TEMPLES OF PHILAE.

Temuka Leader, Issue 7330, 7 June 1913, Page 8

TEMPLES OF PHILAE.

DOOMED TO SUBMERSION, Tlio beautiful Temples of Philae are, as has long l>een known, doomed to dcatiuction by submersion, by the comply don of the gaoat dam -at Asßoaraai. The effects will begin to bo felt whba the water is raised to its full height in the reservoir south of the Jirst cataract of the Nile. The floor of the Hall of Columns in the Tempi® of Isis heretofore has been the highest point reached by the water. The effects of the soaking on the lower portions of the various temples indicate conclusively the fate of the whole vast structures when the reservoir level is raised 18ft. Already the sculptured surfaces are coming off owing to the effect of salt crystallisation on tho sandstone. It was this that caused the fall of many pillars in the great Hall of Columns at Karnak. This decay of the stone is present at Phila© and can be detected m the floor blocks and in the bases and lower courses of the columns in the llypostyle Hall. When the water is raised to its full height corrosion will commence in the painted capitals and roof blocks of the famous Hall of Columns. Tire paint and plaster will peel off. Such will be the fate of thes© lovely capitals. The engineers say that even the roof is likely to fall of its own weight when tho columns are long soaked. Steel beams are being used for reinforcement in other parts of the temples, but their presence in tho Hall of Columns would ruin, artistically, the appearance of tho roof. It is now too late to carry out the original suggestion as to the removal of the Temples of Philae to some neighbouring island. Tho worst of it is that not all of the temples have been excavated, and it is probable that civilisation has now lost for ever whatever chance there was to Jiud a grave of ancient Egypt with real gold ornaments in it. When the experts of the Egypt Exploration Fund dug into the grave of a Supreme Court Justice of the twelfth dynasty, who died about 2000 years before Christ, they found that-the bodies of the Justice or Chancellor and his wife or daughter, had been robbed of the gold which had been buried with them. The thieves had loft untouched the scarabs, the vases of alabaster, the copper mirrors, and the amulets, or charms, of cornelian and silver. They had overlooked a necklace of beads of feldspar, amethyst, and carnelian. It is estimated that more than £20,000,000 in gold and gems has been stplen in the last 7000 years from the graves of ancient Egyptians. Each of oho great pyramids is supposed to have contained at least £200,000 in valuables, practically none of which have been recovered by modern explorers.