TRAVELS OF HOSKINS above Merawi, without mishap. Near Merawi is the striking mountain called Gebel Barkal, at the foot of which the Nubian king Piankhi, and his immediate successors, including Tirhakfih, built temples ; on the hills close by are a number of pyramids which form their tombs. Hoskins devoted much time and trouble to the making of plans of these monuments, which are of considerable importance. The drawings made by himself and his artist are useful in checking the results obtained by Cailliaud.

Recent travellers to Gebel Barkal have been surprised at the chaotic state of the ruins, but in connection with this it may be noted that Hoskins thought (p. 153) that the pyramids there had been the objectof some "learned curiosity"or avarice. He believed that some persons, having been deceived by the false doors at the west ends of the shrine-chambers, had endeavoured by means of blasting to discover inner chambers, which they expected to contain objects of value, and that others having come to the conclusion that the dead, with their treasure, were hidden beneath the pyramids, set to work and systematically destroyed several of them.

From Gebel Barkal Hoskins proceeded to the pyramid-field of Niiri, which lies on the opposite bank of the Nile, about ten miles farther south. On sailing down the river, he stopped at Old Dongola, and made a brief inspection of the ruins of its famous Christian church, but neither he nor his artist made any plans or drawings of it. We may note in passing, however, that he was prepared to believe that Old Dongola, and not Gebel Barkal, as has been usually supposed, was the site of the ancient city of Napata. Pliny states that the distance from Napata to the Island of Meroti is 360,000 paces, i.e., about 340 miles, but according to Hoskins the distance from Gebel Barkal to the Island of Meroii is only 240 miles, and he felt obliged to look for the site of Napata at some place about 100 miles to the north of Gebel Barkal, and he therefore fixed upon Old Dongola as the probable site. Now the distance from Gebel Barkal to Abu Hamed is about 130 miles by river, and the distance from Abu Hamed to Hamadab, the village which is nearest to the ruins of the city of Meroe, is about 220 miles according to recent measurements, and thus we see that Pliny's statement is substantially correct.

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