SIWAH AMMON. 
435 
Solent ; and the travellers, to place their goods in 
security, stood in need of much stricter precau- 
tions than they had hitherto been accustomed to 
employ. The language appears to be aboriginal, 
and to be a dialect of that spoken by all the na- 
tive tribes in this part of Africa. 
Si wall is particularly remarkable for a monu- 
ment of antiquity, situated a few miles to the 
westward. This, which, by the natives, is called 
Ummebeda, consists of a large mass of ruins in 
such a state of dilapidation, as to make it difficult 
to discover the original purpose for which the 
structure was destined. There are evident re- 
mains of an exterior wall of great strength, and 
about 300 yards in circumference. In the cen- 
tre are found the ruins of what appears to have 
been the principal edifice. It is about twenty- 
seven feet in height, twenty-four in width, and 
ten or twelve paces in length. The walls are six 
feet thick, and constructed, particularly in the 
roof, of very large blocks of stone, cemented with 
small stones and lime. The interior of the walls 
is decorated with hieroglyphics, and appear to 
have been partly painted. From the whole des- 
cription, compared with that of Browne, and 
with the ancient writers, there seems very little 
doubt, that this is the celebrated shrine of Jupi- 
ter Ammon, the object of unbounded veneration 
in the ancient world. The vicinity of the fertile 
