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

338 EXCAVATIONS.
gathered from our experience in the Upper
Country. It was from these gentlemen that we
learned the late ministerial changes in England,
and the reinstatement of Sir Robert Peel into
power. These are pleasant rencontres when one
has been cut off from all European communica-
tion for so many weeks as we have been ;
and it
is really surprising how glad strangers appear to
be to see each other under these circumstances,
and how extremely communicative everybody
grows in a few minutes.
On the 5th the weather was unpleasantly cold
and cloudy, and the wind blew with such vio-
lence up the river that our rowers could make no
head against it, and we were obliged to remain
the greater part of the day tied to the eastern
bank, under a stupendous mountain, or rather
cliff, called Sheikh Haridi, the face of which pre-
sents numerous excavations, in all probability
containing tombs. One of these excavations in
particular, which, from the perpendicular form of
the cliff, is most difficult to approach, retains evi-
dent traces of the commencement of a rock-cut
temple, or speos, nearly as large as Ibsamboul.
Three entrances are pierced into the living rock,
and enormous rough pillars support the weight of
the superimpending mountain. Who knows but