Road station

Haila

Ila bei el Akaba

Haila is Aila, the port on the Gulf of Aqaba near today's Aqaba, which gave the gulf its ancient name. The Bible links it, or the nearby harbour of Ezion-Geber, with Solomon's fleet that sailed to Ophir. From the late 3rd or early 4th century the Tenth Legion was stationed here, and it was the southern end of the Via Nova Traiana and the starting point for pilgrims to Mount Sinai; the pilgrim from Piacenza, around 570, names it as the port for southern Arabia and India. Short of space, the map writes the next figure, sixteen, as a ten on the road with a smaller six above it.

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