of the Pyramids and- Temples in the Sitddn. 341 



plateau to the south, it must have been well out of the reach of the 

 infiltration of the Nile waters, for they knew from long experience 

 that the presence of damp was fatal to the preservation of the mummied 

 body. And besides, it is impossible that they should have gone on 

 building pyramid after pyramid at various places on the plateau and 

 on the side which slopes down to the river without finding out that the 

 water of the Nile was making their labour ^vain. How then can the 

 presence of the water be accounted for 1 The true answer seems to be 

 that the bed of the Nile has gradually risen since the time when the 

 pyramids were built, and it may be that the river has also somewhat 

 changed its course. A small annual deposit in its bed would easily 

 cause both the rise and the change, of course, and as a result certain 

 sites which originally stood well above the level of the waters of the 

 highest inundation would be flooded from time to time. The cause- 

 way leading to the river and the foremost courtyard of the temple of 

 Piankhi were flooded by the Nile when I was at Gebel Barkal in 1897, 

 and that year the inundation was not by any means one of the highest. 

 Had there been any risk of this happening in Piankhi's time he would 

 never have built, or rebuilt, the temple, which must have been one of 

 the glories of the city of Napata, near the site whereof its remains 

 now lie. Thus we see that in the Sudan, as in Egypt, the same geolo- 

 gical changes have been at work. 



Passing now from Gebel Barkal, we have to consider the pyra- 

 mids of Nuri, or Belal, which stand on the west bank of the Nile, just 

 opposite to the now famous village of Kassingar, and at about a distance 

 of six miles as the crow flies from Gebel Barkal. The value of the 

 pyramid field of Nuri for a discussion on the orientation of pyramids 

 is not so great as that of the field of Gebel Barkal ; but from other 

 points of view it is of very considerable interest. Its pyramids are 

 not so well preserved, and there is not so much variety of orientation 

 as is usually found in groups of pyramids elsewhere in the Sudan. 

 The largest of the Nuri pyramids must, with the exception of the 

 " step " pyramids, have been the largest in the Sudan, for when com- 

 plete they cannot have been less than 100 feet high. Several of them 

 are built of hewn stones throughout, and the excellence of the mate- 

 rial and the handy sizes of the stones have tempted the natives to use 

 them freely for building tombs for their sheikhs and houses and graves 

 for themselves. Speaking roughly, the group at Nuri consists of two 

 rows of pyramids, the older row being that in which stand the remains 

 of a large " step " pyramid (see Plan II). The next oldest pyramids stand 

 in a somewhat irregular row about 200 yards to the S.E., and between 

 the two rows a number of pyramids were built at a later date, great care 

 being taken by their builders to place them in such positions that the 

 light from the celestial body to which they were oriented should not be 

 obstructed by the older buildings. The first row of pyramids is in 



