ASSUAN 



ASSUAN, aswahn', an Egyptian town 

 famous in both ancient and modern times. 

 In the days of the Pharaohs, granite for the 

 huge obelisks and statues was quarried near 

 Assuan, which was at the head of navigation 



ASSUAN DAM 



One of the world's great engineering works, 

 the controlling factor In a vast Irrigation project. 



on the Nile, just below the first cataract. 

 Five miles south of the town was the famous 

 temple of Philae. To-day Assuan owes its rep- 

 utation to the great dam which British engi- 

 neers have built four miles above it, to store 

 the Nile waters for irrigation. Locally Assuan 

 is known as a center for caravan trade with 

 Sudan, for the railroad from Cairo ends near 

 the first cataract. The population is about 

 13,000. 



The Dam. This structure is a mile and a 

 quarter long and 144 feet high. It is not a 

 solid wall, but is broken by 123 sluice open- 

 for discharging the water as needed for 

 it ion. The discharge through these open- 

 ings may amount to 1,500 tons per second. 

 Tins dam was begun in 1808 and finished in 

 1902, and it is one of the greatest engineering 

 works in the world. In 1907-1909 the wall was 

 thick. -nrd, and raised sixteen feet to its pres- 

 ent height, submerging the temple of Philae. 

 On top of the wall is a driveway twenty-nine 

 feet six inches wide. The Nile above the dam 



431 ASSURBANIPAL 



(to the south) has been converted into a lake, 

 which extends up-stream for nearly a hundred 

 miles and contains enough water to irrigate 

 6,000,000 acres. See IRRIGATION. 



ASSUMPTION, as sump' shun, FEAST OF 

 THE, a festival of the Christian Church, ob- 

 served on the 15th of August by Roman and 

 Greek Catholics, in memory of the miracle 

 through which the soul and body of the Virgin 

 Mary were taken into heaven by Christ and 

 the angels. It was first celebrated in the 

 Greek Church in 582, and in the Roman 

 Church in the seventh century. This festival 

 is not observed by the Church of England, nor 

 by any other of the Protestant churches. 



The Assumption in Art. The story of the 

 Assumption lends itself beautifully to treat- 

 ment by painters, and is a favorite subject in 

 religious art. The Assumption, painted by 

 Titian, now in Venice, pictures the Virgin be- 

 ing carried to heaven on shining clouds, while 

 rejoicing angels surround her, and from the 

 earth the apostles gaze upward with wonder 

 in their faces. Titian has another painting of 

 this title in the Cathedral of Verona. The 

 painting by Rubens, which was secured by the 

 cathedral at Antwerp, Belgium, shows the Vir- 

 gin ascending to heaven with the angels, and 

 below an empty tomb, about which several 

 of the apostles and a number of women are 

 standing. This picture, with others, was re- 

 moved from the city for safe keeping when 

 the Germans invaded Belgium in the War of 

 the Nations, in August, 1914. The Virgin in 

 the canvas of Perugino, in Florence, is one of 

 that artist's most beautiful portraits. This 

 painting has, besides the Virgin, four saints 

 in the foreground. 



Another beautiful canvas is that by Murillo, 

 in the Hermitage Museum, Petrograd, in which 

 the Virgin is seen floating upward on clouds, 

 while bands of cherubs rise with her. Among 

 frescoes picturing the ascent of the Virgin are 

 those of Correggio, in the cupola of the Cathe- 

 dral of Parma, Italy, and of Ferrari, in tin- 

 Church of San Cristoforo, in Vercelli, Italy. 

 (See each artist named, in his alphabetical 

 position in these volumes; also the article 



ASSURBANIPAL, as shoor bah ' ne pal, (668- 

 624 B.C.), called by the Greeks SARDANAPA- 

 LVS, was the last great king of Assyria, distin- 

 guished for his interest in art and literature. He 

 erected magnificent buildings in Nineveh, the 

 capital city, as well as in other cities of Baby- 

 lonia, and in his royal palace gathered together 



