THE ASSOUAN DAM

A. B. DE GUERVILLE

SSOUAN is undoubtedly the most picturesque spot

in Upper Egypt. On both sides of the Nile, high and rocky mountains almost entirely covered with a golden sand of a warm, almost indescribable tint, and topped here and there with ancient ruins, raise their blackened summits against the background of sky.

Between the town and the Elephantine Island, covered with verdure, the Nile flows swiftly, dotted with hundreds of dahabeahs and other craft, the crews of which chant their eternal and monotonous song. A little higher up is the First Cataract, with its rapids, where the water comes roaring down between the rocks.

I have never seen elsewhere more glorious sunsets than at Assouan; but it would require a more gifted pen than mine to describe the wonderful and fantastic colours in which heaven, earth, river and mountains are bathed. Camels are in great request here.

Ladies especially seem

to like this enormous steed, and it certainly has its attractions, but it is violent exercise, and it is not every one who can stand it.

With camel or donkey the excursions to be had round Assouan are exceedingly interesting. The camp of the

Besharins, situated half an hour's ride away, and close to the Arab cemetery, is a favourite one. These Arabs (of the camp, not the cemetery), with long hair and strange faces, live in miserable tents made of matting, and of such primitive construction that they succeed in being picturesque.

Needless to say that at Assouan there are celebrated tombs, as everywhere else in Egypt; and here also are these famous quarries of granite, whence the Egyptians have taken their obelisks, their statues and their sarcophagi. To this day an unfinished obelisk, measuring some ninety feet in length, can still be seen.

At some distance from Assouan, not far from the head of the Cataract, is the Temple of Philæ, the most graceful and elegant of all Egyptian temples. Situated on the island of the same name, the " Pearl of Egypt" is really in Nubian territory. The natives call it "Gesiret Anas el Wogud," after the hero of one of the chapters of the Thousand and One Nights, who, in the Egyptian version, there found his bride. The Island of Philæ is in the centre of the space which forms the immense reservoir of Assouan, and at the time when this is full the entire island, and almost the whole of the beautiful temple, disappears under the muddy waters of the Nile.

The savants and archæologists of the entire world rose in arms when the construction of the reservoir was decided upon, and demanded that another site should be chosen. It was, however, impossible to find in the whole Nile

Valley another spot equally suitable; and between the graceful temple and the works which were to double the agricultural wealth of Egypt, the engineers did not hesitate, and Phil was sacrificed. Nevertheless, it must be remembered that very important works were executed in order to consolidate this remarkable monument, the Government spending no less than £22,000 in doing so.

The curious thing is that the water which it was presumed would destroy the celebrated temple has probably saved it. In his 1904 report, Lord Cromer remarks that, having visited the works whilst in course of execution, he was struck with the deplorable state of the old foundations, which would shortly have resulted in the collapse of certain parts of the temple.

M. Ed. Naville wrote thus to the Journal de Genève : "I am one of those who, on many occasions, either in the press or at scientific congresses, protested against the construction of a dam at Assouan. I think now

that archeologists have reason to be satisfied. The monument is out of danger for years, and it does not seem that the water has any bad effects on the stone, except perhaps in a few chambers which, having as sole opening a low door, necessarily remain damp, and have become covered with saltpetre. One can even believe, in certain regards, that the temple of Philæ is to-day in better condition than most of the other Egyptian monuments. For some years the great temples have been passing through what I may call a crisis of senile decay. Is it the excavations which