, Darb Zubaydah. Ibn Khurdadhbih: thirty-three miles from Ma'din al-Nuqra, pools, wells, scant water. Waki', the main manazil witness, gives a qasr and mosque, a cistern with a filter whose water grows salt, a round cistern with a cut like a basin, a well with a trough, three bitter wells, and drinking from Mawan’s brackish water.
Field work by the Sahra team and al-Ubudi’s gazetteer best matches al-Saqa'a (al-Umayra): a square red-stone cistern about 110 feet with a south settling-basin and walls about 1.5 m thick; a round cistern some 50 m across; wells; qasr and house footings and road markers. That is not the lone pool below Jabal Mawan dam, which has no qasr.
The road is an Abbasid water-and-supply work tied to Zubaydah bint Ja'far, not a Roman road. The earlier image in this record is a generic Darb frame, not al-Saqa'a’s basin. The Kara' pool was not added, to avoid a false name.