dissimilar. A groove has been cut in its apex, doubtless to hold an ornament like that at Heliopolis. In the hieroglyphics on the sides, the king is said to be beloved of Ptah and Mandoo, who, it is supposed, were the principal divinities of the place. Whatever may be its origin and meaning, there is something solemn and suggestive in the aspect of this great fractured block of history, traced with the records of extreme antiquity, and lying here neglected in a bean-field, a mile from any human habitation, an object of mystery and awe to the ignorant peasantry, and of speculation to ourselves, which will probably never be satisfied. It, at all events, disposes finally of a popular theory, that all the pyramids were on one side of the Nile, and all the obelisks on the other. As we were neither of us in a condition, so far as strength was concerned, to walk back through the mud and rain, our return journey on our lofty animals was not a little perilous, the more especially as darkness came on before we reached home. Our way for the most part was along the slippery edge of a gully which cut through soft country. Sometimes UNIV. OF THE LABYRINTH AND THE LAKES. ΤΟΥ we took refuge in the young wheat-fields, to square," Murray's 'Guide' makes them measure 65 feet by 45. Lepsius believes that the height of the central masses was never greater than it is now - viz., 23 feet feet-to which must be added a peculiar and somewhat projecting base of 7 feet. The foundations were on Nile mud, and the inclination of their angle 64°, which is steeper than that of ordinary pyramids, and hence he concludes against Linant Bey's hypothesis. On the other hand, the lower stones bear the traces of water-the Nile mud may have been Lake Moris mud. There are no other remains within the area of the lake, and the remains of the dams would go to show that they stood in its extreme north-east angle. The fact that they were not ordinary pyramids, but rather pyramidal pedestals for statues, may account for the steeper inclination of their angles. At all events, the point is an interesting one, which a more thorough investigation would probably decide. We should gladly have lingered longer in the Fayoum had it been in our power to take our tents and camels and wander about in search of the antique and the picturesque. Unfor tunately, our experience of camel-riding had proved too fatiguing, and we were obliged to substitute another project, which, however, proved scarcely less agreeable. We could not leave the Fayoum without wondering at the neglect of the tourist who has done Thebes, and Luxor, and the Second Cataract, and is looking for more worlds to conquer -of a region with so many attractions, and so accessible. The sportsman, the artist, and the archeologist will all find their tastes gratified in this charming oasis. The Birket el Kurûn offers, probably, better sport to the angler than he would find elsewhere in Egypt. In the thickets in some of the ravines are to be found wild boar; while lynxes, wolves, jackals, ichneumons, and hares are more or less abundant. Pelicans, wild geese, ducks, teal, and water - fowl of different varieties, frequent the marshy shores of the lake. The antiquarian would find Arsinoë, the Labyrinth, the Temple of Kasr Karoon, and the ruins on the western shores of the lake, full, not merely of interest, but of possible discoveries. At Senooris there are the graves of the early Christians who are said to have been martyred, and the peasantry have no scruple in exhuming them to satisfy the curiosity of the anthropologist who desires to have a specimen of an early Christian's skull, or the curious coffins in which their corpses were placed; while the fortress - like village of Tamiyeh, the thicket-clad gorge of Fidimin, and the broad precipitous wady at Nazlet, would offer subjects for the artist of a character not to be found elsewhere in Egypt. It is true that modern no less than ancient writers have in some respects exaggerated the luxuriance of the Fayoum. One writes of "a virgin forest," and of orange-trees as big as oaks ;" and another of "a plantation of opuntia, the growth of which is so gigantic as almost to resemble a forest," which I happened to see, and which certainly fell far short of this description: but in spite of all this, there can be no doubt that the Fayoum possesses a charm denied to any other section of the country, and its brawling streams and verdant recesses will well repay the traveller in search of "fresh fields and pastures new." |