Lat. N.Long. E.Meters above sea
°′″°′″
Bir Buttafal, Hassanein Bey28542621451598
Bir Buttafal, Rohlfs28562221441058
Difference1561540

Zieghen (“Sirhen” of Rohlfs).—Zieghen is the name of a district containing numerous wells. It is not inhabited, but is of great importance as lying on the main caravan route from Jalo to Kufra. The principal well used by the caravans is El Harrash. Rohlfs did not visit Zieghen; he traveled from Jalo to Kufra by the more westerly track through Taiserbo and Buseima, and the position shown for Zieghen on his map, which was based merely on his guides’ statements, is about 100 km. too far to the east-northeast.

As the journey from Jalo to Kufra by any future traveler is likely to be undertaken in the winter, when the question of fuel is second only to that of water, it is worth noting that the first hatab (fire-wood) is met with at about 342 km. after leaving Bir Buttafal, and 52 before reaching El Harrash Well. In an emergency water may be got at Matan Abu Hosh, the old well of Zieghen, about 18 km. before reaching El Harrash; but El Harrash yields better water, and being the regular halting-place of the caravans, the water can usually be obtained there without digging; hence, unless the caravans are very thirsty they usually prefer to go on to El Harrash rather than make a halt at the old well. Excellent water can be got anywhere in the neighborhood of El Harrash by digging to a depth of three or four feet. From El Harrash to Buseima is about 54 km. in a direction a little west of south, and from El Harrash to Taj, the principal town of Kufra proper, is 182 km. in a southwesterly direction.

Taiserbo.—Taiserbo, the most northwesterly oasis of the Kufra group, has not, so far as is known, been visited by any traveler since Rohlfs’s day. Its position was however indicated to Hassanein Bey as lying between 70° and 80° west of north from El Harrash, at a distance of 60 to 70 km. This indication would place Taiserbo very nearly in the position which Rohlfs assigned to it. Rohlfs’s position for his camp at Kasr Djrangedi is probably therefore substantially correct, though it is likely that the oasis is in reality less extensive than shown on his map.

Buseima.—Although Buseima was not visited by Hassanein Bey on this occasion, his fixation of the position of El Harrash, in combination with his former rough compass-traverse from that place to Buseima with Mrs. Forbes in 1921, permits of a fair approximation for its position. Hassanein Bey’s estimates of distances and bearings on his former journey (adjusted by his recently observed latitudes at El Harrash and Taj) give his camp in Buseima as being 60 km. from El Harrash in a direction of 5° east of true south, and from his camp to that of Rohlfs (Ain El Nusrani) was roughly about 15 km. in a true west-northwesterly direction. Adopting Hassanein Bey’s recently fixed position for El Harrash, this would give a position for Rohlfs’s camp about 30 km. southwest by south of where Rohlfs placed it, as is shown by the following comparison:

Lat. N.Long. E.
°′″°′″
Buseima (Rohlfs’s camp) from Stecker’sobservations25114222150
Buseima (Rohlfs’s camp) from HassaneinBey’s estimation24381122546
Difference1331914

It would hardly seem possible that Hassanein Bey can have made so large an error as 25 km. in his former estimation of the distance of Buseima from El Harrash, and hence it would appear reasonable to think that there was some error either in Stecker’s observation or (what is more likely) in his reduction of it. This point is referred to further on in the discussion of the position of Boema ([p. 334]).

Kufra (Kebabo of Rohlfs).—The name “Kufra” is now generally applied, not to the whole of the Kufra group of oases as was done by Rohlfs in 1879, but specially to the area called Kebabo by that traveler.

The seat of local government and principal settlement is the walled town of Taj, situated on a rocky cliff overlooking the depression of the oasis proper which lies to the south and contains the villages of Jof, Buma, Boema, El Zurruk, Talalib, and Tollab. Hassanein Bey carried out latitude observations at Taj, and proceeded 3 km., on a bearing of 16° west of south, to Jof, from which place he made very careful estimations of the distances and bearings of the other villages of the oasis, which has enabled their relative positions to be plotted on the map with much closer approximation than had hitherto been possible.

Considerable interest attaches to the position of Boema, the easternmost village of Kufra, for it was here that Stecker camped with Rohlfs and made his observations for latitude and longitude in 1879. Hassanein Bey found Boema to lie 2 km. from Taj, in a direction 54° east of true south. Accepting his determination of the position of Taj, this leads to the following position for Boema as compared with that given by Rohlfs: