KHARTUM. 



245 



Khartum command all the country on one side as far as the Zeriba region, and on 

 the other as far as Berber and Abu-Hamed. 



Recent events have proved the military importance of this position between the 

 two Niles. From a commercial point of view, Khartum will not be so advantage- 

 ously situated until a bridge is built over the Bahr-el-Azraq, so as to receive 

 directly the caravans which come from Abyssinia, Kassala, and the shores of the 

 Red Sea, Nevertheless, Khartum had become one of the great cities of the con- 

 tinent, and the busy population which till recently crowded its narrow streets was 

 a mixture of Turks, Danaglas or people of Dongola, Arabs, and negroes of every 

 shade of colour. Italian was becoming almost as much spoken as Arabic, and the 

 exterior commerce was almost entirely in the hands of the French and Greeks. 

 Khartum is the point where took place all tlie exchanges of Europe and Egypt 



Fig. 80. — Khartum. 

 Scale 1 : 75,000. 



58°26 



3&'30' 



Low Water. 



High Water. 



with the regions of the Upper Nile ; it was also the place whence emanated all the 

 expeditions and the movements of military bodies, and where all the religious 

 missions and commercial or scientific expeditions were prepared. 



A town of soldiers, merchants, and slaves, Khartum has no remarkable monu- 

 ments, and it is surrounded on all sides by spaces which, if not absolute wastes, are, 

 at least, uncultivated and treeless. At the period of the Beja rule, the banks of 

 the two Niles were said to be shaded with an uninterrupted forest of palms 

 festooned with vines, Khartum is not a healthy town, at least during the 

 portion of the year when the moist winds blow, increasing the waters of the rivers. 

 Typhus has often more than decimated the population ; but in winter the atmosphere 

 is purified by the north winds and the public health is as good at Khartum as in 

 any other African city. After a vigorous defence maintained for upwards of two 

 years against overwhelming numbers, Khartum was betrayed to the Mahdi on 



