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

270 EL KOB.
around, and clothes the earth with abounding
harvests and towering groves. Such is the ease
in the district surrounding Edfou, where, on both
sides of the stream, the valley assumes the
character of a plain, and the distant chains of
the Libyan and Mokatan hills form the frame-
work to a bright picture of cultivation, instead of
a dreary one of desolation.
Later in the day we stopped at El Kob, the
ancient Elethya, which in days of old was a most
important place, as being the point of communi-
cation between the Nile and the Port of Berenice
on the Red Sea. All that remains of the ancient
town is the stupendous wall of unburnt bricks
that surrounded it, and formed a barrier against
the sands of the Desert; the wall remains, but
the city for whose protection it was raised is
swept off the face of the earth! At about the
distance of a mile from the site of Elethya, there
are mummy-pits, and sepulchral grottoes cut into
the rock and most curiously painted. The
learned in hieroglyphics assign to them a very
great antiquity ; but we, who are unable to de-
cypher the legends and inscriptions they contain,
can only take these assertions upon trust. The
subjects of many of the paintings relate to
agricultural pursuits, probably to the professions