DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4393#0375
SILSILIS AND EDFU. .357
Cairo. That opportunity—represented by a noble duke
honeymooning with a steam-tug — happened half-way
between Kom Ombo and Silsilis. Painter and duke
being acquaintances of old, the matter was soon settled.
In less than a quarter of an hour, the big picture and all
the paraphernalia of the studio^were transported from the
stern-cabin of the Philae to the stern-cabin of the steam-
tug ; and our painter—fitted out with an extempore can-
teen, a cook-boy, a waiter, and his fair share of the neces-
saries of life—was soon disappearing gayly in the distance
at the rate of twenty miles an hour. If the happy couple,
so weary of head-winds, so satiated with temples/followed
that vanishing steam-tug with eyes of melancholy longing,
the writer at "least asked nothing better than to drift on
with the Philse.
Still, the Nile is long, and life is short; and the tale told
uy our log-book was certainly not encouraging. When we
reached Silsilis on the morning of the 17th of March the
north wind had been blowing with only one day's inter-
mission since the 1st of February.
At Silsilis, one looks in vain for traces of that great
harrier which once blocked the Kile at this point. The
stream is narrow here, and the sand-stone cliffs come down
°'i both sides to the water's edge. In some places there is
space for a footpath; in others, none. There are also some
sunken rocks in the bed of the river—upon one of which,
j*y the way, a Cook's steamer had struck two days before.
Jjut of such a mass as could have dammed the Xile, and,
?J its disruption, not only have caused the river to desert
its bod at Philse,* but have changed the whole physical and
climatic conditions of Lower Nubia, there is no sign what-
ever.
I'he Arabs here show a rock fantastically quarried in the
shape of a gigantic umbrella, to which they pretend some
Klng of old attached one end of a chain with which he
barred the Nile. It may be that in this apocryphal legend
there survives some memory of the ancient barrier.
.the cliffs of the western bank are rich in memorial
Riches, votive shrines, tombs, historical stela, and inscrip-
ions. These last date from the sixth to the twenty-second
^ynasties. Some of the tombs and alcoves are very curious.
* See chap, xi, p. 184.
Cairo. That opportunity—represented by a noble duke
honeymooning with a steam-tug — happened half-way
between Kom Ombo and Silsilis. Painter and duke
being acquaintances of old, the matter was soon settled.
In less than a quarter of an hour, the big picture and all
the paraphernalia of the studio^were transported from the
stern-cabin of the Philae to the stern-cabin of the steam-
tug ; and our painter—fitted out with an extempore can-
teen, a cook-boy, a waiter, and his fair share of the neces-
saries of life—was soon disappearing gayly in the distance
at the rate of twenty miles an hour. If the happy couple,
so weary of head-winds, so satiated with temples/followed
that vanishing steam-tug with eyes of melancholy longing,
the writer at "least asked nothing better than to drift on
with the Philse.
Still, the Nile is long, and life is short; and the tale told
uy our log-book was certainly not encouraging. When we
reached Silsilis on the morning of the 17th of March the
north wind had been blowing with only one day's inter-
mission since the 1st of February.
At Silsilis, one looks in vain for traces of that great
harrier which once blocked the Kile at this point. The
stream is narrow here, and the sand-stone cliffs come down
°'i both sides to the water's edge. In some places there is
space for a footpath; in others, none. There are also some
sunken rocks in the bed of the river—upon one of which,
j*y the way, a Cook's steamer had struck two days before.
Jjut of such a mass as could have dammed the Xile, and,
?J its disruption, not only have caused the river to desert
its bod at Philse,* but have changed the whole physical and
climatic conditions of Lower Nubia, there is no sign what-
ever.
I'he Arabs here show a rock fantastically quarried in the
shape of a gigantic umbrella, to which they pretend some
Klng of old attached one end of a chain with which he
barred the Nile. It may be that in this apocryphal legend
there survives some memory of the ancient barrier.
.the cliffs of the western bank are rich in memorial
Riches, votive shrines, tombs, historical stela, and inscrip-
ions. These last date from the sixth to the twenty-second
^ynasties. Some of the tombs and alcoves are very curious.
* See chap, xi, p. 184.