THE AFTER-GLOW IN EGYPT.

Waikato Times, Volume XXIX, Issue 2400, 26 November 1887, Page 2 (Supplement)

THE AFTER-GLOW IN EGYPT.

Tueub is probably do view iu tho world to equal that from the Citadel of Cairo ; it is splendid by daylight, but is surpassed by the incredible beauty of sunset and the “ after-glow,”, when the crimson haze of the short Egyptian twilight bathes the whole panorama iu colours which would be deemed extravagantly improbable if attempted in a painting—which neither Hildebrand nor Holman Hunt has been able to depict. Often as the '‘after-glow” has been described, there is probaply no better short, graphic description than this: “ With the drawing on of evening, a glory of colour comes out iu the light of the setting sun ; purple shadows are cast by the mountains ; the reds and grays of sandstone, granite and limestone cliffs blend exquisitely with the tawny yellow of the desert, the rich green of tho banks, and the blue of the river. The cold gray twilight follows immediately upon sunset —but in a few mirujtes tl;ere is a marvelous change. The earth and sky are suffused with a delicate pink tinge, known as tho ‘ after-glow ’ —fairy-like and magical, The peculiarity of Egyptian over all other sunsets is, that light and colour return a t'ter an interval of ashy gray, like the coming back of life to a corpse.” It seems sometimes as if the rich pink aud gold colour flooding the landscape could be touched, or, as an American said to the writer when standing together one night on the Citadel, “ I believe if I were to wave a white towel through the air it would come down like a seam of Joseph's coat.” If thereadercan imagine the “after-glow,” let him now look out from the Citadel and take iu this view. Immediately below is Cairo, with its wonderful buildings, its minarets, it? squares, its splendour, and its feathery palm-clump? ; close at our feet are the tombs of the Mamelukes, rounded mausoleums picturesquely studding the plain. Stretching away till it is lost in the haze of distance, is the valley of Egypt, through which winds the grand Old Nile, dotted with sails that (lash to the sun, and closed on either side by the irregular ranges of the Libyan and Arabian hills. Eight or nine

miles beyond Die river stand the Great I’yrair.ids of (ihizeh ; further along the burning line of sand are the pyramids of Sakkara ; and farther .still, phantom-like in Dm red background of the Libyan desert, the pyramids of Abonseir. Tim city and the tombs, the river and the desert, imaging forth life and death in perpetual contrast ; and over all the unchangeable bine of the sky, and in and through all is the da/./.ling glory of sunset.