This slight sketch is sufficient to show the importance of the travels of Ibn Batouta, and to warrant the opinion, that he was the greatest known traveller of any age, as far at least, as relates to the quantity of ground travelled over. The information contained in his complete work, regarding the north of Persia, India, China, and the interior of Africa, must be invaluable, and as he saw more of Africa than most travellers, I thought it not irrelevant to give the reader the result of my examination of his abridged work.
The desert, (the notice of which by Ibn Batouta gave rise to my digression upon his travels in general) was visited in the autumn of 1816, by Mr. Cailleau, a Frenchman, sent by Mohammed Aly Pasha to discover the renowned emerald mines in these mountains. His journey was facilitated by all the means which the government of Egypt can afford, and was successful. He returned in January, 1817, to Cairo, and his discoveries are very interesting.
He set out from Redesia, a small village nearly opposite Edfou in Upper Egypt. He found a well defined road eastwards. At the end of one day’s journey was a well, and another at two days journey. On the second day two different roads branched off towards Kosseir. At every eight or nine hours, from Redesia on the Nile, he met with the ruins of square massive buildings (not near the wells), as if of fortified stations; and the road appeared in many parts ancient, and the labour of men. On the second day he found on the road an ancient temple, cut out of the sand-rock, like those of Nubia, with four pillars in the interior of the cave, and two before it, having on both sides of the principal room a small apartment, and three colossal figures on the back wall of the cave, thus exactly resembling the excavated temple at Derr. The walls were all covered with hieroglyphics and figures in beautiful colours, as fine, the traveller says, as those of the tombs of the Kings of Thebes. Several Greek inscriptions were engraved on the walls of the cave, which he did not copy.i[214] Beyond this temple (near which no water is found), he saw in continuing his route along the road, on various parts of the mountain, tablets of hieroglyphics and figures cut out of the granite rock; and on the third day after his departure from the Nile, he fell in with a great ancient road running from north to south. The road is broad, and evidently a work of great labour. The Arabs told him that several ancient buildings were found on that road farther south, but the traveller could not go in quest of antiquities, as he was sent in search of emeralds. He therefore crossed that road, and travelled over the mountains eastward until he met with the emerald mines, at the distance of seven days journey from Edfou, as many from Kous, and four days south of Kosseir. They are situated in a narrow valley composed of granite rocks. Along the mountain on both sides runs a horizontal stratum of mica, into which pits have been dug. Some of the pits, following this layer of mica in an oblique direction into the interior of the mountain, are four or five hundred feet in depth. The layer of mica being only from three to four feet in breadth, the alleys formed in the mountain are of no greater height, and whenever the mica layer increases in height, the roof of the passage is supported by wooden beams. In the interior of the pits, Mr. C. found a few specimens of emerald, of which I have seen a small piece about eight lines in length and five in breadth; a six-sided crystal, broken on both ends, its colour fine, but not clear. A better specimen is said to be in possession of the Pasha. When three years ago the Pasha’s mineralogist worked in these mountains to find emeralds (as I have said in my journal) his party had likewise come to these mines, and made some slight excavations. The road leading to the mines, to which the Ababde Bedouins apply the name of Zaboura, is cut through the rock with great labour. Close to the pits, of which there are about 60, basins or tanks have been formed in the granite rock to receive the rain water, Mr. C. found most of them filled with water. Some ruins of stone habitations stand in the valley. The nearest source of water is about five miles distant; it is very copious, and much resorted to by the Bedouins. About six hours distant, there is said to be another collection of similar pits with ruined buildings, where drawings of figures, &c. are seen, but these the traveller did not visit. In descending from the emerald mines to the sea, which is about eight hours distant, a broad sandy shore is seen, with a small flat island in the vicinity. The Pasha informed Mr. C. that it appears from the public registers that these mines were still worked in the 17th century. In proceeding from the mines farther south, the traveller met at two days journey from thence, at a quarter of an hour distant from the sea shore, a mountain entirely composed of sulphur, of which he brought away specimens. This mountain is well known in Upper Egypt, for whenever the Mamelouks were cut off from Cairo, they procured from thence the sulphur necessary to make gunpowder. The whole neighbourhood of this sulphur mountain is volcanic, and the sulphur itself is closely mixed with puzzolana earth.
On the whole road travelled by Mr. C. acacia wood grows in great plenty; the tree Allobe, of which I have spoken in my Shendy journal, is likewise met with. The Arabs call it the date of the desert. I immediately recognised the fruit, of which Mr. C. brought back some specimens. (Perhaps it may be the Labakh of the Arabs, or the Persea of the ancients.)
Little doubt can remain that the route which has thus been traced was the great road from Coptos to Berenice, or from thence perhaps to Aidab. The Arabs told the traveller that in continuing on the road which he crossed, a large temple was to be seen with several columns, situated a few days to the east of Assouan.i[215]
(83.) Sherif Edrys in the Geog. Nub. says that eight Dinars were taken at Aizab from each pilgrim. In the short notice he has of that town, he adds that from Aizab to Djidda, the sea is crossed in one day and a night. The pilgrims coming from Aizab to Djidda had in former times to pay likewise at the latter place, a heavy personal duty, which was abolished in 572, A. H. by Salah eddyn, (v. Asamy’s History of Mekka.)
(84.) Damyry in his Zoology above cited, says of the Kersh (قِرش) that it is a large fish found in the Red Sea, of a round shape. It swims like lightning, and sometimes impedes the ship’s course, overturns boats, and breaks them.i[216]