Author: Georg August Schweinfurth

Publisher: Forgotten Books

Published: 2015-06-26

Total Pages: 350

ISBN-13: 9781330400760

Excerpt from The Heart of Africa, Vol. 1 of 2: Three Years Travels and Adventures in the Unexplored Regions of Central Africa From 1868 to 1871 Above Assouan, the terminus of tourists is the Nubian Desert, a yellow arm of the Sahara, thrust between Central Africa and Egypt. When this desert is crossed you come to the ancient Ethiopia, which consists of lowlands watered by the Nile, while a little to the left is Abyssinia, the Switzerland of Africa. The White Nile, which comes from the Equator, is hereabouts joined by the Blue Nile, or Black Nile, from the Abyssinian Wells; and near their confluence is the town, Khartoom. In the glorious days of the Pharaohs Ethiopia was colonised by Egypt, and there was a famous city, Meroe by name, possessing pyramids and temples. In the days of Egyptian decline Ethiopia became independent, conquered the mother country for a time, and was never entered by the armies of the Persians. The Ptolemies who afterwards reigned at Alexandria did conquer Ethiopia, even to its Highlands, carrying their arms, as they boasted, where the Pharaohs themselves had never been; but the Romans did not occupy the country; they followed the advice of Augustus, and the Nubian Desert was made their frontier. In the same manner the Arabs under the caliphs did not attempt the conquest of Ethiopia, and it was perhaps owing to Buonaparte that Turkish Egypt advanced so far to the south. The French expedition has always been stigmatized as a fruitless crime. But by the French the power of the Mamelukes was broken; by the French was displayed on Egyptian soil the superior genius of Europe, and thence may be derived a movement similar to that which in the days of the Pharaohs was produced by the Phil-Hellenes, or kings who were "lovers of the Greeks." Mehemet Ali organised an army in the European manner, and, crossing the Nubian Desert, conquered the lowlands of Ethiopia or Soudan. At the same time he commenced the civilisation of Cairo. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.