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is famous as the Nubian monarch who invaded and conquered all Egypt. His temple, according to the figures of Mr. Hoskins, measured 500 feet in length and 135 feet in width. The first court, which contained 26 columns about 6 feet in diameter, measured 150 feet by 135 feet; the

second court, which contained 46 columns about 5 feet in diameter, measured 125 feet by 102 feet; the hypostyle hall, which contained ΙΟ columns about 4 feet in diameter, measured 51 feet by 56 feet; the chamber leading to the sanctuary measured 40 feet by 28 feet; and the sanctuary, which contained three shrines, probably for Amen-Rā, Mut, and Khonsu, 37 feet by 21 feet. The pylon which divided the two courts was decorated with battle scenes, processions, and the like. Close in under the hill are the remains of a temple which seems to have been built and added to by later Nubian kings, for the reliefs which were on its walls belong to the class which is found in the island of of Meroë, further south. An idea of the style of the reliefs in this temple will be gained from the following illustration, which is taken from Cailliaud's Voyage. Here we see the Nubian king, who calls himself "the pacifier of the two lands, king of the South and North, Se-kheper-ren-Ra, the son of the sun, the lord of diadems, Senka-Amen-seken,

[graphic]

The Temple of Piankhi at Gebel Barkal. (Drawn from Lepsius.)

giver of life, like the sun." The prenomen of this king, means, "Ra createth

Se-kheper-ren-Rã, (o-)

name" (or renown), and his nomen shows that he was a devotee of the god Amen-Ra. He is here depicted in the act of clubbing the representatives of a number of vanquished peoples in the presence of the god Amen, who is offering him a short sword. An interesting collection of stelæ containing inscriptions of Piankhi and Ḥeru-sa-tef,

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Senka-Amen-seken, king of Nubia, clubbing his foes.
(Drawn from Cailliaud.)

and the texts of the histories of the Dream, and the Enthronement, and the Excommunication, drawn up for certain Nubian kings, was found some years ago among the ruins of the great temple of Piankhi at Gebel Barkal; all these are now in the Gizeh Museum. The condition of the ruins at Gebel Barkal renders it extremely difficult to gain any exact idea of the appearance of the temples as a whole, but they can never have impressed the beholder with the sense of massiveness and dignity which seems to be the peculiar attribute of the great temples of Egypt.

The temple remains at Gebel Barkal are naturally not to be eompared with those of Soleb, but the site is one of great historic interest, for there is little reason to doubt that the Egyptian occupation of the country is certainly as old as the time of the kings of the XIIth dynasty.

At Nûri, or Nurri, 7 miles from Marawi, on the west bank of the Nile, are the remains of 35 pyramids, which probably formed the tombs of the kings and royal person

The Pyramids of Nûri at the foot of the
Fourth Cataract.

ages of Napata. These pyramids are better and more solidly built than any others which the writer has seen in the Sûdân, and in very few cases do their cores consist of anything besides well-hewn sandstone blocks laid in regular courses. Each pyramid had orginally a chapel in front of its face on the south-east side, but every building of the kind has long since disappeared, and there is not an inscription or bas-relief left by which any of them may be dated. The style of building suggests the Middle Empire,

but only excavations of an extensive character can decide this question. The remains of two temples are to be found there, and the ruins of buildings which are found all the way between Sanam Abu-Dôm and Nûrî prove that in the flourishing times of the kingdom of Nubia a great city must have extended nearly the whole way between these places. The whole district could, under an honest government, become very flourishing, but it will need many years to recover from the misery and desolation caused in the first place by the incapacity, cruelty, and dishonesty of the officials who represented the Turkish Government, and secondly by the Mahdi and the Khalifa.

* At Bělǎl, or Bellal, 8 miles from Marawî, is the foot of the Fourth Cataract, which extends to Abu Ḥamed, a distance of 120 miles. A few miles beyond Bělǎl, on the west bank, are the remains of a Coptic building, part monastery and part fortress, which contained a church, and opposite Hamdab Island, about 6 miles further on, are the ruins of a pyramid. The journey from Bělǎl to Abu Ḥamed is difficult, but the following places in the Cataract will always possess interest for the British. Birti, 51 miles from Marawî, the headquarters of the River Column in the Nile Expedition of 1884; Kirbekan, 59 miles from Marawî, where the British defeated the Dervishes, February 10, 1885, and General Earle was killed by a Dervish who "sniped" him from a hut; Salamat, 90 miles from Marawi, which was occupied by the British on February 17; and Hebbeh, 101 miles from Marawî. On the 18th of September, 1884, the steamer "Abbas," with Colonel Stewart on board, was run aground on the west side of the Island of Hebbeh, and every one of the 44 men on board, except four, were treacherously murdered by the arrangement of Sulêman Wad Gamr, the shêkh of the Munassir tribe. The British troops, on February 17, 1885, destroyed the house and palm-trees and water-wheels

of this shêkh, and three days later the property of Fakri Wad Atman, in whose house at Hebbeh Colonel Stewart had been murdered, was also destroyed. The ill-fated steamer was seen tightly fixed on a rock about 200 yards from the river, with her bottom about 20 feet above lowwater level; she was pitted with bullet marks and rent by fragments of shell.

At Abu Ḥamed, 560 miles from Wâdî Ḥalfah by river and about 232 by rail, is the head of the Fourth Cataract. On August 7, 1897, the village was captured by General Sir A. Hunter, and about 1,200 men of the Dervish garrison there were slain; at this battle Major Sidney and Lieut. FitzClarence were killed. Abu Ḥamed derives its name from a local shêkh who is buried here, and whose memory is greatly venerated in the neighbourhood, and it owes its importance entirely to the fact that the caravans, which crossed the Nubian desert, started from it. It is said that any article left at the tomb of the shêkh by a traveller on his departure, will be found there uninjured on his return! On the railway between Abu Hamed and Berber the traveller will pass the following stations:-Mushra adDakêkh, 14 miles from Abu Ḥamed; Abu Dês, 33 miles. from Abu Ḥamed; Sherêkh, 60 miles from Abu Ḥamed; Abu Sellem, 74 miles from Abu Ḥamed; Al-Obêda, 118 miles from Abu Ḥamed; and Berber is reached at mile 135. For the first 70 miles the line runs close to the Nile, it then turns sharply into the desert, in which it runs for 20 miles, when it returns to the Nile bank, along which it runs into Berber. Before Abu Ḥamed and Berber were connected by railway, the journey was made partly by river and partly by land, the reason being that between Nadi, 168 miles from Abu Ḥamed, and Bashtanab, the navigation was impeded for 4 miles by rocks, and by the Fifth Cataract, which extended from Umm Hashîya to Ganênetta, a distance of about 14 miles. Nadi is at the foot of

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