Page images
PDF
EPUB

archaeologists, for to all but people with much leisure and money it practically cuts off the possibility of visiting Gazîrat al-Malik, Semnah, Kummah, 'Amâra, Sâi, Suwârda, Dôsha, Saddênga, Sulb and other sites where ancient remains exist.

Abû Ḥamed to Kharțûm by Railway.-Between Abû Ḥamed and Khartûm the traveller will pass the following stations:-Mashra ad-Dakesh, mile 248; Abû Dis, mile 267; Sherék, mile 291; Abû Sallim, mile 318; Al-Abidiyah, mile 343; and Berber is reached at mile 361. 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 Abû Ḥamed and Berber were connected by railway, the journey was made partly by river and partly by land, the reason being that between Nedeh, 68 miles from Abû 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. Nedeh is at the foot of the Abû Sinûn Cataract, better known as the Al-Bakara Rapid; the Fifth Cataract is called Shellâl al-Himâr, or the Cataract of the wild ass[es],' and the end of it is about 88 miles from Abû Ḥamed.

Berber, or Al-Makerif (latitude north 18° 1′), on the east bank of the river, marks the northern boundary of the country of the Barâbara, which extended as far south as Abyssinia, and included all the land on the east bank of the Nile between the Niles and the Red Sea. To this point on the Nile, from very ancient times, the products of the Sûdân, gum, ivory, ebony, gold, curious animals, slaves, etc., have been brought on their road to the coast of the Red Sea at Sawâkin, and it is probable that, for many reasons, the Sûdân boatmen were not in the habit of pro

ceeding further north. The country round about Berber is rich, and was, and still is, with care, capable of producing large crops of grain of various kinds, which are sufficient for the needs of a city of considerable size; the city, however, owed its importance, not to the grain-producing qualities of the neighbourhood, but to its position on the great caravan routes to and from the Sûdân, and the facilities which it offered for traffic and barter.

The distance from Berber to Sawâkin is about 245 miles. Two principal routes are laid down by the Intelligence Department of the Egyptian Army, but the ordinary caravan route is via Obak, 57 miles from Berber, Ariab, 111 miles from Berber, Kokreb, 145 miles from Berber, Dissibil, 200 miles from Berber, and Tambuk, 219 miles from Berber. The old town of Berber is described as having been much like a town of Lower Egypt, with dusty, unpaved streets, and houses built of unbaked bricks, and having flat roofs; in the early years of the XIXth century it possessed a few large mosques, and abundant palm and acacia trees. Under Turkish rule the town lost much of its prosperity, and the Dervishes ended what the Turkish officials began. The new town lies to the north of the old town, and contained many large wellbuilt houses, but most of them have been without tenants for years, and are now in ruins. Old and new Berber straggle along the river bank for a distance of six miles. Captain Count Gleichen estimated the population of Berber in 1897 at 12,000, of which 5,000 were males. Berber fell into the hands of the Mahdi's forces on May 26, 1884, but it was re-occupied by the Egyptian troops on September 6, 1897, and a week later General Sir A. Hunter entered the town with his army. At mile 384 from Halfa is Atbara Junction, whence travellers can proceed by the Nile-Red Sea Railway to Sawâkin and Port Sûdân.

The Nile-Red Sea Railway.-The history of Egypt and of the Egyptian Sûdân up to the period of the XXVIth dynasty shows that the greater part of the trading which was done between the two countries passed up and down the Nile and along the great desert routes in the Eastern and Western Deserts. There was no easy outlet for Sûdân trade on the west, and none worth mentioning on the east. There were, no doubt, ports at the places now called Sawâkin and Maṣawa' in the earliest times, and we are justified in assuming that there was a certain amount of sea-borne trade carried on between the inhabitants of the mainland and those of the Peninsula of Arabia. During the rule of the Saïte kings many of the trade routes between Egypt and various parts of the Egyptian Sûdân were revived and developed, and under the Ptolemies the traffic on them became brisk. Still, so far as we know no Ptolemy ever made any attempt to connect the Nile in the Northern Sûdân with the Red Sea by means of a desert route with wells at comparatively frequent intervals. Both Ptolemies and Romans followed the example of the earlier kings of Egypt, and forced all the trade of the Sûdân through Egypt. After the conquest of Egypt by the Arabs, A.D. 640, immigration of Arabs into the Sûdân took place on a fairly large scale, and the new-comers settled down on the Nile and in many a fertile spot in the Egyptian Sûdân. In process of time communication between the Nile and the Red Sea became frequent, and regular caravan routes were formed. The slave merchants, who were usually Arabs, exported by their means slaves from the country south of Kharṭúm, and imported stuffs, etc., which they bartered for slaves, gold, gum, etc. In 1517 we find that Selîm, the Turkish conqueror of Egypt, sent an expedition into the Sûdan vid Maṣawa', and we know that it invaded Ethiopia, and made its way westwards as far as Sennaar, where the Fûngs had established their capital. Further to the north there was a

caravan route between Berber and Sawâkin, and as the distance between these places was not, comparatively, great, being only from 230 to 250 miles, it was the most frequented road between the Nile and the Red Sea for some centuries. When the Sûdân passed into the hands of Muḥammad 'Ali, large numbers of his troops and their officers regularly went to and came from the Sûdân viâ Sawâkin, and when steamers appeared on the Red Sea, it was quicker and safer to travel to the Sûdân by this route than by any other. When the Suez Canal was opened in 1869 everyone quickly realized that sooner or later a railway would have to be made between Berber and Sawâkin. Meanwhile more than one Khedive of Egypt was anxious to connect Cairo with the Sûdân by railway, and it is said that the first to consider seriously the matter was Sa'îd Pâshâ in 1860. Eleven years later Mr. J. Fowler, the eminent engineer, proposed to build a line from Ḥalfa to Kharțûm, which should follow the east bank as far as 'Amâra, cross the river here, run along the west bank to Ambikôl, cross the Bayûda Desert to Matamma, cross the river again, and so on along the east bank to the capital. Another line was to run from Dabba to Al-Fâsher, the capital of Dâr Fûr, and a third line was to run from Sawâkin to Kharțûm. About 33 miles of railway were laid from Ḥalfa to Sarras, and then, after an enormous sum of money had been spent, the work was abandoned, partly, it is said, because General Gordon wished it. The authorities were then, as ever, determined to force the trade of the Sûdân through Egypt, and did not appear to see that so long as caravans had to traverse some 1,200 miles of desert, no extensive development of trade was possible. The Cataracts on the Nile between Khartûm and Upper Egypt render the passage of goods by river most difficult and expensive, and seeing that Egypt had no real control over the country south of Aswân, all river transport was

unsafe. In 1885, after the murder of Gordon and the fall of Khartûm, the British Government employed Messrs. Lucas and Aird to build a line from Sawâkin to Berber, but after a few miles had been laid the work was abandoned, and masses of material which were to have been used in its construction lay piled up at Sawâkin for years. Nothing further was done towards connecting the Nile with the Red Sea by a railway until 1903, in which year Lord Cromer visited the Sûdân for the third time. His Lordship then saw that, if the progress which had begun to manifest itself in that country was to be maintained, the Sûdân must be opened, and a sea-port found for it; and in a most important speech which he made to the officers assembled in the Khartum Hotel on January 27, 1903, he stated that he would endeavour to find the money, in the immediate future, to build a railway from Berber, which was often called the "key of the Sûdân," to the Red Sea. A year later he found the money, and in August, 1904, work on the main line at Sawâkin began under the direction of Colonel G. B. Macauley, C.M.G., R.E. Before the laying of the line began, the authorities decided to make the Nile terminus at Atbara instead of at Berber, because that point was much nearer Ad-Dâmar, the new capital of the Berber Province. They also determined to make the Red Sea terminus at Shekh Barghuth, a place between 35 and 40 miles to the north of Sawâkin, because a far better harbour can be made there, and it is more convenient for large ships than Sawâkin, where navigation at night is almost impossible. The name Shêkh Barghûth means "Shêkh Flea!" The place was called after a chief whose tomb stands on the northern point of the entrance to the anchorage, which has a depth of from 84 to 110 feet; it is now known as New Sawakin or Port Sûdân. At Sal Lôm, about half-way between Sawâkin and Port Sûdân, is a jnnction, and from it one branch line runs south to Sawâkin, and the other

« PreviousContinue »