410 JOURNAL RELATING TO NUBIA. 



cut in tablets, and at the bottom of the whole are rudely formed 

 hieroglyphics. At a short distance to the north are the remains of 

 a small temple, consisting of six columns beautifully finished with 

 capitals : two of them facing the north engaged in a wall forming the 

 entrance ; their capitals are heads of Isis, supporting a plinth on which 

 are cut Monolithic temples ; the other four, two on the west and two 

 on the east, are engaged in a wall half their height ; the capitals vary ; 

 but the opposite, or the east and west, are alike. Those at the south 

 angles have the grape and wheat-ear worked under the volutes. The 

 shafts are about three feet in diameter ; the distance between them 

 about ten ; the north front is thirty feet ; the east and west thirty-six ; 

 on the latter, towards the base, two or three symbolic figures have 

 been sculptured. On one of the columns are some Greek characters 

 beginning with the usual form to -r^oT-y-uvirfix. 



The west bank of the river in the neighbourhood of Gartaas is 

 almost a desart ; a few huts scattered amongst the ruins afford shelter 

 to the inhabitants. The opposite shore has some degree of cultivation, 

 and the mountains are a little distant from the banks of the river. 



May 15. — Arrived at Taeefa on the west bank, above which 

 the sides of the river become bold and craggy, and near this place 

 is the entrance to the Shellaal * or cataract of Galabshee ; here 

 Mr. Buckingham, a gentleman who had lately ascended the Nile 

 as far as Dukkey, lays down the tropic of Cancer. Taeefa, con- 

 tains several remains of ancient buildings scattered about on an open 

 cultivated spot of more than a mile in length, and about half in breadth, 

 bounded by the desart and its mountains. The village might contain 

 two or three hundred inhabitants, and had a Sheik who regulated their 

 labour and subsistence. The doom and palm-tree flourished here. 



The antiquities consist of several spacious oblong enclosures of 

 masonry of not more than three or four feet in height. In the centre 

 of the plain, separated from each other, are two buildings, one com- 

 plete, having the form of a portico, the other in ruins, seems to be 



* Jc se^ai de divers Nubiens qu'il s'en trouve sept on liiiit de remarquables cataractes, 

 depuis Sai au dessous de Dongola, jusqii'a Assouan. — Maillet. p. 42. 



