No comments On First Entering the Temple at Abu Simbel, August 1, 1817
Giovanni Finati
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| Abu Simbel |
We availed ourselves of such implements and contrivances as seemed adapted to facilitate the labour, and as soon as some appearance of the great architrave of a portal came to light, trunks of the palm-trees were driven down as piles, at the distance of two or three yards from it, which bore the loose mass from behind, and enabled us to scoop out a sort of well in front of them, which we consolidated, from time to time, by the pouring of water. After three weeks … a corner of the doorway itself became visible. . . .At that very moment, while the fresh clamours and new disputes were going on with our crew , and the attention of all distracted, I, being one of the slenderest of the party, without a word, crept through into the interior, and was thus the first that entered it, perhaps for a thousand years.
Unlike all the other grottoes in Egypt and Nubia, its atmosphere, instead of presenting a refreshing coolness, was a hot and moist vapour, not unlike that of a Turkish bath, and so penetrating that paper, carried within, soon became as saturated as if it had been dropped in the river. It was, however, a consoling and almost an unexpected circumstance, that the run of sand extended but a little way within the aperture, and the remainder of the chambers were all unencumbered.