The role of Russian travelers in the study of foreign countries Asia, especially Central Asia, where they were research pioneers. The role of the Russians in the discovery and exploration of northwestern America is also quite well known. But Russian travelers have also done a lot in exploring Africa.

One of the first explorers of the interior of Africa is the famous Russian traveler Colonel E.P. Kovalevsky, who made a long journey to interior Africa in 1848. A mining engineer by profession, he was invited by the ruler of Egypt, Muhammad Ali, to carry out geological research on gold deposits in the area between the White and Blue Nile in the area of ​​Fazoglo, located south of the Blue Nile in the spurs of the Abyssinian Mountains.

Through Alexandria along the El-Mahmoudiya and Nile canals, Kovalevsky and his companions arrived in Cairo. In January 1848, they set off from Cairo by steamship up the Nile to Aswan, where the Nile's flow was then blocked by rapids. Having bypassed the rapids on dry land, Kovalevsky's expedition moved further up the Nile on sailing barges - dahabiye.

The travelers crossed the northern tropic. Even though it was still January, the sun burned mercilessly.

From Kurusku the travelers went through the Nubian Desert.

The path was very difficult.

The heat reached 42.5°C. During the ten-day journey, water was encountered in only one place, and it was bitterly salty. The travelers' skin, not accustomed to the sun's heat, became covered with red spots.

Despite the unbearable heat and thirst, Kovalevsky continued to conduct scientific observations, in particular, geological surveys and determination of altitudes using a barometer.

After a ten-day journey through the Nubian Desert, the travelers saw the bluish strip of the Nile, and then the houses of the village of Abu Hamid, surrounded by clumps of palm trees. From here the caravan headed along the Nile to Berber, and 5 days after sailing from Berber, the expedition arrived in Khartoum, at the confluence of the White and Blue Nile.

After a two-day stop in Khartoum, the Dahabiya expedition sailed up the Blue Nile, whose waters were clean and bright.

“A fair wind,” writes Kovalevsky, “carried our small flotilla quickly along the waves of the Blue Nile, on which the Russian flag fluttered for the first time.”

The tropical world of animals and plants revealed itself in all its originality before the eyes of travelers. Herds of monkeys amused everyone with their antics and ridiculous jumps.

The nature here served as a direct contrast to the dead Nubian Desert.

Kovalevsky describes in some detail the tropical plants constantly encountered along the way: types of palm trees, baobab, etc.

At the village of Keri, the expedition left the Blue Nile Valley and headed south to the Tumat River, entering the area of ​​African settlements. Off the coast of Tumat we met bamboo for the first time, of which there was a lot further on.

Elephants roamed the flat hills to the northeast. One of Kovalevsky’s companions saw a herd in which he counted 130 elephants. The vastness of the Abyssinian Mountains rose on the horizon.

In this remote area of ​​​​inner Africa, E. P. Kovalevsky put Russian names on the map: the Nikolaevskaya country, the Nevka, Bezymyannaya, Georgievskaya rivers.

Not limiting himself to reaching the upper reaches of Tumat, Kovalevsky also took a route to the mountains located to the west, to the Dul fortress. They walked straight, making their way through the thicket of tropical thickets.

Acacia and thorns of all kinds, writes Kovalevsky, thorns different types, created precisely for the purpose of tearing the dress, and in the absence of it, the skin of people, bent in the form of a fishing rod, it seemed that they were just waiting for us, and, attacking with amazing ferocity, dug into the body to the bone.

The gold exploration carried out by Kovalevsky in the Tumat basin was generally crowned with complete success. Gold mining was established.

Kovalevsky made his great journey very quickly. In the same year, 1848, in which he traveled up the Nile from Cairo, Kovalevsky returned to Russia, and in 1849 he already published a description of the trip.

Together with Kovalevsky, the then young scientist L. S. Tsenkovsky, a prominent Russian naturalist, went to Central Africa. With funds provided by the newly founded Geographical Society and the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences, he was sent to Southern Egypt “for scientific research in geography and natural sciences.”

Traveling along the Nile Valley, Tsenkovsky separated from Kovalevsky and, working independently, was engaged in botanical research for several months in the province of Fazoglo. Upon Kovalevsky’s return to Russia, Tsenkovsky still remained for some time in the Nile Valley, continuing scientific research. Tsenkovsky managed to collect rich natural historical collections, delivered to Russia.

The famous Russian traveler N. N. Miklouho-Maclay began his research in Africa. In 1866, he made a trip to the Canary Islands, and returned from this trip through Morocco (in 1867). During his trip to the Red Sea a little later (in 1869), he traveled both along its Arabian and African shores (Eastern Sudan, Eritrea).

Traveling along the shores of the Red Sea was a kind of baptism of fire for Maclay. It taught him to fight hardships, not to take into account the heat, and developed in him endurance and caution.

During both travels, N.N. Miklouho-Maclay conducted mainly zoological research.

The outstanding explorer of Africa V.V. Junker committed in 1875 - 1878. travel through the Libyan Desert, explored Eastern Sudan (southern part) and northern Uganda. Rich collections brought from this trip were presented to him Russian Academy sciences and are still kept in the ethnographic museum.

Particularly remarkable is the seven-year journey of V.V. Junker across Equatorial Africa (1879 - 1886), when he explored the watershed area between the Nile and the Congo. He spent several years among the tribes Central Africa(nyam-nyam, or Azande, Mangbattu, Vochua), having only one European companion and being, like Miklouho-Maclay in New Guinea, in constant communication with the local population, who were often reputed to be the most bloodthirsty cannibals. This journey was extremely difficult and climatic conditions, and the difficulty of advancement. The traveler had to move through the steppes, languishing from heat and thirst, and overcome endless swamps and swamps. At times he went hungry and suffered greatly from skin diseases and wounds on his legs that did not heal for months.

With great difficulties, due to the uprisings of the Muslim Mahdists of Sudan and the inhabitants of Uganda, Juncker had to get out of the wilderness of Equatorial Africa.

The collections he collected during this long journey were lost. Fortunately, the diaries and maps he compiled have survived.

Juncker was the first European to walk the entire region of the Uele River and prove that it belongs to the Congo basin, and not to the Lake Chad basin, as many geographers had previously assumed.

Juncker's works are a very valuable contribution to the study of Africa, especially in ethnographic terms.

Juncker's filming that stood out among others similar works their accuracy, formed the basis for the compilation of geographical maps of the area he studied.

Dr. A.V. Eliseev (1881-1895) made remarkable trips to Africa. He visited Egypt, Algeria, Tunisia, Tripoli, Northern Sahara, Ethiopia. Eliseev traveled on meager means, making his way - as he himself writes - usually alone or with one guide, often carrying all his luggage, covering hundreds of miles on foot, often starving, not to mention the complete absence of any comfort, which is more Almost all excursionists arrange themselves or less. Nevertheless, he constantly, to the best of his ability, pursued certain scientific goals, mainly paying attention to anthropological and ethnological issues.

He first used his Anthropological Compass, taking advantage of the fact that several Arabs came to him for medical help. Under the guise of a diagnosis,” he writes, “I made several anthropological measurements, which both myself and my patients were satisfied with.

A. V. Eliseev outlined his travels in the book “Around the World.” Some of the most interesting pages of this book are those that describe the route through the sandy expanses of the Erg of Northern Sahara to Ghadames. During the journey through the desert, the traveler had to move the simoom.

S. Elpatievsky and V. ANDreevsky visited Egypt and vividly described the impressions of their travels in this unique country.

Russian travel to Ethiopia was quite numerous. L.K. Artamonov, N.S. Leontyev, A.K. Bulatovich, P.V. Shchusev and other Russian travelers penetrated into the depths of this country.

The Soviet expedition to Ethiopia by Academician N.I. Vavilov, organized in 1927 by the All-Union Institute of Plant Growing, continued to study the country, publishing the results of its research in a number of special works on cultivated plants of Ethiopia. The expedition caravan passed for four months

across Ethiopia about 2000 km, collected over 6000 samples of cultivated plants, soil samples, took about 2000 photographs, etc., N.I. Vavilov established the center of origin of durum wheat in Ethiopia.

Professor S.V. Averintsev, a zoologist, made a long journey along the coast of Africa from Tanga on the east coast to Cape Town and then to the Canary Islands and gave in his essay (Nature magazine for 1912) beautiful pictures of the nature and population of the countries he visited .

Equatorial Africa, namely the region of lakes Victoria and Tanganyika, was explored by the young Russian naturalist V.V. Troitsky (1912 - 1913). He studied the sources of the Nile, was engaged in zoological collections and observations, and became acquainted with the tribes. One of the topics of his research was the study of the tsetse fly and its larvae to develop methods to combat sleeping sickness.

A number of Russian natural scientists visited North Africa. V.I. Lipsky exported botanical collections from Algeria (Biskra), described the experimental botanical gardens of Algeria and Tunisia (1900 - 1902). Soil scientist D. Dranitsyn examined the soils of Algeria in 1913. Zoologist I. Puzanov visited Eastern Sudan, namely the Red Sea coast and the watershed area between the Red Sea and the Nile (1910), giving a description of his trip in the journal “Earth Science” (for 1912 - 1913). V. A. Karavaev traveled to Egypt, Sudan, Tunisia and Algeria to study ants.

Various areas of Africa were visited by Soviet scientists and participants in international geological and botanical congresses. They shared their observations in special articles, as well as in books devoted to the description of travel (geographer I. P. Gerasimov, geologists N. M. Fedorovsky, G. V. Bogomolov, botanists P. A. Baranov, A. L. Kursanov and etc.).

This short list, of course, does not exhaust all the research and travel carried out by Russian people in Africa.

© Pleasant Company LLC, 2017

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From the publisher

The second volume of the present Collected Works of Egor Petrovich Kovalevsky, diplomat, traveler, scientist, public figure, is printed according to the 1849 edition “Journey to Inner Africa by E. Kovalevsky, Author of “Wanderer on Land and Seas” and so on.”

The essay, in which the author describes in detail the expedition organized at the urgent request of the Egyptian Pasha Muhammad Ali with the aim of “arranging and developing gold placers discovered in Upper Egypt,” is supplemented with interesting archival materials characterizing the development of gold mining in Russian Empire and in Egypt.

Punctuation and spelling in this edition are close to modern standards of the Russian language, geographical names and proper names are left in the text as written in the previous edition, preserving all the variants encountered.

The notes in this edition are in italics.

We express our sincere gratitude to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Russian Federation for supporting the project, Head of the Archives foreign policy Russian Empire Irina Vladimirovna Popova and the Archive staff Olga Yuryevna Volkova and Alla Vladimirovna Rudenko for their attention and invaluable assistance; to the staff of the Protopopovsky UVK of the Dergachevsky district council represented by a teacher Ukrainian language, local historian Nadezhda Fedorovna Ostapchuk, Veronika Vladimirovna Fesik, as well as Lyudmila Grigorievna Melnikova, who, unfortunately, is no longer among us, for great organizational and scientific work to perpetuate the memory of the writer in his homeland - in the village of Yaroshyvka, Kharkov region.

Bibliography:

1. Bibliographic chronicle // Otechestvennye zapiski. – 1849. – T. 64, No. 5, dep. VI.-S. 1-25.

2. Valskaya B. A. Travels of Yegor Petrovich Kovalevsky. – M.: GEOGRAPHGIZ, 1956. – 200 p.

3. Kovalevsky E. P. Travel to Inner Africa with drawings and a map, parts I and P. - St. Petersburg, 1849.

4. Kovalevsky E. P. Travel to Inner Africa with drawings and a map. Collected works - St. Petersburg, 1872. - Volume 5.

E. P. Kovalevsky.

Travel to Inland Africa
E. Kovalevsky (Author of “Wanderer on Land and Seas”, etc.)

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“No one knew anything about the sources of the Nile, except the keeper of the sacred things in the temple of Minerva in Sais, in Egypt, but he, it seems, was joking, saying that he definitely knew.”

Herodotus book.

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"Sources of the Nile in Paradise."

By the time the reader starts reading this book, I will be far away from here. This time my stay in St. Petersburg was short, and I did not have time to process, as I would have liked, some subjects in the book I was publishing, such as, for example, about the origin of the various tribes inhabiting Egypt, Nubia and Sudan, and left my travel through Syria unpublished and Palestine. Anyone who knows the difficulties of illustrated publication in our country will be surprised how I could publish my book in this form in this short time.

March, 10th day 1849. St. Petersburg.

Vignette: Fountain in Constantinople, fig. Dorogov, res. Baron Clot is on the tree.

Part I. Egypt and Nubia

Caravan in the Great Nubian Desert, fig. Dorogov, res. Link.

Chapter I. Alexandria

Travelers reaching Alexandria look sadly at the sandy shores of Africa. Like the Idos, Napoleon's soldiers were disheartened when they landed on the desert land of Egypt. Even before the soldiers of Napoleon, the army of Cambyses rebelled against their commanders, who brought him to this scorching heat of the country, and even before the slaves of the Pharaohs cursed the ground on which they built the pyramids - the pyramids that had survived so many destructive centuries and so many great glories.

View of Alexandria (letter P), fig. Tim, res. Bernardsky.

Alexandria didn't make much of an impression on me. The sight of palm trees, wonderfully drawn on the bright horizon, was not new to me: I came from Rhodes; the low, sandy shore is too common for eyes that are accustomed to our marshy shores and even sometimes look at them with love; the city itself has a very decent appearance even for the west, not only for the east. From the old port where our ship stopped, Alexandria is especially beautiful. To the left is the Pasha's palace, harem, garden, lighthouse; opposite us is the beautiful structure of the arsenal, beautiful houses, a fortress, and even gardens; only on the right side is a sand spit, protruding far into the sea, foreshadowing deserts that are terrible for the traveler; the shacks spread across it unpleasantly disturb the eyes, and the many windmills with their outstretched wings seem to want to push everyone away from here.

The port is excellent; Moreover, it is the only one along the entire African coast, starting from Tunisia to Alexandria. On the opposite side is a new port, almost inaccessible to large ships; but the old one is so large that it can contain the fleet of all Europe.

The founding of Alexandria, like that of Constantinople, was accompanied by a miracle. In the east, not a single step without a miracle; in this regard, time has not changed morals. Alexander the Great was struck by the advantageous position of Rokotos, a small village: having fallen asleep with the thought of a worldwide trading city, from which his name would more conveniently spread to all ends of the universe, he saw an old man bathed in light and flame (an old woman appeared to Constantine the Great), who, with a prophetic voice, in the verses of the Odyssey beloved by Alexander the Great, indicated the place for such a city: it was precisely the village of Rokotos. The next day he and the learned Dinacris began to draw a plan of the city, which to this day bears his name, although ancient city Alexander has been gone for a long time.

It’s strange: people just don’t want to recognize a genius in a task that they themselves wouldn’t be able to do. To explain a great feat, they are ready to compose a fairy tale, to acknowledge the influence of chance, the inevitability of fate, but not the superiority of man. But Napoleon understood Alexander's genius; the greatest of conquerors, he said that Alexander found more glory in the construction of Alexandria than in all his conquests. It is a pity that this wonderful idea came somewhat late to Napoleon. Struck, like the ancient hero of Greece, by the advantageous position of the city on the border of Asia and Africa, in view of Europe, he had no doubt that Alexandria could serve as the capital of the world; to this we must add - in the hands of such a commander as Napoleon, because Alexandria has no natural defense, and the enemy can and did take it without much difficulty from land and sea. This is not like Constantinople. This Bosphorus and Dardanelles, stretched out like two mighty hands to the north and south to unite them for peace and trade, like two mighty hands are always ready to protect him.

Only in Alexandria did we learn that, due to the outbreak of cholera in Constantinople, all those coming here must endure a ten-day quarantine. You can imagine how this news felt for us, who had so many reasons to rush towards our goal. We were separated from the other passengers and taken to a small palace occupied by Ibrahim Pasha during his stay in Alexandria, where we were soon left alone.

The vast cross-shaped hall had windows on all four sides; from everywhere I could see the quiet sea and a transparent sky with a bright scarlet horizon from which the sun had just rolled down - a sky that I had not seen for a long time. Night fell suddenly, and despite the fact that the sky was covered with myriads of stars, it was dark. My steps echoed dully on the marble floor of the deserted, dimly lit palace...

Alexandria! Egypt!.. There is something to think about. Alexandria, where the Greeks drew education, wisdom, religion, beliefs, bequeathing them to the world. Egypt, a land full of biblical exploits, drenched in the blood of the first martyrs, which accepted firsthand the covenant of Christian teaching... The land of the Nile and the pyramids, the land of eternal, inexhaustible and unfading growth!.. How many memories, how many expectations, of which, alas, many were not destined to come true! The beliefs of childhood are the brightest, most rosy beliefs! Happy is the one who goes through his whole life with them and whose bitter experience does not extinguish them along the way, replacing them with another light that represents objects and people in a different form!..

We were received with rare cordiality and hospitality. Despite the fact that our imprisonment became harder and harder, and when the day of liberation arrived, we went to the city before dawn.

Alexandria, in the time of Pliny, contained 600,000 inhabitants, of whom 300,000 were citizens and 300,000 slaves. Amru, who took Alexandria, reported to Omar that the city had 4,000 palaces, 4,000 baths, 400 theaters and 12,000 shops. During Napoleon's expedition to Egypt, Alexandria was a ruin that served as a refuge for pirates; it had, however, up to 8,000 inhabitants. Napoleon did not manage to do anything for the city, except for some fortifications. Megemet-Ali found Alexandria in the most pitiful situation: there were barely four or five thousand inhabitants left. Taught by the experience of the recent landing of the British on the shores (1807), the pasha hastened to restore the ancient wall built by Saladin’s successors to protect the city from the crusaders, and made new fortifications: this was his first work; Then he took on the city, which attracted the attention of the world Alexander and Napoleon!

Nowadays, Alexandria, not only from the outside, but also from the inside, has the appearance of a European city with a dark oriental flavor, which does not quite stick to it. The city is clean and tidy, like most cities in Egypt, which is especially striking to the traveler, after the Turkish cities. This was the initial, motivating reason for this. Megemet-Ali, not accustomed to opposition, experienced constant defeats from the plague, with which he entered into the most desperate struggle; in vain he surrounded with a quarantine line not only coastal places, but also inner part his possessions, populated them with European doctors and caretakers, took the most stringent measures - the plague did not cease to appear from time to time in Egypt, collecting a bountiful harvest of death. Finally, I don’t remember which European gave him the idea; applying himself to the morals of the East in general and to the character of Megemet-Ali especially, he expressed his proposals to him in the form famous fable about a shepherd who, having put his sheep behind a thick fence, stood at the gate and guarded them day and night, meanwhile the sheep kept dying and dying, because the wolf climbed into the sheepfold before the shepherd even stood guard.

- So what should we do here? - asked Megemet-Ali: leave the wolf until he strangles the shepherd himself!

- No, we need to destroy his lair to the ground.

-Where is it?

- In the uncleanliness with which the streets of all cities are littered to the point that it is impossible to walk along them.

This was enough for Megemet-Ali to set to work with all the energy characteristic of him. Since then, the cities, whatever they were, have not only been cleaned, swept, but even watered every day with water, and the plague, in good time, has not appeared in Egypt for about ten years!

Until this year, Alexandria had 80,000 inhabitants; but according to the audit, which is coming to an end in all of Egypt and will give us the opportunity to present correct information about the population of the country, according to this audit it turned out to be 145,000 in Alexandria.

There is a square in the city, quite extensive; in the middle there is a fountain without water, it is true, but one has to get used to these oddities in the east; the fountain is very beautiful. The houses of European consuls general overlook the square - their own, state-owned or hired from Ibrahim Pasha, because one side of the square is occupied almost entirely by his houses, the houses of wealthy merchants, built in Italian taste, several shops, hotels and coffee shops. It should be noted that consuls and rich merchants constitute the aristocracy in the east.

This square is reminiscent of the squares of Italian cities: the same crowd of people, always moving, fussy, the same costumes, the same language, the same energetic, convulsive movement of those walking and talking, which is very similar to the timid bustle of small animals before the onset of a storm.

We went to the obligatory T, who remained the attorney of our consulate general, on the occasion of his stay in Cairo, where the pasha’s court was located; Together with T. we went to Artim Bey. Artim Bey - Minister of Foreign Affairs and Commerce in Egypt; the latter title forces him to live permanently in Alexandria. He is an Armenian by birth, brought up in France and very well educated; Having replaced, locally, the famous Bogos Bey, who had been Megemet Ali's associate and closest person for so many years, Artim Bey also knew how to gain the trust of the old viceroy, who did not give in too easily to new people.

The East in Alexandria must be sought in the bazaars: here it is colorful, cramped, dark, mysterious, like in the tales of the Thousand and One Nights. You will be amazed by the heavy clothing of the women: they, in the full sense of the word, are wrapped in black satin khabras and a black blanket, tarkha; in addition, the borgu descends onto the face, through the bridge of the nose, into in the form of a triangle, black matter. The nose seems depressed; no drapery; a woman cannot control the veil that lies on her like a heavy burden of a marital prohibition. In Constantinople it is completely different. Light, snow-white, it gracefully envelops her head and face; held from below with your hands, it opens slightly, as if by an involuntary movement, and you often see, in addition to black agate eyes, matte white cheeks and an extremely regular nose. Bad women are proud that they never break the covenant of Mohammed, and do well, whatever the reason for such behavior.

The country houses surrounded by gardens are beautiful, especially along the Mahmoudiye Canal; not far from them, on a hill, rises a majestic column, decorated with the capital of a composite order. I will not go into detail about who exactly this column, known as Pompey’s, is dedicated to; whether he, Dioclitianus, whose name is at the top, or the founder of Alexandria, as others believe; I will only note that Alexander’s tomb was not here, as many claim, and this column did not stand over his grave. There were royal palaces, temples, maybe even the temple of Serapis and the dwelling of the priests. Alexander's body, as is known, was transported to his royal city by Ptolemy I in a tomb made of pure gold.

Ptolemy Cocles needed gold, and he moved the great conqueror from the gold to the crystal coffin, located at the opposite end of the city. We will devote a special article to this subject, in which we will try to confirm our words.

Some say that the original form of this and many similar columns was borrowed from cypress, others poetically explain the legend of the ancients about compressed lotus leaves, taking them as the prototype of the capital; in my opinion, the column with capitals was reborn in imitation of a palm tree with its decayed top, and the minaret in imitation of a cypress tree. The first column was erected in the country of palm trees, the minaret in the country of cypress trees.

Along the embankment of the new harbor, near the gate, there are two obelisks; both of them were taken from Memphis by the Greeks during their rule in Egypt. One stands on a sharpened plinth, the other lies in the dust; but both of them suffered a lot; on one side of the standing obelisk, almost all the hieroglyphs have been erased; they say that he was beaten by sand during Khamsim, which blows in April and May: it is difficult to believe without experiencing the effects of this wind; I have this ahead of me. The hieroglyphs on the other sides, and especially on the opposite side, have been perfectly preserved: they are very beautiful.

The obelisk is known as Cleopatra's Needle.

Both monoliths were donated by Megemet-Ali, one to France, the other to England; but no matter how magnificent they are, neither one nor the other has taken them away to this day, because transportation is extremely expensive.

The view from these obelisks from the embankment to the sea, to the city, living and dead, necropolis - this view is extremely good and you forget that behind you are the shacks of soldiers' wives and half-naked children crying for baksheesh, alms.

In Alexandria, or more correctly beyond Alexandria, there are catacombs: if the traveler does not get lost and suffocate in them, he will be very pleased when he comes out into the world and breathes into himself fresh air. There are also so-called Cleopatrine baths; but why these loopholes are called baths, and even Cleopatra’s baths, I no longer know.

There is no social life in Alexandria, as in the entire east. There is a theater, but it is bad and not visited by good society; two three houses are warmly open to travelers.

Now you know modern Alexandria, and maybe even know it from its best side. Let's go back 2132 years and see what it was like then? I will not describe to you its buildings, its monuments; these dead signs are not as clear, they do not speak as clearly to the soul as life itself, the inner life of the city.

There is a celebration in Alexandria: Ptolemy Soter declares his son, Ptolemy Philadelphus, co-ruler. They are already in the pavilion, which was specially built for this purpose, in a pavilion shining with gold, silver, fabrics from Persia and India, precious and rare stones from all countries. Finally, the procession itself moved. In the head are the flag bearers of various corporations. Behind them are the Greek priests in the order of their hierarchy; this festival was predominantly Greek and expressed the main myth of Bacchus, and therefore there were countless priests, all in rich chariots, representing various scenes from the life of this god.

They were followed by a chariot on four wheels, drawn by sixty people; on it was a huge statue of the city of Nisa, dressed in a yellow tunic embroidered with gold; on top is a Laconian cloak. In her left hand she held a staff; the head was decorated with ivy and grape leaves made of pure gold and precious stones. Moved by a cunning mechanism, the statue stood up on its own, poured milk from a full bowl and sat down again.

Behind this statue, a hundred people were driving a chariot on which lay a press. Sixty satyrs, under the command of Silenus, crushed grapes to the sound of songs and flutes, and a stream of sweet wine flowed in their wake all the way.

Further, there is a whole compartment with vases, urns, various accessories for the priesthood, tripods, dishes, kitchens, etc. - all made of pure gold, excellent workmanship and an extraordinary price. We skip the calculation of all these things, the size and weight of each of them.

One thousand six hundred children, dressed in white tunics, with wreaths on their heads, followed these jewels, carrying various gold and silver vessels and wine jugs.

It is impossible not to mention the huge cage that was carried by five hundred people. Pigeons and turtle doves constantly flew out of it, entwined with long ribbons, with which spectators caught them. From the chariot itself there were two fountains, one milk, the other wine. Nymphs, with golden crowns on their heads, surrounded her.

A special chariot carried things used by Bacchus on his way back from India. The statue of Bacchus itself, huge in size, all in purple, with a golden wreath on its head, wearing golden shoes, rode on a decorated elephant. In front of her, on the neck of an elephant, sat a Satyr. 120 satyrs and 120 girls with golden crowns on their heads walked in front, behind were 500 girls in purple tunics, girded with golden laces, and behind this innocent retinue of Bacchus, strong men and satyrs in golden crowns crowded on donkeys; the donkeys were also decorated with gold and silver. Further, twenty-four chariots drawn by elephants, sixty by goats and many others by various animals, deer, wild asses, and finally ostriches; children in tunics sat on them; with each there was a child in the form of an assistant, with a sword and spear in his hand, in an embroidered gold dress.

Then chariots pulled by camels and finally mules moved slowly; There were enemy tents on them, and in the tents were women from India, dressed as slaves. Next they brought various aromas, incense, iris, saffron, cassia, etc. Next to them walked Ethiopian slaves with various gifts, ivory, ebony, golden sand, etc. There are hunters behind them, in gold; they kept 2,400 dogs of various breeds; up to 150 people carried huge trees from which hung various animals and birds: pheasants, pentads, parrots, peacocks, etc. After many other separations, they drove in various breeds of bulls and rams, intended, of course, for the food of the people; they led leopards, panthers, tigers, lions, polar bear and so on.

Richly dressed women, bearing the names of Ionia and other Greek cities, and a choir of 600 people, with golden crowns on their heads, accompanied a chariot with a huge temple of pure gold, surrounded by statues and animals; 3,200 golden crowns, among which was a crown dedicated to the sacraments, decorated with precious stones, a lot of gold in weapons and clothing accessories, two basins of pure gold, jugs, bowls, etc. were transported on special chariots.

Finally, the entire procession was concluded by troops consisting of 57,600 infantry and 23,200 cavalry, superbly dressed.

Colixenus of Rhodes adds that he described only the most precious accessories of this procession, omitting many other things, in his opinion, less significant. I, in turn, have shortened the description of the truthful historian.

Ancient writers exclaim with surprise: could other cities, Persepolis, Babylon, in the time of their glory, or the lands watered by the blessed Patroclus ever present similar riches? Of course not! Only Egypt was able to do this.

Until 1837, Yegor Petrovich managed to graduate from Kharkov University, work in the Mining Department and publish several poetic works. This year, a young mining engineer is sent to Montenegro to develop gold deposits. First in Montenegro and then in Khiva future traveler, writer and orientalist, participating in hostilities, showed fortitude and courage.

African exploration period

In 1847, Kovalevsky headed to Africa, at the whim of the ruler of Egypt, Megmet Ali, who believed in the mythical country of Ophir. There is gold in this country, according to an ancient manuscript, and Megmet Ali needed the help of an experienced mining engineer. Thus began a fascinating expedition that led to many geographical discoveries.

The route of Kovalevsky's expedition initially ran along the waters of the Nile and its tributaries and passed through the cities of Cairo, Asun, and Kurusku.

Not far from the city of Kurusku, the expedition did not overcome the rapids of the Nile, and had to go through the Nubian Desert. The traveler wrote about the desert that it appeared in all the horror of destruction and death. The caravan walked through lifeless terrain for about ten days, exhausted from thirst, before the travelers were again able to board the barges and travel along the river to the city of Khartoum. The interfluve, between the White and Blue Nile, which surprised the researcher with the diversity of vegetation, he called the Sennar Peninsula and put it on the map.

Next, the expedition headed along a tributary of the Nile - the Tumata River. Surprisingly, not a single European had been on the banks of this river before, and here Russian geologists found the richest placers of gold. Egor Petrovich took an active part in the construction of gold mining factories, drawing on his experience working at the Ural and Altai factories.

The traveler really wanted to determine the source of the White Nile and decided to refute the claim of the researchers of the Abbadi brothers that this place is located in Ethiopia. He began to carefully study and explore the area. Moving along the bed of the Tumat River, I found the source of this river.

The researcher was the first to point out the correct geographical coordinates the source of the White Nile, but this statement was proven much later. The expedition ends in 1948.

Unfortunately, the traveler was not able to visit Africa again, but his African expedition was of great value for the development of the geography of the continent. The son of Megmet Ali, Ibrahim Pasha, in gratitude for the gold he found, awarded the researcher the Order of Nishan el Iftigar. Russian government - Order of Anna, second degree.

Results of the African expedition of E. P. Kovalevsky

Immediately after the expedition, Kovalevsky will publish the book “The Nile Basin” and later in 1872 “Journey to Inner Africa,” which included a description of Abyssinia.

During the expedition, Yegor Petrovich collected various collections, compiled numerous geographic Maps, described in detail the lands visited and measured the geographical coordinates of many areas. Thanks to the work of the scientist, the cartography of Africa at that time was significantly improved.

Yegor Petrovich Kovalevsky is better known as the head of the Asian Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Empire. However, the contribution he made to the development of the eastern direction of Russian foreign policy was laid at the very beginning of his multifaceted activities. In 1846, Kovalevsky accompanied Egyptian engineers sent to Russia by Pasha Muhammad Ali to the Urals to study mining, and in 1847 he himself went to Egypt to set up gold mines there. “...This task [was] given to him at the special request of Muhammad Ali, who wanted to explore the gold-bearing sands to exploit them wisely and knowledgeably. By appointing such an outstanding officer to this task, who had already managed similar enterprises in Russia, e.i. V. The Emperor deigned to grant Muhammad Ali great mercy, and we have no doubt that the Pasha will be able to appreciate this and provide Mr. Kovalevsky with all the necessary means so that he can successfully achieve the goal of his journey.” Kovalevsky took advantage of this trip to provide services to the young Russian Geographical Society, of which he was elected a member in the same year: in 1847-1848. Kovalevsky conducted geographical and geological research in East Africa, based on the results of which he was one of the first to indicate the correct geographical position the source of the Bahr el Abyad/White Nile River. Kovalevsky described his African expedition in the book “Journey to Inner Africa,” published in 2 parts.

However, this book did not become the only monument to its author’s stay at African continent. For the Russian Foreign Ministry, Kovalevsky’s official reports were of much greater importance, namely: “A brief report by E.P. Kovalevsky about the expedition to Africa, presented to Chancellor K.V. Nesselrode”, a note “The current political and commercial state of Eastern Sudan and Abyssinia”, as well as “The project of Russian trade with Egypt and the shores of the Red Sea”. These documents reveal the depth of research demonstrated by our traveler and the breadth of his plans to strengthen the Russian presence in the region in question. Below we present excerpts from the said “Report”, which are the most important for highlighting the political aspect of Kovalevsky’s stay in East Africa.

“At the end of December 1847 I arrived in Cairo. Preparations for the expedition began actively. Muhammad Ali, for whom the discovery of placer gold was the favorite idea of ​​his whole life... now concentrated all his hopes in me. During my two-week stay in Cairo, I visited the Viceroy very often and, I dare to think, enjoyed his special favor. He talked to me about the Nile barrage, which especially occupied him, the fortification of Alexandria, the establishment of a cadastre, and often asked my advice; often laughed at the intrigues of the British and French, of whom at that time some were busy with the establishment railway, others - a canal through the Suez Isthmus, while Muhammad Ali firmly decided not to allow either one or the other and got rid of the two parties warring with each other with only promises. He spoke with enthusiastic gratitude about the favors of the sovereign emperor, who sent him his officer to assist him in achieving his favorite goal, and very often proudly told European consuls about his connection with the Russian court.<…>I returned to Alexandria along a different route, through the Nubian Desert and Dongola. I found Ibrahim Pasha already the ruler of Egypt! I brought him gold mined at the factory I set up; he poured it from hand to hand with visible pleasure and showed obvious joy. Ibrahim Pasha has a positive mind, but not nearly as brilliant as his father; Now he is trying in every possible way to popularize himself, but the people remember his cruelty and, accustomed to the oriental pomp of their rulers, mistake the simplicity with which Ibrahim Pasha lives for stinginess. One cannot help but admit that stinginess has a big place here. It seems that Ibrahim Pasha's favorite thought is the deviation of Egypt from Turkey. He is actively forming new troops and strengthening Alexandria. Before my departure from Alexandria, Ibrahim Pasha instructed to ask your Excellency to bring to the attention of the Emperor the deep gratitude and favor that he has for to the Russian monarch. It was impossible not to notice from his words that on this side he was very afraid of obstacles in the fulfillment of his plans. From all of the above, Your Excellency will deign to see that neither dangers and hardships, nor even illness stopped me on my way. Knowing that the attention of the scientific world was constantly drawn to the expedition entrusted to me [as shown by the reviews of magazines and the hopes of the ruler of Egypt concentrated in me], I tried to maintain the dignity of the Russian and justify the choice of my superiors. I take the liberty of calculating here the results that we achieved with my expedition, already partially known to your Excellency from my correspondence with Muhammad Ali and Ibrahim Pasha. Three gold-bearing placers were discovered, a gold-washing factory and a fortification were built, the natives were accustomed to this kind of work, as proof of which the gold mined in my factory was brought by me to the ruler of Egypt. For geography, a huge area of ​​the black country has been acquired from the sources of the Blue Nile to the White Nile, where no European has ever penetrated, despite all the efforts of the London Geographical Society. Many altitudes have been measured barometrically and the latitudes of many points have been determined by means of a sextant. A map of hitherto unknown lands has been made, collections have been collected in many industries natural sciences and, finally, despite all the fears of the Governor-General of Eastern Sudan, who entrusted the detachment to me, I showed, by penetrating with him so far into Africa, what dangers and hardships the soldiers of Ibrahim Pasha could overcome, with which he was extremely pleased.”

In the aforementioned “Note” Kovalevsky reports on the activities in Khartoum of the “spiritual mission of Roman propaganda” under the leadership of the Jesuit Rillo, who was not so much involved in spiritual affairs as in business: “Rillo bought big house, builds another and signs up the colonists he wants to settle along the White and Blue Nile.” But this “more political-commercial than religious enterprise” ended sadly: Rillo died of fever in 1848, and the members of his spiritual mission were killed. Much attention Kovalevsky pays attention to Ethiopia, which in the 40s of the 19th century, according to the author, was “divided into several separate possessions, one independent from the other, warring with one another.” Everything that relates to Ethiopia in the “Note” acquires even greater interest due to the fact that in his book “Journey to Inner Africa” Kovalevsky writes little about this country. In the “Note” he even sets out the history of the penetration of European colonialists into Ethiopia. To establish trade between Russia and Egypt, Kovalevsky proposed organizing regular steamship service between Odessa and Alexandria. In his opinion, the Black Sea mail ships that sailed between Odessa and Constantinople could cope with this task. However, the Moscow Governor-General A.A. spoke out against the said “Project”. Zakrevsky, who believed that Russian goods would not be able to withstand competition with British and French ones. Zakrevsky believed that if Russian merchants had found trade with Egypt profitable, they would have long ago established ties with it. For trade with Egypt, capital alone was not enough; knowledgeable people were needed who could devote themselves to this matter. There were no such people at that time. Merchants, unfamiliar with the region and its demand, did not dare to invest their capital in a new business. Kovalevsky’s proposal to establish a trading house for African trade in Moscow, according to Zakrevsky, did not deserve attention. The prevailing opinion was that the remoteness of Moscow from the Black Sea ports in the absence of good communication routes would create great difficulties in the trade of Moscow merchants with Egypt, so Kovalevsky’s “Project” was rejected.

Egor Petrovich Kovalevsky

Russian writer...

Kovalevsky, Egor Petrovich - Russian writer, traveler, public figure. Born into a noble family. In 1825-1828 he studied at Kharkov University. In 1830 he went to Siberia, worked in the mines, studied gold deposits. Traveled around Central Asia, southern Europe, Africa, Eastern countries, etc. In 1855, he participated in the defense of Sevastopol. Since 1856 he settled in St. Petersburg. In 1856-1864 he was assistant to the chairman of the Geographical Society, then an honorary member. In the 40s, K. was friendly with the Petrashev poets A.I. Palm and S.F. Durov, in the late 40s and early 50s he became close to I.S. Turgenev, N.A. Nekrasov, N. G. Chernyshevsky, L. N. Tolstoy. He was one of the organizers and the first chairman of the Literary Fund. K. appeared in print as a poet. In 1832 he published a collection of poems “Siberia. Duma" and the historical tragedy in verse "Martha the Posadnitsa, or Slavic Wives." Turning to prose, K. published the novel “Petersburg Day and Night (1845), stories (“Majorsha” and others), travel essays: “Four Months in Montenegro” (1841), “Wanderer on Land and Seas” (ch 1-3, 1843-1845), “Journey to Inner Africa” (1849), “Journey to China” (1853). K.'s articles on Africa and speeches in defense of blacks were met with sympathy by Nekrasov and Chernyshevsky. K.’s book “Count Bludov and His Time” (1866) aptly characterizes the events of the early 19th century and gives vivid portraits of historical figures. K.'s works are distinguished by observation, humane views, simplicity of language and humor. F.I. Tyutchev responded to K.’s death with poems, and M.E. Saltykov-Shchedrin wrote the obituary. The image of K. is captured historical novels V. Sinenko “Mountain Captain” (1958) and “The Country of Ophir” (1960).

Brief literary encyclopedia in 9 volumes. State Scientific Publishing House " Soviet encyclopedia", vol. 3, M., 1966.

In those years, Sakhalin was represented as a peninsula.

Diplomat...

Kovalevsky, Yegor Petrovich (1811-1868) - Russian diplomat, known for his activities in the Slavic states of South-Eastern Europe and in Far East. In 1837, Kovalevsky, as a mining engineer, visited Montenegro at the invitation of Peter Njegosi. Kovalevsky took part in one of the Austro-Montenegrin clashes on the border. Here he first showed his diplomatic skills and contributed to the rapid resolution of the conflict. After this, K. repeatedly carried out diplomatic assignments in the countries of South-Eastern Europe, and at the end of the 40s he went to the Far East. Accompanying the Russian spiritual mission to Peiping in 1849, Kovalevsky obtained permission from China to allow the mission to travel the shortest route, bypassing the Argalin sands, along which the Chinese had previously deliberately driven Russian caravans, hiding from them the direct road through Mongolia.

In 1851, Kovalevsky signed the Russian-Chinese, so-called Treaty of Kulja(...), who opened Dzungaria to Russian trade. In 1853, during the Turkish-Montenegrin War, Kovalevsky was sent to Montenegro as a Russian commissar. He contributed to the cessation of hostilities and the beginning of peace negotiations, which prevented the invasion of Montenegro by the army of Omer Pasha. In 1856, Kovalevsky Byt was appointed to the post of director of the Asian Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. With his participation, the text was developed Aigun Treaty of 1858(....), according to which vast territories north of the Amur River were assigned to Russia.

Diplomatic Dictionary. Ch. ed. A. Ya. Vyshinsky and S. A. Lozovsky. M., 1948.

...and also a traveler

Kovalevsky Egor Petrovich - Russian traveler, diplomat and writer. For eight years (1857-1865) he was assistant to the chairman of the Russian Geographical Society, and from February 1865 - its honorary member. During his trip to Africa (1847-1848) he introduced huge contribution to resolve the "Nile problem". Kovalevsky specialized in gold exploration and mining.

An unusual case brought Kovalevsky to Africa. The ruler of Egypt, Muhammad Ali, was obsessed with finding the mysterious country of Ophir. There, according to legend, treasures were mined for King Solomon and the Egyptian pharaohs. An ancient Arabic manuscript prompted Muhammad Ali to send people on a search to the distant region of Fazoglu. The envoys of the ruler of Egypt actually found gold deposits, but very scarce ones.

Then a message was sent to the Russian Tsar with a request to urgently send a knowledgeable mining engineer. This is how Kovalevsky ended up in Africa. Together with him, Siberian and Ural foreman and miners arrived in Egypt.

The route of Kovalevsky's expedition went mainly along the Nile, its tributary - the Blue Nile and the Tumat River flowing into the latter. From Alexandria to Cairo we traveled the usual route along the Mahmudiye Canal and the Rosetta Branch of the Nile Delta. Kovalevsky left Cairo on January 20, 1848. On the fifth day they were in Aswan, from where the voyage along the Nile continued on sailing barges - dahabiye. But they failed to pass through the rapids of the Nile above the city of Kurusku, so it was decided to go through the Great Nubian Desert along the caravan route.

Kovalevsky went deeper into the Great Nubian Desert, where, as he testifies, the hot air seemed purple. The caravan walked continuously for twelve to thirteen hours a day. Only on the tenth day of the journey the desert ended and the river welcomed travelers again. On barges they slowly moved towards the city of Khartoum, where the White Nile and Blue Nile, merging, give rise to the Nile proper.

Khartoum is the capital of Sennar and all of Eastern Sudan. Sennar - a region with a city of the same name - occupied the interfluve between the White and Blue Nile until their confluence at Khartoum, forming a triangle. Kovalevsky called this triangle the Sennar Peninsula. Meadows with herbs as tall as a man, lush steppes, virgin forests where the roar of a lion was heard - such was the appearance of this country. In the forests of Sennar he discovered the new kind palm trees - duleb, collected seeds and roots of useful plants.

Leaving the Blue Nile, the Russian detachment headed to the tributary of this river - Tumat. No one had been on the banks of the Tumat before Kovalevsky. He opened this country to science. The Tumat region in its geological structure and conditions of occurrence of gold-bearing rocks was reminiscent of Pyshma and Miass in the Urals. Russian geologists unerringly found gold in greenstones, in the hollows and tributaries of an African river.

The Ural experience, applied in distant Africa, was crowned with complete success. A Russian foreman discovered a rich gold mine. In the very heart of Africa, a gold processing plant was built following the model of Ural and Altai enterprises.

But Kovalevsky dreamed of a different kind of success. An Arabic proverb solved one of Africa's mysteries very simply: “The source of the Nile is in paradise.” By the time Kovalevsky traveled to Africa, they already knew that the Blue Nile began in Ethiopia. Before leaving Cairo, Kovalevsky heard that the travelers Abbadi brothers had finally managed to find the sources of the White Nile, and not far from the sources of the Blue Nile.

Kovalevsky found this strange. But if the Abbadi brothers are right, then along the dry bed of the Tumat River it is possible to reach the source of the great river from the gold miners’ camp! They tried in vain to dissuade the Russian from this venture, threatening him with a meeting with the warlike Abyssinian Galla tribe. Soon, Egyptian soldiers captured three highlanders, intending to turn them into slaves. Kovalevsky ordered the prisoners to be released. The rumor must have spread far and wide. Gaul was not touched by the aliens. The caravan passed unhindered to where weak springs gushed out from under the damp ground. None of Kovalevsky’s companions had ever seen where the Tumat River flows from. Before Kovalevsky's travels, the Upper Nile region was known only from cosmograph maps ancient world- Ptolemy (II century AD) and al-Idrisi (1154), but the maps they compiled no longer met the needs of 19th-century geography.

To the south of the sources of Tumat lay a new country discovered by Kovalevsky. From the east it was limited by the peak of Fadasi, behind which the Abyssinian Highlands rose. The Moon Mountains rose at the southern border of the new country. How many legends have been written about the Moon Mountains, at the foot of which the sources of the Nile have been located since the time of Ptolemy! Kovalevsky rejected the erroneous statements of the ancients and believed that the sources of the Nile should not be sought here. Subsequently it turned out that the Moon Mountains turned out to be main system mountains of Inner Africa. New country south of the Moon Mountains Kovalevsky called Nikolaevskaya. The Nevka River also appeared on his map.

Based on his personal observations, Kovalevsky concluded that the main river is not the Blue Nile, but the White Nile, and its sources should not be found between 3° and 10° N. sh., that is, in places where the Moon Mountains were depicted on the map, and much further south...

The banks of the Nevka were the southernmost limit of Kovalevsky’s routes along the Sennar Peninsula. He reached the edge of the Abyssinian Highlands.

On the way back to Alexandria, in the Lesser Nubian Desert, Kovalevsky discovered the Abudom River, a left tributary of the Nile. This discovery refuted the opinions of the famous German geographers Humboldt and Ritter, who argued that the Nile has only one tributary - the Atbara River.

Kovalevsky's research brought some clarity to the orography of the western part of the Abyssinian Highlands. Eastern Sudan, or, as Kovalevsky called it, the Sennar Peninsula, a vast territory in the form of a triangle, enclosed between the lower reaches of the White and Blue Nile rivers, was put on the map by him according to his own observations. (This map is given as an appendix to Kovalevsky’s book “Journey to Inner Africa.”) Soon after returning from the campaign, he wrote the work “The Nile Basin Geologically and Gold Placers of Inner Africa.” And only much later - in 1872 - Kovalevsky’s book “Journey to Inner Africa” was published. This book contains information about the people and nature of countries unknown to Europeans. In it he points out the peculiarity of many rivers in this part of Africa. In the dry season, these rivers (even such significant ones as the Tumat, and especially small rivers - Nevka, Yabus) are dry riverbeds, but it is enough to dig a small depression in the riverbed to get good drinking water. Consequently, rivers flow under a layer of sand. During the rainy season, these rivers are full of water.

In 1849-1851, Kovalevsky traveled to China as a diplomatic representative. With his assistance, an agreement was signed under which Dzungaria was opened to Russian trade. The signing of the treaty greatly contributed to the geographical study of this part of Western China.

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Essays:

Collection soch., vol. 1-5, St. Petersburg, 1871-1872.

Literature:

[Saltykov-Shchedrin M.E.], E.P. Kovalevsky, “Notes of the Fatherland”, 1868, No. 10;

Annenkov P., E.P. Kovalevsky, St. Petersburg, 1868;

Panteleev L., E.P. Kovalevsky, first chairman of the Literary Fund Committee, in the book: Anniversary collection of the literary fund, St. Petersburg, 1909;

Kovalevsky P.M., Meetings at life path, in the book: Grigorovich D.V., Literary memoirs, L., 1928;

Valskaya B.A., Travels of E.P. Kovalevsky, M., 1956 (there is a bibliography).