Wilkinson, John Gardner: Topographie of Thebes, and general view of Egypt: being a short account of the principal objects worthy of notice in the valley of the Nile, to the second cataracte and Wadi Samneh, with the Fyoom, Oases and eastern desert, from Sooez to Bertenice (London, 1835)

360 WAH K DAKHLEH. fChap. VI.

The condition and population of tins Oasis are
very superior to those of the other two, and, in spite
of the authority of Yaqoot* (Jacutus), who says that
" the wah which is opposite the Fyoom is better
inhabited than the second," or Wah e' Dakhleh, it
is evident that this last was always more populous,
and always contained a greater number of villages.
Indeed in the Oasis Parva there are only those of
Zubbo, Mareeh or Mendeesheh, Qasr, and Bowitti;
whereas Dakhleh contains eleven, and a population
of about six thousand male inhabitants.

Dakhleh also abounds in fruits, particularly olives
and apricots; but dates, as in all the Oases, are
the principal revenue of the district. At El Qasrf
is a warm spring, whose copious stream supplies
several baths attached to the mosk, having a tem-
perature of about 102° Fah*. The people are hos-
pitable, and differ consequently from those of the
Oasis Parva; nor are they so ignorant and bigoted
as the latter, or as those of Farafreh.

Three days to the eastward is the Great Oasis,^ or
Wah el Khargeh. It has also the name of Menamoon,
or perhaps Ma-n -amoun, which signifies the abode
of Amun. On the road is a small temple, and a well
of water called Ain Amoor, surrounded by a large

* I believe he lived under the last of the caliphs of Bagdad.

t This and Qalamoon are the chief towns of the Wah e' Dakhleh.

\ It is obvious that Oasis or Auasis, without the Greek termi-"
nation sis, is the same as Wah In Coptic it is written ouah, or
ouahe.