DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4393#0227
PIIILM. 209
way straight across from Phila?. Last of all, forming the
western side of this fourfold view, we have the island of
Biggeh—rugged, mountainous, and divided from Philffl by
so narrow a channel that every sound from the native vil-
lage on the opposite steep is as audidle is though it came
from the court-yard at our feet. That village is built in
and about the ruins of a tiny Ptolemaic temple, of which
only a screen and doorway and part of a small propylon
remain. We can see a woman pounding coffee on the
threshold of one of the huts, and some children scrambling
about the rocks in pursuit of a wandering turkey. Catch-
ing sight of us up here on the roof of the temple, they
come whooping and scampering down to the water side
and with shrill cries importune us for backshish. Unless
the stream is wider than it looks one might almost pitch
a piaster into their outstretched hands.
Mr. Hay, it is said, discovered a secret passage of solid
masonry tunneled under the river from island to island.
The entrance on this side was from a shaft in the Temple of
Isis.* We are not told how far Mr. Hay was able to pene-
trate in the direction of Biggeh ; but the passage would
lead up, most probably, to the little temple opposite.
Perhaps the most entirely curious and unaccustomed
features in all this scene are the mountains. They are
like none that any of us have seen in our diverse wander-
ings. Other mountains are homogeneous and thrust
themselves up from below in masses suggestive of primitive
disruption and upheaval. These seem to lie upon the sur-
face foundationloss; rock loosely piled on rock, bowlder on
bowlder; like stupendous cairns, the work of demigods
and giants. Here and there, on shelf or summit, a huge
rounded mass, many tons in weight, hangs poised capri-
ciously. Most of these blocks, I am persuaded, would
" log" if put to the test,
But for a specimen stone commend me to yonder amaz-
")g monolith down by the water's edge opposite, near the
carob trees and the ferry. Though but a single block of
orange-red granite, it looks like three; and the Arabs, see-
"ig it in some fancied resemblance to an arm-chair, call it
1 haraoh's throne. Rounded and polished by primeval
"Operations Curried On at the Pyramids of Uhizeli,"—Col,
Howard Vyse, London, 1840, vol. i, p. 63,
way straight across from Phila?. Last of all, forming the
western side of this fourfold view, we have the island of
Biggeh—rugged, mountainous, and divided from Philffl by
so narrow a channel that every sound from the native vil-
lage on the opposite steep is as audidle is though it came
from the court-yard at our feet. That village is built in
and about the ruins of a tiny Ptolemaic temple, of which
only a screen and doorway and part of a small propylon
remain. We can see a woman pounding coffee on the
threshold of one of the huts, and some children scrambling
about the rocks in pursuit of a wandering turkey. Catch-
ing sight of us up here on the roof of the temple, they
come whooping and scampering down to the water side
and with shrill cries importune us for backshish. Unless
the stream is wider than it looks one might almost pitch
a piaster into their outstretched hands.
Mr. Hay, it is said, discovered a secret passage of solid
masonry tunneled under the river from island to island.
The entrance on this side was from a shaft in the Temple of
Isis.* We are not told how far Mr. Hay was able to pene-
trate in the direction of Biggeh ; but the passage would
lead up, most probably, to the little temple opposite.
Perhaps the most entirely curious and unaccustomed
features in all this scene are the mountains. They are
like none that any of us have seen in our diverse wander-
ings. Other mountains are homogeneous and thrust
themselves up from below in masses suggestive of primitive
disruption and upheaval. These seem to lie upon the sur-
face foundationloss; rock loosely piled on rock, bowlder on
bowlder; like stupendous cairns, the work of demigods
and giants. Here and there, on shelf or summit, a huge
rounded mass, many tons in weight, hangs poised capri-
ciously. Most of these blocks, I am persuaded, would
" log" if put to the test,
But for a specimen stone commend me to yonder amaz-
")g monolith down by the water's edge opposite, near the
carob trees and the ferry. Though but a single block of
orange-red granite, it looks like three; and the Arabs, see-
"ig it in some fancied resemblance to an arm-chair, call it
1 haraoh's throne. Rounded and polished by primeval
"Operations Curried On at the Pyramids of Uhizeli,"—Col,
Howard Vyse, London, 1840, vol. i, p. 63,