John Ball

“ Further south two other roads, perhaps branches of the one just mentioned, enter by smaller gullies; the scarp here has become much less formidable than further north, and the top of the plateau is covered with countless small conical hills of white chalk. Near the north end of the large hill-mass E.N.E. of Ain el Haiss, the eastern scarp almost disappears, the oasis-floor having risen considerably; it becomes more marked further on, and continues to the south, though of no great height, with limestone ridges at its foot. ”

“ The Roman structures in the oasis differ generally from those of the Egyptian era in being built of crude brick instead of stone. They show, however, a great solidity of construction; for this reason these erections of the Romans have in many cases outlasted those of the Coptic period which were built long afterwards; in Baharia the old Roman underground aqueducts still serve for the conveyance of water from the springs to the irrigated tracts, and the present inhabitants are far too indolent to construct similar channels for themselves. ”

“ The tracts north of Zubbo and near Harra still contain much water and salty sludge; travelling over them needs great caution, as the dry crust will often support the weight of a man, while a camel sinks through into the soft mire beneath. Sand-accumulations do not cover such large tracts in Baharia as in the southern oases; there are, however, some small dunes around the cultivated lands of Mandisha and Zubbo, as well as on some of the hill-sides; the dunes support a scanty growth of tamarisk-bushes. ”

“ The water from a single spring often supplies several land-owners; the usual method of distribution is by means of a wooden weir, in the upper edge of which rectangular notches are cut, each individual being entitled to the water which flows through a certain number of notches. As a rule, the springs are banked up at night, so that the water accumulates in a large pool near, and is allowed to run on to the fields in the daytime.
Taxation in Baharia and Farafra is based on the land cultivated and not, as in Kharga and Dakhla, on the water. Date-palms, are taxed 15 milliemes per annum. ”

“ Just south of the large hill-mass referred to, the lower limestone ridges unite so as to form a regular escarpment, which continues southward as the limiting-wall of the oasis, the upper scarp now forming the edge of a higher plateau about a kilometre away from the oasis-edge. The two escarpments run almost parallel, one forming a step above the other, to the south end of the oasis; the lower one, forming the oasis-wall proper, is much more considerable than the upper, and the edge of the upper one is frequently broken into hills. Small chalk-hills continue to cover the upper plateau. ”

“ The average depth from the general desert plateau-level to the floor of the excavation is rather less than a hundred metres. Thus, though commonly called the “little oasis” in contradistinction to the still larger areas of Farafra, Kharga and Dakhla, Baharia is of considerable size, covering in all over 1,800 square kilometres. Within the excavation, and rising up from its floor, in some cases to a greater height than the bounding scarps, are numerous hills, the larger generally having flat tops and the smaller ones being more or less conical. ”

“ The major part of the oasis-floor is flat or gently undulating ground of sandstones and clays, strewn with fragments of rock derived from the hills; large areas, however, are overgrown with grasses and scattered bushes, notably to the north and west of the villages, in the neighbourhood of Ain Gelid, south-east of Jebel Hefhuf, and in the vicinity of Ain el Haiss; while other extensive tracts north of the villages, as well as south-east of Mandisha and between Harra and Ain Gelid, are covered by salty marshes, now partly dried up. ”

“ As already mentioned, one of the most striking topographical features of the oasis is the number of isolated black, and for the most part perfectly conical, hills within the depression. These hills are composed of the lower Cenomanian sandstones and clays of the Cretaceous, and owe their existence and dark colour to protecting caps of very hard, dark, ferruginous, silicified grits and quartzites, often associated with limonite. ”

“ The plateau-rock near the great belt of sand-dunes is a hard white limestone with large Conidæ. Just beyond the dunes this rock is very siliceous, the exposed surfaces showing a smoky-black colour; the rock is however quite white on fracture. The hills rising from the plateau here consist entirely of limestone, beds of white chalk alternating with harder yellowish and brown limestones, in which no fossils were noticed. Further on the plateau rises, so that at the entrance to the depression the surface is formed of the same brown limestone-beds which are seen in the hills behind. ”

“ The huge hill-mass near the east scarp, north of the latitude of Ain el Haiss, is of blackened sandstone, like most of the hills near it; some of those west of it are, however, white, owing to a capping of [41] limestone, and these stand out in striking contrast to the others. ”

“ Far more enduring and more important (in a modern sense) than any of their buildings, were the extensive excavations carried out by the Romans for the improvement of the water-supply of oasis. In the neighbourhood of Bawitti especially, long series of shafts sunk in the sandstones and clays which form the ground, are frequently to be seen. ”

“ The calcareous grit, a very well-marked bed, has been observed at points widely distant within the oasis; in places it is a true bone-bed, [46] often highly siliceous and passing into a hard quartzite. Its occurrence here, at the top of the Cenomanian series and below the White Chalk (to be described later) is of great interest, as its position shows it to be probably homotaxial with the bone-beds of Dakhla Oasis [47] and the Eastern Desert, [48] where they are of Campanian age. The bone-beds on this horizon must thus have been deposited over an enormous area. ”

“ The water-supply of the oasis is probably derived from the tropical rains of the mountainous regions of Central Africa, the water from which penetrates the ground and flows northwards along permeable beds of sandstone, etc., in which it is confined by other impermeable strata, until tapped naturally or artificially in the great oases or depressions of the Libyan Desert. ”

“ Here at a distance of 20 kilometres from the oasis wall, at a point 30 kilometres north-west of Ain el Haiss, the uppermost member of the Cretaceous, the White Chalk itself, is overlain by a hard gray crystalline limestone containing an abundance of Nummulites and Operculina, with Lucina, Fusus and Natica. The actual junction of the two series is here difficult to detect, as the White Chalk is itself altered in its upper part into a hard gray crystalline limestone, simulating the Eocene beds themselves, and there is little difference of dip between the two series. ”

“ On the east side, though the actual demarcation of the Eocene and Cretaceous beds is a matter of some difficulty, the difference of dip between the two systems in some localities is well marked.
It seems certain then that after the deposition of the Cretaceous beds in this region, elevation took place with a considerable amount of folding (which will be noticed fully further on) . The land thus formed underwent a marked denudation before subsidence took it below the surface of the sea and allowed of the deposition of the Eocene deposits just described. ”

“ A few kilometres out to the west is another escarpment of white chalk trending irregularly in a N.N.E. and S.S.W. direction. An old road, probably joining the main caravan road from Bawitti to Siwa further west, runs up this bay and on to the plateau beyond. Numerous large and small hills occur within the bay. The southern cliff, formed of dark brown or black ferruginous sandstones, is remarkably irregular, and quite different in appearance and weathering from the northern wall. The promontory to the south of this bay juts out boldly into the oasis-area. ”

“ Beyond the dunes the limestone is frequently siliceous, weathered smoky-grey on surface, and crowded with nummulites; the surface of the ground is generally sandy and flint-strewn. At 113 kilometres a narrow band of highly silicified, superficially blackened, limestone is [31] crossed. This band, which is only a few centimetres broad, running north and south, stands up like a vein above the plateau, and is evidently caused by infiltration of siliceous solutions in a crack. ”

“ A fine view of the depression is obtainable from the top of the escarpment, a broad low-lying expanse, bounded by steep escarpments or walls, stretching away to the south, its monotony relieved by several large flat-topped hill-masses, near which, on the lowest portions of the floor, dark areas, the cultivated lands and palm-groves can be distinguished. ”

“ The upper part of the hole having been excavated by the “fass,” the jumper is worked by hand, no tripod or other frame being erected; the sludge is raised by a small basket of plaited grass, fitted on to the lower end of the jumper, lowered into the hole by a rope, the sand settling in the basket after jumping the iron tool, with the basket attached, within the well. The hole is generally made 75 centimetres diameter, and sinking is said to go on at the rate of 1⁄3 metre per hour, ten men being employed, who relieve each other. ”

“ The largest aqueduct found by Cailliaud is south-west of El Qasr; its size is such that a man is able to walk in it. This tunnel, which now contains no water, leads from an excavation 5 metres in diameter by 8 metres deep, and in a length of 55 metres it is entered by ten shafts. In the same neighbourhood Cailliaud counted more than thirty other aqueducts, mostly coming from the south, like those of Mandisha. ”

“ The most strongly-marked group of hills is that extending in a nearly straight north-easterly direction a few kilometres south of the villages. Forming a prolongation of the long tongue of the west scarp already mentioned, this line of hills almost cuts the oasis in two. The largest hill of the range, Jebel Hefhuf, a narrow, ridge-like hill of limestone, has a black appearance at its northern end, being here composed of dolerite ”

“ The desert here rises very gradually from the flood-level, (i.e. about 40 metres above sea-level) , there being no cliff bounding the Nile Valley on the West at this point. For about 6 kilometres the ground was sandy, with occasional patches of flood-water and some grass; then came a stretch of level gravelly ground, and at 111⁄2 kilometres some low sand-dunes were crossed. The course was now changed to about 3° south of west, and at 14 kilometres a descent was made from the gravel-plain into a limestone-depression, with gravel-capped eminences on either side. ”

“ The cultivated lands, which lie almost entirely around the villages in the north part of the oasis, bear only a very small ratio to the entire oasis-area, probably not exceeding in all, including palm-groves, 11 square kilometres; the remainder of the floor is, however, by no means absolutely waterless or totally devoid of vegetation, as numerous springs exist in certain areas, outside the cultivation-limits, and desert grasses and scrub cover considerable tracts; extensive salines, now mostly nearly dried up, are found in some localities. ”

“ In the neighbourhood of Jebel el Ghudda the plain consists of limestone with numerous individuals of the large Nummulites gizehensis, and are thus of Lower Mokattam age. Much of the limestone is crystalline. The hills of Jebel el Ghudda are formed by younger overlying beds consisting of hard silicified sandstones and grits (quartzites) , which lithologically are very similar to the beds of Jebel Ahmar near Cairo, of Oligocene age. ”

“ The flanks of the scarp are hidden by downwash. The cliff bounding this strip of plateau, 11⁄2 kilometres further on, is composed of the same beds, the limestone being here silicified, with large silicified Conidæ. With regard to the age of these limestones and clays they are probably equivalent to part of the Lower Mokattam series already mentioned as forming the hill-masses round Wadi Rayan, although no Nummulites gizehensis beds were observed in the sections examined. ”