kings that were placed before the pylons of temples in Egypt. The temple which stood on this island must have been of considerable size. On the right bank of the Nile, near Arko, at Karmân, are the ruins of a very large town, and in the necropolis are the remains of two rectangular mud-brick tombs which in Lepsius' day measured 150 feet by 66 feet by 40 feet, and 132 feet by 66 feet by 40 feet respectively; they are called Dafûfah and Ķarmân.

In the years 1913-15 Dr. Reisner carried out extensive excavations near Kermah (Karmah). He discovered fragments of inscribed alabaster bearing the names of Nefer-Ka-Ra Pepi I, Amenemḥat I, and Usertsen I, which proved that the site had been occupied from the VIth to the XIIth dynasties. The great mass of mud brick called "The Dafufah" was examined, and on the east side of it was a series of rooms containing pots and pans, mud sealings, and a lot of miscellaneous objects, all showing clearly that the rooms had been destroyed by fire. Round about the Dafûfah were heaps of ashes and slag, unfinished pottery, etc. The mud-seal impressions proved that the settlement had once been a great trading centre, probably from time immemorial. After the "Plain of Potsherds had been examined and the masses of pottery of the Hyksos period with which it was covered, the excavators turned their attention to the ground on the north of the Dafûfah, and there they found a Hyksos cemetery, and to the west of the Western Dafûfah, and there in a small area they found fragments of hundreds of stone vessels that had been made under the Ancient Empire. One class of grave at the Dafûfah is of special interest, for it shows that the old, wellknown African custom of funerary sacrifice was observed there. "In a carved bed in the middle of a big circular pit, the chief personage lies on his right side with his head east. Under his head is a wooden pillow; between his legs a sword or dagger; beside "his feet cowhide sandals and an ostrich feather fan. At his feet is "buried a ram, often with ivory knobs on the tips of the horns to prevent goring. Around the bed lie a varying number of bodies, "male and female, all contracted on the right side, head east. Among them are the pots and pans, the cosmetic jars, the stools and "other objects. Over the whole burial is spread a great ox-hide. "The men and women round about must have been sacrificed so that "their spirits might accompany the Chief to the other world. None "of them, so far as I could observe, bore any marks of violence. "Several had their fingers twisted into their hair or had covered their "faces with their hands. One woman had struggled over on her "back and was clutching her throat. But most of them lay composed “as if minded to die quickly, according to the custom of their fathers. "I could not escape the belief that they had been buried alive." (See Bulletin, Boston, April, 1914, p. 9.) The bodies that lay on the funerary beds were Egyptians, and the bodies that lay about them were the Nubians who were the human sacrifices when they were buried. Human sacrifices were made at the burials of great chiefs and kings at all periods in Egypt, and the custom still survives in

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the Sûdân*. But besides the Hyksos Cemetery, the American excavators found the remains of an older cemetery containing the graves of the Egyptian officials who administered the Sûdân under the XIIth dynasty. Among these was the tomb of Heptchefa, Governor of the Sûdân under Usertsen I, he died in the Sûdân and was buried there, and so his well-known tomb at Asyût was never occupied.

"The grave tumuli of the Egyptian governors were of a new type unknown in Egypt. Imagine a circle 80 to 90 metres in diameter, laid out on the hard desert surface, outlined by a wall of "mud-brick only 10 centimetres high, and crossed from east to "west by two long mud-brick walls forming a corridor two or three "metres wide. From the outside of this corridor, cross walls of "mud-brick, built at intervals of one or two metres, ran out to the "circumference Beginning with a height of 10 centimetres at "the circumference, the walls all rise in a curve to the height of two or three metres in the middle. All the spaces in the circle, except "the corridor, were filled in with loose earth. Opening off the "middle of the southern side of the corridor was a chamber roofed "with a mud-brick vault. The tomb was thus ready for burial. "A great funerary feast was made at which over 1,000 oxen were slaughtered, and their skulls buried around the northern half of the "circle outside. The body of the Prince was then laid to rest in "the vaulted chamber with his offerings, and the wooden door was "closed. The sacrificial victims, all local Nubians, either stupefied during the feast by a drug or strangled, were brought in and laid 66 out on the floor of the corridor-from two to three hundred men, 66 women, and children. With these Nubians were placed a few pots and pans, occasionally a sword, and often their personal ornaments. The corridor was filled in with earth, forming a low domed mound. The top was covered with a floor of mud"brick. A great quartzite pyramidion was set up on top; and "I believe that a mud-brick chapel was built around the stone. "The statues found cast down in the holes excavated by plunderers "had apparently stood in the chapel. Later, when the edges "of the mound became covered with drift-sand, the surface of the pavement softened in the sun, the mound was outlined with a band "of dark stone chips and the top sprinkled with white pebbles. "Almost immediately after the burial of the Prince, the mound began to be used as a cemetery, apparently for his relatives and "adherents." (Bulletin, Boston, December, 1915, p. 71.)

«

An examination of the so-called "Fort" revealed a stairway that leads up from the west to a small room 30 feet above the plain. Northwards from the N.E. corner of this room runs another stairway 20 feet long, and then turns west to the top of the building. The stairway and the room were filled with coals and ashes, which suggests that they were destroyed by fire.

Al-Urdî, or New Donkola, a little over 280 miles from Ḥalfah, on the west bank of the Nile, was re-occupied by Egyptian troops on September 23rd, 1896. In the Western

* I have collected a number of proofs of this fact in my Osiris and the Egyptian Resurrection, London, 1911, Vol. I, p. 197.

Desert, at no great distance from the town, are large quantities of salt deposit. During the revolt of the Mahdî this town, under the rule of Mustafa Yawar, who doubted the divinity of the Mahdî, remained loyal for a long time, and its people actually defeated the Dervishes at Ķûrta (Kôrtî); finally, however, it was compelled to submit to the rebel, and the loss of the Donkola Province was a serious blow to Egypt. The town was large and prosperous, but, like every place which fell under Dervish rule, was destroyed. The old town lay 2 miles south of the modern town. Seven miles to the south are the ruins of a small Egyptian temple, which was discovered and partially excavated by Colonel the Hon. J. Colborne in 1885. At mile 291 is Lebab Island, where the Mahdî was born. Khandak marks the site of an ancient Egyptian town, and the ruins of several churches prove that there was a flourishing Christian community here in the Coptic period. Christian remains are also found at Firgi, Khalêwa, Amentogo, Arab Hag, to the south of Khandak. At Arab Hag an obelisk inscribed with the name of Piankhi was found.

Old Donkola is situated on the east bank of the Nile, and is 351 miles from Ḥalfah. At the present time it is simply a deserted town, filled with the ruins of mud-brick houses, and containing about 30 able-bodied men. The people belonging to it usually live on a little island in the Nile close by, and on the western bank. It is built on a rocky height overlooking the river and the Eastern Desert, and has always been of great strategic importance, from its commanding position. The current is very strong here, and the steamer in which the writer passed it in September, 1897, with difficulty made one mile in an hour. At the end of the first half of the sixth century A.D. the Christian king Silko, who defeated the Blemmyes, adopted the town as his capital. Abu Şalîḥ describes it as a large city, and says that it "contains many churches, and large houses, and wide streets. The "king's house is lofty, with several domes of red brick, and "resembles the buildings in Al-'Irâk; and this novelty was "introduced by Raphael, who was king of Nubia, A.H. 392, "i.e., A.D. 1002." The Nubians are said to have been starworshippers, and the first who was converted to Christianity was Bahriyâ, the son of the king's sister, who built many churches and monasteries in Nubia, some on the river banks, and some in the desert. The northern frontier of Nubia was at Aswân, which was said to be distant a journey of 40 days, and was called Marîs, a name derived from two ancient

Egyptian words meaning the "south land." The south wind is commonly called "Marîsiyah," as belonging to the south. The king of Nubia had dominion over Mâķurrah and ‘Alwah. The Mosque at Old Donkola was dedicated to the service of God A.D. 1317; it stands in a prominent place, and commands the country and the river.

According to Mr. J. W. Crowfoot the church at Old Donkola is built in two storeys. The entrance is at the west end and leads through a door to a broad flight of steps. The steps bring the visitor into the upper storey of the church which was, and still is, used as a mosque. The upper storey consists of a square nave about seven metres across, with a flat roof resting on four pillars. There is a niche at the end of the nave, round which runs a gallery; the walls have been white-washed in recent years, but figures of Christian Saints are visible beneath it. The lower storey has a gallery running north to south the whole width of the church. This opens into five aisles, which open into another gallery in which is an apse.

Abû Kussî, 356 miles from Ḥalfah, is the starting point of the great Kordôfân and Dâr Fûr caravan road. AlDabbah (Debbeh), 371 miles from Halfah, originally a small village, was turned into a fortified place by the Turks; at this point the Nile is 750 yards wide. Dabbah is the starting point of the direct caravan road to Omdurmân. Kurta (Kôrtî), 416 miles from Ḥalfah, on the west bank of the river, was the headquarters of Lord Wolseley's expedition to rescue General Gordon in 1884; nearly all the forces were concentrated there on Christmas Day of that year, and the withdrawal from the place began in March, 1885. From this point on the Nile to Matammah is a distance of 176 miles. Water is first met with 37 miles from Kôrtî or Ambukôl, and 18 miles further on are the Wells of Al-Ḥuwêyât ; 100 miles from Ambukôl are the Gakdûl Wells, which are situated in one of the spurs of the Gabal Gillîf range. The wells are water-worn basins at the bottom of a granite gorge, and the largest of the pools measures 180 feet by 30 feet; the water is sweet. At the distance of 150 miles from Ambukôl are the Wells of Abu Klea (Abû Taliḥ), and 18 miles further on is the Well of Shabakat, which is 12 feet in diameter and 50 feet deep. At Kurrû, Zuma (east bank), and Tankâsi (west bank), 7 to 10 miles from Marawi, are the remains of large groups of pyramids, but the stone casings have been removed by many generations of Muḥammadans for building their tombs, and for making the foundations of the supports of their water-wheels. The cores of most of these pyramids

were built of mud bricks, but in each pyramid field are the ruins of at least one well-built step pyramid made of stone.

About seven miles down stream of Marawî is the so-called pyramid-field of Tankâsî, but the funerary monuments there are not pyramids, only mounds of earth which have been heaped up over tombs, and have had their bases protected with rows of stones. Nearly opposite Tankâsî, on the east bank, is the pyramid-field of Kurrû, where the Harvard-Boston Expedition carried out excavations in 1919. Here were found the pyramid-tombs of the great king Piankhi, and of his successors Shabaka, Shabataka, and Tanut-Amen. The tombs are of the "stairway-pyramid" type, the orientation is towards the west, or left bank, and the tombs of the kings are separated from those of the queens. The pyramids of the four kings stand on a sandstone plateau between two shallow valleys, and to the north and south of the valleys are the tombs of the queens. The oldest tomb on the site is a small grave of the tumulus type, of a private individual. Near this is a series of 15 tombs, each one larger and better built and better decorated than the one before, and these occupy the best places on the plateau. The sites of the pyramids of the four kings mentioned above are the poorest on the plateau, and it is clear that these were the last buildings set up in the cemetery. All this seems to show that the cemetery was very old, and that it had been in continuous use for some generations; and Reisner regards the small tumulus grave and the 15 pyramid tombs at Kurrû as "the tombs of the ancestors of Piankhi.' He thinks that the group represents six generations, and that Kashta was buried at Kurrû, and that his family was of Libyan origin. Whilst Shashanq (I), a descendant of the great Libyan Chief Buiuwawa, was making himself King of Egypt in the north, the Libyans in the south were invading the province of Donkola. One of them established himself at or near Napata, acquired considerable wealth and was buried at Kurrû. descendants acquired greater wealth and power, and as their riches increased so did the size and splendour of their tombs and pyramids. One of these descendants called Kashta invaded Egypt and occupied the country as far north as Thebes, and thus a Libyan once again sat upon the throne of Amen. Near the tombs of the royal ladies who were buried at Kurrû were discovered 24 graves of horses, which date from the reigns of Piankhi, Shabaka, Shabataka, and Tutankh-Åmen. Each horse was buried upright, with his head towards the south and he seemed to belong to a short, small breed, resembling the Arab. These horses were sacrificed when their masters were buried, so that the royal spirits might have the spirits of their favourite horses to ride in the Other World. When the present writer was excavating some graves on the east slope of the ridge on which the main group of pyramids stand at Meroë, in 1902 and 1905, a great many bones of horses were found, rib bones, broken skulls, and hoof bones. Many of these were examined by Col. Griffith, the Chief of the Veterinary Department of the Egyptian Army, and he asserted that they belonged to a type and The tombs breed of horse which no longer existed in the country. at Kurrû may be visited by the traveller and inspected at his ease,

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