16 THE SECRET OF SAHARA: KUFARA 



principal villages in Kufara were Jof, the seat of govern- 

 ment, and Taj, the holy of holies of the Senussi faith. 

 I did not know that mountains and lakes, fields of 

 tamarisk and acacia, peaches, grapes and figs were to be 

 found in this Garden of Eden lost amid the impenetrable 

 sands, between the Dakhla Desert to the east, untraversed 

 by Europeans, and to the west the trackless waste 

 stretching to Uau Szerir at the edge of Tripolitania, to 

 which remote prison some of the unfortunate survivors 

 of the Miani column were sent as prisoners. To me, 

 Kufara was almost a mirage. It represented the secret 

 which the Sahara had rigidly guarded for so long against 

 Christian eyes. The tragic story of Rohlfs' ill-fated 

 expedition fired my enthusiasm to reach this centre of 

 the world's most fanatical confraternity, the unknown, 

 mysterious country untrod by foot of stranger, be he 

 Christian or Moslem. 



Having regard to the amazing difficulties of the 

 journey and the almost maniacal hatred with which 

 strangers are regarded, it is natural that, with one pos- 

 sible exception, no European should ever have been able 

 to reach the sacred cluster of zawias and morabits at Taj. 

 A French prisoner spent some time in Kufara during the 

 war; he was sent there from Uau Szerir by order of 

 Sayed Ahmed. Over forty years ago a German explorer 

 made a very gallant attempt to solve the mystery of 

 the far-off oasis. In 1879 the Kaiser Wilhelm I sent 

 a scientific expedition to Libya consisting of four men — 

 Rohlfs, Stecker, Eckhart and Hubner. It was backed 

 by the whole power of Turkey. It carried magnificent 

 presents from the Emperor. It was laden with cases of 

 silver and gold. Hostages were held at Benghazi, while 

 Rohlfs led his party to the southern deserts. He left 

 Jalo on July 5 with a hundred camels and a large 

 escort of Zouias mounted on horses, including several 



