[150] That this shock of earthquake occurred during the lifetime of Rameses II seems to be proved by the fact that, where the Osiride column is cracked across, a wall has been built up to support the two last pillars to the left at the upper end of the great hall, on which wall is a large stela covered with an elaborate hieroglyphic inscription, dating from the thirty-fifth year, and the thirteenth day of the month of Tybi, of the reign of Rameses II. The right arm of the external colossus, to the right of the great doorway, has also been supported by the introduction of an arm to his throne, built up of square blocks; this being the only arm to any of the thrones. Miss Martineau detected a restoration of part of the lower jaw of the northernmost colossus, and also a part of the dress of one of the Osiride statues in the great hall. I have in my possession a photograph taken at a time when the sand was several feet lower than at present, which shows that the right leg of the northernmost colossus is also a restoration on a gigantic scale, being built up, like the throne-arm, in great blocks, and finished, most probably, afterward.
[151] This refers to the ex-khedive, Ismail Pasha, who ruled Egypt at the time when this book was written and published. [Note to second edition.]
[152] There are tombs in some of the ravines behind the temples, which, however, we did not see.
[153] Tosko is on the eastern bank, and not, as in Keith Johnston’s map, on the west.
[154] This is one of the temples erected by Rameses the Great, and, I believe, not added to by any of his successors. The colossi, the Osiride columns, the sphinxes (now battered out of all human semblance) were originally made in his image. The cartouches are all his, and in one of the inner chambers there is a list of his little family. All these chambers were accessible till three or four years ago, when a party of German travelers carried off some sculptured tablets of great archæological interest; after which act of spoliation the entrance was sanded up by order of Mariette Bey. See, also, with regard to the probable date of the earthquake at this place, chap. xviii, p. 321.
[155] Not only near this nameless town, but in many other parts between Abou Simbel and Philæ, we found the old alluvial soil lying as high as from twenty to thirty feet above the level of the present inundations.
[156] Ar. Birbeh, temple.
[157] “The Nile receives its last tributary, the Atbara, in Lat. 17° 42’ north, at the northern extremity of the peninsular tract anciently called the Island of Meröe, and thence flows north (a single stream without the least accession) through twelve degrees of latitude; or, following its winding course, at least twelve hundred miles to the sea.”—“Blackie’s Imperial Gazetteer,” 1861. A careful survey of the country would probably bring to light the dry beds of many more such tributaries as the one described above.
[158] Of this wall, Burckhardt notices that “it has fallen down, apparently from some sudden and violent concussion, as the stones are lying on the ground in layers, as when placed in the wall; a proof that they must have fallen all at once.”—“Travels in Nubia:” Ed. 1819, p. 100. But he has not observed the inscription which is in large characters, and consists of three lines on three separate layers, of stones. The idle man copied the original upon the spot, which copy has since been identified with an ex-voto of a Roman soldier published in Boeckh’s “Corpus Inscr. Græc.,” of which the following is a translation:
“The vow of Verecundus the soldier, and his most pious parents, and Gaius his little brother, and the rest of his brethren.”