Egypt : handbook for travellers / edited by K. Baedeker.

Date:
1885-1892
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Egypt : handbook for travellers / edited by K. Baedeker. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    49/628 (page 29)
    1 Rulra = 3.75 litres — 6^/2 pints; 1 wdbeh = 30 litres = 6 gals. 22/5 qts.; 1 ardeb = 7 webeh = 210 litres = 46 gals. l3/5qt. 1 Pik = O.07 metre = 26.37 inches; 1 pik, land measurement, = 29.527 (about 29 V2) inches; 1 kassaba = 8.55 metres = 11 ft. 7.763 (about 11 ft. 73/40 inches. 1 Feddan = 4200 square metres = about 5082 sq. yds. — 1^20 acre. II. Geographical and Political Notice. By Dr. Schweinfurth of Cairo. Boundaries and Area (comp. Map, p. 30). The countries sub- ject to the supremacy of the Khedive embrace by far the greater part of N.E. Africa, or nearly the whole of the territory adjacent to the Nile. The natural boundaries of the vassal kingdom founded by Mohammed fAli and bequeathed by him to his successor in 1848 are formed by the Mediterranean Sea on the N., the Libyan Desert on the W., the Red Sea on the E., and Abyssinia, which may be called the Quito of Africa, on the S.E. These boundaries include Egypt Proper, with the five oases of the Libyan desert and part of the peninsula of Sinai, the Nubian Talley of the Nile, with the Nubian desert regions, and lastly the so-called Egyptian Sudan, which consists of the districts of Taka, Senndr, and Kordofdn. The Khedive Ismaril, whose dominions were secured to him as a fief hereditary in the male line, extended his boundaries still farther to the S., S.E., and S.W. Thus he purchased Sauakin and Masau'a on the Red Sea, and Zela' and Berbera on the Gulf of rAden, four im- portant seaports and commercial places, together with the coast districts adjoining them, which formerly belonged directly to the Turkish government; and in the same way he acquired part of the coast of the Somali, extending to the equator, a district replete with still untouched natural treasures. The districts of the Bogos and Galabat on the frontiers of Abyssinia have been occupied with a view to protect important commercial routes, and together with the Somali territory of Harar have been annexed to the Egyptian empire. Bar-Fur, once an entirely independent principality in the Moham- medan Sudan, and the terror of its neighbours, has lately been con- quered by the Egyptians, and the empire of the Khedive has thus been increased by four very populous provinces, while Mohammed rAli, who was less fortunate in his designs on that region, succeeded in gaining possession of Kordofan only, the E. part of it. Bogos, Galabat, and the other provinces adjoining the N. frontier of Abys- sinia are, however, constantly exposed to the inroads of their war- like neighbours, and it will probably be impossible in the long run to resist the importunate demand of the Abyssinian monarch for their restitution. The rebellion which broke out in most of the Mahom- medan provinces of the Egyptian Sudan in 1883 threatens to entail the entire loss of IsmaTl’s acquisitions to the S. of Egypt proper.