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Art. XX.—Visit to the Bitter Lakes, Isthmus of Suez, by the bed of the ancient Canal of Nechos, the “Khalij al Kadim” S0035869X00142923_inline1 of the Arabs, in June, 1842

Captain Newbold

Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain & Ireland / Volume 8 / Issue 15 / January 1846, pp 355 - 360 DOI: 10.1017/S0035869X00142923, Published online: 14 March 2011

Link to this article: http://journals.cambridge.org/ abstract_S0035869X00142923

How to cite this article: Captain Newbold (1846). Art. XX.—Visit to the Bitter Lakes, Isthmus of Suez, by the bed of the ancient Canal of Nechos, the “Khalij al Kadim” of the Arabs, in June, 1842. Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain & Ireland, 8, pp 355-360 doi:10.1017/ S0035869X00142923

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ART. XX.—Visit to the Bitter Lakes, Isthmus of Suez, by the bed of the ancient Canal of Nechos, the "Khalij al Kadim" *jjJ£M -g>Xe. of the Arabs, in June, 1842. By CAPTAIN NEWBOLD, F.B..S.

{Read June 21, 1845.]

IT will hardly be necessary to premise that the Red Sea and Medi- terranean are separated by a strip of desert about seventy-five miles across. The ancient kings of Egypt, struck with the vast importance of uniting the navigation of the two seas, at an early period attempted this great work. Nechos II., the Necho of Scripture, and son of Psammeticus, after defeating the Assyrians, and slaying Josiah king of Judah, B.C. 610, commenced a canal that was to unite the Red Sea with the Pelusiac or eastern branch of the Nile, which communicated with the Mediterranean, almost directly north from the present Suez, near the ancient city of Pelusium. Some give it a much greater anti- quity, attributing it to the great Sesostris, or Rhameses III., the founder, among other vast works, of the Giant Hall of Columns of the Palace at Carnac, and under whose reign Egypt arrived at her zenith of power and prosperity. This canal is supposed by Herodotus to have joined the Nile near the old Bubastis, to have been filled by the water of the river, and to have been completed, or rather continued, by Darius Hystaspes. Diodorus Siculus states it to have been finished by Ptolemy II. Herodotus tells us that the first works, which cost 120,000 men their lives, were arrested in their progress by the oracle which Nechos consulted, and which declared that the canal would open Egypt to foreign invasion. Its width was calculated by Strabo at one hundred and fifty feet, and by Pliny at one hundred feet. He- rodotus informs us, it was broad enough to admit two triremes to move abreast, and that it required four days for a vessel to pass through it. Strabo says, it was provided with water-gates (locks?) and broad enough to admit ships of the largest class. Pliny calculates its depth at thirty feet. Why and when it was abandoned are uncertain. Aristotle and Pliny state that it was not opened at all in consequence of its bed being supposed to be higher than the surface of the Delta of the Nile, which it was feared would therefore have been inundated by a volume of sea water from the Red Sea at Suez. The latter of these writers 356 VISIT TO THE BITTER LAKES, affirms that the canal never approached the Red Sea nearer than the Bitter Lakes, and was only thirty-four miles long: but the sites of Serapeum, Heropolis, and Phagroriopolis which rose in the desert on its banks, and have been attributed to the benefit resulting from its construction, indicate a much greater extent and importance. The Roman Emperor Trajan not only renewed it, but added a branch known by the name of Amnis Trajanus, which passing between Heliopolis and Babylon, joined the Nile near Memphis. It seems again to have fallen into disuse after Egypt passed into the hands of the Arabs, but was re-opened by Amrou, Viceroy of Egypt, by order of the Caliph Omar, in order to the better supply of the Hedjaz with wheat, &c, during a famine that then prevailed in the Mohammedan Holy Land. About one hundred and thirty-four years afterwards it appears to have been stopped by the Caliph Mansur, with the view of cutting off the supply of provisions sent to some insurgents at Medina. This canal deviated from the course of the old one, and opened on the Nile at Old Cairo, whence I traced its course about eight or nine miles into the desert, to the north-east of the Birhet el Hajji, Lake of the Pilgrim, to Mecca. Since the time of the Caliphs, the canal has never teen re-opened; it was left for the genius of Napoleon to promulgate the idea of reviving and perfecting the great work of Sesostris and Nechos: but momentous events sealed Egypt to the comprehensive schemes for her improvement meditated by this master mind. It remains for Mohammed Ali, who has already immortalised himself by uniting the port of Alexandia with the navigation of the Nile, in the construction of the Mahmoudieh Canal, to put into execution the pro- ject of Napoleon, an undertaking which, if successful, will rank high among the triumphs of human skill and labour over the obstacles of nature, and be a far more glorious monument to posterity, than those useless piles of limestone, the Pyramids. The port at the head of the Red Sea in the time of Ptolemy Phila- delphus was called Arsinoe, from his sister and wife, and subse- quently Cleopatris; and, by the Arabs, Kolzum. The ruins of the latter town, which is supposed to have occupied the site of Arsinoe, are entered immediately after quitting the north-west gate of the modern town of Suez, and consist of a number of sandy mounds, occupying a space about as large as the present town, with scattered fragments of pottery, tiles, glass, and earthenware, often containing bitumen, as occurs among most of the ruins on the banks of the Nile. After passing these mounds, and crossing some salt pans on the north-west extremity of the Gulf of Suez, close to the sea coast, which is here flat and sandy, the Arab guides pointed out to my fellow-traveller, BY THE KHALU AL KADIM. 357

Captain Blogg, and myself, the embouchure of what they) called the Khalij al Kadim ^jjoili *z\\.*,, which we hastened to see. It is marked by low banks of sand, the highest part of which did not exceed six feet in height, and ceased altogether about fifty paces from high water mark. I was unable to find any traces of banks below the water of the Ked Sea, here very shallow. The banks abounded with sea shells, and masses of crystallized gypsum; the breadth of the bed between them was sixty-four paces. Diverging slightly from the sea shore we traced them in a northerly direction, varying from four to six feet in height, often interrupted and indis- tinct, to the camel track of the great caravan from Cairo to Mecca, where they pass round the head of the Red Sea. The surface of the country, from the commencement of the canal to this, was flat, little raised above the surface of the sea, and covered with sand and gravel. The bed of the canal was formed of the same sand; firm, and in some places moist enough to admit of the growth of a few salsolas, &c, the verdure of which, contrasted with the parched aspect of this dreary waste, over which the hot khamsin was blowing, was by no means unrefreshing. A thermometer on the sand of the desert exposed to the rays of the sun, sky clear, 141°'5. Here was observed a heap of stones which an old Arab hajji who accompanied us said, had been piled up as a land-mark by the pil- grims to Mecca to guide them to the spot where they were to round the head of the sacred gulf. These piles are called aldmdt CJLO&E, standards or marks, by the Bedouins; near it lay the skeletons of several camels, bleached by the sun,—" ships of this desert," wrecked in this sea of sand. The hadji informed me, that during the winter {jUlbard i»x!!J) the waters of the Red Sea rise suddenly and are impelled over this wide extent of now dry sand by the violence of the south-east winds. Suez bore hence S.10W., on its right the moun- tains of Ataka or Deliverance, through whose defiles the Israelites were pursued to the shores of the Red Sea; and on our left or to the eastward, the wilderness of El Tih, in which spring the wells of Moses, which I had visited only two years ago. Beyond this, the embankments of the canal are more distinct and continuous; and, at about the distance of twelve miles northerly from Suez, were as perfect as if piled up a week ago, twenty feet high, formed of gravel and gypseous marl, and upwards of seventy paces apart. They become again gradually indistinct on reaching the southern extremity of the Bitter Lakes: a few low rocks of limestone break the monotony of the gently undulating desert. The surface of the bed 358 VISIT TO THE BITTER LAKES,

was quite dry, but a little below it consisted of a dark, moist, reddish clay; on whose surface grew a scattered vegetation of thorny acacias, tamarisks, and salsolas. The dimensions of the lake it is difficult to ascertain, forming, as it does, but a very slight bankless depression below the level of the surrounding] desert, the lowest and moistest parts being scantily clothed by the vegetation just mentioned. The surface of the surrounding track is covered by firm sand and gravel, chiefly of rolled pebbles of chert, quartz, and Egyptian jasper. In the bed of the canal, and in the sand of its banks, I found in an unfos- silized state, many marine shells of species now existing in the Red Sea, viz.; Pecten, Nerantius, Murex, Scolopax, Cytherea, Callipiga, &c. Water of a saline bitter taste is found about a foot below the surface in the bed of the lakes; hence the name given them. The surface of the desert around the lakes is rather more undu- lating and rocky than that surrounding the head of the Red Sea, but preserves the same barren and cheerless aspect. The Arabs assured us, that the same physical features prevail to the shore of the Medi- terranean, where it again becomes flat and marshy. The same sub- stratum prevails, viz., a tertiary calcareous rock, containing marine shells and corals of loose texture. Not a vestige of animal life was seen between the ruins of Kolzum and the Bitter Lakes, save the footsteps of the bird "Bagha," and the track of a hyena that had stalked across the bed of the old canal. The principal obstacles to establishing a navigable stream of water direct through the Isthmus are not the shifting nature of the sands, the amount and height of rocks to be blasted, and the depth of exca- vation necessary: the observations of Napoleon's surveyors go to show that the extreme height of the Isthmus above the sea's level is but insignificant; the expense calculated was £700,000; and as to the canal being choked up by the sands of the desert, my own obser- vations tend to prove the very trifling amount of drift that has accu- mulated in the old channel since the days of the Caliphs. The greatest difficulty to be surmounted appears to me to he the alleged shallowness and shoaliness of the Mediterranean, at the point nearest to Suez, viz.: the bottom of the Pelusiao Bay, of which, and the country between it and the northernmost of the Bitter Lakes, a careful survey is indispensable. Between Suez and the southernmost of this chain of lakes which are so favourably located for the under- taking, no greater natural difficulty exists than between Adfeh and Alexandria. The shallowness between the head of the Red Sea and the anchorage three miles off Suez would be a drawback: but one which, at the most, could be obviated by transshipment. The present BY THE KHALIJ AL KADIM. 359

width of the channel of the old canal, as far as the Bitter Lakes, is more than sufficient for all purposes; it requires deepening; the banks put in repair; and fresh levels taken. The old channel, which turns off westerly at the Bitter Lakes towards the Nile must be there deviated from, and an entirely new cut made northerly to the bay of Pelusium. If, as has been stated, it be true, that the water of the Bed Sea at Suez is thirty-two feet higher than that of the Mediterranean at Pelu- sium, a current would be formed, which might be turned to advantage in clearing and deepening the channel, by the construction of a pier or an artificial channel of masonry at Pelusium. The difference of level of the two seas, has been, by some, calculated only at twenty feet, and latterly, I understand, at seventeen feet. I was informed by an intel- ligent Greek, Kodsi Manouli, that Suez, which stands nearly at the level of the Red Sea, is eighteen feet higher than the general level of the Delta of Egypt: hence, perhaps, the fear anciently prevailing of the Delta being submerged by the opening of the canal. These facts, coupled with that of my having observed recent marine shells in the bed of the canal and of the Bitter Lakes, militates against the assertion of Herodotus, that the former was filled with the fresh water of the Nile. It is also conclusive,.from this trip, that the canal, latterly at all events, communicated with the head of the Red Sea. As my detention in Egypt was quite unexpected, the excursion was made without any instrument to determine the relative levels of the Bitter Lakes and that of Suez. Judging from the flat and gently undulating character of the intermediate tract of desert there cannot be many feet difference. That their bed is higher than the level of the Red Sea, is indicated by the greater depth of the channel of the canal in their vicinity, and the apparent general rise of the country. In a paper on the Geology of Egypt, read before the Geological Society of London, I have shown that the shores of the Red Sea have undergone considerable elevation; and in a trip into the desert of El Tih, I found vestiges of an ancient beach near the head of the Gulf of Suez, left as the land was gradually elevated. That this elevation, in the vicinity of Suez, has been remarkably slow within the historic period, is proved by the ruins of Kolzum still being washed by its tides. According to the author of the Ajaib al Makhlukat, • • \_J? the Red Sea was called the Sea of Kolzum from this city, which, as also that of Yemen, is mentioned as standing on the sea shore. After stating that the " God of glory and majesty had drowned Pharaoh and his host in this sea:'' he proceeds to relate a 360 VISIT TO THE BITTER LAKES. great and remarkable physical change in the features of the country now forming its shores by the admission of the waters of the ocean. In ancient times, he says, a great space and a mountain existed be- tween Yemen and the sea, when a prince, with the view of ruining the country of his enemy, cut the mountain for the space of an arrow's flight and let in the sea upon the land of Yemen: the inundation acquired such force that it could not be checked; it overwhelmed many cities, and a great sea was formed which came nigh to the land of Yemen, and extended to the cities of Juddah, Yembo, Medin, Ailah, (Akaba, the Elath of Scripture,) and Kolzum.

£**£ LJ

The singular Gulf of the Red Sea, which Cazwini styles ^ <\!Llt f^.> Shvhah min Bahr al Hind, literally, a fissure in the rock, (where water stands or flows) from the sea of Hind, is on the line of the volcanic zone, which I have traced along its shores by Gebel Ezzeit, the warm springs of Tor, the semi-active island volcano, Gebel Tir, through the straits of Babelmandeb to Aden; the existence of which is doubtless connected with the profuse growth of its submarine forests of coral. In the Bengal Asiatic Society's Journal, (No.-132, 1842,) I have already mentioned the possibility of the limestone beds, which extend easterly from Egypt far beyond the borders of the Red Sea into Arabia and the Holy Land, having been once continuous, and the portion now occupied by the Red Sea having been engulphed, like the centre of the Val del Bove, by a great subterraneous displacement of matter. The cliffs on each side have a singularly disrupted appear- ance, particularly in the Gulf of Suez. The tradition of Cazwini seems to strengthen the theory of the origin of the Arabian Gulf: the removal of the mountain which intervened between the sea (the Indian Ocean) and Yemen was probably the sinking of the lower parts of the mountain barrier of Babelmandeb, the Gate of Tears; by which the present narrow strait was caused, and which let in the Sea of Hind on the sunken tract now forming the bed of the gulf, and which flowed up so far north as Kolzum and Akaba, still at its head.