How many ages had the rains and the stream been at work to scoop out from the flat tableland this deep and broad valley?
Here was the giant laborer that had shovelled the rich loam upon the delta of Lower Egypt! Upon these vast flats of fertile soil there can be no drainage except through soakage.

The deep valley is therefore the receptacle not only for the water that oozes from its sides, but subterranean channels, bursting as land-springs from all parts of the walls of the valley, wash down the more soluble portions of earth, and continually waste away the soil.

Landslips occur daily during the rainy season; streams of rich mud pour down the valley's slopes, and as the river flows beneath in a swollen torrent, the friable banks topple down into the stream and dissolve.

The Atbara becomes the thickness of peasoup, as its muddy waters steadily perform the duty they have fulfilled from age to age.
Thus was the great river at work upon our arrival on its bank at the bottom of the valley.

The Arab name, "Bahr el Aswat" (black river) was well bestowed; it was the black mother of Egypt, still carrying to her offspring the nourishment that had first formed the Delta.
At this point of interest the journey had commenced; the deserts were passed; all was fertility and life.