Uncharted Africa · Modernised and illustrated edition
Beyond the Second Cataract
Modernized, illustrated English edition of Journal of a Visit to Some Parts of Ethiopia by George Waddington and Barnard Hanbury (1820).
Two Cambridge antiquaries follow an invading army up the Nile as far as Meroë.
Read more ↓- about 380 pages
- Paperback
- English
- 19th century
Countries covered: Sudan
About this book
Venice, January 1820. George Waddington meets his friend Barnard Hanbury there, who is planning an antiquarian journey to Egypt and Nubia. In Alexandria a piece of news makes up their minds: Ismail Pasha's army is moving up the Nile to subdue the lands beyond the Second Cataract. They will follow it.
From Wady Halfa the little party sets out by camel: two Englishmen, a few Maltese and Italian servants, and a dog named Anubis. To get through everywhere, Hanbury plays the part of the Pasha's physician. Deserting camel drivers, the granite colossi of the island of Argo, then the supply fleet, where the boats are hauled upstream under the stick. Corpses drift down the river: at Korti the Sheygy'a have been defeated, and their villages are burning.
In the camp at Jebel Barkal, in the midst of a Muslim army, someone sings "God Save the King". Between the intrigues of a Greek physician and the company of the Cavaliere Frediani, the two friends measure temples and pyramids and recognise in them not Meroë but Napata. Then comes the Pasha's order: they must turn back.
The return, escorted by Nubian kings, becomes another adventure: a feast at Malek Tombol's, the songs of the minstrel of the King of Mahass, Giovanni's fever, a sandstorm, an unknown inscription on the walls of Soleb. What is left of Nubia once an army has passed through?
Product details
- Publisher
- Itinerarium Éditions
- Series
- Uncharted Africa
- The author
- George Waddington and Barnard Hanbury
- Date of the journey
- 1820-1821
- Modern edition by
- Hélène Garnier
- Language
- English
- Format
- Paperback, 6 × 9 in (15.2 × 22.9 cm)
- Pages
- about 380
The author
George Waddington and Barnard Hanbury
George Waddington (1793-1869) and Barnard Hanbury (1793-1833) were both fellows of Trinity College, Cambridge. In 1820-1821 they followed the army of Ismail Pasha, son of Muhammad Ali, in its conquest of the Sudan, beyond the Second Cataract as far as Jebel Barkal. Waddington wrote and illustrated the account, published in 1822. He later became a church historian and was Dean of Durham from 1840 until his death.
All books by George Waddington and Barnard Hanbury →The journey mapped
In the Same Place, Through the Centuries
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George Bethune English, A Narrative of the Expedition to Dongola and Sennaar (1822)
Behind the American renegade Waddington met in the camp, Mahommed Effendi, one recognizes George Bethune English.
Read a free edition → -
Frédéric Cailliaud, Voyage à Méroé, au fleuve Blanc, au-delà de Fâzoql (1826-1827)
The Frenchman Frédéric Cailliaud, whom Waddington passed on his way back, joined Ismail Pasha's army early in 1821 with his companion Letorzec.
Read a free edition → -
George Alexander Hoskins, Travels in Ethiopia, above the Second Cataract of the Nile (1835)
In 1833, a dozen years after Waddington, the Englishman George Alexander Hoskins travelled up the Nile beyond the Second Cataract.
Read a free edition → -
Richard Lepsius, Letters from Egypt, Ethiopia, and the Peninsula of Sinai (1852)
Sent by the King of Prussia at the head of a large scientific expedition, the Egyptologist Richard Lepsius travelled through Egypt and the Sudan from 1842 to 1845.
Read a free edition →
The modern editor
