Long Valley advocate., 1907-08-01
MYSTERY OF THE NILE
And Now Another Twenty-Three Feet
is to Be Added to the Great Dam
at Assouan-Buries His
toric Ruins.

Every morning from little room
OF great white house on the eastern
shore of the Nile, at Assouan, is
clicked by telegraph to Cairo the ques-
ton: How much water?" The an
swer comes, so many thousand gal
Ions less. button is pressed. the
water which flows under the iron
bridge at Cairo is increased or di-
minished some ten days later in ac-
cordance with the telegraphic answer
and the intervening valley between
Assouan and Cairo has a little more
or little less water on it's surface
The man at the button may bring
JOY or sorrow to thousands of little
farms-it is all according to the mes
sage he receives.
From the great white house there
extends across the river a granite
wall or dam $50 feet high. Half way
up this wall, and stretching it's en-
tire length, line of shutters opens or
closes by pressure of the button.
In the winter months a huge lake eX-
pands to the southwark, which has
every appearance Of being a flood, for,
in certain places, the tops Of palm
trees are discernible above it's sur
face, and the SUBMITS of inundated
ruins apparently mark the sites of
! sunken cities. AS the days go by,
and Cairo demands more and more
water, the palm trees and the ruins
seem to rise from their watery beds,
until, in June and early July, the river
flows freely with all it's historic indo-
lence
Still the cry for water is Unsuitable,
and now the $50 feet of granite wall
will be heightened by % feet, which
will double the power Of the man at
the button, and after that no more
palms or ruins will unfold them
selves, as the hot months come, from
the surface of the lake. The palm
trees will not be missed, but what of
the ruins? That is the tribute of the
past which modern agricultural Egypt
is called upon to pay.
Just south of the granite wall Is the
island which holds the amphibious
ruins Twenty-three feet of granite
now stand between it and oblivion. 1t
is named Philae, and it is the burial
place of Osiris. A temple of IA col
| umns rises on its eastern bank, and
On it's western is the great temple of
Isis, begun by Ptolemy Philadelphus
| and added to by the Roman emperors.
Its front is in the form of propylon,
| before which is an expansive court
| bounded by two galleries, the column
sides of which skirt the shore for ESQ
| feet. Behind the propylOn are many
| halls and chambers of curious and fan
| tastic design. The whelming waters
Of the winter months have already be-
gun their work. Floors have sunken,
| columns fallen, and walls crumbled
| The twenty-three additional feet Of
granite will complete the work of
devastation Philae and it's ruins will
never again feel the sun of Egypt.
It was thought that the granite wall
across the Nile at Assouan, $50 feet
high, would provide perpetual irriga-
ton for the desert to the north. That
was a mistake. But will the 23 addi-
tional feet to the summit of the wall,
which will forever bury Philae, COM
plete the work? Will the man at the
button in the great white house ever
| have the power that Joseph had to di-
rect, increase or diminish the flow of
the river? Joseph had no Assouan
| dam and no shutters to manipulate by
| the pressure of button. In what,
therefore did his power to make Egypt
perennially fertile consist?-N. Y.
Times.