ABU SIMBL. 21

whole thing is cut out of the solid limestone rock, with

a doorway only some 8 feet broad by 15 high. The interior dimensions are about 90 by 50, by 45

feet high, the walls and ceiling covered with hiero-

glyphics. Guarding the entrance are four colossal

seated figures (also cut out of the rock), representing Rameses II. As each figure if standing up would

measure over 60 feet high, the immense and solid

grandeur of the whole can be imagined. After

gazing at the interior with the help of a small piece of

magnesium light (which only lasted three and a half

seconds), we tore ourselves away and tried to pull

back up stream. I say

"

tried," for after a quarter

of an hour's hard pulling against a fearful current,

we found ourselves some yards further down stream

lan when we started. If eight men pulling an empty

boat proceed minus three yards in fifteen minutes,

low long would it take ten men to pull up the Nile

in a boat loaded to the gunwale with stores and

len ? Such was the rule-of-three sum 'that presented

:self. We had ignominiously, therefore, to disembark