An Egyptian oasis

by H. J. L. Beadnell

These short tunnels, tapping the water of artesian wells bored on high ground, are quite insignificant compared with the extensive systems of subterranean aqueducts driven into the solid rock in various localities in the north of the oasis. The most remarkable of these are found at Um el Dabâdib, at Qasr Lebekha, and in the neighbourhood of Qasr Gyb. They were made with the object of obtaining auxiliary supplies of water from the Surface-water Sandstone, and were especially applicable to localities where this sandstone has an extensive development and forms hills or plateaux above the general level of the floor of the oasis. Although it is difficult to believe that the supplies of water obtained were commensurate with the time and labour involved in the construction of the collecting tunnels, we may safely assume that the engineers who so carefully planned and carried out the works had fully considered the results to be looked for. The ruins of villages and the traces of formerly cultivated tracts show that sufficient water was obtained to enable fairly large colonies to exist, though after the withdrawal of the Romans these outlying districts were abandoned, the aqueducts silted up, and the cultivated lands reverted to the desert.

The ruins of Um el Dabâdib are situated under the northern wall of the depression, and distant about 36 kilometres N.N.W. of Kharga village, the route usually followed lying between the hill-massifs of Jebel Têr and Jebel Tarif. A better route is afforded by the caravan road running from Meheriq to Ain Amûr, Um el Dabâdib lying somewhat to the north of the track at a distance of 25 kilometres from the village.

Dr. J. Ball, in the course of his survey of the oasis, visited Um el Dabâdib in 1898, and thought it possible that one of the tunnels, which he observed ran northwards from the neighbourhood of the ruins, had originally formed a means of communication with some unknown and formerly inhabited depression to the north of the escarpment. Its real nature was, however, well known to the Kharga people, and a year or two later Sheikh Hassan Hanadi, a brother of the present Omda of Kharga village, got together a number of men and cleaned out one of the tunnels from top to bottom, with the result that, after a lapse of perhaps 1,000 years, water again flowed from the mouth of the aqueduct, and enabled a small agricultural colony to establish itself on the ruined site of the original founders.

Sheikh Hassan informed me that the bulk of the work had been done under his personal supervision, by a gang of from seventy to eighty men employed throughout the hot season; he had found from experience that the natives worked better in summer than in winter. The main tunnel was entirely cleared of clay and sand, the silted material being lifted out through the numerous man-holes or vertical shafts which connect the aqueduct with the surface above. A great deal of rough masonry work had also to be undertaken where the sandstone roof or walls had fallen in. The place was put in thoroughly good order, and all the shafts again closed, with the exception of two or three left open to permit of the descent of the men sent down periodically to examine the channel and keep it free from silted material.

When I first visited the place in January, 1905, I found the discharge from the mouth of the aqueduct was between 30 and 35 gallons per minute. A dozen acres or so of land had been reclaimed, and were tended by seven or eight men, who informed me that the crops raised there were equal to those in any part of the oasis. This I can quite believe, as, in spite of the fact that several dune-belts exist in the neighbourhood, the place is comparatively sheltered from the northerly winds by the great escarpment to the north.

The little settlement of Um el Dabâdib, with its adjoining fertile fields and fruit-garden, threaded by the life-giving stream emerging from the foot-hills of the stupendous cliffs to the north, and backed by the grim fort of bygone ages to the south, has in the midst of this desert an indescribable charm.

RUINS AT UM EL DABADIB.

Sala Abdulla, old Sheikh Hassan’s head-man here, proved to be a most delightful fellow, and far superior to the average native in general intelligence. He spun the most fantastic yarns about the desert tableland to the north, and—a peculiarity I appreciated most of all—without expecting me to believe him. According to Sala, traces exist of a formerly much-frequented road, said to lead to a place called Ain Hamûr, lying somewhere to the north-west of Ain Amûr. But although he himself had on one occasion set out and travelled for many hours beyond the summit of the cliffs, he had been forced to return without finding the place, the exact position of which is at the present day unknown. This out-of-the-way corner of the desert is, according to my informant, so undisturbed by man that the gazelle there live for untold periods, and only eventually succumb to old age and the increasing weight of their horns, which grow to such a size that the poor beasts are unable to move about in search of food!

On my expressing a desire to examine the underground aqueduct, Sala led the way to one of the man-holes situated a couple of kilometres to the north, near the upper end of the tunnel. Producing a palm-fibre rope from under a ledge in a cliff hard by, he attached it to a log placed across the mouth of the shaft. There was a hot, steamy current of air ascending from the man-hole, the interior of which was as black as night. Sala had, however, provided candles and matches, and when he reached the bottom and shook the rope as a signal to me to follow, I could see a tiny speck of light in what seemed to be the bowels of the earth. Fortunately I had had a good training in the Cornish and Welsh mines at home, so that the prospect of a descent by the rope did not worry me in the least, and after scrambling into the shaft I went carefully down hand over hand.