DESCRIPTIONS OF EGYPT. 179 
The Inaccessible ; and we are informed by Nor- 
den, that its rocky banks are cut in the form of a 
wall. An island of still larger size than Philas, 
and in its immediate vicinity, is probably the Ta- 
compsus of Stephanus Byzantinus, which that geo- 
grapher mentions as adjacent to Philse. From the 
name it may be inferred that Tacompsus was de- 
voted to the worship of the crocodile, since kamsa 
or kompso, according to Herodotus, was the name 
of that animal in the ancient Egyptian language* 
About a league above Philae, the village Deboude 
exhibits the remains of various ancient structures, 
with a ruined canal, lined with stone, and forty 
feet in breadth ; and at Hindau, about two leagues 
higher on the Nile, similar ruins become still more 
numerous. * As the traveller advances he still re- 
cognises the vestiges of ancient grandeur ; magni- 
ficent ruins emerge from the sands, and he often 
finds large stones covered with hieroglyphics, 
though unable to discover the edifices from which 
they have been taken. The valley of the river is 
confined by sandy declivities and precipices of gra- 
nite, till it reaches the village of Teffa, about nine 
leagues beyond which it is crossed by the imagi- 
nary line that divides Egypt from Nubia. After 
entering Nubia, the valley preserves the same as- 
pect, and the breadth of the flat country between 
* Norden's Travels, Vol. II. p. 130, 
