DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4023#0050
4 TRAVELS IN EGYPT
and Tome other towers. At length the view terminates in a great fquare build-
Powder ma- Ing, that serves sor a magazine os powder, and which joins the great mole.
gazine.
Plate III. A s t e r having landed, we crossed the new town, and took the rout os the
obelisk, where we did not arrive, till aster having clambered over ruined walls,
which give, through a tower os stone work, a free passage, quite to the soot
os that antique monument; and no sooner have you approached it than you see,
on one side, another, which has, long fince, been obliged to give way, and is
at prefent almoft entirely buried.
The obelisk which is (landing, and which they (till call the obelisk os
Cesar's Cleopatra, fhews that it is the place, where the palace of that queen
Plate VI was> to which they gave likewife the name os Caesar's palace. There remains
no other footftep os that magnificent building; which is the reafon that I
shall ftop only to obferve the obelifk.
Obelisk of This obelisk os Cleopatra is situated, almost in the middle, between the new
Cleopa- cjty an(j ^ Ljtt]e Pharillon. Its bafe, of which a part is buried under ground,
Plate Js raifed twenty feet above the level of the fea. Between this monument and
and'lX. ' tne port, runs a thick wall, flanked, on each fide of the obelifk, by a great
tower; but this wall has been fo ruined, that its height is almoft equal to the
bafe of the obelifk. The infide of the wall is but at ten feet diftance from this
monument; and the outfide but at four or five paces from the fea. All the
sront of this wall, quite into the port, is full of an infinite quantity of ruins of
columns, freezes, or other pieces of architecture, which have belonged to a
magnisicent edifice. They are of divers forts of marble. I have perceived there
feme granite, and verd antique. Towards the country, the obelisk has behind
it a very large plain, which has been so osten raked into, that all the soil seems
to have palled through a fieve. There grows only here and there a little grass;
and even that is os so bad a fubstance, that it withers immediately.
As to the obelisk in itsels, it is of a fingle piece of granite marble. It
suffices to say, that there are only two os its sour saces, which are well preserved;
the two others are esfaced, and you scarce fee in them the hieroglyphics, with
which they were anciently covered.
Obelisk The obelifk that is thrown down appears to have been broken; but that
thrown which may be decyphered of its hieroglyphics gives one reafon to judge, that it
down
1
Plate contained the same sigures, and in the same order, as those os the obelisk whicl
vm- is standing.
The reader will be surprized, without doubt, that the Roman emperors did
not get that obelisk transported to Rome, rather than others which it was necef-
sary to fetch srom a great distance. But is one considers the two faces,
which have been fpoiled by the injury of time, it will be thought a susneient
reafon sor not taking it away ; and this reason dispenses us srom having recourse
to any others.
Some
and Tome other towers. At length the view terminates in a great fquare build-
Powder ma- Ing, that serves sor a magazine os powder, and which joins the great mole.
gazine.
Plate III. A s t e r having landed, we crossed the new town, and took the rout os the
obelisk, where we did not arrive, till aster having clambered over ruined walls,
which give, through a tower os stone work, a free passage, quite to the soot
os that antique monument; and no sooner have you approached it than you see,
on one side, another, which has, long fince, been obliged to give way, and is
at prefent almoft entirely buried.
The obelisk which is (landing, and which they (till call the obelisk os
Cesar's Cleopatra, fhews that it is the place, where the palace of that queen
Plate VI was> to which they gave likewife the name os Caesar's palace. There remains
no other footftep os that magnificent building; which is the reafon that I
shall ftop only to obferve the obelifk.
Obelisk of This obelisk os Cleopatra is situated, almost in the middle, between the new
Cleopa- cjty an(j ^ Ljtt]e Pharillon. Its bafe, of which a part is buried under ground,
Plate Js raifed twenty feet above the level of the fea. Between this monument and
and'lX. ' tne port, runs a thick wall, flanked, on each fide of the obelifk, by a great
tower; but this wall has been fo ruined, that its height is almoft equal to the
bafe of the obelifk. The infide of the wall is but at ten feet diftance from this
monument; and the outfide but at four or five paces from the fea. All the
sront of this wall, quite into the port, is full of an infinite quantity of ruins of
columns, freezes, or other pieces of architecture, which have belonged to a
magnisicent edifice. They are of divers forts of marble. I have perceived there
feme granite, and verd antique. Towards the country, the obelisk has behind
it a very large plain, which has been so osten raked into, that all the soil seems
to have palled through a fieve. There grows only here and there a little grass;
and even that is os so bad a fubstance, that it withers immediately.
As to the obelisk in itsels, it is of a fingle piece of granite marble. It
suffices to say, that there are only two os its sour saces, which are well preserved;
the two others are esfaced, and you scarce fee in them the hieroglyphics, with
which they were anciently covered.
Obelisk The obelifk that is thrown down appears to have been broken; but that
thrown which may be decyphered of its hieroglyphics gives one reafon to judge, that it
down
1
Plate contained the same sigures, and in the same order, as those os the obelisk whicl
vm- is standing.
The reader will be surprized, without doubt, that the Roman emperors did
not get that obelisk transported to Rome, rather than others which it was necef-
sary to fetch srom a great distance. But is one considers the two faces,
which have been fpoiled by the injury of time, it will be thought a susneient
reafon sor not taking it away ; and this reason dispenses us srom having recourse
to any others.
Some