11th October, arrived at Girgi, formerly the capital of Upper Egypt, now declining. There is a large market-place, with shops in abundance. At Menshié, antient Ptolemais, and at Girgi, observed several large pieces of granite, seemingly antique mill-stones. They are about six feet in diameter, and nearly three feet thick, with a perforation of one foot square in the centre, from which waving radii, about an inch deep, pass to the circumference.
The Senjiak, or Emîr-es-Saïd, passes half the year at Girgi, as already mentioned. His office is esteemed the third in importance, and is now filled by Soliman Bey, an honest and respectable character.
15th October. Passed onward to Farshiût, a populous town, with many Christian inhabitants.
17th. Arrived at Dendera, the antient Tentyra. Saw the noted temple, the most perfect remain of Egyptian architecture. It is in the form of an oblong square, 200 feet by 150—Pococke says 145; is now almost buried in the sand. Ascending some steps in the middle of the wall, you come to a dark gallery, passing through all the sides. Many of the columns are standing. The inside of the pronaos and of the gallery is covered with painted hieroglyphics in all their original freshness. A Cashef, imagining treasures were concealed, was employed in the laudable work of blowing up part of the walls!
The same night, about twelve, reached Ghenné, the antient Cœne, or Cœnopolis. The navigation on the Nile is particularly delightful in the stillness of the night, diversified by the bright reflection of the moon on the water, or the clear sparkling of innumerable stars; among which the brilliant Canopus, unseen in European climates, is observable, except when some mountain conceals that part of the hemisphere.
19th. Came opposite to Coptis, now Kepht. The rubbish may fill a circumference of two miles, evincing its antient extent. Several small columns of grey granite lie on the ground, and some large stones, engraved with hieroglyphics. The distance from the Nile to Coptis is much smaller than has been supposed by European geographers.
A small part of a bridge remains near Kepht or Coptis, sufficient to determine that there once was one, but it is impossible to say of what æra. There is nothing grand in the structure, which consists of small stones.
20th. Stopped at Kous, the Apollinopolis parva. Observed at a small distance on the North-east an antient gate, adorned with figures, and a deep cornice. Kous is a populous town, about a mile on the East of the Nile.
21st October 1792. Passed the night at Nakadé, where is a Catholic convent. On the following day came to Aksôr, the antient Thebes.
A brief general retrospect of the topography of Upper Egypt may here be given. The towns and cultivation are wholly confined to the banks of the Nile, but especially on the East. Mountains continue to present a regular barrier behind on both sides. Beyond this natural wall, on the West, is a vast sandy desert, traversed at times by the Muggrebîn Arabs; here and there, at the distance of about a hundred miles or more from the Nile, are Oases or fertile isles, in the ocean of sand. On the East, between the river and the Arabian gulf, are vast ranges of mountains, abounding with marble and porphyry, but generally destitute of water, so that no town or village can be built. Among these ranges, however, some tribes of Bedouin Arabs, as the Ababdi and Beni Hossein, contrive to find some fertile spots and diminutive springs, so as to furnish residences for about three or four thousand inhabitants. Even the shores of the Red Sea, corresponding with Egypt, contain but a small number of tribes; and the Arabs on the East in general are little formidable. The Muggrebîns are more ferocious, and might send forth thirty thousand men capable of bearing arms, could they ever be united, a thing almost impossible, their parties seldom exceeding four or five hundred, and the tribes being divided by intestine enmities. The Lesser Oasis, now El-wah el-Ghurbi, forms a kind of capital settlement, if I may so speak, of the Muggrebîn Arabs, who extend even to Fezzân and Tripoli. They are dressed in a linen or cotton shirt, over which is wrapped a blanket of fine flannel; all have fire-arms and are good marksmen, and their musquets are their constant companions. Their chief employment lies in breeding horses[24], camels, and sheep. They are very hardy and abstemious, a small cake of bread and leathern bottle of water supplying a man with ample provision for a day.