Adventures in the Libyan desert and the oasis of Jupiter Ammon

II

NEW- YORK: 4 GEORGE P. PUTNAM, 155 BROADWAY.

LONDON : JOHN MURRAY, AI-BEMARLE-STREET. 1 849.

-b i\ o^

CONTENTS,

Chapter I

Agreeable Associations of the name Oasis — Alexander and the Oracle — Desire to visit Siwah — Difficulties of the Journey — Only one Englishman had preceded me ; not a Dozen Europeans altogether — Preliminary Trip to the Arab's Tower — My Companions — Utility of the Knowledge of Arabic — Our Preparations — Donkeys — Camels — Attendants — Start for what the Iskenderanehs call the '' Desert of Dogs " — Last View of Alexandria — Coast — Valley — Reach Abusir — Giovanni Sciarabati — Discussions with the Bedawins — Life of Y6nus Abu Shayen— Ruins at Abusir — The Arab's Tower — Temple of Augustus — Traces of an ancient City — Illustration of Strabo — Former Cultivation of the Libyan Desert — Our Tent — Night Scene — Scorpions — Hyaena — " Flying Serpents" Page 9

CHAPTER n.

Departure from Abusir— High Spirits of the Party — Picture of our One- Eyed Sheikh — We reach a Tent on the Sea-shore — Value of Time in the Desert — The Character of the Sheikh begins to develope itself— Domestic Arrangements of a Bedawin Tent — Women and Children — Mess of Dates and Butter — The Well of Neffe — Filling Water-skins — Yunus's young Wife begs us to bring him back in safety — Romantic Departure of the Kafila at Night — Pace of the Camel — And of the Donkey — Halt, and sleep in the open Air — Morning View of the Desert — Accession to our Party — Yunus gives a parting Benediction to his Son — Second Night March — Ruins of a Fortilied Camp — A Saracenic Castle — Bivouac— Well of Shemaim^h — Bad Water . . . . 21

IV CONTENTS.

Chapter III

Cape Glaucum of Ptolemy — Saleh makes his Appearance — Disturbed State of the Country — Forays of the Western Arabs — Murder of two of the Waled Ali — Enfeebled Authority of the Pasha — Frightful Climate of Siwah — Deadly Fevers reported — Caravan from Derna going " to buy Corn in Egypt" — A Cure for a Headache — Ruins of an Ancient City — Bivouac near the Well of Shegick — Marabut — Desert Water — A solitary Butterfly — Storehouse protected by the Ghost of a Saint — Curious Collection of Implements — Port of Leucaspis — Imperfect Knowledge of the Libyan Coast — Decay of the Province of Marmarica — Meet an Alarmist — Frightful State of the Country — Terror of our Followers— Ancient Vineyards and Gardens — Fertility of the Coast Valleys in former Times — Agriculture of the Bedawins — Artificial Creation of Alexandria — Wells and Cisterns in the Desert — Moonlight Deceptions — Increased Alarm of our Followers — Account of one of our " Libyan Nights" .... .... 32

Chapter IV

Disobedience of Ytinus — Sultry Ride to El-Emriim — Sufferings from Want of Water — The Camels are indulged in a Drink — Tricks and Deceits of our Guides — Definition of the Word "near" and the " Desert Hour " — Arabs lack the Ideas of Time, Space, and Truth — Some of our Beans confided to a man " who drank at the Well of El-Emrum " — Well and Castle of Gemaima — Some travelling Bedawins join our Party — True position of Gemaima Point — Observations on the Foot of the Camel — Stony Ground — Meet a Kafila bivouacked in a Thicket — The Reubens and the Benjamins of our Days — The Bedawin Camel — Vineyards of Antiphrse — Ancient Cistern— Halt at El-Gerab — Another Kafila — Bedawin Importunities — Temperature — Rough Road — The Lesser Catabathmus — Cave — Difficult Ascent — Vision of Wells and Water-Melons — Surprise an Encampment— Wreckers — Danger of being plundered ... 46

Chapter V

Long Halt — Necessity of a new Guide — Our Bedawins turn Shoemakers ■ and Cobblers — Stuffing Pack-saddles — Testing Water-skins — Details on the Food ofjhe Bedawins — Character of the Bedawins — Observations on their Manners — On the Camel — State of Alarm in which I found the Waled Ali — Forays from the West — Commerce in the Desert — Costume and physical Organization of the Bedawins — Horses — Idleness — Anecdotes — The Settlement of Mudar — View of the Coast from Alexandria to Mudar, its Wells, Productions, &c. — Kassaba — The ancient Paraetonium — Expedition of Alexander ... 61

Chapter VI

We leave the Coast, and strike into the Heart of the Libyan Desert — Bedawin mode of saying Prayers on a Journey — Ascent of a tremendous Mountain at Night — Reach a lofty Table-land — Morning — Mirage Illusions — Troops of Gazelles — The glittering Koom of Sheneneh — The Well of Seldm — Vast ancient Cistern — Visited by Bedawin Damsels — A tame Gazelle — Continue our Journey — Pursued by a Party of Robbers — Dangers of a hostile Collision — They are induced to abstain from an Attack, finding us prepared — They follow us — We march the greater part of the Night, and succeed in throwing them off our Track — Cross the Empty Valley and the Wady Ed-Delma — Reach the Well of Haldeh — Discover the Ruins of a Fortress — The Sheikh of the Well — Reports of the Manser, or Band of Fifty mounted Robbers . 78

Chapter VII

March through an unwatered Wilderness in the track of Alexander the Great — The Devil's Water — Travelling by the Light of a Lantern — Lose our Way — Dangerous Predicament — Halt without Finding the Path — Search for it in the Morning — " The two Crows" — At length succeed in gaining the Track — Wayside Pillars — " The Camel's Mouth — Snakes- Gray Lady-Birds — Butterflies — Highest Point of the Range of Hills—

VI CONTENTS.

The Valley of Diamonds— Talc— Vast Beds of Oyster Shells— Illustration of Strabo — The " Pass of the Crow" — Names of Places in the Desert— Brilliancy of the Stars — Magnificent Moonlight Scene — Romantic Gorge — Descent to the Plain 95

Chapter VIII

Rationale of Bivouacking — The Hill of the Cannons — A Tree in the Desert— Approach of a Caravan — Alarm — Interview^ w^ith Western Bedawins — Danger of Spoliation — The Date — Caravans — The Gates of the Milky Mountains — Architectural Appearance — Tremendous Heat — Arduous Morning's Work — Approach the Happy Valley — The " Islands of the Blessed" .......... 109

Chapter IX

First Interview with the Natives — Their Physical Conformation — Costume — No Smokers — Sheikh Abd-el-Sayid — Visit to the Village of Garah — Decomposition of the Rock — Its defensible Character — Curious Mode of Building — Unwholesomeness — We appear in the Character of Healers of the Sick — Gratitude of the People — Comfortable Evening — Windy Night — Second Visit to the Village — Burying Place — Sheikh's Tomb — Ain Mochaluf — Tradition of Christian Times — Superstition — Charms — Incantations — Industry of the Oasis — Mat and Basket Making — Cultivation of the Palm Tree — Remains of an Ancient Fountain — " Alfn Faris" — Other Ruins — Character of the People of Garah — The Wandering Blacksmith — Weapons — Wolves — Tribute to the Pasha — Disproportion between the Sexes — Women brought from Egypt — Number of Palm Trees— Trade, &e. ....... J21

Chapter X

Affectionate Farewell of the People of Garah — A Siwahi joins our Party — Ascent from the Valley — Beautiful Sunset — Dismal Gorges — Lofty Table-land — Temperature 102° in the Shade — Nugb-el-Mejebbery — Legend of Brigand Bedawins — The Gates of the Oasis — A Caravan of

CONTENTS. VU

Oasians — Interview — Enter the Valley — Beautiful View — Our first Reception — Reach a Spring — Another Caravan — Halt near a Hamlet — Presents sent to us — We find we are not welcome — Their Ethnological Ideas .......... 140

CHAPTER XL

Push on to the Capital, Siwah-el-Kebir — Pass the Mountain of the Dead — - Description of the City of Salt — The Siwah Rabble collects — How we were stared at— Ghomy Bigotry of the People — Their Appearance and Costume — An Egyptian Trader — Visit to the Catacombs in the Mountain of the Dead — View from its Summit — Scenery of the Oasis — Available Land of the Oasis — The Grand Divan of Siwah — Deliberations concerning us — We are refused admission to the Inner Town, on account of its being the Common Harim — General Ill-treatment — A polite Sheikh . . 152

CHAPTER Xn.

Visit to the Temple of Jupiter Ammon — Description of the Sanctuary — Hieroglyphics — Images, &c. — Reflections — The Fountain of the Sun — The Palace of the Ancient Kings — Subterranean Passages — See some Women — Their Costume — Ride to the Catacombs of Sid Hamet, and climb the Five-peaked Mountain of Edrar Abou Bryk — The Tribe of " Ropemakers" — Large Sepulchral Chambers — Civil Arab — Return to the Encampment — Popular Feeling against us — A Burial at Night — Ride across the Salt Lakes to the White Mountain and the City of the Greeks — Ruins of Temples — Catacombs, &c. — Theological Conversation— The Two Columns — Bird's-eye View of the Oasis — Raisins, &c. — Return — Further Explorations — The Date Market — Varieties of Dates 168

CHAPTER XIIL Sketch of the History of Ammonium 189

Vm CONTENTS.

CHAPTER XIV.

Observations on the Language, Manners, Appearances, Origin, &c., of the People of Siwah — The Productions of the Place, its Cominerce, &c 209

CHAPTER XV.

The bigoted Party make an unprovoked Attack on us at Night and fire into our Tent — We obtain an Apology — Preparations for our Return — Arrival at Garah . . ... . . 220

CHAPTER XVI.

Forced March lo Alexandria — Sufferings from Hunger and Thirst — Various Incidents — Our Kafila once more in Danger of being robbed — Safe Arrival at Abusir 233

ADVENTURES

LIBYAN DESERT

Chapter I

Agreeable Associations of the name Oasis — Alexander and the Oracle — Desire to visit Siwah — Difficulties of the Journey — Only one Englishman had preceded me ; not a Dozen Europeans altogether — Preliminary Trip to the Arab's Tower — My Companions — Utility of the Knowledge of Arabic — Our Preparations — Donkeys — Camels — Attendants — Start for what the Iskenderanehs call the " Desert of Dogs " — Last View of Alexandria — Coast — Valley — Reach Abusir — Giovanni Sciarabati — Discussions with the Bedawins— Life of Yunus Abu Shayen — Ruins at Abusir — The Arab's Tower — Temple of Augustus — Traces of an ancient City — Illustration of Strabo — Former Cultivation of the Libyan Desert — Our Tent — Night Scene — Scorpions — Hyaena — " Flying Serpents."

We have all, no doubt, at some period of life suffered our

minds to dwell with pleasure on the idea of an oasis — an island

of verdure amidst a sea of sand. There is a sentiment in our

nature which renders such an idea peculiarly agreeable in 1* itself; and I am sure it can never be called up except in company with numberless delightful associations. In the case of the Oasis of Jupiter Ammon, poetry and history have combined to shed their magic influence around it. Some of our very earliest notions of geography are derived at school from the classic descriptions of the Libyan Desert, clipping round with its tawny expanse the green spot of earth to which the world's conqueror, Alexander, journeyed in order to hear from a mysterious oracle the fable of his divine origin.

1 had long cherished the desire to visit the Oasis of Siwah — now proved incontestably to have been that of Ammon — but was deterred by the difficulty of the undertaking, the imperfect accounts that could be obtained of the nature of the tract to be traversed, and the want of suitable companions. Not a dozen Europeans had ever before, to my knowledge, penetrated so far in that direction into the Libyan Desert, and only one Englishman. It appeared, therefore, at first a very serious affair. However, during a trip made by myself and a few friends to the Arab's Tower in the spring of 1847, we fell into conversation with some Bedawins on the subject, and, talking it over in the course of the summer, began gradually to look upon the excursion as very practicable. When autumn came, accordingly, it required merely the suggestion that if we delayed any longer the rains might interpose, and render the coast portion of the road impassable, to make us suddenly resolve on starting. My colleagues in this expedition were three — Messrs. H. Lamport, T. Forty, and N. Longshaw — all residents in Egypt and acquainted with the Arabic language. In making ou.^' preparations we went on the principle of taking with us as few encumbrances as possible :-^one tent, a niat, the means of pre-

START FOR THE DESERT. 11

paring tea and coffee, with a quantity of charcoal, a carpet-bag or portmanteau apiece containing changes of linen and various articles of utility, a number of tins of preserved meat, a sack of biscuit, a couple of cheeses, some brandy, some porter, a plentiful supply of tobacco and cigars — all these things and others were admitted, but only after due deliberation. The great difficulty was the water and the food for our donkeys, upon which animals, like true Egyptians, we determined to cross the Desert. To camels none of us was accustomed ; and without previous practice it is not pleasant to mount them during a journey of seven or eight hundred miles. We were of course to be accompanied by some of these valuable creatures, which generally find food by the wayside, and never require to be refreshed from the scanty reservoirs they carry on their backs. The only attendants taken were two Arab lads, whose business it was to see after the donkeys and make themselves useful in various ways ; but having no wish to travel as satraps, and knowing the importance of every mouth less in waterless tracts, we cheerfully anticipated a good deal of work ourselves. It was, moreover, a great comfort to us that we were not compelled to look at the people we encountered through the stupid medium of a dragoman.

We started from Alexandria early on the morning of the 1.5th of September, 1847, and presented, I have no doubt, a pretty motley appearance. Each had taken his own precautions against the burning sun of the Desert ; but, some respect for public opinion still remaining, we did not come ou1»in all our comfortable originality until further advanced on the journey. Besides the animals we bestrode, there were six donkeys, two mules, and a pony, to carry our tent, our provisions, and the provender for our cattle, (which last item alone weighed, when complete, nearly half a ton,) as far as Abusir. A crowd of men and boys likewise accompanied us to that place — to most of them a perfect terra iiicognita ; — all looking, no doubt, with compassionate contempt on their fellows, who had undertaken to follow us into the gloomy depths of that savage region which they sometimes, for want of a better name, call the Desert of Dogs !

I shall not dwell on that day's ride. We soon passed the Necropolis, the new fortifications, the quarries of El Delcale ; and having turned to take a last view of the tapering minarets and whitewashed palaces of Alexandria, with its broad port crowded with tall-masted ships, or dotted here and there by white lateen sails just swelling beneath a breeze that crisped the surface of the sparkling waters, left Marabut island on our right, and entered a long narrow valley running parallel with the sea. It is formed by a low ridge of white rock and sand rising from the beach, and by a somewhat loftier line of hills that acts as a sort of dike to Lake Mareotis. Here the Desert may be said to begin, although a i^y^ patches of vegetation, dependent on wells, do afterwards occur. We stopped at noon to lunch, with the thermometer at 106° in the sun ; and a little before sunset pitched our tent at Abusir, known to Mediterranean mariners as the Arab's Tower.

We had nov^ reached the real starting-point of the expedition. The most important arrangements — namely, those with reference to the guides and camels — still remained. Signer Giovanni Sciarabati, Nazir or superintendent of the quarantine station at this place, was supposed to be the fittest person to perform the duty of selection from the various candidates that

THE GUIDES. 13

might present themselves ; and he had kindly offered to point out which among his neighbors was the least of a rogue and had cut fewest throats. From the correspondence we had had with him, indeed, we had been induced to expect to find every thing ready against our arrival, so that we should be able to start next day. Matters, however, are not so managed in the East. The worthy Nazlr had perhaps'done his best, but that was next to nothing.

It were needless to enter into all the details of our negotiations. Suffice it to say, that after the customary display of cunning and duplicity — after quarrelling about the water-skins, about the food of the camels, about the price we were to pay — and after fifty alarming speeches about the enormous distance of the place we were going to, about the dangers of the journey, the disturbed state of the road, and the deadly fevers of Siwah — the two Bedawins, belonging to the tribe of the Waled Ali or Children of Ali, who had originally undertaken to conduct us, and whose names we had had included in the firman, or passport, procured from Zeki Effendi, agreed to stick to their original bargain and start with us on the morning of the eighteenth.

Sheikh Yunus Abu Shayen and his companion Saleh deserve to be delineated by a more skilful pen than mine. I do not pretend to do justice to their characters. The reader must appreciate them himself as the narrative proceeds. Yunus had been a man of consequence in his tribe. His worldly possessions included forty camels, three hundred sheep, and I know not how many goats ; he had stores of sesame and other grain ; and sixty thousand piasters was the price of the ornaments of his women. But there had been a dark spot in the old Sheikh's life. Arnaout soldiers had taken up their quarters at his encampment. There had been a quarrel and a fight, or a murder. Three lives were lost in or near his tent. What part he himself took does not exactly appear. He says he M^as absent in Alexandria, that another man was guilty. The Pasha, however, formed a different opinion. Most of his property was seized ; and he became a fugitive, hiding amidst rocks and caves. For eighteen months — such is his boast — he evaded the vigilance of " Mehemmed Basha's" myrmidons; until in fact another man was caught and hanged for the offence. Then he began to appear again in the world, to collect the scattered remnants of his fortune. But although the hunt after him had ceased, he never again ventured to enter Alexandria ; and always lived in a mysterious sort of way in the neighborhood of Abusir, ready at the first alarm to decamp or creep into some of the caves or catacombs which there abound.

Such was the sort of person under whose guidance we were to perform our journey ; and his good conduct to us was expected by himself and friends to prove a sort of stepping-stone on his return to wealth and power. For Yunus was ambitious, and even in the midst of his fallen fortunes looked forward to becoming at some future day the chief of one section at least of his tribe. Saleh was his cousin, a person of much inferior pretensions and quite subordinate in every respect to his great relative. We were to hire two camels from one and three from the other.

During the time we were waiting the pleasure of these gentlemen I took occasion again to examine the ruins of Abusir, upon which 1 do not think that sufficient attention has been bestowed by travellers. Their vast size and imposing appear-

RUINS OF ABUSIR. 15

ance have not succeeded in drawing tourists out of the common track, although they are the only remarkable ancient remains in Egypt north of the Pyramids ; and Mr. Browne — the discoverer in modern times of the Oasis of Siwah — though he must have passed them on his road, does not even deign to mention their existence. Situated, however, on the crest of a steep ridge of hills, they have always been considered as important landmarks for vessels approaching Alexandria from the west.

As soon as you have proceeded half way along the valley that leads from El Delcale to Abusir, these majestic ruins come in sight ; and remain in view, often raised high in the air and thrown into fantastic forms by the mirage, durino- the whole remainder of the journey. At first there appears to be only one pile of buildings ; but the Arab's Tower, properly so called, soon becomes distinguishable from the great quadrangular structure that rises about a quarter of a mile to the west. The tower itself is of a singular form, square at the base, then octangular, then round. It would seem that formerl}'- the upper portion was considerably loftier than at present, and in shape like a column, but it is now broken and ruined. The base and first division would still be perfect had they not been purposely broken to discover some hidden cavity or means of ascending to the summit, in which the searchers failed. After attentive examination, however, on the occasion of our first visit, Lamport distinctly traced the remains of a staircase, which had formerly existed on the northern face. I am disposed to think that this construction was originally intended for the purpose it now serves, namely, as a landmark. Probably also it had a light. Underneath is a chamber in the rock, with an entrance from the south ; which, although I am told it was opened in modern times, I believe to be of the same period with the catacombs which are to be found on all sides.

The path from this place to the Temple of Augustus — for such is supposed to have been the nature of the other building — is along the edge of extensive quarries. The temple has a semi-Egyptian character. It is a hundred paces square, and consists at present simply of a ruined inclosure of solid masonry with two side-entrances, and a pylon. The latter, which is turned due east and in pretty tolerable preservation, still rises to the height of more than forty feet, and contains numerous small chambers and staircases leading to the summit, whence a splendid view of the sea to the north and a series of desert valleys to the south may be beheld. Inland to the westward is a small half-dried lake, and to the eastward the great salt marsh of Mareotis stretches in the direction of Alexandria.

Within the temple are two openings leading to a cistern ; and this, as well as several other circumstances, leads me to suppose that it was sometimes used as a citadel. There were, evidently, at one period, buildings of more than one story supported against the internal face of the wall, as lines of square holes, cut to support rafters, testify. We noticed that the western or back wall was composed in part of pieces of columns sawn into proper lengths, with the interstices filled up by cement. A squared stone facing, however, both outside and in, had formerly concealed these incongruous materials, which doubtless belonged to some building of a much more ancient date. It is to be observed that no traces of inscriptions or sculpture now appear either in the temple or in the neighborhood, a fact partly to be accounted for by the softness of the greater portion of the stone, the face of which is often com-

TRACES OF AN ANCIENT CITY. 17

pletely destroyed. Some blocks had been much less solid than others, having actually been eaten out of the wall by the atmosphere, leaving apertures like windows. I should add that M. de Laurin, Austrian Consul-General at Alexandria, possesses a small statue of Victory and a head of Augustus in marble, found by some excavators here.

The ancient city of Taposiris, or, as some call it, Plinthine,* occupied the whole width of the valley south of the temple. It was evidently at one time a very extensive place. Traces of large buildings of solid stone- work, among which are probably the foundations of the baths attributed by Procopius to Justinian, walls, towers, an odeion, and the lock of a canal with a double dike, by which water from the Nile was distributed through the gardens, are to be made out very clearly, although a mere cursory glance from the brow of the hill reveals nothing but a patch of desert covered with mounds and sand. About an hour's walk from the temple, beyond the limits of the city, is a ridge of hills containing some large catacombs, and a very extensive and deep.excavation in which the workmen of old had commenced rooms and galleries of tolerably regular architecture. I am inclined to think this to be the precipitous place mentioned by Strabo as being near Taposiris, and resorted to at all seasons of the year by pleasure-parties of every description. It is sufficiently solitary and deserted now. Vast masses of brushwood choke up what may have once been a garden ; human visitants are no doubt rare ; and when I began to descend the rugged path that leads to the bottom, there

* Plinthine must have been close by, on the coast. Taposiris is evidently the origin of the name of Abusir ; and is expressly mentioned as not being immediately on the borders of the sea.

was a tremendous rush of wings, and a huge flight of doves burst up on all sides as from the enchanted well in " Don Quixotte." I was soon left alone to pursue my examination of this curious chasm, unless I may count as companions the innumerable lizards that perpetually glanced athwart the vast rocks that encircle it, or rustled amidst the grass and weeds.

When I was more advanced in the Desert, as the series of ruined towns we there found presented itself, many reflections occurred to me on the nature of the cultivation by which in old times they must have been supported, at least in part. The traces of water- works presented near Abusir, with what we find in old writers concerning canals that branched off down these valleys into the very heart of the Libyan Desert, may in part serve as an explanation. It will be seen, however, that I came to the conclusion that the old cultivation was supported in a great measure by water derived from springs, wells, and cisterns, dried up and abandoned during the decay of civilization consequent on the Saracen conquest, or more probably on the decline of the original Muslim enthusiasm.

Our tent was pitched on the brow of the hill just beneath the northern gate of the temple, on a small clear space, surrounded by fragments of the wall, hurled down by the unsparing hand of time. The narrow valley that stretches parallel to the coast for about fifty miles from Alexandria, and a ridge of dazzlingly white hills composed of rock and sand, lay between us and the sea. The scene, though simple in elements, was sufficiently beautiful ; and we could never weary of beholding at evening the unclouded sun stooping gently to the horizon, and then assuming all sorts of fantastic shapes — now a fire balloon, now a dome of flame — ere it descended and

SCORPIONS HY^NA FLYING SERPENTS. 19

left US to enjoy the sweet, though brief, twilight and the gentle rays of the moon. At these times it was that the great ruin^ near which we were encamped, assumed its most imposing aspect, and when the long jagged line of is ruined wall crowning the steep acclivity awakened sensations almost approaching to the sublime. I am sorry to say, however, that these are not the things which have dwelt most strongly on my memory. The social evenings, mingled with serious conversation on the conduct of our coming excursion, v/hich we there enjoyed, will always be remembered, by me at least, with chiefest pleasure.

During a former visit one of our attendants had been stung in the little finger by a scorpion : he bound the offended part round with twine, and next day was well. On the present occasion a similar accident happened, and a new kind of cure was equally effectual. The wound was in one of the toes ; and a few gashes with a penknife beneath were thought to let out the venom. At any rate, in both cases, the inconvenience suffered was but temporary. These scorpions are found wherever there are a great number of stones that have long been undisturbed. It is very rarely that their bite proves mortal in Egypt, though I have heard that it sometimes does so.