Vietnam or Thailand ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Updated: May 31, 2025
We glanced back in awe, and yet in some triumph, towards the iron-bound desert we had thus safely traversed; but our eyes soon turned from so bleak a prospect, when we beheld, dotting the sandy wady, clumps of the wild palm, green copses, and the majestic ethel-tree. It was about two in the afternoon when we reached the camping-ground, all our people shouting, "Be-Selameh el Hamadah!"
They have not mentioned the latter subject yet, but, on the contrary, promise me some dates. The broad valley of El-Hasee is sandy, like all those of Fezzan. It is bounded on the north by the perpendicular buttresses of the Hamadah, and on the south by sandy swells. The well is not copious, but affords a regular supply of slightly brackish water.
They started first, and we travel a little faster than they. Scarcely a blade of herbage cheered our sight to day. A sandy, gravelly hamadah, with a few rocks and sand-hills here and there, such is the nature of the country. The rocks now assume a conic form, ke ras suker, like a sugar-loaf, as the people say.
Possibly in a few years this cluster of wadys may be abandoned to chance Arab visitors, so that the starting-point for the traverse of the Hamadah will be removed farther back, perhaps to Mizdah. There is no life in the civilisation which claims lordship over these countries unfriended by nature.
They alone who have breathed the sharp air of its blank nakedness can appreciate it, or understand how any accidental delay, sickness, the bursting of the water-skins, the straying of the camels, might produce incalculable sufferings, and even death. "Be-Selameh el Hamadah!" then, with all my heart.
Commence crossing the Hamadah Last Pillar of the Romans Travelling in the Desert Rapid March Merry Blacks Dawn Temperature Ali returns Day-travelling Night-feelings Animals Graves of Children Mirage Extent of the Plateau It breaks up Valley of El-Hasee Farewell to the Hamadah Arduous Journey The Camel-drivers New Country Moral and religious Disquisitions The Chaouches Reach Edree Abd-el-Galeel Description of Edree Subterranean Dwellings Playing at Powder The Kaïd Arabic Literature Desertion of the Zintanah Leave Edree Sandy Desert Bou Keta the Camel-driver Wady El-Makmak The Lizard Reach Wady Takadafah Sand Another Embroglio.
These mountain buttresses are either the bounds of the Hamadah, or masses of rock where it breaks into hills, forming ravines or valleys. But, in fact, how far the Hamadah extends between Ghadamez on the west and Augila on the east is not yet properly ascertained.
As for the Hamadah, we know that near Sokna the plateau breaks up and forms what are called the Jebel-es-Soudy, or Black Mountains, a most picturesque group of cliffs; and again on the route to Egypt from Mourzuk, six days' journey south-east from Sokna, it also breaks into huge cliffs, and bears the name of El-Harouj.
Overweg, who had agreed to traverse the Hamadah by day, whilst I was to follow by night, with the blacks. Next morning, accordingly, the caravan separated into two portions, and my companions rode slowly away over the burning desert. This important day could not be allowed to pass by my people without a tremendous quarrel. Our blacks seemed to be in a peculiarly excitable state.
Leave Mizdah Gloomy Country Matrimonial Squabbles in the Caravan "Playing at Powder" Desert Geology A Roman Mausoleum Sport A Bully tamed Fatiguing March Wady Taghijah Our old Friend the Ethel-Tree The Waled Bou Seif Independent Arabs A splendid Mausoleum One of the Nagahs foals Division of a Goat March over a monotonous Country Valley of Amjam Two new Trees Saluting the New Moon Sight the Plateau of the Hamadah Wady Tubooneeah Travelling Flies The Desert Hour A secluded Oasis Buying Barley Ghareeah Roman Remains Oasian Cultivation Taxation Sand-Pillar Arrangements for crossing the Hamadah An Emeute in the Caravan Are compelled to discharge the quarrelsome Ali.
Word Of The Day
Others Looking