Identifier: africaoftoday00good (find matches)
Title: Africa of to-day
Year: 1912 (1910s)
Authors: Goodrich, Joseph King, 1876-1948
Subjects:
Publisher: Chicago, A.C. McClurg & co.
Contributing Library: The Library of Congress
Digitizing Sponsor: The Library of Congress

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ancient writers tell us, and their accounts havebeen remarkably verified by later, scientific observers,that the river commenced to rise in May, but that notmuch attention was paid to the rise until somewhereabout the end of June, or just after the summer solstice.We may interpolate here that Egyptians superstitiouslyconnected the Sphinx with the Niles overflow, becausethose great figures (particularly that one near the pyra-mids of Ghizeh), with the head of a woman and thebody of a lion, symbolised the time when the sun passesthrough the constellations Virgo and Leo, thus markingthe swelling of the Nile as occurring at the season forwhich the Sphinx seemed to stand. In very ancient times the rise was watched by meansof pits or wells sunk at places sufficiently near the river-bank to make sure that the percolation of water wouldbe free. Later, more elaborate nilometers were con-structed; one of these was a large reservoir in a castleright on the bank. Round this reservoir was a hand-
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Copyright, Underwood & Underwood, N. Y. The Great Dam across the Nile at Assuan, EgyptThe most gigantic masonry of modern times THE NILE: HISTORICALLY II3 some gallery, supported by twelve marble pillars, joinedat their tops in such a way as to form arches. Therewas a balustrade on the inner side of the gallery to leanon when looking down at the water, which entered thereservoir and passed out through a canal cut down fromthe river. In the centre of the basin was an octagonalmarble shaft divided into twenty-four equal sections,and each section (save one) marked off into small spacesof a few inches each. When the water had risen to somesixteen or eighteen feet in depth, public criers proclaimedthe fact through the capital and other cities and con-tinued their proclamations until the water had risen toabout twenty-five feet or a little more (although evena little over, say twenty-seven feet, was approaching thedanger point), when preparations were made to cut thedam of the Khalii, o

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