LOST CITY OF SAHARA.

Oamaru Mail, Volume XXXVII, Issue 10237, 28 August 1909, Page 6

LOST CITY OF SAHARA.

A party of Arabs, who recently returned tu Cairo from the Sahara, related a story of remarkable discovery. Tticy {.-tilled that tlicy were endeavoring z.) smuggle contraband across Tripoli last winter, v.'hen they were surrounded by coast guards. Some escaped and rode .'-out'award for three days. They lost themselves and were without food. They had given up hope, when they saw on the horizon a slit-' loring mass like a large city. They believed at first that it was only a mirage, but it proved to be a real deserted city, built 'of burnished copper. The only sign of life was some sand grouse, which were shot. The party, after exploring the place and replenishing their water at an excellent well, discovered a beaten track and returned to Cairo.

The story came to the ears of antiquific authorities and-despite the fact that Arabs are born romancers, much credence is fiiven to the narrative, owing to the production of pieces of copper of fine workmanship and antique j design which the Arabs claim they brought from the lost city. The result is that n private expedition has beenorganised with the assistance .of the Egyptian Government Antiquities Department, and is about to start for the Sahara to search for the city of copper. It will also visit the oasis of Siwa and explore Jarabub. the mecca of the Scnussi tribe, into which no European has yet penetrated. The story of the city of burnished copper recalls another 'wonderful city which Arabs claimed to have found 200 years ago. Arabs told the eighteenth century traveller, Thomas Shaw, of the discovery in Barbary of a beautiful j petrified city, where petrified women fingered petrified goods in petrified shops, and petrified women kneaded petrified dough in some of the houses.. One magnificent person was lying on n splendid couch, guarded by men holding spears, etc. Shaw listened while the Arabs piled tip a wealth of detail, his scepticism gradually deepening until it settled into-confirmed unbelief when they added they had found petrified cats chasing petrified miep. The savants who are going to search for the buried copper city ignore the fact that this metal, when long exposed to the air, invariably oxidises and hecomes of a, deep green color. .