Travels in Ethiopia, above the second cataract of the Nile

by G. A. Hoskins

TEMPLE OF SEMNEH.

Temple at Semneh. East side of the river.—In the first chamber of this temple the door-posts of the entrance remain, and also two polygonal columns without their capitals, and two square pillars. (See [vignette.]) The lateral walls seem to have joined the latter; both the square pillars and columns were ornamented with hieroglyphics, of which the names of Thothmes III. are now only distinguishable. The names, however, of Amunoph III. and Thothmes II. occur in this temple. The entrance into the next room is filled with rubbish up to the architrave; the latter is ornamented with the winged globe, and a dedicatory tablet of hieroglyphics. There is also another door to the right of this, leading into the interior, with a similar tablet on the architrave. The walls were decorated with sculpture in a good style, but now much defaced. In one place I distinguished the head of Kneph, and elsewhere the same god receiving splendid offerings of vases, fruits, &c. from the King Thothmes, sun, establisher of the world. In another part, the king, with the head-dress of the small globe, two feathers, and horns, is receiving the cross of life from a divinity with a beard and no head-dress, perhaps Amun Ra. Behind this latter figure is the god Kneph again, with his usual attributes of the ram’s head and horns.

PLAN OF THE TEMPLE OF SEMNEH.

These two entrances lead into a long gallery full of sand and rubbish. I excavated below the level of the centre doorway into the gallery, but it is singular that I could discover no entrance into the sanctuary of the temple corresponding with it. The only one I found is on the right side. There are three other rooms, one containing a column. I believe they are marked accurately in the above [Plan;] but, to ascertain very correctly how they are connected, would have required more extensive excavations than my time permitted, nor did I think it worth any sacrifice, for the plan is evidently bad. The sculpture of these rooms is almost buried in the sand. There are slight traces of colour remaining. At a short distance south-east of the temple, on the granite rocks, are some hieroglyphical inscriptions, but very rudely executed. I copied five that were legible; they contain the names of Thothmes III. and Amunoph III.

These rocks are interesting as the last hiding-place of the Arab robber, Isah; and it was in this neighbourhood that daring brigand finally met his fate. Isah was a sheakh of the Karareesh tribe. A katshef, near his residence, having threatened him with the bastinado, unless he submitted to some exorbitant demand, he preferred abandoning his domestic happiness, and the peace and quiet of agricultural life, to such galling and vexatious tyranny. He fled into the fastnesses of the desert, and there, with a few chosen followers, bade defiance to the Pasha’s power. He infested the caravan road from Korosko to Abouhammed; and the Dilet el Doum, or the Valley of the Shade of the Doums, was his favourite resort. He was the terror of all the caravans, like the lion of the desert; only allowing them to pass when they had satisfied his demand: but it was against the government that he was most active, plundering their caravans laden with grain and other produce received as taxes, and seizing the numerous herds of cattle which are sent down to Cairo every year, the spoil of the war on the Bahr el Abiad and the Azruk. He sometimes also succeeded in seizing the supplies of ammunition and arms from Cairo; but, what was very annoying to the Turkish governors, he frequently seized the caravans bringing them supplies of tobacco, coffee, sugar, and other luxuries. For five years this daring outlaw eluded every attempt to seize him. The governors made the most strenuous efforts to obtain his head, and the Pasha engaged the Ababde to hunt him from the great Nubian desert. His troop generally consisted of about twenty; and when, for any important expedition, he required a greater force, Arabs were never wanting to plunder the Turkish caravans. Most of the sheakhs have an immense number of relations; often every individual in their village is a connection; and when their chief is in peril, or requires their services, they consider themselves bound to rally around his standard, at whatever sacrifice or hazard. His wife, like Rob Roy’s, shared her husband’s dangers; and his daughter, Enour, is said to have had as stout a heart as her father, and as much address in throwing the lance as any Arab of her tribe. For five years they shared the perils of this bold brigand; but at last Isah, driven out of the Ababde desert, was betrayed by an Arab sheakh of this neighbourhood, who professed to be his friend. This man, either from fear of the Pasha’s anger, or in the hope of obtaining additional power and wealth by such an essential service, conducted a company of soldiers to the valley where he was secreted, and Isah, while sleeping under the shade of a rock, was shot dead. His death was instantaneous, for it is said that twenty bullets entered his body. His followers fled; but the fidelity of one of them was ultimately rewarded with the hand of his daughter, Enour.

I returned to the ruin on the western bank by the same route, but having passed the river, I fortunately found a donkey, which, though a poor one, afforded me some assistance in ascending to the temple.

These edifices are not remarkable for their architecture; but nothing can be finer than their situation. They are in sight of, and almost opposite to, each other, on eminences commanding one of the finest views in the Batn el Hadjar. This view has been compared by some travellers to Tivoli; but, besides other dissimilarities, there is here no ugly, ill-built, dirty, modern town, that detracts from the beautiful situation of the antiquities. The prospects near the western temple are very magnificent; Signor B.’s view, [Plate XLV.,] will give a just idea of the country: but the magical effect of the desert, contrasted with the surrounding scenery, can be but imperfectly conveyed to the reader’s mind, without a view coloured, as this was, on the spot, exhibiting faithfully the different tints. I regret not being able to publish the numerous views as they were coloured on the spot by Signor B.

Pl. 45.