ISLAND OF SAI was clear that the fort had been rebuilt in comparatively modern times, and that the remains of Egyptian and Coptic edifices had been used in its reconstruction. According to Burckhardt, Sai was garrisoned by a troop of Bosnian soldiers who were sent there by the Sultan Selim in the first quarter of the sixteenth century, and like Ibrim and Aswan, it had its own Agha, or chief, who was independent of the governors of Nubia. The guns which were formerly in the Castle, were, according to Burckhardt, carried off by the Mamluks, but Cailliaud says that several small Turkish cannon were still to be seen there." A little to the north of the Castle are the remains of a temple which appears to have been founded by Thothmes III. and restored by Amen-hetep II., and towards the middle of the island are four gray granite pillars, which mark the site of a Coptic church. Each pillar is a monolith, and has the Coptic cross cut on its capital. A few heaps of rubbish indicate where stood other portions of the church to which these pillars belonged, but every stone of any value for building purposes has been removed. From what has been said above it is clear that Burckhardt was mistaken in believing that there were " no remains of antiquity whatever " on Sai. except the Castle, which he believed to be of the same date as that at Ibrim.

Hoskins states boldly that Sai " contains no remains of Egyptian antiquities " {Travels, p. 257), which is remarkable, seeing that he actually visited the island ; Burckhardt did not, and was obliged to rely on the best information he could obtain. Sai is a difficult place to reach, unless the traveller has his own boat with him. On January 2nd, 1821, Cailliaud crossed the river on a raft made of reeds and pieces of palm trunk ; Hoskins in June, 1832, needed no raft, for the water in the Western channel only came up to the camel's knees, and he passed over to the island from the mainland without difficulty ; Burckhardt, who must have been there in the winter, could obtain the use of neither ferry nor raft, and was therefore obliged to abandon his projected visit.

The Inspector and I spent some hours among the ruins of the Castle, and we should have liked to turn on a couple of hundred * Travels, p. 56.

2 Voyage, torn. i. p. 367. On y voit encore plusieurs petites pieces de canon turques.

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