406 



THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 



Photograph from Frederick Simpich 



A CARAVAN PASSING THE RUINS OF OLD MEMPHIS 



For nearly fifty centuries Memphis commanded the admiration and 

 wonder of resident and traveler. To-day a prostrate colossus of 

 Rameses II is about all that any one would care to see. 



Nile steamer before you reach the south- 

 ern boundary of the Sudan, which is al- 

 most on the edge of the great lakes and a 

 third of the way to the Cape of Good 

 Hope. 



Some travelers enter from the Red Sea 

 via Port Sudan (700 miles south of 

 Suez), proceeding west by the new rail- 

 way. 



The White Nile splits the Sudan for 

 nearly 2,000 miles from south to north 

 and is navigable the year round above 

 Khartum. 



The Blue Nile runs down from the 

 Abyssinian hills and joins the main river 



at Khartum, forming 

 an a]) ex called the 

 Gezireh, or "Island." 

 This vast flat island is 

 the granary of the 

 Sudan. 



It is in the northern 

 part of this Gezireh 

 that the new Irrigation 

 projects are being un- 

 dertaken. Engineers 

 say land is the cheap- 

 est thing in the Sudan. 

 Water is abundant, 

 but labor is scarce. 



british ark strict 

 guardians of tiuc 

 Sudan's wild game 



If you want to bring 

 a pet wart-hog or a 

 giraffe home with 

 you from the Anglo- 

 Egyptian Sudan, you 

 will first have to 

 get a permit from the 

 British authorities. 

 They watch over the 

 wild game to save it 

 from exploitation for 

 commercial purposes. 

 The hunting of ele- 

 phants and ostriches 

 for ivory and feathers 

 is strictly controlled ; 

 trade in skins and 

 trophies is prohibited. 

 The exportation of 

 captive wild animals 

 for display in zoos 

 and parks is kept 

 within reasonable limits. 



Egypt depends mainly on the Sudan for 

 its meat supply, and thousands of acres of 

 land have been put under pump irrigation 

 to provide food crops for Egypt, whose 

 people, as one investigator said, cannot 

 subsist on bank notes and cotton. 



Slavery, once so common along the 

 Upper Nile, has been largely put down, 

 except, perhaps, in the remoter regions. 

 The country is almost treeless, especially 

 north of Khartum ; the few trees found 

 are mostly species of acacia, known lo- 

 cally as the samr. 



South of Khartum, to about 12 north, 



