| Show a fw i a ava wv A E i temples of philae cu special correspondence the pearl of egypt the little island bof philae Is doomed commerce the greedy heartless mistress before whom all the world is bowing has stretched forth her desecrating hand to destroy this tiny isle the treasure place of ancient architectural masterpieces the old kings of pha naoh s land reared many wonderful monuments along the nile but they built best when they covered philae with her temples and her towers the waters of the nile will soon rise over these wonder works of an chent kings already the rising wa are sapping the great stone toun lations and the great pylon tower Is shaking it will not be long before the waters will bury the last vestige of the proudest temples of the ptole mies A big dam built across the nile at assouad to gather the waters for the farm lands of egypt is responsible for this undermining of the temples of i philae this great barrage was built to feed the commerce and increase the production of egypt the eng lishman who placed it across the slug gish river pretended to build it so it would not harm the island ot phi lae but they acknowledge now that the waters rising behind the barrage must mean the ultimate destruction of the picturesque store place of an ties there is no more famous spot in all egypt than little philae it Is thir ty miles up the nile above assouad the most famous temple on the island is the temple of isis there are many monuments in egypt that are older than the temple on philae but none so beautiful the oldest build ing on the island dates from about all of the buildings were built by the Ptole mies they were all built during the last three centuries before christ and were a mecca tor pilgrims from asia europe and africa for many centuries thereafter the temples of philae were closed about years A D after which they were used tor a while for christian ice romance n island s story the island is only yards in length and yards across the arabs call the island by a different name taken from tales of thousand and one nights the story goes that once upon a time there was a k ng s vizier who had a daughter called flower of the rose the king had a favorite who lovid the vizier s daugh ter when the secret meetings were discovered the vizier a as enraged and imprisoned his daughter in a strong castle on the island of philae the king s favorite did not forget his love he forsook the court and traveled over the world 11 he found the prison of his sweetheart after many days of waiting they were restored to each other and accord ng to the tale in the arabian nights they lived in the bosom of happiness to the advanced age at which robes of enjoyment must shed heir leaves and tender friend ship take the place of passion the chief deity of philae was the goddess isis the goddess copins and other deities were worshiped at philae but the great temple was ded to isis and her son har socrates po crates this imposing structure was begun by ptolemy philadelphus and was completed by I 1 the temple of isis proper consists chiefly of an open court a hall and several vestibules with a sanctuary and smaller chambers ad 0 o ning the walls are covered both inside and out with rel es of the Ptole mies and of the roman emper ors A ugustus tiberius and antoninus the romans all be ng in the guise of pharaohs Phara an imposing part of the temple is the first pylon consisting of two towers and a central aortal lortal on the front of the right tower ap pears a huge figgie figuie of one of the Ptole mies grasping a band of enemies by the hair and raising his club for the fatal stroke in fiant of the pylon formerly stood two obelisks and two 1 ona of granite but these have now been thrown to the ground among the beautiful temples is the one dedicated to Ar henofer this Is situated close to the vestibule of this vestibule was built by pharaoh as the vesti bule tor a temple dedicated to his mother isis M stress of philae and to the hati or of this proud work was swept away by the floods of the N ie which began centuries before christ to make en croach ments on the little sandstone island ptolemy philadelphus restored so called pharaohs bed the vestibule but made no attempt 0 o restore the temple famous old bu id is a temple to hathor still standing but in bad repair the sanctuary now de troyed together with the colonnade in front of it which was recently restored was built by the roman august is as an adal tion to the works of the pharaohs hadrian s gateway a small portal in the ancient girdle wall of the temple of isia was built by hodr an but embel lisl ed by marcus aurelius and luc us verus the vestibules of this gate wiy conta ns many interesting his the birth house in this temple of isis is the most interesting feature of the temple all of these temples together with the many other works on the little fc u island will be almost entirely cov ered when the dam of assouad 1 cloaked this dam is one ot the larg eat in the world it was built 07 tha english government at a cost of about 12 the reservoir above the dam will have a capacity of gallons it has been cal that the gain to egypt from this dam through the irrigation of lands hitherto uncultivated will amount to over 13 a year more than the cost of the dam up ward of 10 workmen most of them arabs were employed on the dam the great slices in the dam temples of philae will be closed soon and the work ol 01 inundation will begin |
