THE EGYPTIAN SUDAN the ruins indicates that the city which once stood here was great and flourishing. As a description of the temples and buildings there is given in another part of this book, it will be sufficient to say here that no traveller who is really interested in the antiquities of the Sudan should fail to visit the temple of the Great Queen at Nagaa, and the pretty little building in the Egypto- Roman style which stands quite close to it. In the Gebel an- Nagaa are the quarries from which the stone for the temples was taken, and in two or three places, generally near the temples, are still to be seen the sites of the artificial reservoirs from which the ancient inhabitants drew their water supply.

Hitherto travellers have been prevented from undertaking a journey to Nagaa by the difficulty of carrying a sufficient supply of water with them ; for the road is not an easy one, and the water-skins of the natives frequently leak, owing to careless loading up and tying. Thanks to the forethought of Lieut. Lord and Mr. Nevile we had an abundant supply, for they took with them several of the little light iron tanks, with screw-mouths, two of which when filled with water formed a camel's load. Much of the difficulty of visiting Nagaa from this cause has now been removed, for Sir Reginald Wingate has had a well dug there, and the traveller need only take with him sufficient water for drinking purposes. Lieut. Lord knew the site of Nagaa very well, and a few hours sufficed to visit the ruins of the temples, &c., which looked extremely picturesque at sunset and sunrise.

We pitched our tent between the pretty little Romano-Egyptian temple and that of the great Queen of Nagaa, and on the following morning we left Nagaa, more fully Masawwarat an-Nagaa, i.e., the " sculptures of Nagaa," and set out for the ruins of Masawwarat as-Sufra, which lie in a circular hollow in the mountains, about twenty miles north of Nagaa. The track runs on the west side of Gebel an-Nagaa, over ground the greater part of which is covered with scrub and patches of halfa grass. My companions sighted some gazelle and went after them with one of the camel-men, who tied his camel to a small tree. Whilst they were away the camel took the opportunity of breaking or untying the rope which held him, and bolted in a direction the exact opposite to that in which we were going. Then began 326