Chapter XXV: 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.

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.