VOYAGE INTO UPPER EGYPT.
31
above which the river is wider, and forms a sort of
harbour.
The village is, as usual, in a grove of palm-trees;
and beyond it a plain, exhibiting at present but little
cultivation, extends to some distance, and is bounded by
desert hills. Above the village is a large and fertile
island, and on the western bank of the river are likewise
extensive levels in a rough and neglected state, where
the well-known Colossi are seated in mournful solemnity
amidst groups of ruined temples — the isolated but magni-
ficent monuments of antient splendour. This plain is
also bounded by lofty mountains, amongst which are the
valleys of Biban-El-Moluc, and other recesses, full of
sepulchral excavations, while the lower parts of the rocky
heights facing the east are occupied by the village of
Gournou. Further on towards the south, the mountains
recede to the westward, and the flat country extends
to Erment, being partially cultivated along the banks
of the river.''
6 Thebes was famous for chariots of iron ; and both sacred and pro-
fane history record the vast power of the whole country in chariots and
horsemen, and also the expeditions performed by them, and, if the
accounts we have of the siege of Troy deserve credit, they penetrated
even to the shores of the Hellespont. Yet it is not easy to imagine
how they could have been conducted, even through Egypt, from the
plains of Thebes, cither over the cultivated ground, or by the desert
sands. If roads were established, sufficiently permanent to resist the
inundations, and to allow a passage for so many wheeled carriages,
some vestiges would have probably remained. Their conveyance across
the desert, and subsequent movements in a mountainous country like
Syria, and where few, if any, appearances of antient roads exist, seem
to be attended with still greater difficulties.
31
above which the river is wider, and forms a sort of
harbour.
The village is, as usual, in a grove of palm-trees;
and beyond it a plain, exhibiting at present but little
cultivation, extends to some distance, and is bounded by
desert hills. Above the village is a large and fertile
island, and on the western bank of the river are likewise
extensive levels in a rough and neglected state, where
the well-known Colossi are seated in mournful solemnity
amidst groups of ruined temples — the isolated but magni-
ficent monuments of antient splendour. This plain is
also bounded by lofty mountains, amongst which are the
valleys of Biban-El-Moluc, and other recesses, full of
sepulchral excavations, while the lower parts of the rocky
heights facing the east are occupied by the village of
Gournou. Further on towards the south, the mountains
recede to the westward, and the flat country extends
to Erment, being partially cultivated along the banks
of the river.''
6 Thebes was famous for chariots of iron ; and both sacred and pro-
fane history record the vast power of the whole country in chariots and
horsemen, and also the expeditions performed by them, and, if the
accounts we have of the siege of Troy deserve credit, they penetrated
even to the shores of the Hellespont. Yet it is not easy to imagine
how they could have been conducted, even through Egypt, from the
plains of Thebes, cither over the cultivated ground, or by the desert
sands. If roads were established, sufficiently permanent to resist the
inundations, and to allow a passage for so many wheeled carriages,
some vestiges would have probably remained. Their conveyance across
the desert, and subsequent movements in a mountainous country like
Syria, and where few, if any, appearances of antient roads exist, seem
to be attended with still greater difficulties.