Thompson, Joseph P.: Photographic views of Egypt, past and present (Boston, 1854)

CHAPTER X.

scenery of the nile-day and night.

The first view of Nile scenery is novel and picturesque ;
and though the novelly soon fades, the picturesqueness
remains ever the same. In the Delta, the banks of the
river are level, and, for about fifty miles south, of Atfeh,
they are clothed with verdure equally ujion either side.
Beyond this, the Lybian desert on the west, sweeps down
to the water's edge; but on the east, the rich alluvial soil
extends as far as the eye can reach. Fields of wheat,
clover, cotton, tobacco, sugar-cane, indigo, poppy, overspread
this level area, divided only by the little artificial canals for
irrigation, or by the natural growth of the crops. A fence
is rarely seen in Egypt, and a walled field never. At
intervals of two or three miles, groves of palm-trees indicate
the presence of a village, long before its low range of huts
can be distinguished; for the palm-tree is cultivated only in
the neighborhood of villages, where its fruit can be pro-
tected, and its shade enjoyed. Here and there the wide-
spreading sycamore stands in modest pleasing contrast by
the side of the lofty fan-crested palm, or alone overshadows
the water-wheel on the bank of the river. Sometimes the
diminutive sont, or acanthus, with its prickly bough and
dangling bean, is clustered about the village bazaar, or a
grove of acacias droop "their yellow hair" along the
avenue to some larger town. Besides these, the Nile