DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4372#0099
8.1
cakes, and flowers; the whole perhaps emblematic of the con-
vivial meetings customary among the Egyptians on such occa-
sions. In the largest of the catacombs is a procession of work-
men or soldiers, with aprons, each carrying in his arms long bars
or crows, and other implements of quarrying or of war: and
scattered about on every side are a great variety of inscriptions
cut carelessly on the walls, in the Egyptian, Arabic, and Greek
characters. But the most extraordinary phenomena to be visited
at IJadjar Silsili are the prodigious excavations from which have
been taken the materials for the greater part of the temples of
Egypt Having admired the extent of one of these quarries on
the left bank of the river, which is '250 feet long, 80 wide, and 30
feet in height, near to which a small temple appears likewise to
have been excavated from the rock for the use of the workmen,
Ave crossed over to the Eastern shore, to visit others still more
wonderful. The first we entered has for its approach a passage
cut through the rock to the length of 134 feet, thirteen in width,
and 81 feet in perpendicular height. It is enclosed on every
side to the height of 80 or 100 feet, except to the South, where
there is a gradual ascent to the top of the mountain. At the
angles of the passage and on the opposite wall are holes evi-
dently intended as purchases for the ropes used in the convey-
ance of the blocks down the inclined plane of the passage to-
wards the river. Another quarry we visited to the North of this,
is approached by a more winding passage, about 20 feet wide,
and 320 long. The area is an irregular square of 550 leet by
200 : and of the same height as the former. Along the brow of
the summit runs a parapet wall of small stones, piled up regularly
but without cement. A third quarry had no regular entrance:
like the two last, and conducted us into a fourth; from this we
climbed one of the walls, and found cut out of the rock above,
the Ebauche of a very large Sphynk of the common Sand-;
M 2 stone.
cakes, and flowers; the whole perhaps emblematic of the con-
vivial meetings customary among the Egyptians on such occa-
sions. In the largest of the catacombs is a procession of work-
men or soldiers, with aprons, each carrying in his arms long bars
or crows, and other implements of quarrying or of war: and
scattered about on every side are a great variety of inscriptions
cut carelessly on the walls, in the Egyptian, Arabic, and Greek
characters. But the most extraordinary phenomena to be visited
at IJadjar Silsili are the prodigious excavations from which have
been taken the materials for the greater part of the temples of
Egypt Having admired the extent of one of these quarries on
the left bank of the river, which is '250 feet long, 80 wide, and 30
feet in height, near to which a small temple appears likewise to
have been excavated from the rock for the use of the workmen,
Ave crossed over to the Eastern shore, to visit others still more
wonderful. The first we entered has for its approach a passage
cut through the rock to the length of 134 feet, thirteen in width,
and 81 feet in perpendicular height. It is enclosed on every
side to the height of 80 or 100 feet, except to the South, where
there is a gradual ascent to the top of the mountain. At the
angles of the passage and on the opposite wall are holes evi-
dently intended as purchases for the ropes used in the convey-
ance of the blocks down the inclined plane of the passage to-
wards the river. Another quarry we visited to the North of this,
is approached by a more winding passage, about 20 feet wide,
and 320 long. The area is an irregular square of 550 leet by
200 : and of the same height as the former. Along the brow of
the summit runs a parapet wall of small stones, piled up regularly
but without cement. A third quarry had no regular entrance:
like the two last, and conducted us into a fourth; from this we
climbed one of the walls, and found cut out of the rock above,
the Ebauche of a very large Sphynk of the common Sand-;
M 2 stone.