DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.6551#0072
RETURN riiOM UPPER EGYPT.
43
mentioned by Mr. Wilkinson; but observed, at some
little distance, two large buildings of unburnt bricks upon
foundations of stone, which seemed to have been churches.
There were Roman arches in both of these structures ;
and in one of them, two pillars of coarse red stone,
about eight or nine inches in diameter, with capitals,
apparently the work of the lower ages.
To the south of the village, there were remains of
unburnt brick walls, and several fragments of small
columns of granite; also, some figures roughly sculp-
tured, and others painted upon plaster, evidently of
Christian workmanship, and placed there to conceal
the decorations of an antient Egyptian building. The
northern side of the village did not afford any thing
worthy of notice; but on the adjacent heights were
several ruins, apparently of churches — proofs of the
former prevalence of Christianity in this country. The
rocks and the tops of the neighbouring mountains bore
so close a resemblance to pyramids, that I should have
stopped to examine them, had I not been assured by
Ignowe (an intelligent Arab, who had accompanied M.
Champollion in this country) that it was their natural
shape. Between Kosco and Adda, on the eastern shore,
and considerably above the level of the river, which
at this place turns to the westward, are a number of
remarkable hillocks on a sandy plain, bounded to the
eastward and northward by barren mountains, and by
isolated conical rocks, and through which the road from
Kosco to Ferradj passes. These hillocks, of various
sizes, are about thirty-seven in number (besides several
apparently destroyed), and are nearly in straight lines.
43
mentioned by Mr. Wilkinson; but observed, at some
little distance, two large buildings of unburnt bricks upon
foundations of stone, which seemed to have been churches.
There were Roman arches in both of these structures ;
and in one of them, two pillars of coarse red stone,
about eight or nine inches in diameter, with capitals,
apparently the work of the lower ages.
To the south of the village, there were remains of
unburnt brick walls, and several fragments of small
columns of granite; also, some figures roughly sculp-
tured, and others painted upon plaster, evidently of
Christian workmanship, and placed there to conceal
the decorations of an antient Egyptian building. The
northern side of the village did not afford any thing
worthy of notice; but on the adjacent heights were
several ruins, apparently of churches — proofs of the
former prevalence of Christianity in this country. The
rocks and the tops of the neighbouring mountains bore
so close a resemblance to pyramids, that I should have
stopped to examine them, had I not been assured by
Ignowe (an intelligent Arab, who had accompanied M.
Champollion in this country) that it was their natural
shape. Between Kosco and Adda, on the eastern shore,
and considerably above the level of the river, which
at this place turns to the westward, are a number of
remarkable hillocks on a sandy plain, bounded to the
eastward and northward by barren mountains, and by
isolated conical rocks, and through which the road from
Kosco to Ferradj passes. These hillocks, of various
sizes, are about thirty-seven in number (besides several
apparently destroyed), and are nearly in straight lines.