The 1998 survey of the Wadi Allaqi and its tributaries

Brief report on the 1998 survey of the Wadi Allaqi, one of the principal channels running through the Eastern Desert and joining the Nile Valley with Red Sea coast, whose mouth lies some 120 km south of Aswan. After a note on the mainly Ramesside rock inscriptions found during previous surveys, the author turns to the aims of the present survey, which are to define and record all types of sites still preserved in the inundated reaches of the Wadi Allaqi and its tributaries in Egyptian Nubia, including the northernmost 70 km of the Wadi Gabgaba. Three major types of sites were isolated. Dominant were highly deflated but often very extensive occupation sites on the floor of the wadi. The second type was typified by dry-stone built circles; the third consisted of clusters of rock-carvings on the sandstone escarpments bounding the sides of the wadi. (OEB)