CHAP. XI. GRADUAL RISE OF THE LAND. 105 



served to measure the inundation in the reigns 

 of the early Roman emperors, is now far below the 

 level of the ordinary high Nile; and the obelisk of 

 Matareeh or Heliopolis, the Colossi of the Theban 

 plain, and other similarly situated monuments, are 

 washed by the waters of the inundation, and im- 

 bedded to a certain height in a stratum of alluvial 

 soil deposited around their base. 



The continual increase in the elevation of the 

 bed of the river naturally produced those effects 

 mentioned by Herodotus and other writers, who 

 state that the Egyptians were obliged from time to 

 time to raise their towns and villages, in order to 

 secure them from the effects of the inundation ; 

 and that the same change in the levels of the Nile 

 and the land took place in former ages, as at the 

 present day, is shown by the fact of Sabaco having 

 found it necessary to elevate the towns throughout 

 the country, which had been previously protected 

 by similar means in the reign of Sesostris, — an in- 

 terval of about 600 years. This was done, says the 

 historian of Halicarnassus, by the inhabitants of 

 each place, who had been condemned for great 

 crimes to the public works. Bubastis was raised 

 more than any other city; and the lofty mounds 

 of Tel Basta, which mark its site, fully confirm 

 the observation of Herodotus, and show, from the 

 height of those mounds above the present plain, 

 after a lapse of 77 <J years, that "the Ethiopian 

 monarch elevated the sites of the towns much 

 more than his predecessor Sesostris* had done," 



* Herodot. ii. 137. 



