mit. 
176 PYRAMIDS OF DJIZA. 
CHAP, amply fulfilled our expectations; nor do the 
. accounts which have been given of it, as it 
^^i'frm appears at this season of the year, exaggerate 
the Sum- the uovclty and grandeur of the sight. All the 
region towards Cairo and the Delta resembled a 
sea, covered with innumerable islands. Forests 
of palm-trees were seen standing in the water; 
the inundation spreading over the land where 
they stood, so as to give them an appearance 
of growing in the flood. To the north, as far 
as the eye could reach, nothing could be dis- 
cerned, but a watery surface thus diversified by 
plantations and by villages. To the south we 
saw the Pyramids of Saccdra; and upon the east 
of these, smaller monuments of the same kind, 
nearer to the JSile. An appearance of ruins 
might indeed be traced the whole way from 
the Pyramids of DJiza to those of Saccdra ; as if 
they bad been once connected so as to con- 
stitute one vast coemetery. Beyond the Py- 
ramids of Saccdra we could perceive the distant 
mountains of the Said; and upon an eminence 
near the Libyan side of the Nile there appeared 
a monastery of considerable size. Towards the 
west and souih-ivest, the eye ranged over the 
great Libyan Desert, extending to the utmost 
verge of the horizon, without a single object to 
interrupt the dreary horror of the landscape. 
