Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume II.djvu/448

 432 NILUS. desert now disapppnr. The rocky banks sink down ; the inundation fertilises the borders to a considerable distance ; and for patches of arable soil fine pastures abound, whence both Arabia and Aegypt imported a breed of excellent horses. (Russejiger, Karte von Nubien.) But after quitting Napata (?) no re- mains of antiquity are found before we arrive at tlie Gagaudes Insula of Pliny (vi. 29. s. 35), lat. 19° 35', the modern Argo, a little above the third Cataract. The quarries of this island, which is about 12 miles in length, and causes a considerable eddy in the river, were worked both by Aethiopians and Aegyp- tians. A little to N. of this island, and below the third Cataract, the Nile makes a considerable bend to the E., passing on its right bank the ruins of Seffhi, or Sesche. On its left bank are found the remains of the temple of Soleb, equally remarkable for the beauty of its architecture, and for its pic- turesque site upon the verge of the rich land, " the river's gift," and an illimitable plain of sand stretch- ing to the horizon. (Cailliaud, f/^/e de Meroe. vol. i. p. 375; Hoskins, Travels, p. 245.) The Nile is once again divided by an island called Sais, and.-a little lower down is contracted by a wall of granite on either side, so that it is hardly a stone's- throw across. At this point, and for a space of several miles, navigation is practicable only at the season of the highest floods. Below Sais are found the ruins of the small temple of Amara, and at Semneh those of two temples which, from their opposite eminences on the right and left banks of the river, probably served as fortresses also at this narrow pass of the Nile. That a city of great strength once existed here is the more probable, because at or near Semneh was the frontier between Aethiopia and Aegypt. We have DOW arrived at the termination of the porphyry and granite rocks: henceforward, from about lat. 21° N., the river-banks are composed of sandstone, and acquire a less rugged aspect. The next remarkable feature is the Cataract of Wadi-IIalfa, the Great Cataract of the ancient geographers. (Strab. xvii. p. 786.) In remote ante-historic periods a bar of pri- mitive rock, piercing the sandstone, probably .^panned the Nile at this point (lat. 22° N.) from shore to shore. But the original barrier has been broken by some natural agency, and a series of islands now divides the stream which rushes and chafes between them. It is indeed less a single fall or shoot of water than a succession of rapids, and may be ascended, as Belzoni did, during the inun- dation. {Tj-aveb in Nubia, p. 85.) The roar of the waters may be heard at the distance of half a league, and the depth of the fall is greater than that of the first Cataract at Syene. On the left bank of the river a city once stood in the immediate Tieighbourhood of the rapids ; and three temples, exhibiting on their walls the names of Sesortasen, Thotlimes III., and Amenopbis II., have been par- tially surveyed here. Indeed, with the second Ca- taract, we may be said to enter the propylaea of Aegypt itself. For thenceforward to Syene — a distance of 220 miles — either bank of the Nile presents a succession of temples, either excavated in the sandstone or separate structures, of various eras and styles of architecture. Of these the most remarkable and the most thoroughly explored is that of Aboosimbel or Ipsambid, the ancient Ibsciah, on the left bank, and two days' journey belovf the Cataract. This temple was first cleared of the in- NILUS. cumbent sand by Belzoni (Researches, vol. i. p. 316), and afterwards more completely explored, and iden- tified with the reign of Rameses III., by Cham- pollion and Rosellini. Primis (Ibrini) is one day's journey down the stream; and below it the sandstone liills compress the river for about 2 miles within a mural escarpment, so that the current seems to force itself rather than to flow through this barrier. (3.) The Nile below Syene. — At Syene (As- souan'), 24° 5' 23' N. lat., the Nile enters Aegypt Proper ; and from this point, with occasional cur- vatures to the E. or NW., preserves generally a due northerly direction as far as its bifurcation at the apex of the Delta. Its bed presents but a slight declivity, the fall being only from 500 to 600 feet from Syene to the Mediterranean. The width of the valley, however, through which it flows varies considerably, and the geological character of its banks undergoes several changes. At a short distance below Syene begins a range of sandstone rocks, which pass into limestone below Latopolis, lat. 25° 30' N.; and this formation continues with- out any resumption of the sandstone, until both the Libyan and the Arabian hills diverge finally at Cer- casorum. The river thus flows beneath the prin- cipal quarries out of which the great structui'es of the Nile valley were built, and was the high-road by which the blocks were conveyed to Thebes and Apol- linopolis, to Sais and Bubastis, to the Great Laby- rinth in the Arsinoite nome, to the Pyi-ainids and Memphis, and, finally, to the Greek and Roman architects of Alexandreia and Antinoopolis. Again, from Syene to Latopolis, the shores of the river are sterile and dreary, since the inundation is checked by the rock-walls E. and W. of the stream. But at Apollinopolis JIagna, lat. 25°, and at Latopolis, 25° 30', the rocks leave a broader verge for the fer- tilising deposit, and the Nile flows through richly cultivated tracts. At Thebes, for the first time, the banks expand into a broad plain, which is again closed in at the N. end by tlie hills at Gourmah. Here the river is divided by small islands, and is a mile and a quarter in breadth. It has hitherto fol- lowed a northerly direction ; but at Coptos, where a road connected the stream with the ports of the Red Sea [Beeexice], it bends to the NW., and follows this inclination for some distance. At Panopolis, however, it resumes its general N. bearing, and re- tains it to the fork of the Delta. Near Diospolis Parva (How), on the left bank, and opposite Chenoboscium, on the right, begins the canal, or, perhaps, an ancient branch of the Nile, called the Canal of Joseph (Bahr-Jusuf). This lateral stream flows in a direction nearly parallel to the main one, through the Arsinoite nome (_£"/- Fyouni). From this point the Nile itself presents no remarkable feature until it reaches Speos-Arte- midos, cr the grottos of Benihassan, where the eastern hills, approaching close to the river, limit its inundation, and consequently also the cultivable land. In lat. 29° N. the Libyan hills, for a space, recede, and curving at first NW., but soon resuming a SE. direction, embrace the Arsinoite nome. Lastly, a little below Memphis, and after passing the hills of Gebel-el- Mokaffam, both the eastern and western chains of rocks finally diverge, and the river ex- pands upon the great alluvial plain of the Delta. At Cercasorum, where the bifurcation of the river begins, or, perhaps, at a remoter period, still nearer Memphis, the Nile probably met the Mediterranean, or at least an estuaiy, which its annual deposits of