File:William H. Seward's travels around the world (1873) (14784842405).jpg

Identifier: williamhsewardst01sewa (find matches)
Title: William H. Seward's travels around the world
Year: 1873 (1870s)
Authors: Seward, William Henry, 1801-1872 Seward, Olive Risley, 1844-1906
Subjects: Voyages around the world
Publisher: New York, D. Appleton and company
Contributing Library: The Library of Congress
Digitizing Sponsor: The Library of Congress

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of excavation, not only theoriginal Egyptian temple was found, but a Christian church, withpi liars, cornices, architraves, chancel, and oratorio, on Greek models.The penury of Grecian architecture compared with the majesty ofthe ancient Egyptian was never so effectually illustrated. The col-umns of Osiris are sixty feet high and thirty-six feet in diameter,and, with their lotus-leaved capitals, fill an area of an acre. TheChristian church is crowded within a quarter of that area. Its A SAFE PREDICTION. 551 fluted columns are eighteen feet high, and seven feet in circum-ference. We have finished our survey of Thebes, we have noticed thedevastation made by the Persian, the Greek, the Roman, the Chris-tian, and the Arab, and how much, after all, remains ? It is safeto predict that, when every civil and religious edifice now exist-ing in Europe or the United States shall have fallen to the earth,the already dilapidated monuments of Egypt will have undergonescarcely a perceptible change.
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CAPITALS OF COLUMNS AT KSNRII. CHAPTER VII. ESNEH, EDFOU, ASSOUAN, AND PHILuE. The Coptic Convents.—Youssef and his Donkey.—Our Steamer aground.—The Ruins ofEsneh.—The Temple of Edfou.—Assouan.—Its Surprising Activity.—Its AfricanPopulation.—The Ancient Quarries.—Philas and the Cataracts of the Nile.—A Mon-ument of the First French Republic. Esneh, May %lst.—If time would allow, it would be an interest-ing task to visit the Coptic convents which are found in small andpoor villages on the desert verge. Their history is a touching one.They were founded as a refuge for the Coptic Christians from, adecree of the Emperor Diocletian, and they were again sought asan asylum by the Copts—who had become Christians, when drivenaway by the Mussulman conquerors from their home at MedeenetHaboo. Their present tenants are represented as being very poor,and as retaining of Christianity little more than a ritual of the earlyChurch. The courteous governor and the hospitable cons

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