Natural harbours, almost completely surrounded by land or reef, waveless in all weathers, more perfect than almost any made by man, abound throughout the length of this coast. In one part, just north of Rawaya, are ten of these strange inlets in a space of only 40 miles (see map, [page 126]). That of Suakin has been already described; on entering for the first time it is hard to believe that this long parallel-sided, deep channel, bounded by reefs covered only by a foot or two of water, and then by land only the same amount above the sea, is not an artificial canal. It leads nearly straight inland for two miles, but not quite straight, indeed there is a bend that large steamers frequently fail to clear, and which led to the abandonment of Suakin as the Port of the Sudan.
Obviously this canal-like inlet is not the mouth of a river, past or present, for present rivers there are none, and no river, flowing over a wide plain, through loose and heterogeneous materials, could cut out such a channel, but would end in a wide shallow estuary or delta, if it formed a definite mouth at all.
The new harbour of Port Sudan is much wider both in the entrance and within, but the origin of this deep landlocked basin is equally puzzling.
The forms of all the harbours of the coast can be reduced to one plan more or less easily, that of a cross with arms parallel and at right angles to the coast-line, and are in fact formed by two cracks in the earth’s surface nearly at right angles. The former arm is generally the largest, in Port Sudan it is two miles long, the other arm, which connects this with the sea and forms the shallower branch harbour, being much the shorter. The same applies to for instance Wiai, Fîjab, Salak Seghir and Ankêfail Kebir, whereas in the case of the narrower harbours, like Suakin, Arûs, Shinab and its neighbours, the arm at right angles to the sea is the longest, and the plan of the inlet is more like the conventional cross.
Fig. 90. Two of the canal-like “Khor” which run into the coral plain. Soundings in fathoms, note comparatively great depth of the water
The arrow in Khor Shinab indicates the point at which the material of the cliff changes from coral to gravel.
In Wiai, Fîjab, Salak Seghir and other harbours most of the land between the inner arm and the sea, corresponding to the East Town in Port Sudan, has been cut down
Fig. 91