Fazogli

Fazogli ( _ar. فازوجلي), or Fazokl, was a district in colonial Egypt under British rule. It lay on the border of present day Sudan and Ethiopia, between the Blue Nile and the Sobat River, and included the mountains in the modern Asosa Zone of the Ethiopian Benishangul-Gumuz Region. The west slope of the hills drains the White Nile.

The area was believed to be rich in gold deposits, which led an Egyptian military expedition under the leadership of Ismail bin Muhammad Ali, son of Wali Muhammad Ali into the area (1820 - 1823) in part determine the truth of this belief, as well as to capture some 30,000 inhabitants to be slaves. He was accomapnied by Frédéric Cailliaud, George Waddington, and George Bethune English, all of whom later wrote accounts of the expedition. [Alan Moorehead, "The Blue Nile", revised edition (New York: Harper and Row, 1972), pp. 189-218.] Pasha Mohammad Ali later organized Fazogli into a number of sheikhdoms to govern its inhabitants. Later geologists who surveyed the area for gold included Josef von Russegger.

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