The Sonority Of The Granites Round About Exaggerates The Noise Of The Oars On The Enclosed Water, And There Is Something Confusing In The Thought That We Are Rowing And Floating Between The Walls Where Formerly, And For Centuries, Men Were Used To Prostrate Themselves With Their Foreheads On The Stones.

And now it is quite dark; the hour grows late.

We have to bring the boat close to the walls to distinguish the hieroglyphs and rigid gods which are engraved there as finely as by the burin. These walls, washed for nearly four years by the inundation, have already taken on at the base that sad blackish colour which may be seen on the old Venetian palaces.

Halt and silence. It is dark and cold. The oars no longer move, and we hear only the sighing of the wind and the lapping of the water against the columns and the bas-reliefs - and then suddenly there comes the noise of a heavy body falling, followed by endless eddies. A great carved stone has plunged, at its due hour, to rejoin in the black chaos below its fellows that have already disappeared, to rejoin the submerged temples and old Coptic churches, and the town of the first Christian centuries - all that was once the Isle of Philae, the "pearl of Egypt," one of the marvels of the world.

The darkness is now extreme and we can see no longer. Let us go and shelter, no matter where, to await the moon.

Enter page number Go  Previous Next
Page 202 of 206
Words from 54201 to 54451 of 55391