Roberts, David; Croly, George: The Holy Land: Syria, Idumea, Arabia, Egypt, and Nubia (Band 6): = Egypt & Nubia [3] (1849)

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The Nilometer is a graduated upright pillar, placed in a well within a walled inclosure, built on the
island, into which the waters of the Nile are admitted by concealed channels.

The amount of tax levied upon the land is guided by the fertility which is expected to be
consequent upon the maximum of the rise which the pillar indicates; but it is said that the height of
the Nile is as often suited by the government to the state of the exchequer, as the tax is guided by
the rise of the Nile.

That the building is of comparatively modern date, is shewn by the arabesque ornaments on the
gate by which the water passes, and by the Kufic inscriptions on the walls, to be not more than nine
hundred years old; but it is highly probable that its site was appropriated to the same purpose at a
remoter period. The large building which now encloses the whole is used as a powder-magazine, and
all access is denied to strangers. Mr. Roberts got access to it by climbing over the wall, and made
a hurried sketch, but at the risk of being drowned in the well of the Nilometer, or shot by the
sentinel.

Roberts's Journal.