Mr Nash on the Geology of Egypt. 41 



The two first cataracts met with in the course of the Nile are 

 in this granite district, but with the exception of the second ca- 

 taract, that of Wady Halfi, they hardly any of them deserve the 

 term which has been applied to them, being for the most part 

 passable by the boats which commonly trade on the Nile. It is in 

 this granite district that those old quarries are seen, from which 

 were procured the enormous blocks used by the ancient inhabi- 

 tants of Egypt in the erection of their imperishable monuments; 

 it was from these quarries that the materials were conveyed 

 down the Nile for building a great part of the pyramids of 

 Gizeh, for the temples of Carnac and Luxor, and for the build- 

 ings at Memphis. This granite differs very much in character 

 and quality in various parts of the formation ; at Assouan it is 

 chiefly of that red or rose-coloured kind which is the real sye- 

 nite of the ancients, and has derived its name from the locality 

 whence it was procured, Assouan having formerly been called 

 Syene ; it is not, however, the rock known by the same name 

 in modern collections. Of this rose-coloured granite, many of 

 the most splendid monuments of Egypt are constructed ; the 

 obelisk of Philre which Belzoni conveyed to England the great 

 obelisks in front of the northern pylon of Luxor, one of which 

 has been removed by the French the still more splendid one 

 of Carnac the statue in the British Museum called the head of 

 the Young Memnon that which lies overthrown at the Mem- 

 nonium of Thebes, on the western bank of the Nile, and many 

 others. The two colossal sitting statues in the plain of Thebes 

 are formed of a greyish coloured granite. At Carnac are nu- 

 merous sitting figures of black basalt, which also belongs to this 

 formation. From Assouan to Esneh, a distance, in a straight 

 line, of about seventy miles, the sandstone formation obtains. At 

 Gibbul Silsileh, or the Mountain of the Chain, are the quarries 

 from which were hewn the sandstone blocks for the building of 

 the great temple at Philoe, for the extensive edifices at Esneh, 

 and the beautiful and well preserved temple of Isis at Dendera. 

 This sandstone is of different kinds ; being sometimes very fine, 

 white, and crystalline, sometimes of a yellow colour, and a loose 

 triable texture. 



Immediately below Esneh commences the great limestone 



