The Geographical Journal (Journal of the Royal Geographical Society): Volume XVI, No. 6 [‎367v] (87/232)

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THE OASES OF THE MUDIRIEH OF ASSYUT.
merchants, passed Kharjah in January and February on their way to
Assyut. The inhabitants are now very poor, and Baris, twenty-six
hours south of Kharjah, has suffered especially since the cessation of the
Sudan trade.
Dakhilah, though smaller, is more fertile and productive than
Kharjah. The eastern half is very free from sand, though west of Mut
dunes are frequent. The towns of Kasr, Mut, and Smint are in the
neighbourhood of very extensive ruins, which evidently mark their
original sites, now covered with sand. The oasis is known to the Arabs
as El Wah ed Dakhilat, or El Gharbiyat. Kasr Dakhil is still its prin
cipal town, though the local government has been removed to Mut.
The former is prosperous, and well supplied with water, though, as
elsewhere in this oasis, the water-level has fallen. Many wells have
been sunk by modern boring-machines. Kasr is the manufacturing
centre of the oasis, the principal industries being pottery-making^
weaving, basket-making, and the pressure of oil. The pottery is well
worth attention, some of the vessels being exactly the same as those to
be seen in fragments on the old sites. Balat, in the east of the oasis, is
170 miles from Bani Adi, in the Nile valley, while the distance from
Kasr to Farafrah is about 115 miles, and from Tanidah to Kharjah 72.
1 he only direct road to the Nile valley is that to Bani Adi. The pro
ductions of Dakhilah are similar to those of Kharjah, the dates fetching
however, a slightly higher price. The dom palm is very rare, though
general view of kasr dakhil, oasis of dakhilah.