Page:Africa by Élisée Reclus, Volume 1.djvu/376

 800 NORTH-EAST AFRICA. a large population. The numerous ruins found beyond the group of buildings of which Marawi is the centre, belong to diverse historical epochs ; they consist of pyramids, dating from the period of the Byzantine influences, and fortresses constructed after the triumphs of Islam. Old and New Dongola. The head of the curve which the Nile describes before resimiing its northern course, like that of AbA-Hamed, could not fail to become a rendezvous for merchants. But the deviation of the river is here much more extensive, and the caravans have had the choice of several sites for their stations of arrival and departure. Thus follow in succession on the left bank of the river, going north- wards, the trading stations of Korti, Ambukol, Ahu-Dum (Abdum), Dahheh, and Ahu-Gossi, where terminates the route to Khartum through the Wady-Mokattam. Dabbeh was the station chosen by the British expedition of 1884 as the centre of their supplies. Abii-Gossi has been fixed by the engineers as the point where the Nile railway will enter on the desert along the valley of the Wady-Melek ; at the Sotahl wells the line will branch off on one side towards Khartum, and on the other towards Darfur. Dongola-el-Ajusa, or Old Dongola, which is believed to have existed under the name of Deng-ur at the period of the ancient Egyptian Empire, was till recently the most important town of the country. It stands farther down on a sandstone rock which commands the right bank of the river from a height of about one hun- dred feet. Here was discovered a column which has since been placed in the Berlin museum. Dongola was the capital of a Christian realm which lasted for eight hundred years, down to the fourteenth century. It was still populous at the time when the Mameluks, flying from the wrath of Mohammed- Ali, settled down in the country in the character of devastators, the Turks, who followed close on their heels, completing the work of destruction. The islands which follow in succession between the arms of the Nile, from Old to New Dongola, are mostly cultivated, and present a charming appearance, with their borders of palms reflected in the flowing stream. Naft, one of these islands, is the birthplace of the Mahdi, Mohammed Ahmed. Dongola-el-Jedidehy or New Dongola, the present capital of Nubia, is also known by the names of Kasr Dongola (Castle of Dongola), and Al-Ordu {^ihe Camp), in reference to the fact that it really sprang from a camp which the Mameluks pitched near the village of Marakah. It lies over a mile west of the great arm of the Nile, on the bank of a canal which at high tide serves as a port, but which at low water becomes a mere stagnant pool emitting dangerous miasmas. Consisting of low houses with courts, outhouses, and gardens, Dongola occupies a considerable extent of ground, and some of its buildings, amongst others a fortress in which are to be seen the remains of a castle built by the naturalist Ehrenberg, give to the whole a sufficiently imposing appearance. According to Ensor, the mean population of the