DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.12664#0140
A CONFESSION.
131
stripped of more than half before we were out of
sight.
Getting rid of them, or as many of them as we
could, we again mounted our shaggy donkeys, and
rode to the Island of Philoe. This island makes
one of the most beautiful pictures I ever saw.
Perhaps the general monotony of the scenery on
the Nile gives it a peculiar beauty; but I think it
would be called beautiful anywhere, even among
the finest scenes in Italy. It brought forcibly to
my mind, but seemed to me far more lovely than,
the Lake Maggiore, with the beautiful 'Isola Bella
and Isola Madre. It is entirely unique, a beau-
tiful lusus naturae, a little island about a thou-
sand feet long and four hundred broad, rising in
the centre of a circular bay, which appears to be
cut off from the river, and forms a lake surrounded
by dark s'andstone rocks ; carpeted with green to
the water's edge, and covered with columns, pro-
pylons, and towers, the ruins of a majestic temple,
A sunken wall encircles it on all sides, on which, in
a few moments, we landed.
I have avoided description of ruins when I could.
The fact is, I know nothing of architecture, and
never measured any thing in my life; before I came
to Egypt I could not tell the difference between
a dromos and a propylon, and my whole knowl-
edge of Egyptian antiquities was little more than
enough to enable me to distinguish between a
mummy and a pyramid. I picked up about
enough to answer my purpose, on the spot; but I
131
stripped of more than half before we were out of
sight.
Getting rid of them, or as many of them as we
could, we again mounted our shaggy donkeys, and
rode to the Island of Philoe. This island makes
one of the most beautiful pictures I ever saw.
Perhaps the general monotony of the scenery on
the Nile gives it a peculiar beauty; but I think it
would be called beautiful anywhere, even among
the finest scenes in Italy. It brought forcibly to
my mind, but seemed to me far more lovely than,
the Lake Maggiore, with the beautiful 'Isola Bella
and Isola Madre. It is entirely unique, a beau-
tiful lusus naturae, a little island about a thou-
sand feet long and four hundred broad, rising in
the centre of a circular bay, which appears to be
cut off from the river, and forms a lake surrounded
by dark s'andstone rocks ; carpeted with green to
the water's edge, and covered with columns, pro-
pylons, and towers, the ruins of a majestic temple,
A sunken wall encircles it on all sides, on which, in
a few moments, we landed.
I have avoided description of ruins when I could.
The fact is, I know nothing of architecture, and
never measured any thing in my life; before I came
to Egypt I could not tell the difference between
a dromos and a propylon, and my whole knowl-
edge of Egyptian antiquities was little more than
enough to enable me to distinguish between a
mummy and a pyramid. I picked up about
enough to answer my purpose, on the spot; but I