Egypt Through The Stereoscope

A Journey Through The Land Of The Pharaohs

by James Henry Breasted | 1908 | 103,705 words

Examines how stereographs were used as a means of virtual travel. Focuses on James Henry Breasted's "Egypt through the Stereoscope" (1905, 1908). Provides context for resources in the Travelers in the Middle East Archive (TIMEA). Part 3 of a 4 part course called "History through the Stereoscope."...

Position 92 - The Nubian Temple Of Kalabsheh, Built In The Days Of The Roman Emperor Augustus (view East)

We have now left the cataract thirty-one miles below us, and, as you know, we stand on the west side of the river looking nearly eastward across the temple of the ancient town of Talmis, now called Kalabsheh (Map 3). This is Nubia, and the people about us speak the Nubian tongue. As Egyptian civilization gradually spread in the country the Pharaohs built temples here after the Egyptian style, and it is incredible how a country of such scanty resources in agriculture could have supported so many enterprises of this sort.

For such temples are numerous here, and although not so imposing as those we have seen in Egypt, they are nevertheless an impressive evidence of Egyptian domination in the Nubian country. The sanctuary before us was built in the days of the Roman Emperor Augustus, and is not of great historical interest; but there was a temple erected here by Amenophis II of the 18th Dynasty in the 15th century B. C., which this later temple has replaced. It fronts the river, as you observe, and we view it from the rear on the high ground of the sandstone bluffs. It stands in a double enclosure, the inner wall of which joins the first pylon, forming a court behind the pylon.

The front part of the building thus enclosed is wider and higher than the rear; and in the larger (from here the further) section, is the hypostyle hall, of which you see the roof has now fallen in. In this end of the smaller section is the Holy of Holies. In a chamber on the right of this portion of the building you observe the upper steps of a stairway leading to the roof, while at its other end in perfect preservation and very prominent from here is a double stairway leading from the lower roof of the chambers in the rear, to the higher roof of the hypostyle hall before them.

The reliefs and decorations of this late temple were never finished, and its inscriptions are of slight historical importance, but it is the most picturesque temple in Nubia, with the exception of Abu Simbel, which we shall later visit. With the rough brick huts of the Nubian village grouped closely about it, the background of palms fringing the gleaming river, an idle sail flapping lazily in the light breeze, and the sandstone bluffs behind all, it makes a scene pregnant with those melancholy but delightful reveries, which only such a ruin in the far East can beget.

A hundred miles above here are the ruins of Kasr Ibrim, an ancient fortress which has played no small part in the history of Nubia. Thither we now go, and its elevated position will give us an excellent idea of this region. Red lines numbered 93 on Map 3 show that we shall be looking north.

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