DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.17#0268
THE WORKS OF THE ASSOUAN RESERVOIR.
ASSOUAN': EARLY WORK ON THE BARRAGE.
State of the great trench through the granite rock, March 1899.
locomotives—all constitute a pandemonium of noises which it is impossible to
describe by words. At first one thinks that it must be a dream, that Harland
and Wolff's Works, Crewe Station, Wolverhampton iron forges, the Aberdeen
granite quarries may have got mixed, and all have been dropped down together.
We are not dreaming ! it is stern, noisy reality, but can this be old Egypt, the
land of the lotus-eaters ? Yes, for there was the mighty Nile, rushing and roaring
towards its cataract's first leap, which the bold British engineers are about to
grapple with. They will utterly subdue its turbulence, once they fill up and
divert the torrent's stream, and will crown their efforts with a granite viaduct
70 feet high and in some places double that elevation, and with a broad roadway
along the top.
Pity 'tis that Philas, of all " old Egypt's piles," should have to sink
beneath the flood. As the poet Moore sang, "The towers of other days" may
after all be visible "in the waters beneath him shining," but that will be poor
consolation for the artist and the archaeologist. The highest water level will be
up to the floors of the temple of Isis. " Pharaoh's Bed "—the beautiful pavilion
ASSOUAN': EARLY WORK ON THE BARRAGE.
State of the great trench through the granite rock, March 1899.
locomotives—all constitute a pandemonium of noises which it is impossible to
describe by words. At first one thinks that it must be a dream, that Harland
and Wolff's Works, Crewe Station, Wolverhampton iron forges, the Aberdeen
granite quarries may have got mixed, and all have been dropped down together.
We are not dreaming ! it is stern, noisy reality, but can this be old Egypt, the
land of the lotus-eaters ? Yes, for there was the mighty Nile, rushing and roaring
towards its cataract's first leap, which the bold British engineers are about to
grapple with. They will utterly subdue its turbulence, once they fill up and
divert the torrent's stream, and will crown their efforts with a granite viaduct
70 feet high and in some places double that elevation, and with a broad roadway
along the top.
Pity 'tis that Philas, of all " old Egypt's piles," should have to sink
beneath the flood. As the poet Moore sang, "The towers of other days" may
after all be visible "in the waters beneath him shining," but that will be poor
consolation for the artist and the archaeologist. The highest water level will be
up to the floors of the temple of Isis. " Pharaoh's Bed "—the beautiful pavilion