The Rape of the Nile

by Brian Fagan

  Belzoni chose the southern route. The first part of the journey passed through level but arid countryside covered with stunted sycamore trees and thickets of camel thorn. Soon the expedition came across traces of an ancient settlement, abandoned caravan stations for early travelers on the road, identified by scattered boulders and filled-up wells. At the end of the second day they camped at the entrance to the Wadi Hiah, near a small rock-cut temple. The remains of a guard station with a camel enclosure and accommodation for travelers lay nearby.

  They resumed their journey before daybreak on September 25 and came to more desertic country where little vegetation was to be seen. The same evening Alessandro Ricci was taken violently ill. Belzoni sent him back to the Nile before he got worse. He also split the caravan into two, the heavy baggage going to the east along the main road, while he and Beechey took a side trip to look at some ruins described by the local people. They turned out to be another roadside watering place.

  FIGURE 8.4 Temple on the Road to Berenice, Giovanni Belzoni.

  The local Ababde people lived in small settlements scattered across the desert. They were independent-minded nomads who owed allegiance to no government. Some made a sketchy living by breeding and trading camels, but most were content to live at a subsistence level. With their dark complexions and black curly hair, they closely resembled the Nubians that Belzoni had met at Abu Simbel. Most Ababde walked around nearly naked, except for elaborate hairstyles, which they covered with small pieces of mutton fat—when they had any. The fat melted in the hot sun, producing “an exquisite odour for those who have a good nose.”14 Belzoni found the Ababde quite friendly and willing to sell a few sheep, although there were few to be obtained owing to a prolonged drought. He marveled at their endurance, for they were able to go for twenty-four hours without water, even in the hottest season.

  About two in the afternoon of September 29, after seven days on the road, they saw the blue waters of the Red Sea at a great distance. The following day they reached the miners’ encampment at the foot of Gebel Zabara. Conditions in the camp were appalling, with famine a constant reality. Provisions came by camel from the Nile and never arrived on time. The Ababde resented the miners’ presence and their rough ways with local women. No emeralds had come to light in the ancient workings, and the work of clearing the old shafts was highly dangerous. Fights were commonplace. At least two miners died in an uprising against their leaders.

  Belzoni was anxious to move on. So he stopped for a brief look at the ancient mines, acquired as much (vague) information as he could from the miners, and engaged a local guide for the brief trip to Cailliaud’s ancient city.

  The journey was a nightmare of thirst and arduous going. Their guide led them through rough, narrow valleys and a steep and craggy pass that exhausted their camels. No sign of Berenice appeared from the summit, although Cailliaud’s lyrical descriptions had led Belzoni to expect lofty columns and fine temples.

  Clearly, Cailliaud’s account was grossly exaggerated. They came across some enclosures and ruined walls close to the ocean, which the guide insisted were the remains of Cailliaud’s city. Violent expostulations ensued, for Belzoni was determined to press on to the coast. Finally, he mounted his camel again, much to the annoyance of the animal, which would much rather have stayed where it was. The rest of the caravan followed reluctantly as Belzoni spurred his camel down a south-facing valley. For more than four hours he traversed the valley in all directions looking for the ruins, but without success. The travelers pitched camp under a large rock. They had now run out of water and had but twenty days’ supply of biscuits. The nearest water was 24 kilometers (15 miles) away, so the camels were sent off to drink and to fetch water for the human members of the party. Meanwhile, the Europeans dined on biscuits and a three-day-old piece of mutton that made Belzoni thankful he had no sense of smell.

  The next morning Belzoni and Beechey made their way over to a hill about 8 kilometers (5 miles) away to survey the landscape. No city, no Red Sea, could be discerned, and Belzoni realized that Cailliaud’s report was totally inaccurate. Bitterly disappointed, he compared Cailliaud’s ruins to the fantasies of Don Quixote.

  The travelers were now practically lost, for they had no maps except Jean-Baptiste Bourguignon d’Anville’s famous map of the Red Sea, published in 1766, which was far from accurate and on too small a scale.16 The trend of the valley drainages seemed to be toward the south, and Belzoni conjectured that the Red Sea lay in that direction. When the weary camels returned, he gave orders to resume the journey by the least-arduous route. Eventually, the caravan set off in a northeasterly direction, which took them down a steep-sided valley to a narrow opening in the mountains known as Khurm el Gemal, translated by Belzoni as “rent of the camels.” There they camped at sunset. At noon the following day they sighted the blue waters of the Red Sea and soon were plunging into the ocean “like crocodiles into the Nile.”

  Belzoni now had but seventeen days’ food left and turned southward along the coast in search of the elusive port. The drivers protested. Their protests were in vain in the face of Belzoni’s determination, so the camels were watered at a well and the caravan set off along the sandy and rockstrewn coast. They soon encountered some fishermen, who caught a meal for them using a crude dugout canoe to spear large fish some distance offshore. Belzoni also feasted on shellfish taken from the rocks. Unfortunately, these aggravated the travelers’ thirst.

  The party now split in two. The baggage and most of the camels were sent off to a nearby spring in the mountains, while Beechey and Belzoni, with five men, two boys, and five camels, pressed on to the south with as much water as they could carry. Two days later, the expedition was thirsty, although not hungry, for they had helped themselves to some fish cooking in a deserted fishermen’s camp. Beechey scrupulously left money for the meal, for the inhabitants fled at the sight of the strangers and refused to return. On October 7, they reached Ras Banas and camped near the shore with only a little water to satisfy their raging thirst. The following day brought them to the unmistakable signs of a long-abandoned city. “We entered,” recalls Belzoni, “and at once we saw the regular situations of the houses; the main streets, their construction, and in the centre, a small Egyptian temple, nearly covered by the sand.”16 The site lay inside an amphitheater of mountains and was sheltered by the mass of Ras Banas to the north. Belzoni measured the town and found it covered an area of more than 609 by 488 meters (2,000 by 1,600 feet). He was convinced—and later archaeological researchers have proved him right—that this was indeed the site of Berenice. But it was far less spectacular than Belzoni had hoped.

  Time was running short, for water supplies were dwindling and they had eaten nothing but dry biscuits since the cooked fish of several days before. Their guides were thirsty and restless, so Belzoni had to promise that he would leave at noon the next day. Fortunately, it was full moon and they could survey and sketch at night. One of the Egyptian boys was set to work clearing sand from the temple. For some reason Belzoni had forgotten to bring a spade, so they had to use a large seashell. The boy managed to clear a hole 1.2 meters (4 feet) deep and unearthed a bas-relief and part of an inscription engraved on a small tablet of red breccia (naturally cemented rock). They took it away as evidence of their visit. We now know that the temple was dedicated to Serapis, the Apis-Osiris cult so popular through the Nile Valley in Roman times.

  While the boy was excavating the temple, Beechey and Belzoni surveyed the town. They found that the homes lay close together and were at the most 12 by 6 meters (40 by 20 feet) across. Many were smaller, and Belzoni estimated that there were 4,000 houses at Berenice. But he cut this estimate in half to 2,000, “so that I might not be mistaken for another Cailliaud.” Belzoni had just enough time to complete these calculations and to measure the temple—he found it to be 39.6 meters long by 13 meters wide (130 by 43 feet). He calculated that a population of about 10,000 people had lived in Berenice at the height of its prosperity.

>   They were fortunate enough to find water at about midnight on the second day, at a well called Aharatret in the hills behind Berenice. Even better was the sight of a flock of sheep, but the owners promptly “drove the intended repast away.” Belzoni sent his drivers in pursuit, and they stopped the two young girls tending the flock as they were slipping into hiding. “We were gallant with them, for the sake of devouring some of their lambs,” remarked Belzoni circumspectly, “but the sheep prevailed above all, and took our chief attention.”17 They were soon feasting on half-cooked but tough mutton for the first time in days. Two days later they rejoined the rest of the caravan at the spring of Amusue, where water flowed in abundance, observing traces of the ancient caravan route from Berenice to the Nile on the way.

  Belzoni was now certain that he had located Berenice and that all Cailliaud had seen was a large miners’ camp of small houses scattered over an arid and hilly terrain where the sun baked the soil like an oven and life was harsh and lonely. Cailliaud’s imagination had been fired by these desolate ruins. He had wandered in and out of the houses for some time. “With unbounded satisfaction,” he wrote, “I greeted and hailed a town, hitherto unknown to all our voyagers, which had not been inhabited, perhaps, for 2,000 years, and almost entirely standing.”18 Belzoni was openly scornful of the place. He counted only eighty-seven houses, as opposed to Cailliaud’s estimate of eight hundred.

  The homeward journey was wearisome and thirsty. By the time they reached the mountains by the Nile the camels were so tired they could hardly crawl. Four died by the roadside. The travelers were much troubled by bad well water and thirst. By the time they reached the Wadi Hiah temple five days later they were so thirsty that the water in the last well, which had tasted horrible on the way out, “appeared pretty good on our return.”

  On October 23, after an absence of little more than a month, Belzoni and Beechey reboarded their boat and paid off their weary drivers, taking care to give a present of pocket pistols to the helpful local headman. By this time the Nile flood had receded. “All the lands that were under water before were now not only dried up, but were already sown; the muddy villages carried off by the rapid current were all rebuilt; the fences opened; the Fellahs at work in the fields, and all wore a different aspect.”19

  Belzoni had good reason for satisfaction. He had undertaken an arduous desert journey under difficult conditions and returned without losing a man. He had solved the mystery of Berenice and placed Cailliaud’s discovery in a more sober perspective. He could now return to his archaeological researches in the comfortable knowledge that he had established a credible reputation for exciting and unusual discoveries, something that Belzoni prized above all else.

  9

  High Jinks at Philae

  I must now enter into new contests with evil beings; and in spite of

  all the study I made to avoid bringing before the public foul deeds

  of malice, I find that I cannot avoid inserting them into this volume.

  GIOVANNI BELZONI,

  Narrative of the Operations and Recent Discoveries Within the

  Pyramids, Temples, Tombs, and Excavations, in Egypt and Nubia,

  on his enemies

  The desert seduced Giovanni Belzoni. For a while, he craved solitary adventure, perhaps as an escape from the internecine rivalries of Thebes. No sooner had he reached the Nile than he began to plan a return to Berenice, or a journey to the great Kharga oasis in the Western Desert, which Cailliaud had also visited. But developments at Qurna intervened.

  Henry Salt was now in residence near the village, accompanied by a large party of wealthy travelers. These included baron Albert von Sack, a Prussian nobleman who was a dedicated naturalist with long experience of tropical environments, and William John Bankes, an adventurous young antiquarian with a penchant for travel and sparkling conversation. Bankes had been at university with the poet Lord Byron and shared some of his liberal tastes and values.1 The party was traveling in high style and proposed a leisurely journey up to the First Cataract, with the general objective of removing the beautiful obelisk that Belzoni had claimed in Salt’s name on his first journey.

  Salt had now ceded his rights to the obelisk to Bankes, who was evidently delighted when Belzoni accepted a commission to transport it to Cairo. Belzoni joined the party with alacrity, for the luxury was incredible after the privations of recent months. The consul had a large boat, two smaller ones carried Bankes and the baron, while a raucous canoe-load of “sheep, goats, fowls, geese, ducks, pigeons, turkeys, and donkeys” brought up the rear and “accompanied the fleet with a perpetual concert.” Belzoni was not long impressed with the luxurious waste. “Even at table,” he wrote sarcastically, “we had not ice to cool ourselves after the heavy repast, which was concluded with fruits, and only two sorts of wine. In short our lives were a bother to us from the fatigue and dangerous mode of travelling.”2

  The stay at Qurna gave Belzoni and Salt some time together. Belzoni complained that he had no chance to collect on his own account, so a new, and more satisfactory, agreement was made. He could now dig at Salt’s expense on either bank of the Nile in the British claim areas, and one-third of the finds were to be his. It is surprising that Belzoni and Salt did not reach an agreement of this type much earlier, for it was by far the fairest arrangement under the circumstances.

  Soon afterward, Bernardino Drovetti arrived in Thebes. He promptly made an offer for Seti I’s alabaster sarcophagus, which was immediately rejected. Belzoni and Salt accompanied Drovetti on a tour of the Karnak sites to check the various areas reserved for the British. The meeting was superficially cordial, and any misunderstandings about rival claims were soon worked out. But Drovetti, while amiability itself, persisted in telling stories about a man dressed like Belzoni who was hiding in the ruins and wished to do the Italian harm. So he had warned the local headman about the stranger. Salt laughed at the story, but Belzoni was concerned, for he feared that “if I had happened to go among the ruins, which it was my constant practice to do, and some one had sent a ball at me, they could have said after, that they mistook me for the person who had assumed my appearance in dress and figure.”3 This incident put Belzoni on his guard, which, perhaps, was fortunate.

  After the tour Drovetti regaled his guests with sherbet and lemonade in his hut among the ruins. The talk was of Berenice and of antiquities in general, until Belzoni let slip his plan to remove the obelisk at Philae, despite the lateness of the season. Immediately, Drovetti feigned surprise. The rogues at Aswan had deceived him, he said, for they had promised on many occasions to bring the obelisk down for him. Belzoni pointed out that he had taken possession of it on Salt’s behalf during his first trip into Nubia and had paid for guards to protect it. He quickly explained that Salt had given the obelisk to Bankes, on whose behalf he, Belzoni, was to remove it to Alexandria. Drovetti then conceded the ownership to Bankes with charming courtesy, rather in the manner that he had given the granite sarcophagus to Belzoni many months before. Presumably, he assumed that the obelisk could never be moved. But he did casually ask when the English party planned to depart.4

  Two days later, on November 16, the large caravan left for the First Cataract. Six days later they came to the temple of Edfu, where they found Drovetti’s agents hard at work.5 They also heard that one of the agents had just left posthaste for Philae in response to an urgent message from downstream. A little farther upstream they overtook the Piedmontese Antonio Lebolo, one of Drovetti’s agents who hated Belzoni, traveling up the Nile at speed in a small boat. He refused to stop in answer to their hails. Belzoni was sufficiently worried to leave the main party at Kom Ombo and charter a special vessel to take him on to Aswan as quickly as possible. The mischief was done by the time he reached Aswan. Lebolo had started by trying to persuade the local people not to let Belzoni have the obelisk. The governor, who had reason to be grateful to Belzoni, pointed out that the English had taken possession of the obelisk three years before and paid for a guard
all this time. The crafty Piedmontese now resorted to bribery. He crossed over to Philae, pretended to read the inscriptions on the obelisk, and told the gullible locals that the hieroglyphs stated that the monument had belonged to Drovetti’s ancestors. A bribe and an affidavit in front of the local magistrate completed Lebolo’s dirty tricks. He then promptly disappeared.

  Belzoni arrived too late to stop Lebolo, but he managed to convince the governor of Aswan of the legitimacy of his own claim. Time was obviously of the essence. The obelisk would have to be removed immediately, or the Nile would be too low for safe transport across the Cataract. So Belzoni decided to ignore Lebolo’s phony document of ownership and rely on possession being nine-tenths of the law. Fortunately, he enjoyed much better relations with the local people than did Drovetti’s harsh agents. With characteristic effrontery, he gave the governor a handsome present of a watch and presented the boat captain with half his money in advance, as a bribe for moving the obelisk through the Cataract. It’s an interesting reflection on Belzoni’s powers of persuasion that the same captain had refused to attempt the same task for Drovetti two months earlier on the grounds that the water was already too low.