Decorah public opinion. (Decorah, Winneshiek County [Iowa]) 1895-1928, 1914-06-17
SCENES IN EGYPT
FOOD FOR TOURISTS
CONTINUED from first page)

of HOLES, the Kaaba, and in that
singular old building he saw and
PISSED that great uncut ruby that
had turned black by reason of the
sins OF the world, the kissing of this
stone or as it is termed the black
stone, he felt had freed him of his
many inherited sins. He spoke of
Mecca as being almost the birth
place of religious worship.
To the thinking man how strange
this religious fanatacism
AS we sit on this deck we ponder
over what We have seen, all these tenn
pies what were they built for, in ev-
cry instance to impress with the
religious belief of that age, each of
| these great riles of stone have been
dedicated to the god of that age and
we think we trace the evolution in
| telligently of man and religion
/ throughout our entire observation.
We will arrive at Edfou at about
nine o'clock and our director desires
that we see the great temple there
by moonlight, that we may be jour
nying on. The temple of Edfou was
built by the Ptolemys from about
three hundred to one hundred and
fifty years before Christ and is the
best preserved Of all ancient Egyp-
tian temples. This temple dedicated
to Horus and Aman Ra presents a
beautiful and imposing impression.
You enter through a door fifty feet
high between two pylones thirty-sev-
en- feet wide and one hundred and
fourteen feet high. The inner court
is one hundred and forty by one hun
dred and sixty feet; beyond you pass
into most beautifully carved sand
stone structure. Inside we saw the
place of worship, beautiful polished
syene granite block of immense size.
The writer paced a stone on the top
of this building, being one of the
coverings only, that was fifty feet
long and nine wide and at least
three thick and this only a single
The hieroglyphs describe much of
interest and the observer is Impress
ed with the immoral conditions; at
that time their chief thought running
along those lines.
As we ride up the river the follow
ing morning we pass the great sand
stone quarries where, all this great
mass of material for building all
these temples has been quarried and
from whence it. was RATED 10 its
place of USE. ar
About noon of this second day we
are at Kommombo, temple This
great temple was another of the
works of the Ptolemys about two
hundred years before Christ. / will
not describe this great temple, as
you are already. weary of so many of
these Great work is going on in
repairing, this great castle, and after
! spending short time we go on up
this now very narrow valley with
desert sand close on either side of
4 the stream
! We reach Assouan at about four
O'Clock and after anchoring and
changing to a smaller boat proceed
through the narrow dangerous chan
mel. We are now passing through
the Syene granite district where all
those great granite monuments have
been quarried. Here We see great
chiseled figures of ancient kings in
the solid granite, some of them of
immense size cut in the undisturbed
granite. The difficulty of getting out
those great abelisks is apparent when
one sees the great cobble stone, the
granite lies in cobble forms About
three miles above Assouan is the
greatest dam ever constructed We
pass up long flights of stairs by the
side of the immense locks; there are
five of these locks; the top of the
dam has two railroad tracks crossing
it; in length it is nearly two miles
and cost $45,OO0,OOO. This with
four other dams nearly controls the
! flow OF the stream. This dam sets
the water back one hundred and for
ty miles. There are one hundred
and eighty gates and when the sea-
son for flooding the valley these gates
are opened and all this great flood let
down on the parched valley. 1t is
more wonderful work than any of
those ancient accomplishments, but
we feel that they have greater me-
chanical aid than did these ancients
with their crude machinery.
We cross this dam and take boat
to the temple of Philae. This great
temple was built on granite island
in the river about three hundred
years before Christ and was dedi-
Gated to the god lies, remaining
pagan temple until about six hundred
years, after Christ, when it was used
Iae IL H. l. q n