THE WADIS DRAINING WESTWARDS TO THE NILE.

It has been already mentioned ([p. 21]) that all the drainage westward from the main watershed ultimately reaches the Nile by the three great trunk Wadis Shait, Kharit, and Alaqi. In the present chapter a detailed description will be given of those parts of these wadis and their tributaries which are known within the area under discussion. The following scheme shows the relations of the principal tributaries, important feeders of the tributaries themselves being indicated in (brackets):—

Wadi Dweig.
[WadiShait]Wadi Muelih (Wadi Gerf, Rod elLigah, Wadi Sibrit).
Wadi Hamish.
Wadi Hilgit (Wadi Um Hasidok, Wadi Um elTiur).
Wadi Egat.
Wadi el Anbat.
Wadi Abarun.
Wadi Um Daba.
Wadi Abu Argub.
Wadi Safihat.
Wadi Um Sellim.
Wadi Medsus.
[WadiKharit]Wadi Abu Gurdi.
Wadi Elemikan (Rod el Geneina).
Wadi Abu Hashim.
Wadi Helie.
Wadi Abu Hamamid (Wadi Marasani, Wadi elSheikh).
Rod el Kharuf (Wadi Abu Had).
Wadi Khashab (Wadi Metawit, Wadi Antar).
Wadi Garara (Wadi el Kreim, Wadi Timsah, WadiGhadrib, Wadi Abu Hashim, Wadi Abu Homur).
Wadi Natash.
Wadi Himeitra.
Miti Kwan (Wadi Duag, Wadi Kirir, Wadi Merau,Wadi Miaus).
Wadi Dageina.
Wadi Alfawi.
Wadi Egat (Wadi Hiteib).
Wadi Hateib (Wadi Suhin).
[WadiAlaqi]Wadi Guqub.
Wadi Um Teneideb.
Wadi Defeit (Wadi Sarid, Wadi Dauriai, WadiHamida, Wadi Bint el Feqoh, Wadi Anweiyib, Wadi Meladoyeb, RodHawanin, Wadi Bagharid).
Wadi Eleifat.
Wadi Seiga (Wadi Um Derera, Wadi Abu Had,Wadi Um Gholqa).

Most of the drainage-lines mentioned in the description will be found marked on the orographical map which forms [Plate I;] but the scale of that map is too small for all the minor feeders to be indicated with clearness.

Wadi Shait, an important main trunk wadi draining westwards to the Nile, originates at the west foot of Gebel Ras Shait, in lat. 24° 50′, long. 34° 31′, and joins the Nile Valley a little to the north of Kom Ombo. It has a total length of very nearly 200 kilometres, and an average fall of three metres per kilometre. The fall is much more rapid in the upper reaches than lower down; in the first fifty-five kilometres of its length, from the foot of Gebel Ras Shait to Bir Um Gubur, the fall is 340 metres, or an average gradient of six metres per kilometre, while from Bir Um Gubur, for the remaining 140 kilometres of its course, its fall is only 250 metres, or an average gradient of less than two metres per kilometre.

The head of Wadi Shait is formed by the union of a number of drainage channels from a kind of cul-de-sac formed by Gebels Migif, Ras Shait, and Mudergeg, where it is separated from the heads of Wadi Gerf and Wadi Hafafit by flat sandy divides. Passing in a south-westerly direction to the west of Gebel Migif and Gebel Dweig, it receives as a tributary Wadi Dweig (in which are the ruins of an ancient station) on the left. Taking thence a more westerly course it traverses more open country, and then narrows among hills north-west of the remarkable peak of Gebel Abu Khrug. At a bend further on is Bir Murra, a shallow well sunk in the alluvium of the wadi floor at the foot of a serpentine scarp; the water here (as the name of the well indicates) is very bitter, and is generally drunk only by camels. After passing Bir Murra, the wadi turns south-west, then curves again near Bir Um Gubur, about three kilometres south-east of Gebel Sufra, and about twelve kilometres below Bir Murra. Bir Um Gubur is a shaft about two and a half metres diameter, sunk about eight metres deep in the alluvium of the wadi; it was yielding good supplies of excellent water in 1906. About ten kilometres below Bir Um Gubur, Wadi Hamish joins Wadi Shait from the north-east. In the remainder of the course of Wadi Shait to the Nile, the principal water source is Bir Heliwat,[84] about ten kilometres below the point of influx of Wadi Hamish, and the chief tributary wadis are Muelih, Beza, and Midrik, all of which join it from the north-east.

The upper portions of Wadi Shait contain a fair abundance of trees and scrub, but the lower parts are sandy arid wastes.

Wadi Muelih originates in the mountain called Gebel Iteima, in lat. 25° 8′. For about sixteen kilometres its course lies ill-defined over a sandy plain with scattered low hills, to Erf el Fahid, a remarkable east and west quartz ridge nearly two kilometres long rising among crushed diorites and schists to a height of 579 metres above sea, or ninety-five metres above the wadi, in lat. 25° 0′. After passing Erf el Fahid, the course of the wadi changes to south-west, and gradually becomes more enclosed by low hills. The first hills passed on the right are high ridges formed by great quartz veins striking south-west, at the foot of which the wadi forms a plain nearly a kilometre broad, with low hills and mounds of dark gneisses and schists on the left. At ten kilometres below Erf el Fahid, on the left of the wadi, is a horse-shoe shaped hill of aplite called Marwot Rod el Ligaia, to the north and south of which are other hills penetrated by networks of quartz veins. Two kilometres further on, a band of diorite gneiss cuts across the wadi, which then commences to narrow in among hills of crushed diorites, grey gneisses, and schists, with many dykes of porphyrite and felsite. These hills become progressively higher as one descends, and near the meridian of 34° the wadi curves round the foot of Gebel Muelih, a great bare white granite boss rising through darker rocks to a height of 330 metres above the wadi, or 707 metres above sea. Just after passing Gebel Muelih the wadi, which has here a width of only some 200 metres, turns south-west again. At this turn, nearly in the centre of the wadi floor, is Bir Muelih, an excavation about six metres deep in the alluvium, yielding very salt water drinkable only by camels. North-east of the well a track strikes over the hills towards Dungash mine. From Bir Muelih the wadi continues in a roughly south-west direction past Bir Samut (well about one kilometre north of Wadi Muelih) and then takes a more southerly course draining into Wadi Shait in longitude 33° 46′.