329 



line, which the wind heaps up at the foot of every ob- 

 stacle, and which frequently buries the palm trees/'* 



In describing the obelisks at the entrance of Luxor, 

 Mr. Denon observes, " the two obelisks of rose-co- 

 loured granite, are still seventy feet above the ground ; 

 and to judge by the depth to which the figures seem to 

 be covered, we may reckon about thirty feet mure con- 

 cealed from the eye, making in all one hundred feet 

 for the heighth of these monuments. "t 



In their march towards Keneh, he again observes : 

 " Our progress was interrupted by those particular 

 winds, which, notwithstanding the sky is clear and 

 unclouded, fill the air with so much sand, that it is 

 neither day nor night J 



In describing the valley formed by Mount Kolsun, 

 -and the Arabian mountains, he says, " 1 he mouth of 

 this valley, towards the Nile, exhibits nothing but a 

 dreary plain, the only cultivated part of which, is a 

 narrow slip of land, on the bank of the river ; some 

 vestiges of villages overwhelmed by sand, may be dis- 

 covered, and they present the afflicting sight of daily 

 devastation produced by the continual encroachment of 

 the desert, on the soil inundated with sand." 



" Nothing is so melancholy to the feelings, as to 

 march over these ruined villages ; to tread under foot 

 the roofs of the houses, and the tops of the minerets ; 

 and to think that these weie once cultivated fields, 



*VoIney's Travels, p. 24. 

 t D'-TioiT'. ! ravels, vol. in. p. 188. 

 \ Denon's Travels, vol. ii. p. 225. 



43 



