DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.12664#0163
154
INCIDENTS OF TRAVEL.
It was dark before we arrived at Edfou. I
mean it was that period of time, when, by Nature's
laws, it should be dark ; that is, the day had ended,
the sun had set with that rich and burning lustre
which attends his departing glories nowhere but in
Egypt, and the moon was shedding her pale light
over the valley of the Nile. But it was a moon
that lighted up all nature with a paler, purer, and
more lovely light ; a moon that would have told
secrets—a moon—a moon—in short, a moon whose
light enabled one to walk over fields without stum-
bling, and this was, at the moment, the principal
consideration with me.
Edfou lies about a mile from the bank of the
river, and taking Paul and one of the Arabs with
me, I set off to view the temple by moonlight.
The town, as usual, contained mud houses, many
of them in ruins, a mosque, a bath, bazars, the
usual apology for a palace, and more than the
usual quantity of ferocious dogs; and at one cor-
ner of this miserable place stands one of the mag-
nificent temples of the Nile. The propylon, its
lofty proportions enlarged by the light of the moon,
was the most grand and imposing portal I saw in
Egypt. From a base of nearly one hundred feet
in length, and thirty in breadth, it rises on each
side the gate, in the form of a truncated pyramid,
to the height of a hundred feet, gradually narrow-
ing, till at the top it measures seventy-five feet in
length and eighteen in breadth. Judge, then, what
was the temple to which this formed merely the
entrance; and this was far from being one of the
INCIDENTS OF TRAVEL.
It was dark before we arrived at Edfou. I
mean it was that period of time, when, by Nature's
laws, it should be dark ; that is, the day had ended,
the sun had set with that rich and burning lustre
which attends his departing glories nowhere but in
Egypt, and the moon was shedding her pale light
over the valley of the Nile. But it was a moon
that lighted up all nature with a paler, purer, and
more lovely light ; a moon that would have told
secrets—a moon—a moon—in short, a moon whose
light enabled one to walk over fields without stum-
bling, and this was, at the moment, the principal
consideration with me.
Edfou lies about a mile from the bank of the
river, and taking Paul and one of the Arabs with
me, I set off to view the temple by moonlight.
The town, as usual, contained mud houses, many
of them in ruins, a mosque, a bath, bazars, the
usual apology for a palace, and more than the
usual quantity of ferocious dogs; and at one cor-
ner of this miserable place stands one of the mag-
nificent temples of the Nile. The propylon, its
lofty proportions enlarged by the light of the moon,
was the most grand and imposing portal I saw in
Egypt. From a base of nearly one hundred feet
in length, and thirty in breadth, it rises on each
side the gate, in the form of a truncated pyramid,
to the height of a hundred feet, gradually narrow-
ing, till at the top it measures seventy-five feet in
length and eighteen in breadth. Judge, then, what
was the temple to which this formed merely the
entrance; and this was far from being one of the