The following, gleaned from other sources, will, perhaps, be also acceptable as a guide to the sight-seer.
No person ought to leave Egypt without visiting Assowan and Philœ, particularly if he go up as high as Thebes; for he can form no correct judgment of Egypt and her wonderful and gigantic works, unless he sees the temples and shrubberies at Esireh Fdjou, Koon, Ombes, Assowan, and Philœ, as well as those in the Thebaid and at Tentyra. By traversing Egypt from Alexandria to Assowan, you can with ease inspect all those wonderful remains of labour and art, unequalled in the world for extent or size as architectural works, and which, to the mind of the observer, place beyond doubt the wealth, the power, the science, and great population of ancient Egypt. To attempt to convey to a person who has not seen structures of the kind, any idea of what these ruins are, is out of the question. In the granite quarries at Assowan, from whence these immense monuments were taken, are two unfinished sarcophagi and an obelisk cut and formed, but still attached to the native rock. The obelisk is shaped out and cut round on all sides except its under one, a bed which still attaches it to the rock. It measures 76 feet in length, and 12 feet broad, and in depth to the drift-sand in which it has imbedded itself 6 feet thick. The marks of the workman's chisel and wedge, with which instruments, it appears, these immense masses have been disjoined from the native rock, are as fresh as if they had been applied but yesterday. It is inconceivable how such entire masses could have been taken from their bed to the Nile, a distance of at least a mile and a half, and from thence transported to where we see them still standing, seventy, eighty, and ninety feet in height, and eight, ten and twelve feet square at the base, as at Luxor, Karnak, Helipolis, Frorun, and at Alexandria, covered with deeply engraved figures and hieroglyphics, in some places still bearing a glossy and fresh polish. In the island of Philœ there are some beautiful and extensive remains of Egyptian, as also one of Grecian, architecture. Leaving Luxor in the night of the third of May, we arrived at Khenneh the following day, and, after visiting the temple of Hentyra or of Isis, on the opposite bank of the Nile, and remaining an hour or two at Khenneh, we left that place for Cairo, where we arrived on the sixteenth of the same month.
Passing through the palm-tree grove which covers the high ridge, or mound, formed by the ruins of the ancient Memphis, the traveller approaches a small open circular plain, which is supposed to have been the Archerusian Lake of the city; on the south side of this, the large colossal statue of Sesostris is to be seen. It was discovered and laid open by Mr. Sloane and M. Coriglier, and is the most perfect statue in Egypt, and the most beautifully formed. It lies with its face downwards. It is broken off below the ankle, and the entire length of the block now remaining is thirty-six feet six inches. The ruins of the edifice before which it had stood are apparent under the rubbish which surrounds the place. The ancient Necropolis of Paccachia, or, as some writers suppose, of the city of Memphis, extends for miles round the pyramids. Indeed, from the pyramids of Dashores to those of Cheops and Copprieves, is one continued burying-ground. The pyramids of Dashores, as well as those of Saccachara, and the excavations and tombs in the rocks, may be inspected in one day. We landed at Goza, and took donkeys, and passed the day in visiting the large pyramids. The following morning we passed the island of Rhode, visited the Nilometer, and, after sailing down about half a mile, and passing the aqueducts of Lubuddia, about one-hundred yards, landed again on the island, and entered the gardens of Ibrahim Pacha.
Another writer gives the following outline of the interesting sights to be seen on the Nile.
On the eastern bank, eight miles to the south of Cairo, quarries of Maasara, from which the stone used for part of the casing of the pyramids was taken. Some hieroglyphic tablets, in one of which oxen are represented drawing a stone placed on a sledge. A little beyond the modern village is an inclined road, which leads from the quarries to the river. Thirty miles further to the south, on the same bank, is Atfëeh, mounds of Aphroditopolis, no ruins. False pyramid on opposite bank, three miles beyond El Feshu, and on eastern bank, remains of crude brick, the walls of an ancient village, called El Héebee and some hieroglyphics.
From Beuisooef is the road to the Fyoom, which, when the Nile is low, may be visited conveniently. A brick pyramid at Illahoon, another at El Howâra, and vestiges of the labyrinth, obelisk at Biggig, ruins on and near the lake Mœris, and at Qasr Kharoon. From Aboogirgeh is the shortest road to Bahnasa (Oxyriuchus) mounds, no ruins, Gebel é Tayr, north-end, grotto or rock temple, called Babyn, convent further to the south; eight miles below Minyeh is Tehneh (Acoris) on eastern bank, a Greek Ptolemaic inscription on the face of the cliff, tombs hewn in the rock, with small inscriptions at the doors, Roman figures in high relief, on the upper part of the rock, some hieroglyphic tablets, quarries on the top of the mountain, a tank, &c.
Same (eastern bank) seven miles above Minyeh, Komahmar, some grottoes, and ruins of an old town; nine miles farther (eastern hank), Beni Hassan, very fine grottoes, with curious paintings; and about a mile and a half farther, a grotto, or rock temple, of Pasht (Bubastis, or Diana), the Speos Artemidos, cat mummies in the ravine.
Antinöe, now Shekh Abadeh, few remains of the town, a theatre, the principal streets, baths, &c., outside the town, on the east, is the hippodrome. The grottoes in the mountain are unsculptured, and have some Christian inscriptions. A little to the north of Antinöe are the remains, apparently, of Besa, scarcely worthy of a visit.
At El Bersheh, a grotto on the mountain, in which a colossus is represented on a sledge. At Oshmoonayn (western bank) no remains of Hermopolis Magna. At Gebel Toona, a mountain, skirting the desert to the west are mummy-pits, a tablet of hieroglyphics, and statues in high relief. At Mellawee, and at Tamoof Tanis, superior mounds, but no ruins. At Shayda, at corner of mountains, on eastern bank, crude brick walls, and some grottoes.
At Shekh Said, the mountains recede to the eastward, leaving the river, and a little beyond is the village of Tel el Armarnar, to the north of which are the remains of a small town, and to the south the ruins of a city, which I suppose to be Alabastron: all the stone buildings have been quite destroyed, but some of the brick houses remain; near the crude brick towers of the temple are the largest houses. To the east are several fine grottoes in the face of the mountain, with curious sculptures, and on the summit of it is an ancient alabaster quarry. Six miles below Maufaloot, at El Haryib, ruins of an old town, in a ravine of the Gebel Aboolfaydee; numerous dog and cat mummies, near El Maabdeh, opposite Maufaloot; crocodile mummies in chambers of great extent in the mountain.