(1) Some days south of the Dakhla Oasis.
(2) Five days west of Farafra Oasis.
(3) Three days west of Dakhla Oasis.
(4) Two or three days west of Selima Oasis.
The first of these statements would correspond sufficiently well with
Bir Terfawi, which is about 280 kilometres due south of Dakhla Oasis;
the second would place Zerzura about in latitude 27°, longitude 26°; the
third corresponds with the second account given to Wilkinson; while the
fourth would place it far to the south-west, in latitude 21½°, longitude
28°, or rather less than halfway between Bir Terfawi and Merga.
Mr. Harding King, who in his journeys in the Libyan Desert in 1909 and
1911 devoted much attention to the collecting of native information
regarding its geography, thinks that “Zerzura” may possibly be only a
generic name applied to any mythical or undiscovered oasis.[33] He heard
the name applied to the following localities:
(1) Rohlfs’ “Sersura.”
(2) The “Egyptian Oasis,” said to have been seen by an Arab from the top
of a high black hill lying in the dune-belt ten long days by ordinary
caravan from Kharga. Another Arab is said to have seen what is possibly
the same place eight days somewhere to the south of Dakhla. Both these
accounts agree that the place is a large oasis lying at the foot of a
scarp and containing olive trees.
(3) A stone temple eighteen hours’ journey west of Gedida in Dakhla
Oasis.
The information given to Mr. Harding King as to the position of the
“Egyptian Oasis” would place it about in latitude 23°, longitude 28½°,
or only some 50 kilometres north-west of Bir Terfawi; in fact,
considering the vagueness of the information, it might correspond fairly
well with Terfawi itself, except that there are no olive trees at
Terfawi, nor is that place overlooked by any escarpment or hill. The
“high black hill in the dune-belt” may just possibly be one of those I
mapped near the farthest point I reached with Moore in 1916, in about
latitude 24°, longitude 26°, though this would imply a direction south-
west of Dakhla, not south. It is not likely to be Gebel Kamil, as that
mountain lies much nearer to Merga than to Dakhla.
The “stone temple,” according to the information given to Mr. Harding
King, would be about 80 kilometres west of Dakhla Oasis, in about
latitude 25½°, longitude 28°, or not very far from the second of the
positions indicated by Wilkinson for Zerzura. But I think it is likely
that the statement really refers to the “Deir el Hagar,” a well-known
temple ruin much nearer to Dakhla.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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