DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.6551#0099
68
OPERATIONS CARRIED ON AT GIZEII.
affords a striking contrast to the miserable hovels, many
of which are built upon it, and others on vast mounds
of rubbish, with which it is surrounded. The interior
covered with painted hieroglyphics has been divided by
earthen walls, to form a magazine for corn; and beneath
it are enormous substructions, which I entered by a hole
from an Arab house. They were full of dirt and filth of
every description, but had been built in the most solid
manner, and had been adorned with highly finished
sculptures. Several of the blocks had had fastenings
let into hollows, cut in the shape of a double wedge,
like those at Karnac. At some little distance were the
remains of a smaller temple of equally fine workmanship,
but even more dilapidated than the larger one. The
modern village is tolerably extensive, and contains a
small Coptic convent, and about sixty Christians.
After passing the island of Damanieh, I arrived at
El Kab, the antient Eilithias, so called from Eilitheia
(Lucina); and also named Beni-Lail, (Sons of the Moon).9
A large space, in which several excavations had been
made, is surrounded by a high and thick wall of un-
burnt bricks, constructed with ramps, by which it might
have been ascended; the bricks in several parts of it
were, as is frequently the case in Etruscan architecture,
placed endways, and lengthways in alternate courses. It
contained a quantity of rubbish and broken pottery, and
also mounds of brick buildings; of these the most con-
siderable was towards the northward, and appeared to
have been the citadel. This town is supposed to have
been of great mercantile importance, and to have been
9 Nesle Lail, the site of Hieroeompolis according to Colonel Leake's
map is on the western shore of the river.
OPERATIONS CARRIED ON AT GIZEII.
affords a striking contrast to the miserable hovels, many
of which are built upon it, and others on vast mounds
of rubbish, with which it is surrounded. The interior
covered with painted hieroglyphics has been divided by
earthen walls, to form a magazine for corn; and beneath
it are enormous substructions, which I entered by a hole
from an Arab house. They were full of dirt and filth of
every description, but had been built in the most solid
manner, and had been adorned with highly finished
sculptures. Several of the blocks had had fastenings
let into hollows, cut in the shape of a double wedge,
like those at Karnac. At some little distance were the
remains of a smaller temple of equally fine workmanship,
but even more dilapidated than the larger one. The
modern village is tolerably extensive, and contains a
small Coptic convent, and about sixty Christians.
After passing the island of Damanieh, I arrived at
El Kab, the antient Eilithias, so called from Eilitheia
(Lucina); and also named Beni-Lail, (Sons of the Moon).9
A large space, in which several excavations had been
made, is surrounded by a high and thick wall of un-
burnt bricks, constructed with ramps, by which it might
have been ascended; the bricks in several parts of it
were, as is frequently the case in Etruscan architecture,
placed endways, and lengthways in alternate courses. It
contained a quantity of rubbish and broken pottery, and
also mounds of brick buildings; of these the most con-
siderable was towards the northward, and appeared to
have been the citadel. This town is supposed to have
been of great mercantile importance, and to have been
9 Nesle Lail, the site of Hieroeompolis according to Colonel Leake's
map is on the western shore of the river.