Chapter I: Preface

The inhabited depressions of the Libyan Desert, called by Herodotus the ‘Islands of the Blest,’ are interesting alike to the archæologist, to the geographer and geologist, and to the tourist who wishes to wander from the well-beaten tracks, and perhaps none more so than the Oasis of Kharga, lying 130 miles west of Luxor—the site of ancient Thebes—and recently connected by railway with the Nile Valley.

Descended from the ancient Libyans, the inhabitants of the Egyptian oases (numbering over 30,000 souls) are quite distinct from the Fellahin and Bedawin of the Nile Valley. Isolated by arid and desolate wastes, these communities occupy quaint walled-in towns and villages, tucked away among groves of palms, interspersed with smiling gardens and fields of corn. Rain is almost unknown, and rivers are non-existent, the trees and crops being irrigated by bubbling wells, deriving their waters from deep-seated sources.

Kharga—the subject of the present memoir—formed part of the Great Oasis of ancient days, and was governed in turn by the Pharaohs, the Persian Monarchs, and the Roman Emperors. Through it the ill-fated army of Cambyses is recorded to have marched, and in it is to be seen the most important Persian monument in Egypt, the temple of Hibis. But most interesting of all is the wonderfully preserved Early Christian necropolis, dating from the time of Bishop Nestorius, who was banished to Kharga in A.D. 434. Juvenal, Athanasius, and other celebrities likewise appear to have made unwilling acquaintance with this portion of the Roman Empire.

The character of the people at the present day—a curious mixture of stupidity, apathy, and shrewdness—seems to reflect in great measure their past history, as well as the peculiar conditions under which they still live. A history of the inhabitants since the withdrawal of the Roman garrisons would resolve itself into an account of an endless combat with Nature, which, with sand and wind as its chief agents, has never abated its efforts to recover those tracts which the Ancients, by the exercise of much skill and industry, wrested from the desert.

As a member of the Geological Survey of Egypt from 1896 to 1905, I spent nearly nine years in survey and exploration work in the Egyptian deserts, and for the past three years I have been in charge of extensive boring and land-reclamation operations in the particular oasis with which this book deals, so that I have had exceptional opportunities of studying at first hand a region of peculiar interest. Among other questions dealt with are the vast systems of subterranean aqueducts constructed by the Romans; the extensive lakes which occupied the floor of the oasis-depression well into historic times; the rate and mode of movement of desert sand-dunes; the formation and gradual elevation of the cultivated terraces by the constant accumulation of wind-borne material; and the deep-seated water-supplies, a subject which, in view of recent discussions as to the origin of the artesian waters of arid regions, is of more than local interest.

Some portions of the book, more especially those dealing with geology and water-supply, have already been published in somewhat different form in the Geological Magazine, and I am indebted to Dr. Henry Woodward, F.R.S., for permission to reproduce them, as well as the plate showing Bore No. 39 and the geological section across the oasis.

The illustrations are reproduced from photographs taken by me at different times during the last few years. The maps, showing the relative positions of the oasis and the Nile Valley, the caravan roads, and the geology, have been compiled from all available published material, chiefly the work of Dr. John Ball and myself. Some portions of these, as well as the plan showing the subterranean aqueducts of Um El Dabâdib, are now published for the first time. The caravan routes, while shown with sufficient accuracy for all practical purposes, have not been surveyed with the same degree of exactness as the other details shown on the maps.

H. J. LLEWELLYN BEADNELL.

LONDON,
_March_, 1909.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER PAGE
I. THE LIBYAN DESERT AND ITS OASES 1
II. EARLY RECORDS 12
III. THE ROADS LEADING TO THE OASIS 25
IV. TOPOGRAPHY AND GEOLOGY 45
V. THE NORTHERN VILLAGES 61
VI. THE SOUTHERN VILLAGES 75
VII. THE OASIS UNDER PERSIAN AND ROMAN RULE 86
VIII. THE EXTINCT LAKES OF THE OASIS 110
IX. THE UNDERGROUND WATER-SUPPLY 123
X. FLOWING WELLS: SOME EXPERIMENTS AND OBSERVATIONS 139
XI. THE ORIGIN OF THE ARTESIAN WATERS 154
XII. THE ANCIENT SUBTERRANEAN AQUEDUCTS 167
XIII. BORING METHODS: ANCIENT AND MODERN 186
XIV. THE CONTEST BETWEEN MAN AND WIND- BORNE SAND 198
XV. SOME ECONOMICAL ASPECTS OF THE OASIS 212
XVI. SOME NOTES ON SPORT AND NATURAL HISTORY 224
APPENDIX: LITERATURE ON THE OASIS OF KHARGA 234
INDEX 237

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

1. AIN ESTAKHERAB, GENNAH _Frontispiece_
FACING
PAGE
2. A PASS INTO THE OASIS 16

3. THE RAILWAY DESCENDING INTO THE OASIS THROUGH THE 38
CHALK FORMATION

4. THE CHRISTIAN NECROPOLIS AND JEBEL TER 46

{A STREET IN KHARGA }
5.{ }66
{KHARGA VILLAGE }

6. ENCROACHMENT OF SAND-DUNES AT MEHERIQ 70

{A PTOLEMAIC TEMPLE (QASR EL GHUATA) }
7.{ }73
{DOUM-PALMS NEAR QASR EL GHUATA }

8. AIN DAKHAKHIN 78

9. DUSH VILLAGE 84

10. THE TEMPLE OF HIBIS, FROM THE SOUTH-EAST 92

11. THE TEMPLE OF HIBIS (INTERIOR) 96

12. THE CHRISTIAN NECROPOLIS 103

13. BIBLICAL SCENES IN A TOMB OF THE NECROPOLIS 104

14. LACUSTRINE DEPOSITS AT EL GALA, NEAR BULAQ 110

{COFFIN MASKS FROM BELLAIDA }
15.{ }116
{ANCIENT POTTERY FROM THE LACUSTRINE DEPOSITS }

16. FLINT IMPLEMENTS 120

17. AN ARTESIAN WELL (BORE NO. 39) 124

{BORE NO. 5 }
18.{ }142
{BORE NO. 14 }

19. LANDS UNDER RECLAMATION AT BORE NO. 39 156

20. AIN AMUR, ON THE UPPER DAKHLA ROAD 165

21. QASR LEBEKHA AND THE NORTHERN ESCARPMENT OF THE OASIS 169

22. RUINS AT UM EL DABADIB 172

{A STEAM BORING RIG }
23.{ }196
{A HAND BORING RIG }

24. A BELT OF DUNES NEAR QASR LEBEKHA 200

25. SAND EROSION ON SUMMIT OF JEBEL TARIF 206

26. THE CORPORATION’S HOMESTEAD (HEADQUARTERS) 208

27. DOUM-PALMS AT AIN GIRM MESHIM 218

{A WADI IN JEBEL TARIF }
28.{ }222
{A RIVER OF SAND NEAR UM EL DABADIB }

MAPS AND SECTIONS

I. THE CARAVAN ROUTES TO THE OASIS OF KHARGA 26

II. SKETCH-MAP SHOWING THE GEOLOGY AND THE ANCIENT LAKES 50
OF THE OASIS OF KHARGA

III. GEOLOGICAL SECTION ACROSS THE OASIS, FROM JEBEL 56
TARIF TO THE EASTERN ESCARPMENT

IV. THE SUBTERRANEAN AQUEDUCTS OF UM EL DABADIB 176

AN EGYPTIAN OASIS