DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4645#0037
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This aqueduct, which conveys the water of the Nile from a point opposite the Island of Rhoda
to the city, was erected by the Sultan El Ghoree about the year 1503, to supply the citadel of
Cairo with this essential element of life, as that obtained from the well sunk there was brackish.
The water from the Nile is raised by an hydraulic machine, erected in the great tower, which
is the chief feature in the sketch, by a very inefficient apparatus, and it was to improve this that
Belzoni was first induced to visit Egypt. He constructed a large wheel, within which oxen were
to be placed, and by treading, to make it revolve. When it was ready the Pasha attended to witness
the success of the first exhibition. Belzoni relates that after Mohammed Ali had seen the oxen suc-
cessfully employed, he wished, for a frolic, to have the oxen taken out, and fifteen Arabs put into
the wheel to tread it; with them Belzoni's servant, James, an Irish lad, entered. When the wheel
had once turned round, the Arabs took alarm and leapt out; the wheel, overcome by the prepon-
derating weight of the water, returned with such velocity that the catch had not strength enough to
restrain it, and poor James, who was carried round, had his thigh broken. This unlucky trial, with
such a fatalist as the Pasha, led to the abandonment of the scheme.
The ingenuity of Belzoni was then employed by Mr. Salt to effect the removal of some Egyptian
antiquities, and led to those discoveries which have associated the name of Belzoni so honourably
with Egyptian research.