Page:Africa by Élisée Reclus, Volume 1.djvu/379

 80LEB-AMARAII— SEMNEH— EMKA. 808 been but recently planted. At one time the English appear to have entertained the project of constructing a fort, and maintaining a permanent garrison in the Seliineh ousis for the purpose of commanding the route to Darfur, and overawing the neighbouring peoples in the Nile valley. SoLEB — Amarah. The usual route by river to the Seliraeh oasis starts from the village of So/et, below the Third Cataract. The houses of the village are overtopped by the ruins of a temple, one of the finest and largest specimens of ancient Egyptian workman- ship to be found in Nubia. The columns which still stand are as elegant as those of Greek temples ; but the sculptures and inscriptions in honour of Amenemha III. are not numerous, and the interior is a mere chaos of rubbish. Lower doi*Ti on the right bank of the river stand the sculpture<l pillars of the temple of Amarah, surrounded by palm groves, whose fruit is the most highly valued throughout the whole of Nubia. Here begins that region of gorges and rapids which the Arabs call " Botn-el-IIagar." Although the cliffs on both side? almost meet here and there, the banks of the river are everywhere cultivated. When the strip of alluvia is only a few yards broad, it is usually sown with haricots or lentils ; but when the arable zone is not so narrow it is used for raising crops of durrah ; and if still more extensive it bears a few palms, under which nestle small groups of huts. The crests of the neighbouring rocks are crowned by the towers of strongholds and the walls of ancient entrenched camps. The remains of a feudal system similar to that of Europe, the Nubian castles differ little from those of the Rhine, except that the battlements and keeps are built in red brick, whilst the roofs, slightly inclined, are broader at the base than at the summit, and all the towers are conical. One of the thermal springs which rise in these gorges on the banks of the Nile, is much frequented by the sick persons of the surrounding country, but only during the season of low water, as at other periods the beach is covered by the floods. The sands give birth to several springs, many of which are probably rivulets which filtered through from the Nile during the floods, and are now returning to the main stream. Semxeh — Emka. At Semneh, one of the few villages situated in the Botn-el-IIagar, two cliffs on the banks of the Nile each bear an Egyptian fortress of the twelfth dynasty. At the period of the inundations the broad bed of the Nile is entirely flooded ; but at low water nearly the whole of the space comprised between the two cliffs is occupied by shining black granite rocks, pierced with holes and intersected by deep crevasses. It is now merely a narrow channel about 100 feet broad, through which rushes a foaming body of water at the rate of several hundred cubic feet per second. In no other part of its course does the Nile present a more magnificent appearance.