The sciopticon manual, explaining lantern projection in general, and the sciopticon apparatus in paricular (1877)

SCIOPTICON MANUAL. 117 striking manner the desolation that prevails over all these Egyptian ruins. The total circumference of Kar- nak, including its numerous pyl^e or gateways, is a mile and a half. The row of columns seen in the picture are part of the Hall of Columns. THE APPROACH TO PHIL.E. —Philas, the " Jewel of the Nile," is situated a short distance from those rapids of the Nile, known as the first cataracts. These cataracts are formed by the bed of the river being crossed by a formation of granite, through which it has cut its way, producing a series of rapids. Opposite to these cataracts stood the ancient city of Syene. It was from the quarries at Syene that the Egyptians obtained their monoliths, whether obelisks or statues. These were sculptured on the spot, and then transported by the labor of men to the places where they were to be erected. The island of Philse contains about fifty acres, and is covered with ruins of temples and palaces, all of which belong to the Ptolemaic period. The basin of black jagged mountains folding it in on all sides, yet half disclosing the avenues to Nubia and Egypt; the clusters of palms, with here and there a pillar or wall of a temple, the ring of the bright river, no longer turbid, as in lower Egypt; of these it is the centre, as it was once the focus of their beauty. YIEW ON THE ISLAND OF PHIL^. —The temple which belongs to the era of the Ptolemys, and is little more than two thousand years old, was built by various mon- archs, and is very irregular in its plan. The columns of the temple are very different from those of Luxor and Karnak, indicating the result of the contact of Greek and Egyptian systems of architecture. Above the true capi- tal is a square block that bears on its four sides the head