Antiquities of Egypt.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XLVI, Issue 62, 17 March 1904, Page 4

Antiquities of Egypt.

Again and again has Egypt been pillaged, but, strange to Buy, it is the Nil* that is now the destroying anomy of tha ancient structures which have so long stood the test of lime. Under the heading "The Ueconstruction of Karnak," Mr .lohn Ward, F.S.A., gives us in tha Monthly Review an interesting and largely illustrated article describing the mischief, and also »he steps now Iwing taken to prevent its spread. The amount of deposit from the river is very great, amounting to several incl*es in a century. The bed of the Nile consequently, in four or five thousand years, lias be«i elevated some 20ft above what it was in the days of the founders of the temples. The entire soil of Egypt is alluviul ; the water percolates and finds its level ; and the oonsequence is that the foundations of the ancient temples are water-logged. At High -Nil* the columns of the temples of Lnspr and those of Karnurk are submerged several feet. At Low Kile tjley stand on dry ground ; Ihe soft sandstone of whieh they ane built is Maturated for half the year whMe it is exposed to the biiEning sunshine for the other half The Nile water being iiighly ehareed with mineral salts, these crystallise on the blocks of stone, and exfolKte reducing them to a state of sand' Experiments were tried to test the possibility of underpinning and restoring the rotten substratum with hydraulic cement.. These ware found o be successful, and Lord Cromer lais provided the funds for work on a large scale. The are under Vrofesson Maspero the director „t antiquities fur Egypt, and U. Eegrain who was a student under the professor fe> ifcru, a m | Mr Ward speaks with enthusiasm of (heir knowledge and their skill. The work at Jvarnurk is gigantic in character, hut gradually the fallen ruins are being replaced, and those pillars that were falling are being secured. Jl. Legra.n is making remarkable discoveries also. He has cleared a splendid avenue of ram - headed sphinxes, and has discovered the •quay which marked the former course of the Nile. On this was found engraved the register of the High Nile in 670 K. 0., with the cartouche of Tirhaka, the king who hailed from Ethiopia, and who is mentioned in the ftible as the deliverer of Uezekiah from the hosts of Sennacherib. On,, conclusion to be drawn from the article is how highly benelicial it is for Egypt and the world (hat the charge of the country should be in the hands of Great Britain, and of an able administrator with power to act.