A pilgrimage to the temples and tombs of Egypt, Nubia, and ...

192 IBRIM.
the aggressions of the Ethiopian Queen. Can-
dace had taken advantage of the Roman Legions
being withdrawn from the Tliebaid and sent upon
an expedition into Arabia, to march her army
upon Syene (Es-souan), and destroy the garrisons
of Philae and Elephantina ; this it was that in-
duced Petronius to carry the war into her do-
minions, where her inexperienced troops not
being able to withstand the discipline of the
Leofions, she was forced to flv into the fastnesses
of her own country, and take refuge at Naputa.
Petronius left an army at Primmis to keep her in
check, but the occupation of that place was
subsequently relinquished, from the impossibility
of any advantage being derived from so remote a
settlement, and the difficulty of maintaining a
sufficient garrison there. It is admirably situated
on the summit of a rock rising perpendicularly
from the river, and in the absence of artillery
must have been impregnable.
The place is now abandoned and quite a mass
of ruins, but Ibrim has been the theatre of
modern w^arfare, for the Viceroy's son, Ibrahim
Pasha, took up his position there when, in pur-
suit of the Memlooks, he drove them out of
Egypt. He was there besieged by them for
several months, during which time his troops