Page:Africa by Élisée Reclus, Volume 1.djvu/211

 the American aliolitionists, but for an entirely different purpose, they had established a "subterranean route," that is to say, a series of secret deixJts underground or in the woods, stretching between Gondar and Metamneh. The convoys of slaves were carefully imprisoned all day in these depots, passing from one to the other only under cover of night. The natural centre of Abyssinia, which has also at various epochs been the seat of empire, is the fertile basin whose central depression contains the waters of Lake Tana. The mean height of this favoured region exceeds 6,600 feet ; it forms the voïna-dega zone, which corresponds to the temperate zone of Europe, although enjoying a more equable climate and a richer vegetation. Thanks to these happy conditions, the land yields the most abundant and varied crops in Abyssinia, and here have been built the most populous towns, which in this feudal region are elsewhere extremely rare. Another great advantage of this district is its relative facility of access. From Khartum to Lake Tuna the direct route rises gradually, crossing only one steep ridge, that of Wali-dabba, north-west of the great lake; but it would be difficult to follow the route made through the gorges of the Blue Nile, an immense semicircle described by the river beyond Abyssinia into the country of the Ilm-Ormas and Bertas. One of the cities of the central Abyssinian basin is Gondar, or rather Girendar, usually designated as the capital, although it is merely the chief religious centre. Gondar is not of ancient origin, dating only from the beginning of the seventeenth century, although it has already more ruined buildings than houses in good condition. Most of the churches were destroyed by Theodore in a fit of rage, and on the rounded hill overlooking the town from the north are the remains of a gimp, or "stronghold," which, in spite of its dilapidated condition, is still the finest building in Abyssinia. Its reddish sandstone walls with basalt parapets, round towers, square keep, and lofty gateways in the Portuguese style, give it an imposing appearance; but it is being gradually overgrown by trees and shrubs, while entire portions have been systematically demolished. " Since we must no longer, build monuments," said a queen in the middle of this century, " why should we allow those of others to exist?" Seen from afar at the foot of its picturesque ruins, commanded by churches, and dotted with clumps of trees, Gondar presents the appearance of a picturesque European town, with its amphitheatre of hills, its silvery rivulets winding through the prairies of the Dembea, and the glittering surface of the neighbouring lake.

Gondar is situated at a height variously estimated at from 6,300 to 6,800 feet, on the southern and western sides of a gently sloping hill. Its houses are built, not in groups so as to form a town properly so-called, but in separate quarters, between which intervene heaps of rubbish and waste spaces, where leopards and