230 JOURNEY TO CENTRAL AFRICA.

true character and place in Ethiopian history have been satisfactorily established. Hoskins, Cailliaud and Ferlini were the first to direct the attention of antiquarians to this quarter, and the later and more complete researches of Lepsius leave room for little more to be discovered concerning them. It is remarkable that both Bruce and Burckhardt, who travelled by land from Berber to Shendy, failed to see the ruins, which must have been visible from the road they followed. The former, in fact, speaks of the broken pedestals, carved stones and pottery which are scattered over the plain, and sagely says : " It is impossible to avoid risking a guess that this is the ancient city of Meroe" — but he does not mention the groups of pyramids which are so conspicuous a feature in the landscape.

Our path led over a plain covered with thorny shrubs at first, but afterwards hard black gravel, and we had not gone more than a mile before the rais pointed out the pyramids of the ancient Ethiopian city. I knew it only from its mention in history, and had never read any description of its remains ; consequently I was surprised to see before me, in the vapory morning air, what appeared to be the ruins of pylae and porticos, as grand and lofty as those of Karnak. Rising between us and the mountains, they had an imposing effect, and I approached them with excited anticipations. As we advanced, however, and the morning vapors melted away, I found that they derived much of their apparent height from the hill upon which they are built, and that, instead of being the shattered parts of one immense temple, they were a group of separate pyramids, standing amid the ruins of others which have been completely destroyed.

We reached them after a walk of about four miles. They