The name of the oasis appears in hieroglyphics as Kenem, and that of its capital as Hebi (the plough). In Pharaonic times it supported a large population, but the numerous ruins are mostly of later date. The principal ruin, a temple of Ammon, built under Darius, is of sandstone, 142 ft. long by 63 ft. broad and 30 ft. in height. South-east is another temple, a square stone building with the name of Antoninus Pius over one of the entrances. On the eastern escarpment of the oasis on the way to Girga are the remains of a large Roman fort with twelve bastions. On the road to Assiut is a fine Roman columbarium or dove-cote. Next to the great temple the most interesting ruin in the oasis is, however, the necropolis, a burial-place of the early Christians, placed on a hill 3 m. N. of the town of Kharga. There are some two hundred rectangular tomb buildings in unburnt brick with ornamented fronts. In most of the tombs is a chamber in which the mummy was placed, the Egyptian Christians at first continuing this method of preserving the bodies of their dead. In several of the tombs and in the chapel of the cemetery is painted the Egyptian sign of life, which was confounded with the Christian cross. The chapel is basilican; in it and in another building in the necropolis are crude frescoes of biblical subjects.
Kharga town (pop. 1907 census, 5362) is picturesquely situated amid palm groves. The houses are of sun-dried bricks, the streets narrow and winding and for the most part roofed over, the roofs carrying upper storeys. Some of the streets are cut through the solid rock. South of the town are the villages of Genna, Guehda (with a temple dedicated to Ammon, Mut and Khonsu), Bulak (pop. 1012), Dakakin, Beris (pop. 1564), Dush (with remains of a fine temple bearing the names of Domitian and Hadrian), &c.
Kharga is usually identified with the city of Oasis mentioned by Herodotus as being seven days’ journey from Thebes and called in Greek the Island of the Blessed. The oasis was traversed by the army of Cambyses when on its way to the oasis of Ammon (Siwa), the army perishing in the desert before reaching its destination. During the Roman period, as it had also been in Pharaonic times, Kharga was used as a place of banishment, the most notable exile being Nestorius, sent thither after his condemnation by the council of Ephesus. Later it became a halting-place for the caravans of slaves brought from Darfur to Egypt.
About 100 m. W. of Kharga is the oasis of Dakhla, the inner or receding oasis, so named in contrast to Kharga as being farther from the Nile. Dakhla has a population (1907) of 18,368. Its chief town, El Kasr, has 3602 inhabitants. The principal ruin, of Roman origin and now called Deir el Hagar (the stone convent), is of considerable size. The Theban triad were the chief deities worshipped here. Some 120 m. N.W. of Dakhla is the oasis of Farafra, population about 1000, said to be the first of the oases conquered by the Moslems from the Christians. It is noted for the fine quality of its olives. The Baharia, or Little Oasis (pop. about 6000), lies 80 m. N.N.E. of Farafra. Many of its inhabitants, who are of Berber race, are Senussites. Baharia is about 250 m. E.S.E. of the oasis of Siwa (see Egypt: The Oases; and Siwa).
See H. Brugsch, Reise nach dem grossen Oase el-Khargeh in der Libyschen Wüste (Leipzig, 1878); H. J. L. Beadnell, An Egyptian Oasis (London, 1909); Murray’s Handbook for Egypt, 11th ed. (London, 1907); Geological and Topographical Report on Kharga Oasis (1899), on Farafra Oasis (1899), on Dakhla Oasis (1900), on Baharia Oasis (1903), all issued by the Public Works Department, Cairo. (F. R. C.)
KHARKOV, a government of Little Russia, surrounded by
those of Kursk, Poltava, Ekaterinoslav, territory of the Don
Cossacks, and Voronezh, and belonging partly to the basin of
the Don and partly to that of the Dnieper. The area is 21,035
sq. m. In general the government is a table-land, with an elevation
of 300 to 450 ft., traversed by deep-cut river valleys. The
soil is for the most part of high fertility, about 57% of the surface
being arable land and 24% natural pasture; and though the
winter is rather severe, the summer heat is sufficient for the
ripening of grapes and melons in the open air. The bulk of
the population is engaged in agricultural pursuits and the
breeding of sheep, cattle and horses, though various manufacturing
industries have developed rapidly, more especially since the
middle of the 19th century. Horses are bred for the army, and
the yield of wool is of special importance. The ordinary cereals,
maize, buckwheat, millet, hemp, flax, tobacco, poppies, potatoes
and beetroot are all grown, and bee-keeping and silkworm-rearing
are of considerable importance. Sixty-three per cent. of the land
is owned by the peasants, 25% by the nobility, 6% by owners
of other classes, and 6% by the crown and public institutions.
Beetroot sugar factories, cotton-mills, distilleries, flour-mills,
tobacco factories, brickworks, breweries, woollen factories, iron-works,
pottery-kilns and tanneries are the leading industrial
establishments. Gardening is actively prosecuted. Salt is
extracted at Slavyansk. The mass of the people are Little
Russians, but there are also Great Russians, Kalmucks, Germans,
Jews and Gypsies. In 1867 the total population was 1,681,486,
and in 1897 2,507,277, of whom 1,242,892 were women and
367,602 lived in towns. The estimated population in 1906 was
2,983,900. The government is divided into eleven districts.
The chief town is Kharkov (q.v.). The other district towns,
with their populations in 1897, are Akhtyrka (25,965 in 1900),
Bogodukhov (11,928), Izyum (12,959), Kupyansk (7256),
Lebedin (16,684), Starobyelsk (13,128), Sumy (28,519 in 1900),
Valki (8842), Volchansk (11,322), and Zmiyev (4652).
KHARKOV, a town of southern Russia, capital of the above
government, in 56° 37′ N. and 25° 5′ E., in the valley of the
Donets, 152 m. by rail S.S.E. of Kursk. Oak forests bound it
on two sides. Pop. (1867), 59,968; (1900), 197,405. Kharkov is
an archiepiscopal see of the Orthodox Greek Church, and the
headquarters of the X. army corps. The four annual fairs are
among the busiest in Russia, more especially the Kreshchenskaya
or Epiphany fair, which is opened on the 6th (19th) of
January, and the Pokrovsky fair in the autumn. The turnover
at the former is estimated at £3,000,000 to £4,000,000. Thousands
of horses are bought and sold. At the Trinity (Troitsa)
fair in June an extensive business (£800,000) is done in wool. A
great variety of manufactured goods are produced in the town—linen,
felt, beetroot sugar, tobacco, brandy, soap, candles, cast-iron.
Kharkov is an educational centre for the higher and
middle classes. Besides a flourishing university, instituted in
1805, and attended by from 1600 to 1700 students, it possesses a
technological institute (400 students), a railway engineering
school, an observatory, a veterinary college, a botanical garden,
a theological seminary, and a commercial school. The university
building was formerly a royal palace. The library contains
170,000 volumes; and the zoological collections are especially
rich in the birds and fishes of southern Russia. Public gardens
occupy the site of the ancient military works; and the government
has a model farm in the neighbourhood. Of the Orthodox
churches one has the rank of cathedral (1781). Among the
public institutions are a people’s palace (1903) and an industrial
museum.
The foundation of Kharkov is assigned to 1650, but there is archaeological evidence of a much earlier occupation of the district, if not of the site. The Cossacks of Kharkov remained faithful to the tsar during the rebellions of the latter part of the 17th century; in return they received numerous privileges, and continued to be a strong advance-guard of the Russian power, till the final subjugation of all the southern region. With other military settlements Kharkov was placed on a new footing in 1765; and at the same time it became the administrative centre of the Ukraine.
KHARPUT, the most important town in the Kharput (or
Mamuret el-Aziz) vilayet of Asia Minor, situated at an altitude of
4350 ft., a few miles south of the Murad Su or Eastern Euphrates,
and almost as near the source of the Tigris, on the Samsun-Sivas-Diarbekr
road. Pop. about 20,000. The town is built on
a hill terrace about 1000 ft. above a well-watered plain of exceptional
fertility which lies to the south and supports a large population.
Kharput probably stands on or near the site of Carcathiocerta
in Sophene, reached by Corbulo in A.D. 65. The early
Moslem geographers knew it as Hisn Ziyad, but the Armenian
name was Khartabirt or Kharbirt, whence Kharput. Cedrenus
(11th century) writes Χάρποτε. There is a story that in 1122
