Lobeid, or Labayet, as it is also termed, is a town composed of several villages, from one of which it neither differs in its external appearance nor internal arrangements, excepting, perhaps, in being of greater extent. The houses, like those of the villages, are mere huts of straw, some few of them are, indeed, built of clay, but not one single house is of stone. The former town of the same name was totally destroyed by the Turks when they took possession of Kordofan, and the six villages, of which the capital of this province now consists, were subsequently built on the same site. Although these villages are not separated from each other by the intervention of a large space, yet each of them forms a separate quarter, and is inhabited by a distinct class of men. _Wady Naghele_, the first of these, is entirely inhabited by the Dongolavi and foreign merchants; _El-Orta_, the camp, also named the town of the Turks, is the quarter in which the government buildings are situated, consisting of two Barracks, the arsenal, the hospital and the residences of the officers, and of many married soldiers living out of barrack; in this quarter of the town the Bazaar is also seen. _Wady Soffie_ is the place of abode of the negroes who immigrated with the Melik-Moussalem; _Takarir_ or _Takruri_, is the village of the pilgrims, where the greater part of the negroes from Pergu and other districts reside. In this part of the town the straw-huts of _Abumedina_, the brother of the Sultan of Darfûr,[67] are also situate. In _Kongeri_ those emigrants from Darfûr dwell, who have become residents, and remained after the conquest of the country by the Egyptian troops. The sixth village includes the new buildings of the _Mogghrebeen_, who are not provided with barracks, and have themselves built their own dwellings. These six villages collectively form the town of Lobeid. I estimate the number of inhabitants, exclusively of the military, at 12,000 souls. The houses named in the language of the country, Tukkoli, are mostly huts, similar to those described on a former occasion. The town does not present a very pleasing appearance, and is, on the whole, exceedingly dull and dismal, for very few large houses are to be seen, and not even one minaret, met with in nearly every village in Egypt, which, with the date-trees planted around them, give those villages at least a more cheerful aspect. Nothing can be more monotonous than the appearance of the town during the dry season, when the detached houses present themselves with all their defects and meanness, and the scanty trees and gardens offer no diversification of scenery; for the former then stand as bald as brooms, and the latter are not even thought of. The burning sand, moreover, serves to remind the traveller that he is in a desert, and there is not the slightest object to be seen that might delight his eye.