Philae
(or Pilak or P'aaleq [Egyptian: remote
place or the end or the angle island];
[Arabic: Anas el Wagud]) is an island
in the Nile River and the previous site
of an Ancient Egyptian temple complex
in southern Egypt. The complex is now
located on the nearby island of Agilkai.
The island of Philae attracted much attention
in the 19th century. In the 1820s, Joseph
Bonomi the Younger, a British Egyptologist
and museum curator visited the island.
So did Amelia Edwards, a British novelist
in 1873–4. The approach by water
is quite the most beautiful. Seen from
the level of a small boat, the island,
with its palms, its colonnades, its pylons,
seems to rise out of the river like a
mirage. Piled rocks frame it on either
side, and the purple mountains close up
the distance. As the boat glides nearer
between glistening boulders, those sculptured
towers rise higher and even higher against
the sky.
They
show no sign of ruin or age. All looks
solid, stately, perfect. One forgets for
the moment that anything is changed. If
a sound of antique chanting were to be
borne along the quiet air – if a
procession of white-robed priests bearing
aloft the veiled ark of the God, were
to come sweeping round between the palms
and pylons – we should not think
it strange. These visits were only a sampling
of the great interest that Victorian-era
Britain had for Egypt. Soon, tourism to
places such as Philae were common. In
1902, the Aswan Low Dam was completed
on the Nile River by the British. This
threatened many ancient landmarks, including
the temple complex of Philae, with being
submerged. The dam was heightened twice,
from 1907–12 and from 1929–34,
and the island of Philae was nearly always
flooded. In fact, the complex was not
underwater only when the dam's sluices
were open, from July to October. It was
postulated that the temples be relocated,
piece by piece, to nearby islands, such
as Bigeh or Elephantine.
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