DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4393#0175
ASSUAN AND MLM'UAJXTJMM. 157
CHAPTER X.
ASSUAN AND ELEPHANTINE.
The green Island of Elephantine, which is about a mile
in length, lies opposite Assuan and divides the Nile in two
channels. The Libyan and Arabian deserts—smooth
amber sand-slopes on the one hand; rugged granite cliffs
on the other—come down to the brink on either side. On
the Libyan shore a sheik's tomb, on the Arabian shore a
bold fragment of Moorish architecture with ruined arches
open to the sky, crown two opposing heights, and keep
watch over the gate of the cataract. Just under the
Moorish ruin, and separated from the river by a slip of
sandy beach, lies Assuan.
A few scattered houses, a line of blank wall, the top of
a minaret, the dark mouths of one or two gloomy alleys,
are all that one sees of the town from the mooring-place
below. The black bowlders close against the shore, some
of which are superbly hieroglyphed, glisten in the sun like
polished jet.* The beach is crowded with bales of goods;
with camels laden and unladen; with turbaned figures
coming and going; with damaged cargo-boats lying up
high and dry, and half heeled over, in the sun. Others,
moored close together, are taking in or discharging cargo.
A little apart from these lie some three or four dahabee-
yahs flying English, American, and Belgian flags. Another
has cast anchor over the way at Elephantine. Small row-
boats cross and recross, meanwhile, from shore to shore;
*" At the cataracts of the great rivers Orinoco, Nile and Congo,
the syenitic rocks are coated by a black substance, appearing as if
they had been polished with plumbago. The layer is of extreme
thinness; and on analysis by Ber/.elius it was found to consist of the
oxides of manganese and iron. . . . The origin, however, of these
coatings of metallic oxides, which seem as if cemented to the rocks,
is not understood; and no reason, I believe, can be assigned for their
thickness remaining the same."—"Journal of Researches," by
Charles Darwin, chap, i, p. 12, ed. 1845.
CHAPTER X.
ASSUAN AND ELEPHANTINE.
The green Island of Elephantine, which is about a mile
in length, lies opposite Assuan and divides the Nile in two
channels. The Libyan and Arabian deserts—smooth
amber sand-slopes on the one hand; rugged granite cliffs
on the other—come down to the brink on either side. On
the Libyan shore a sheik's tomb, on the Arabian shore a
bold fragment of Moorish architecture with ruined arches
open to the sky, crown two opposing heights, and keep
watch over the gate of the cataract. Just under the
Moorish ruin, and separated from the river by a slip of
sandy beach, lies Assuan.
A few scattered houses, a line of blank wall, the top of
a minaret, the dark mouths of one or two gloomy alleys,
are all that one sees of the town from the mooring-place
below. The black bowlders close against the shore, some
of which are superbly hieroglyphed, glisten in the sun like
polished jet.* The beach is crowded with bales of goods;
with camels laden and unladen; with turbaned figures
coming and going; with damaged cargo-boats lying up
high and dry, and half heeled over, in the sun. Others,
moored close together, are taking in or discharging cargo.
A little apart from these lie some three or four dahabee-
yahs flying English, American, and Belgian flags. Another
has cast anchor over the way at Elephantine. Small row-
boats cross and recross, meanwhile, from shore to shore;
*" At the cataracts of the great rivers Orinoco, Nile and Congo,
the syenitic rocks are coated by a black substance, appearing as if
they had been polished with plumbago. The layer is of extreme
thinness; and on analysis by Ber/.elius it was found to consist of the
oxides of manganese and iron. . . . The origin, however, of these
coatings of metallic oxides, which seem as if cemented to the rocks,
is not understood; and no reason, I believe, can be assigned for their
thickness remaining the same."—"Journal of Researches," by
Charles Darwin, chap, i, p. 12, ed. 1845.