ceremony—this time, for a deceased Fellah—for which purpose about two
hundred people had collected, the men separate from the women. The men
were seated, two and two opposite, embracing each other; they laid their
heads on their shoulders, raised them up again, beat themselves, clapped
their hands, and wept as much as they were able. The women moaned, sang
songs of lamentation, strewed themselves with ashes, walked about in
procession, and threw themselves on the ground; everything very similar
to what we saw in Wed Médineh, except that their dance more resembled,
in its violent movements, that of the Dervishes. The remainder of the
inhabitants of Keli sat round in groups under the shade of the trees,
sighing and lamenting, with their heads bent down.
As we were obliged to wait for the camels, I once more crossed over
to Beg´erauîeh, to search for certain ruins, which were said to be
situated somewhat more to the north. Starting from EL GUÊS, I arrived in
three-quarters of an hour, upon my ass, at the two villages of Marûga,
not far removed from each other. To the eastward of the first, on the
low eminences running along in that direction, there are a number of
mounds of tombs, which from a little distance looked like a group of
Pyramids standing out from the sky. The elevation turns backwards, in
the form of a crescent, towards the south, and is covered with these
circular-thrown-up mounds, composed of black desert stone; standing on a
large mound in the centre I counted fifty-six of them.
Five minutes farther on in the desert there is a second group of similar
mounds, twenty-one in number; but many others lie near it, scattered
on single small pieces of ground. Situated in a still lower position,
and even within the limit of the thicket, I discovered a third group,
to the south of the two former ones, containing about forty tombs, in
some of which we could still clearly recognise their original square
form. The tomb in best preservation was between 15 and 18 feet wide on
every side; like many others, it had been excavated in the centre, and
had been filled up with mud deposited by the rain, in which a tree was
growing; a great square wall of 24 paces enclosing it on every side, was
still remaining of another tomb, the lowest layers were built up solidly
of small black stones, and a mound seemed to have been erected within,
but not in the centre. Another still stronger circumvallation, in good
preservation, was not much smaller in circumference, but appeared to have
been completely filled up with a Pyramid. Nothing was to be seen of an
actual casing. The mounds continued still more to the south amidst the
thicket, and altogether there might be about two hundred which could be
distinguished. Perhaps, also, they continue still farther on the border
of the desert, in the direction of Meröe, whither I would have ridden
back had I not sent the boat too far down the river, in quest of which
I now was obliged to hasten. It appears, therefore, that this was the
actual cemetery of Meröe, and that pyramidal, or, in default of smooth
sides, conical mounds of stones, were the usual forms of the tombs, even
of private individuals, at that period.
LETTER XXII.
_Barkal, the 9th May, 1844._
The desert of GILIF, which we traversed on our road hither, to cut off
the great eastern bend of the Nile, derives its name from the principal
mountain range which lies in the centre of it. On the maps it is
confounded with the desert BAHIUDA, which bounds it to the south-east,
and across which runs the road from Chartûm to Ambukôl and Barkal.
Our direction was first due east as far as a well, afterwards to the
north-west, and in the midst of the Gilif range to the great Wadi Abu
Dôm, which then led us across in the same direction to the western bend
of the Nile.
The general character of the country here, is not so much that of a
desert as between Korusko and Abu Hammed, but more that of a sandy
steppe. It is almost everywhere covered with Gesch (tufts of reed-grass),
and not unfrequently with low trees, chiefly Sont-trees. The rains which
fall here at certain seasons of the year, have deposited considerable
masses of earth on the low grounds, which might be profitably cultivated,
and this is sometimes traversed, to the depth of three or four feet,
by torrents occasioned by the rain. The soil is yellow, and composed
of a clayey sand. The rock forming the subsoil, and the whole of the
mountains, with the exception of the lofty Gilif range, is a sandstone.
The ground is covered to a considerable extent with hard, black blocks
of sandstone, the road is generally uneven, and undulating. Numerous
gazelles, and large white antelopes with only a brown stripe down their
backs, are to be found on these plains, which are also frequented in the
rainy season by herds of camels and of goats, on account of the plentiful
supply of pasture.
On the 29th April we left the river, but, as is very customary in
caravans of any considerable size, this was only a first start—a trial of
our travelling powers, such as birds of passage make before their long
migration. We had only been two hours on the road when the guide allowed
the restless swarm to encamp again, just beyond GÔS BURRI, at a little
distance from the river; the camel-drivers were without their provisions;
some single beasts were still procured, others were exchanged. It was not
before the following day at twelve o’clock that we got into perfect order
and in full march. We spent the night in the WADI ABU HAMMED, at which
point GEBEL OMARDA was on our right hand.
The third day we started very early; passed GEBEL QERMANA, and arrived
at the well of ABU TLÊH, which took us far to the east, and detained
us several hours after mid-day. From this point we were seven hours
traversing a wide plain, and encamped about ten at night near GEBEL
SERGEN. The 2nd May, after proceeding four hours, we reached a district
well supplied with trees, to the right of GEBEL NUSF, the “Mountain of
the Half,” which is situated half-way between the well of Abu Tlêh and
Gaqedûl, as on all these journeys the wells are the real indicators of
the hour in the desert-clock.
The Arabs from the district of Gôs Burri, who are our guides, belong to
the tribe of the ʾAuadîeh; they are not nearly as respectable as the
Ababde Arabs, have a rapid and indistinct mode of speech, and altogether
seem to have very little capacity. They may have already intermingled
much with the Fellahîn of the country, who here call themselves Qaleâb,
Homerâb, Gaalîn. There are also some Schaiqîeh Arabs here, probably only
from the time of the conquest of the country by the Egyptians; they carry
shields and spears like the Ababde Arabs. The wealthy Sheikh, Emin, of
Gôs Burri, had given us his brother, the Fakir Fadl Allah, as our guide,
and his own son, Fadl Allah, as overseer to his camels; but even the
best among these people make but a miserable and starved appearance in
comparison with our desert companions of Korusko. The order of the day
here was as follows: that in general we should start about six in the
morning, and keep moving till ten o’clock; after that, the caravan rested
during the mid-day heat till about three o’clock, and we then proceeded
again till about ten or eleven at night.
We rode across the large plain of EL GÔS the whole afternoon, so called,
probably, from the great sand dunes, which are characteristic of this
part of the country, and which, more especially towards the south, assume
a peculiar form. They are almost all in the shape of a crescent, which
opens towards the south-west, so that from the road on our right hand
we look into a number of tunnels, or semi-theatres, whose precipitous
walls of sand rise nearly ten feet from the ground, while the north
wind, passing over the field within, clears it completely from the sand,
which would gradually fill up the cavity. But the rapidity with which
this moveable sand-architecture alters its position is manifested by the
single tracks on the caravan-road, which are frequently lost under the
very centre of the highest sand-hills. About eight o’clock in the evening
we left GEBEL BARQUGRES on our left hand, and halted for the night, about
ten o’clock, at a short distance from the Gilif range.
The 3rd May we marched through the WADI GUAH EL ʾALEM, which is covered
with a great many trees, into the heart of the mountains, which are
chiefly composed of porphyritic rock, and like all primitive mountains,
on account of their longer retention of the precipitated humidity and the
small amount of rain, are more covered with vegetation than the sandy
plains. In three hours we reached the WADI GAQEDÛL, thickly covered with
Gesch and thorny trees of every description, Sont, Somra, and Serha. We
met some herds of camels and goats grazing here, especially near the
water, which had also attracted numerous birds, among others ravens and
pigeons. The water is said to be retained for the space of three years,
without any fresh accession in this broad, low-situated grotto, about 300
feet in diameter, surrounded, and for the most part covered in, by lofty
walls of granite. It was, however, so dirty, and had such an abominable
smell, that it was even despised by my thirsty ass. The drinkable water
is situated higher up in the mountains, and is difficult of access.
We here quitted the northerly direction into which we had been led by
the well, since leaving Gebel Nusf, and continued for several hours
very much to the west along the Gilif range, into the WADI EL MEHET,
then traversing the perfectly dry bed of the valley (Chôr) of EL AMMER,
from which the road to Ambukôl diverges, we halted past ten o’clock at
night in the WADI EL UER, which was named by others the WADI ABU HAROD.
From this point, the Gilif range retreated for some distance farther
towards the east, and only left a succession of sandstone hills in the
foreground, along which we rode the following morning. In the W.N.W. we
saw other mountain ranges, which are no longer called Gilif; one single
two-pointed mountain among them, which stood out from the rest, was
called MIGLIK. The great inlet of the Gilif chain, filled with sandstone
rock, is two hours broad;[47] the road then continues to lead in a more
northerly direction, into the midst of the range itself, which is here
called GEBEL EL MÁGEQA, after the well of MÁGEQA.
Before entering this mountain range, we came to a place covered with
heaps of stones, which might be supposed to be barrows, though no
one lies buried beneath them. Whenever the date merchants come this
road, many of whom we met the following morning, with their large
round plaited straw baskets, their camel-drivers at this spot demand
a trifle from them. He who will give nothing, has a cenotaph such as
this erected to him, out of the surrounding stones, as a bad omen for
his hard-heartedness. We met with a similar assemblage of tombs in the
desert of Korusko. We reached this well soon after nine o’clock, but
without halting ascended a wild valley to a considerable height, where we
encamped about mid-day.
The whole road was amply supplied with trees, and thereby offered an
agreeable variety. The Sont, or gum-trees, were rare here; the Somra
appeared most frequently, which begins to spread out directly from the
ground in several strong branches, and terminates with a flat covering of
thinly-scattered boughs and small green leaves, so that it often forms a
completely regular inverted cone, which at this spot sometimes attains
to about the height of fifteen feet. Near it grows the HEGLIK, with
irregular boughs round the stem, and single tufts of leaves and twigs,
like the pear-tree. The thornless SERHA, on the other hand, has all the
branches surrounded with quite small green leaves, like moss, and the
TONDUB has no leaves at all, but in their place only small green little
twigs, growing zig-zag, and almost as close as foliage, while the Sálame
shrub consists of long flexible twigs covered with green leaves and long
green thorns.
About four o’clock we set out, and descended very gradually from the
heights. There are also a number of wells in the WADI KALAS, with very
good rain water, about twenty feet in depth; we pitched our encampment
for the night at this spot, although we arrived there soon after sunset.
The animals were watered, and the skins filled. The whole of the plateau
is well supplied with trees and shrubs, and inhabited by men and animals.
Our road on the following day preserved the same character, as long as we
were wandering between the beautiful and rugged escarpments of porphyry.
After proceeding a couple of hours farther, we came to two other wells,
also called KALAS, with little, but good water. From this spot, a road
diverged in a north-easterly direction to the well of MERÖE, in the Wadi
Abu Dôm, probably so called also from a white rock.
Three hours farther, having passed GEBEL ABRAK, we entered the great
WADI ABU DÔM, which we now pursued in a west north-west direction. This
remarkable valley passes uninterruptedly by the side of a long mountain
chain from the Nile at El Mechêref to the village of Abu Dôm, which is
situated obliquely opposite Mount Barkal. When we consider that the upper
north-eastern opening of this valley, which traverses the whole Peninsula
and its mountain ranges, lies nearly opposite the mouth of the Atbara,
which flows into the Nile in the same direction above Mechêref, we cannot
help suspecting that once, though perhaps not in historical times, there
must have been a connection by water, which cut off the largest portion
of the great eastern bend of the Nile, now formed by the rocky elevated
plateau at Abu Hammed, driving back the stream above a degree and a half
towards the south, contrary to its common direction. The name of the
valley is derived from the single Dôm Palms, which are here and there
found in it. The mountain chain, which passes along the north of the
valley, is completely separated from the range, through which we had
hitherto come. At the entrance of this valley we left the solid ground
of which the mountain is composed, and the loose sands again prevailed,
without however overpowering the still far from scanty vegetation.
In the afternoon, after leaving on our left hand a side valley, OM
SCHEBAK, which contains well-water, we encamped for the night as early as
nine o’clock. The following morning we came to the deep well of HANIK,
and halted about mid-day at a second well, which was called OM SAIALE,
after the tree of that name.
At this spot, I left the caravan with Jussuf, to reach Barkal by a
circuitous road by NURI, situated on this side of the river somewhat
higher up. In an hour and a half we arrived at some considerable ruins of
a large Christian convent in the WADI GAZÂL, so called from the gazelles,
which dig in great numbers for water here in the Chôr (bed of the
valley). The church was built as high as the windows of white, well-hewn
sandstone, and above that of unburnt bricks. The walls are covered with
a strong coating of plaster, and are painted in the interior. The vaulted
apse of the three-naved Basilica is situated, as usual, towards the east,
the entrances behind the western transept are towards the north and
south; all the arches of the doors, the windows, and between the pillars,
are round: above the doors, Coptic crosses are frequently exhibited, more
or less ornamented, whose most simple form ✙ may be compared with the
ancient Egyptian symbol of Life. The whole church is a genuine type of
all the Coptic churches which I have seen in ruins, and I therefore add
the small ground plan just as Erbkam took it down.
[Illustration]
The building is above eighty feet long, and exactly half as broad. The
outer wall to the north has fallen in. The church is surrounded by a
great court, whose walls of enclosure, as well as the numerous convent
cells, some of which have vaulted roofs, are built of rough blocks, and
are in good preservation; the largest of them, a dwelling forty-six
feet long, is situated in front of the western side of the church, and
is only separated from it by a small narrow court; no doubt it belonged
to the prior, and a special side-entrance led from it into the church.
Two churchyards are situated on the southern side of the convent; that
to the west, about forty paces removed from the church, contained a
number of tombs, which consisted simply of a collection of black stones
heaped up together. The eastern churchyard was situated nearer to the
buildings, and was remarkable from possessing a considerable amount of
tombstones with inscriptions, partly in Greek, partly in Coptic, which
will induce me to pay a second visit to this remarkable convent before
we leave Barkal. I counted more than twenty stones with inscriptions,
some of which had sustained much injury, and about as many tablets in
burnt earth, with inscriptions scratched into them, though most of them
were broken to pieces. They contain the most southern Greek inscriptions
which have been hitherto known in the Nile region, with the exception of
those of Adulis and Axum in Abyssinia. There is no doubt that the Greek
language following in the wake of Christianity, and the traces of which
we might have ourselves pursued in structural remains even beyond Soba,
was at one time employed and understood, at least for religious objects,
by the natives in the flourishing districts, even as far as the interior
of Abyssinia; nevertheless these monumental inscriptions (none of them,
as far as I could see in a hasty survey, in the Ethiopian language) allow
us to infer that the inhabitants of the convent were Greek Coptics who
had immigrated.
About five o’clock I left my companions, who went direct to Abu Dôm, and
I immediately set out for NURI. We soon saw MOUNT BARKAL shining blue
in the distance; it rises singly and precipitously from the surrounding
plain, and has a broad platform, and, by its peculiar form and position,
at once attracts attention; about six o’clock the Nile valley, which is
here of considerable breadth, lay spread out before us, a sight always
longed for after the desert journey, and which, like the approaching
misty coast after a sea voyage, keeps the attention of the traveller in a
state of joyful expectation.
Our road, however, now turned towards the right, and led among the
mountains, which stretch out into the plain, and are still composed
of masses of porphyry. When we stood directly in front of Barkal, I
observed on our left hand a great number of black barrows, either round,
or pyramidal in form, similar to those I previously saw at Meröe. It
was probably the general cemetery of NAPATA, which even in the time
of Herodotus was the royal residence of the Ethiopian kings, and was
situated on the farther bank; a considerable town must therefore at
one time have been placed on the left bank of the Nile, which would
also explain the position of the Pyramids of NURI on the same side of
the river. Nevertheless, I have not been able to discover any mound of
ruins in accordance with this surmise. I only saw some similar to these,
though not of considerable extent, behind the village of Duêm and at Abu
Dôm, which were called SANAB. It was not before half-past seven that we
arrived in the neighbourhood of this considerable group of Pyramids, and
we quartered ourselves for the night in the house of the Sheikh of the
village.
Before sunrise I was already at the Pyramids, of which I counted
twenty-five. They are some of them grander than those at Meröe, but are
built of soft sandstone, and, therefore, have suffered much from exposure
to the weather; only very few of them had a portion of the smooth casing
preserved. The largest shows, again, the same structure in the interior
which I have referred to in the Pyramids of Lower Egypt; a smaller
internal Pyramid was enlarged in all its dimensions by a superimposed
stone casing. In one place, on the west side, the smoothed upper surface
of the internal structure was most clearly disclosed beneath the
well-joined external covering, which is eight feet thick. Little is to be
seen here of ante-chambers such as there are in Meröe and at the Pyramids
of Barkal; I think I have only found the remains of two; the rest, if
they ever existed, must have been completely demolished, or buried
beneath the rubbish. Some of the Pyramids, however, stand so immediately
against each other, that, on that account alone, an ante-chamber, at
least on the last side where it might have been expected, could not have
existed. Besides this, the Pyramids are generally built quite massively
of square blocks; I could only perceive, on the one situated most to the
east, that it was filled up with black unhewn stones. There is also a
truncated Pyramid like that of Daschûr; but here the lower, and not, as
in that instance, the upper angle of inclination, must have been the one
originally intended, as the former is scarcely sufficient for a series
of steps. Although, unfortunately, I had been unable to discover any
inscriptions, with the exception of one single small fragment of granite,
yet much seems to favour the idea that this group of Pyramids is of an
older date, while those of Barkal are more recent.
Soon after ten o’clock I reached ABU DÔM, where I found my companions
already arrived. The whole of the next day was occupied in crossing the
Nile, and we did not reach Barkal before sunset. Georgi, to my delight,
had arrived here some days previously from Dongola. We now more than ever
require his assistance, because drawings must be made of whatever we meet
with here. The Ethiopian royal residence of King TAHRAKA, who reigned at
the same time in Egypt, and left buildings behind him, the same who in
the time of Hezekiah marched to Palestine against Sennacherib, is too
important for us not to exhaust it, if possible, of its treasures.
LETTER XXIII.
_Mount Barkal, the 28th May, 1844._
During the next few days I expect the arrival of the transport boats
which I begged of Hassan Pascha, and which set off eleven days ago; they
are to receive our Ethiopian treasures, and to convey us to Dongola.
The results of our researches here are not without importance. Upon
the whole, they are quite confirmatory of the opinion that Ethiopian
art is only a late offshoot from the Egyptian. It does not commence
under native rulers before the time of Tahraka. The little which is
extant from a still earlier period belongs to the Egyptian conquerors
and their artists. Here, at least, it is confined solely to one temple,
which Ramses the Great erected to Amen-Ra. It is true that the name of
Amenophis III. has been discovered on several of the granite Rams, as
well as on Lord Prudhoe’s Lion in London, but there are good grounds to
suppose that these magnificent Colossi did not originally belong to a
temple here. They were only brought here at a later period, it appears,
from Soleb, probably by the Ethiopian king whose name is found engraved
on the breast of the above-mentioned lion, and which, from the incorrect
omission of a sign, has been hitherto read AMEN ASRU in place of MI AMEN
ASRU.
Nevertheless, I consider these Rams so remarkable, especially on account
of their inscriptions, that I have determined to carry away the best of
them. The fat wether probably weighs nearly 150 cwt. However, in the
space of three sultry days, it has been safely dragged on rollers to the
river bank by ninety-two Fellahs, and it there waits for embarkation.
Several other monuments besides are to accompany us from this spot, as
we need no longer fear their weight since the desert is behind us. I
will only mention an Ethiopian altar, four feet high, with the Shields
of the king who erected it; a statue of Isis, on whose plinth there is
an Ethiopian-demotic inscription of eighteen lines; another also from
Méraui; as well as the peculiar monument bearing the name of Amenophis
III., which was copied by Cailliaud, and was thought to be a foot, but,
in truth, is the lower portion of the sacred sparrow-hawk. All these
monuments are of black granite.[48]
The town of NAPATA, the name of which I have now frequently found in
hieroglyphics, and even on the monuments of Tahraka, was situated, no
doubt, somewhat farther down the river, near the present town of MÉRAUI,
where considerable mounds of ruins still testify to this. The Temples
and Pyramids were alone situated near the mountain. This remarkable
mass of rock bears the name of the “Sacred Mount” 𓈋𓏤𓃂 in the hieroglyphic
inscriptions. The god who was peculiarly worshipped here was Ammon-Ra.
On the 18th of May we accomplished our long intended second visit to
the Wadi Gazâl; we took an impression of all the Greek and Coptic
inscriptions of the cemetery, and carried away with us such as appeared
in some degree legible.