On reaching the bottom of the slope we set out for Bu Mungar, which lay a short distance ahead of us. But on reaching the hattia, Qwaytin, as usual, got lost, and it was some time before we could find the well.
It had been a stiflingly hot day and we had marched for over thirteen hours, with only a short halt at ’Ain Khalif. I had done the whole distance on foot, so I was dog tired, and extremely thirsty. So, as the evening of our arrival was cloudy, and as to get in a set of observations would probably have meant that I should have had to sit up for several hours for the clouds to clear off, I put off the work until the following day, meaning to leave the place in the afternoon.
My tent was pitched on the extreme eastern end of the hattia. The cliff of the plateau formed a huge semicircular bay on our east, the southern point of which could be seen about twenty-five miles away to the south-east of the camp. In the middle of this bay lay a second large detached scrub-covered area.
Bu Mungar contains at least two wells, as in addition to the one near which we were camped, the men found a second one, about a quarter of a mile away to the south-west, the position of which was marked by a group of trees—acacias and palms, so far as I can remember.
The other well, that lay about two hundred yards to the north-west of the camp, seemed to be an artesian one, similar to those in the Egyptian oases. A little stream ran from it for a short distance till it lost itself in the sandy soil. So far as I was able to see the trees were larger and the vegetation more luxuriant than in the Kairowin hattia.
To the south, a huge area covered as far as the horizon with sand dunes was visible. A large dune overhung the camp on its eastern side, and drift sand seemed to be encroaching in many places on the vegetation. In the neighbourhood of the camp was a praying place, or “desert mosque,” made according to Qwaytin after one of the Senussi models. This consisted of a line of stones laid out on the ground much in the shape of a button-hook, the straight portion of which pointed in the direction of Mecca, to indicate the direction in which worshippers should face when performing their devotions. It was the only praying place of the shape that I ever saw.
SENUSSI PRAYING PLACE, BU MUNGAR.
The wells of the hattia perhaps dated from Roman times, as at a short distance to the south of the camp was a small mud building (der) which the natives attributed to that period. The remains of the vaulted roofs and the arched tops of the openings in the walls tended to confirm this view.
I managed the next day to get the necessary astronomical observations to fix the position of the place, but was not able to make a thorough examination of it, as complications with the Senussia that, from numerous indications I had seen since leaving Assiut, I had been expecting for some time suddenly came to a rather unpleasant head.