DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.6359#0080
ATMOSPHERE IN EGYPT. 71
but little obliteration of the paintings, is found. When injury
has been sustained from natural causes, it has been produced
by other physical agencies than those of moisture: the sand
has sometimes done its work of destruction. Thus, among
the ruins of Alexandria, an obelisk is still standing, which, on its
north and east faces, retains much of the freshness and sharp-
ness of its original chiselling; while on the other two sides, the
sands of the desert, which have been beating against them for
several hundred years, have partially, effaced the inscriptions.
In any other country than Egypt, the whole would, probably,
long since have been destroyed. A few years ago, the French
transported an obelisk from Luxor, and raised it in Paris;
and though the material is granite, and though for many
centuries it had stood uninjured in its original position; yet
it has already been found necessary to cover it with a liquid
preparation of caoutchouc, to protect it from the corrosive
effects of the atmosphere in Paris.
There are temples in Egypt which have been roofless for
2,000 years; their walls are covered with paintings. The
colors are still distinctly perceptible, and in many instances,
retain all their original freshness. It is not strange, then, that
the sculptured stone should remain, often with the polish
undimmed that it received from the hands of the workmen,
niany hundreds of years ago. Such is at this moment the
case with fragments of temples, the demolition of which falls
Within the historic period, as it is known they were destroyed
by Cambyses, 500 years before the Christian era. The same
freshness, the same strange union of seeming youth with
acknowledged age, is also to be seen in some of the cavern
temples and tombs, excavated in the sides of the mountains.
At Aboo-simbul, in Nubia, the white of the walls is unstained
but little obliteration of the paintings, is found. When injury
has been sustained from natural causes, it has been produced
by other physical agencies than those of moisture: the sand
has sometimes done its work of destruction. Thus, among
the ruins of Alexandria, an obelisk is still standing, which, on its
north and east faces, retains much of the freshness and sharp-
ness of its original chiselling; while on the other two sides, the
sands of the desert, which have been beating against them for
several hundred years, have partially, effaced the inscriptions.
In any other country than Egypt, the whole would, probably,
long since have been destroyed. A few years ago, the French
transported an obelisk from Luxor, and raised it in Paris;
and though the material is granite, and though for many
centuries it had stood uninjured in its original position; yet
it has already been found necessary to cover it with a liquid
preparation of caoutchouc, to protect it from the corrosive
effects of the atmosphere in Paris.
There are temples in Egypt which have been roofless for
2,000 years; their walls are covered with paintings. The
colors are still distinctly perceptible, and in many instances,
retain all their original freshness. It is not strange, then, that
the sculptured stone should remain, often with the polish
undimmed that it received from the hands of the workmen,
niany hundreds of years ago. Such is at this moment the
case with fragments of temples, the demolition of which falls
Within the historic period, as it is known they were destroyed
by Cambyses, 500 years before the Christian era. The same
freshness, the same strange union of seeming youth with
acknowledged age, is also to be seen in some of the cavern
temples and tombs, excavated in the sides of the mountains.
At Aboo-simbul, in Nubia, the white of the walls is unstained