Facsimile · p. 178
THE EGYPTIAN SUDAN as Gebel Barkal, i.e., Mount Barkal, is seen to great advantage.
In ancient Egyptian inscriptions it is called " Tu-ab," i.e., " Pure, or Holy, Mountain." It stands about one mile from the river, and rises abruptly from the plain. Hoskins believed it to be three hundred and fifty feet high,' and Cailliaud thought it had " sixty-four metres of elevation," but its height was carefully measured in 1897 by Major M. G. Talbot, R.E., who pronounced it to be just three hundred and two feet. The end near the river has been used as a quarry, and from it came all the stone ' J HI % f D % 20 40 60 80 100 Mctres %!!# THE TEMPLES AT GEBEL BARKAL.
[Drawn from Lepsius, DenkmSUr, Abth. I. BI. 125.
used in building the temples and pyramids close by. The whole form of the mountain is very picturesque, and highly imposing, especially when seen from a distance. At the south-west corner a large perpendicular mass of sandstone has become separated by a deep fissure from the body of the mountain, and when looked at from a distance of a mile or two up stream it has all the appearance of a colossal statue. The Arabs declare that it is a statue of one of the kings who reigned in the " time of ' "Travels," p. 134. 2 " Voyage h. M6ro6," torn, iii., p. 200.
130 1 I