A Narrative of the Expedition to Dongola and Sennaar eBook

George Bethune English
This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 135 pages of information about A Narrative of the Expedition to Dongola and Sennaar.

A Narrative of the Expedition to Dongola and Sennaar eBook

George Bethune English
This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 135 pages of information about A Narrative of the Expedition to Dongola and Sennaar.
proofs of the humanity of the Pasha Ismael was diminished by seeing his safe-conduct disregarded by some of the Mogrebin soldiers, and particularly by the Greek and Frank domestics of the Proto Medico Bosari, who seized from the hands of these miserable creatures as many sheep and goats as they thought they had occasion for.  About an hour before sunset, we passed the encampment of Abdin Cacheff, on the right or opposite bank of the river; and at night-fall came in view of that of the Pasha about three miles farther up on the same side.  We stopped to pass the night, as the boatmen were too much fatigued to draw the boat any farther to-day.

11th of Rebi.  The direction of the river and the wind still the same.  Proceeded slowly by the cordel till about two hours after noon, when we arrived at the camp of the Hasnardar on the left bank of the river; that of the Pasha was on the opposite side.  Not far from the camp of the Hasnardar, some ruins and several small pyramids attracted my attention.  As I could not go to the Pasha before to-morrow, I determined to employ the remainder of the day in a visit to these antiquities, which lay near a large high and isolated rock, about a mile distant from the river.  I found before this rock the ruins of a very large temple, which covered a great space of ground.  Some columns, almost consumed by time, were standing nearly buried in the rubbish.  The bases of others were visible, which, from their position, evidently once supported an avenue of pillars leading to an excavation in the great rock aforementioned, against and joining on to the side of which, that fronted towards the river, this temple appeared to have been constructed.  Among the ruins saw two large lions of red granite, one broken, and the other little injured, and a small headless statue, about two feet high, in a sitting posture.  On approaching the front of the rock, found it excavated into a small temple, whose interior was sculptured with the usual figures and symbols seen in the temples of ancient Egypt.  Its roof, and that of the porch before it, exhibited several traces of the azure with which it had been painted.  The porch before this excavation was supported by Caryatid figures, representing huge lions standing nearly erect upon their hinder legs.  The ruins before the rock seemed to me to have originally composed a large temple, of which this excavation was the inner sanctuary.  The pyramids were close by these ruins.  I counted seventeen, some of them in ruins, and others perfect.  Those which were uninjured were small, of a height greater than the breadth of the base, which was generally about twenty feet square; the sides resembled steep stairs.  They were however compactly and very handsomely constructed of hewn stones, similar to the rock before mentioned, and probably taken from it.  Before some of these pyramids, and attached to one of their sides, we found low buildings, resembling small temples, and, judging from the interior of one we found open, intended as

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A Narrative of the Expedition to Dongola and Sennaar from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.