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Vol. XLVI, No. 3 WASHINGTON September, 1924
The National Geographic Magazine
CROSSING THE UNTRAVERSED LIBYAN DESERT
The Record of a 2,200-Mile Journey of Exploration which Resulted in the Discovery of Two Oases of Strategic Importance on the Southwestern Frontier of Egypt
By A. M. Hassanein Bey
The journey of Hassanein Bey, graduate of Oxford University and now Secretary of the Egyptian Legation in Washington, from Sollum, on the shores of the Mediterranean, to El Obeid, in the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan, a distance of 2200 miles, has been characterized by the Director of Desert Survey, Egypt, as "an almost unique achievement in the annals of geographic exploration." The expedition was undertaken with the encouragement of His Majesty King Fouad I of Egypt, a member of the National Geographic Society. His support took the form of a grant of leave of absence to Hassanein Bey from the civil administration of Egypt, and the expenses of the expedition were subsequently defrayed by government grant.—The Geographic Editor.
TO HIM who has the wanderlust, no other actuating motive for exploration is needed than the knowledge that a region is unknown to civilized man; but for my trip from Sollum to El Obeid through the hitherto untraversed Libyan Desert, I had the additional incentive of exploring the western frontiers of my native Egypt and of the Sudan.
After my desert journey to the Oasis of Kufra in1921, my sovereign manifested special interest in a proposed undertaking to bridge the gap between Kufra and El Fasher (see map, page 236).
Therefore, on December 21, 1922, I landed in Sollum and organized the nucleus of a caravan which was to take me on a trip, occupying more than six months, through the Libyan Desert, that vast expense of arid land lying to the west of the Nile Valley, from the Mediterranean coast down to the Sudan.
The Libyan Desert is inhabited in the north, down to Kufra, by white Bedouin Arabs. The Arabic word "Bedouin" means "dweller of the desert," as opposed to the "dweller of the city." Nowadays, however, it has come to mean any man who goes from one place to another to graze his cattle in the desert. It is used equally for the white Bedouin and the black Bedouin—anybody who lives the (p233) roaming life of those sterile wastes.
In the south, this region is inhabited by tribes of blacks— Tebu, Goran, and Bidiat (see illustrations, pages 268 to 275)—who are rather more refined in features than the central African negroes.
THE SENUSSI, A SECT, NOT A PEOPLE
The reader sees always connected with the Libyan Desert the word Senussi. Many people think the Senussi are a tribe or a people. In reality, they are a sect of the Moslem religion embracing all the tribes of Cyrenaica and having influence in North Africa and the region south of Kufra. It is a comparatively recent sect, being only about 80 years old.
Its founder, Sidi Mohammed Ibn Ali El Senussi, came from Algeria about 100 years ago. On his long journey to Mecca he saw that there is a fertile field for his teachings in Tripoli and Cyrenaica. He established the famous University of Jaghbub (see page 238) and preached a very primitive and pure form of Islam, shorn of all luxuries. The devotees were not even allowed to drink coffee or smoke, and up to ten years ago the man caught smoking was severely punished, sometimes to the extent of having one of his hands cut off.
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