Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 4.djvu/158

140 SUPPOSED EGYPTIAN REMAINS eighteenth dynasty, but it had probably been transported there. At Wady-Houa-Taib, and Assur, there are many car- touches bearing the names of Osirtesen I., Amenophis III., but evidently of a later period. The same may be said of the other hieroglyphical inscriptions found there. The most southern point where any antiquities were found by either M. Cailliaud or Dr. Lepsius was Sobah, in lat. 15. 30', a heap of ruins about half a day's journey above Khar- toum, on the eastern bank of the Blue river, once the capital of the Christian kingdom of Aloa. The ruins there are of sun- bm'nt bricks, and evidently Christian. Professor Lepsius how- ever mentions a lion or ram, which is said to have been taken from thence by Khurshid Pasha, and a granite statue of Osiris, of a late style, which they saw at Kamorin, and which had been found at Sobah. M. Cailliaud also mentions a sphinx, which is probably the lion or ram spoken of by the Chevalier Lepsius. The island of Meroe was bounded by the Blue Nile, the Atbara (the ancient Astaboras), and the Rahad, to the south of Sennaar. It would therefore appear that the four last mentioned ruins were contained in this district, and are the most southerly ones described by any European traveller. Cailliaud says, (vol. iii. p. 138. 8vo. ed.,) "that some Arabs assured him that there were similar ruins at about two days' journey to the south, on the road to Abyssinia;" he sup- poses this to be the situation of Mandeyr. He also gives an- other Arab account, according to which, one and a half day's journey further to the south, are ruins of the same character at a place called Kely. Burckhardt has also alluded to some ruins at a place called Goss-Regiab, but he was not able to examine them. These places are all to the north of Sennaar, and appear to be either on the ancient route from Naga to Axum, or the one at right angles to it, that ran from Aboo-Ahraz on the Blue Nile to Souakim on the Red sea. Even Avitli the assistance of the Arabs, Cailliaud was not enabled to bring the evidence of Egyptian civilization to the latitude of Sennaar : I am in a position to state on equally good evidence, that there are similar ruins very far south of that city, and near the borders of Abyssinia. I do not wish to be supposed to lay too much stress upon the value of the information Ivhich I have received : it has however the ad-