Page:Africa by Élisée Reclus, Volume 1.djvu/403

 ( THE WESTERN OASES. 828 eeparatod by a limestone wilderness, partly covered with shifting sands, from the oasis of Farafreh, which is situated 120 miles to the north-west. Tlic labyrinth of rocks occupying the intermediate space between Dakhel and Farafreh is one of the most remarkable formations of the kind in the whole world. The narrow fissures winding along and intersecting each other at variuos angles amid the still preserved upright rocky masses resemble the streets of some weird city lined with fantastic monuments, pyramids, obelisks, triumphal arches, sphinxes, lions, and even statues faintly reproducing the outlines of the human figure. One of the natural gates on the north side of this uninhabited city has by Rohlfs been named the Bab-el-Iasmund, in honour of a fellow-countryman. A still more colossal gate- way, which stands at the outlet of the labyrinth facing the Dakhel oasis, is known as the Bab-el-Cailliaud, in memory of the first European traveller who in recent times has penetrated into these inhospitable regions. Several oases of smaller size are scattered round about the Wah-el- Farafreh, forming an archipelago which is prolonged in a north-easterly direction by the oasis of Bakharieh, probably the "Little Oasis" of the ancients. It is one of those lying nearest to the Nile, being situated not more than 90 miles from the plains of Minieh in the fluvial basin. But in this district the series of depressions ramifies in two different directions. One branch continues to develop itself parallel with the Nile, while the other follows the line of the Mediterranean seaboard west of Alexandria. Its axis intersects the depressions of the Bahr-Bel&-m&, or " Water- less Lakes," and other dried-up lacustrine basins, ultimately terminating in the oasis of Siwah, formerly consecrated to Jupiter Ammon. North of the Siwah depression rise the rocky escarpments of the plateau of Cyrenaica, while towards the south an isolated system of coarse limestones is encircled by lofty sand dunes. In this region bordering on the sea and already comprised within the zone of winter rains, the water develops vast lacustrine basins, all saturated with salt. Amongst them is the extensive Lake Sittra, which floods the lowest part of a depression lying midway between the Bahr-BelA-m& and the Siwah oasis. But this " sparkling sapphire set in gold," as it has been described, merges in one direction in dreary morasses. Other cavities are now empty. Excavated in the form of wells to a depth of from 60 to 150 feet, they still retain at the bottom a deposit of mud mixed with salt and gypsum. Springs even continue to bubble up in some ; but the banks of these saline waters are everywhere destitute of vegetation. In the dried-up lacustrine hollows nothing is seen except a little scrub in places where the saline efllorescences have been overlaid by a thick layer of drifting sands. Not far from Lake Sittra stretches the now-abandoned oasis of El-Araj, which is being gradually swallowed up in the sands. The outer zone of plantations has already partly disappeared ; the half-choked-up wells now contain nothing but a scanty supply of brackish water ; and the time is rapidly approaching when the only evidence of the former residence of man in this district will be tombs in the Egyptian style excavated in the neighbouring cliffs.