DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4372#0085
69
tains to the East, and some of them are close to the river. The
marks of the chisels and drills are plainly to be seen, as well as
of the wedges, with which, when the sides were cleared, the blocks
were started from their beds. The ground about is covered with
quarried pieces of granite, and in one quarry we found a half-
finished obelisk, between 70 and 80 feet long, and 10 feet wide,
which was about to be converted into several smaller blocks.
In other places are unfinished columns, sarcophagi, &c.; and
here and there we could perceive the marks of immense blocks,
thirty and forty feet in length, having been separated from the
rock.
From all the quarries there are roads leading by regular slopes
into the great plain, along which the masses of stone were trans-
ported to the river. Greek as well as Egyptian labourers had
been employed in these works. On one of the perpendicular
sides of the rock we found as a memorial of this circumstance
the following inscription in fair characters: CABINLA.NAC CEPA-
IlEIfiN OPEOT. And at a small distance, as if to prove to us
the degenerate state to which this together with the other arts
had been reduced in Egypt, we found a modern mason of Es
Souan rounding a large detached block of granite into a millstone,
to be used for the extraction of oil from the Lettuce* seed. He
had been two months at his job, and expected to complete it in.
two more.
Though Es Souan is nominally a military station, the Aga
has no force whatever under his command, and the castle is
different Obelisks then in Rome and in Egypt had been formed. The peculiar colour
appears likewise to be ascertained by his saying that it wrs formerly called Pyrrhopceci-
lon. And we know of no large obelisks of grav Granite. Syenites therefore might
be assumed as the generic and classical term of the purest Granite.
* This plant is called in Arabic Chdss, probably the original of our Ghoss Lettuce.
nothing
tains to the East, and some of them are close to the river. The
marks of the chisels and drills are plainly to be seen, as well as
of the wedges, with which, when the sides were cleared, the blocks
were started from their beds. The ground about is covered with
quarried pieces of granite, and in one quarry we found a half-
finished obelisk, between 70 and 80 feet long, and 10 feet wide,
which was about to be converted into several smaller blocks.
In other places are unfinished columns, sarcophagi, &c.; and
here and there we could perceive the marks of immense blocks,
thirty and forty feet in length, having been separated from the
rock.
From all the quarries there are roads leading by regular slopes
into the great plain, along which the masses of stone were trans-
ported to the river. Greek as well as Egyptian labourers had
been employed in these works. On one of the perpendicular
sides of the rock we found as a memorial of this circumstance
the following inscription in fair characters: CABINLA.NAC CEPA-
IlEIfiN OPEOT. And at a small distance, as if to prove to us
the degenerate state to which this together with the other arts
had been reduced in Egypt, we found a modern mason of Es
Souan rounding a large detached block of granite into a millstone,
to be used for the extraction of oil from the Lettuce* seed. He
had been two months at his job, and expected to complete it in.
two more.
Though Es Souan is nominally a military station, the Aga
has no force whatever under his command, and the castle is
different Obelisks then in Rome and in Egypt had been formed. The peculiar colour
appears likewise to be ascertained by his saying that it wrs formerly called Pyrrhopceci-
lon. And we know of no large obelisks of grav Granite. Syenites therefore might
be assumed as the generic and classical term of the purest Granite.
* This plant is called in Arabic Chdss, probably the original of our Ghoss Lettuce.
nothing