Towards evening we came to another hamlet, called El Wäy, and from El Wäy might be seen another, called El Bekashy. A little distance beyond brought us to the foot of the height on which San[73] formerly stood, and where we were now to seek for its ruins. On landing, we accosted an old man with a dark brown rusty skin, and asked him to point them out to us. He was a very fit person for the purpose, as he proved to be one of many others who gained a livelihood by digging for the foundations of these ancient edifices, which they sold for limestone, and was then watching several heaps, collected on the banks of the canal, ready to be embarked. He led us on for about a quarter of a mile, until we found ourselves on a flat, partly surrounded by a hill in the form of an amphitheatre, where several huge granite masses were lying in confusion.
The site of San is what would be called in military language a height: which, at a rough guess, may be two or three miles in circumference, and rises out of a country otherwise totally flat. It is composed of several monticules, which, combined, have the shape of a horseshoe, but are separated from each other by deep gullies, apparently worn by the waters in the long course of ages. In the centre of the horseshoe is a level, and at the entrance of it were some masses of granite. The soil about us was of the same nature as that which the Nile leaves, and must, therefore, have been brought hither by the wind or by men’s hands; being above the level of the annual inundations.
Proceeding a little further, we found a granite obelisk, entirely perfect, but fallen. It measured about seventy feet in length and six in breadth. Beyond it were three more fallen obelisks, with hieroglyphics, but less distinct than those on the first. Close to the last was a hole in the ground, dug by the workmen, at the bottom of which we discovered a part of a granite colossal statue. What was bare seemed to represent the folds of drapery; but, not being able, for want of time, to dig round it, (although the means were at hand) we could not decide exactly to what it belonged.
By this time the whole squad of peasantry had left their work, out of curiosity to see what we were doing. Two among them offered to lead us to other ruins, if we would promise to reward them. They accordingly took us to the top of the height, where was a small crumbling shed, the sanctuary of a Mahometan saint, called Shaykh el Garýby. Near it was a broken granite sarcophagus without a lid. Descending the hill, on the side towards the canal, we came to the stumps of an immense colonnade of granite, which seemed to have belonged to some vast edifice. The fragments of the shafts of these pillars measured nine spans in diameter: but the upper parts had either been entirely removed or were buried in sand, as nothing remained but these lowest portions, which seemed to occupy their original situations.
Having on a boot which chafed my foot, I was compelled to halt, whilst Shaykh Ibrahim ran forward to some heaps where he thought he might discover other fragments. Whilst he was gone, I found a part of a granite statue, of the proportions of a youth, in alto relievo, with the right foot, up to the ankle, still entire. I loaded some workmen with it down to the boat, whither we were obliged to hasten, as the evening had now closed on us: for, although we could have wished to make some farther examination of this interesting spot, yet the character we had heard of the people about San made us desirous not to sleep where we should be exposed to be plundered. While perambulating the ruins, their rude jocularity, and the half insolent, half inquisitive way in which they looked at us, led us to believe their intentions might not be good. We accordingly loosened our sail, and returned nearly down to Weled Ali, where we slept.
The disjuncted elevations which form the heights of San are covered with broken bricks and pottery.[74] Unless the conformation of these monticules be entirely changed, and the rains have worked out gullies between them, these never could have been the site of a connected town. It is rather to be inferred that the city was built on the flat; and particularly as at the foot of the elevation there was still remaining a portion of a wall of sun-baked bricks. Perishable as such materials might be supposed to be, we yet observe them, in this instance, surviving the fall of columns of marble and of obelisks of granite! Their duration, however, must not be ascribed alone to their durability; for, whatever could attract the cupidity of the Moslems and was portable has been removed by them. Sunbaked bricks can be made cheaper than transported: and to this, perhaps, it was owing that the wall still remained.
The wind blew fresh during the night. On the morning of October the 2d, in descending the canal, we bought some cheese and milk at one of the pens on the banks, and stopped at Melikeen, to give an account of ourselves to a subaltern officer stationed there in a canja, or barge, for the purpose of levying the duty on salt passing down the canal. This duty our raïs told us was 3000 medini (equal to £2 10s.) on a large load: but we had reason to believe that his information was not to be relied on.
About noon, we left Halc el Naby, and in three hours arrived at Mâbed, one of many other small islands lying East North East of the mouth of the canal. We went on shore, and found fragments of bricks enough to testify that a village had once existed there. The island is not more than half a mile in circumference. Shaykh Cheleby, the present chief of Menzaleh, had carried off the greater part of the ruins to build with. We departed from Mâbed; and, about five o’clock, passed the extreme point of the island, where the Marabût of Shaykh Abdallah stands. This island is called El Carâh. Having weathered the point of El Carâh, we wore, and stood East half South; and, keeping this course, arrived after dark at Tennys. It was too late to go on shore, so we made fast to a pole, stuck in the bottom of the lake, at some distance from the shore, to avoid the musquitoes; and, having smoked our pipes, to which we were both very partial, went to sleep.
At daylight (October 3rd) we visited the ruins. We found a brick wall still standing, about 1000 paces long, and, within it, several cisterns of curious construction. The largest of these was twenty paces in breadth and thirty-one in length. The roof was supported by brick arcades, the pilasters of the arches being about ten feet distant from each other. Excepting in these cisterns (none of which, moreover, were entire), and on the walls, we found not one entire brick left on the ground; the neighbouring shaykhs having carried them away for building. The whole area was one continued quarry, from excavations made to find the stones of foundations. In the North West corner might be distinguished the remains of a fortress or castle: and, close to it, a canal divided the corner from the rest of the city, which, it is most probable, was a continuation of some one of the great canals leading from the Tanitic branch of the Nile. The island is elevated a few feet only above the level of the lake. The soil is of the same fine mould as we observed at San, but certainly could not get there by the same means. Innumerable swarms of musquitoes pestered us on the island, and for some time afterwards.
Having spent about three hours at Tennys, we left it; and, keeping a North North West course, with a string of small islands constantly on our right hand, we arrived, at three o’clock in the afternoon, at the bogàz of Dyby Castle, one of the openings by which Lake Menzaleh communicated with the sea and the ancient Tanitic branch of the Nile. The canal, as we entered it from the side of the lake, was called by the raïs Dunet El Sharây, and was about thirty yards broad. After running 200 or 300 yards, it opened into a broad water, and then continued for perhaps half a mile, until it emptied itself into the sea, South West and North East.