DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.10358#0393
SUEZ.
The approach to the Suez canal from the south is by an artificially deepened channel in the gulf. A stone pier one mile and three-quarters in
length, erected on a sand-bank, runs from Suez to the entrance of this channel. ■
THE LAND OF GOSHEN.
/^\N the wall of a tomb at Beny Hasan is a painting of a family coming to settle in Egypt.
They are different in countenance from the people of the country; their dress is richer,
and they are armed ; one of them plays upon his lyre as he journeys, the women follow, and
the children and goods are carried upon asses.. It is a picture of a Semitic household, such as
Jacob brought with him from Canaan ; and it was thus that neighbouring tribes, like the
Hebrews, in time of dearth and necessity, came to sojourn in the strange land where the
fertilising river gave food to all who approached its waters. After the dreary wastes
which sever Egypt from Palestine the wanderers lighted suddenly upon the rich fields of
Goshen, " the best of the land;" and when the Hebrew historian wished to laud the "well-
watered " plain of the Jordan, as it was in the days of its prosperity, he could only compare
it to " the garden of the Lord, like the land of Egypt as thou comest unto Zoan." *
The wall-painting at Beny Hasan shows the journey into Egypt as it was more than
four thousand years ago. In the present day we travel otherwise and see other sights. In the
monotonous length of the Suez Canal and the sterile land which borders it on either side there
is little to rejoice the eye. From the giant breakwaters of Port Sa id, through the melancholy
expanse of Lake Menzeleh, the sandhills of Kantarah, and the chain of lakes which map out
the former junction of the Red Sea with the Mediterranean, and which have suggested to all
the rulers of Egypt—Pharaoh or Ptolemy, Napoleon or Khedive—the design of an intermarial
communication ;—through the hundred miles of the cutting, so admirable in engineering and so
unsightly in nature and art, there is nothing to indicate " the garden of the Lord," or " the best
* Genesis xiii. 10, where Zoar must mean Zoan in Egypt.
The approach to the Suez canal from the south is by an artificially deepened channel in the gulf. A stone pier one mile and three-quarters in
length, erected on a sand-bank, runs from Suez to the entrance of this channel. ■
THE LAND OF GOSHEN.
/^\N the wall of a tomb at Beny Hasan is a painting of a family coming to settle in Egypt.
They are different in countenance from the people of the country; their dress is richer,
and they are armed ; one of them plays upon his lyre as he journeys, the women follow, and
the children and goods are carried upon asses.. It is a picture of a Semitic household, such as
Jacob brought with him from Canaan ; and it was thus that neighbouring tribes, like the
Hebrews, in time of dearth and necessity, came to sojourn in the strange land where the
fertilising river gave food to all who approached its waters. After the dreary wastes
which sever Egypt from Palestine the wanderers lighted suddenly upon the rich fields of
Goshen, " the best of the land;" and when the Hebrew historian wished to laud the "well-
watered " plain of the Jordan, as it was in the days of its prosperity, he could only compare
it to " the garden of the Lord, like the land of Egypt as thou comest unto Zoan." *
The wall-painting at Beny Hasan shows the journey into Egypt as it was more than
four thousand years ago. In the present day we travel otherwise and see other sights. In the
monotonous length of the Suez Canal and the sterile land which borders it on either side there
is little to rejoice the eye. From the giant breakwaters of Port Sa id, through the melancholy
expanse of Lake Menzeleh, the sandhills of Kantarah, and the chain of lakes which map out
the former junction of the Red Sea with the Mediterranean, and which have suggested to all
the rulers of Egypt—Pharaoh or Ptolemy, Napoleon or Khedive—the design of an intermarial
communication ;—through the hundred miles of the cutting, so admirable in engineering and so
unsightly in nature and art, there is nothing to indicate " the garden of the Lord," or " the best
* Genesis xiii. 10, where Zoar must mean Zoan in Egypt.