DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.12664#0167
156
INCIDENTS OF TRAVEL.
thing seemed magnified ; the majestic proportions
of the temple appeared more majestic, and the
miserable huts around it still more miserable, and
the past glory and the present ruin of this once
most favoured land, rushed upon me with a force I
had not felt even at the foot of the pyramids. If the
temple of that little, unknown city now stood in
Hyde Park, or the garden of the Tuileries, France,
England, all Europe would gaze upon it with won-
der and admiration ; and when thousands of years
shall have rolled away, and they too shall have
fallen, there will be no monument in those proudest
of modern cities, like this in the little town of Ed-
fou, to raise its majestic head and tell the passing
traveller the story of their former greatness.
Some of the Arabs proposed to conduct me to
the interior, through a passage opening from the
ruined huts on the top; but after searching a while,
the miserable village could not produce a candle,
torch, or taper, to light the way. But I did not
care much about it. I did not care to disturb the
strong impressions and general effect of that moon-
light scene ; and though in this, as in other things,
I subject myself to the imputation of having been
but a superficial observer, I would not exchange
the lively recollection of that night for the most
accurate knowledge of every particular stone in
the whole temple.
I returned to my boat, and, to the surprise of my
rais, ordered him to pull up stake and drop down
the river. I intended to drop down about two
ibours to Elythias, or in Arabic Elkob. No one
INCIDENTS OF TRAVEL.
thing seemed magnified ; the majestic proportions
of the temple appeared more majestic, and the
miserable huts around it still more miserable, and
the past glory and the present ruin of this once
most favoured land, rushed upon me with a force I
had not felt even at the foot of the pyramids. If the
temple of that little, unknown city now stood in
Hyde Park, or the garden of the Tuileries, France,
England, all Europe would gaze upon it with won-
der and admiration ; and when thousands of years
shall have rolled away, and they too shall have
fallen, there will be no monument in those proudest
of modern cities, like this in the little town of Ed-
fou, to raise its majestic head and tell the passing
traveller the story of their former greatness.
Some of the Arabs proposed to conduct me to
the interior, through a passage opening from the
ruined huts on the top; but after searching a while,
the miserable village could not produce a candle,
torch, or taper, to light the way. But I did not
care much about it. I did not care to disturb the
strong impressions and general effect of that moon-
light scene ; and though in this, as in other things,
I subject myself to the imputation of having been
but a superficial observer, I would not exchange
the lively recollection of that night for the most
accurate knowledge of every particular stone in
the whole temple.
I returned to my boat, and, to the surprise of my
rais, ordered him to pull up stake and drop down
the river. I intended to drop down about two
ibours to Elythias, or in Arabic Elkob. No one