volume 2 - Robert Bedrosian's Armenian History Workshop

Visit to the Great Oasis. 375
Coptic, were in circulation among the Egyptian Christians
early in the first half of this century ; and it is legitimate
to conclude that the origin of the version itself cannot
be placed later than the third century. The MS. is, in
fact, the oldest known copy of any translation of any
considerable portion of the Greek Bible ; indeed, it is
probably as early as any copy now in existence of any
substantial part of the Bible.
During the winter of 1908-9 I learned that the
Corporation of Western Egypt, Limited, had completed
the Western Oases RailNvay (2 ft. 6 in. gauge), and that
it was possible to travel from the Nile to the Oasis' of
Khargah, or the " Great Oasis'" (the largest and most
' The Egyptian word for " oasis" is Uah ^^, or for the oasis
region ^| [M^; Coptic otJ..^€, Arab., wa^ e,. Our own fom of
the word comes from the Greek transcription ' Gao-ts.
^ The Egyptians called it the " Southern Oasis " to distinguish it
from the " Northern Oasis," which is now also called by the Arabs
" Bahariyah," i.e., " Northern " ; Khargah is the " Outside " Oasis,
as opposed to "Dakhlah," the "Inside " Oasis. Khargah and all the
other Oases were subject to the Egyptians from time immemorial, and
paid tribute to the Pharaohs. Khargah was always a very important
station on the great desert road which ran from Dar-Fur to the Nile,
and is known to the Arabs as " Darb al-Arba'in," i.e., the " road of
forty [days]," and is about 1,000 miles long. The most important
ruin at Khargah is the temple built by Darius I (b.c. 521-485) in honour
of Amen-Ra ; it was enlarged by Darius II and restored by Nekhtnebef
(B.C. 378-360). It is the only Persian temple in Egypt. It is 150 feet
long by 60 wide, and it and its three pylons stand in an enclosure
500 feet long. It was the chief temple in the northern half of the Oasis,
as the temple of Dush (Egyptian Kus, the classical Kysis) was the
chief sanctuary in the southern half. In the first centuries of our
Era Khargah contained a very large Christian population, and an
ancient Abyssinian tradition asserts that Bartholomew the Apostle
preached the Gospel here. It was used as a place of banishment for
Christians and other offenders against the laws of the Romans in
Egypt. Sentence of banishment was passed on Nestorius, but it is
said that whilst he was being conveyed across that awful stony plateau
to Khargah, he was rescued by the Blemmyes, or northern Nubians,
who carried him back to Egypt, where he soon after died. The
Muslims occupied the Oasis about a.d. 640, but they do not seem to
have considered it a place of importance, and they did nothing to
maintain or increase its prosperity.