Page:The empire and the century.djvu/841

 strip of level, are small areas of crop, fringed by continuous lines of palms. By day and night, throughout the season when the river is low, the drone of the 'sakia,' or water-wheel, is a sound that rarely ceases.

Barren as is the soil, and scanty as are his means of living, the Nubian loves his rocky home, and can with difficulty be induced to leave it, even if he is offered a more kindly climate and surroundings. This portion of Nubia contains many monuments of an earlier civilization, among them the temple of Abu Simbel standing out pre-eminently, with its fine facade and its grand colossi hewn out of the solid rock.

At Korosko—half-way—the influence of the Nile reservoir is first felt, and the inhabitants have constructed new dwellings, at a higher elevation than their old ones, so as to be above the highest water-level under the new conditions.

After passing through the Kalabsha Gate, with its contracted river-channel and fine granite cliffs, a length of some thirty miles brings the temples to Philæ and the palm-trees of Shellal into view. Here the last cataract—that of Assouan—commences, now spanned by the great dam, with its five locks for navigation.

Some few miles down-stream the town of Assouan, with its fine hotels and charming river-front, is reached, the Nile having at this point traversed a distance of just 2,700 miles from its outlet at the Victoria Nyanza.

For the 600 miles of river between Assouan and Cairo no description is necessary. Twelve miles to the north of the city of the Caliphs the Nile bifurcates into the two branches of Rosetta and Damietta, and between them lies the area known as the Delta, so renowned for its fertility and its prosperity. At the apex of the Delta are situated Mougel Bey's two barrages.

The distance from this point to the sea is about 160 miles, and the total distance between the Ripon Falls and the Mediterranean is consequently rather more than 3,400 miles.

The Nile, in making this journey, probably passes