Edward Lear (London 1812-1888 San Remo)

Wadi Halfa lies downstream of the Second Cataract, on the modern Sudanese-Egyptian border and the landscape around the area, was markedly different from that found further north in Egypt. Lear was fascinated by the contrast and in a letter to Lady Waldegrave he wrote, 'Nubia delighted me, it isn't a bit like Egypt... Sad, stern, uncompromising landscape - dark ashy purple lines of hills, piles of granite rocks, fringes of palm, and ever and anon astonishing ruins of oldest temples' (Lady Strachey, Later Letters of Edward Lear, London, p. 83).