DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.11636#0159
AND LOWER EGYPT. lijl
and the other issued from the branch of the Nile,
to which the name of Bolbolichas been given, pre-
served there a salutary coolness, at the same time
that they favoured vegetation and agriculture.
These works, which attested the grandeur and the
power of ancient Egypt, and the maintenance of
which was equally called for by the real wants and
the innocent pleasures of human life, were still kept
up, under the domination of the caliphs. Abul-
feda, an historian of Arabia, speaks of Alexandria
as a very great city, encompassed by superb gar-
dens*. The destruction of what had cost so
much pains and labour was reserved for the Turks.
Their spirit of devastation had dried up those re-
servoirs of water which, with their moisture, dif-
fused fertility, as it has quenched the sources of
knowledge, and of all mental energy in the peo-
ple who have been so unfortunate as to be subject-
ed to a despotism the most horrible.
Of these nothing now remains, and that too in a
state of degradation, but the canal of Lower Egypt:
during the inundation it received the waters of the
Nile at Lalf, opposite to Fouah. It is passable by
three bridges of modern construction. Near the
first, toward the sea. is the entrance of the subter-
raneous conduit, which conveys the provision of
water for the inhabitants of Alexandria into the
* Description of Egypt.
K 2 cisterns,
and the other issued from the branch of the Nile,
to which the name of Bolbolichas been given, pre-
served there a salutary coolness, at the same time
that they favoured vegetation and agriculture.
These works, which attested the grandeur and the
power of ancient Egypt, and the maintenance of
which was equally called for by the real wants and
the innocent pleasures of human life, were still kept
up, under the domination of the caliphs. Abul-
feda, an historian of Arabia, speaks of Alexandria
as a very great city, encompassed by superb gar-
dens*. The destruction of what had cost so
much pains and labour was reserved for the Turks.
Their spirit of devastation had dried up those re-
servoirs of water which, with their moisture, dif-
fused fertility, as it has quenched the sources of
knowledge, and of all mental energy in the peo-
ple who have been so unfortunate as to be subject-
ed to a despotism the most horrible.
Of these nothing now remains, and that too in a
state of degradation, but the canal of Lower Egypt:
during the inundation it received the waters of the
Nile at Lalf, opposite to Fouah. It is passable by
three bridges of modern construction. Near the
first, toward the sea. is the entrance of the subter-
raneous conduit, which conveys the provision of
water for the inhabitants of Alexandria into the
* Description of Egypt.
K 2 cisterns,