PREFACE Museum at Khartum, or Khurtfim, and with Mr. J. W. Crowfoot, Inspector of Education, I examined all the principal ancient sites from Sesi, or Sesebi, to Semna ; the antiquities at several of these had suffered considerably since I first visited them. We collected a number of objects of importance, and were fortunate enough to discover at Semna a hitherto unknown temple of Tirhakah, which was dedicated to Usertsen III., the great Egyptian conqueror of the Siidan, about B.C. 2333. Our work at the Island of Gazirat al-Malik also yielded good results, and we removed from the top of the hill on which the old Egyptian fortress stood a fine stele of Usertsen III. At Meroe we succeeded in clearing out the shrine of one of the pyramids, and in taking down the north and south walls ; the former is now at Khartum, and the latter in the British Museum.

During the years in which I was thus occupied in the Sudn I collected materials for a history of the country, and the present work is the result. In the First Part will be found a brief narrative of the results of four Missions, and a description of the temples, pyramids, &c., which, by the friendly help and co-operation of Lord Kitchener, Sir Reginald Wingate, and their Staffs, I was able to visit, examine, and partly excavate. I have prefaced this narrative by a summary of the splendid archaeological work done in the Sudan by modern travellers, especially by Cailliaud, Hoskins, and Lepsius, and to this a notice of the travels of Poncet, Norden, Gau, Browne, Burckhardt, Legh, Hanbury, Waddington, Russegger, and others, has been added.

The Second Part of this book deals with the history of the Sudan. The narrative begins with the great raid made in the country by Seneferu, a king of Egypt, who reigned about b.c.

3766, and ends with a summary of the principal events which took place there a.d. 1904. We must not assume that the raid of Seneferu was the first which the Egyptians made in the Sildan, for the Egyptian monuments of the Pre-dynastic and Archaic Periods yield sufficient evidence to justify us in believing that it was only one of a very long series, which began some thousands of years before that king came to the throne. Details of such raids are at present wanting, but it is quite certain that every ruler of Egypt, in all periods, has considered the Sudan simply as viii