principal street, while to the north are dense groves of date-palms,
past which the Nile sweeps in a splendid curve and is lost to sight
among the hills. Behind, beyond its open-air markets and the
picturesque camp of the Besharīn, the desert stretches unbroken to
the shores of the Red Sea.

The bazaars of Assuan are extremely picturesque, and are covered
almost throughout their length; the lanes which constitute them are
narrow and winding, forming enticing vistas whose distances are
emphasized by the occasional glints of sunlight which break in upon
their generally subdued light. In the shops are exposed for sale all
those various goods and commodities which native life demands; but
visitors are mostly attracted by the stalls of the curio sellers, who
display a strange medley of coloured beads and baskets, rich
embroideries, stuffed animals, and large quantities of arms and
armour, so-called trophies of the wars in the SÅ«dan. Though most of
these relics are spurious, genuine helmets and coats of mail of old
Persian and Saracenic times may occasionally be found, while large
numbers of spears and swords are undoubtedly of Dervish manufacture.

For most Englishmen Assuan has also a tragic interest in its
association with the expedition for the relief of General Gordon, and
the subsequent Mahdist wars, when regiment after regiment of British
soldiers passed through her streets on their way towards those burning
deserts from which so many of them were destined never to return.
Those were exciting, if anxious, days for Assuan, and many visitors
will remember how, some years ago, the presence of Dervish horsemen in
its immediate vicinity rendered it unsafe for them to venture outside
the town. Those days are happily over, and there is now little use for
the Egyptian forts which to the south and east guarded the little