Page:Africa by Élisée Reclus, Volume 1.djvu/310

 244 NOETH-EAST AFRICA. Khartum. As far as we search back in the history of the upper regions of the Nile, an important town has always stood in the vicinity of the junction of the White and Blue Niles. A geographical position of such importance could not be neglected even in barbarous times ; but the vicissitudes of migrations and wars, perhaps aided by some changes in the course of the two rivers, have frequently compelled the town to shift its position. An ancient Christian city, Aloa, is known to have stood 10 or 12 miles above the " Elephant's Trunk " on the right bank of the Bahr-el-Azraq. Several remains of columns and sculptures have been found there, proving that the Bejas of Aloa possessed a civilisation superior to that of the states which succeeded them. All that now remains of this town are shapeless masses covered with brushwood, the building materials ready to hand having been used for the structures of Khartum. The Arab village of " Old Sobat " stands near the ruins, and on the opposite bank are the tile and brick works of " Neic Sobat." A few sites are pointed out as those of ancient churches, and bear the name of Kenmeh, a term evidently derived from the word " Kilissa " applied to Christian churches in the Turkish countries of Europe and Asia ; at liuri, near Khartum itself, stands one of these Kenisse/i. Not far from Wod-Medineh, crypts of Christian origin have been discovered ; these ruins are the southernmost that have been hitherto found on the plains watered by the Blue Nile, beyond the Abyssinian frontier. After the destruction of the empire of the Bejas, the town at the confluence, hitherto comprised in the realm of the Funj, stood farther north, some 7 miles below the present junction of the two rivers. This town, which still exists but in a very decayed condition, is Halfaya, the residence of the grand sheikh of the Jalins. An arm of the Nile, now dried up or filled only during the floods, joins the main channel west of Halfaya ; it is surrounded by a garden of palms, shelter- ing its houses. Opposite and not far from the left bank, a small group of hills shelter a few trees in their valleys, and in the rainy season give birth to rivulets which wind through the plain. After its capture in 1821 by the Egyptians, Halfaya for several years still preserved a certain importance as the strategical guardian and commercial depot of the junction ; but the very point of the two rivers, called the " End of the Trunk," or Ras-el-Khartum, appeared to Mohammed Ali a much more suitable site for the capital of his vast possessions, and here he accordingly built the barracks and arsenal. In 1830, there was only one hut where, ten years after, stood the first city of the Nilotic basin beyond Egypt. Khartum, protected to the north and west by the broad beds of its two rivers, is certainly very well situated for defence, and its walls, flanked by bastions and skirted by a ditch, protect it from a surprise on the south and east ; besides, a fortified camp situated on the right bank of the Bahr-el-Abiad near the village of Omdurmon, renders it easy for the garrison to cross over to the western bank of the river and commands the route to Kordofan. Thanks to the rivers, the steam boats which ply below (