_February 24th,_ 1813. I left Assouan at noon, and proceeded by the tombs of the ancient Saracen town of Assouan, on the east side of the hill where the French under Desaix raised a bastion. A high brick tower, dedicated to the memory of the Turkish saint, Shikh Wanes (شيخ وانس), stands near it. The Turkish sepulchres cover a space of nearly three miles in circumference. Here a great number of highly esteemed saints are buried, whose tombs are visited by devotees from all parts of Egypt. The Cufic tombstones are innumerable, but the inscriptions upon them are not of a remote date: and the letters are badly shaped. Makrizi, the Egyptian historian, relates, that in the year 806 of the Mohammedan æra, 21,000 persons died of the plague at Assouan; a fact by which we may estimate the importance of the town in those times. About one mile distant from the tombs begins the brick wall mentioned by Denon, called Hayt el Adjour (حيط العجور), which continues along the sandy plain between the granite rocks, as far as the neighbourhood of the island of Philæ. The inhabitants say that this wall was built by a king of the name of Adjour. I think it was intended as a defence against the inroads of the Bedouins of the eastern mountain, at the time when a brisk overland transport trade existed between Philæ and Syene. The natives say that it was originally the embankment of a canal; and Norden is of opinion that in ancient times, the bed of the Nile was on this side. But this seems impossible, as the ground evidently rises from Philæ towards Assouan. On the granite rocks along the road, hieroglyphic inscriptions are met with, which increase in numbers as we approach the island. There are also some illegible Greek inscriptions, which probably once recorded the names of curious Greek travellers. There is another and longer road from Assouan to Philæ, along the side of the river, by the Cataract.