Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

The Gilf Kebir

1934; Wiley; Volume: 83; Issue: 6 Linguagem: Inglês

10.2307/1785494

1475-4959

H. W. G. J. Penderel,

Archaeological and Historical Studies

R. RICHARD BERMANN is to speak this evening on historical problems of the Libyan Desert, dealing particularly with the Gilf Kebir and 'Uweinat. My task in preceding him is to describe briefly the objects and results of the several expeditions which have attacked the Gilf, to give a more detailed description of our last expedition, and while I am doing so, to put the position before you geographically. We shall then have in our mind's eye a picture of 'Uweinat, the Gilf Kebir, and the surrounding desert, as they exist to-day. Dr. Bermann will take us back to the desert as it existed thousands of years ago. We might start, I think, with the Gilf itself. The Gilf Kebir is a huge plateau or shelf resting on the Libyan Desert, in the form of a triangle with the apex to the south. The centre of it is about 450 miles west of the Nile and 600 miles south of the Mediterranean Coast. Its area, so far as we can guess, is roughly that of Switzerland. The escarpments on the west and east are precipitous. Our expedition discovered that it is divided by a large gap cutting right across it. The plateau slopes gradually towards the north and finally becomes submerged in the Sea of Sand to the north and north-east. The Great Libyan Sea of Sand is a configuration which I do not think exists in any other part of the world. There are thousands of square miles of sand, more sand, and still more sand. A great part of it consists of parallel dune-lines running approximately north and south between I00 and 300 feet high, and anything, so far as I have seen, from a quarter of a kilometre to I2 kilometres apart. A line occasionally dies out, usually as two other dunelines close on it; or it may connect itself to one of the flanking dune-lines by a bridge of soft sand. Except at these points the dune-lines are absolutely impassable by any form of motor transport. I have myself run between the dune-lines for over I50 kilometres without being able to make more than 15 to 2o kilometres to either the east or the west. It seems established without reasonable doubt-I trespass here for a moment on Bermann's domain-that somewhere within the great sand sea lies the lost army of Cambyses which left the Nile Valley for Siwa and was never heard of more.