[Illustration: AIN ESTAKHERAB, GENNAH] AN EGYPTIAN OASIS AN ACCOUNT OF THE OASIS OF KHARGA IN THE LIBYAN DESERT, WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO ITS HISTORY, PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY, AND WATER-SUPPLY BY H. J. LLEWELLYN BEADNELL F.G.S., F.R.G.S., Assoc.Inst.M.M. FORMERLY OF THE GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF EGYPT WITH MAPS AND ILLUSTRATIONS LONDON JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET, W. 1909 TO THE MEMORY OF A FRIEND AND FELLOW-GEOLOGIST, THOMAS BARRON, WHO LOST HIS LIFE IN THE SUDAN IN FEBRUARY, 1906 PREFACE The inhabited depressions of the Libyan Desert, called by Herodotus the ‘Islands of the Blest,’ are interesting alike to the archæologist, to the geographer and geologist, and to the tourist who wishes to wander from the well-beaten tracks, and perhaps none more so than the Oasis of Kharga, lying 130 miles west of Luxor—the site of ancient Thebes—and recently connected by railway with the Nile Valley. Descended from the ancient Libyans, the inhabitants of the Egyptian oases (numbering over 30,000 souls) are quite distinct from the Fellahin and Bedawin of the Nile Valley. Isolated by arid and desolate wastes, these communities occupy quaint walled-in towns and villages, tucked away among groves of palms, interspersed with smiling gardens and fields of corn. Rain is almost unknown, and rivers are non-existent, the trees and crops being irrigated by bubbling wells, deriving their waters from deep-seated sources. Kharga—the subject of the present memoir—formed part of the Great Oasis of ancient days, and was governed in turn by the Pharaohs, the Persian Monarchs, and the Roman Emperors. Through it the ill-fated army of Cambyses is recorded to have marched, and in it is to be seen the most important Persian monument in Egypt, the temple of Hibis. But most interesting of all is the wonderfully preserved Early Christian necropolis, dating from the time of Bishop Nestorius, who was banished to Kharga in A.D. 434. Juvenal, Athanasius, and other celebrities likewise appear to have made unwilling acquaintance with this portion of the Roman Empire.