The only possible damage that can accrue to it is
the partial discolouration of the lower courses of the stonework of
Pharaoh's Bed, etc., which already bear a distinct high-water mark. Some
surface disintegration from the formation of salt crystals is perhaps
inevitable here, but the effects of this can always be neutralized
by careful washing, which it should be an important charge of the
Antiquities Department to regularly carry out."
[Illustration: 450.jpg THE ANCIENT QUAY OP PHILAE, NOVEMBER, 1904.]
This is entirely covered when the reservoir is full, and the
palm-trees are farther submerged.
The photographs accompanying the present chapter show the dam, the Kiosk
in process of conservation and underpinning (1902), and the shores of
the island as they now appear in the month of November, with the water
nearly up to the level of the quays. A view is also given of the island
of Konosso, with its inscriptions, as it is now. The island is simply a
huge granite boulder of the kind characteristic of the neighbourhood of
Shellal (Phila?) and Aswan.
On the island of Elephantine, opposite Aswan, an interesting discovery
has lately been made by Mr. Howard Carter. This is a remarkable well,
which was supposed by the ancients to lie immediately on the tropic. It
formed the basis of Eratosthenes' calculations of the measurement of the
earth.
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