DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4393#0350
332 A THOUSAND MILES UP Til E NILE.
Nile, instead of flowing for a distance of twelve hundred
miles unfed by any affluent, had here received the waters of
a tributary.*
To those who have a south breeze behind them the tem-
ples must now follow in quick succession. We, however,
achieved them by degrees and rejoiced when our helpless
dahabeeyah lay within rowing reach of anything -worth
seeing. Thus we pull down one day to Maharrakeh—in
itself a dull ruin but picturesquely desolate. Seen as one
comes up the bank on landing, two parallel rows of columns
stand boldly up against the sky, supporting a ruined entabla-
ture. In the foreground a few stunted D6m palms starve
in an arid soil. The barren desert closes in the distance.
We are beset hereby an insolent crowd of savage-looking
men and boys and impudent girls with long frizzy hair and
Nubian fringes, who pester us with beads and pebbles;
dance, shout, ship their legs and clap their hands in our
faces; and pelt us when we go away. One ragged warrior
brandishes an antique brass-mounted firelock full six feet
long in the barrel; and some of the others carry slender
spears.
The temple—a late Roman structure—would seem to
have been wrecked by an earthquake before it was com-
pleted. The masonry is all in the rough—pillars as they
came from the quarry; capitals blocked out, waiting for the
carver. These unfinished ruins—of which every stone
looks new, as if the work was still in progress—affect one's
imagination strangely. On a fallen wall south of the por-
ticof the idle man detected some remains of a Greek inscrip-
* " The Nile receives its last tributary, tlie Atbara, in Lat. 17° 42'
north, at the northern extremity of the peninsular tract anciently
called the Island of Meroe, and thence flows north (a single stream
without the least accession) through twelve degrees of latitude; or,
following its winding course, at least twelve hundred miles to the sea."
—"Blackie's Imperial (lazetteer," 1801. A careful survey of the
country would probably bring to light the dry beds of many more
such tributaries as the one described above.
f Of this wall, Burckhardt notices that "it has fallen down, appar-
ently from some sudden and violent concussion, as the stones are
lying on the ground in layers, as when placed in the wall; a proof
that they must have fallen all at once."—"Travels in Nubia:" Ed.
1819, p .100. But he has not observed the inscription which is in
large characters, and consists of three lines on three separate layers,
of stones. The idle man copied the original upon the spot, which
Nile, instead of flowing for a distance of twelve hundred
miles unfed by any affluent, had here received the waters of
a tributary.*
To those who have a south breeze behind them the tem-
ples must now follow in quick succession. We, however,
achieved them by degrees and rejoiced when our helpless
dahabeeyah lay within rowing reach of anything -worth
seeing. Thus we pull down one day to Maharrakeh—in
itself a dull ruin but picturesquely desolate. Seen as one
comes up the bank on landing, two parallel rows of columns
stand boldly up against the sky, supporting a ruined entabla-
ture. In the foreground a few stunted D6m palms starve
in an arid soil. The barren desert closes in the distance.
We are beset hereby an insolent crowd of savage-looking
men and boys and impudent girls with long frizzy hair and
Nubian fringes, who pester us with beads and pebbles;
dance, shout, ship their legs and clap their hands in our
faces; and pelt us when we go away. One ragged warrior
brandishes an antique brass-mounted firelock full six feet
long in the barrel; and some of the others carry slender
spears.
The temple—a late Roman structure—would seem to
have been wrecked by an earthquake before it was com-
pleted. The masonry is all in the rough—pillars as they
came from the quarry; capitals blocked out, waiting for the
carver. These unfinished ruins—of which every stone
looks new, as if the work was still in progress—affect one's
imagination strangely. On a fallen wall south of the por-
ticof the idle man detected some remains of a Greek inscrip-
* " The Nile receives its last tributary, tlie Atbara, in Lat. 17° 42'
north, at the northern extremity of the peninsular tract anciently
called the Island of Meroe, and thence flows north (a single stream
without the least accession) through twelve degrees of latitude; or,
following its winding course, at least twelve hundred miles to the sea."
—"Blackie's Imperial (lazetteer," 1801. A careful survey of the
country would probably bring to light the dry beds of many more
such tributaries as the one described above.
f Of this wall, Burckhardt notices that "it has fallen down, appar-
ently from some sudden and violent concussion, as the stones are
lying on the ground in layers, as when placed in the wall; a proof
that they must have fallen all at once."—"Travels in Nubia:" Ed.
1819, p .100. But he has not observed the inscription which is in
large characters, and consists of three lines on three separate layers,
of stones. The idle man copied the original upon the spot, which