The geography and geology of south-eastern EgyptBall, John
Science
The geography and geology of south-eastern Egypt
Ball, John
Geology -- Egypt; Physical geography -- Egypt
=Wadi Shab=, with a basin of about 1,250 square kilometres, drains
the eastern and southern portions of the great group of mountains of
which Gebel Gerf is the centre, and reaches the sea in latitude 22°
52′, a little to the north of Mersa Shab. It has a great number of
heads, most of which bear special names, the name Shab being applied
collectively to them from the locality near the hill of Qrein Salama,
about forty kilometres from the sea, where they begin to unite
together into one great trunk channel. From the circumstance that
its heads are situated in a high mountain mass where the rainfall
is relatively great, and moreover have steeply falling stony beds
which absorb but little of the precipitation, the upper portions
of Shab and its feeders are well stocked with trees. Only in the
last stages of its course to the sea, where the absorption of its
drainage by the sandy coast plain becomes great, does the abundance
of vegetation fall off and the channel become barren. Its principal
heads and feeders are Wadi Radad (fed by Wadi Shellal el Sharqi),
Wadi Tikosha, Wadi Muqur (fed by Wadi Ti Ilak), Wadi Qadiloi (fed by
Tilat Tihu Shana), Wadi Baaneit, Wadi Kilanai, Wadi Um Saha, Wadi
Diqdib, Wadi Sherefa el Sharqi, and Kwat Hewah. At least three of
these contain good water sources, Bir Muqur, Bir Baaneit, and Bir
Diqdib being situated in the upper parts of the wadis bearing the
same names. The various heads and feeders of Shab will be described
in detail below, commencing from the northernmost one.
=Wadi Radad= may be more properly described as a tributary than as
one of the heads of Wadi Shab, as it joins the trunk wadi some fifteen
kilometres below the other feeders. It originates in a rugged tract of
high hills near Bir Meneiga, and courses eastward for about thirty-six
kilometres, joining Wadi Shab on the coast-plain near the low hills
of Ti Qireira, about twenty-four kilometres up from the point where
Wadi Shab enters the sea. It has not been surveyed in detail, but
its course was mapped from the triangulation station of Gebel Gerf
and from other occupied stations whence portions of it were visible.
=Wadi Shellal el Sharqi=, a large feeder of Wadi Radad, originates
in the mountains between Bir Diqdib and Bir Muqur. It has many heads,
the best known of which is one coming from the west, leading to a pass
into Wadi Shellal el Gharbi, a tributary of Wadi Madi; while another,
a little further south, leads to another pass into Wadi Um Reddam and
forms a possible road to Bir Sararat Seyet. Wadi Shellal el Sharqi
follows generally a northward course, with a rapid fall, and joins
Wadi Radad about eighteen kilometres below the head of the latter.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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