DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.12664#0076
ENCOUNTER WITH PILGRIMS.
69
the latter beginning at the shores of the Mediter-
ranean, and extending very nearly to the ancient
Memphis, and the former commencing at Memphis
and extending to the cataracts. Passing by, for
the present, the ruins of Memphis, on the fourth
day, the wind dead ahead, and the men towing at
a very slow rate, I went ashore with my gun, and
at about eleven o'clock in the morning walked
into the town of Beni Souef. This town stands
on the Libyan side of the river, on the borders of
a rich valley, the Nile running close under the foot
of the Arabian mountains ; and contains, as its
most prominent objects, a mosque and minaret,
and what is here called a palace or seraglio ; that
is, a large coarse building covered with white ce-
ment, and having grated windows for the harem.
Here travellers sometimes leave their boats to
make an excursion to Medineh el Fayoun, the an-
cient Crocodopoiis, or Arsinoe, near the great Lake
Mceris. This lake was in ancient days one of the
wonders of Egypt. It was sixty miles long (about
the size of the Lake of Geneva), and Herodotus
says that it was an artificial lake, and that in his
time the towering summits of two pyramids were
visible above its surface. The great labyrinth, too,
was supposed to be somewhere near this; but no
pyramids, nor any ruins of the labyrinth, are now
to be seen. The lake is comparatively dry, and
very little is left to reward the traveller.
At sundown we hauled up to the bank, along-
side a boat loaded with pilgrims ; and building a
69
the latter beginning at the shores of the Mediter-
ranean, and extending very nearly to the ancient
Memphis, and the former commencing at Memphis
and extending to the cataracts. Passing by, for
the present, the ruins of Memphis, on the fourth
day, the wind dead ahead, and the men towing at
a very slow rate, I went ashore with my gun, and
at about eleven o'clock in the morning walked
into the town of Beni Souef. This town stands
on the Libyan side of the river, on the borders of
a rich valley, the Nile running close under the foot
of the Arabian mountains ; and contains, as its
most prominent objects, a mosque and minaret,
and what is here called a palace or seraglio ; that
is, a large coarse building covered with white ce-
ment, and having grated windows for the harem.
Here travellers sometimes leave their boats to
make an excursion to Medineh el Fayoun, the an-
cient Crocodopoiis, or Arsinoe, near the great Lake
Mceris. This lake was in ancient days one of the
wonders of Egypt. It was sixty miles long (about
the size of the Lake of Geneva), and Herodotus
says that it was an artificial lake, and that in his
time the towering summits of two pyramids were
visible above its surface. The great labyrinth, too,
was supposed to be somewhere near this; but no
pyramids, nor any ruins of the labyrinth, are now
to be seen. The lake is comparatively dry, and
very little is left to reward the traveller.
At sundown we hauled up to the bank, along-
side a boat loaded with pilgrims ; and building a