xxxiv INTRODUCTION. 
Cailliaud, in his account of his journey from the Fayum to the oasis of Siwah in 
November and December 1819, describes how in that direction he crossed immense 
plains where the horizon was lost in sand and without a vestige of vegetation, and bow 
he passed among dunes of moving sand which, in places, so obstructed progress that 
trenches had to be cut to permit the camels to pass. He spent two days in the 
depression of the "Wadi Raian, and he describes it as bordered, in his day, with 
shrubs, acacias, and some palms, so luxuriant in their growth that they conceale 
him from the Arabs, and permitted him to take his observations unseen ; but this valley 
is now quite destitute of vegetation 1 . Beyond Wadi Raian, Cailliaud left the route 
that had been followed so far by Belzoni 2 in May 1819, and took a course to the west 
and some degrees north. He first encountered numerous sand-dunes and springs of 
brackish water with some herbage, and further on passed over a desert tract covered 
with calcareous isolated rocks, and with a chain of hills to the north, the horizon 
to the south beiug lost in sands — the cold north wind being so intense that he was 
glad to avail himself of the shelter of some low hills. The next tract of desert 
passed over was covered with rounded pebbles, and in the hollows beyond there 
was a little herbage, then again in places great stretches of sand, with extensive 
dunes running south to north, due to the prevalence of the polar winds. In the last 
days of November, amid this sea of sand, he met with a little rain lasting about 
five minutes. Some marches beyond, over a similar desert, he sighted the eastern 
continuation of the escarpment of the plateau of Cyrenaica, which, viewed from the 
south, appears as a chain of mountains extending from the east, away in the distance, 
towards the west. He visited the basin of Ain Ouara, covered with reeds, shrubs, 
herbage, and palms, its centre occupied by a lake of saltish water full of reeds highly 
prized for mat-making. Several wells of sweet water exist here at the base of 
a sand-hill covered with shrubs. The cold of the morning at 7 a.m. was as low as 
6° - 8 Cent., but at 3 r.M. it was as much as 28° Cent. An immense plain borders the 
foregoing escarpment, occasionally broken by sand-dunes, and while crossing the plain 
some drops of rain fell one day in the afternoon. As the oasis of El Garah was 
approached a salt plain grooved like a ploughed field was crossed, and afterwards he 
descried in front of him a fertile valley with palms, acacias, and many herbs. Following 
this, an elevated desert covered with irregularities was passed over, to a high plateau 
from which a rapid slope descended to a plain studded with hillocks, but having 
herbage and shrubs, and, continuing onwards, the palm-groves of the oasis of Siwah 
became visible. lie remained at Siwah from the 10th to the 25th December, and then 
retraced his steps in an easterly direction to the oasis of Baharich. The eastern 
portion of the Siwah district, across which Cailliaud and other travellers have passed, 
1 Brown (R. H.), The Fayum and Lake Mreris, 1802, p. 5. 
; Xarr the c£ lb. : Ope atioi.s and l'ecent Discoveries in Egypl and Nubia, 1820. 
