Discoveries in Egypt, Ethiopia and the peninsula of Sinai, in the years 1842-1845, during the mission sent out by his majesty, Frederick William IV of Prussia.Lepsius, Richard
History
Discoveries in Egypt, Ethiopia and the peninsula of Sinai, in the years 1842-1845, during the mission sent out by his majesty, Frederick William IV of Prussia.
At half-past four we rode away from the wells, after we had examined
some _hagr mektub_ (written stones, for which we everywhere inquired),
on some rocks in the neighbourhood, where a number of horses, camels,
and other animals had been rudely scratched, at some by no means modern
period, in the same manner as we had often seen in Nubia. At half-past
nine we halted for the night, after we had left the mountains an hour
and a half. On the morning of the sixth day we passed the wide plain of
Múndera, to which another high mountain range called Abu Sihha joins;
the southern frontier of this plain, by those mountains, they call
Abdêbab; the southern part of the Roft mountains behind us, Abu Senejât.
At three o’clock we left the plain, and entered the mountains again,
which, like the former ranges, were of granite. Half an hour later we
halted for a noontide rest. After two hours we rode on and encamped
about midnight, after passing through another little plain, and the
mountains of Adar Auîb into the next plain, comprehended under the same
designation, which stretches to the last mountains of this desert, Gebel
Graibât.
On the seventh day we set forth at the early hour of half-past seven,
and came at last beyond Gebel Graibât, into a great and boundless plain,
Adererât, which we did not leave until our arrival at Abu Hammed. To the
south-west the little mountain El Farût, and the higher range Mograd,
were in sight; in the far-east there joins another mountain to Adur
Auîb, that of Abu Nugâra. South-easterly there are the other mountain
chains of Bishari, the names of which were unknown to our Abâbde guides.
The beginning of the plain of Adererât was quite covered for hours with
beautiful pure flint, which sometimes jutted out of the sand, as rock,
although the principal sort of rock continued to be black granite, which
was intersected about noon by a broad vein of red granite. Early in the
day a small caravan of merchants passed us at some distance.
We saw the most beautiful _mirages_ very early in the day; they most
minutely resemble seas and lakes, in which mountains, rocks, and
everything in their vicinity, are reflected like in the clearest water.
They form a remarkable contrast with the staring dry desert, and have
probably deceived many a poor wanderer, as the legend goes. If one be
not aware that no water is there, it is quite impossible to distinguish
the appearance from the reality. A few days ago I felt quite sure that I
perceived an overflowing of the Nile, or a branch near El Mechêref, and
rode towards it, but only found Bahr Sheitan, “Satan’s water,” as the
Arabs call it.
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