of the Pyramids and Temples in the Silddn. 335 



distance from cultivated land, are the best preserved, and this is only 

 what might be expected. When a native wanted stones for any pur- 

 pose, he went for them to the pyramid which was nearest to him, and 

 the result is that the pyramids which stood near the villages or culti- 

 vated land have in some districts quite disappeared. Thus at Tan- 

 kassi, about seven miles from Senem abu-Ddm, where the Egyptian 

 troops were encamped about eighteen months ago, it is most difficult 

 to identify the cores of the pyramids wliich once stood there. At 

 Gebel Barkal the pyramids which were nearest to the cultivated land 

 have disappeared, and the same may be said ©f dozens of the small 

 pyramids which stood at Nuri. At Meroe the pyramids, which were 

 built near the temple that stood only about a mile from the river, and 

 were in consequence close to the main road which has been the high- 

 way to Khartum and the south for countless generations, have also all 

 but disappeared. 



In this way the six pyramid fields of the Sudan become reduced to 

 three, for those of Kurru, Ztima, and Tankassi may well be left out of 

 consideration. It -is, however, tolerably clear from the general dispo- 

 sition of the pyramid remains at these places, that the system of 

 orientation employed by the builders of the pyramids there resembled 

 that found to have been in use at Gebel Barkal, Nuri, and Meroe. 

 With the view of showing the present condition of the pyramids of the 

 three principal fields in the Sudan, I took about fifty photographs, 

 one of which is reproduced in this paper. Some such record was abso- 

 lutely necessary, for if the lithographic landscape views printed by 

 Lepsius, in his work the ' Denkmaeler,' be compared with these photo- 

 graphs, the serious deterioration in the condition of the remains since 

 his time will at once be clear. # 



In the summer of 1897 I arrived at the village of Senem abu-D6m, 

 which is situated on the left bank of the Nile, about sixteen hundred 

 miles from the Mediterranean ; on the opposite bank lie the villages of 

 Shibba, Merawi, and Barkal, and on the same side as these, viz., the 

 east bank, a few miles to the south, rises the magnificent rock of sand- 

 stone called Gebel Barkal. Before I began serious work at Gebel 

 Barkal, I visited the pyramids . of Nuri with a view of finding out 

 which was the more promising site. I could not visit the pyramids of 

 Meroe that summer, because all the country round about was in the 

 hands of the Dervishes; I therefore had to content myself with the 

 pyramid fields of Nuri, Barkal, Tankassi, &c. ; and with the hope that 

 I might visit Meroe later, I decided that, for several reasons, the 

 pyramid field of Gebel Barkal suited my purpose best, and so began 

 work there. 



Gebel Barkal is a huge rock about three hundred feet high ; it is 

 three-quarters of a mile long, and is about half a mile wide in its 

 widest part. The widest end has served as a quarry, and all the 



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