DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.11448#0260
224
THE CRESCENT AND THE CROSS, [chap, xxvm
piers, in the same spirit in which the Pasha converted the indo-
lent dervishes into soldiers.
We moored off Gournou, on the eastern bank of the river,
towards evening, leaving the opposite side, with Luxor and Karnak,
for the last. We were soon in the saddle, and, preceded by an
Arab guide with a long spear, went cantering over the level
plains, luxuriant with corn-fields, to the temple of Ammon, the
Theban Jupiter : this building is about a mile from the river,
and contained the Hall of Assembly of ancient Thebes. How
curious it was, standing among those silent courts, to speculate
on the species of eloquence which charmed, or persuaded the
listening crowds of three thousand years ago ! There was
party spirit even then, no doubt, and place-hunting ; where that
spirit now is, who shall presume to say ? but permanent places
for the patriots have long since been found in the vast cemete-
ries that surround us. The front of this building is very per-
fect, and imposing, from its simplicity and vast extent. Evening
fell as we stood there ; obscurity, like that which wraps its re-
cords, gathered round it, and we rode back to our tent by the
light of stars, which scarcely enabled us to keep clear of the
mummy-pits with which the plain was honeycombed.
The next morning, at daybreak, we started for the Tombs of
the Kings. I was mounted on a fine horse belonging to the
sheikh of the village ; and the cool air of the morning, the rich
prospect before us, and cloudless sky, all conspired to impart
life and pleasure to our relaxed and languid frames. I had
been for nearly a month confined to my pallet by illness ; and
now, mounted on a gallant barb, sweeping across the desert,
with the mountain breezes breathing round me, I felt a glow o
spirits and an exhilaration of mind and body, to which I had
been long a stranger. For a couple of hours we continued
along the plain, which was partially covered with wavy corn,
but flecked widely, here and there, with desert tracts. Then
we entered the gloomy mountain gorges, through which the
Theban monarchs passed to their tombs. Our path lay through a
narrow defile, between precipitous cliffs of rubble and calcare-
ous strata, and some large boulders of coarse conglomerate lay
strewn along this desolate valley, in which no living thing of
THE CRESCENT AND THE CROSS, [chap, xxvm
piers, in the same spirit in which the Pasha converted the indo-
lent dervishes into soldiers.
We moored off Gournou, on the eastern bank of the river,
towards evening, leaving the opposite side, with Luxor and Karnak,
for the last. We were soon in the saddle, and, preceded by an
Arab guide with a long spear, went cantering over the level
plains, luxuriant with corn-fields, to the temple of Ammon, the
Theban Jupiter : this building is about a mile from the river,
and contained the Hall of Assembly of ancient Thebes. How
curious it was, standing among those silent courts, to speculate
on the species of eloquence which charmed, or persuaded the
listening crowds of three thousand years ago ! There was
party spirit even then, no doubt, and place-hunting ; where that
spirit now is, who shall presume to say ? but permanent places
for the patriots have long since been found in the vast cemete-
ries that surround us. The front of this building is very per-
fect, and imposing, from its simplicity and vast extent. Evening
fell as we stood there ; obscurity, like that which wraps its re-
cords, gathered round it, and we rode back to our tent by the
light of stars, which scarcely enabled us to keep clear of the
mummy-pits with which the plain was honeycombed.
The next morning, at daybreak, we started for the Tombs of
the Kings. I was mounted on a fine horse belonging to the
sheikh of the village ; and the cool air of the morning, the rich
prospect before us, and cloudless sky, all conspired to impart
life and pleasure to our relaxed and languid frames. I had
been for nearly a month confined to my pallet by illness ; and
now, mounted on a gallant barb, sweeping across the desert,
with the mountain breezes breathing round me, I felt a glow o
spirits and an exhilaration of mind and body, to which I had
been long a stranger. For a couple of hours we continued
along the plain, which was partially covered with wavy corn,
but flecked widely, here and there, with desert tracts. Then
we entered the gloomy mountain gorges, through which the
Theban monarchs passed to their tombs. Our path lay through a
narrow defile, between precipitous cliffs of rubble and calcare-
ous strata, and some large boulders of coarse conglomerate lay
strewn along this desolate valley, in which no living thing of