AIN ESTAKHERAB, GENNAH

AN EGYPTIAN OASIS

AN ACCOUNT OF THE OASIS OF KHARGA
IN THE LIBYAN DESERT, WITH SPECIAL
REFERENCE TO ITS HISTORY, PHYSICAL
GEOGRAPHY, AND WATER-SUPPLY

BY H. J. LLEWELLYN BEADNELL
F.G.S., F.R.G.S., Assoc.Inst.M.M.
FORMERLY OF THE GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF EGYPT

WITH MAPS AND ILLUSTRATIONS

LONDON
JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET, W.
1909

TO THE
MEMORY OF A FRIEND AND FELLOW-GEOLOGIST,
THOMAS BARRON,
WHO LOST HIS LIFE IN THE SUDAN
IN FEBRUARY, 1906

PREFACE

The inhabited depressions of the Libyan Desert, called by Herodotus the ‘Islands of the Blest,’ are interesting alike to the archæologist, to the geographer and geologist, and to the tourist who wishes to wander from the well-beaten tracks, and perhaps none more so than the Oasis of Kharga, lying 130 miles west of Luxor—the site of ancient Thebes—and recently connected by railway with the Nile Valley.

Descended from the ancient Libyans, the inhabitants of the Egyptian oases (numbering over 30,000 souls) are quite distinct from the Fellahin and Bedawin of the Nile Valley. Isolated by arid and desolate wastes, these communities occupy quaint walled-in towns and villages, tucked away among groves of palms, interspersed with smiling gardens and fields of corn. Rain is almost unknown, and rivers are non-existent, the trees and crops being irrigated by bubbling wells, deriving their waters from deep-seated sources.

Kharga—the subject of the present memoir—formed part of the Great Oasis of ancient days, and was governed in turn by the Pharaohs, the Persian Monarchs, and the Roman Emperors. Through it the ill-fated army of Cambyses is recorded to have marched, and in it is to be seen the most important Persian monument in Egypt, the temple of Hibis. But most interesting of all is the wonderfully preserved Early Christian necropolis, dating from the time of Bishop Nestorius, who was banished to Kharga in A.D. 434. Juvenal, Athanasius, and other celebrities likewise appear to have made unwilling acquaintance with this portion of the Roman Empire.

The character of the people at the present day—a curious mixture of stupidity, apathy, and shrewdness—seems to reflect in great measure their past history, as well as the peculiar conditions under which they still live. A history of the inhabitants since the withdrawal of the Roman garrisons would resolve itself into an account of an endless combat with Nature, which, with sand and wind as its chief agents, has never abated its efforts to recover those tracts which the Ancients, by the exercise of much skill and industry, wrested from the desert.

As a member of the Geological Survey of Egypt from 1896 to 1905, I spent nearly nine years in survey and exploration work in the Egyptian deserts, and for the past three years I have been in charge of extensive boring and land-reclamation operations in the particular oasis with which this book deals, so that I have had exceptional opportunities of studying at first hand a region of peculiar interest. Among other questions dealt with are the vast systems of subterranean aqueducts constructed by the Romans; the extensive lakes which occupied the floor of the oasis-depression well into historic times; the rate and mode of movement of desert sand-dunes; the formation and gradual elevation of the cultivated terraces by the constant accumulation of wind-borne material; and the deep-seated water-supplies, a subject which, in view of recent discussions as to the origin of the artesian waters of arid regions, is of more than local interest.

Some portions of the book, more especially those dealing with geology and water-supply, have already been published in somewhat different form in the Geological Magazine, and I am indebted to Dr. Henry Woodward, F.R.S., for permission to reproduce them, as well as the plate showing Bore No. 39 and the geological section across the oasis.

The illustrations are reproduced from photographs taken by me at different times during the last few years. The maps, showing the relative positions of the oasis and the Nile Valley, the caravan roads, and the geology, have been compiled from all available published material, chiefly the work of Dr. John Ball and myself. Some portions of these, as well as the plan showing the subterranean aqueducts of Um El Dabâdib, are now published for the first time. The caravan routes, while shown with sufficient accuracy for all practical purposes, have not been surveyed with the same degree of exactness as the other details shown on the maps.

H. J. LLEWELLYN BEADNELL.

London,
March, 1909.

CONTENTS

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

AN EGYPTIAN OASIS

CHAPTER I
THE LIBYAN DESERT AND ITS OASES

Contrast of Libyan Desert and Nile Valley — Area and Geographical Position — Barrenness — Dunes and Sand-submerged Areas — Underlying Water-charged Sandstones — Early History of Oases — Condition in Prehistoric Times — Cultivated Lands and Wells.

No more striking contrast can be imagined than that between the intensely cultivated Valley of the Nile and the barren deserts on either side. There are arid wastes in many parts of the world—in Australia, in the Western States of America, in Asia—but in point of desolateness, in the absence of animal and vegetable life, there is probably nothing to rival the greater portion of the Libyan Desert, on the west side of the Nile. Its barrenness is aggressive; it is not necessary to travel far to make its acquaintance; so sharp is the junction that, in a single step, one may pass from the richly cultivated alluvial soil of the Nile to the bare sandy plains which skirt the more rocky interior of the desert. Along the borders of the Egyptian wastes one generally looks in vain for the Persian poet’s

“Strip of herbage strown,

That just divides the desert from the sown.”

Geographically the Libyan Desert is the eastern and most inhospitable portion of the Sahara, or Great Desert of Africa. On the north and east its boundaries are clearly defined by the Mediterranean Sea and the Valley of the Nile; on the south it is bounded by the Darfur and Kordofan regions of the Egyptian Sudan; to the south-west its limits may be regarded as coterminous with the elevated districts of Tibesti; while on the west it stretches to the outlying oases of Fezzan and Tripoli. Its area is about 850,000 square miles, or approximately seven times that of the British Isles.

With the exception of a narrow belt fringing the Mediterranean, the region is, to all intents and purposes, rainless, the occasional thunderstorms being extremely local, and seldom breaking over the same district in two consecutive years. In the more elevated deserts on the eastern side of the Nile rains appear to be of sufficiently frequent occurrence to maintain a water-supply in the isolated water-holes and valley-springs, and to allow of the growth of a fairly permanent though scanty herbage in the more favoured areas. The Eastern desert does, therefore, to some extent, support a migratory Arab population. On the other hand, the greater portion of the Libyan Desert is quite devoid of vegetation and water-holes, and is, in consequence, uninhabited even by nomad tribes. At the same time, the extreme barrenness of the region as a whole is in great measure counterbalanced by a number of isolated fertile oases, in which there is a permanent resident population, deriving its water-supplies entirely from underground sources.

The term ‘oasis,’ an ancient Egyptian word signifying a resting-place, in its strict sense means a fertile spot in a desert, but in Egypt has usually been applied to a depression as a whole, each individual cultivated area being known by the name of the well from which its water is derived. The chief groups of oases in the Libyan Desert are the Siwan on the north, that of Kufra on the west, and the Egyptian, including the four large oases of Baharia, Farafra, Dakhla, and Kharga, on the east. The present volume deals more especially with the last of these.

The Libyan Desert is primarily divisible into two entirely different parts, distinguished by the presence or absence of surface accumulations of blown sand. Extensive dunes are confined to the western portion, where areas of hundreds of square miles are literally buried under deep seas of sand, blown into more or less parallel dunes of great height, lying N.N.W. and S.S.E., in the direction of the prevailing winds. In this country it is almost impossible to travel in a latitudinal direction, so that the sand-covered area forms an effective barrier between the Egyptian oases and Kufra, one of the strongholds and, at any rate until recently, the headquarters of the powerful Senussi sect. It is probable that, within the last century, the area of this sand has extended considerably to the south, as an old caravan road trending westwards, and believed to have originally connected the oases of Dakhla and Kufra, is now lost in the dunes. As long ago as 1874 some of the members of the Rohlfs expedition made an attempt to penetrate westwards from Dakhla, but on reaching the edge of the great sand-region, about 170 kilometres W.S.W. of Qasr Dakhl, were compelled to turn northwards and travel in a direction parallel to the lines of dunes, from which they emerged, after a long and wearisome journey of 400 kilometres, in the neighbourhood of the oasis of Siwa. Outlying portions of this sand invade the Egyptian oases; for instance, the depression of El Daila, lying to the west of Farafra, is to a great extent filled with blown sand, while an extensive area in the south of Farafra itself is buried under dunes.

On the eastern portion the sand is for the most part confined to isolated lines of dunes, the most remarkable being that known as the Abu Mohariq. This commences in latitude 29° 45′ north, at Arûs el Buqar, some 50 kilometres south-west of the Mogara swamp, in the low country to the south of the great east and west Miocene escarpment. From Arûs el Buqar the Abu Mohariq sand-belt runs in an almost straight and unbroken line across the Libyan plateau to the oasis of Kharga, through which it continues into the desert to the south. The average breadth of this line of dunes is only some 6 or 7 kilometres, whereas its length cannot be less than 650. Less extensive accumulations of blown sand are found in the oases themselves, in the depressions of Gharaq and Muailla to the south of the Fayûm, and encroaching on the cultivated lands of the Nile Valley between Bahnessa and Mellawi.

The eastern part of the Libyan Desert, in which are situated the Egyptian oases, is itself divisible into three areas having essentially different characters, the northern being an undulating rolling country of sandstones, grits, and gravels; the central consisting of bare elevated limestone plateaux; the southern a lower-lying expanse of rugged sandstone, broken only occasionally by ridges and bosses of granite and other crystalline rocks.

The Egyptian oases are deep and broad hollows or depressions in the Libyan Desert plateau. In position they appear to coincide with areas where rocks of comparative softness became exposed at the surface during the gradual lowering of the country by denudation. At such points the general rate of weathering must have become greatly accelerated, with the result that those vast depressions, which form such conspicuous features in the configuration of the country at the present day, were eventually cut out.

Underlying the greater part of the Libyan Desert are porous sandstones, and these, when pierced by deep borings put down from the lower-lying parts of the floors of the depressions, yield abundant supplies of water of remarkable purity. As these sandstones, as well as the shales with which they are associated, have a general dip or inclination from south to north, we are led to infer that they outcrop or come to the surface to the south, so that in all probability the water with which they are so highly charged has its origin in that direction. Whether the water obtains access to the sandstones by direct infiltration of the rains of Abyssinia or the Sudan, from the swamps of the sudd region of the Upper Nile, or from the Nile itself in the Nubian reaches, has not yet been decided with certainty. Recent observations, however, show that far more water is lost in some reaches of the Nile than can be accounted for by irrigation and evaporation, and it seems probable, therefore, that the excess disappears by infiltration into these sandstones.

Little is known of the early history of the oases, though the remains of ancient towns and cemeteries are abundant, and only await systematic excavation by Egyptologists to bring our knowledge of this part of Egypt into line with that of the Nile Valley. That the oases were inhabited in prehistoric times is evident from the occurrence of flint implements of Palæolithic types, both on the margins of the surrounding plateaux and within the depressions, though there is not at present sufficient evidence to enable us to affirm that the makers and users of these flints were contemporaneous with Palæolithic man in Europe. Implements of Neolithic type, often of finished workmanship, are, moreover, common in places on the floors of the depressions, but it is probable that these were in use well into the historic period.

In historic times the oases, according to Sayce, were governed by Egyptian Kings in the eighteenth dynasty (1545-1350 B.C.), and the oldest monuments as yet found in the oases-depressions date from this period. The most important of the earlier remains belong, however, to the Persian epoch, notably the temple of Hibis near the modern village of Kharga, which was built by Darius. Ptolemaic remains are also known in Kharga, but the greater number of the historical monuments date from the time of Roman occupation, when the oases appear to have attained a considerable degree of prosperity, which continued to Coptic times. Since the Mohammedan conquest of Egypt they have fallen into a state of neglect, and with the consequent diminution of the water-supply the population has decreased, and large areas of formerly fertile country have been absorbed by the surrounding desert.

It is interesting to speculate on the conditions which obtained in Kharga before the first borings were made, as at the present day we cannot point, so far as I am aware, to a single natural efflux of water on the floor of the depression. Surface-water, of quite a different character from the deep-seated water, is met with at comparatively shallow depths in various localities, and may either represent drainage water from the flowing wells and cultivated tracts, or be water which has escaped from the underground sandstones and found its way to the surface through fissures. Probably it is derived from both sources. In prehistoric times natural springs fed through fissures may have existed here and there within the depressions; and in any case it is probable that prehistoric man obtained sufficient supplies by sinking wells into the upper sandstones, which in some parts of the oasis occur at or near the surface, and contain large quantities of sub-surface or sub-artesian water. Nothing is known as to when flowing wells were first obtained, or by whom the original deep borings were made, and no traces of the implements used have been discovered. Many of these ancient wells, frequently over 120 metres in depth, continue to flow at the present day, although in most cases with a greatly diminished output; a few, however, are still running day and night at the rate of several hundred gallons a minute.

In some parts of the oases water-bearing sandstones occur at or near the surface, and from these beds the Romans obtained additional supplies by the excavation of underground collecting tunnels. Subterranean works of this description are found in all the oases, the most remarkable being in Baharia and at Um el Dabâdib and Jebel Lebekha in Kharga. They are frequently of great length, cut throughout in solid rock, and connected with the surface above by numerous vertical air-shafts. Many of the latter measure from 30 to 50 metres in depth, so that the construction of these and the horizontal carrying channels must have involved an immense amount of labour.

In Roman times water-stations appear to have been maintained at frequent intervals on the desert roads between the oases and the Nile Valley, and a great development of the water-supply took place. After the Arab invasion, however, no attention seems to have been given to irrigation works, the wells, owing to silting, becoming gradually choked up. As the result of this neglect the water-supply diminished to such an extent that a large portion of the population was compelled to emigrate to the Nile Valley, and even the remaining inhabitants were scarce able to raise sufficient supplies for their maintenance. Within the last fifty years a considerable number of new wells have been made by means of simple hand-boring appliances sent out by the Egyptian Government; most of the new bores have been very successful, but latterly, through want of effective supervision, a great deal of harm has been done by promiscuous boring. Moreover, a very large amount of water is wasted owing to the wells not being fitted with regulating and closing appliances; the water, when not required for irrigation, continues to run, finding its way to the low-lying lands, and forming swamps which furnish ideal breeding-grounds for fever-carrying mosquitoes.

Within the last year or two this part of Egypt has received renewed attention; extensive boring operations and land reclamation works have been commenced, and the oasis of Kharga has been brought into railway communication with the rest of Egypt.

The floor-level of the oases varies considerably, but in general the cultivated lands lie between 30 and 120 metres above sea-level. The exact area under cultivation is only known very approximately, but it is certain that with an increased water-supply it could be very much augmented. The existing water-supply is totally insufficient to irrigate the available lands, and such portions of the latter as are tilled are generally left fallow in alternate years, and in many cases are only under crops once every four or five years. Now that an attempt is being made to restore the oases to their former prosperity, the question of ownership of land has become of the greatest importance, and it is one bristling with difficulties. As a general rule the wells are owned collectively, the different proprietors having the right to utilize the flow for periods corresponding to the extent of their holdings in the well. Individual shares may amount to as much as one-third or one-half of the well, or be only the merest fraction; in the latter case the small holders combine so as to obtain control of the flow for an appreciable period. Frequently the whole of the land irrigated by a well is cultivated collectively, the crop on reaping being divided among the owners in portions corresponding to their shares of the water. The question of ownerships is further complicated by there being persons who own water but no land, and by others who claim land but own no water.

CHAPTER II
EARLY RECORDS

Travellers’ Names inscribed on the Monuments — Poncet passes through Kharga en route for Ethiopia — Browne — Cailliaud’s Extensive Researches — Drovetti — Sir Archibald Edmonstone, Bart., discovers Dakhla Oasis — Hoskins — Exaggerated Opinions of Ancients regarding the Oases — Names of Explorers on the Walls of Hibis — Rohlfs’ Expedition — Zittel’s Geological Work — The words ‘Oasis,’ ‘Wah,’ ‘Otu,’ and ‘Set-ament’ — A Theban Myth — Dr. Schweinfurth — Brugsch Bey — Captain H. G. Lyons — Government Survey of the Oases — Dr. John Ball.

Inscribed on the walls of the ancient monuments in the oasis one frequently comes across the names of travellers who visited the same scenes fifty, a hundred, or even two hundred years ago. Many of these explorers wrote descriptions of their travels and experiences, and such early records are naturally of the greatest interest and importance; unfortunately they are now out of print and somewhat difficult to procure, so that I make no apology for briefly referring to those which I have been able to examine. Most of these early records are extremely quaint, and although they are chiefly descriptive of the personal experiences and impressions of the writers, in some cases numerous observations are recorded in a sufficiently exact manner to be of permanent scientific value.

A French physician, Monsieur Poncet, who passed through Kharga in 1698, en route for Abyssinia, appears to have been the only traveller who left any written records of the Great Oasis between the sixteenth and nineteenth centuries. A translation of the account of his travels was published in English in 1709 (‘A Voyage to Æthiopia’). Accompanied by one Hagi Ali, an officer of the Abyssinian Emperor, and by a Jesuit missionary, Father Charles Francis Xaverius de Brevedent, Poncet set out from the town of Manfalut in the Nile Valley, and travelled along the Derb el Arbaîn, the well-known caravan route to the south. His description of this portion of the journey is as follows:

“We set forward on the 2d of October early in the Morning, and from that very Day we enter’d a frightful Desart. These Desarts are extremely dangerous, because the Sands being moving are rais’d by the least Wind which darken the Air, and falling afterwards in Clouds, Passingers are often buried in them, or at least lose the Route, which they ought to keep.”

Poncet refers to the oasis as ‘Helaoue,’ but although his caravan rested there four days, before proceeding to Dongola, via Shebb and Selîma, he makes no reference to the antiquities; in fact, his remarks on this region are extremely meagre. To quote his own words: “We Arriv’d on the 6th of October at Helaoue; ’Tis a pretty large Borough, and the last that is under the Grand Signior’ Jurisdiction. There is a Garrison in it of 500 Janisaries and 300 Spahi’s under the Command of an Officer whom in that Country they call Kachif. Helaoue is very pleasant, and answers fully its Name, which signifies a Country of Sweetness. Here are to be seen a great Number of Gardens water’d with Brooks, and a World of Palm-trees, which preserve a continual Verdure, Coloquintida is to be found there, and all the Fields are fill’d with Senna, which grows upon a Shrub, about three Foot High. This Drug which is so esteem’d in Europe, is of no use in the Country hereabouts. The Inhabitants of Helaoue in their Illnesses, make only Use of the Root of Ezula, which for a whole Night they infuse in Milk, and take the day after, having first Strain’d it thro’ a Sieve. This Medicine is very Violent, but ’tis what they like and commend very much. The Ezula is a thick Tree, the Blossom of which is blue; it grows into a sort of Ball, of an Oval Figure, full of Cotton, of which the People of that Country make pretty fine Cloth.”

Referring to the deserts which surround the oases, Poncet remarks: “Those vast Wildernesses, where there is neither to be found Bird, nor wild Beast, nor Herbs, no nor so much as a little Fly, and where nothing is to be seen but Mountains of Sand, and the Carcasses, and Bones of Camels, Imprint a certain horrour in the Mind, which makes this Voyage very tedious and disagreeable. It wou’d be a hard matter, to Cross those frightful Desarts without the Assistance of Camels. These Animals will continue six or seven Days, without either eating or drinking, which I cou’d never have believ’d, if I had not observ’d it very particularly.” Poncet further relates that he was assured by a venerable old gentleman of his caravan that camels had been known to cover a desert journey of forty days and nights without either food or water. Although it is to be feared that the ‘ship of the desert’ at the present day is scarcely so abstemious as formerly, we must admit that Poncet’s description of the sterility of the Libyan Desert is little, if at all, exaggerated. One may, indeed, travel for hours without seeing bird, beast, or herb; and even ‘the little fly,’ which seldom fails to make known its presence for some time after leaving the inhabited districts, generally forsakes one before the caravan has proceeded far into the depths of the desert.

W. G. Browne traversed the same route nearly a hundred years later, passing through the oasis in June, 1793. He relates how he entered the depression at the northern extremity, at the pass known as El Ramlia, and camped at Ain Dizé (probably in the neighbourhood of the modern Ain el Qasr), eight hours’ march from Kharga. Browne passed through the depression from north to south, visiting Kharga, Bulaq, Beris, and Maks, whence he followed the usual route to Shebb and Selîma. Like his predecessor, he makes no mention of the antiquities.

Cailliaud, a young French mineralogist, explored Kharga in 1818, and to him we owe the earliest published detailed descriptions and illustrations of the chief antiquities of the oasis. As the existence of important monuments in the oasis was at that time quite unsuspected, Cailliaud’s work attracted considerable attention, and his drawings and descriptions were purchased and published by the French Government and dedicated to the King. Cailliaud set out from Esna in the Nile Valley and crossed the Libyan plateau to the village of Jaja. After visiting the most southerly villages of Dush and Beris, he journeyed northwards to Kharga, then, as now, the chief village, whence, on the completion of his researches, he returned to Farshut on the Nile, via Dêr el Ghennîma and the Wadi Samhûd. Cailliaud’s observations are almost entirely confined to the archæology of the oasis, and his writings yield little information regarding the villages, wells, and cultivated lands.

The Chevalier Drovetti, French Consul-General in Egypt, visited Kharga the same year as Monsieur Cailliaud. He started from Beniâdi, following the Derb el Arbaîn caravan route southwards, and entered the depression at the northern extremity. Drovetti traversed the oasis from north to south, and proceeded thence to Dongola. Later, on his return journey, he crossed the depression in the opposite direction, eventually returning to the Nile Valley by way of the oasis of Dakhla and the Derb el Tawîl.

A PASS INTO THE OASIS.

In 1820 Cailliaud again passed through Kharga. He had explored the oasis of Siwa the previous year, whence he travelled, via Baharia and Farafra, to Dakhla, and thence past Ain Amûr to Kharga village. On this occasion no further researches were undertaken in the depression.

Sir Archibald Edmonstone, Bart., accompanied by two friends, visited Dakhla and Kharga in 1819, and constructed a rough but fairly accurate map, showing the relative position of the two oases, with their bounding escarpments and principal villages. Their situation in the Libyan Desert, with regard to the Nile Valley, is, however, greatly in error, being shown fully a degree too far west and nearly half a degree too far north. Edmonstone followed the Derb el Tawîl route from Beniâdi in the Nile Valley to the village of Belat in Dakhla, returning by the Ain Amûr road to Kharga, and thence to Farshut. The major portion of the account of his travels refers to Dakhla, of which oasis he must, indeed, be regarded as the modern discoverer.

Hoskins explored Kharga in 1835, and published a most valuable and engaging account of his travels a couple of years later. This work, entitled ‘Visit to the Great Oasis of the Libyan Desert,’ contains a number of illustrations depicting the scenery, the chief monuments and their hieroglyphics, etc., made from original drawings and paper casts. Many of the inscriptions are given in full, both in the original and translated into English, and the work of all previous writers and explorers is carefully summarized. In some cases I have verified the accuracy of Hoskins’ drawings by comparing them with photographs taken from the same points, and have been much struck with the insignificant amount of decay which some of the buildings have undergone during the course of over seventy years.

Rizagat, near Thebes, was Hoskins’ starting-point, and he entered the depression by the Bulaq pass, crossing the oasis-floor to the eminence known as El Gorn el Gennâh. Surveying the oasis from this point of vantage, Hoskins remarks that the attractions of the cultivated portions of the depression, those

“Tufted isles that verdant rise amid the Libyan waste,”

are apt to be exaggerated, owing to their great contrast to the surrounding deserts. “The fair appearance then of this oasis is in a great measure fictitious; and has chiefly its origin in the relief afforded to the mind, wearied by the monotony and dreariness of the surrounding wastes. It seems to me therefore, that the only rational way of accounting for the exaggerated epithets which the ancient writers and some modern travellers have applied to this district, is to attribute them to their surprise, at finding in such a fearful region any verdure, any habitable spot, and to the exhilarating effect on the spirits of this agreeable contrast to the dreary deserts which they have just crossed. But comfortless as was my journey through the wilderness, and beautiful as the woods of palm-trees, doums, and acacias in the Oasis certainly are, still the vivid recollection of the superior loveliness of the banks of the Nile, prevents my consenting to call these regions ‘the Gardens of the Hesperides’; and sadly must the oasis have diminished in beauty, if it ever merited the praise which Herodotus bestowed upon the place, in calling it ‘the Island of the Blessed.’”

Hoskins, who was accompanied by two other Englishmen, made splendid use of the fortnight spent in the oasis, although unfortunately, just before the termination of his visit, he sustained a violent attack of fever. Their departure is thus described: “After ascending the mountain which bounds the Oasis, we lingered some time at the summit, to take, I may certainly say, our last view of the place; for having, as the Arabs say, got all its antiquities on paper, and having providentially once escaped its pestilential atmosphere, we shall never, I think, by any possibility, have the slightest inclination to revisit such a baneful region.”

Most of these early explorers found time to cut their names on the walls of the temple of Hibis, and Cailliaud must have spent hours in this occupation, as he has left a long and neatly executed inscription recording himself as the original and genuine discoverer of that noble edifice. The names of these explorers, who in some cases suffered considerable hardships in visiting the oases, are, however, quite overshadowed by the numberless scrawls made in recent years by a host of otherwise unknown petty officials of the Government, who have had to take their turn of duty and banishment in the greatly dreaded desert. The dated names cut in the walls of the temple are of some value, as an examination of them frequently yields reliable evidence of the rate of weathering of the stone since the time at which they were inscribed.

It was not until after the winter of 1873-74, when the great German expedition, under the leadership of Rohlfs, with Zittel, Jordan, and Ascherson as geologist, topographer, and botanist respectively, visited all the chief oases of the eastern portion of the Libyan Desert, that any connected scientific observations of importance, other than those dealing with archæology, were published. The Rohlfs expedition astronomically determined the positions of selected points in each oasis, and produced a map on which the principal villages and the approximate limits of the depressions were correctly shown. Zittel at the same time worked out the general relations of the different geological formations found in the country, described their main divisions, and indicated approximately the areas occupied by them. So thoroughly, indeed, did this expedition accomplish its mission that its results have formed a sound basis for all later scientific work in this part of Egypt.

As the voluminous memoirs recording the observations of the members of the Rohlfs expedition are easily obtainable at the present day, it is unnecessary here to do more than briefly refer to a few of their more general remarks on the oasis of Kharga. In his ‘Three Months in the Libyan Desert,’ Gerhard Rohlfs states that he and his companions travelled from Dakhla Oasis by the Ain Amûr road, and were greeted at Kharga village by Schweinfurth, who was for the time being residing in a disused alum factory. Rohlfs spent only two or three days in the neighbourhood of Kharga, and remarks that the expedition did not undertake detailed work on the antiquities, as the latter had already been so competently described by Hoskins and other previous explorers; a few corrections and amendments of published accounts of the temple were, however, made. The splendid preservation of the Christian necropolis, with its mausolea of unburnt brick, is remarked upon, and Rohlfs adds that, in beauty and ingenious arrangement, this burial-ground can only be excelled by the necropolis of Cyrene.

Rohlfs describes Kharga village as being pretty from a distance, but remarks that the narrow dirty alleys are the pictures of laziness and poverty; the streets are covered in for protection against the rays of the sun, a common practice throughout the Sahara.

The word ‘oasis’ is old Egyptian, as also is the Arabic ‘wah,’ the latter word being also found in Coptic, and signifying an inhabited place; nevertheless, the word ‘wah’ was never used by the ancient Egyptians to designate the oases. These they called ‘otu,’ which means a place where bodies are embalmed. ‘Otu’ has its origin in the Theban myth, according to which Seth, the murderer of Osiris, was pursued by Horus to Koptos, where he was captured and thrown into a dungeon. His corpse was afterwards found by his friends, and taken to the oases for burial.[1] The inscriptions on the temple of Hibis in Kharga refer to the oases under the comprehensive name ‘Set-ament,’ the ‘Western Lands.’

About the same time Dr. Schweinfurth, whose services to Egypt in so many branches of science stand pre-eminent, published important contributions on some of the archæological remains. Two or three years later Brugsch Bey brought out an account of the antiquities of the oasis, with translations of a number of the inscriptions on the temples of Nadûra and Hibis. The antiquities will be briefly referred to in my account of the history of the oasis under the Persians and the Romans, and for fuller details the reader is referred to the publications of Cailliaud, Hoskins, Schweinfurth, Brugsch, and some still later writers.

In 1893-94 Captain H. G. Lyons, R.E., in the course of a military patrol, undertaken in order to ascertain the measures necessary to protect the inhabitants of the oasis from possible Dervish raids, made valuable geological observations on the Eocene and Cretaceous systems, especially in relation to the connection of folding and water-supply. These he discussed in a paper read before the Geological Society of London in 1894, and it was mainly due to the interest it aroused, and to his initiative in pointing out to the Egyptian authorities the importance of having a comprehensive examination of the country carried out, that the Geological Survey of Egypt was established in 1896.

The detailed survey of the Libyan Desert was taken up in October, 1897, and completed in June of the following year, the four oases being mapped on the scale of 1 to 50,000 by plane-table triangulation, checked and adjusted by numerous astronomical observations. Direct measurements by measuring-wheel were also employed to a considerable extent. Baharia Oasis was the first to be taken in hand, Mr. Leonard Gorringe and I taking the western side, and my colleagues, Messrs. Ball and Vuta, the eastern. This plan of splitting up an oasis-depression between two surveying parties was not, however, found satisfactory, and on the completion of Baharia it was decided that Ball should take up the oasis of Kharga, while Farafra and Dakhla fell to my lot. The results of this survey are published in the Memoirs of the Geological Survey of Egypt.

During the last three years I have been fortunate in having had opportunities of studying in some detail the topography, geology, and water-supply of the oasis of Kharga. This detailed examination has enabled me to revise and amplify pioneer work, and has, in certain instances, forced me to differ from the opinions expressed by my predecessors in the same field, views which, in the light of the evidence available at the time, were doubtless well justified. In the same way may future research necessitate the modification or alteration of the conclusions herein expressed, and for many years to come the region of the oases will offer a vast field for further scientific work.

Before concluding this brief account of the literature on the oasis of Kharga, I should like to take the opportunity of expressing my high appreciation of the energy and purpose of my former colleague, Dr. John Ball, who, in spite of the many hardships and difficulties inseparable from scientific work in the Libyan Desert, in such a short time accomplished so much.

CHAPTER III
THE ROADS LEADING TO THE OASIS

Lines of Communication between the Nile Valley, Kharga, and Dakhla Oasis — Principal Passes out of the Oasis — Ascent to Plateau with Caravans — Main Roads to Assiut, Sohag, Karnak, Esna, and Edfu — Nature of intervening Plateau — Ghubbâri Road to Dakhla — The Upper or Ain Amûr Road — The Railway between the Nile Valley and the Oasis — Nature of Desert Roads — The Bedawin Arabs — Cross-Country Traverses as the Crow flies — Traverse from Farafra to Assiut — Rate of Travelling with Camels.

The oasis of Kharga is in communication with Dakhla to the west, and with the Nile Valley to the east, by a number of caravan routes, the most frequented of which connect directly with the two villages Kharga and Beris, in the north and south of the depression respectively. Formerly, everyone bound for the oasis was compelled to undertake a four or five days’ journey along one or other of these routes, and although nowadays most persons will elect to cross the plateau by train, a description of the oasis would be incomplete without some reference to the desert roads.[2]

The depression is for the most part bounded by steep and lofty escarpments, quite inaccessible to camels, except at a few points where the gradients are less severe, and the loose blocks of rock and other cliff débris have been removed. The principal passes up the eastern scarp of the oasis are seven in number, the most northerly, known as El Ramlia, being in the extreme north-east corner of the depression. Thirteen kilometres south of this is El Yabsa pass. The next is the Refûf, at the head of the gully 45 kilometres north-east of Kharga village. A little farther south, east of the old Roman fort near the foot of Jebel Ghennîma, one of the two prominent outliers of the eastern plateau, is the pass of Abu Sighawâl, and 35 kilometres to the south is the Nagab Bulaq, N.N.E. of the village of Bulaq. In the south end of the oasis there are passes to the north-east of Jaja, and N.N.E. of Dush. These seven passes are the main exits from the depression on the east side, though there are several other little-used routes, up which lightly laden camels can be taken, for instance, near Jebel Um el Ghennaim. The illustration showing the descent to the depression was, in fact, taken at one of the latter.

Although the roads ascend the escarpments at the best available points, in some cases taking advantage of the easier gradients of the extensive cake-like masses of calcareous tufa, which in places have been deposited over the face of the original cliffs, their ascent with heavily laden camels may at times become somewhat of an undertaking. The paths are frequently rough, and the difference in height between the foot of the scarp and the plateau is usually between 200 and 300 metres. The pack-saddles should always be carefully adjusted and secured by ropes passing round the base of the neck or below the butt of the tail, according to whether the caravan is making the ascent or descent; otherwise the loads are likely to slip off, and the restricted limits of a steep path, in the middle of a train of camels, is not an ideal place for their readjustment. In hot weather the ascent to the plateau, though perhaps occupying only one or one and a half hours, will take as much out of the pack-animals as a whole day’s march. I experienced no little trouble on one occasion when returning to the valley after some months’ survey work in Dakhla Oasis. After halting one day at Kharga village, we proceeded on our way to Esna by the Bulaq pass. It was hot weather, towards the end of May, and the ascent of the pass tired our camels, naturally not in the pink of condition, to such an extent that Gorringe and I had some difficulty in getting them across the plateau to the valley. In summer-time it is always advisable to negotiate this part of the journey in the early morning or late in the evening, unless the heavier portion of the baggage can be sent in advance to the top of the scarp, and the animals taken back and watered at the nearest well.

[(Large-size)]

THE CARAVAN ROUTES
TO THE
OASIS OF KHARGA

The main roads from the oasis run to Assiut, Kawâmil near Sohag, Waled Hallaf near Girga, Karnak near Farshut, and to Rizagat, Esna, and Edfu, and their disposition may be seen on the accompanying plan.

The Assiut road, after leaving Kharga village, passes the hamlet of Meheriq and follows the line of wells to Ain el Ghazâl, which is the last place at which water-skins and tanks can be filled. From Ain el Ghazâl the most direct route ascends to the plateau by the Ramlia pass in the extreme corner of the depression, but the Yabsa exit is recommended as easier and very little longer. After crossing a tract of country with an abominably rough surface, the two tracks unite a few kilometres north of the depression, and about a day’s march farther on the Zarâbi road takes off on the right. The main road proceeds direct to Assiut, descending the scarp about 8 kilometres before the town is reached, a by-path to the little village of Dronka having branched off beforehand.

From the summit of El Yabsa a separate road proceeds direct to El Ghennaim, a village on the edge of the desert to the north-west of Tahta. By these roads the distances from Kharga village to Assiut, Zarâbi, and El Ghennaim, are 210, 200, and 180 kilometres respectively.

El Refûf, the pass by which the Sohag (Kawâmil) road leaves the depression, is situated at the head of a gully, and offers an easy ascent to the plateau. A few kilometres beyond, the road passes to the north of El Shugera, a prominent detached block perched on end at the foot of the southern slope of a small limestone range. The road runs in a fairly steady direction 40 degrees north of east, striking the Nile Valley scarp 15 kilometres before Kawâmil, on the edge of the cultivated lands, is reached. About 33 kilometres before reaching the scarp a branch takes off and runs nearly due north to Guhêna, south of Tahta; this branch is, in fact, usually referred to as the Tahta road.

If the traveller, after leaving the Refûf pass, keeps to the south of El Shugera, he will find a branch road leading to El Tundaba, a deep shaft in the centre of the plateau, at kilometre No. 92 on the railway; a little farther east this track strikes the main road from the Abu Sighawâl pass. The shaft is sunk through a thick deposit of silt, which has filled a local depression in the plateau to some depth. The silt must be regarded as rain-wash from the surrounding country, possibly deposited in the time of prehistoric man. Flint implements are to be found scattered about, and from the presence of pottery and graves it would seem that the place had been inhabited in comparatively modern times. The pit was evidently sunk for water, although at the present time it is quite dry; given, however, a heavy thunderstorm within the catchment-basin, drainage-water would in all probability find its way to the bottom of the deposit, where it would be held up by the limestone, and might form a supply lasting possibly for many years.

The road leaving the depression by the Abu Sighawâl pass, and leading to villages in the neighbourhood of Girga and Farshut, is reckoned the best and shortest route between Kharga and the Nile Valley, and, by making a very short détour, caravans have the advantage of being able to water at the old Roman fort at the base of Jebel Ghennîma, 27 kilometres after leaving the village. The ascent of the pass was formerly very rough going, but a good road with an easy gradient has recently been cut for the transport of heavy boring machinery into the oasis. From the top of the Abu Sighawâl pass a well-marked track crosses to El Refûf and connects with the Sohag road, and care has to be taken by travellers for Waled Hallaf, El Elwania and Karnak not to make the initial mistake of getting on to this track.

For the first few kilometres the main road from Abu Sighawâl runs very straight over a level plain, on which fossil sea-urchins are so abundant as to attract the attention of the most casual observer; it then ascends a low escarpment, the Nagab el Jellab. The somewhat rough limestone country beyond is known as the Mishâbit, and then El Botîkh, with its countless millions of spherical chert concretions, is crossed. Beyond El Botîkh the road passes an isolated limestone hill called El Mograbi, where tradition has it that a Mograbi Arab from the west and his stolen oasis bride were overtaken and decapitated by the Kharga people. A little farther to the east there is a bifurcation, but the branches soon rejoin, and after passing El Masaâd the plain is fairly level, though covered with very angular blocks of crystalline limestone and cherty concretions. Farther on are the rocks of El Buraig, where large quantities of broken pottery indicate the site of one of the many water-stations maintained by the Romans along this road. Garat el Melh is so called from the occurrence of salt in the limestones of this locality. A few kilometres to the east of Garat el Melh the road passes El Suâga, an artificial heap of stones to which every self-respecting Bedawi is careful to contribute; and a couple of hours beyond, a fairly conspicuous limestone hill, called Garat Radwan, is reached.

Shortly after passing Garat Radwan the most prominent landmarks met with on this road, in the form of two solitary crescent-shape sand-dunes, loom into sight; these are called El Ghart by the Arabs and are distant 55 kilometres from Abu Sighawâl. They form part of a belt of single isolated dunes which crosses this part of the desert in a N.N.W. and S.S.E. direction. The same line of dunes is passed by the railway at kilometre No. 100, and I have observed its continuation still farther north on the Sohag road, at a point 45 kilometres from the Refûf pass. These dunes mark the entrance to an area of very rough hummocky crystalline limestone known as El Zizagat, through which the track is not easily followed. On emerging from El Zizagat the road bears slightly to the north, and is here only a few kilometres south of El Tundaba. At this point it bifurcates, the northern branch proceeding direct to Waled Hallaf near Girga, the southern continuing over the easy level plains of El Ishab to the rocks of El Baglûli, and thence past those of Dilail el Kelb to the twin hillocks of Dubîya. Beyond El Dubîya the road crosses the shallow drainage-line of Rod el Ghanam, near the head of the Wadi Samhûd, down which it passes, and thence over the Nile Valley plains past El Hamera and Hagar Hawara to Karnak and Farshut.

It should be mentioned that at Rod el Ghanam, shortly before reaching the head of the Wadi Samhûd, a branch road takes off on the left-hand side and descends by a separate pass to El Elwania; and here again care has to be exercised to avoid taking the wrong branch, as the tracks cover a broad area, and the actual junction may be easily missed.

The Kharga-Waled Hallaf road, via the Abu Sighawâl pass, is the shortest route from the oasis to the Nile Valley, the distance being only 160 kilometres; that to Karnak, by the Wadi Samhûd, is somewhat longer, being approximately 174 kilometres.

The next pass of importance to the south lies east of the village of Bulaq, whence it takes its name. From the summit a road runs nearly due east, meeting a second, starting from Beris and gaining the plateau by the Jaja pass, after one and a half days’ march. From the cross-roads, ‘El Mafâriq,’ routes run direct to Farshut and Rizagat. From Beris to Farshut, by the Jaja pass, the distance is approximately 224 kilometres; from Kharga, by the Bulaq pass, the roads to Farshut and Rizagat measure about 203 and 198 kilometres respectively. Another road from Beris leaves the depression by a pass to the east of the village of Dush; this bifurcates about two days’ march from the latter, the left-hand track leading to Esna, the right to Edfu. Other roads lead from the south end of the oasis, via Nakhail, to Kurkur and Dungun, while the Derb el Arbaîn runs southwards to Selîma and thence on to the Sudan.

The road between the oasis and Assiut is best known as being the last and worst portion of the Derb el Arbaîn, or forty days’ road, which, starting from Darfur, was originally one of the main lines of communication between Egypt and the Sudan. It was along this desert route that great numbers of slaves and large quantities of merchandise, such as ivory, gum, and other products of the Sudan, were imported into Egypt from the south. After passing the last spring in the oasis, caravans had still a little over 200 kilometres to cover before reaching the Nile Valley, with a steep ascent to the plateau at the outset, and thence for a considerable distance over the very worst surface imaginable—loose sand full of sharp angular blocks and fragments of flint and cherty limestone. Little wonder that, overladen and fatigued by the long distance already covered, the camels died in great numbers on this last stretch of road. Along most desert routes the dried bones of camels are of fairly frequent occurrence, but on the Derb el Arbaîn, between Kharga and Assiut, the skeletons of these poor beasts are met with in groups of tens and twenties, and must number hundreds and thousands. In many instances the skeleton still lies undisturbed, in the position assumed by the luckless animal in its death agony, the long neck curved back by muscular contraction so that the skull lies in contact with the spine. When one sees these remains, half buried in the sand, the bones bleached snow-white by a pitiless sun, with still adhering fragments of skin and muscle dried hard as adamant, one cannot but feel pity for those patient ‘ships of the desert,’ wrecked almost within sight of port.

Cailliaud, in 1817, observed the arrival at Assiut of a large caravan from Darfur, consisting of 16,000 individuals. It included 6,000 slaves—men, women, and children. He remarks: “They had been two months travelling in the deserts, in the most intense heat of the year; meagre, exhausted, and the aspect of death on their countenances, the spectacle strongly excited compassion.”

The actual width of the plateau varies from 120 kilometres between Abu Sighawâl and the scarp above Waled Hallaf, to 200 kilometres between Beris and Esna. The maximum elevation above sea-level is about 550 metres on the latitude of Esna, and on the whole the plateau has a fairly general slope to the north. As already mentioned, several distinct types of country, depending on the nature of the rocks constituting the surface strata, are met with. Smooth, hard, level plains, formed of a superficial layer of weathered limestone covered by a brown veneer of insoluble flint and cherty fragments, alternate with bare rugged rock desert of hummocky limestone. The sombre level or gently undulating flint-covered plains, frequently spoken of as ‘serir’ by the Arabs, have ideal surfaces for travelling; the light-coloured hummocky country, often called ‘kharafish,’ is in its most developed form made up of innumerable elongated hillocks, every portion of the exposed rock-surfaces being deeply scored; the furrows are separated by upstanding edges, often so sharp and knife-like as to be capable of injuring the feet of man and beast. The hillocks are separated by deep troughs half buried in drift-sand, all lying parallel, in the direction of the prevailing winds, so that progress in a latitudinal direction through this type of desert is a slow and tedious undertaking. Both types of country are equally desolate and barren, scrub of any description being of the rarest occurrence, except after local thunderstorms. Another type of country, to which we have already briefly alluded, is the curious desert-surface called El Botîkh (the water-melons), which results from the weathering of certain bands of the Lower Eocene formation containing numbers of large globular concretions; these, it may be mentioned, often lie so thickly strewn on the surface as to actually obstruct the passing caravan.

Kharga is connected with the oasis of Dakhla to the west by two roads, the lower and more southerly, known as the Derb el Ghubbâri, being the one most frequently used. This road, by taking a wide sweep to the south, avoids the intervening plateau altogether, so that the fatiguing ascent and descent are avoided. After leaving Kharga village the route leads past a group of wells, known as Ain Khenâfish, distant some 6 kilometres; thence it lies over wide-stretching plains of sandstone, leading up to the more broken country formed by the foot-hills of the towering plateau, which is always plainly visible on the north side of the road. The distance to Tenîda, the most easterly of the Dakhla villages, is 143 kilometres by the Derb el Ghubbâri.

The alternative route by way of Ain Amûr is appreciably shorter, though, owing to the extra time involved in negotiating the steep passes to and from the plateau, there is little saving in time when travelling with a heavily-laden caravan. Compared with the lower road, however, this route is much more interesting and picturesque, and the presence of water at Ain Amûr, about half-way between the two oases, is a distinct advantage. The road from Kharga village lies over a broad plain, whose only features are occasional conical hills of dark ferruginous sandstone. It follows a W.N.W. direction, heading for the great indentation to the west of the Jebel Tarif range. After getting well into the recess, but when still some 15 kilometres from its head, the road turns abruptly to the south, and winds its way up an escarpment littered with huge blocks of tufaceous limestone. Perched near the summit of the cliffs stands the solitary palm which marks the site of the water-hole, in the immediate neighbourhood of which grows a fair amount of prickly scrub. The remains of mud-brick buildings and a stone temple show that this place was formerly inhabited, and of some importance.

The ascent to the plateau from Ain Amûr needs care with laden camels. The road proceeds up a narrow defile, the actual track being very rough, and so confined that in places the packs are liable to be dragged off by the rocks on either side. Once on the plateau the going becomes first rate, the freedom of the surface from blown sand being very noticeable. This is due to the isolation of this portion of the plateau-massif, which is cut off from the main mass to the north by the deep recess, and is bounded by a low-lying plain to the south. After a distance of 33 kilometres has been traversed the road descends into a narrow valley opening on to the low country to the south, and proceeds in a westerly direction to Tenîda. The distance from Kharga to Tenîda by this route is 128 kilometres.

It is possible on leaving Ain Amûr to cross to the top of the indentation, and thence to proceed across the plateau almost due west, striking the road from Assiut, known as the Derb el Tawîl, at the top of the pass 25 kilometres from the village of Belat. There is, however, no track, and the surface is covered with parallel north and south ridges of rock, the crossing of which is extremely wearisome. Both near the head of the Ain Amûr recess and in the extreme north-west corner of the oasis very old tracks trending in westerly and northwesterly directions are observable, and although unused at the present day, these may mark the positions of formerly frequented routes leading to the oasis of Farafra. At the present time that oasis is not in direct communication with Kharga, the routes used being from Manfalut in the Nile Valley, from Qasr Dakhl in the oasis of Dakhla, and from Ain el Hais in Baharia.

Before leaving the subject of roads we must briefly refer to the route taken by the railway. The line, which has a gauge of 75 centimetres, was built by the Corporation of Western Egypt, Limited, to develop their concessions in the oasis. It commences at Mouaslet el Kharga, a new station on the Egyptian State Railway near Farshut, and crosses to the border of the desert, a few kilometres distant, by way of one of the embankments separating two of the great irrigation basins of Upper Egypt. At the edge of the desert is the station of El Qara, the point of departure for the oasis. After skirting the margin of the Nile Valley cultivation for a short distance it heads straight for the Wadi Samhûd, by means of which the plateau is gained without encountering any very heavy gradients. From the top of the Wadi Samhûd the line follows the Abu Sighawâl road for about 40 kilometres, after which it diverges a few degrees and proceeds to El Tundaba, the shaft already described, 92 kilometres from Mouaslet el Kharga. From El Tundaba the railway follows more or less closely the cross-track, sometimes called the Derb el Refûf, which joins the Sohag road at El Shugera, and, entering the depression by the Refûf pass, follows down the gully, and thence across the plain to the station of Meheriq. From Meheriq it proceeds nearly due south to the Corporation’s headquarters, and thence on to its present terminus a few kilometres from Kharga village.

THE RAILWAY DESCENDING INTO THE OASIS.

My friend Ball lays great stress on the tortuous nature of the roads between the oasis and the valley, and recommends the scientific traveller to steer an independent course. But after traversing the majority of the main caravan roads, and with a fairly intimate knowledge of the characters of the intervening areas, I must say that, in my opinion, it would be difficult to better them. These roads were not laid out yesterday, but result from the accumulated experience of centuries. The original tracks may have been tortuous enough, but they have become straightened out by the cutting off of corners here and there, until at the present day the roads fulfil the three most important objects in view—the ascent and descent to and from the plateau at the points offering the easiest gradients, and the crossing of the plateau itself as directly as possible over the smoothest and most level ground available. The roads give a wide berth to the outcrops of rough limestone, and anyone who has done much cross-country travelling in the Libyan Desert will appreciate their doing so.

Nor can I concur with the same author in his opinion that the Bedawin of this side of the Nile have a poor knowledge of their beloved desert. It is certainly true that the Arab does, for very good reasons, prefer to travel on the beaten tracks rather than undertake exploratory missions as the crow flies, his main object being to get to his destination as rapidly and easily as possible. If by chance, however, rain should fall on any portion of the desert, the Arab will very shortly be found there, taking full advantage of what Allah has provided in the way of free grazing for his herds. My own experience has been that the Arabs have among them a fair proportion of men with an extensive knowledge of the western desert, and I have frequently been struck by their wonderful knowledge of the roads and the facility with which many of them can follow the tracks on the blackest of nights, as even in broad daylight the landmarks which a European could recognize on second acquaintance are few and far between. The average Bedawi cannot be said to have exceptionally long sight, but he is frequently possessed of a wonderful sense of direction.

Travellers in the Egyptian deserts are apt to underrate the intelligence of the Bedawin, owing to the fact that they unconsciously form their impressions from the miserable specimens of humanity so frequently sent out by the actual owners of the camels to act as drivers and attendants to a hired caravan. In such caravans there is seldom more than one man who knows the particular roads to be followed; the rest are wretched underfed creatures, generally half-breeds, who for a mere pittance tramp day after day, uncomplainingly and shoeless, alongside the caravan. They are much to be pitied, and it would be as unreasonable to expect them to have any special knowledge of the desert as it would be to look for information regarding, say, the mountains of Wales among the poorer classes of a Welsh town.

I do not wish to minimize the value of cross-country traverses carried out with special scientific objects; they are, indeed, often necessary for topographical and geological purposes. I would, however, warn the enthusiastic tyro that, in the Libyan Desert, travelling as the crow flies is not always so simple and glorious an affair as it may seem when planning expeditions from a comfortable arm-chair; and if his object is to get a short cut he will probably have reason to bitterly regret the moment he left the beaten track. I have in mind more than one instance where mistakes of this kind have been made, mistakes which might easily have led to disastrous consequences. In long cross-country traverses an error in steering of only two or three degrees will in a few marches throw a caravan many kilometres out of its course, and guiding camels over rough country by compass is by no means an easy undertaking. Moreover, easily distinguishable landmarks are rare, and the desert plains over wide areas maintain remarkably persistent characteristics. Quite recently I recollect an Englishman, whose Arab attendant had become suddenly incapacitated by an attack of fever or sunstroke, getting hopelessly astray between the edge of the plateau overlooking the oasis and rail-head, which was then only 20 or 30 kilometres distant, in consequence of his missing the bifurcation of the road at El Shugera, and proceeding, owing to this mistake, along the route leading to Sohag.

Along the caravan roads the sharp fragments of rock have been stamped underground or kicked to one side, but elsewhere they usually litter the surface, and are very trying to camels, whose pads, though soft and yielding, are easily worn by much travelling over rough country. This has more than once been painfully impressed upon me by the antics of my own riding camel, whose mode of progression at such times resembled more the dance of a fanatic on red-hot coals than the ordinary gait of a well-bred ‘hegîn.’ Over some areas, however, one can travel in a straight line without let or hindrance, and in such cases it is only necessary to lay out the course correctly in the first instance, and to have the courage of one’s opinion to stick to that course until the destination is reached. One must not heed the remonstrances of the less sporting members of the expedition, who will lose no opportunity of predicting disaster, and in this respect the new chum fresh out from home is generally the greatest offender.

One of the longest cross-country traverses I myself have undertaken in the Libyan Desert was from Farafra Oasis to Assiut. The only road between that oasis and the Nile Valley strikes the latter near El Qusîya, midway between the towns Manfalut and Derut, so that travellers who wish to make Assiut have an additional day’s march southwards alongside the margin of the cultivated lands. On gaining the summit of the pass above Bir Murr, on the east side of the Farafra depression, I abandoned the road and set a course direct for Assiut, steering and plotting my route by compass and plane-table, the distance being reckoned by measuring-wheel. The most satisfactory method of procedure on desert traverses is to lay out a line, representing the correct bearing of the destination, along the centre of the longer axis of the plane-table, and then to steer to any well-marked object lying on either side, but within reasonable distance, of the proper course. At every station the exact position reached is plotted, and steps are taken, when selecting the next point on which to march, to converge towards the correct course marked down the centre of the table.

On this particular traverse I was unaccompanied by Europeans or Bedawin, my camel drivers being fellahin from the Nile Valley. The surface proved excellent going, and the Abu Mohariq belt of dunes, 190 kilometres from Qasr Farafra, was crossed without trouble. Eight days after leaving Farafra village we struck the escarpment of the Nile Valley, having covered nearly 300 kilometres, and found we were marching on a point only very little to one side of the town of Assiut. From this traverse it was possible to calculate the longitude of Farafra with fair accuracy.

The normal rate of travelling of camels carrying ordinary loads weighing from three to four hundred-weight is 4 kilometres, or about 2½ miles, an hour, ten hours being the usual day’s march of caravans when accompanied by Europeans. The native caravans, carrying dates and other heavy merchandise, usually traverse the plateau in three days and nights, doing stages of 60 to 70 kilometres at a stretch. By travelling very light with trotting camels I have, on more than one occasion, crossed from the oasis to the valley in between thirty and thirty-five hours, doing from 180 to 190 kilometres in two stages of about twelve hours each, with one stop only of nine or ten hours.

CHAPTER IV
TOPOGRAPHY AND GEOLOGY

Dimensions of the Oasis-Depression — Jebel Têr, Jebel Tarif, and other Hills within the Depression — Aspect of the Oasis from the surrounding Escarpments — Geological Sequence — Nature and Thickness of the Strata — Geological History of the Oasis — Formation of the Depression — Difference of Level of Strata on either side of the Depression — The Great Longitudinal Flexure — Height of the Floor compared with Sea-Level — Altitudes.

Kharga, the eastern of the two southern oases, is a depression lying with its longer axis north and south, mostly bounded by steep and lofty escarpments, but open to the south and south-west, on which sides the country rises gradually from the floor of the oasis. The extreme length of the depression, from the northern wall to Jebel Abu Bayan, which for convenience may be regarded as the southern limit of the oasis proper, is 185 kilometres, or 115 miles. The general trend of the eastern escarpment is nearly due north and south, but that on the west is very irregular, while to the south and south-west there is no definite boundary. The breadth of the depression may therefore be said to vary from 20 to 80 kilometres.

The ranges of Jebel Têr and Jebel Tarif form isolated hill-massifs in the centre of the northern part of the depression, while Jebel Ghennîma and Jebel Um el Ghennaim are conspicuous outliers of the plateau on the east side. With the exception of these, the floor is destitute of anything beyond comparatively insignificant eminences, unless we include the small range of hills known as the Gorn el Gennâh, to the south-east of the village of Gennâh, which is noticeable more on account of its sharply-defined peaks than of its general elevation above the surrounding country. Referring to the two conspicuous peaks, Ghennîma and Um el Ghennaim—Jimmy and Jemima, as I have heard them dubbed—reminds me that on the Survey and on some of the older maps the names are reversed. I have questioned a number of natives regarding the names of these hills, and have invariably been informed that Ghennîma is the more northerly of the two.

The villages, wells, and cultivated lands lie within a north and south band, occupying the lowest portion of the floor, and following the general trend of the depression. They are, however, broken up by a broad area of barren desert into two distinct north and south groups, of which Kharga and Beris villages are the chief centres respectively. A description of these is reserved for a later chapter.

When a traveller, after crossing the broad monotonous plateau, at length reaches the scarp or wall of the oasis, and sees spread out before him a vast depression, stretching in some directions as far as the eye can reach, in others to the opposite bounding walls dimly discernible on the far horizon, he can hardly refrain from speculating as to the causes which have given rise to such huge hollows in the plateau. When he descends to the cultivated portions of the floor of the depression, and sees those numerous bubbling springs, which alone make life possible in the midst of this otherwise deadly wilderness, his second inquiry is as to whence comes such abundance of water in one of the most arid regions in the world. These questions are worth asking, and, so far as the present state of our knowledge permits, it will be my endeavour to answer them. I propose, therefore, to briefly place on record such information and data as I have been able to gain, but as both topography and water-supply are intimately connected with the geology of the district, it will be necessary at the outset to devote a few pages to a consideration of the latter.

THE CHRISTIAN NECROPOLIS AND JEBEL TER.

The geological deposits found in the oasis of Kharga are tabulated on the following page, commencing with those most recently formed. The succession, as shown in the table, is that which obtains in the northern part of the depression, but as far as is known the same stages occur throughout the oasis, and do not vary either in thickness or in lithological characters to any great extent. Over large areas the lower-lying parts of the oasis-floor are formed of those beds which we have designated the Surface-water Sandstone, though in

places the still older underlying grey shales are exposed. The purple or red shales generally form the rising ground towards the escarpments, at the base of which are usually found the phosphatic beds, with hard, pronounced bands made up of fish-remains and phosphatic nodules. Above come the Exogyra Beds, with thick bands of limestone almost entirely composed of large oyster-shells. Rising up above these is the generally well-marked cliff of grey shales, capped by a snow-white chalk of much the same age geologically as the well-known chalk of the South of England. The summit of the chalk frequently forms a separate plateau, subsidiary to the high desert tableland, and separated from it by the cliffs formed of the massive Eocene limestones.

The total thickness of the exposed strata is about 435 metres, a figure obtained by actual measurement. Numerous borings show the thickness of the unexposed underlying Impermeable Grey Shales to be 75 metres, and the deepest borings yet made have pierced the still lower Artesian-water Sandstone to a depth of 120 metres, making a grand total of known deposits of 630 metres, or 2,067 feet. The depth to which the water-bearing sandstone extends is at present a matter of speculation; the point is of great importance in connection with the water-supply, though up to the present no borings of sufficient depth have been made to determine its thickness, nature, and relation to the underlying igneous rocks.

With the exception of a few isolated bosses of eruptive rock in the desert to the south of the oasis—indications of the granitic foundation which probably underlies the entire area—the geological deposits of the oasis-depression, and of the surrounding escarpments and plateaux, are entirely of sedimentary origin, that is to say, they were laid down on the shores and beds of pre-existing seas and inland lakes. The sand-dunes are, of course, an exception, having been deposited by the wind on the surface of the land. Although, geologically speaking, the oldest group of sediments with which we have to deal belongs to the later chapters of the earth’s history, many hundreds of thousands of years have elapsed since the sandstones and shales, now forming and underlying the floor of the oasis, were accumulated on the bed of a vast inland lake. This sheet of comparatively fresh water was then invaded by the sea, which held sway in the region while the whole of the series of sediments, now exposed in the cliffs of the oasis and some 350 metres in thickness, were being laid down. In Middle Eocene times the sea commenced to retreat to the north, and the area under description became dry land with a continually receding shore-line. Since that time the forces of denudation have constantly been at work lowering the general surface of the plateau and excavating those depressions in which alone at the present day man is able to exist.

The Egyptian oases are deep and extensive depressions or hollows cut down nearly to sea-level through the generally horizontal rocks forming the Libyan Desert plateaux, and appear to owe their origin in great measure to the differential effects of subaërial denudation acting on rock-masses of varying hardness and composition. The surface-features or configuration of almost any land which has long been exposed to the powerful forces of erosion are more or less intimately dependent on the structure and lithological characters of the underlying rocks. On relative hardness, more than on anything else perhaps, depend the ultimate positions of mountains, hills, and plateaux on the one hand, of valleys, plains, and depressions on the other. Variation in the original conditions of deposition, at the time when the rocks now forming the Libyan Desert were laid down on the floor of the sea, has resulted in a preponderant development in some areas of soft clayey or sandy rocks (as compared with the hard limestones), and subsequent earth-movements have raised these beds more in some districts than in others. The result has been that wherever, during the gradual denudation to which the country since its elevation has been subjected, these soft deposits have become exposed on the surface, weathering has proceeded at a greatly increased rate, and eventually produced deep and broad depressions separated by high limestone tablelands.

[(Large-size)]

SKETCH MAP
SHOWING THE GEOLOGY
AND THE ANCIENT LAKES OF THE
OASIS OF KHARGA

But for the presence of comparatively soft formations such as the Esna Shales, the Exogyra Beds, and the Nubian Sandstone, coupled with the facts that they have an unequal development in different areas, and occur at a greater elevation in some localities than in others, the great depressions of the Libyan Desert would not have come into existence, or at any rate would have been of comparatively little importance in the configuration of the country.

The oases are true depressions, completely or partially surrounded by high escarpments. The oasis of Baharia, for instance, is on all sides hemmed in by cliffs; on the other hand, Dakhla and Kharga are open to the south, but as the ground in that direction rises considerably, they, too, cannot be regarded as other than true depressions. We have no definite grounds for considering that the erosion of these depressions can have been the work of previously existing rivers, and there is no evidence to warrant us in assuming them to have been formed by local subsidence of portions of the earth’s crust.

What, then, were the agents of denudation and transportation which operated in the formation of these great depressions? Under the existing arid conditions the surface rocks, unprotected by vegetation, are rapidly disintegrated or weathered as the result of the great diurnal variations of temperature to which they are subjected (insolation). The weathered material, however, does not accumulate and form a protective soil-cap, but is carried away by the wind (deflation), the heavier siliceous grains effecting an immense amount of abrasion of the exposed rock-surfaces over which they are swept. Changes of temperature, sand, and wind are, indeed, the chief agents of erosion and transportation at the present day, and, given a sufficiency of time and a continuance of favourable conditions, we can confidently admit the combination to be capable of effecting a vast amount of earth-sculpture. But the formation, in this way, of huge hollows 300 to 400 metres deep, and the removal of material amounting to hundreds of cubic kilometres, would necessitate the assumption that the present rigorous desert conditions have obtained for a very considerable period.

Taking all the available evidence of which we are cognizant into consideration, we do not feel justified in assuming this to have been the case, especially when we recollect the frequent presence on the escarpments of thick deposits of calcareous tufa, which it is evident must have been laid down after the depression had been carved out to a considerable depth. These tufas are almost certainly of Pleistocene age, though whether they date from the early or late part of that period has not been determined. In some localities they occur as thick, horizontally-stratified beds, and were evidently deposited on the bottoms of lakes; in other places they appear as fan-like cakes spread over the face of the cliff, and may have been formed by springs situated near the summits of the escarpments. The tufas frequently contain large numbers of fresh-water shells and an abundance of fossil vegetation, and, from the presence of casts of the leaves of such trees as the oak, one is led to refer the deposit to the more humid period which preceded the incoming of the modern desert conditions.

Although the evidence met with in the field is altogether against the idea that portions of the plateau have been bodily let down by subsidence, there are good reasons for believing that tectonic movements have played an important part in deciding the general shape of the oases-depressions. For instance, there is considerable parallelism between the general trend of the Baharia depression and the folds which pass through that region. As a result of those folds, it is not improbable that the hard limestone beds were to some extent broken up, and the soft underlying clays and sandstones raised as compared with their position on either side of the folded belt. In Kharga, similarly, the main axis of the depression is, as we shall show, distinctly parallel to the great north and south line of flexure, and there is little doubt that a close connection exists between the two. On the other hand, I know of no folding in the case of Farafra, which appears to owe its existence solely to the fact that there was in that region an unusual development of shales at the base of the Eocene nummulitic limestones. Of the four Egyptian oases, perhaps Dakhla is the one most easily accounted for, as this depression may be regarded as simply due to the general northerly dip of the sedimentary formations, and the gradual weathering back (northwards) of the great argillaceous series (Exogyra Beds) capped by the White Chalk. The original limits of the latter may, indeed, never have been very far to the south.[3]

While all sedimentary strata—such as the limestones, sandstones, clays, and shales with which we are now dealing—were originally deposited either quite horizontally or inclined at only a very low angle, it by no means follows that this horizontality is maintained when the strata are elevated into dry land. Over the Libyan Desert as a whole the successive sedimentary formations dip steadily northwards, but at a very small inclination. This results in every stage having a wide outcrop, so much so that, if it were not for the cliff-sections of the Nile Valley and the oases-depressions, we should have to travel immense distances to obtain any idea of the true succession of rocks. This general horizontality of strata appears at first sight to be well maintained in the oasis of Kharga, as whether we stand on the summit of the eastern escarpment, on top of the great central hill-massif of Jebel Tarif, or on the plateau above Ain Amûr, we see everywhere horizontally-disposed beds of limestone forming the plateaux and upper portions of the cliffs, with parallel bands of sandstone, shale, and chalk outcropping on the slopes below.

A closer examination, however, will show that there is in reality a difference in level of more than 200 metres between the same beds on either side of the oasis; for the beds capping Jebel Tarif belong to the White Chalk of the Cretaceous system, and are therefore very much older than those of Eocene age forming the eastern plateau (see map and section). This great difference in vertical position is due partly to a steady dip from west to east, partly to a remarkable longitudinal flexure running north and south through the centre of the depression, and partly to a gentle fold near the base of the eastern escarpment. Along the actual line of flexure, which passes through Jebel Têr, Jebel Tarwan, Nadûra, Gorn el Gennâh, and Gertuma (S.S.E. of Bulaq), the different rock-stages are folded and fractured to a remarkable degree. Throughout the greater part of its course the flexure approximates to the type of disturbance known as a simple monocline, but in places, as in Jebel Têr, it passes into a syncline bounded by nearly vertical faults; while in others the beds are bent into almost symmetrical basins or centroclinal folds, typical examples of these structures being met with at points 6 kilometres south of Kharga village and 2 kilometres south-west of Qasr Zaiyan.

The importance of this line of folding and faulting must not be lost sight of, as although the dislocations produced are only actually visible in the case of the exposed upper beds of the oasis sequence, the earth-movements to which it owes its origin have had similar disturbing effects on the underlying and hidden water-bearing strata. Ball reported that the most striking evidence of faulting was between Jebel Têr and Jebel Tarif, and showed the fault as running for a short distance in a N.N.E. and S.S.W. direction, but, as already mentioned, the line of disturbance is coincident with the longer axis of the former range, so that the majority of the wells are on the west or upthrow side of the fault. The effects of this faulting and folding on the underground water-supply will be further alluded to in a later chapter.

In the early summer of this year (1908) I followed the line of flexure southwards in order to determine whether it continued throughout the oasis. As far as the small eminence of Gala, about 10 kilometres south of Bulaq, it ran in an almost straight line, but south of that point its course took a distinct bend to the west, so that the fold was very soon lost in the great belt of sand-dunes. Beyond this point its continuation could, however, be inferred by occasional exposures of steeply inclined sandstones, the most southerly point to which it was actually traced being in latitude 24° 55′ N., about 15 kilometres S.S.W. of Ain Girm Meshîm.

[(Large-size)]

GEOLOGICAL SECTION ACROSS THE OASIS FROM JEBEL TARIF TO THE EASTERN ESCARPMENT.

Before concluding our remarks on the geology of the oasis we must not omit to call attention to the beautiful and varied fossil remains which are almost everywhere to be met with in the calcareous beds of the hills and escarpments. It is, of course, by the study and comparison of these organic remains that geologists are enabled to determine the relative ages of the beds in which they occur, and thus to correlate them with the rocks of other countries. The lower argillaceous and arenaceous deposits of the oasis are comparatively unfossiliferous.

From any of the points of vantage, such as are afforded by the higher hills within the depression, the general level of the floor of the oasis does not appear to vary to any great extent, but actual levelling shows that this is not in reality the case; and it is this variation of absolute level which is the primary cause of the very varying volumes of water yielded by the artesian wells in the different districts.

The average height of the centre of the depression in the neighbourhood of the village of Kharga is approximately the same as that of the Nile Valley plain in the latitude of Farshut.

Ball, by comparison of a series of aneroid barometer readings with the barometric records for the same period at the Cairo observatory, deduced the value of a point near Kharga village as 86 metres above sea-level, and used this as his datum in calculating the levels of other parts of the oasis. Previous aneroid determinations of the same point had been made by Cailliaud (104 and 118 metres) and by Jordan (68 metres). But even when the greatest possible precautions are exercised, aneroid determinations, especially when made with a single instrument, are necessarily unreliable, and still more so when used for calculating the levels of different points on a plain having only comparatively slight irregularities of surface.

Utilizing the figure obtained by the railway surveyors for a point near the termination of the line, we get values of 58 and 60 metres above sea-level for Kharga village and Bore No. 1 at headquarters respectively, and a bench-mark at the latter place, having a value of 60·1, is used as the datum from which all the heights given in this book are calculated. Unfortunately it is not possible, owing to the lack of sufficient check-levels, to state the limit of probable error, and it must therefore be understood that the value of our datum, which in the meantime may be accepted as the best obtainable, is subject to future revision.

From this central point (Bore No. 1) lines of levels have recently been carried in every direction by Mr. F. E. Apted and myself, with the result that it has been shown that the general level of the floor of the oasis rises steadily to the north and falls to the south. These levels have in all cases been checked, and may, using the datum mentioned, be accepted as fairly reliable, the closing errors on the different loops being generally within a very few centimetres. The altitudes of a few reference points in each district are given here.

The Government Survey maps show a portion of the oasis floor as lying below sea-level, the difference of height between the Kharga village datum and a point just south of Qasr Zaiyan being given as 104 metres. Detailed surveying shows that this estimate is excessive, the true difference being about 37 metres only. Although no actual reading has yet been obtained below sea-level—the lowest being +2·6 metres at a point 3½ kilometres north-east of the northern end of the Gorn el Gennâh, or nearly midway between that hill and Ain el Tawîl—it is evident that in this district the floor is only very slightly higher than the sea, and it may be that at one or two points its level is actually lower.

South of Qasr Zaiyan no revision of previous levels has as yet been made. According to Ball’s figures, the village of Beris is approximately 10 metres lower than Kharga.

While discussing the subject of levels it may be useful to note the relative heights of the escarpments and hills within the oasis. The edge of the eastern plateau varies from 350 to 400 metres above sea-level, while the plateau to the north of Um el Dabâdib has a general level of about 400 metres. Jebel Tarif appears to be very slightly higher, while the highest peak on Jebel Têr is not much more than 300 metres. The altitudes of these points with reference to the village were mostly determined by Ball by trigonometric observations with an eight-inch theodolite, and can therefore be relied on as being accurate.

CHAPTER V
THE NORTHERN VILLAGES

Population — Relation of Population to Water-Supply — Trade in Dates — Imports — Taxation on Date-Palms and Wells — Measurement of Wells — Revenue derived from the Oasis — Origin of Inhabitants — Kharga Village — Industries — Ancient and Modern Wells — Meheriq Village — Troubles with Sand — Migration of Villagers — Ain el Tawîl and other Hamlets — Gennâh Village — Famous Wells — Ain Estakherab — Ochreous Waters of certain Wells — Ain el Ghuâta — Bulaq Village — Doum-Palms — Tomb of Sheikh Khalid Ibn el Walîd.

In point of population Kharga ranks second of the four great oases of the Libyan Desert. In 1897 the inhabitants numbered 7,856, and ten years later had increased to 8,348. The 1907 census showed the male to be slightly in excess of the female population, a result entirely owing to the preponderance of men in the northern part of the oasis. The present distribution of the inhabitants, according to the last census, is shown in the table on the following page.

In the oases of the Libyan Desert there is a very close connection between population and water-supply. No water is intentionally allowed to run to waste, every drop being utilized to raise

the crops of rice, dates, barley, and wheat, which form the staple food-supplies of the inhabitants. Cut off by a waterless desert, these people have little intercourse with the outside world, except for a few weeks in the early winter months, when they dispose of their surplus date-crop to the Bedawin traders who cross the desert with droves of camels from the Nile Valley. The dates are usually paid for in cash, ready-money being required in order to meet the annual taxes levied by the Egyptian Government. Practically the only food-stuffs imported consist of such commodities as tea, coffee, and sugar, which are used sparingly, and regarded as luxuries even by the better classes.

It is evident, therefore, that the inhabitants rely almost entirely for subsistence on the products they are able to raise by their own toil and industry. Owing to there being no rainfall, the acreage of land which can be put under crops depends absolutely on the amount of water available for irrigation by wells. The total yield of the latter has, we know, fluctuated to a considerable extent at different times, and one may surmise that, could figures be obtained giving the number of inhabitants and the volume of the water-supply for different periods during the last 5,000 years, a remarkably constant ratio would be observable between the two.

Taxes are levied by the Egyptian Government on both date-trees and wells. Over 60,000 adult palms exist in the oasis, each one being subject to a yearly tax of 1½ piastres (about 3½d.). The output or yield of a well is, for purposes of taxation, determined in a somewhat rough-and-ready manner by a method which appears to have been in use for a number of generations. Whenever a new bore is completed, or an old well requires remeasurement, all the most influential personages in the oasis, headed by the Omda or chief of Kharga village, armed with a number of primitive appliances, solemnly proceed to the spot.

After first ascertaining that the well has not been temporarily blocked by interested persons—even here in the remote interior of the desert there is an inherent objection to the paying of taxes—the bed and sides of the water-channel are made as smooth as possible for a distance of five or ten paces below the mouth of the well, so that the water flows away with an even ripple. A small pointed stick is now inserted in the centre of the bed of the stream, in such a way that the top of the peg is exactly flush with the surface of the water. Then the Omda, hitching up his flowing robes, steps into the stream, and, selecting a gauge of suitable dimensions, fixes it firmly in the bed of the channel, in such a position that the whole of the flow passes freely through, without raising or lowering the surface of the stream above, as indicated by the peg. The interior of the gauge, a roughly-made wooden frame, is intended to be a definite number of centimetres in length, but in many of those used there is a small error. As soon as the stream flows evenly over the gauge or weir, without its surface-level being altered, the depth of water is measured on a scale. The latter is wetted and plunged into a heap of dry sand before being used, the depth of water being indicated by that portion of the scale from which the sand has been removed by the immersion. Observations are made at both ends of the weir to insure any error due to want of horizontality of the frame being detected.

The actual discharge is reckoned in ‘qirats’ and eighths of a qirat (tumns), a qirat being a water-section of 64 square centimetres. For example, if the depth of water passing over a gauge having an internal length of 40 centimetres was found to be 8 centimetres, the water-section would amount to 40 × 8 = 320 square centimetres, which would be reckoned as a discharge of 5 qirats.

The Omda and his attendants carry out the operations with the utmost care and solemnity, and have the most touching faith in the accuracy of their results. Apart, however, from errors in the gauges and scales used, and from the want of provision of a free fall on the downstream side of the weir, the fact that the velocity of the stream is entirely left out of account is sufficient to give the qirat a very variable value, low for small and high for large streams, the result being that the small wells are being taxed at about 50 per cent. higher rates than the large ones. In order to ascertain the average value of the qirat for streams of different size, I arranged with Mr. Patterson, who at the time was the Government Representative in Kharga, to send the Omda to headquarters and instruct him to measure a number of new bores belonging to the Corporation of Western Egypt, as these bores, being cased and provided with proper outlet valves, lend themselves to exact measurement better than the majority of the native-owned wells. The Omda employed the ordinary local native method just described, while I, using a tank of known capacity and a reliable stop-watch, made direct measurements immediately afterwards. The results obtained show that below 2 the qirat has a value of 22 gallons a minute; from 2 to 4 of 26 gallons a minute; and from 5 to 6 of 38 gallons a minute.

The annual tax levied on the water amounts to 50 piastres (about 10s. 3d.) per qirat. If the average value of the qirat be taken at 25 gallons per minute, the tax works out at approximately 1s. for every 6,000 cubic metres of water. Looked at from another point of view, it may be considered that the tax amounts to about 1s. 6d. an acre, as with every qirat of water the native cultivator in the oasis will annually raise about two acres of rice and five of wheat or barley.

The total revenue derived by the Government from the oasis, by taxes on date-palms and water, amounts to a little over £1,000 per annum.

My old friend Sheikh Mustapha, who for more than twelve years has been Omda of Kharga village, was very anxious to know the results of the comparative measurements made on the bores. He professed himself as surprised at the difference in the results, but emphatically refused to entertain the possibility of there being any error in his measurements, made by so old-established a method. Although he was far too polite to so express himself in words, I felt that the old gentleman had the utmost contempt for my method of well measurement.

With the exception of the Dakhla peasants, the inhabitants of the oases differ entirely from the fellahin of the Nile Valley. According to Brugsch, the original inhabitants were Libyan (Berber) tribes, but after annexation to Egypt, there was considerable immigration from Nubia and other parts of the Nile Valley. Nevertheless, in the oasis of Kharga the physiognomic type of the Berber race is still predominant.

El Kharga, the chief village of the oasis, containing about 4,500 inhabitants, is situated in a broad belt of cultivated lands and palm-groves running centrally down the depression from the southern extremity of Jebel Têr. The village consists of a picturesque compact conglomeration of houses, built of sun-dried bricks, and of every shape and size. The streets meander in a very remarkable manner, and are to a large extent in partial or total darkness, owing to their being for the most part roofed over and covered by upper storeys. Without the aid of a guide it is almost impossible to find one’s way through the intricacies of the underground passages, though no fears need be entertained on the score of being in any way molested, the inhabitants being most peaceably inclined. In some parts of the village the streets are actually cut through the solid rock. They are generally clean and cool even on the hottest and dustiest of days, and as a rule the few wayfarers one meets scuttle like startled rabbits into the dark recesses on either side, from the depths of which, and through chinks in the wooden doors and windows, they can gape in safety at the unwonted spectacle of European visitors.

A STREET IN KHARGA.

KHARGA VILLAGE.

Viewed from the outside, say from the ridge of sand which hems in the village on the east side, one sees a vast array of walls, surmounted by screens of dried palm-branches, bound together to form compact hedges affording protection and privacy to those portions of the houses open to the sky. Two minarets rise above the general level, while all around are palm-groves and gardens, with the open desert rising to the western horizon.

Almost the whole of the population is engaged in agriculture, and as in some cases the wells are situated far from the village, many of the peasants daily ride considerable distances to and fro on their sturdy but diminutive donkeys. There are two or three small shops in the village, but nothing in the nature of bazaars, the chief business transacted being the retailing of Nile Valley goods, such as drapery and groceries. The native women are adepts at basket- and mat-making, and mention must not be omitted of the very attractive spherical baskets made of palm-leaves and fibre, ornamented with coloured wools, and manufactured in every conceivable size and design. Pretty circular trays are made from the same substances; in fact, the number of uses to which the waste materials from the date- and doum-palms can be put is little short of marvellous.

Everything connected with the village is of the most primitive description, and until a very short time ago few of the inhabitants had been beyond the limits of their own fields. The advent of the railway caused no little commotion and stir in the oasis, and awakened trading instincts which had lain dormant since Roman times. Many of the villagers now travel to and fro between Kharga and the Nile Valley, and the Omda took an early opportunity of obtaining leave of absence from his onerous duties, and proceeded to Alexandria for a course of sea-baths!

Outside the village, with the exception of the antiquities, to which we shall call attention in a separate chapter, there is little of general interest beyond the wells and gardens, among which there are many picturesque spots. At Bir Ain el Gôs, a few kilometres to the north, a primitive form of corn-mill may be seen working, the grinding-stones being driven by the water of the well by means of an undershot wheel.

It may be mentioned here that with very few, if any, exceptions the different streams which collectively make up the water-supply of the oasis find their way to the surface through artificially constructed passages. The great majority of these are bores of ancient construction, though a few have been sunk with modern plant during the last fifty years. The ancient wells are known as Aiyûn (sing. Ain), the modern as Abiyâr (sing. Bir); for example, Ain el Ghazâl, Bir Mansûra. In cases where a modern bore has been specially sunk to replace an ancient well, the two words are used in conjunction; for instance, Bir Ain el Gôs. The position of each well is nearly always conspicuously marked by a thick clump of acacias, from which (more especially in the isolated settlements in the northern part of the depression) the main irrigating channel generally runs in a southerly direction, the cultivated lands being of triangular form, with the apex at or near the source of the water, and raised little, if at all, above the general level of the surrounding plain. By this disposition the fields present the least possible front to the north, from which side comes the bulk of the sand which is such a curse to these outlying settlements.

Kharga village, being snugly situated among palm-groves, and directly to the south of Jebel Têr, is well protected from the fierce, sand-laden winds which so frequently scour the depression from north to south. The poor little hamlet of Meheriq, on the other hand, set on the open plain some 20 kilometres to the north, is exposed to every wind that blows, with the result that the sand has accumulated to such an extent that most of the palms have been buried, and many of the houses have been overwhelmed. The advancing dunes are, in fact, steadily pushing the hamlet southwards. At frequent intervals the occupants of the most northerly houses move their goods and chattels, and betake themselves to new quarters erected at the southern extremity. This periodical migration has, indeed, become so ingrained a habit that it is now regarded as of little moment; it is only when their wells and trees are threatened and destroyed that the wretched people call on Allah to stay His hand, and protect them from destruction.

Still farther to the north lie a number of isolated wells with small areas of cultivation, and at some of these there are settlements consisting of one or two families. Ain el Tawîl, 8 kilometres south-east of Kharga, is another little hamlet, rendered more conspicuous than most of these outlying settlements by the presence of a Sheikh’s tomb surmounted by a rather pointed dome. A third important dependency of Kharga is known as Um el Dabâdib, and is situated a day’s journey to the north. This place is of exceptional interest, in that its water-supply is not derived from wells, but from extensive tunnels driven into the hills. Some most interesting ruins exist in the neighbourhood, but a description of these and of the subterranean aqueducts must be postponed to a later chapter.

ENCROACHMENT OF SAND-DUNES AT MEHERIQ.

Twelve kilometres to the south of Kharga lies the village of Gennâh. The intermediate country is largely covered by sand, which in the neighbourhood of the village has accumulated into large dunes, threatening it and its magnificent wells, Ain Estakherab and Ain Magarin, with ultimate destruction. Ain Estakherab is undoubtedly the finest well in the Libyan Desert, and has been running for hundreds, if not for thousands, of years; but unless special measures are taken to cope with the advance of the dunes immediately to the north and north-west, this splendid flow of water is doomed to destruction within the next ten or twenty years. Owing to the encroachment of the sand there is very little land available for cultivation near the village, the bulk of the water from the two wells being conducted in an open channel to the low-lying plain south-east of the hill-range known as the Gorn el Gennâh. This channel traverses 7 or 8 kilometres of porous desert before it reaches the first of the cultivated fields in the neighbourhood of the Gorn, and there is in consequence very great loss of water through seepage and evaporation.

The famous wells of Gennâh differ from most of those in the northern part of the oasis in that their mouths are large and deep pools of limpid water, from the depths of which great bubbles of gas constantly ascend to the surface. Little or nothing is known as to the age and depth of either of these wells; they have never been cleaned out in modern times, and are closed in at a depth of a few metres from the surface in such a way as to prevent soundings being made. With the object of determining if the large discharges are due to the wells being situated on exceptionally low ground, I recently had a line of levels run from headquarters to Gennâh. Contrary to expectation, it was found that Ain Estakherab and Ain Magarin discharged at levels considerably above the average elevation of the wells of the Kharga district; possibly, therefore, the exceptional flows in this district are due to its comparative isolation, and to the immunity thus obtained from the interference of other wells.

Between the villages of Kharga and Gennâh, along a north and south belt lying somewhat to the east and on the downthrow side of the fault, are a number of wells whose waters are almost invariably more or less charged with ochre and alkaline salts. In some cases the proportion of dissolved salts is sufficiently great to render the water unfit for either drinking or irrigation, and even where it can be used for the latter purpose, ochre is deposited to such an extent as to bind the soil into a hard cake. The occurrence appears to be due to the geological position of the wells in this tract, where, owing to the beds being let down by the fault, the purple shales form the floor of the depression; it is perhaps from these beds that the waters derive their abnormally high contents of ferric oxide and other salts.

A PTOLEMAIC TEMPLE, QASR EL GHUATA.

DOUM-PALMS NEAR QASR EL GHUATA.

The wells near Qasr el Ghuâta are of similar nature, and thick banks of ochre have been deposited along their channels. I recollect on one occasion using the water of Ain el Ghuâta for making tea, and being considerably surprised at the inky blackness of the resulting liquid, although, in spite of the colour and a markedly ferruginous taste, the brew was not undrinkable.

Near the ruins of Qasr Zaiyan, and southward as far as the village of Bulaq, the country takes on quite a different aspect, owing to the numerous scrub-covered areas, dotted everywhere with semi-wild doum-palms. Doums thrive in very poor soil, and appear to be self-sown; they are to my mind far more graceful and picturesque than the ordinary date-palms, from which they differ in many important respects. The trunk of a well-grown doum-palm is forked, not once, but many times, the different stems preserving a considerable amount of symmetry; the branches, which are covered with the most atrocious hooks, terminate in sharp-pointed, serrated fan-shaped leaves. The fruit consists of bunches of hard nuts, and can be eaten either in its raw condition or after being ground into meal and cooked; most persons, however, except perhaps confirmed nut-eating vegetarians, would decline it in either state. Although the country throughout which the doum-palms abound appears to be more or less deserted, every tree has its owner among the inhabitants of the nearest village.

Bulaq, distant 25 kilometres from Kharga, has a population of 1,016, and is the centre of the mat and ‘zambile’ trade. The zambile is an open wide-mouthed basket which is used in every part of Egypt, and practically replaces the wheelbarrow of western lands. Formerly only small quantities were made for export, but the natives have not been slow to take advantage of the railway, and truck-loads of these baskets may now be frequently seen on the trains. The Bulaq varieties of mats and baskets are mostly made from the leaf of the doum-palm.

The village, bounded on three sides by sand and open desert, with the palm-groves and cultivated lands to the east, cannot be said to be particularly attractive. A few kilometres to the south is the tomb of Sheikh Khalid Ibn el Walîd, a large, square, whitewashed building surmounted by a dome.

CHAPTER VI
THE SOUTHERN VILLAGES

Ain Girm Meshîm — Agûl el Douma — The Southern Villages — Jaja and Dakhakhin — Intermittent Flow and Geyser-like Action of Wells — Ain Dakhakhin — Fruit Gardens — Raised Cultivated Terraces formed of Wind-blown Materials — Gradual Elevation of Wells — Ancient Village of Dakhakhin — Ain Bergis — Beris Village — Ain el Hushi — Block-Houses and Dervishes — Maks Bahari — Method Employed in Cleaning out Wells — Ain Bella — Encroachment of Dunes — Dush — The most Southern Wells of the Oasis — Nakhail.

After leaving the wells belonging to Bulaq the traveller has to cross a stretch of desert about 40 kilometres in width before reaching the first well and cultivated land of the southern group of villages. On this expanse water is only found in one locality—at Ain Girm Meshîm, a pool with a very small flow. There is little doubt that this was at one time a very good well, as traces of irrigating channels extend outwards to a considerable distance; moreover, a large salt-pan is still visible to the west, and this could only have been formed at a time when there was far more water running to waste than at present. The immediate neighbourhood is picturesquely dotted with doum-palms, some of those near the well being magnificent trees.

Agûl el Douma, lying 17 kilometres south-west of Ain Girm Meshîm, on the opposite (west) side of the belt of dunes, is a place which, previous to my inspection, had probably never been visited by Europeans, although known to a few of the Bedawin. Surface-water can be obtained by digging to a depth of a few feet near one of the doums. The place, marked by a small area of scrub and a doum-palm or two, was formerly used to some extent by Arabs carrying contraband from the south, as by watering here they were able to pass through the oasis unobserved.

The most northerly of the southern villages are Jaja and Dakhakhin, but 6 kilometres to the north lies an isolated group of doum-palms, known as Ain el Douma. At the present time the place is uninhabited, the old well being completely sanded-up, though water may be obtained by digging out the centre. Both north and south of Ain el Douma occur smooth plains of alluvial clay, in the latter direction extending to the villages of Dakhakhin and Jaja.

Jaja is visible from a distance of many kilometres on account of a thick clump of dark green acacias, growing on the summit of an eminence. Dakhakhin, on the other hand, is hidden, being on the south side of a sandy hill covered with short scrub only. A low-lying portion of the alluvial-covered plain separates the two villages, which are situated close together on an east and west line.

At Jaja there are scattered doums and a number of acacias, as well as a small dense grove of date-palms, altogether a goodly number of trees. The well is a broad and deep pool surrounded by vertical walls of brown clay, representing the material from time to time thrown out during the process of cleaning. Large bubbles of gas are generally to be seen rising intermittently to the surface, while at times the pool becomes perfectly still, except for the occasional small bubbles which continue to rise at different points. Then follows a strong flow from the actual bore (situated near the south side of the pool), the water boiling up and breaking the surface with considerable force and noise, which may continue for several minutes before everything becomes quiet again. In all probability the markedly intermittent flow is due to the temporary blocking of the bore-hole by the sediment forming the bottom of the pool, the mud being from time to time forced back by the accumulating pressure of the water and gas below. The temperature of the water was found to be 86° F., and the yield was stated to amount to 1½ qirats, or about 35 to 40 gallons a minute.

Dakhakhin is charmingly situated on the southern slope of an eminence, alongside a dingle, prettily wooded with tamarisk and doum-palms. The well is on the north side, and higher up than the village. One of the irrigating channels, cut out near the bottom of the western slope, follows the winding of the dingle to a thick clump of date-palms near the mouth. Higher up, alongside the village, the water in another channel races down the hill in a series of little runs and falls, the stream threading its way through fruit-gardens containing date-palms and vines, fig, mulberry, and apricot trees, as well as pomegranates and bananas.

Ain Dakhakhin is a huge pool when full, though at times, when the retaining bank on the south side is cut, a large part of its sandy bed is exposed. The flow, taxed, I believe, as 3½ qirats (110 to 120 gallons per minute), varies at different times of the year, and depends to a considerable extent on the amount of sediment in the pool. Cleaning is periodically undertaken, in order to remove the sand which drifts in from the north side in large quantities.

Neither in Ain Jaja nor Ain Dakhakhin is there any trace of wooden casing similar to that with which the ancient wells of Northern Kharga are so commonly lined. This bears out the conclusion to which I was led on other grounds—that the original outlets were many metres lower than at present, on the level of the surrounding plain, in fact. The eminences of Jaja and Dakhakhin appear to have been formed almost entirely by the gradual accumulation of blown sand and clay-dust, compacted and held together by vegetation. The material is swept by the prevalent winds from the clay plains and sandy deserts lying to the north, and deposited on the cultivated lands, owing to the presence thereon of water and vegetation. Its deposition is encouraged by the peasants, as the admixture of sand and clay forms a loam of suitable texture for agricultural purposes, and is regarded as having considerable fertilizing value.

AIN DAKHAKHIN.

There is little doubt that originally nearly all the wells in Southern Kharga had their outlets on the same level as the plain. Owing to the periodical deposition of wind-borne materials, the cultivated lands have gradually risen, until at the present day they form, in the majority of cases, terraces standing well above the general level. This continual raising of the land has necessitated a corresponding elevation of the wells, with the result that the wooden linings originally put into the bores have been completely lost sight of. Instead of issuing from a clean, unobstructed hole, the water has now to force its way upwards through a great mass of sandy mud, and before it can be utilized it has to rise to a much higher level than formerly. Little wonder, then, that the flows of the majority of these wells have very much decreased, with the consequence that the cultivated tracts are much smaller than of old. In more than one case the outlet of a well had, in modern times, risen to such a height that the discharge had become reduced to a mere trickle. Twenty or twenty-five years ago, for instance, Ain Dakhakhin was on the summit of an eminence which, by the slow accumulation of sand and clay, had reached a height of 30 metres above the surrounding plain. Remedial measures were then taken by the inhabitants, and its level reduced by between 8 and 9 metres, the present level of the well and highest fields being 23 metres above the plain.

The height of a cultivated terrace above the general level of the plain on which the well was originally sunk affords some measure of its antiquity. It is difficult, however, in the absence of observations extending over a number of years, to estimate what the general rate of accumulation may have been. It would, moreover, vary greatly with local conditions, but if an average rate of a centimetre a year be assumed, the age of Ain Dakhakhin is indicated as being something over 3,000 years.

The ancient Dakhakhin lies a kilometre to the S.S.E., and, when inhabited, must have been as ugly as the modern village is pleasing. When the diminution of the flow of Ain Dakhakhin became serious, the people migrated to their present location, so as to be near the well and under the shelter of the hill. The ruins are only slightly above the level of the plain, but cover an area many times greater than that occupied by the modern village. This circumstance alone shows how insignificant is the present flow compared with what it must once have been.

The most northerly of the group of wells in the neighbourhood of Beris is Ain Bergis, situated on the south side of a broad platform of sandy lacustrine beds. In this case there is a containing bank across the valley below the well, but at the time of my visit it was cut, so that the bottom of the pool was exposed. The latter consisted of a circular basin of soft sediment, through which muddy water was oozing and bursting in small shoots, suggesting an action in many respects analogous to that of geysers and mud-volcanoes. The natives informed me that the basin takes two days and nights to fill after the bank has been closed.

Between Ain Bergis and Dakhakhin stretches a continuous plain of alluvial clay, amounting to several thousands of acres. In its present state this heavy clay land is not regarded as of much value for cultivation, but in the event of new wells being sunk it could be lightened and improved by allowing and encouraging the deposition of blown sand and dust—by following, in fact, the practice which from time immemorial has been in vogue in this district.

The best wells in the neighbourhood of Beris are Johar, Foq el Doum, and El Hushi, the last named yielding 6 qirats, the others 9 each. The remaining wells in the district give from 2 to 4 qirats. In situation and appearance the Beris wells do not differ essentially from those already described, so that we may pass on to a brief notice of the village.

Nothing of particular interest is to be met with in Beris, the chief village of the southern part of the oasis. It is rather exposed, and many of the streets are consequently dusty; in fact some of those on the north side are deep in blown sand. Thick groves of date-palms enclose the village on the east and south sides, but not on the north. The cultivated lands lie partly to the north and partly to the south-east, but are ineffectual in protecting the village from the dust-laden northerly winds, except to a small extent when the fields are under full crops. The village well is Ain el Hushi, a large bubbling pool some 15 metres in diameter, situated in the palm-groves immediately south of the village.

Solidly-built rectangular mud-brick buildings are found alongside most of the larger wells in the Beris district, and a modern visitor would have some difficulty in guessing to what use they could ever have been put. They were, as a matter of fact, erected by the Egyptian Government during the time of the Dervish raids, to serve as block-houses for the garrisons maintained in the oasis for the purpose of protecting the wells and villages. During this period several notables and petty officials in this and the oasis of Dakhla were carried off by the Dervishes into captivity in the Sudan.

Maks Bahari, the next place to the south, is a tiny little hamlet on the southern slope of a sandy eminence, with extensive clay lands studded with numerous doum-palms, but without water to irrigate more than a small portion of these. The village well is on the south side, and yields about 80 gallons per minute. As usual, it forms a pool contained by a bank, the latter being cut periodically to allow of the well being cleared of sediment.

After the winter crops are harvested in the spring, it appears to be the general practice for the cultivators to pay special attention to their water-supply. The retaining banks are cut and the water allowed to drain off at the lowest level possible, the wells being sometimes left in this condition for several months, so that they gradually clean themselves with a minimum of trouble to their owners. The mud, exposed on the sides of the basin, continually slides downwards into the central pool, and is carried away in suspension by the outflowing water.

Drift sand has been very destructive in the neighbourhood of Maks Bahari. At Ain Bella, 2½ kilometres to the N.N.W., there are at present only a few acres under cultivation, but the tract anciently tilled is seen in the eroded remnants of an alluvial platform to the north and north-east; this is now a deeply-grooved and ridged hummocky area of loam, full of dead palm-stubs, with rootlets ramifying in every direction. The original terrace appears to have extended far to the north, the portion now remaining being composed of alternating layers of sand and clay, dipping steeply to the south. At the present day many of the cultivated terraces are not only being gradually raised by the continual deposition of wind-borne materials, but are being extended horizontally, owing to the constant additions of layers of sand and clay-dust to the steeply-inclined southern or lee faces. In many respects the growth of these terraces is analogous to that of sand-dunes, though, unlike the latter, the northern portions of the terraces are practically stationary.

At one time or another many wells existed to the west, but are now buried in the dunes, their former presence being testified by isolated exposures of arable land and by occasional trees and bushes. The dunes, following their natural S.S.E. course in the direction of the prevailing winds, seem to be still encroaching on the belt of country occupied by the existing wells and cultivated lands, and it is probably only a matter of time, perhaps a few hundred years, before they blot out the whole of the south part of the oasis. The sand speedily envelops any settlements which are abandoned, as nothing encourages the formation of dunes to such an extent as vegetation, and this nearly always abounds in the neighbourhood of the wells.

There is little to commend itself to notice at Maks Qibli, the southern of the two hamlets of the same name; there are scattered doums, several groves of date-palms, and small patches of cultivation irrigated by isolated wells, all on high ground. Here, as elsewhere in this part of the country, much land has gone out of cultivation, though it must be mentioned that the villagers are rather progressive in planting trees and maintaining small vegetable gardens.

Dush lies out of the main line of villages, being 10 kilometres east of Maks Qibli, not far from the eastern wall of the oasis. It is a pretty little place, with small clumps of palms, and two white Sheikhs’ tombs on the north side. Ain el Burrda, the big well immediately alongside the village, ceased flowing about three years ago, to the great grief of the inhabitants, who now have to carry their water from Ain el Karm, itself barely running. Fortunately, the great Ain Johar, situated to the south but irrigating land to the north, continues to discharge with unabated vigour. More conspicuous than the village is the ancient Qasr Dush, occupying the summit of a small hill to the east. This will be noticed later.

DUSH VILLAGE.

The wells attached to the hamlets of Dush and Maks mark the limits of the oasis to the south. The most southerly running well of any importance is Ain el Qasr, though Ain Zaha el Din, still farther to the south, just trickles, and irrigates a tiny area of not more than a few square metres. Ain Mabrûka, a kilometre south of the last-mentioned well, is overgrown with green weed, and surrounded by a patch of tamarisk, short prickly scrub, and two or three wild palms. This is the most southerly point at which exposed water is to be seen, though in the midst of a large area of scrub still farther to the south a sanded-up well of the name of Ain el Terfai is reported to exist.

The scrub-covered area of Ain el Terfai is about 25 kilometres south of Beris. To the south the surface gradually rises, and is absolutely devoid of vegetation, the oasis-depression having given way to the true desert. The next available water is at a place called Nakhail, 60 kilometres to the S.S.E.; the water there is good, but only exists in small quantities, obtainable in one or two spots by digging to a depth of a couple of metres.

CHAPTER VII
THE OASIS UNDER PERSIAN AND ROMAN RULE

Previous Descriptions of Archæological Remains — Mr. Lythgoe’s Excavations — Dr. Ball’s Report — Article by Professor Sayce — Prehistoric Period — Earliest Historical Records — Persian Domination — The Army of Cambyses — Temple of Hibis — Græco-Roman Period — Qasr el Ghuâta — The Roman Emperors — Proclamations on the Temple of Hibis — Qasr Dush — Nadûra — Ruins at Ain Amûr — Qasr Zaiyan and the Town of Tchonemyris — Roman Fortresses — Dêr el Ghennîma — Qasr Lebekha and Um el Dabâdib — Monasteries — Watch-Tower in Bellaida — Introduction of Christianity — The Christian Necropolis — Representations of Biblical Scenes and Personages — Embalming — Celebrities banished to the Oasis — The Columbaria — Olympiodorus describes the Fertility of the Oases under the Romans.

The archæological remains of the oases have been referred to, and in some cases described in more or less detail, by most of the travellers who have left any records of their journeys in the Libyan Desert. Among the latter may be mentioned Cailliaud, Hoskins, Schweinfurth, and Brugsch. At the same time, compared with the antiquities of the Nile Valley, those of the oases have received scant attention; indeed, it is only within the last year or two that any systematic excavations have been undertaken. At the present time Mr. Lythgoe, assisted by Mr. Winlock, is excavating in the neighbourhood of the Christian Necropolis, for Mr. Pierpont Morgan, on behalf of one of the American museums, and the results promise to be of the greatest interest and importance. It is to be hoped, therefore, that, in a few years, we shall be in possession of a detailed and authoritative account of the history of the oasis during the last few thousand years, as it must be admitted that the only information available at the present day is woefully scrappy and in many respects unreliable. Ball, in his report on Kharga published in 1900, gave an excellent summary of all that was at that time known concerning the antiquities, together with a number of useful plans of the chief buildings. Since that date, with the exception of a press article by Professor Sayce, little, if anything, has been published.

Without making any pretensions to special archæological knowledge, I shall attempt to give a brief sketch of the past history of the oasis, at the same time drawing the reader’s attention to the distribution and general characters of the more important remains.

Although the oasis of Kharga was doubtless inhabited in prehistoric times, as, indeed, is shown by the existence of flint implements of Palæolithic type on the surrounding plateaux, and also to a lesser extent within the depression, no graves referable to the prehistoric period of Egyptologists—i.e., the period immediately preceding that known as the first dynasty, when Menes united Egypt about 3,300 B.C.[4]—have as yet been discovered. But while it is known that the Egyptian kings claimed the allegiance of the inhabitants of the oases as far back as the eighteenth dynasty (1545-1350 B.C.), the earliest known monumental records in Kharga date from a much later period—i.e., the twenty-seventh dynasty—when Egypt was under Persian domination.

It was at this time that Cambyses, in an endeavour to subdue the inhabitants of the outlying oases, lost a large portion of his army in the Western Desert, probably somewhere to the west or north-west of Kharga. The Persian monarch had recently defeated the Egyptian king, Psammetikh III., at Pelusium, and made Egypt a Persian province. On his arrival at Thebes some 50,000 men were detached from the main army proceeding to Ethiopia, and ordered to march against the Ammonians and burn the oracular temple of Jupiter Ammon. This abortive expedition into the Libyan Desert is described by Herodotus (‘Thalia,’ 26) as follows:[5]

“The men sent to attack the Ammonians started from Thebes, having guides with them, and may be clearly traced as far as the city Oasis, which is inhabited by Samians, said to be of the tribe Æschrionia. The place is distant from Thebes seven days’ journey across the sand, and is called in our tongue ‘the Island of the Blessed.’ Thus far the army is known to have made its way; but thenceforth nothing is to be heard of them, except what the Ammonians, and those who get their knowledge from them, report. It is certain they neither reached the Ammonians, nor ever came back to Egypt. Further than this, the Ammonians relate as follows: that the Persians set forth from the Oasis across the sand, and had reached about half-way between that place and themselves, when, as they were at their midday meal, a wind arose from the south, strong and deadly, bringing with it vast columns of whirling sand, which entirely covered up the troops, and caused them wholly to disappear. Thus, according to the Ammonians, did it fare with this army.”

In modern times considerable doubts have arisen as to which oasis was the objective of this army, and certainly the description of Herodotus is such as to admit of various conclusions being drawn. Rohlfs considers that Dakhla, not Siwa, was its goal, and remarks that, however light-headed Cambyses might have been, he could hardly have been so foolish as to have chosen Thebes as the starting-point of an army destined for Siwa. The same writer points out that a temple dedicated to Ammon does exist in Dakhla, and that the distance of the latter oasis from Thebes corresponds with the ten days mentioned by Herodotus. Vivien de St. Martin (“Le Nord de l’Afrique dans l’antiquité,” 1863, pp. 40-41) had, some twelve years previously, come to somewhat similar conclusions.

Ascherson, on the other hand, regards it as highly improbable that Dakhla, which was hardly known and certainly of little importance in the time of Cambyses, could have been the objective of so dangerous and difficult an undertaking, and points out, moreover, that the temple of Ammon in that oasis dates from much later (i.e., Roman) times. He further remarks that Parthey (‘Das Orakel und die Oase des Ammon,’ Abhandl. der Akademie der Wissenschaften in Berlin, 1862, S. 131-194), in a contemporaneous work, had already met the objections raised by Vivien de St. Martin. According to the ancient maps the distance from Memphis to Siwa was much the same as that from Thebes to Siwa. No reliance, moreover, can be placed on the distances given by Herodotus. Judged with reference to Thebes, the country of the Ammonians certainly agrees more or less with the position of the oasis of Dakhla; but considered in relation to Augila (a place which has retained its name unchanged up to modern times), it corresponds with the modern Siwa, where the well-known oracular temple of Jupiter Ammon actually existed.

It seems to me quite reasonable to suppose that Cambyses only decided on the despatch of this expedition after reaching Thebes, and from there the route, via Kharga, Dakhla, and Farafra, would be fairly direct, and have the advantage of passing through oases, well provided with water and food-supplies, separated by marches not exceeding four days. Possibly, moreover, the ‘oasis’ through which the army is recorded to have safely marched may not have been Kharga at all, but Baharia, or even Farafra, either of which would have been reached by striking into the desert along one of the roads leaving the Nile Valley in the neighbourhood of Assiut or Mellawi; this would have been quite a likely route for an army starting for Siwa from Thebes, as over a third of the distance would have been along the fertile plains bordering the Nile.

The evidence, however, seems to favour the view that the army proceeded westwards from Thebes, and passed safely through Kharga, possibly also through Dakhla; in those days the latter may have been coupled with Kharga, as it was later, when the two together were called the Great Oasis. As it is impossible to imagine a body comprising 50,000 men being destroyed by a sandstorm, I am inclined to agree with Hoskins that the army was purposely misled and sacrificed by the guides, with the object of preventing the capture of Siwa and the destruction of the far-famed temple of Jupiter Ammon. In the deserts to the north and west of Dakhla immense accumulations of sand cover, without a break, thousands of square miles of country; only one or two possible tracks cross this lonesome wilderness, and these, following narrow troughs hemmed in by hills of sand, are invisible even from the distance of a few hundred yards. Only a party thoroughly acquainted with desert travelling could hope to penetrate this region, and nothing would be easier than to encompass the loss of a large and unwieldy army among these terrible dunes. It seems probable, moreover, that this body of troops was as ill-equipped and badly led as the main army which at the same time was marching southwards to Ethiopia. Led by circuitous routes till they reached a point many marches distant from the nearest well, worn out by the incessant clambering over endless ridges of soft sand, their stores of water and food exhausted, their tracks obliterated by the ever-moving sand, the fate of the unfortunate soldiers, deserted at the last by the treacherous guides, could not long have remained in doubt.

The Persians left a magnificent record of their rule in the temple of Hibis, situated 4 kilometres north of Kharga village. Founded (or possibly only rebuilt) by Darius I. between 521 and 486 B.C., in honour of the god Ammon-Ra, it was enlarged by Nektanebos about 150 years later. In the hieroglyphics the King is mentioned as having built the temple of good white stone, and as having covered its portals, made of Libyan acacia-wood, with bronze from Asia. There are long lists and representations of the offerings made to Ammon-Ra the sun-god, commencing with the wine of the oasis. The building is situated in the midst of fields and palm-groves, and the accompanying illustrations give a good idea of its general aspect and architecture. The main portion has its long axis east and west, and measures 44 by 19 metres, the walls being about 6 metres high. To the east of the chief entrance there are three isolated pylons, one of them being at the present day almost hidden by palms. The entire building is constructed of Nubian Sandstone, believed to have been obtained locally, though the quarry has never been located. Hibis means ‘the town of the plough,’ and is referred to in the Ptolemaic inscriptions at Edfu as the capital of Kenem (Kharga). It is not certain whether the town, which probably existed into the Middle Ages, was in the immediate vicinity of the temple, or, as suggested by Rohlfs, near Nadûra, a smaller edifice on a marked eminence a little to the south-east.

THE TEMPLE OF HIBIS.

Apart from the temple of Hibis most of the antiquities in the oasis belong to the Græco-Roman period, and probably the most interesting and important of these is the temple now known as Qasr el Ghuâta, situate 6 kilometres south-east of Gennâh, on a conspicuous eminence composed of sandstones and shales. Qasr el Ghuâta dates from the time of the Ptolemies, and, as the cartouche of Ptolemy III. (Euergetes I.) appears on the entrance walls, it may be presumed that it was erected during his reign, between 247 and 222 B.C. The actual temple is of sandstone, and measures approximately 10 by 20 metres, the main entrance being richly inscribed and having ornamental columns with beautifully designed capitals. The interior consists of three courts or rooms, the first plain, the second with four ornamental columns and walls decorated with exceptionally well-cut hieroglyphics, while the third is much smaller, and contains enclosed passages and cells. The building is hemmed in by numerous crude enclosures, with partitions of sun-dried brick, the whole of which, forming a large rectangular block, was originally surrounded by a high brick wall of considerable thickness. According to Schweinfurth, the outer crude erections formed the quarters of a garrison at a later date.

It was during the sway of the Roman Emperors that the Egyptian oases attained their maximum importance. During this period, from 30 B.C. to about the beginning of the seventh century, extensive towns existed in Kharga, and the oasis was strongly garrisoned and protected by forts. Temples and other edifices were erected, while a great development of the water-supply took place. During the same period the oases were used as places of banishment, just as they were in earlier days under the Pharaohs, and have been, in a way, in quite modern times. Juvenal, the Latin satirist, was banished to Syene at the beginning of the second century, as a punishment for his attacks on the Court, and he appears also to have been for a time confined in Kharga; Athanasius, Nestorius, and other celebrities likewise made unwilling acquaintance with this portion of the Empire.

Sayce remarks that the oases under the Romans were thoroughly cultivated, a brisk trade in wine being carried on, and mentions that on one of the temple walls there are several inscriptions which lead one to infer that Kharga yielded a considerable revenue. One of the best known, dated in the first year of the reign of the Emperor Galba (A.D. 68), is a long Greek inscription on one of the pylons of the temple of Hibis; this has been carefully copied by more than one traveller, and translations have been published by Young, Letronne, and Hoskins. In it the Prefect of the oasis, Julius Demetrius, communicated the answer of the Governor of the province, Tiberius Julius Alexander, to various complaints made by the inhabitants, not only of the oasis, but of other districts under the same jurisdiction. The proclamation admits the justice of the complaints, and lays down at great length the steps to be taken in regard to the appointment of tax-gatherers, the payment of debts, and imprisonment for various offences; it deals with deeds of sale, the marriage portions of women, rents, military service, legal appeals, the punishment of libellous informers, etc.; forbids extortion and exorbitant taxes; orders the restitution of illegally exacted moneys; and ordains that taxes are to be based on the extent of the Nile inundation.

A still earlier inscription, on the southern portion of the same pylon, refers especially to the inhabitants of the oasis, and is translated by Hoskins as follows:

“Cnœus Virgilius Capito says: I have both heard long ago some unjust expenses and false charges to be made by certain persons avariciously and shamefully abusing their powers: and I have just now been informed, that in the territory of the Libyans certain things are consumed by those seizing them under pretence, as it were, because of their necessities, as being set apart for their expenses and entertainments; which charges are neither true nor admissible: and in like manner under the name of the service of couriers. Wherefore I command those travelling through the nomes, soldiers, and horsemen, and serjeants, and centurions, and tribunes, and all others, to take nothing nor to exact the privileges of couriers, except certain have my warrants; and these passing along only indeed to be accommodated with lodging: and that it be laid down, that no man do any thing, beyond what were established by Maximus. But if any individual may give, or consider any thing as given, and exact as for the public service, I will exact ten times the amount of what he has exacted from the nome, and give a fourfold portion to the informer out of the property of the condemned. The royal scribes, and the village clerks, and the clerks of the districts in each nome, shall keep a register of all, that is expended by the nome upon any one: that, if this or any thing else has been irregularly committed, they may be recorded, and may repay sixty-fold. But the inhabitants of the Thebaid may for four months come up to the tribunals of accounts: and let them address themselves to Basilides, the freedman of Cæsar, an officer of the tribunal of accounts, and to the comptrollers; that, if any thing may be adjudged or done contrary to what is just, I may in like manner put this in order.”

These are interesting side-lights on life in the oasis in those days, and show that the people were well treated by their highly gifted foreign rulers, who, as is well known, respected the customs and religion of the Egyptians and, other nations over whom they ruled.

Although there exists in the neighbouring oasis of Dakhla a temple erected during the reign of Vespasian, the earliest Roman temple in Kharga is probably Qasr Dush, the ancient Kysis, erected by Trajan in A.D. 117, and dedicated to Isis and Serapis. The temple, standing in the midst of the ruins of a town, occupies the summit of a hill a couple of kilometres north-east of Dush. The main building, constructed of stone, has its long axis north and south, and measures 15 by 7½ metres. It is preceded by a forecourt, in front of which are two pylons, the first bearing a Greek inscription relating the date of its erection. Hoskins gives the following translation of this inscription:

“For the fortune of the Lord Emperor Cæsar Nero. . . . Trajan Optimus Augustus Germanicus Dacicus, under Marcus Ruffinus Lupus, Governor of Egypt, to Serapis and the supreme gods, those of [Cyrene?] having written, erected from a principle of piety this building. The nineteenth year of the Emperor Cæsar Nero Adrian Optimus Augustus Germanicus Dacicus.”

There appears originally to have been a colonnade between the first and second pylons, but only fragments of the columns exist at the present day. The front of the forecourt is covered with hieroglyphics, while the interior is unsculptured except at the portal leading to the main hall, the latter measuring 6 by 5½ metres, and having four columns. On the west side there is an entrance leading to an inclined passage. The northern part of the building consists of a central semi-divided portion flanked by two elongated chambers, all of which have arched roofs. A parapet is formed by the external walls of the temple, while the roof over the three southern chambers is at a lower level than that of the main hall.

THE TEMPLE OF HIBIS (INTERIOR).

The temple proper is in the western portion of an immense rectangular enclosure bounded by very thick walls of sun-dried brick; these walls at the present day are in a very bad state of preservation, but appear to have been of the type common in some similar buildings in the north of the oasis— i.e., hollow at the top, so as to enclose a passage by means of which the custodians could make the circuit of the building without descending, and from which, unobserved from the exterior, they had the advantage of a splendid view of the surrounding country. The measurements and details which I have given above are largely taken from Dr. Ball’s report, to which the reader is referred for plans and sections of this and other temples.

One of the most conspicuous ruins in the oasis is the little temple of Nadûra, situated on a hill 1 kilometre south-east of the temple of Hibis. The inner building is of sandstone, and roughly measures 8 by 11 metres, while the outer portion, bounded by walls of unburnt brick, is very much larger. According to Sayce, the temple was built by Hadrian between A.D. 117 and A.D. 138. Brugsch, however, refers it to a somewhat later date, considering it to have been erected by Antoninus Pius. Several smaller ruins in the neighbourhood are probably referable to the same period as the temple itself.

The ruins of Qasr Zaiyan, 5½ kilometres north-east of Bulaq, enclose a small sandstone temple of somewhat doubtful age, though a Greek inscription over the entrance records that the building was restored by Antoninus Pius and dedicated to Amenebis (Ammon of Hibis), god of Tchonemyris, the ruins of which town exist in the vicinity. The inscription is translated by Hoskins as follows:

“To Amenebis, the supreme god of Tchonemyris, and to the associated gods of the temple, for the eternal preservation of Antoninus Cæsar our Lord, and his whole house. The cell of the temple and the vestibule were repaired and renewed under Avidius Heliodorus, governor of Egypt; Septimius Macro being commander-in-chief, Plinius Capito being general of the forces, in the third year of the Emperor Cæsar Titus Ælius Adrianus Antoninus Augustus, the Pious. Mesore the eighteenth.”

The Emperor Antoninus Pius reigned from A.D. 138 to A.D. 161, but antiquities unearthed from the ruins show that the town dates from the time of the Ptolemies and flourished into the Byzantine period.

In addition to the above the dilapidated ruins of what were doubtless once imposing buildings exist at various points within the depression. One worthy of attention will be noted at Ain Amûr by travellers to Dakhla along the upper road. The exact age of the building is uncertain, though Wilkinson discovered thereon a portion of the name of one of the Cæsars. The small stone temple stood, like so many others in the oasis, in a courtyard enclosed by thick walls of unburnt brick, the fragmentary remains of which are visible in the illustration. The names of the principal deities inscribed on the temple walls are Kneph, Ammon, and Mut. Both Edmonstone and Wilkinson came to the conclusion that the temple is of greater antiquity than the majority of the monuments of the oasis; but I am inclined to believe, with Hoskins and Rohlfs, that its somewhat crude design is explicable on other grounds than that of age.

Perhaps the most remarkable and imposing buildings in the oasis are the great Roman fortresses, among which may be mentioned Um el Dabâdib, Qasr Lebekha, and Dêr el Ghennîma. Possibly some of these were fortified monasteries, though until the ruins, as well as those of the extensive towns and cemeteries which existed in the neighbourhood, have been subjected to critical examination, their exact nature must remain in doubt. The so-called Dêr, near the foot of Jebel Ghennîma, was certainly a fort guarding one of the chief passes up the escarpment of the oasis. It is built of immensely thick walls, strengthened intermediately and at the four corners by enormous buttresses. The walls taper slightly upwards, and at the top are double, concealing a passage which ran round the entire building. In the centre of the court was a deep bore from which the inmates obtained their water, the surplus supply flowing through an underground conduit to the cultivated lands outside.

Qasr Lebekha, situated in a lonely part of the depression under the northern escarpment, 12 kilometres north-west of Meheriq, has many points in common with the fortress just described. It is, however, much smaller, and its interior is completely filled with domed chambers, now falling into shapeless fragments.

The impressive ruin at Um el Dabâdib, 36 kilometres N.N.W. of Kharga, seems to me to have been a fortified monastery, the interior being filled with vaulted cells. Its appearance is quite distinctive, lacking as it does the round buttresses of Qasr Lebekha and Dêr el Ghennîma, though the walls are still of great thickness, and loopholed for defence. Outside are the remains of a town of considerable size, and here doubtless several hundred workmen were quartered when the extensive subterranean waterworks, which exist in the locality, were in course of construction.

A fourth large ruin, of somewhat similar architecture, occupies a conspicuous position on the edge of the escarpment overlooking the Bellaida district, about 2 kilometres north of the temple of Hibis. Ball describes this under the name of Qasr Ain Mustapha Kashef, a name which, of course, merely refers to its position near a well of that name. The interior consists of tiers of arched chambers, and according to Schweinfurth there is little doubt that the building was a monastery.

All the above-mentioned forts and monasteries are built of large sun-dried bricks measuring, as a rule, 35 × 17 × 9 centimetres, and it is noteworthy that the walls, where of exceptional thickness, were built in sections, perhaps to allow of their drying more readily. Besides those described, a great many other mud-brick buildings are to be found scattered through the oasis, the majority of which possess no very distinctive features. One, however, being sure to attract the attention of visitors may be specially referred to; this is a high rectangular tower occupying a very conspicuous position on the open plain to the west of Jebel Têr, measuring 5 by 6½ metres at the base, the walls tapering slightly upwards to a height of about 15 metres. It was originally divided into storeys and provided with a staircase, and may very probably have been used as a watchtower. The remains of a circular brick or pottery kiln are to be seen twenty paces to the south.

The exact age of these numerous brick buildings cannot be stated with certainty, and we can only hope that when the pottery, coins, and other objects which exist in the ruins of the adjoining towns have been systematically collected and examined, it may be possible to date them with more accuracy. At present we can only conjecture that while the greater number were erected during the Roman occupation, between 30 B.C. and A.D. 395, some of them may date from the succeeding Byzantine period. Many of the cemeteries contain mummy-cases on which the likeness of the deceased is carved in wood on the outside, or fashioned in stucco and painted in colours. Three of these from an ancient burial-place in the Bellaida district, between Jebel Têr and Jebel Tarif (one of a number of cemeteries of Roman age which await the attention of archæologists), are shown in one of our illustrations.

THE CHRISTIAN NECROPOLIS.

Christianity was introduced into Egypt in the early part of the Roman domination, and spread rapidly through the country, although the national Egyptian or Coptic Church was not established until A.D. 451. Judging by the size and importance of the cemetery at the south end of Jebel Têr, and by the numerous monasteries, Christianity must have had a great following in the oasis of Kharga. During this period many of the temples in Upper Egypt were converted into churches, and it was not until A.D. 640, when the Caliphs conquered the country, that Christianity began to wane.

The Christian Necropolis lies 1 kilometre north of the temple of Hibis, on the southern extremity of the foot-hills of Jebel Têr. The cemetery, known at the present day as ‘El Baguat,’ consists of a great number of tombs built of unburnt brick, the majority showing a considerable amount of architectural decoration. The buildings cover a large area, and are to a certain extent laid out in streets, which, as Ball remarks, give the place the appearance more of a strange deserted town than of a graveyard. Some are small tombs, noticeable for their simple beauty; others are large mausolea and sanctuaries, richly ornamented with columns, pilasters, and arches. Almost without exception the tombs are surmounted by domes, though, owing to the walls being carried up beyond the base of the dome, the latter is not always conspicuous from the outside.[6] The interior walls are invariably plastered and whitewashed, and covered with numerous Greek and Arabic inscriptions, the old Egyptian ‘Tau,’ the sign of eternal life, being frequently displayed. In addition, the walls and domes are in some cases ornamented with crude coloured designs. The pictures have, unfortunately, been mostly hacked to pieces or covered by Arabic writings, so that there are now only two tombs in which the original paintings are anything like intact. On the dome of one of these, near the south end of the cemetery, a number of familiar Biblical personages are represented in colours, their names being inscribed in Greek characters immediately above. Adam and Eve, Noah, Abraham, Sara and Isaac, Christ, Paul, and others are clearly distinguishable.

The actual grave is below the centre of the floor of each tomb. The bodies, which mostly appear to have been embalmed and wrapped in cloth, have in many cases been plundered of ornaments and thrown out. Even at the time of Hoskins’ visit in 1837 the majority of the tombs had been ransacked, and at the present day there are probably few left intact. With regard to the practice of embalming, Hoskins writes: “It is highly satisfactory that we have such indubitable evidence to enable us to establish the fact, that the custom of embalming the dead was continued by the first professors of the Gospel in Eastern Africa. The introduction of Christianity produced great and sudden changes in the minds, habits, and customs of believers; but a length of time was no doubt often necessary to root out many of the prejudices of the people; and it is very possible, that the practice of embalming may have been continued as a necessary mark of respect to the dead, long after the doctrine had been entirely exploded, in accordance with which the custom had been originally established. This practice, however, even in the most ancient times, was not confined to the worshippers of Amun. The physicians of Egypt were forty days in embalming Jacob; and Joseph also was embalmed in Egypt.”

BIBLICAL SCENES IN A TOMB OF THE NECROPOLIS.

We cannot speak with certainty as to the exact period during which this cemetery was in use. In the course of the reign of Constantius (337-361), Athanasius, the champion of the doctrine of the Trinity, was several times expelled from Alexandria and compelled to take refuge in the Libyan Desert, where there were numerous monasteries, which afforded safe asylums from the followers of Arianism and Paganism. Hoskins states that the name of Athanasius occurs in one of the Theban sepulchres, and he believes that “the ruined monasteries in the Oasis Magna were, probably, the abode of the great champion of the Christian religion.”

During the reign of the Emperors Arcadius and Honorius numerous personages, including the general Timasius, were exiled to the Great Oasis, described by a writer (Zosimus) as “a barren place whence no one could escape when once carried thither; for the way being sandy, desert, and uninhabited, no one can find it, the wind covering the traces of people’s feet, nor is there any tree or house to guide them.”

Nestorius, Bishop of Constantinople, was excommunicated and banished to the oasis in A.D. 434 by the Patriarch Cyril of Alexandria, and probably the necropolis contains the tombs of a large number of his followers. The Bishop, however, did not die in Kharga, as he was carried thence into captivity by the Blemmyes, the ancestors of the Bisharin and Ababdeh Arabs, and died, after suffering great persecutions, at Panopolis (Akhmîm) about the year 440. It is interesting to note that certain Christian customs and festival days are still observed in the oasis at the present time.

Ruins of columbaria are of frequent occurrence in many parts of Kharga, and judging from the size and shape of the bricks used, belong to the same period as the forts and monasteries. They are generally of considerable size, the inner walls being built so as to provide tiers of cubical niches to serve as nesting-places for the pigeons. Examples may be seen at Ain el Burg and Ain Tabashîr in the Meheriq district; in the Bellaida country, and near Ain Khenâfish; on the slopes of the Gorn el Gennâh; and near the village of Dush at the south end of the oasis. These ancient pigeon-houses are called ‘Burg’ by the natives, the Arabic name for dovecot being ‘Burg Hamâm.’

That the oases were very flourishing under the Roman Empire is shown by Olympiodorus, who lived in the reign of Theodosius II. (A.D. 408-450), and was born in Upper Egypt. Writing of the Great Oasis, he calls attention to its salubriousness, to the abundance of sand everywhere, and to the numerous wells, which, sunk to a depth of 200, 300, or even 500 cubits,[7] pour forth streams of fresh water at the surface, which is used in rotation by the owners for the irrigation of their fields. Barley, he avers, is sometimes sown twice a year, and millet almost always three times. Writing of the irrigation, Olympiodorus remarks that in this region the sky is always cloudless, and that the great fertility of the land is attributable to the fact that the peasants water their little enclosures every third day in summer, and every sixth in winter. The same writer states that dials were made in the oasis.

The presence of marine shells in the rocks of the surrounding deserts led Olympiodorus to conjecture that the oasis was formerly an island, separated by the sea from the rest of Egypt, and he recalls the fact that the place was called by Herodotus ‘the Island of the Blessed.’

Strabo writes of the Libyan Desert thus: “This continent resembles a panther’s skin, as being spotted with inhabited districts, insulated in the midst of a sandy soil and arid deserts; the Egyptians call these cantons ‘Auasis.’” He refers to the Great Oasis as follows: “In a parallel line with Abydus, and distant about three days’ journey across the desert, we find the first of the three Oases of Lybia; it is a spot well inhabited, well supplied with water, and producing wines and other commodities in sufficient abundance.”

With the withdrawal of the Roman garrisons and the Mohammedan conquest decay set in, and, as Sayce remarks, the aqueducts became choked, the fields were neglected, and malarial fever invaded a district which had at one time been regarded as a health resort.

Of the history of the oases during the succeeding seven or eight centuries no records are available, but, judging from the writings of Arabian geographers, between the eleventh and the fifteenth centuries, it is evident that they gradually became depopulated, and were regarded as of little importance. El Sherîf el Edrissi, writing about the middle of the sixth century of the Hegîra, refers to the oases (Al Vahat) as places formerly containing streams of water, with lands on which trees were still found growing, and with ruined, uninhabited towns. He adds that the goats and sheep had become quite wild, and were trapped by hunters like other wild animals. It is not improbable, however, that this author was referring to some of the smaller oases-depressions, such as Kurkur, or perhaps to some of the more outlying parts of Kharga or Dakhla. It seems extremely unlikely, as Hoskins remarks, that the Great Oasis as a whole had become entirely uninhabited.

Still later the emir and historian Ismail Abulfida, about the beginning of the fourteenth century, speaks of the oases as abounding with palms and running water, and describes them as situated like islands, in the middle of the desert, three days’ journey from the Said (Upper Egypt). Jacutus describes the positions of three oases, and refers to the first of them as being well cultivated, containing streams and hot springs, palms and cultivated lands. The inhabitants, he adds, are in a wretched state. Several other writers allude to the Egyptian oases, but their information is seldom, if ever, first hand, and the descriptions are in general so vague that we are left in doubt as to which particular oasis their remarks refer.

The more modern records, commencing with those of Poncet at the end of the seventeenth century, have already been referred to in a previous chapter.

CHAPTER VIII
THE EXTINCT LAKES OF THE OASIS

Character and Extension of Lacustrine Deposits — Modern Erosion by Wind-borne Sand — The Lakes geologically of Recent Age — Discovery of Pottery and Bones of Domesticated Animals — Area occupied by the Lakes — Maximum Level of their Waters — Lacustrine Strata at Gorn el Gennâh — Relation to the Ancient Monuments — Altitudes of Archæological Sites — Age of the Lakes and their Persistence into Historic Times — Flint Implements — Origin of the Lakes — Their possible connection with the Artesian Waters — Lacustrine Deposits form the Cultivated Lands of Modern Times.

When in 1906 I commenced to make a special study of the geology of the oasis, with a view to elucidating certain questions which had arisen in connection with the water-supply, it came to me as a very great surprise to find indubitable evidence that the greater part of the floor of the depression had at one time or another been the site of an immense lake. No mention had been made by previous observers of the extensive accumulations of lacustrine sediments which cover so large a proportion of the floor, and are found from near Ain el Ghazâl in the north to beyond Beris in the south.

LACUSTRINE DEPOSITS AT EL GALA, NEAR BULAQ.

These deposits consist of horizontal finely-bedded alternations of sand and clay, or more frequently of an intimate mixture of the two; local false-bedding is not uncommon, and included fragments of limestone or sandstone are occasionally met with. The beds have a prevailing brown tint, and frequently exhibit well-marked hexagonally disposed shrinkage cracks. Although originally they must have formed an immense compact and continuous sheet, the deposits have since been subjected to considerable denudation, so that at the present day they exist as large isolated patches. Perhaps the most striking of these is that occupying the centre of the depression between Kharga village and Jebel el Ghennîma, covering an area of between 40 and 50 square kilometres, and over the greater part cut by the sand-blast into thousands of isolated hummocks, disposed with their longer axes parallel and in the direction of the prevailing north winds. Individual hummocks have perhaps an average height of 4 or 5 metres, though many exceed this considerably; in length they may measure anything up to 40 or 50 metres. The northern end of a hummock is in nearly all cases the larger, the gradual tapering towards the south being a most distinctive feature. Their present shape and appearance are, of course, entirely due to the eroding and sculpturing action of sand-laden wind.

The finding of these extensive lacustrine deposits naturally opened up a number of questions of the greatest interest and importance. To what level had the waters of the lake attained; what were its limits horizontally; and, most important of all, at what period had it existed, and what were its relations to the ancient monuments of the oasis? With the object of solving these problems it has been my endeavour to collect all possible information concerning the deposits, and, although it is perhaps too soon to draw inferences with any great certainty, I propose to put on record such data as I have been able to obtain, and to indicate the conclusions to which they appear to lead.

It is, of course, obvious that the lake was, geologically speaking, of comparatively recent date; the lacustrine deposits have nothing in common with those of the Cretaceous and Eocene formations which build up the plateau-massif out of which the oasis-depression is hewn. The sands and clays are much softer and less consolidated beds, laid down superficially and unconformably on the uneven surfaces of the older formations; the depression had, in fact, almost attained to its modern dimensions before the beds in question were formed. My first impression was that the lake dated from prehistoric, if not prehuman, times; that it existed before the prevailing desert conditions set in, when the Nile Valley was the site of extensive lakes and the country was partially wooded. The existence of thick deposits of calcareous tufa on the upper portions of the cliffs of the depression suggested a considerable outpouring of water from springs, and it seemed not improbable that the surplus water collected on the floor of the depression below.

For some time I was unable to discover any clue to the age of the deposits, in the shape of organic remains or human relics. Then, in a pit sunk for surface-water in the neighbourhood of Headquarters,[8] some fragments of pottery were found at the base of the deposit. This discovery was followed by the finding of other pieces of pottery firmly embedded in some of the clay hummocks to the south-west of Headquarters. These were without question in situ, and proved that the lake was contemporaneous with man.

Further search, in which I was greatly assisted by my friend H. H. Baker, M.B., led to the discovery of human settlements, apparently on the margins of the lake. In these localities large quantities of broken pottery were found associated with the bones of domesticated animals, while the fresh-water gastropod shell, Melania tuberculata, was found to be abundant in some of the beds. Careful exploitation of one or two of these sites, about 6 kilometres south-west of Headquarters, enabled us to procure a number of complete earthenware vessels, the chief types of which are shown in one of our illustrations. A comparison of these with pottery of known age must be left until we have referred to the horizontal and vertical extension of the lake.

Judging from the still existing deposits, and utilizing (in the northern part of the oasis) a considerable number of levels, I believe the limits of the lake to have been as shown on the accompanying plan. From its most northerly point in lat. 25° 45′ N., in the neighbourhood of the modern Ain el Ghazâl, its western boundary trended S.S.W., passing about 1½ kilometres west of Meheriq village to the south-west end of Jebel Têr; thence its shore-line lay at the foot of Jebel Tarwan, rounding which it projected somewhat into the Bellaida district between Jebel Têr and Jebel Tarif. South of this it bore slightly west of south, passing about 2½ and 3 kilometres west of Kharga and Gennâh villages respectively. From the latter point the shore-line proceeded almost due south to lat. 25° 2′ N., in the vicinity of Ain Girm Meshîm.

Its eastern limit appears to have been about a kilometre east of Ain el Qasr, and some three times that distance east of Meheriq, so that on this latitude the lake had a breadth of 4½ kilometres. In the neighbourhood of Headquarters its margin lay 2 kilometres to the east, whence it ran almost due south for about 12 kilometres. Here, just to the south-west of Ain Harrân, the lake attained its greatest width—i.e., 15 or 16 kilometres, gradually diminishing southwards to Ain Girm Meshîm. The total length of this portion of the lake was just over 80 kilometres.

Both at Ain Girm Meshîm and Ain el Doum the lacustrine deposits are well seen; over the intermediate country they were not observed, and as this area lies at a somewhat high elevation, it seems probable that there was a break in the continuity of the lake of about 15 kilometres in extent.

The southern portion appears to have measured approximately 45 by 15 kilometres, its long axis lying along a line passing through Ain el Doum, Beris, and Maks Qibli. To the south-east the lake had a local extension in the neighbourhood of Dush. It is thus seen to have extended, with a possible break of a few kilometres in the district near Ain Girm Meshîm, almost throughout the length of the depression, over a distance of 136 kilometres, or 85 miles.

It proved a matter of some difficulty to determine the maximum height to which the lake had reached, as in most localities the deposits have suffered considerable denudation, and their margins are usually obscured by blown sand and superficial detrital material. The pottery to the south-west of Headquarters was ascertained to occur at 47 metres above sea-level, the uppermost limit of the deposits in that area being 62 metres. At Headquarters the lake clays occur up to between 65 and 66 metres; at Ain Terfai and Ain Mahmud, north of Meheriq, to 65 and 67 metres respectively. Still farther north I found there were stretches of similar clays at 76 metres near Ain el Qasr, and at 84 to 85 metres in the neighbourhood of Ain el Ghazâl.

On the west side a very well-defined plain formed of the lake beds occurs immediately to the east of the Necropolis, and was found to lie at 70 metres above sea-level. But the most valuable data of all were those obtained at the Gorn el Gennâh. There, as anticipated, the lacustrine deposits, containing Melania and Limnæa in abundance, were found to be well developed and exposed, being piled up on the flanks of the hill on its north, east, and south sides, the exact limits of the beds being best seen on the south-east side near the ruins of a columbarium. Immediately behind the latter the top of the stratified clays was determined as 66½ metres, a figure agreeing remarkably closely with the majority of the maximum heights farther north. Still higher up, however, are other clays, which, while similar in general appearance, are either very irregularly bedded or altogether unstratified. The upper limit of these clays was found to be 82·76, or, say, 83 metres. While these highest beds may possibly have been deposited by the waters of springs issuing from faults and fissures (the line of disturbance mentioned in a previous chapter passes through the Gorn at this point), one must, in the absence of any definite evidence to the contrary, regard them as probably representing the extreme marginal deposits of the lake.

We may, indeed, conclude that, while the lake presumably at one time reached to a maximum level of 85 metres, it stood for a considerable period at about 70 metres above sea-level.

COFFIN-MASKS FROM BELLAIDA.

ANCIENT POTTERY FROM THE LACUSTRINE DEPOSITS.

The next step was to ascertain the altitudes of the archæological sites and the relation of the latter to the lacustrine deposits. Up to the present time levels have not been carried through to the south end of the oasis, and aneroid determinations are not of sufficient accuracy for our purpose, so that we must confine our attention in this connection to the northern portion of the depression. The ground-level of the temple of Hibis was found to be at 75 metres and the lowest of the tombs of the Necropolis at 80·6 metres above sea-level. The columbarium already alluded to, on the south-east side of the Gorn el Gennâh, is built on the denuded slopes of the lacustrine series at a level of 57·2 metres, while the base of a number of brick ruins a little to the north was found to be just over 53 metres. Finally, the ground-level at the base of the slope on which stands Qasr Zaiyan was determined as 21 metres, a bench-mark being made on the southern door of the temple at 24·52 metres above sea-level.

There are several points in connection with the disposition of the archæological remains which cannot but strike one. In the first place, they are mostly on or near the extreme margin of the lacustrine deposits; secondly, they are absent altogether from the central portion of the lake site; and thirdly, the older monuments occupy the highest levels, while there are no representatives at all of the earlier Egyptian periods. While the disposition of the monuments may, of course, be entirely fortuitous, we are justified, I think, in assuming that the lake existed well into the historic period, and may have still stood at the 65 or 70 metre level when the temple of Hibis was erected by Darius, about 500 years before the commencement of the Christian era. In the time of the Ptolemies it was certainly considerably lower, while in still later days, when the country became a Roman province, the lake had very much contracted, and probably only existed as a marshy swamp occupying the lower portions of the depression.

What age, it may be asked, is indicated by the pottery, bones, and fresh-water shells which, as already mentioned, have been found in the lacustrine deposits? Unfortunately the shells belong to species which have a wide distribution, and have persisted from early Pleistocene times right up to the present day. They do not, therefore, help us to fix the age of the deposits, except within wide limits. The bones were submitted to Dr. Andrews, F.R.S., of the British Museum Staff, and his conclusion is that they belong to two domesticated animals—one a small, lightly-built ox, the other a small horse, donkey, or zebra; unfortunately they are not sufficiently complete to be determined with certainty. Finally, as to the pottery: the types do not differ in any important respect from those associated with the towns and cemeteries of Græco-Roman age in many parts of the oasis. The barrel-shaped pot has, indeed, persisted to modern times, being, in a slightly different design, the standard water-jar at the present day in the oasis of Dakhla. The pottery, therefore, bears out our conclusions that the lake continued to exist well into the historic period.

Although flint implements have never yet been detected in situ in the lacustrine deposits, I have collected a considerable number from the area originally occupied by the lake. Some of these were found lying on the denuded surfaces of the lake beds, in positions which lead me to suppose that they have weathered out from the deposits. They are decidedly Neolithic in workmanship and character, and were, in my opinion, used by people inhabiting the depression at the time of, and probably prior to, the existence of the lake. A number of examples are shown in one of the accompanying plates; the figure in the bottom left-hand corner is, however, that of a palæolith, a typical example of those which occur on the borders of the plateau, and on or near the eastern escarpments. In the right-hand bottom corner is figured an object of very common occurrence in the oasis—a sandstone hand-grinder, probably of Roman age. With the exception of these two the specimens illustrated are all implements from the site of the lake. Flint implements were evidently in use in Kharga at a very late period, as large numbers of worked flints, mostly in the form of flakes or tools of very poor finish, occur near many of the old sanded-up wells. A considerable amount of detailed work will have to be undertaken before the different flints of the oasis can be satisfactorily arranged in chronological order.

From what period did the lake date, and to what cause did it owe its origin, are questions which cannot, I fear, be definitely answered as yet. While it is quite reasonable to consider, in the absence of any decisive evidence to the contrary, that the lake originated in early prehistoric or Pleistocene times—that it dates possibly from the time of the formation of the tufas of the Nile Valley and oasis-escarpment, when the climate was certainly much moister than at the present day—we must not forget the possibility that it was formed by artificial means during one or other of the Egyptian dynasties between 3000 and 1000 B.C.