Author Description

Excerpt from Archaeological Survey of Egypt: The Island of Meroë; Meroitic Inscriptions, Part I.-Sôba to Dangêl James bruce, the discoverer of the Abyssinian sources of the Nile, was the first of modern travellers to recognize the true limits and position of the Island Of Meroe, a region roughly equal in area to Ireland, enclosed by the Atbara, the Nile, the Blue Nile and its tributaries. He was returning from Abyssinia by way of the Nile valley in the autumn of 1772, when by chance he stumbled upon the remains Of the ancient capital. On the 20th of October, he writes,1 in the evening we left Shendy, and rested two miles from the town and about a mile from the river; the next day, the 21st, we continued our journey; at nine we alighted to feed our camels under some trees, having gone about ten miles. At this place begins a large island in the Nile, several miles long, full of villages, trees and corn it is called Kurgos. Opposite to this is the mountain Gibbainy, where is the first scene of ruins I have met with since that of Axum in Abyssinia. We saw here heaps of broken pedestals, like those Of Axum, all plainly designed for the statues Of the dog some pieces of Obelisk, likewise with hieroglyphics, almost totally obliterated. The Arabs told us these ruins were very extensive and that many pieces Of statues, both of men and animals, had been dug Up there. The statues of the men were mostly Of black stone. It is impossible to avoid risking a guess that this is the ancient city Meroe. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our editio