TOPOGRAPHY— FAZOGL, FAMATA. 239 



tribute was raised ; but the heavy taxes at last exhausted the patience of the Beja 

 nomads, and a general insurrection against the Khedive's power spread throughout 

 Eastern Sudan. It has recently been seen with what courage and absolute con- 

 tempt for death the Beni- Amers, the Hadendoas, and the Bishârins have hurled 

 themselves against the English squares, opening a path of blood with their lances 

 up to the cannon's mouth. 



Topography. 



Under the Egyptian rule, Upper Nubia was divided into provinces which 

 partially coincide with the natural divisions of the country. At the outlet of the 

 Abyssinian mountains the riverain countries of the Blue Nile constituted Fazogl. 

 Lower down this name has been preserved by the central part of the ancient 

 kingdom of Senaar, beyond which follow the provinces of Khartum and Berber. 

 To the east Taka comprises the hills and the plains bounded on one side by the 

 Atbara, and on the other by the Barka. The coast regions were divided between 

 the provinces of Massawah and Suakin, the former of which has been partly 

 occupied by the Italians, the latter by the English. Lastly, a few independent 

 states, republics, or chiefdoms still occupy the borderlands between Abyssinia and 

 the Sudan. 



Fazogl, Famata. 



Fazogl, which has given its name to the upper province of the Blue Nile, and 

 was, before the Egyptian rule, the residence of a powerful king, is now little more 

 than a mere hamlet. As a capital it has been replaced by the town of Famaka, 

 where Mohammed Ali had a palace built at the time of his visit to his southern 

 possessions in 1839 ; a few scattered bricks are now all that remains of it. Famaka 

 would be well situated as a commercial town if slave-hunting had not driven all 

 the surrounding peoples into the mountains. The houses, built on a gneiss rock, 

 skirt the right bank of the Blue Nile, near the confluence of a khôr and a little 

 above the point where the river Tumat forms a junction with the Bahr-el-Azraq. 

 Facing it to the south stands Mount Fazogl, the first high crest commanding the 

 river to be met with on coming from Khartum ; hence it appears more imposing 

 than many eminences of greater height, while the rich vegetation which clothes its 

 slopes seems marvellous to those who come from the desolate northern wastes. 



The valley of the Tumat had already long ceased to be Egyptian territory 

 before the great insurrection of the Sudan peoples burst forth. Nevertheless, 

 Mohammed Ali considered that this province was one day destined to become the 

 treasure of his empire ; he counted on the gold washed down with the sands of the 

 Tumat and its afiluents to pay his armies and to free himself from the galling 

 suzerainty of the Padishah, In consequence of these ambitious views he caused 

 the upper basin of the Tumat to be explored by the Europeans Cailliaud, Tremaux, 

 Kovalevskiy, and Russegger. But the expenses of the occupation of the country, 



