DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.5073#0047
SB
ESXEH.
We had the good fortune of meeting here Mr.
Harris, the Egyptian antiquary, and his amiable
daughter; and they were so kind as to accompany
us to the Temple, and to read some of the hieroglyphics
to us. The portico of this temple has been excavated,
leaving the rubbish as a wall of its own height beside
it, so that you descend into it from the level of its
capitals. Though comparatively modern, having been
built in the times of Tiberius and Trajan, it is well
worth seeing for its massive elegance (an expression
which can only be realised in Egyptian architecture),
and for the harmonious symmetry of its proportions;
it is pleasanter, too, to study than most of the Temples,
as it is walled off from the town, and you can sit
enjoying your sketch in perfect silence and solitude;
the stone of which it is built is of a rich yellow-brown,
that tells well in a picture. We afterwards walked in
the orange-groves of the Kashef (or governor's) palace,
the Kashef himself paying us a visit in our dahabieh;
he made himself as agreeable as any one can do through
the medium of an interpreter, even though Achmet was
a first-rate translator, and gave us a good deal of inform-
ation more interesting than that in the conversation
between the Pasha and " The Member for Mudcombe,"
famous in Eothean annals. He descanted largely upon
a map of Egypt, quite proud of being able to point
out each place, though he could not, of course, read
the names, and he criticised my drawings as freely as a
drawing-master. He afterwards sent his daughter to
see us, but we were unfortunately on shore when she
came; and he was much disappointed at her not being
able to see the novel, and to him incomprehensible
sight of a hareem belonging to nobody, travelling in
blissful liberty by itself on the Nile.
ESXEH.
We had the good fortune of meeting here Mr.
Harris, the Egyptian antiquary, and his amiable
daughter; and they were so kind as to accompany
us to the Temple, and to read some of the hieroglyphics
to us. The portico of this temple has been excavated,
leaving the rubbish as a wall of its own height beside
it, so that you descend into it from the level of its
capitals. Though comparatively modern, having been
built in the times of Tiberius and Trajan, it is well
worth seeing for its massive elegance (an expression
which can only be realised in Egyptian architecture),
and for the harmonious symmetry of its proportions;
it is pleasanter, too, to study than most of the Temples,
as it is walled off from the town, and you can sit
enjoying your sketch in perfect silence and solitude;
the stone of which it is built is of a rich yellow-brown,
that tells well in a picture. We afterwards walked in
the orange-groves of the Kashef (or governor's) palace,
the Kashef himself paying us a visit in our dahabieh;
he made himself as agreeable as any one can do through
the medium of an interpreter, even though Achmet was
a first-rate translator, and gave us a good deal of inform-
ation more interesting than that in the conversation
between the Pasha and " The Member for Mudcombe,"
famous in Eothean annals. He descanted largely upon
a map of Egypt, quite proud of being able to point
out each place, though he could not, of course, read
the names, and he criticised my drawings as freely as a
drawing-master. He afterwards sent his daughter to
see us, but we were unfortunately on shore when she
came; and he was much disappointed at her not being
able to see the novel, and to him incomprehensible
sight of a hareem belonging to nobody, travelling in
blissful liberty by itself on the Nile.