244 NOETH-EAST AFRICA. 



Khartum. 



As far as we search back in the history of the upper regions of the Nile, an 

 important town has always stood in the vicinity of the junction of the "White and 

 Blue Niles. A geographical position of such importance could not be neglected 

 even in barbarous times ; but the vicissitudes of migrations and wars, perhaps 

 aided by some changes in the course of the two rivers, have frequently compelled 

 the town to shift its position. An ancient Christian city, Aloa, is known to have 

 stood 10 or 12 miles above the " Elephant's Trunk " on the right bank of the 

 Bahr-el-Azraq. Several remains of columns and sculptures have been found there, 

 proving that the Bejas of Aloa possessed a civilisation superior to that of the 

 states which succeeded them. All that now remains of this town are shapeless 

 masses covered with brushwood, the building materials ready to hand having been 

 used for the structures of Khartum. The Arab village of " Old Sobnt " stands 

 near the ruins, and on the opposite bank are the tile and brick works of " Neio 

 Sobaf." A few sites are pointed out as those of ancient churches, and bear the 

 name of Keniaseh, a term evidently derived from the word " Kilissa " applied to 

 Christian churches in the Turkish countries of Europe and Asia ; at Buri, near 

 Khartum itself, stands one of these Kenisseh. Not far from Wod-Medineh, crypts 

 of Christian origin have been discovered ; these ruins are the southernmost that 

 have been hitherto found on the plains watered by the Blue Nile, beyond the 

 Abyssinian frontier. 



After the destruction of the empire of the Bejas, the town at the confluence, 

 hitherto comprised in the realm of the Funj, stood farther north, some 7 miles 

 below the present junction of the two rivers. This town, which still exists but in 

 a very decayed condition, is Halfaya, the residence of the grand sheikh of the 

 Jalins. An arm of the Nile, now dried up or filled only during the floods, joins 

 the main channel west of Halfaya ; it is surrounded by a garden of palms, shelter- 

 ing its houses. Opposite and not far from the left bank, a small group of hills 

 shelter a few trees in their valleys, and in the rainy season give birth to rivulets 

 which wind through the plain. 



After its capture in 1821 by the Egyptians, Halfaya for several years still 

 preserved a certain importance as the strategical guardian and commercial depot 

 of the junction ; but the very point of the two rivers, called the " End of the 

 Trunk," or Ras-el- Khartum, appeared to Mohammed Ali a much more suitable 

 site for the capital of his vast possessions, and here he accordingly built the 

 barracks and arsenal. In 1830, there was only one hut where, ten years after, 

 stood the first city of the Nilotic basin beyond Egypt. Khartima, protected to the 

 north and west by the broad beds of its two rivers, is certainly very well situated 

 for defence, and its walls, flanked by bastions and skirted by a ditch, protect it 

 from a surprise on the south and east ; besides, a fortified camp situated on the 

 right bank of the Bahr-el-Abiad near the village of Omdurman, renders it easy for 

 the garrison to cross over to the western bank of the river and commands the 

 route to Kordofân. Thanks to the rivers, the steam -boats which ply below 



