Ancient History From the Monuments - Egypt From the Earliest Times to B. C. 300 #250002

It is a peculiarity of this country that the absence of rain, the great destroyer of works of art, has enabled even the most fragile materials, such as rapidly perish else where, to survive the slow process of destroying time, for all above the level of the inundation was safe from the usual elements of decay. The inundation took place at the a8th July or about the summer solstice, and almost to a day; the river as it rose changing rapidly in colour, especially in Upper Egypt, from a slimy green to a turbid red colour. And when it attained a height of sixteen cubits it revived the drooping vegetation of the cultivated lands, which no drop of rain from heaven ever watered except at long and distant intervals of time.