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450 NILE skirts the desert of Bahiuda on the north are without antiquities; but at Noori on the left bank, below the fourth cataract, are the re- mains of 35 pyramids, of which about half are in good preservation ; they have, however, no sculptures or hieroglyphics, nor are there any ruins which indicate the former existence of a city. Nearly opposite Noori, on the right bank, is Jebel Barkal, a hill of crum- bling sandstone 400 ft. high and a mile distant from the river. On the W. side of the hill are 13 pyramids from 35 to 60 ft. high. Here are also the remains of several large Egyptian tem- ples, one of them nearly 500 ft. long. These ruins are supposed to mark the southern limits of the empire of the Pharaohs, and the city to which they belonged was probably Napata, the capital of Tirhakah, the king of the Ethiopians, and also of those sovereigns of Ethiopia who are mentioned in the ancient history of Egypt. A short distance below Jebel Barkal, on the right bank of the river, is the village of Me- rawe, nearly opposite to which is the point from which travellers up the Nile begin their march across the desert of Bahiuda to Shendy, and thus cut off the great upper bend of the river. After passing Merawe the Nile contin- ues S. W. till it reaches lat. 18, when it again turns N. In this part of its course it is about half a mile wide. The desert on both sides reaches to the banks, and there is little culti- vable land except on the islands. The province of Dongola begins at this point, and extends northward about 175 m. This region is tol- erably fertile, the banks of the river being no longer rocky, and the annual inundation diffu- sing itself over a large extent of land, abound- ing in fine pastures where excellent horses are bred. A little above the third cataract, in lat. 19 24', is the island of Argo, which is 12 m. long, and contains a number of ruins, among them two overthrown colossal statues of gray granite, in Ethiopian costume with Egyptian features. Below the third cataract, near lat. 19 45', the Nile makes a bend to the east; and travellers descending the river usually take a straight line through the desert to Saleb on the left bank, where are found the ruins of a tem- ple remarkable for the elegance of its archi- tecture and its imposing and picturesque posi- tion on the line which separates the desert from the fertile land. A few miles below, the large island of Say divides the river, which soon after contracts between granite rocks so close- ly that it is but a few hundred feet in width. The rocks hang over the shore and fill the river with shoals, causing so many eddies, rapids, and shallows, that navigation is practicable only at the time of highest flood, and is even then dangerous. About half way between the island of Say and the second cataract, in lat. 21 27', is the village of Semneh on the left bank, where are the remains of a small but interesting temple of the third Thothmes. As the river approaches the second cataract, near the 22d parallel, the porphyritic and granitic rocks on its banks give place to sandstone. The second cataract, which was called by the ancients the great cataract, is, like all the oth- ers, formed by primitive rocks rising through the sandstone, in a succession of islands di- viding the stream, which foams and rushes be- tween them, with a roar which may be heard at the distance of more than a mile. It is rather a collection of rapids than a fall. A city once existed here, and the remains of three an- cient temples are yet visible. From the second cataract to the frontier of Egypt, a distance of 220 m., there is a multitude of temples, some on the right, some on the left bank of the river, the most remarkable of which are those of Abu Sambul or Ipsambul, on the left bank, two days' journey below the cataract. (See IP- SAMBUL.) A few miles lower down, at Ibrim, the ancient Premis, are ruins of the same kind, of the age of Thothmes I. and III., and Barneses II. Just beyond Ibrim the channel of the river is compressed between a range of sandstone hills rising almost perpendicularly, so close to the shore that there is hardly room to pass between their bases and the water. A few miles below, at Derr, the capital of Lower Nubia, the river bends abruptly S. E. and then, near Korosko, again N. All this region abounds in temples of Rameses the Great, Thothmes III. and IV., and Amenophis II. Amada, two hours' sail below Derr and on the opposite bank, has a temple whose sculptures are re- markable for the brightness of their colors, having been preserved by the early Christians, who covered them with mud and mortar to conceal them from their sight ; and the trav- eller proceeding northward passes in rapid suc- cession Wady es-Seboo, the valley of lions or sphinxes ; Dakkeh, the ancient Pselchis, the site of a temple of Ergamenes, mentioned by Dio- dorus as resisting the tyranny of the priests (the deity of which was Hermes Trismegistus, identified with Thoth), the furthest S. point at which any traces of Greek or Roman dominion have been found on monuments ; Dendoor, the site of a temple of the age of Augustus ; and Kalabshe, the ancient Talmis, situated in lat. 23 30', directly under the tropic of Cancer, where is the largest temple in Nubia, which was built in the reign of Augustus, and enlarged by Caligula, Trajan, and Severus. In this part of its course the river flows between moun- tains on each side rising from the water's edge, and piles of dark sandstone or porphyry rock, sometimes 1,000 ft. in height, where a blade of grass never grew, every notch and jag on their crests, every fissure on their sides, revealed in a pure and crystalline atmosphere. Their hue near at hand is a glaring brown ; in the distance an intense violet. On the W. bank they are lower ; and the sand of that vast desert, which stretches unbroken to the Atlan- tic, has heaped itself over their shoulders and poured long drifts and rills even to the water. The arable land is a mere hem, a few yards in breadth, on each bank of the river, supporting