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]