DOBAEIK— LALIBALA. 



1G9 



and children ; cisterns and wells sunk in the soil supply it with water, whilst the 

 fertile neighbouring valleys furnish provisions in abundance. It was at Mao-dala 

 that Theodore kept for two years the English prisoners, for whose rescue an Ano-lo- 

 Indian Army was dispatched in 1868. The fortress of Magdala, destroyed by the 

 English, and afterwards conquered by the King of Shoa from an independent chief, 

 and ceded by him to his sovereign, the King of Abyssinia, has since been restored, 

 on account of its great strategic importance. It forms an advanced outpost in the 

 Galla country, which is traversed by the shortest route to the kingdom of Shoa. 

 At the eastern base of the rocks of Magdala, in a gorge commanded eastwards by 



Fig. 53.— Magdala. 

 Scale 1 : 300,000. 



other basalt promontories, stands the village of Tanta, or Tenta, peopled by 

 merchants who supply the citadel with provisions. 



DOBARIK — LaLIBALA. 



The Abyssinian towns standing on plateaux intersected by the gorges of the 

 Takkazeh and its affluents are, like those of the banks of the Blue Nile, mostly of 

 military or religious origin. Besides, they are few and far between, and some of 

 them, after enjoying a long period of prosperity, have been abandoned and now 

 contain more ruins than inhabited houses. The least populous region of this slope 

 is that whose waters flow eastwards into the Takkazeh between the Beffhemeder 

 and Simen uplands. This pro^nnce of Belessa has been traversed by few explorers 

 on account of the lack of resources and the unhealthiness of the kwalla, which 

 must be crossed amid the various sections of the plateau. But in Simen the chief 

 towns of this mountainous province, Tnshatkab the capital, Faras- Saber and Dobarik, 

 near the Lamalmon Pass, have been frequently visited, thanks to their situation on 



