DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4023#0058
12
TRAVELS IN EGYPT
Reservoirs
or cifterns.
3Plan and sec-
tion os a re-
servoir os
water.
Plate X.
tain distances, mew sufficiently the rout that it takes, in order to discharge*
itfelf into the reservoirs or cisterns, which are sound only in what we have observed
to be the ancient city. At the time when that city fubfifted, all the ground
that it occupied was made hollow sor refervoirs, the greateft part of which are
at prefent filled up. There remain of them no more than half a dozen; and
indeed they are not well taken care of.
I t would be supersluous to undertake to give here the description os one os
thefe reservoirs. One cart of the eye upon the plate I give of it, will teach
more than all that I could fay \ I mall only advertife one thing, which the
defign could not exprefs; which is, that all the arches appear to be made of
bricks, and covered with a matter impenetrable by water. This matter is
precifely the fame as that with which the walls and refervoirs are covered,
that one sees at Baise, and at Rome, in the baths of divers Emperors.
The greatest part os the columns, that support the arches os these reser-
voirs, are of different sorts, and most os them in a Gothic tafte, or rather in a
Saracen. It is not conceivable, that they have been placed in such a manner
srom the beginning. An entire destruclion has occasioned, without doubt,
that some have taken the places os others. They have repaired the reser-
voirs that were the least ruined, and sor that purpofe would make use of
what coft the least to employ in the work. We may judge srom thence in
what manner the rest muft have been treated.
O s all the refervoirs, which are made ufe of at present, that which is near
the gate os Resetto preserves the longeft its water, probably because it lies lower
than the rest. When any os thefe are empty, they take care to clean
them against the time os the increase of the Nile ; for it must be obferved, that
thefe refervoirs cannot empty themselves. They are made to receive water
and to retain it, and not to let it run oss. They are emptied by means of
pumps with chains, or ropes of pitchers; and when they would convey water
to the new town, they sill bags os goat skins with water, and load the backs os
camels or asses. The neceflity they are under os emptying, by dint os labour,
thefe reservoirs, mews the reafon, why they have filled up fo great a
number os them. The confumption not being so great in the new town,
as it was in the ancient, the water would have become corrupted, and would
have infallibly caused diseafes by its noxious fmell. Besides that there was
no way of fupporting the expence, which would have been neceffary to cleanfe
them every year; if they had flopped up the canals os the aqueduct, that
convey the water, they would have been in danger of making a general fink.
In fine, they remedied another inconvenience; the greateft part os the refervoirs
E " The canal os Canopus comes to the walls near fages in several parts in order to clean them : the
Pompey's pillar, having run to the weft os it: it cifterns alfo muft be cleanfed •, and the defcent
has a pasiage under the walls, and from that part a down to them is by round wells, in which there are
sosiee has been cut along the outfide of the walls holes on each fide, at about two seet diftance, to
to the sea •, but the water is not only conveyed to put the feet in to delcend by •, they draw up the
the cifterns from the canal, as it there enters the water by a windlais, and carry it in leather bags on
city, but alfo before, srom feveral parts of the ca- camels to the houfes." Dr. Pgcocke's Oksematiom
nal, by pafsages under ground to the higher parts of on Egypt, p. 6.
the city. There are entrances down to thefe paf-
being
TRAVELS IN EGYPT
Reservoirs
or cifterns.
3Plan and sec-
tion os a re-
servoir os
water.
Plate X.
tain distances, mew sufficiently the rout that it takes, in order to discharge*
itfelf into the reservoirs or cisterns, which are sound only in what we have observed
to be the ancient city. At the time when that city fubfifted, all the ground
that it occupied was made hollow sor refervoirs, the greateft part of which are
at prefent filled up. There remain of them no more than half a dozen; and
indeed they are not well taken care of.
I t would be supersluous to undertake to give here the description os one os
thefe reservoirs. One cart of the eye upon the plate I give of it, will teach
more than all that I could fay \ I mall only advertife one thing, which the
defign could not exprefs; which is, that all the arches appear to be made of
bricks, and covered with a matter impenetrable by water. This matter is
precifely the fame as that with which the walls and refervoirs are covered,
that one sees at Baise, and at Rome, in the baths of divers Emperors.
The greatest part os the columns, that support the arches os these reser-
voirs, are of different sorts, and most os them in a Gothic tafte, or rather in a
Saracen. It is not conceivable, that they have been placed in such a manner
srom the beginning. An entire destruclion has occasioned, without doubt,
that some have taken the places os others. They have repaired the reser-
voirs that were the least ruined, and sor that purpofe would make use of
what coft the least to employ in the work. We may judge srom thence in
what manner the rest muft have been treated.
O s all the refervoirs, which are made ufe of at present, that which is near
the gate os Resetto preserves the longeft its water, probably because it lies lower
than the rest. When any os thefe are empty, they take care to clean
them against the time os the increase of the Nile ; for it must be obferved, that
thefe refervoirs cannot empty themselves. They are made to receive water
and to retain it, and not to let it run oss. They are emptied by means of
pumps with chains, or ropes of pitchers; and when they would convey water
to the new town, they sill bags os goat skins with water, and load the backs os
camels or asses. The neceflity they are under os emptying, by dint os labour,
thefe reservoirs, mews the reafon, why they have filled up fo great a
number os them. The confumption not being so great in the new town,
as it was in the ancient, the water would have become corrupted, and would
have infallibly caused diseafes by its noxious fmell. Besides that there was
no way of fupporting the expence, which would have been neceffary to cleanfe
them every year; if they had flopped up the canals os the aqueduct, that
convey the water, they would have been in danger of making a general fink.
In fine, they remedied another inconvenience; the greateft part os the refervoirs
E " The canal os Canopus comes to the walls near fages in several parts in order to clean them : the
Pompey's pillar, having run to the weft os it: it cifterns alfo muft be cleanfed •, and the defcent
has a pasiage under the walls, and from that part a down to them is by round wells, in which there are
sosiee has been cut along the outfide of the walls holes on each fide, at about two seet diftance, to
to the sea •, but the water is not only conveyed to put the feet in to delcend by •, they draw up the
the cifterns from the canal, as it there enters the water by a windlais, and carry it in leather bags on
city, but alfo before, srom feveral parts of the ca- camels to the houfes." Dr. Pgcocke's Oksematiom
nal, by pafsages under ground to the higher parts of on Egypt, p. 6.
the city. There are entrances down to thefe paf-
being