Belzoni that Mr. Caillaud had already been there,
but that there was another Oasis to the westward, which had never been
visited by any European, he resolved to proceed thither. This Oasis was
also visited by Drovetti much about I he same time: he calls it the Oasis
of Dakel. It seems to have escaped the notice of all the ancient authors
examined by Sir Archibald, except Olympiodorus. Speaking of the Thebaic
Oasis, he mentions an interior and extensive one, lying opposite to the
other, one hundred miles apart, which corresponds with the actual distance
between them.
The American traveller accompanied the expedition of the pacha of Egypt as
far as Sennaar. He commences the account of his voyage up the Nile at the
second cataract; and as far as the pyramids of Meroe, where the voyage of
Messrs. Waddington and Hanbury terminated, his accounts correspond with
what they give. He did not, however, follow the great bend of the river
above Dongola: this he describes as 250 miles long, and full of rocks and
rapid. He again reached the Nile, having crossed the peninsula in a direct
line, at Shendi. Near this place he discovered the remains of a city,
temples, and fifty-four pyramids, which are supposed, by a writer in the
Quarterly Review, to be the ruins of the celebrated Meroc, as their
position agrees with that assigned them by a draughtsman employed by Mr.
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