Négil, lying so near to each other, and whose situation has been
carefully paced off and marked by Erbkam, show that the neighbourhood
had a numerous and flourishing population in the heathen times, we
discovered in the adjoining country and more or less through the whole
province of Dongala, the remains of Christian churches.
On the 7th of June we visited the three pyramids, at a little distance
from each other, all on the right hand shore of the river. Two hours and
a half distant from Zûma, Bachît is situated. Here the rock-wall of the
desert extends to the river, and bears upon it a fortress, without doubt
belonging to Christian times, with eighteen semi-circular projecting
towers of defence. In the interior, under heaps of rubbish, were the
ruins of a church, which appeared to have marked the centre of the
fortress; it was here only sixty-three feet long, and the whole nave
rested on four columns and two wall pillars, nevertheless the plan
completely answered to the universal type.
The church of Magál, which is only half an hour further, must have been
much larger, as we found among the ruins granite monolithic columns
thirteen feet and a half high up to the divided capital of a foot and a
half, and two feet in diameter; it appeared to have had five naves.
From here we arrived in an hour at Gebel Dêqa. Strong, massive walls
here also surrounded a Christian fortress, which stood upon the
projecting sandstone rock, and within it the ruins of several large
buildings, among which was a small church with three naves, similar to
that at Bachît.
This is the boundary of the province of Shaiqîeh towards Dongola, the
last place to the south whose inhabitants speak Arabic. Formerly the
boundary of the Nubian population and speech extended without doubt as
far as the cataracts above Barkâl. This appears to have caused the
numerous fortresses in this neighbourhood, and also the strong
fortification of the island of Ishishi.
The Nubians, to whom already, in the sixth century, Christianity had
penetrated by way of Abyssinia, were then a powerful people, till their
Christian priest-kings, in the fourteenth century, turned to Islamism.
At this time the building of the numerous churches, whose ruins we found
scattered through the whole province northwards from Wadi Gâzâl, must
have taken place.
We went the same day to Ambukôl, at the point of the western reach of
the Nile, and remained there the night. The following day we reached
Tifâr, and again visited the ruins of a fortress, with the remains of a
church.
On the way we met Hassan Pasha’s boat, which was going to Méraui. We
fired salutes, and ran alongside each other. The Pasha inquired
earnestly about the treasures which he supposed would be in the pyramids
of Barkal, and with the greatest complaisance promised us anything we
desired in furtherance of our journey and object. After he had
immediately returned our visit, we parted, firing fresh salutes.
On the 10th of June we reached Old Dongola, the former capital of this
Christian kingdom. The immense ruins of the town show little more at
present than its former great extent. Upon a mountain, near which
commands a delightful prospect all round, stands a mosque. An Arabic
inscription, on marble, shows that this was opened on the 20th Rabî el
anel, in the year 717 (1st June, 1317), after the victory of Safeddin
Abdallah e’ Nâsir over the infidels.
As we had discovered so few monumental remains since our departure from
Barkal, to employ the leisure time which we had in our boat, I busied
myself with making every possible research into and comparison with the
present language and the Nubian. It offers very remarkable points in the
science of language, but does not show the least similarity to the
Egyptian. I consider that the whole race must have come at a late period
out of the south-west into the valley of the Nile. We have now a servant
from Derr, the capital of Lower Nubia, who speaks tolerably good
Italian; he is alert and intelligent, and is of great service to me on
account of his knowledge of the Mahass dialects. I have sometimes
tormented him with questions for five or six hours in a day in the boat,
as it is no small trouble to either of us to understand each other upon
the forms and changes of grammar. He has, at any rate, acquired more
respect for his own language, which everywhere here, when compared with
the Arabic, is reckoned bad and vulgar, and people are ashamed of being
obliged to speak it.
When we arrived yesterday, after three days’ journey from Old Dongola
here, in New Dongola, generally called El Orde (the camp) by the Arabs,
we had the great pleasure of receiving the large packet of letters, of
which we had already been informed by Hassan Pasha on the road. Since
then we look forward with fresh courage to the last difficult part of
our journey to the south, as we must here, alas! leave our boats, and
mount the far more uncomfortable ship of the desert. The cataract
district, now lying before us, is only to be navigated at high water,
and then not without danger. Our richly-laden stone boat we were obliged
to submit to the dangerous trial, as land-carriage for the Ram and the
other monuments was naturally not to be thought of.
We shall not be able to set out from here so immediately, on account of
the general reform which must take place in our preparations for the
journey of the next five or six weeks. From our boat with the packages
we must, however, separate ourselves, as it must seize upon the right
moment of the high water, which will not be for some weeks.
LETTER XXV.
DONGOLA.
_June 23, 1844._
We returned yesterday from a four day’s trip to the next cataract, which
we were able to reach with the boat. Our collection was unexpectedly
rich. We have found a great number of old monuments of the time of the
Pharoahs, the only ones in the whole province of Dongola, and part of
them very ancient. On the island of Argo we discovered the first
Egyptian sculpture of the time of the Hyksos, and near Kermân on the
right hand shore, traces of an extensive city, spread wide over the
plain, with an immense burying-ground adjoining, in which two large
monuments were conspicuous, one of which was called Kermân (like the
village), the other Defûfa. They are not pyramids, but oblong squares,
the first 150 feet by 66, the second 132 feet by 66, and about 40 feet
high, quite massive and strong, and built of good firm unburnt Nile
bricks; each has an out-building, resembling the ante-temple of the
Pyramid. Many fragments of statues lying about, (in the best ancient
style, partly covered with good hieroglyphics,) point out their great
antiquity; so that we may judge this to be the oldest important Egyptian
settlement on Ethiopian ground, which was probably rendered necessary
through the increase of Egyptian power towards Ethiopia, during the
supremacy of the Hyksos in Egypt. Without doubt, the enormous granite
bridges which we found some hours north of Kermân at the entrance of the
cataract district, opposite the island Tombos on the right hand shore,
were belonging to this town. The rock inscriptions contain arms of the
seventeenth dynasty, and an inscription of eighteen lines bears the date
of the second year of Tuthmosis I.
Here, in Dongola, I have also begun to study the Kong’âra language of
Dar Fûr. A negro soldier born in that feared and warlike land, with
woolly hair and thick pouting lips, whom we brought with us during the
last year from Korusko to Wadi Halfa, as orderly officer, instead of the
one appointed by Ibrahim Pasha, sought us out again, and was given up to
me by the Pasha to assist me in my philological studies. He began well,
but in half an hour I was obliged to get the Nubian to interpret for me.
The Kong’âra is quite different from the Nubian, and appears to me in
some points to have a strong analogy with certain South African
languages.
It gave me great pleasure to see here the fortress built by Ehrenberg in
1822, it has certainly suffered from the inundations, but still serves
Hassan Pasha as a dwelling. There will also remain a building in
remembrance of us, as the Pasha begged Erbkam to give him the plan of a
powder-tower, and to seek out a suitable spot for its erection.
LETTER XXVI.
KORUSKO.
_August 17, 1844._
Our departure from Dongola did not take place till the 2nd July. We
journeyed slowly down the west side of this river; and on the same day
we came to large fields of ruins, the inconsiderable remains of once
flourishing cities whose names are lost. The first we found opposite
Argônsene, others near Koï and Mosh. On the following day we passed near
Hannîk, opposite Tombos, in the province of Máhas; here begins the
Cataract district and a new Nubian dialect, which extends to Derr and
Korusko. The Nile takes a northerly course till it comes to a high
mountain named after a former conqueror, Ali Bersi; this we passed to
the left early on the third day. It lies on the sudden turning of the
river, from north-west to due east, where it is usual to avoid the
greater part of the province of Máhas by a northerly desert road. We,
however, followed the windings of the river, and came in the
neighbourhood of old forts on the shore, to a grove of palm-trees, in
whose shade we rested during the heat of mid-day. The nearest of these
forts so romantically situated among the rent rocks, I find differently
named upon every map, as Fakir Effendi (Cailliaud), Fakir el Bint, from
_bint_, the Maiden (Hoskins), Fakir Bender, from _bender_, the
metropolis (Arrowsmith); it is, however, called Fakir Fenti in the
dialect of the country, or Fakir Benti in that of Dongola, and is so
named from the palms at their foot (_Fenti_, _benti_, means palms and
dates).
We arrived on the 4th of July at Sêse, a mountain on which is the
remains of a fortress. Our servant Ahmed (from Derr), informed us that
after the death of every king, his successor was led to the top of this
mountain, and decked with a peculiar royal head-dress. Such forts as
Sêse, of which from the high land we saw many both far and near, tell of
a former numerous and warlike population, which has now almost
disappeared. The ruins, lying about a quarter of an hour to the south of
Mount Sêse, are called Sêsebi. Here stood an old temple, of which,
however, only four columns, with palm capitals, remain standing; these
bear the cartouches of Sethos I., the most southerly that we have found
of this king. In the neighbourhood of these remains, are situated the
ruins of a city, on an artificial platform, the regular circumvallation
of which is still to be recognized.
On the 6th of July we got to Solb (Soleb), the well-preserved and
considerable temple of which was erected by Amenophis III., to his own
genius, the divine Ra-neb-ma (Amenophis.)[90] The rich decorations of
this temple, (the same to which our ram from Barkal, and the lions of
Lord Prudhoe once belonged,) furnished us with employment for nearly
five days. On the 11th of July we first departed again.
Scarcely an hour hence to the northward lies Gebel Dôshe; a sandstone
rock projecting to the river, in which a grotto is hewn on the river
side, containing sculptures of Tuthmosis III.
The same evening we got to Sedeïnga, where Amenophis III. built a temple
to his own wife Tü. In the midst of the picturesque heap of ruins a
single pillar stands up. To the west, a great grave-field extends.
On the 13th of July we stopped at a _shôna_ (so are the Government
station magazines called), opposite Mount Abir or Qabir, a little below
the northern point of the island of Saï. Indirectly over the river, lies
the village of Amara, and in its neighbourhood, the ruins of a temple. I
was not a little astonished to recognize the stout queen of Naga and
Meroë and her husband, on the columns, of which six are still remaining.
This temple was built by them, an important testimony of the far
extending government of that Ethiopian dynasty. On the grave-field to
the south of the temple, I also remarked fragments of inscriptions in
the already mentioned Demotic-Ethiopian alphabet, of which I had also
found some examples in the neighbourhood of Sedeïnga.
After we had paid a visit to the island of Saï, on the next day, where
we had found the few remains of a temple with inscriptions of Tuthmosis
III., and Amenophis II., besides the ruins of a town and a Koptic
church,--we proceeded onward, and arrived on the 15th of July at Dal,
which forms the frontier between the provinces of Sukkot and Batn el
hag’er (Stonebelly). At night we encamped by the cataract of Kalfa.
Hence our way led in the neighbourhood of the hot sulphur springs of
Okmeh, whither I diverged from the caravan with Abeken. The road led us
from the Shôna where we parted, along the craggy shore for above an
hour, to a square tower, which has been erected over the fountain, and
called Hammân Seïdna Solimân, after the architect. The tower, which is
nine feet thick, and has an inward diameter of four feet, is now half
full of sand and earth; the water rushes out of the east side of the
tower to the thickness of your wrist, and on the other side sixteen
little springs rise out of the sand within the space of a square foot;
and here, where the water is at the hottest, it has not quite 44°
Réaumur. The taste is sulphurous, and a white deposit lies all round the
fountain on the ground. Every year the river rises above the spring, and
indeed, above the tower, which stands at half the elevation of the
shore. The water mirror had now risen to the height of a man, and had
not yet reached the fountain. A rude hole is dug in the rubbish for the
invalids that come hither, and is covered with rushes to keep off the
steam. Somewhat further down the river, another streamlet comes out,
which retains 40° of warmth at its mouth in the open air. The legend
goes, that Okáshe, a friend of the prophet, was killed in a campaign to
the south; his body swam up hither and then disappeared in the rocks on
the opposite shore. His grave is still pointed out there at some
distance from the river; a tree marking the spot.
On the 17th of July we encamped near the temple of Semneh. The village
only consists of a few straw huts,[91] shaded by some date-trees; yet
the many fragments in the district show that there was once a much more
considerable place here. The temple is surrounded by mighty ancient
works of defence, the building of which goes as far back as the Old
Empire, under Sesurtesen III., a king of the twelfth dynasty.[92] It
seems that this king first extended the bounds of the Egyptian empire to
this place; indeed, he is found at a later period worshipped as a local
divinity. The temple, built by Tuthmosis III., in the New Empire, is
dedicated to him and the god Tetûn conjointly.
On the right shore too, near the village of Kummeh, old fortifications
are found, and within them a still larger temple, already commenced by
Tuthmosis II.
The most important discovery that we made here (which I only mention
cursorily, as I have at the same time sent a complete account of it to
Ehrenberg), is a number of short rock inscriptions, which give the
highest Nile levels for a series of years, under the government of
Amenemha III. (Mœris), and his immediate successors. These accounts are
partly valuable historically, as they brilliantly confirm my
conjecture, that the Sebekhotep immediately followed the twelfth
dynasty, and are partly of peculiar interest for the geological history
of the Nile, as they prove that the river rose, four thousand years ago,
nearly twenty-four feet higher than at present and, therefore, must have
caused quite different proportions of inundation and soil for the upper
and lower country. The examination of this curious locality, with its
temples and rock inscriptions, employed us for twelve days.
On the 29th of July we went from Semneh to Abke, and visited on the next
day the old fortress north of that place, which is called El Kenissa,
(the church,) and therefore probably contained one at some period. From
the top of this fortress we had the most magnificent prospect of the
principal cataracts of the whole district. Three great falls were
distinguishable in the broad rocky islet valley from the smaller ones;
several hundred islands passed under review to yonder black mountains.
Toward the north, however, the wide plain stretched, which extend from
Wadi Halfa to Philae. The gradual change in the geological construction
of the rocks was plainly visible, as we descended from the last ridge of
the shore crags into the great plain, from which but a few single
sandstone cones arise from the bed of a dried up ocean. These are no
doubt the sources of the endless sand, which, driven by the north wind
into the mountains, rendered our journey to Semneh so difficult.
On the 1st of August we quitted Wadi Halfa in three barks,and passed
through districts already well-known. Next morning we came to Abu
Simbel, where we stopped nine days, in order to secure the rich
representations of the two rock temples as complete as possible. I
sought for a long time for the remarkable Greek inscription which Leake
found on one of the four mighty Ramses-colossi, until I happily
discovered it in the rubbish on the left leg of the second colossus from
the south. I was obliged to have a great excavation made, in order to
obtain a perfect impression on paper. There seem to me to be no grounds
whatever not to take the inscription for that for which it proclaims
itself, viz. for a memorial of the Greek mercenaries, who came hither
with Psammetichus I. in pursuit of the rebellious warriors. Among the
rest of the inscriptions of the colossus I find some Phœnician ones.
After we had visited rock monuments on the opposite shore, near Abahûda
and Shataui, we left Abu Simbel, on the 11th of August, and next stopped
on the right shore near Ibrîm, the ancient Primis, the name of which I
have found written hieroglyphically PRM. On the left bank, opposite
Ibrîm, lies Anîbe, in the neighbourhood of which we found and drew a
solitary, but well preserved private grave of the time of the twentieth
dynasty. Then we went on to Derr, where we received the richest of
post-bags, which filled us all with joy.
With these treasures we hastened, by way of Amada, hither to Korusko;
the charming palm groups of which had become dear to us during our long
though unwilling stay last year. To-day (Sunday) we have, therefore,
determined to celebrate the fortunate completion of our journey in the
gayest reminiscences. Our barks lie quietly by the shore.
LETTER XXVII.
PHILAE.
_September 1, 1844._
I am only now first able to end my report from Korusko, which we quitted
on the evening of the 18th of August, to sail for Sebûa.
From thence to Philae the valley is called Wadi Kenûs, “the valley of
Beni Kensi,” a tribe often mentioned in the Arabic accounts. The upper
valley from Korusko to Wadi Halfa is generally called Wadi Nuba on all
the maps, a name certainly used by Burckhardt, but which must rest on an
error. Neither our Nubian servant Ahmed, born at Derr, nor any of the
inhabitants know this name, and even the septuagenarian Hassen Kashef,
who governed the country before the Egyptian conquest, could not return
any replies to my careful questions. According to their unanimous
assertion, the lower district has always been called Wadi Kenûs. Then
follows near Korusko the Wadi el Arab, so called by the immigrated Arabs
of the desert, then Wadi Ibrim, and lastly Wadi Halfa. The government
designation of the whole province between the two cataracts is, however,
since the conquest Gism Halfa, the province Halfa.
In Korusko, I found a Bishâri, named ’Ali, whose intelligent and
pleasing manners determined me immediately to engage him as a teacher
for this important language. He accepted very willingly my invitation
to accompany us, and now every leisure moment was occupied in preparing
a grammar and vocabulary. He was born in the interior of the district
Beled Ellâqi, which is eight days distant from the Nile, and twenty from
the Red Sea, and gives its name to the remarkable Wadi Ellâqi, which
extends without any interruption through the broad plains from the Nile
to the sea. He calls the Bishâri country Edbai and their language “Midâb
to Beg’auîe,” the Beg’a language: this shows its identity with the
language of the powerful Beg’a people, celebrated during the middle
ages.
From Korusko we sailed to Sebûa, where we remained four days; then by
Dakke (Pselchis) and Kubân (Contra-Pselchis) to G’erf Hussên, with its
rock temple, dedicated by Ramses to Ptah. By former travellers this
place has often been called Girshe, a corruption of the name of a
village lying on the eastern shore, called by the Arabians Qirsh, and by
the Nubians Kish or Kishiga, and which lies in the neighbourhood of some
important ruins, called Sabagûra. The 25th August we passed in the
temple of Dendûr, built under the Roman empire, and the next day in
Kalabsheh, the ancient Talmis, this temple also contains only the arms
of Cæsar (Augustus). Talmis was for a long time the capital of the
Blemyer, whose incursions into Egypt caused much trouble to the Romans.
Upon one of the pillars of the outer court the interesting inscription
of Silco is graven, who calls himself a βασιλίσκος Νουβάδων καὶ ὅλων τῶν
Αἰθιόπων. He boasts in it of his victories over the Blemyers, whom I
consider a branch of the Meroitic-Ethiopian race, the present Bishâri.
The Demotic-Ethiopian inscriptions, among which is one remarkable for
its length, and which perhaps is a counterpart of the Greek ones of the
Nubian kings, can only be referred to the Blemyers. I discovered at the
back of the temple another inscription of very late date in Greek, but
so corrupted as to be perfectly unintelligible. I send it to be
deciphered by Böckh.
On the 30th of August we reached Debôt, and the following day Philae,
where we immediately took possession of the charming temple terrace,
which, since that time, has been our head-quarters, and will be so for
some time yet. The great buildings of the temple, although its earliest
erection only dates as far back as Nectanebus, offer an unusually rich
harvest of hieroglyphical, demotic, and Greek inscriptions, and to my
astonishment I have discovered a chamber in one of the pylones, which
contains only Ethiopian sculptures and inscriptions.
LETTER XXVIII.
THEBES, QURNA.
_November 24, 1844._
We arrived here, at the last great station of our journey, on the 4th of
November, and feel much nearer to our native land. During our stay here,
which is certain to run over several months, we have established
ourselves in a charming rock fort, on a hill of Abd el Qurna; it is an
ancient tomb, enlarged by erections of brick, whence the whole Thebaîc
plain can be overlooked at one view. I should be afraid of being almost
annihilated by the immense treasure of monuments, if the mighty
character of the remains of this most royal city of all antiquity did
not excite and retain the imagination at the highest point. While the
examination of the previous numerous temples of the Ptolemaic and Roman
periods had almost become, as it were, wearisome, I feel as fresh here,
where the Homeric form of the mighty Pharaohs of the eighteenth and
nineteenth dynasties come forth to us in all their majesty and pride, as
at the beginning of my journey.
I have at once had excavations made in the celebrated temple of Ramses
Miamun, situated at our feet, which have led to unexpected results.
Erbkam had conducted the works with the greatest care, and his now
finished ground-plan of this most beautiful building of the Pharaonic
times, the tomb of Osymandyas, according to Diodorus, is the first
which can be called complete, as it does not depend on arbitrary
restorations, carried too far by the French, and not far enough by
Wilkinson.
In the filled-up rock tomb of the same Ramses, at Babel Meluk,
erroneously considered incomplete by Rosellini, I have also had
excavations made. Several chambers have already been found, and if
fortune favours us, we shall also find the sarcophagus, though not
unopened, (_that_ the Persians have taken care of,) yet possibly less
destroyed than others, as the deposit of soil on the tomb is very
ancient.