W. G. Browne traversed the same route nearly a hundred years later, passing through the oasis in June, 1793. He relates how he entered the depression at the northern extremity, at the pass known as El Ramlia, and camped at Ain Dizé (probably in the neighbourhood of the modern Ain el Qasr), eight hours’ march from Kharga. Browne passed through the depression from north to south, visiting Kharga, Bulaq, Beris, and Maks, whence he followed the usual route to Shebb and Selîma. Like his predecessor, he makes no mention of the antiquities.
Cailliaud, a young French mineralogist, explored Kharga in 1818, and to him we owe the earliest published detailed descriptions and illustrations of the chief antiquities of the oasis. As the existence of important monuments in the oasis was at that time quite unsuspected, Cailliaud’s work attracted considerable attention, and his drawings and descriptions were purchased and published by the French Government and dedicated to the King. Cailliaud set out from Esna in the Nile Valley and crossed the Libyan plateau to the village of Jaja. After visiting the most southerly villages of Dush and Beris, he journeyed northwards to Kharga, then, as now, the chief village, whence, on the completion of his researches, he returned to Farshut on the Nile, via Dêr el Ghennîma and the Wadi Samhûd. Cailliaud’s observations are almost entirely confined to the archæology of the oasis, and his writings yield little information regarding the villages, wells, and cultivated lands.
The Chevalier Drovetti, French Consul-General in Egypt, visited Kharga the same year as Monsieur Cailliaud. He started from Beniâdi, following the Derb el Arbaîn caravan route southwards, and entered the depression at the northern extremity. Drovetti traversed the oasis from north to south, and proceeded thence to Dongola. Later, on his return journey, he crossed the depression in the opposite direction, eventually returning to the Nile Valley by way of the oasis of Dakhla and the Derb el Tawîl.
A PASS INTO THE OASIS.
In 1820 Cailliaud again passed through Kharga. He had explored the oasis of Siwa the previous year, whence he travelled, via Baharia and Farafra, to Dakhla, and thence past Ain Amûr to Kharga village. On this occasion no further researches were undertaken in the depression.
Sir Archibald Edmonstone, Bart., accompanied by two friends, visited Dakhla and Kharga in 1819, and constructed a rough but fairly accurate map, showing the relative position of the two oases, with their bounding escarpments and principal villages. Their situation in the Libyan Desert, with regard to the Nile Valley, is, however, greatly in error, being shown fully a degree too far west and nearly half a degree too far north. Edmonstone followed the Derb el Tawîl route from Beniâdi in the Nile Valley to the village of Belat in Dakhla, returning by the Ain Amûr road to Kharga, and thence to Farshut. The major portion of the account of his travels refers to Dakhla, of which oasis he must, indeed, be regarded as the modern discoverer.
Hoskins explored Kharga in 1835, and published a most valuable and engaging account of his travels a couple of years later. This work, entitled ‘Visit to the Great Oasis of the Libyan Desert,’ contains a number of illustrations depicting the scenery, the chief monuments and their hieroglyphics, etc., made from original drawings and paper casts. Many of the inscriptions are given in full, both in the original and translated into English, and the work of all previous writers and explorers is carefully summarized. In some cases I have verified the accuracy of Hoskins’ drawings by comparing them with photographs taken from the same points, and have been much struck with the insignificant amount of decay which some of the buildings have undergone during the course of over seventy years.
Rizagat, near Thebes, was Hoskins’ starting-point, and he entered the depression by the Bulaq pass, crossing the oasis-floor to the eminence known as El Gorn el Gennâh. Surveying the oasis from this point of vantage, Hoskins remarks that the attractions of the cultivated portions of the depression, those
“Tufted isles that verdant rise amid the Libyan waste,”