HADJAR SILSILIS, OR THE ROCK OF THE CHAIN. 
The Nile here flows through a channel narrowed by the approach of the bases of 
the Arabian and Libyan ranges of mountains, between which, at some very distant 
period, the river forced its way. The name of Hadjar Silsilis is Arabic, and has been 
derived from a tradition that the navigation was once guarded by a chain, which in 
this place was extended across the river: a highly improbable tale. The mountains 
are of sandstone, and the proximity to the river of a material so fitted for building 
and for ready conveyance, led to the vast excavations quarried on this spot, and of 
which the ancient Egyptians so extensively availed themselves, this Hadjar Silsilis is 
one of the most remarkable places for the traveller to visit on the Nile. The view 
is taken looking down the river; and it will be seen that the rocks are much higher 
on the right, or eastern, than on the western bank. It was on the eastern side, and 
near the commencement of the quarries, that the ancient town of Silsilis stood; but 
of this no trace remains except the substructions of what was probably a temple: 
on this side the elevation of the rocks is from sixty to one hundred feet above the 
river, and they are excavated to a much greater extent than on the western side, 
on which a strange form of rock appears. Mr. Roberts supposes that among the 
fantastic cuttings this was left; but he did not visit it. The lofty cliffs are composed 
of a rock of fine and continuous texture, admirably fitted for the purpose to which 
it has been so largely applied. The quarries extend two or three miles along the 
river, and in many places roads have been carried into the heart of the mountain, 
and here we find the quarries which furnished the vast blocks for most of the great 
works of the Thebaid. Some of the excavations are six hundred feet long, three 
hundred feet wide, and from seventy to eighty feet high; but they nowhere appear 
to have been worked below the level of the Nile. Quarries upon so enormous a 
scale would attest the architectural grandeur of ancient Egypt, even if the ruins of 
the structures raised in Thebes and other cities, by the materials furnished from 
Hadjar Silsilis, no longer existed. 
Though on the eastern side the quarries are the most extensive, they are less 
interesting to the antiquary than the ancient works, which may be traced on the 
western bank. Figures and hieroglyphics are inscribed on the rock, and the bright 
colours with which they have been painted are in many places distinct and fresh. 
Here many curious grottoes and tablets of hieroglyphics have been executed in the 
early time of the Pharaohs of the eighteenth dynasty; one of these grottoes consists 
of a long corridor, supported by four pillars, cut in the face of the rock, on which, 
as well as on the interior wall, are sculptured several tablets of hieroglyphics, bearing 
the names of different kings: it was commenced by the successor of Amunoph III., 
the ninth Pharaoh of the eighteenth dynasty, who here commemorated his defeat of 
