DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4023#0126
8o TRAVELS IN EGYPT
After having well considered this sirst pyramid, you take leave os it, and
approach the second, which is very foon dispatched, becaufe it has not been
opened. You see there the ruins of a temple, that it has on the east fide;
and, defcending insenfibly, you arrive at the Sphinx, whofe enormous fize
attracts your admiration, and at the fame time you conceive a fort of indig-
nation at thofe, who have had the brutality to disfigure ftrangely its nofe. You
vifit likewife the other pyramids, both great and small, and the adjacent
grottos*
Antique I s you want any other subjed to fatissy your curiosity, you need only ap-
Plate proach some antique bridges, of which I have drawn the plans, the fe&ions,
XLIV. and the profiles, and which are situated to the eaft a quarter rhumb north os
Gize, and to the north a quarter rhumb weft of the pyramids. They are raifed
upon a plain, every year overslowed, at the time os the increase os the waters
os the Nile, at about hals a league srom the mountains, and at the same dis-
tance srom the first pyramid.
These bridges are two in number. The sirst extends north and south, and
the fecond eaft and weft. They know not at prefent the ufe of them. Their
Situation in a tract os country, that is not more exposed to the waters, than the
other plains, gives fome surprize; and it is not poffible to conceive the reason of
their foundation, unlefs we suppofe, that there was sormerly a calisch in that
place.
Their sabrick, and the inscriptions that we read On them, shew, that
they are the works os the Saracens. That which extends srom the north to the
south has ten arches upon two hundred and forty one seet in length, and twenty
seet four inches in breadth. Their height above the horizon is twenty two seet.
They are built with great sree-ftone, almoft as sost as that os Bentheim.
These two bridges, diftant srom each other four hundred paces, have
adjoining a wall os bricks, in the manner os a mole, and which begins at each
extremity of the two bridges, but terminates in nothing.
When you have siniihed the examination of all thefe antiquities, you return
back to the city, in the fame manner as you went, except that you make the
rout all at once without flopping any where.
They always take care, in this tour, to be accompanied by a janifTary.
Tho' he does no great service, yet his presence occasions in the people certain
respects, and ferves at leaft to fpare you the trouble os turning out of the way, to
give it to thofe that you meet. You pay him, for this journey, a sendoucli, or
a fequin. The Arabs, that have accompanied the travellers, are well paid when
you give them twenty parats a man ; infomuch that this tour may cost in all
sour sequins sor the whole company, without including in it provisions, which
it is neceffary not to forget to sumiisi yoursels with ; sor it is a chance, if you
sind in the villages any thing but butter and eggs.
In
After having well considered this sirst pyramid, you take leave os it, and
approach the second, which is very foon dispatched, becaufe it has not been
opened. You see there the ruins of a temple, that it has on the east fide;
and, defcending insenfibly, you arrive at the Sphinx, whofe enormous fize
attracts your admiration, and at the fame time you conceive a fort of indig-
nation at thofe, who have had the brutality to disfigure ftrangely its nofe. You
vifit likewife the other pyramids, both great and small, and the adjacent
grottos*
Antique I s you want any other subjed to fatissy your curiosity, you need only ap-
Plate proach some antique bridges, of which I have drawn the plans, the fe&ions,
XLIV. and the profiles, and which are situated to the eaft a quarter rhumb north os
Gize, and to the north a quarter rhumb weft of the pyramids. They are raifed
upon a plain, every year overslowed, at the time os the increase os the waters
os the Nile, at about hals a league srom the mountains, and at the same dis-
tance srom the first pyramid.
These bridges are two in number. The sirst extends north and south, and
the fecond eaft and weft. They know not at prefent the ufe of them. Their
Situation in a tract os country, that is not more exposed to the waters, than the
other plains, gives fome surprize; and it is not poffible to conceive the reason of
their foundation, unlefs we suppofe, that there was sormerly a calisch in that
place.
Their sabrick, and the inscriptions that we read On them, shew, that
they are the works os the Saracens. That which extends srom the north to the
south has ten arches upon two hundred and forty one seet in length, and twenty
seet four inches in breadth. Their height above the horizon is twenty two seet.
They are built with great sree-ftone, almoft as sost as that os Bentheim.
These two bridges, diftant srom each other four hundred paces, have
adjoining a wall os bricks, in the manner os a mole, and which begins at each
extremity of the two bridges, but terminates in nothing.
When you have siniihed the examination of all thefe antiquities, you return
back to the city, in the fame manner as you went, except that you make the
rout all at once without flopping any where.
They always take care, in this tour, to be accompanied by a janifTary.
Tho' he does no great service, yet his presence occasions in the people certain
respects, and ferves at leaft to fpare you the trouble os turning out of the way, to
give it to thofe that you meet. You pay him, for this journey, a sendoucli, or
a fequin. The Arabs, that have accompanied the travellers, are well paid when
you give them twenty parats a man ; infomuch that this tour may cost in all
sour sequins sor the whole company, without including in it provisions, which
it is neceffary not to forget to sumiisi yoursels with ; sor it is a chance, if you
sind in the villages any thing but butter and eggs.
In