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

GHEBEL SILSILIS. 265
laces. There are also excavated tombs facing
the river,—one speos, or rock-cut sanctuary, con-
taining bas-reliefs and hieroglyphic inscriptions,
dating from the Pharaohs to the eighteenth
dynasty,—and various small chapel-like sanctua-
ries. The quantity of stone that has been exca-
vated to form these immense galleries may be
imagined from the fact, that out of it were built
the colossal structures of Thebes, the temples of
Koom Ombos, of Edfou, and of Esne, besides those
of less note which are scattered along both sides
of the Nile, and owe their existence to the same
inexhaustible source. Here are to be seen traces
of the busy idleness of the workmen who were
employed in cutting stones from the quarries, in
the shape of coarse unfinished outlines of human
figures, &c. &c., scratched upon its perpendicular
sides, just in the same manner that one sees
rude attempts at drawing scrawled in chalk
upon dead walls in England. We contented
ourselves with exploring the excavations on the
western side, and did not even land on the
opposite bank of the river ; but we saw enough
to convince us, that with a little more labour,
Ghebel Silsilis might have been converted into
a second Petra,—streets, and squares, and arcades
exist, and excavations that only require facades