BAHBEIT. 
435 
turned to Datnietta, having in charge the antiquities I had procured 
during our tour. Messrs. Airuts still accompanied us. We were up 
early, but it was two hours before the asses arrived which we had 
hired for the party, and which were to go with us into the Delta, 
lest we should not be able to procure any there. Our baggage and 
servants went in four boats. We breakfasted at Goraka, on the banks 
of the river, near which are some heaps of rubbish, that seem to 
indicate the site of an ancient town, but no granite was visible 
among them. The Schech waited on us, and was very civil, pro- 
viding us with all we required, which was bread and milk. He 
amused me much by asking Vincenzo if I were the Sultaun who 
had landed at Suez, and on whose arrival at Cairo they had fired 
one hundred and sixty pieces of cannon. It was clear that a story 
did not lose more in Egypt by travelling than in other countries. 
We here quitted the river to visit the ruins of Bahbeit, or the 
beautiful house, which D'Anville has considered, and I think with 
justice, as the Isidis Oppidum of Pliny. It is difficult to conjecture 
how, without the assistance of gunpowder, the vast masses of gra- 
nite of which the ruins consist, could have been thrown into the 
form in which they now meet the eye of the astonished traveller. 
Blocks, ten feet long and five feet broad and wide, are piled on 
each other, in such a way as frequently to leave openings suf- 
ficiently large for a person to pass underneath, and view the beau- 
tiful sculpture with which one face of each is covered. The Arabs 
have removed the sand in the centre, by which means it is apparent 
that there is as much of the building underground, as there is above; 
and in several places the massive foundation still remains. With- 
out any very great expense, the ground plan might be ascertained, 
