OMBI, OR OMBOS. THE VALLEY OF THE NILE. 109 of the opposite extremes of misery, carrying away, in the former case, the huts and cattle of the wretched inhabitants in its resistless course; or in the latter, afflicting them with the terrors of drought in a tropical climate, aggravated by all the intensity which the neighbourhood of the sandy deserts serves so considerably to augment. Before we proceed to consider the interesting remains of antiquity which crowd the valley of the Nile, we will take a rapid glance at the sources and course of this noble river. The basin of the Nile is supposed to include a surface of about 180,000 square miles, although our ignorance of the basin of its largest tributary, the Bahr el Abiad, or White River, renders this statement very uncertain. From the source of Bahr Azrek, or Blue River, the length of the Nile has been estimated at about 2,700 miles, or in a direct line from the source to the mouth, about 1,600 miles. The White River comes from unknown distant parts; but its waters, at their confluence with the Blue River, amount to sixfold the mass of the latter, whence we may conclude that they rise in snowy mountains. In the dry season the stagnant waters of the White River resemble an internal lake rather than a stream; with the tropical rains it begins to flow more rapidly, and in July its waters rise suddenly to a remarkable height, at which they remain for some months. The causes of this phenomenon have been attributed to a periodical connexion with some immense mass of waters in the interior, but have not yet been clearly ascertained. The Bahr Azrek, or Blue River, which first becomes of importance at Lake Tzana, rushes in a north-western direction, with waterfalls and rapids, through the Alpine mountain chains of Abyssinia, then through Sennaar, Meroe, and Dongola. It was the discovery of the sources of this branch of the Nile that conferred so much fame on the traveller Bruce; our knowledge of the White River has tended to diminish its importance. The united waters of these two branches are augmented by a third tributary, the Tacazze, or Atbara, which rises in the snow mountains of Samen, at a height of 13,000 feet, and seems a more considerable stream than the Blue River. The Nile now penetrates a rocky and desert table-land, in the upper part, perhaps, from two to three thousand feet; in the lower, about six hundred feet above the level of the sea, thickly sown with black, probably volcanic, conical mountains, of six or seven hundred feet in elevation. The stream forces its way over low mountain heights; the cataracts thus formed are very numerous; the last at Assouan, or Syene, beyond which the Nile enters Upper Egypt, is comparatively low. The part of its course at which we are now arrived is generally called the Valley of the Nile, and its banks are crowded with those magnificent remains of former greatness which excite the admiration of modern times. With respect to their physical conformation, Upper and Middle Egypt consist of the deeply indented valley VOL. II. 2 F OMBI, OR OMBOS. THE VALLEY OF THE NILE. 109 of the opposite extremes of misery, carrying away, in the former case, the huts and cattle of the wretched inhabitants in its resistless course; or in the latter, afflicting them with the terrors of drought in a tropical climate, aggravated by all the intensity which the neighbourhood of the sandy deserts serves so considerably to augment. Before we proceed to consider the interesting remains of antiquity which crowd the valley of the Nile, we will take a rapid glance at the sources and course of this noble river. The basin of the Nile is supposed to include a surface of about 180,000 square miles, although our ignorance of the basin of its largest tributary, the Bahr el Abiad, or White River, renders this statement very uncertain. From the source of Bahr Azrek, or Blue River, the length of the Nile has been estimated at about 2,700 miles, or in a direct line from the source to the mouth, about 1,600 miles. The White River comes from unknown distant parts; but its waters, at their confluence with the Blue River, amount to sixfold the mass of the latter, whence we may conclude that they rise in snowy mountains. In the dry season the stagnant waters of the White River resemble an internal lake rather than a stream; with the tropical rains it begins to flow more rapidly, and in July its waters rise suddenly to a remarkable height, at which they remain for some months. The causes of this phenomenon have been attributed to a periodical connexion with some immense mass of waters in the interior, but have not yet been clearly ascertained. The Bahr Azrek, or Blue River, which first becomes of importance at Lake Tzana, rushes in a north-western direction, with waterfalls and rapids, through the Alpine mountain chains of Abyssinia, then through Sennaar, Meroe, and Dongola. It was the discovery of the sources of this branch of the Nile that conferred so much fame on the traveller Bruce; our knowledge of the White River has tended to diminish its importance. The united waters of these two branches are augmented by a third tributary, the Tacazze, or Atbara, which rises in the snow mountains of Samen, at a height of 13,000 feet, and seems a more considerable stream than the Blue River. The Nile now penetrates a rocky and desert table-land, in the upper part, perhaps, from two to three thousand feet; in the lower, about six hundred feet above the level of the sea, thickly sown with black, probably volcanic, conical mountains, of six or seven hundred feet in elevation. The stream forces its way over low mountain heights; the cataracts thus formed are very numerous; the last at Assouan, or Syene, beyond which the Nile enters Upper Egypt, is comparatively low. The part of its course at which we are now arrived is generally called the Valley of the Nile, and its banks are crowded with those magnificent remains of former greatness which excite the admiration of modern times. With respect to their physical conformation, Upper and Middle Egypt consist of the deeply indented valley VOL. II. 2 F through which the Nile flows, in some parts only two leagues broad, and of higher rocky desert districts on both sides. Two low and bare rocky chains bound the banks of the stream; the western is called the Libyan, the eastern the Arabian chain. Both run northward, and inclose Lower Egypt: the Libyan chain is connected by a low range of cliffs with the table land of Barca; the Arabian partly fills up the Straits of Suez, but does not form any mountain connexion between Africa and Asia. The latter is interrupted by two deep and waterless valleys, which run from west to east, and bring the Valley of the Nile in immediate connexion with the Red Sea; they form the northern limits of Upper and of Central Egypt, and bear the names of the Vale of Cosseir, and the Vale of Wandering. On the left bank of the Nile, in the Libyan chain, is a similar one, the vale of the Natron Lakes, seemingly a continuation of the Vale of Wandering. A second transverse, through which flowed formerly an arm of the Nile, has long been choked up by the sands of the desert. Upper and Central Egypt are only habitable in the valley itself; the adjacent districts form a part, and the eastern boundary of the desert. The Valley of the Nile in Upper and Central Egypt appears like an indentation (similar to the neighbouring basin of the Red Sea,) in the rocky mass, which seems to form the basis of the northeast of Africa, and of the bordering parts of Asia. This narrow indentation has, in the course of ages, been filled up by the fertilizing layers of alluvial soil from the deposits of the river, the bed of which has risen in like manner. The swelling, or rise of the Nile, and the land-formations caused by its waters, surpass all similar phenomena in other rivers in regularity and duration. The river begins to rise in July, when the tropical rains commence in the lands which feed the sources; the greatest height at which the whole valley can advantageously be inundated takes place at the end of September, and amounts to twenty-one or twenty-four feet above its ordinary level; after remaining at this height for about fourteen days the water gradually falls to its lowest level, in the first months of the year. The bed and the land rise, according to the old Nilometers, or Nile-measurers, somewhat more than one-third of a foot in the course of a century. The waters are distributed throughout the Valley of the Nile by means of a great number of canals and artificial waterworks. The effect of these annual inundations have in historical periods produced great changes, particularly in Lower Egypt. The alluvial soil has, in the course of time, filled up the bay which probably formerly penetrated as far as the northern ends of the Libyan and Arabian mountain chains, and thus formed the Delta, or Lower Egypt, (for the original meaning of Delta in geography, was simply a lowland in the form of the Greek Delta, ▲) which is indented by the numerous arms and mouths of the stream, and subject to constant changes. The fork of the stream OMBI, OR OMBOS. THE VALLEY OF THE NILE. 111 begins at present at Cairo; but there are still proofs sufficient that in former ages it began many miles higher up the river. The present chief arms mouth near Rosetta and Damietta, which, in the middle ages, were on the sea-coast, now they are several leagues inland, owing to the gradual advance of the alluvial soil annually brought down by the river. Ancient Egypt was one of those nations whose annals form an epoch in the history of human civilization. The Greeks had so long been considered by the learned as presenting in their public works the sole models of beauty, that the extraordinary remains of Egyptian architecture were treated with comparative neglect. This prejudice is now giving way to a more rational appreciation; but even now it can scarcely be said to have totally disappeared. Those who will devote more serious attention to the examination of these interesting monuments of antiquity, will find that, in addition to the idea of vastness and repose which they convey, there is no small degree of elegance and beauty of form, although to judge works of such magnitude, it is necessary for the spectator to adopt a standard far different from that with which he contemplates the comparatively small buildings of Roman and modern architecture. As the traveller embarks at Cairo in his Kandjia, or decked boat, for Upper Egypt, he has time to become gradually acquainted with the wonders of this singular land, and to divest himself of those provincial prejudices so injurious in judging other nations. As he ascends the river the sepulchral chambers of Beni-hassan will prove an excellent study for the grander remains of Thebes, and the other cities, palaces, temples, and ton.bs with which the banks are strewed as far as the cataracts. We mention Siout, the capital of Said, or Upper Egypt, merely to warn the reader against the ideal beauty with which its remains have been invested by Denon in the great French work on Egypt. The elegant portico and columns of the temple at Gau, the ancient Antopolis, no longer exists, having been destroyed by a recent inundation. The temple at Denderah is perfect in every part, with the minutest embellishments as fresh and well preserved as if but just from the hands of the sculptor. "We stood," to borrow the words of a recent American traveller, "in mute astonishment, rapt with the beauty, finish, and elaborate elegance of every part of the temple. It has not the magnificent extent of the temple at Thebes, but it exceeds every other in Egypt for the richness, profuseness, and neatness of its decorations. The temple is dedicated to Isis, and her image appears in every part of it. The whole style and embellishment of the temple is in consonance with the attributes of this voluptuous deity. The rich swelling curves of the cornices and mouldings; the love-beaming face of Isis, which smiles upon you on every side; the scenes of joy |