DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4393#0302
284 A THOUSAND MILES UP THE NILE.
and bubbling in a state of fusion, they must have been
suddenly checked by contact with some cooler medium.
Where the chain ends, about three or four miles above
Abou Simbel, the view widens, and a host of outlying
mountains are seen scattered over an immense plain reach-
ing for miles into the western desert. On the eastern
bank, Kalat Adda,* a huge, rambling Roman citadel,
going to solitary ruin on the last water-washed precipice
to the left—brings the opposite range to a like end, and
abuts on a similar plain, also scattered over with detached
peaks. The scene here is desolately magnificent. A huge
island covered with palms divides the Nile in two branches,
eacli of which looks as wide as the whole river. An un-
bounded distance opens away to the silvery horizon. On
the banks there is no vondure; neither is there any sign of
human toil. Nothing lives, nothing moves, save the wind
and the river.
Of all the strange peaks we have yet seen, the mountains
hereabout are the strangest. Alone or in groups, they start
*" A castle, resembling in size and form that of Ibrim; it bears
tlie name of Kalat Adda; it has been abandoned many years, being
entirely surrounded by barren rocks. Part of its ancient wall,
similar in construction to that of Ibrim, still remains. The habita-
tions are built partly of stone and partly of brick. On the most
elevated spot in the small town, eight or ten gray granite columns of
small dimensions lie on the ground, with a few capitals near them
of clumsy Greek architecture."—Burckhardt's '-'Travels in Nubia,"
1819, p. 38.
In a curious Arabic history of Nubia written in the tenth century
a. I), by one Abdallah Hen Ahmed Ben Solaim of Assuan, fragments
of which are preserved in the great work of Makrizy, quoted by
Burckhardt and E. Quatremere (.see foot note, p. 202), there occurs
the following remarkable passage: " In this province (Nubia) is
situated the city of Bedjrasch, capital of Maris, the fortress of Ibrim,
and another place called Adwa, which has a port, and is, they say,
the birthplace of the sage Lokman and of Dhoul Noun. There is to
be seen there a magnificent Birbeh" ("On y voit un lierba mag-
niflque.")—" Memoires Geographiques sur l'ligypte," etc. E Quatre-
mere, Paris, 1811; vol. ii, p. 8.
If Adwa and Adda are one and the same, it is possible that in this
passage we find preserved the only comparatively modern indication
of some great rock-cut temple, the entrance to which is now entirely
covered by the sand. It is clear that neither Abou Simbel (which is
on the opposite bank, and some three or four miles north of Adda)
nor Ferayg (which is also some way off, and quite a small place) can
here be intended. That another temple exists somewhere between
Abou Simbel and Wady llalfeh, and is yet to be discovered, seems
absolutely certain from the tenor of a large stela sculptured on the
and bubbling in a state of fusion, they must have been
suddenly checked by contact with some cooler medium.
Where the chain ends, about three or four miles above
Abou Simbel, the view widens, and a host of outlying
mountains are seen scattered over an immense plain reach-
ing for miles into the western desert. On the eastern
bank, Kalat Adda,* a huge, rambling Roman citadel,
going to solitary ruin on the last water-washed precipice
to the left—brings the opposite range to a like end, and
abuts on a similar plain, also scattered over with detached
peaks. The scene here is desolately magnificent. A huge
island covered with palms divides the Nile in two branches,
eacli of which looks as wide as the whole river. An un-
bounded distance opens away to the silvery horizon. On
the banks there is no vondure; neither is there any sign of
human toil. Nothing lives, nothing moves, save the wind
and the river.
Of all the strange peaks we have yet seen, the mountains
hereabout are the strangest. Alone or in groups, they start
*" A castle, resembling in size and form that of Ibrim; it bears
tlie name of Kalat Adda; it has been abandoned many years, being
entirely surrounded by barren rocks. Part of its ancient wall,
similar in construction to that of Ibrim, still remains. The habita-
tions are built partly of stone and partly of brick. On the most
elevated spot in the small town, eight or ten gray granite columns of
small dimensions lie on the ground, with a few capitals near them
of clumsy Greek architecture."—Burckhardt's '-'Travels in Nubia,"
1819, p. 38.
In a curious Arabic history of Nubia written in the tenth century
a. I), by one Abdallah Hen Ahmed Ben Solaim of Assuan, fragments
of which are preserved in the great work of Makrizy, quoted by
Burckhardt and E. Quatremere (.see foot note, p. 202), there occurs
the following remarkable passage: " In this province (Nubia) is
situated the city of Bedjrasch, capital of Maris, the fortress of Ibrim,
and another place called Adwa, which has a port, and is, they say,
the birthplace of the sage Lokman and of Dhoul Noun. There is to
be seen there a magnificent Birbeh" ("On y voit un lierba mag-
niflque.")—" Memoires Geographiques sur l'ligypte," etc. E Quatre-
mere, Paris, 1811; vol. ii, p. 8.
If Adwa and Adda are one and the same, it is possible that in this
passage we find preserved the only comparatively modern indication
of some great rock-cut temple, the entrance to which is now entirely
covered by the sand. It is clear that neither Abou Simbel (which is
on the opposite bank, and some three or four miles north of Adda)
nor Ferayg (which is also some way off, and quite a small place) can
here be intended. That another temple exists somewhere between
Abou Simbel and Wady llalfeh, and is yet to be discovered, seems
absolutely certain from the tenor of a large stela sculptured on the