AND LOWER EGYPT. 35 I 



their buried treasures, and could not believe that 

 the monuments of the arts were the motives of 

 their excursions. 



I saw several pillars overthrown : they were of 

 the finest granite ; their shafts were fluted, and of 

 one single piece, although of an astonishing size : 

 the capitals were of the most beautiful workman- 

 ship. The Jew drogman told me, that he had seen 

 a part of these pillars still standing upright, and a 

 broad arch which formed the entrance of a subter- 

 raneous cave: but the country people had broken 

 them all down to carry away the stones, which 

 they employed in building, or in the repairs of the 

 dikes which formed a barrier against the waters of 

 the sea. There remained still, the openings of sub- 

 terraneous galleries built of brick, and in very to- 

 lerable preservation : rubbish had choked up the 

 entrance. In a word, ail that was discoverable aa- 

 nounced that formerly the most magnificent edifices 

 had flourished on this site. The inhabitants of 

 Aboukir call these superb ruins the city of Pharaoh. 



Upon the brink of the sea you discern the foun- 

 dations in pretty good preservation, of a spacious 

 and regular building, in the middle of which there 

 is a subterraneous cave giving way to the sea : in 

 it you see at a distance ruins which prove, that in 

 this place, as in many others, it has gained upon 



the 



