DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.6551#0172
136
OPERATIONS CARRIED ON AT GIZEII.
I found, that, on account of the number of water-courses,
there was not any direct road from Shadowee to that
place, and that it would be necessary to return to
within a mile of Medinet, and then to go a consider-
able distance in order to arrive there. It was night, and
as the obelisk was broken, and thrown down, and the in-
scription well known, I did not think that the mere
inspection of it was worth the journey. I was sorry
that I could not remain longer in this beautiful province,
where I had received so much hospitality, and where
so many interesting antiquities may yet be concealed, but
my anxiety to return to Gizeh induced me to set out on
the following morning.
22d. — I took leave of the Madyr, and proceeded at
eight o'clock, with the Sheik of Illahoon as a guide, to
the pyramids at that place, and at Howara; but he soon
lost his way among the ravines, and watercourses, that
intersect the country in every direction, and I was
obliged to procure other assistance. We met a consider-
able number of Bedouins, and of country people on their
way to Medinet, and passed over a tract of land evidently
capable of great fertility. We then crossed a stream in a
part of the large ravine, which I had observed at Howara,
and which, at this place, appears to have been formed in
a natural gulley. And having left on the opposite bank,
a considerable Arab village, we turned to the right, and
pursued our way over a desert plain to the pyramids,
and afterwards proceeded to Benisouef. I received on
the road to that place a letter from M. Caviglia, enclosed
by M. Piozan. It was an answer to that which I had
sent to Colonel Campbell from E-Siout, and was dated
OPERATIONS CARRIED ON AT GIZEII.
I found, that, on account of the number of water-courses,
there was not any direct road from Shadowee to that
place, and that it would be necessary to return to
within a mile of Medinet, and then to go a consider-
able distance in order to arrive there. It was night, and
as the obelisk was broken, and thrown down, and the in-
scription well known, I did not think that the mere
inspection of it was worth the journey. I was sorry
that I could not remain longer in this beautiful province,
where I had received so much hospitality, and where
so many interesting antiquities may yet be concealed, but
my anxiety to return to Gizeh induced me to set out on
the following morning.
22d. — I took leave of the Madyr, and proceeded at
eight o'clock, with the Sheik of Illahoon as a guide, to
the pyramids at that place, and at Howara; but he soon
lost his way among the ravines, and watercourses, that
intersect the country in every direction, and I was
obliged to procure other assistance. We met a consider-
able number of Bedouins, and of country people on their
way to Medinet, and passed over a tract of land evidently
capable of great fertility. We then crossed a stream in a
part of the large ravine, which I had observed at Howara,
and which, at this place, appears to have been formed in
a natural gulley. And having left on the opposite bank,
a considerable Arab village, we turned to the right, and
pursued our way over a desert plain to the pyramids,
and afterwards proceeded to Benisouef. I received on
the road to that place a letter from M. Caviglia, enclosed
by M. Piozan. It was an answer to that which I had
sent to Colonel Campbell from E-Siout, and was dated