Note: Kobalhar is suposedly the local name for Mountains of the Moon. And his trip climbing them is fiction.

 

Item from Gamma to Kobalhar, 4 days journey.

We travelled southwest through nothing but deserts. Kobalhar consists of very high mountains rising to the clouds, called in our tongue the Mountains of the Moon.

 Item we climbed these mountains for three days, and as we climbed higher it became colder, so that when we reached the summit we found much snow lying there. It was raining heavily while we were on the mountains, and this was in the beginning of the month of June. Whereby it is to be noted that, when it is winter there, it is summer here, and when it is winter here it is summer there. You should observe from this that when it snows, rains and freezes in these mountains without ceasing in June, and the water falls and runs together to the Nile, then the Nile becomes each year very great and, reaching the flat land of Egypt in August, it covers the whole land of Egypt. For at that season the rivers in our country are generally low and in winter all the rivers are high, but in Egypt the Nile is so low that one can almost cross it on foot. Therefore it happens that in the mountains of Kobalhar it is summer, and there is no rain or snow there. Item as we descended from these mountains to the southwest we came across many pleasant streams rising in the high mountains, which were the real sources of the Nile, flowing southwest, which we followed to Cairo, or to the great sea called Mare Mediterraneum. We examined these springs with great attention, so that we could say to those who said the Nile flows from Paradise that we had been there. It was told me however by a learned man: 'Yes, it is possible that the Nile flows underground from Paradise through many countries to this mountain where it has its source.'I answered that I saw no reason against it, as this mountain Kobalhar was very high, and as we climbed it from the south there were many rivers running southwards before our eyes. And as we reached the summit we found the source of these springs which flowed westwards, called the Nile. Now observe: these mountains, reckoning from there, lie on the right hand of the Indian or western sea, called Maure, which lies directly to the South, and the three other rivers Tigris, Effraim and Euphrates (1) lie from there on the left hand, and run east to the western sea, so that the Nile is separated from the others more than forty days' journey. If I were with you I could instruct you better, since I have made many diligent attempts by question, inquiry and experience in all kinds of Christian nations of those countries, where Paradise was to be found, and they all replied with one answer: the name Paradise was unknown in their language. I then asked where Adam and Eve were created. They replied, like the others, in the holy and pleasant province called Jerusalem, which was the centre of the earth, where God chose to make the first creatures, so that they might spread out on all sides. Further God chose that country and made it the land of promise before all other countries. Also God sent his Son Jesus Christ there to be born in that province, and hung on the Cross there in the centre of the earth, to redeem the whole world. Wherefore Jerusalem was the most holy and most famous pilgrimage place in the world. But I was shown by Christians, Syrians and Jews close to Jerusalem, and taken to a mountain upon which Adam and Eve are said to have broken God's law, of which I will write more hereafter. Item from this mountain Kobalhar, 3 days' journey. We descended this mountain to a large town called Leuma. The people are pure blackamoors and wish to be Christians. Item from Leuma to Hiere (2), 3 days' journey, a fine town. The inhabitants are also blackamoors. Item from Hiere to Gargijsa (2), 2 days' journey, a town on the Nile.