Between This Occasional Stream And The Regular Waterway There Runs
A Long Strip Of Rich Alluvial Soil, Covered During The Greater Part Of The
Year With The Abundant Crops Which Result From Its Annual Submersion And
The Thick Coating Of Nile Mud Which It Then Receives.
The situation of
Berber is fixed by this fertile tract, and the houses stretch for more
than seven miles along it and the channel by which it is caused.
The town,
as is usual on the Nile, is comparatively narrow, and in all its length
it is only at one point broader than three-quarters of a mile. Two wide
streets run longitudinally north and south from end to end, and from these
many narrow twisting alleys lead to the desert or the river. The Berber of
Egyptian days lies in ruins at the southern end of the main roads. The new
town built by the Dervishes stands at the north. Both are foul and
unhealthy; and if Old Berber is the more dilapidated, New Berber seemed to
the British officers who visited it to be in a more active state of decay.
The architectural style of both was similar. The houses were constructed
by a simple method. A hole was dug in the ground. The excavated mud formed
the walls of the building. The roof consisted of palm-leaves and thorn
bushes. The hole became a convenient cesspool. Such was Berber, and this
'emporium of Soudan trade,' as it has been called by enthusiasts, contained
at the time of its recapture by the Egyptian forces a miserable population
of 5,000 males and 7,000 females, as destitute of property as their
dwellings were of elegance.
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