Travels and discoveries in North and Central Africa : $b Including accounts of Tripoli, the Sahara, the remarkable kingdom of Bornu, and the countries around Lake ChadBarth, Heinrich
History
Travels and discoveries in North and Central Africa : $b Including accounts of Tripoli, the Sahara, the remarkable kingdom of Bornu, and the countries around Lake Chad
Barth, Heinrich
Africa, Central -- Description and travel; Africa, North -- Description and travel
The groves of the two villages of Rabda are not far apart. On the
north-eastern side of the village are seven holy chapels called el
Hararát. The eastern village lies upon a hill, over a hollow, in which
spreads a date-grove, likewise fed by a spring called ʿAin Rabda eʾ
sherkíyeh. On crossing a brook we obtained a view of the Jebel Shehésh,
which, attached to the Tarhóna, stretches a long way westward, and even
el Gunna was seen faintly in the distance. Thus we approached gradually
the interesting bicorn of the dark-coloured Jebel Manterús, which we were
bent on ascending. Alighting at the foot of the mount, near the border of
a deep channel, we sent the camels on, but kept the shoush and our guide
back to wait for us. It took me twenty-five minutes to reach the eastern
and higher summit, on which there is the tomb of a merábet, a holy
shepherd called Sidi Bu-Mʿaza; but I was disappointed in my expectation
of obtaining a great extent of view, the cone of Mount Tekút and other
mountains intervening. Towards the south only, a peep into the Wady el
Ugla, bordered by high cliffs, slightly rewarded me for my trouble;
and the mount itself is interesting, as it exhibits evident traces of
volcanic action.
I had reached the western lower cone in descending, when I met my
companion in his ascent, and, being anxious to overtake the camels, I
started in advance of him, accompanied by the guide, along the Wady
el Ugla. But my companions did not seem to agree as to the path to be
pursued; and my guide, overlooking on the rocky ground the footsteps of
the camels, which had taken the direct path to the Kasr Ghurián, wanted
to take me by the wady, and, instead of ascending the eastern cliffs of
the ravine, kept along it, where, from being narrow and rocky—the mere
bed of a torrent,—it widens to a pleasant, cultivated, open valley, with
rich marly soil, and adorned with an olive-grove. On a hill in the centre
lies the first village of the district Ghurián.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Travels and discoveries in North and Central Africa : $b Including accounts of Tripoli, the Sahara, the remarkable kingdom of Bornu, and the countries around Lake Chad — John Shaqi
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