One of the dreams of my life has been to see
Egypt. The land of romance and mystery, and of the most ancient civilizations
in the world. Geographically, the country of Egypt is remarkable, as being the
creation of a single river, it is a long and comparatively narrow valley, shut
in on both sides by low barren cliffs, beyond which is the hot sandy desert.
And this valley would itself be an inhabitable desert, but for the River Nile
which, rising in the Abyssinian mountains in the south. Runs through it for
hundreds of miles till it spreads out into the many streams which forms the
famous Delta (so called because the land watered by those mouths of the Nile is
the shape of the Greek letter Delta - a triangle), and empties itself into the
Mediterranean Sea.
Egypt, which has scarcely any rainfall, depends
entirely on the Nile for its fertility, or rather upon the strange annual rise
of the Nile. Once every year, when the snows melt in the Abyssinian Mountains,
the river rises and overflows its banks, flooding the whole country. When the
waters retire again to their usual channel they have left a rich deposit of
fertile mud, which gives the Egyptian Fellaheen, Or farmers, abundant crops.
The annual rise of the Nile is to the Egyptian cultivators what the monsoon is
to the Pakistan Zamindars; and the failure of the Nile to rise high enough is
attended] with the same disaster as the failure of the monsoon in Pakistan. Namely
famine. Or rather, it used to be, for the British engineers, b their wonderful
dams, preserve the Nile water for lean years, as in Pakistan they have saved
the Punjab from famine by their marvelous irrigation works.
But the chief interest of Egypt lies in its
remarkable history and its wonderful archaeological remains. Owing partly to
the dry climate. And partly to the ancient Egyptian method of burying their
dead, more remains of the ancient civilization of Egypt exist than o any other
country. The ancient tombs, with their walls covered with beautiful pictures
and hieroglyphic writing, the enormous magnified temples, the wonderful works
of art that have been:
preserved, give us a most vivid idea of the
history and the remarkable high civilization of the ancient Egyptians a civilization
that was already at a high level 5,000 years before Christ. To se these ancient
tombs and temples, and look upon the actual faces the great Pharaohs of the
past. And to realize the greatness of the o Egyptian civilization that has
passed away. Must be a wonderful experience. Recently the whole world has wondered
at the artistic beauty and fabulous value old the gold ornaments and jewels
found the tomb of Tut-ankh amen. Discovered by Mr. Howard Carter and Lord Carnivore
ran. And Tut-ankh-amen ‘as by no means one of t eater or important Pharaohs of
old Egypt.