The Atbara River, now spanned by an iron railway-bridge, joins the main stream on it eastern bank at 1,790 miles from its source at the Ripon Palls. This is the most southerly of the tributaries of the Nile, and between this point and the sea, a distance of nearly 1,700 miles, it does not receive the water of a single affluent, either small or great. The Atbara, in flood, brings down a large addition to the volume of the Nile, and its waters are highly charged with deposit.
After passing Berber, the point upon which the caravan routes used to centre, and Abu Hamed, where the Soudan Railway leaves the river and runs across the desert direct to Wadi Halfa, the Nile takes a great bend to the north-west, forming a loop some 587 miles in length before arriving at the open water below the Second Cataract. Within this loop, in which the river-bed is an almost continuous succession of cataract and rapid, is situated the Province of Dongola. To the west extends the great Bayuda Desert, the home of the Sawarab, the Hawawir, and the Hassaniyeh tribes, while further north the long depression known as El-Kab, the habitat of the Kababish Arabs, extends parallel to the Nile for several days' journey. To the east of the river the desert covers the country in a continuous sheet, broken by ranges of granite hills, to the coast of the Red Sea. After traversing the wild, inhospitable, and rocky region inhabited by the Monasir, Robatab, and Shaghyieh Arabs, the Nile at last passes Merawi, the southern extremity of the Dongola Province. Between this point and Kerma, a distance of 200 miles, its course is open, and unbroken by either rock and reef.
Merawi, the ancient Napata, is picturesquely situated opposite to the fine mountain of Gebel Barkal, whose bold outline shows above the surrounding landscape as if guarding the ruins of Queen Candace's capital. The extent covered here by pyramids and monuments testifies to the former importance of this once famous city.
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