3-074-767 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Sketches of Upper Egypt: Assouan, from the south, 1883. 'The scenery of Upper Egypt - which is confined, above Thebes, to the narrow valley of the Nile - suddenly changes in the approach to Assouan, the ancient Syene, a town and river-port on the Nubian border, situated amidst groves of palms on the east bank, fronting the verdant island of Elephantine. Huge rocks of black granite, or syenite, lie in the bed of the river above Assouan, and in some places on its shores, the aspect of which is more surprising after the monotonous mud-banks of the Lower Nile. The views about this place are nevertheless, beautiful, as well as striking in effect, from the exquisite contrasts of colour afforded by the yellow sand-hills, the rich greenness of the cultivated and fertile strips of land near the river, and the dark masses of stone which seem to have been carried down there by an inconceivable force of rushing waters in primeval times...The town of Assouan, inhabited by some four thousand people, is a lively scene of bustle'. From "Illustrated London News", 1883.