Travels to Discover the Source of the Nile, Volume 1 (of 5): In the years 1768, 1769, 1770, 1771, 1772 and 1773Bruce, James
History
Travels to Discover the Source of the Nile, Volume 1 (of 5): In the years 1768, 1769, 1770, 1771, 1772 and 1773
Bruce, James
Egypt -- Description and travel; Ethiopia -- Description and travel; Ethiopia -- History; Natural history -- Ethiopia; Nile River
3_dly_, That great part of it having been built upon an eminence on the
side of a hill, especially the large and magnificent edifices I have
spoken of, it could not be situated, as he says, low in the bed of the
river; for, upon the giving way of the Memphitic rampart, it would be
swallowed up by it.
If it was swallowed up by the river, it was not Geeza; and this
accident must have been since Strabo’s time, which Dr Shaw will not
aver; and it is by much too loose arguing to say, first, that the place
was destroyed by the violent overflowing of the river, and then pretend
its situation to be Geeza, where a river never came.
The descent of the hill to where the Pyramids were, and the number of
Pyramids that were there around it, of which three are remarkable; the
very sandy situation, and the 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.
It 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?
To 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_.
A man’s 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.
From habits of idleness contracted at Cairo, from the stories he has
heard of the bad government and ferocity of the people, from want of
language and want of plan, he shrinks from the attempting any discovery
in the moving sands of the Saccara, embraces in safety and in quiet the
reports of others, whom he thinks have been more inquisitive and more
adventurous than himself.
Thus, although he has created no new error of his own, he is accessary
to the having corroborated and confirmed the ancient errors of others;
and, though people travel in the same numbers as ever, physics and
geography continue at a stand.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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