Position 98 - Second Cataract Of The Nile, From The Southwest, The First Obstruction To Navigation For A Thousand Miles

We have now reached the termination of the journey by the river; from this point which by water is nearly a thousand miles from Alexandria and the sea, we shall proceed by rail. Our point of view is on the west beside an elevated rock known as Abusir (Map 3). We look northeastward down the rocky gorge, over the wild prospect of the cataract. It is now March, and the waters have been falling for four or five months; but in the time of the inundation, it is an impressive sight to see the river rushing over these stubborn rocks which for ages have resisted the erosion of the stream.

They are chiefly granite, with outcroppings of other similar rocks, which break up the stream into numerous tortuous channels, or, when submerged, harass the waters into a wild and fearful tumult of successive leaps and plunges, churning the flood for miles into a boiling, seething cauldron, flecked with yellow foam, which gleams in striking contrast with the black rocks that form the obstruction.

This cataract was the frontier of the Middle Kingdom, whose kings first made conquest of lower Nubia; although to maintain it they built a series of forts in the valley or on the islands in the stream for thirty miles above this point. These forts, built in the days of Abraham, are still standing in a fair state of preservation.

The tribes which they were built to keep in subjection 4,000 years ago, had not in the year of grace 1883 yet lost their aggressiveness; for at that time, under their skilful leader, the Mahdi, they regained their independence and eventually drove back the British to this cataract. The frontier post of the English then became Wadi Halfa, a town almost in sight from here, about five miles down stream directly on our present line of sight on the other side of the river.

That is, the frontier became essentially the same as that of the Pharaohs in the days of Abraham, so often and so long has civilization been thrown back from permanent conquest of this valley. Here it remained until the British in 1896-7 pushed a railway from Wadi Halfa out into the desert here on our right, having as their objective the town of Abu Hammad, thus cutting off the enormous bend of the river, which is behind us (see Map 3). Trace that bend on the map to the fourth cataract and you will have the extent of Egyptian domination of Nubia in ancient times.

There are some scattered Egyptian monuments along that great bend from the fourth cataract down to the point where we now stand, but they are not to be compared in magnitude and splendor with those which we have already seen. Hence we shall leave the river at Wadi Halfa, just below us here, and following the railway through the desert on our right to Abu Hammad, we shall go on to its terminus in Khartûm.

Omdurman and Khartûm you will find at the lower extremity of Map 3. These two cities are given on a larger scale also on Map 20. On the latter map you will find our next standpoint indicated by the lines numbered 99. We shall look northeast.