Recently
it has come very much to the front for an additional reason. Like all
the other temples of Philse, it had been archaeologically surveyed and
cleared by Col. H. Gr. Lyons and Dr. Borchardt, but further work of a
far-reaching character was rendered necessary by the building of the
great Aswan dam, below the island of Philse, one of the results of
which has been the partial submergence of the island and its temples,
including the picturesque Kiosk. The following account, taken from the
new edition (1906) of Murray's _Guide to Egypt and the Sudan_, will
suffice better than any other description to explain what the dam is,
how it has affected Philse, and what work has been done to obviate the
possibility of serious damage to the Kiosk and other buildings.
"In 1898 the Egyptian government signed a contract with Messrs. John
Aird & Co. for the construction of the great reservoir and dam at
Shellal, which serves for the storage of water at the time of the flood
Nile. The river is 'held up' here sixty-five feet above its old normal
level. A great masonry dyke, 150 feet high in places, has been carried
across the Bab el-Kebir of the First Cataract, and a canal and four
locks, two hundred feet long and thirty feet wide, allow for the passage
of traffic up and down the river.
[Illustration: 447.
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