Cuap. Lin. 
SITE OF GHASR-E'GGOMO. 
23 
passed by a strong wall, with six or seven * gates ; 
which, in its present dilapidated state, forms a small 
ridge, and seems clearly to indicate that, when the 
town was conquered by the Fulbe or Fellata, the 
attack was made from two different sides, viz., the 
south-west and north-west, where the lower part of 
the wall had been dug away. The interior of the 
town exhibits very little that is remarkable. The 
principal buildings consist of baked bricks; and in 
the present capital not the smallest approach is made 
to this more solid mode of architecture.! The dimen- 
sions of the palace appear to have been very large, 
although nothing but the ground plan of large empty 
areas can be made out at present, while the very 
small dimensions of the mosque, which had five aisles, 
seem to afford sufficient proof that none but the peo- 
ple intimately connected with the court used to attend 
the service, just as is the case at the present time ; 
and it serves, moreover, clearly to establish the fact 
that even in former times, when the empire was most- 
flourishing, there was no such thing as a medrese, 
* The intelligent Arab Ben 'All, in the interesting account 
which he gave to Lucas (Proceedings of the African Association, 
vol. i. p. 148), distinctly states the number of gates as seven ; 
but it is remarkable that, in all the accounts of the taking of the 
place by the Fulbe, mention is only made of two gates, and it is 
still evident, at the present time, that the western and the eastern 
gates were the only large ones. 
■f It must be this circumstance (which to the natives themselves, 
in the degenerate age of their later kings, appeared as a miracle) 
which caused the report that in Ghambaru and Ghasr-eggomo there 
were buildings of the time of the Christians. 
c 4 
