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Zerzura ((アラビア語:زرزورة)) was a mythical city or oasis. ==The rumor== Zerzura was long rumored to have existed deep in the desert west of the Nile River in Egypt or Libya. In writings dating back to the 13th century, the authors spoke of a city which was "white as a dove" and called it "The Oasis of Little Birds".〔''The Book of Hidden Treasures''〕 In the Kitab al Kanuz, Zerzura is said to be a city in the Sahara full of treasure with a sleeping king and queen. The city is guarded by black giants who keep anyone from going in and coming out. However, this may be a reference to the black Tebu people, nomads in Chad and Libya whose ancestors used to raid oases out in the Sahara. Herodotus mentions a legendary 'City of Dionysus' lost in the desert sands, which may be the origin of the Zerzura legend. The Greek god Dionysus is associated with the Eleusinian mystery cult of ancient Greece, based on the use of an entheogenic plant: origins of sacred mushroom cults have been traced by scholars to the Sahara, in particular the Tassili-n-Ajjer area of Algeria, which boasts rock-painting dated as early as 10,000 BC. Some of these paintings apparently show shaman-figures toting mushrooms, and experiencing a shamanic trance. (Ref. ''Food of the Gods'', by Terence McKenna.) The 'City of Dionysus' myth may be a dim memory of this forgotten cult. "The first European reference to Zerzura is in an 1835 account by the English Egyptologist John Gardner Wilkinson, based on a report by an Arab who said he had found the oasis while searching for a lost camel. Placed five days west of the track connecting the oases of Farafra and Bahariya, the "Oasis called Wadee Zerzoora" abounded "in palms, with springs, and some ruins of uncertain date." Although tales of secret desert locales found by searchers for stray camels were common enough, Wilkinson's account was bolstered when later explorers found a number of previously unknown oases that had been named in his account along with Zerzura. But they did not find Zerzura itself."〔("Searching for Zerzura." ) Saudi Aramco World. November/December 2002.〕 More recently, European explorers made forays into the desert in search of Zerzura but never succeeded in finding it. Notable twentieth-century explorers Ralph Bagnold of Britain, and the Hungarian László (Ladislaus) Almásy led an expedition to search for Zerzura from 1929-1930 using Ford Model-T trucks. In 1932 the Almásy- Patrick Clayton expedition reconnaissance flights discovered two valleys in the Gilf Kebir. In the following year, Almásy found the third of the "Zerzura" wadis, actually rain oases in the remote desert. On the other hand, Bagnold considered Zerzura as a legend that could never be solved by discovery.〔''BAGNOLD, R.A., "The last of the Zerzura legend", ''Geographical Journal'' Vol:89 (1937), pp:265-268 ''〕 The participants of the Zerzura hunt created the Zerzura Club in a bar in Wadi Halfa upon their return in 1930. Many of the club's members remained friends and several went on to serve as officers in the British Army during World War II. Many served in the Long Range Desert Patrol during the North African Campaign. Only Almásy served Rommel's Afrika Korps and assisted the Italians.〔Kelly, Saul, ''The Lost Oasis'', p. 121〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Zerzura」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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