TRAVELS OF CAILLIAUD history of these buildings, and do not help us to assign a date to them ; it must, however, be noted that with the help of Champollion's observations he identified the ruins of the temple of Tirhakah, which lie between the mountain and the river.

Leaving Gebel Barkal in May, Cailliaud determined to avoid the Nile route, and to cross the desert by the route which would bring him to the Island of Arko ; he thought that there was nothing worth examining on either of the river banks between Gebel Barkal and Dongola, but in this he was mistaken, for there were several pyramid-fields to be met with on the way, and at that time large numbers of the pyramids must have been standing, and in a tolerably perfect condition. The desert between Gebel Barkal, or Merawi, and Arko in May is one of the hottest that can be imagined, and the sufferings of Cailliaud and his companions must have been considerable. At one o'clock in the morning the temperature was about 47° centigrade, and before noon it rose to nearly 53° ; the heat, and the glare, and the want of wind almost made them think they were passing through a fiery furnace heated with red-hot sand, and soon after they had started they were met by a prolonged sand-storm, which once experienced can never be forgotten. This storm was, of course, caused by the terrible wind commonly called the " Khamsin, " because it blows, off and on, for a period of fifty days ; as a matter of fact, however, a storm only lasts for two or three days at a time, while the Khamsin period contains sometimes more and sometimes less than fifty days. By taking the desert route Cailliaud shortened his journey by six days, and he took the opportunity of visiting Al-Kirman, Askan, and Tombos. Near the last-named place he found the large granite quarry which supplied the stone for the colossal statues now lying on the Island of Arko, and among the rocks he saw an unfinished statue of a king about 12 ft. long.

So soon as the natives discovered that Cailliaud was interested in antiquities, they hastened to assure him that ruins of considerable size and extent existed in the Oasis of Selima, and, as they described them as being similar to those in the Oasis of Kharga, ' More correctly " Khamasin," which is really the vulgar plural of " Khamsin," i.e., " Fifty." The correct name of the period is " Khamsun."

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