Page:Travels to Discover the Source of the Nile - In the Years 1768, 1769, 1770, 1771, 1772, and 1773 volume 1.djvu/170

66 quantity of loose flying hillocks that were there (dangerous in windy weather to travellers) are very strong pictures of the Saccara, the neighbourhood of Metrahenny and Mohannan, but they have not the smallest or most distant resemblance to any part in the neighbourhood of Geeza.

will be asked, Where are all those temples, the Serapium, the Temple of Vulcan, the Circus, and Temple of Venus? Are they found near Metrahenny?

this I answer, Are they found at Geeza? No, but had they been at Geeza, they would have still been visible, as they are at Thebes, Diospolis, and Syene, because they are surrounded with black earth not moveable by the wind. Vast quantities of these ruins, however, are in every street of Cairo: every wall, every Bey's stable, every cistern for horses to drink at, preserve part of the magnificent remains that have been brought from Memphis or Metrahenny.—The rest are covered with the moving sands of the Saccara; as the sphinxes and buildings that had been deserted were in Strabo's time for want of grass and roots, which always spread and keep the soil firm in populous inhabited places, the sands of the deserts are let loose upon them, and have covered them probably for ever.

heart fails him in looking to the south and south-west of Metrahenny. He is lost in the immense expanse of desert, which he sees full of Pyramids before him. Struck with terror from the unusual scene of vastness opened all at once upon leaving the palm-trees, he becomes dispirited from the effects of sultry climates.