A pilgrimage to the temples and tombs of Egypt, Nubia, and ...

ELEPHANTINA. 167
travellers. Its antiquities are another question,
albeit they have dwindled into a poor and beg-
garly account of broken stones ; but from the
highly coloured description of it given by Lord
Lindsay, who is not only an accurate observer,
but a conscientious describer, and who com-
placently dwells upon it as " the lovely Island
of Flowers," I did expect something far more
smiling than I found. Verdure there certainly is,
but not a single blossom could I discover.
Elephantina contains a colossal statue of Sesos-
tris (Rhamses the Great), seated in the midst of
a wilderness of stones and broken pottery, the
features much defaced, and looking altogether
the fit monarch of such a scene of loneliness
and ruin. There is also the door of an Egyptian
temple, formed of large masses of rose granite,
and bearing an inscription to Alexander, the son
of the JNIacedonian conqueror ; but no other
part of the edifice remains. Tlie Greeks and
Romans have both left traces here of their
domination, in the shape of a Nilo-meter,
with the remains of a causeway, and of baths,
&c., &c. ; but there is not a single struc-
ture left standing; and violence and ruin have
done their worst in sweeping away all that once
adorned the island. Two tem])les at Elephantina