Hamilton, William Richard; Hayes, Charles [Ill.]: Remarks on several parts of Turkey (Band 1): Aegyptiaca, or some account of the antient and modern state of Egypt, as obtained in the years 1801, 1802 ([London], [1809])

43

Having had many reasons to suppose that this building was
not of very great antiquity, we were not surprised to find on
two fragments of the cornice of one of the Propyla, the following
part of a Greek inscription in capital characters :

rnEPBAZIAE asnTOAEM
KAirTNAIKO5;0EflN*rAO

AISSHSKAEOrTATPA £

pfiNisiAiKAirr

which we may conjecture formerly stood thus :—

TnEPBA2IAEnJnTOAEMAIOTKAIBASIAI2SH2KAEOnATPA2TOTBA2IAEn.l"AAEA<t>Hl-
KAirTNAIKO20EnN*IAOMUTOPnNI2IAIKA12TNNAIOI2eEOI2.

The diminutive proportions of this temple, and its general re-
semblance to those we had seen in Egypt, in some degree recon-
ciled us to the inability of penetrating further South. The imperfect
sketches that Norden has given of the ruins which he saw South
of Philae, show these buildings to have been proportionate to the
poverty and mean population of the country; and I should not
expect to find any important structures of early ^Ethiopia, North
of I brim or Moscho.

PIIILiE.

This island is equally known to the neighbouring country-peo-
ple by the names of Anaselwagiud, and Giziret el Birbe el
Gbassir*. Its greatest length is about 1000 feet, its Greatest
breadth 400.

It has been justly observed by the late French travellers, that the
Egyptians seemed to have studied to collect at Philae every pic-
turesque and striking beauty of which their architecture was sus-

* The island of the ruined temple.
G 2

ceptible.