Up the Nile, and home again. A handbook for travellers and a travel-book for the library. (1862) (14764074775)

Identifier: upnilehomeagainh00fair (find matches)
Title: Up the Nile, and home again. A handbook for travellers and a travel-book for the library.
Year: 1862 (1860s)
Authors: Fairholt, F. W. (Frederick William), 1814-1866
Subjects:
Publisher: London, Chapman and Hall
Contributing Library: The Library of Congress
Digitizing Sponsor: The Library of Congress



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r. Bankes; I know notwhere it is now • it ought to be at Philse, where it hasmost interest. In the address to the monarch, he, hiswife, and sister, are styled great gods ; and it isasserted that they, the priests, ran a risk of not hayingenough, at last, remaining for the customary sacrificesand libations offered for them and their progeny.The royal reply stringently forbids this forced hospi-tality in future; which appears to haye been imposedon them from public functionaries downwards to thesoldiers and attendants of their suite. From the opposite island of Biggeh, the yiew ofPhilae is obtained engrayed in Plate XX.; that pointof yiew best displays the walls that once enyelopedthe island and the group of building within theircircuit. A cleft in the wall displays the colonnade ofthe great fore-court of the temple; the gate-towers,and row of pillars in the great hall are beyond. Thesmall temple called Pharaolrs Bed is seen in adyanceof this, aboye the colonnade, on the other side of
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ASSOUAN TO ABOU-SIMBOUL. 409 the island. There is nothing on this side to clashwith the pure antique remains. Philae here looks itstrue character, a ruined and deserted fane ! We are now 578 miles above Cairo, reckoning bythe winding of the river; and here the tour fittinglyand properly ends. Egypt is left and Nubia entered.But, as the wondrous rock-cut temple of Abou-Sim-boul attracts a few venturous travellers to visit it,who can bear a tedious journey of 273 miles farther,it may be well to briefly note what is to be seen onthe way, as well as to add some slight account ofwhat the temple itself is; which undoubtedly de-serves to be called a wonder of the world. The Nile scenery above Philse assumes a wilderaspect; granitic rocks abound; the cultivated landis small, and requires great labour to render itproductive. The cliffs, dark red, assume wilderforms, and approach nearer to the river; the streamitself is narrower and more rapid; the line of vege-tation is more limited, but brigh