Crossword-Solution: ASSAL 5 letters, 1 clue 🏆 scrabble score: 5

Major Harris, in his “Highlands of Ethiopia,” describes a salt lake, called the Bahr Assal, near the Abyssinian frontier, which once formed the prolongation of the Gulf of Tadjara, but was afterwards cut off from the gulf by a broad bar of lava or of land upraised by an earthquake.

Abd el Karim, uncle to the late Amir Abubakr, sent for sixty or seventy Arab mercenaries under Haydar Assal the Auliki, to save him against the Gallas.

The rivulet which takes its rise here joins that of Ketherabba, and descends along a narrow valley into the Ghor, which it reaches near the ruined place called Assal, from which it takes the name of Wady KHANZYRE [p.396] Assal.

Honey was thought of great importance in Egypt, both for household purposes, and for an offering to the gods; that of Benha (thence surnamed _El assal_), or Athribis, in the Delta, retained its reputation to a late time; and a jar of honey from that place was one of the four presents sent by John Mekaukes, the governor of Egypt, to Mohammed.

Skirting the base of a barren range, covered with heaps of lava blocks, and its foot ornamented with many artificial piles, marking deeds of blood, the lofty conical peak of Jebel Seearo rose presently to sight, and not long afterwards the far-famed Lake Assal, surrounded by dancing mirage, was seen sparkling at its base.