Africa (1884) (14779167711) - Public domain book illustration

Identifier: africakeith00john (find matches)
Title: Africa
Year: 1884 (1880s)
Authors: Johnston, Keith, 1844-1879 Ravenstein, Ernest George, 1834-1913 Keane, A. H. (Augustus Henry), 1833-1912
Subjects: Africa -- Description and travel
Publisher: London : E. Stanford
Contributing Library: University of California Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: MSN



Text Appearing Before Image:
half European, half Oriental;here the traffic between the most important points isfurthered by a network of well-constructed railways, onebranch of which reaches like a horn of plenty as farsouth as Siut in Upper Egypt; here the Mohammedanmosque proudly lifts its head by the side of the Europeanopera-house, and the burnous of the defiant Arab brushesby the coat of the pliant Frank; here, in a word, the un-experienced traveller receives the impression as if someEuropean city had but changed places with a moresouthern capital, until taught by a longer residence thatall is mere outward show and polish, beneath which theold eastern barbarism still finds a refuge. If he hurries from the centres of this superficial culture,he finds himself in the wilderness enclosing both banks ofthe river. In the west it is the vast and dreaded LibyanDesert, which skirts the whole left bank of the Nilethrough Middle and Upper Egypt as far as EgyptianSudan, at places even approaching close to the river it-
Text Appearing After Image:
THE NILE VALLEY. 199 self. Fayiim, on the northern frontier of Middle Egypt,may almost be regarded as an oasis, such as those ofFarafrah and Dakhel in the true desert. 4. The Country East of the Nile—Tlte Atharaand the Blue Nile. On the right bank the plain stretches eastwards fromthe Delta to the Suez Canal, now connecting the Mediter-ranean and Eed Seas at a point where Africa and Asiameet in the sandy waste of the former isthmus ; buttowards the south, along the Gulf of Suez and the wholecoast of the Eed Sea, there rises a hilly country occupyingthe tract between the Nile and the east coast of Africa.In the north, this country of mountains and wadys iscalled the Eastern or Arabian Desert, and farther south,where the Nile forms an inverted S, it descends to theNubian Desert; while, still following the coast-line onthe left until between 15° and 10° north latitude, itexpands into the imposing highlands of Abyssinia. This region alone sends down considerable streams, intheir north