The Temples of Philae on Agilika Island in Aswan , Egypt

In the 20th Century the island of Philae was flooded by the Low Dam. The High Dam waters of Lake Nasser completely submerged the island when it was be completed.

The temples on the island were therefor completely dismanteled and moved about 550 Meters north of Philae, between the years 1972 - 1980 AD to the island of Agilika on Lake Nasser.
Today it is still commonly said that the various monuments are on Philae Island, even though they really are on Agilika Island.
Tradition said that it was from Philae (Pilak in Egyptian) that Isis watched over the tomb of Osiris on the neighboring island of Biga. The Temple Of Isis and Horus The Child dominated the group of monuments erected between the 26th Dynasty and the Roman Period.



Before the High Dam

By almost every tour to Egypt is what is billed as Philae, but Philae is actually a nonexistent island now buried beneath Lake Nasser.  The island was sometimes visible and sometimes not after the Old Aswan Dam was built, but was permanently submerged by the High Dam. Philae is an approximate Greek rendering of the local name "Pilak" known from hieroglyphic texts and which may be Nubian in origin. The ancient Egyptians saw in their name for Philae an etymology with the meaning "island of the time [of Ra]", i.e. creation, but the island’s history is later than that.
What we refer to today as Philae is the main temple complex relocated from that island, after the High Dam was built, to the island of Agilika. It was the center of the cult of the goddess Isis and her connection with Osiris, Horus, and the Kingship, during the Ptolemaic period of Egyptian History.
Today, there are two dams at Aswan but of course, in ancient times, there were none. Prior to the dams, Philae Island occupied a position at the beginning or southern end of the First Nile Cataract, where the river gathered speed, dropping sixteen feet in swirling eddies and turbulent falls of white water for a distance of three miles. Various pharaohs attempted to calm or at least provide better passage around these rapids. Pepi I built at least one canal, as did Merenre, as early as the Old Kingdom, but later kings would also, such as  Senusret III.
There were numerous islands in the region, Amelia Edwards says hundreds, including Biggeh, the temple's current location of Agilika, a group of small islands at Awad and El Hasa, and below the Cataract (north), Siheil and Elephantine.
During early times, the priests of Philae claimed that the source of the Nile was bottomless and lay beneath the rocks of Biggeh, where half the river rose to flow north and half to flow south. Their rivals were the priests of Elephantine, who made the same claim. Indeed, the river around these islands was even then over one hundred feet deep in places, with confusing waters that could twist and turn in all directions.
This trek of water was hazardous in ancient times, a fact that escapes the modern visitor to Agilika Island. Amelia Edwards, the fearless Victorian Egyptologist saw it differently than we do today. She recounts:

"At Assuan, one bids good-bye to Egypt and enters Nubia through the gates of the Cataract - which is, in truth, no cataract, but a succession of rapids extending over two thirds of the distance between Elephantine and Philae. The Nile - diverted from its original course by some unrecorded catastrophe, the nature of which has given rise to much scientific conjecture - here spreads itself over a rocky basin bounded by sand-slopes on the one side, and by granite cliffs on the other. Studded with numberless islets, divided into numberless channels, foaming over sunken rocks, eddying among water-worn boulders, now shallow, now deep, now loitering, now hurrying, here sleeping in the ribbed hollow of a tiny sand-drift, there circling above the vortex of a hidden whirlpool, the river, whether looked upon from the deck of a dahabeeyah or the heights along the shore, is seen everywhere to be fighting its way through a labyrinth, the paths of which have never yet been mapped or sounded."

Of course, one can still get a glimpse of these cataracts north of the Old Aswan Dam. In ancient times, travelers made their devotions at Philae before continuing through the dangerous territory of the south to the "Land of Ghosts".
On the island of Sehel are more than 250 inscriptions from pilgrims and travelers coming to and going through the area, dating from the fourth dynasty down to the Ptolemaic period. Pepi I cut canals through the cataract to assist boat crews on their way to the calm water above Philae. Harkhuf passed through here on his way to Nubia during the reign of Pepi II. Also here on Sehel is the so-called Famine Stela, inscribed during Ptolemaic times but related to the reign of King Djoser in the 3rd Dynasty. It states that the king decreed that large tracts of land on both sides of the river stretching from Elephantine south should be given to Khnum’s temple, along with one-tenth of all produce and livestock raised as well as taxes on caravans and gold mining. There is an identical decree in the temple of Philae, carved at the base of the eastern tower of the second Great Pylon.
Such was the power of the gods, or at least the belief therein, that according to an inscription on the base of the eastern obelisk standing in front of the Great Pylon, during the reign of Ptolemy VIII, Euergetes II, and Cleopatra III his second wife, the priests complained that they were being forced to refund the expenses of civil and military authorities incurred during their stay at Philae.
 The priests were not being left enough resources with which to continue sacrifices and libations for the welfare of the royal family. Euergetes II released the priests from further payments.
The Island of Philae lied about four miles south of modern Elephantine, just to the other side of the Old Aswan Dam. It only measured about 500 yards from north to south and 160 yards from east to west, which meant that it was almost entirely covered with temples and other monuments. These were protected from the Nile Flood during ancient times by high walls, quays and terraces. In fact, before the building of the first dam, the Island always stayed clear of the river, safe on its granite foundation against the turbulent rush of the flood with its abrasive silt.
Prior to the building of the Aswan Dam, the engineer in charge, Captain Henry Lyon, was asked to underpin the monuments of Philae so that they could withstand the submersion, which he did. He also excavated part of the site where he discovered the remains of some Christian churches.
After the Old Dam was built, it created a lake extending south some 140 miles back to the Sudanese border. In fact, the height of the dam was at first restricted because of the protests made by people interested in preserving Philae and the other temples and monuments from submersion. Winston Churchill cared little for this. He remarked that:

"This offering of 1,500 millions of cubic feet of water to Hathor by the Wise Men of the West is the most cruel, the most wicked and the most senseless sacrifice ever offered on the altar of a false religion. The State must struggle and the people starve, in order that the professors may exult and the tourists find some place to scratch their names."

So the water level was raised, and the temples and structures on Philae were flooded each year from December to about March, and had to be visited during this time by boat, passing through the Kiosk of Trajan and into the court of the Temple of Isis.
All did not turn out as badly as thought, however. The water ended up saving the temples from erosion by sand storms and helped to remove salt deposits which were damaging to the stonework. Regular inspections of the site showed that it suffered less damage than might have been expected, save for the paintwork that was washed away by the new lake created by the Old English Dam.
Then, construction on the High Dam began and, as with a number of other monuments south of Aswan, the temple and other monuments had to either be moved or lost beneath the waters
In reality, Philae would not have been lost under the water of Lake Nasser itself, but rather the lake that was formed between the High Dam and the Old Dam. It was the only major monument located in this region. it would have been almost permanently submerged,
 but worse, this small lake is subject to a daily rise and fall of several yards, which would have inevitably eroded the temples completely.
This was accomplished during the 1970s, when the Philae monuments were moved to Agilkia northwest of Philae Island. Since waters already engulfed the monuments at Philae, a coffer dam had to be built around the island and then the water pumped out. This work began in 1972 and was finished in 1980 as a cooperative effort of UNESCO and the Egyptian Antiquity Organization. The new location was carefully landscaped to make it resemble Philae as much as possible. Some 40,000 blocks, weighing about 20,000 tons were moved to the new location.



The Approach to the Temple of Isis 
Of Philae Island are now located on the nearby reworked Island of Agilika, and Philae is now buried beneath the waters of the lake formed between the Old Aswan Dam and the High Dam, Philae and the neighboring island of Biggeh to the west, in ancient times, formed an integrated religious complex devoted to the cult of Osiris. The ritual focus was Biggeh, the site of the abaton, one of the alleged tombs of Osiris. At Philae, regular visits were paid every tenth day by Isis to the island of Bigeh and the tomb of Osiris.
There are many legends connected to Philae, but the most well known one tells the story of how Isis found the heart of Osiris here after his murder by his brother Seth. Each evening there is a Sound and Light Show which recounts the legends against the magnificent backdrop of the floodlit monuments - a truly magical experience.

Tourist boats on their way to visit the Temples of Philae in Egypt

Philae was dedicated preeminently to Isis, sister-wife to Osiris, and patroness of the Ptolemaic rule. Although Isis was the major deity honored therein, the location of the island on the frontier between Egypt and Nubia meant that cults of Nubia were also featured on the island, represented by significant cult buildings.
There was some evidence at the actual island of Philae of cult activity in honor of Amun, in the time of King Taharqa, who ruled Egypt between 689 and 664 BC in the 25th dynasty, and who probably built an altar of granite to Amun. Perhaps the Kushites, when invading Egypt, established a stronghold on Philae. Traces of mudbrick houses in trenches between the stone foundations of the later temples and the early nilometer west of the mammisi may date to this period.

The monuments on the island are dominated by the great temple of Isis and its associated structures, which are concentrated in the west and center of the island, on, or adjacent to, a granite outcrop which must have been originally chosen as an embodiment of the primeval hill on which the first temple was said to have rested. This hill was reproduced on the new location of the monuments at Agilika.

The Taharqa altar to Amun is the earliest evidence of structures on the island. The known history of Philae does not go back farther than that, and it was not until the Ptolemaic and Roman Periods that Philae rose to importance. The priests believed their island had a far longer history, and as stated above, an inscription at the frontier on the island of Sehel states that as early as the 3rd Dynasty, Djoser gave them the country from the First Cataract to the island of Derar. (Dodekaschoinoi) During Ptolemaic times they held the gold mines of Wadi Alaki within their administrative sphere.

But the earliest known cult building in honor of Isis, known to the Egyptians as Aset, was a small shrine erected in the Saite period by Psamtik II. This was followed by a further small temple on the granite outcrop, erected by Amasis. So it now seems that the Saite kings introduced the cult of Isis into this area and laid the foundations for her subsequent glorification on the island.
The next evidence of building, and the earliest surviving monument of Philae, dates to the 30th Dynasty. Beginning at the ancient quay where boats now land at the southwestern corner of the great temple, the first structure is the kiosk of Nectanebo I, though one may first notice the obvious seating for the sound and light show.  The kiosk or vestibule of Nectanebo is a hall with screen walls linked by graceful columns. Of its original fourteen Hathor pillars, only six remain. The screens between the columns are some six feet high, crowned with concave cornices and rows of uraeus-serpents. The screens are carved with reliefs showing Nectanebo sacrificing to the gods.
From Nectanebo's monument north, there are two colonnades, one on the east side and another on the west of an outer courtyard that leads to the first temple pylon. The western half of the colonnade is the more complete, and is pierced with windows originally looking toward the island of Biggeh. A nilometer descends the cliff from here. The colonnade is about one hundred yards long and contains thirty-one of the original thirty-two columns. The column capitals tops are floral, and remarkable in their variety with no two being alike. Most of the columns show carvings of Tiberius offering gifts to the gods. The ceiling, which is mostly destroyed, is decorated with stars and and flying vultures, while the rear wall has two rows of bas-reliefs of Tiberius and Agustus offering to the gods.
The eastern colonnade was never completed. On the south it abuts the temple of Arsenuphis, or Iry-hemes-nufer just to the north of the vestibule of Nectanebo. Arensnuphis was an obscure Nubian lion-god venerated as the companion of Isis. The temple was built by Ptolemy IV Philopator and extended by Ptolemy V Epiphanes. Here, the reliefs depict Ptolemy V before Isis and other gods, and also Ptolemy IV  before Isis, Horus and Unnefer. The shrine was enclosed by walls that are ruined in some places but which have representations of Tiberius worshipping Osiris, Isis, Harsieses (Horus the Elder), Nephthys, Khnum, Satis, Anukis, Arsenuphis and Tefnut.
The eastern colonnade is partly roofed and has seventeen columns, only six of which have their capitals completed. Behind (to the north) of the Temple of Arsenuphis and to the east of the eastern colonnade is the ruined chapel of Mandulis, another Nubian deity. At the northern end of the colonnade is the Temple of Imhotep. In it, Ptolemy V Epiphanes is shown before the deified Imhotep.
Just beyond the temple of Imhotep and the first Great Pylon of the Temple of Isis is the Gate of Ptolemy II Philadelphus, with depictions of the Ptolemaic Pharaoh being led forward by Isis.
Just before the main gateway to the first pylon are two Roman style lions carved from pink granite that have been re-erected on this island from their fallen position on the old Island of Philae. Two obelisks once also stood here, erected by Ptolemy VIII Euergetes II and his second wife, Cleopatra III (who by the way is not the more famous Cleopatra VII). On the base of the eastern obelisk was the inscription complaining to the royal that the priests of Isis at Philae were being forced to refund the expenses of civil and military authorities incurred during their stay on the island.
These obelisks made of pink granite are not lost to us, but may now be found at Kingston Lacy in Dorset in the UK. The eastern obelisk, which measures 6.7 meters tall and weighs six tons, was found on its side half-buried and its western counterpart was badly damaged and only about a third of it remained. They were taken by Mr. Ralph Bankes for his garden. Interestingly, they were partly instrumental in the decipherment of hieroglyphics. The  Rosetta  Stone  bears  many  inscription of Ptolemy in hieroglyphics, demotic  script  and  Greek.  From these inscriptions, it  was  possible for the French  Egyptologist Jean-Francois Champollion to identify the hieroglyphic form of the name, by using the same method, Bankes  pointed out the hieroglyphic form of the name, Cleopatra, which was unknown before. But these obelisks, or at least the eastern one, has a more interesting history than this.
Two of the most avid collectors of antiquities in Egypt around this time (1819) were the British Consul, Henry Salt, and the Consul-General of France, Bernardino Drovetti. They both gave money to local chiefs throughout Egypt who then saw to it that other collectors were either warned off or not supplied with labor. It was Salt, of course, who actually obtained the obelisks for Ralph Bankes, and Salt was lucky enough to have as his agent the giant Italian adventurer, Giovanni Belzoni, nicknamed the strongman of Egyptology.
On hearing of this matter concerning the obelisks at Philae, Drovetti claimed that they belonged to him, but grandly ceded the ownership to Bankes. Belzoni, who Salt tasked with their transport, thought that Drovetti had found it impossible to find ways of transporting the first obelisk (the complete, eastern one) through the cataract and had relinquished his claim for this reason. Given the size of the obelisk, he may have been right.
The obelisk was levered and pushed on rollers to a stout wooden pier for shipment, "But, alas," writes Bezoni, "when the obelisk came gradually from the sloping bank and all its weight rested on it, the pier, with the obelisk and some of the men, took a slow movement, and majestically descended into the river."
Nevertheless, Belzoni and his men hauled it out of the mud and got it loaded onto a boat for its journey to Cairo. Yet the story does not end there, for Drovetti had, it seems, not given up. Drovetti's men intercepted Belzoni on his way to Aswan and it was only after a long altercation which ended in gun-fire and the arrival of Drovetti himself that the monument was allowed to proceed on its way. It was shipped to England on the Despatch in May, 1821 and not erected in Bankes garden until 1827. In the interval, Bankes returned to Egypt in 1822 to collect the broken western obelisk.

Temple of Isis Inner Chambers and Structures to the West

Formerly on Philae Island, the gate of the Second Pylon gives way to a small open court, which is part of a hypostyle hall. Amelia Edwards said of it:

"Here is a place in which time seems to have stood as still as in that immortal palace where everything went to sleep for a hundred years. The bas-reliefs on the walls, the intricate paintings on the ceilings, the colours upon the capitals are incredibly fresh and perfect. These exquisite capitals have long been the wonder and delight of travellers in Egypt. They are all studied from natural forms - from the lotus in bud and blossom, the papyrus, and the palm. Conventionalised with consummate skill, they are at the same time so justly proportioned to the height and girth of the columns as to give an air of wonderful lightness to the whole structure."

The court at one time had a colonnade on its east and west sides, but today contains only ten columns. The little court was separated from the vestibule beyond it by screen walls uniting four columns, behind which four other columns helped support the roof of the hall. On the east site, the reliefs have been replaced by Coptic Christian crosses before which a Christian altar was erected in about 500 AD. At that time there were dedicated several churches here, including one to the Virgin Mary and one to Saint Stephen, the former being the standard Christian substitute for Isis and the second a highly appropriate replacement for Harendotes. On the side doorway leading to a room on the right is another inscription to Bishop Theodorus, made during the reign of Justinian 527-565 AD), claiming credit for this "good work". A similar inscription commemorates the archaeological expedition of 1841 sent by Pope Gregory XVI.
Three small antechambers, flanked by dark rooms, leads to the sanctuary which is lit by two small windows. It still contains the pedestal placed here by Ptolemy III Euergetes I and his wife Berenice for the image of Isis in her sacred bark. The granite shrines (naos) were removed to European museums during the 19th century. From her sanctuary, the statue of Isis would have been carried out in processions from the temple on her ceremonial barque to make the short crossing to the island of Bigeh to visit the tomb of her spouse, Osiris.

Surrounding the sanctuary are the Osiris chambers reached by a short staircase on the west side of the temple which leads to the roof. Having Osirian rooms on the roof of the temple was standard during the Graeco-Roman Period, though here they are sunk well below the level of the roof at each of its four corners. The Osiris room has its own vestibule with scenes of gods bewailing the dead Osiris, and the inner room contains scenes relating to the collection of the god's sacred limbs. To reach these, after ascending the stairs, one then descends to the first room where the Nile-god offers libations of milk to the soul or Ba of Osiris, sitting before him in the form of a bird. In the second room is the falcon-headed mummy of Osiris. In the third room the god Shu and the Emperor Antoninus, who built the room, stand before Osiris and his two sisters Isis and Nephthys. Still another room on the roof shows Isis and Nephthys by the nude body of Osiris, lying on a bier. The frog-headed Heket and the falcon-headed Harsiesis stand by the bier beneath which are depicted four canopic jars for the entrails of the god. The other walls show the corpse of Osiris among marsh plants with a priest pouring consecrated water. The jackal headed Anubis stands by the bier of Osiris beside which kneel Isis and Nephthys.

Once these scenes were bright with brilliant colors, the columns and capitals scintillating in the clear sunshine against vivid blue skies. As Robert Curzon rote, "Excepting the Pyramids, nothing struck me so much as when on a bright moonlight night I first entered the court of the great temple of Philae".
The outside walls of the temple are covered with reliefs largely dating from the reign of Tiberius. On the west side of the temple itself are several other structures that must be considered a part of the overall structure. Just to the west o the second Pylon stands a gateway and a ruined vestibule built by Emperor Hadrian. On the lintel of the gate Hadrian stands before Osiris, Isis and Harsiesis. Within the gateway, Marcus Aurelius stands before Osiris and below this scene, he offers grapes and flowers to Isis.
The uncompleted vestibule shows Nephthys presenting the crown of Lower Egypt and Isis the Crown of Upper Egypt to Horus. On one wall is a relief of Isis watching Osiris being carried on the back of a crocodile across the Nile. Another relief on the north wall shows Isis, Nephthys, Horus, Amun and Hathor worshipping the Hawk-god rising over the river beneath the island of Bigeh. This island has a vulture perched on it and beneath this is a cave surrounded by a serpent holding the figure of Hapi, the Nile God, representing the source of the Nile.
Also, at the northern end of the western colonnade that fronts the temple is one of the few ancient nilometers remaining in Egypt, which was used to measure the Nile flood in ancient times.
The Temple of Isis, which was moved from old Philae Island due to the building of the High Dam south of Aswan to its present location on Agilkia Island, beautiful as it is, has one further distinction. it was the last surviving outpost of the old Egyptian pagan religion. Some say that Christianity and the pagan religion, for a time, were practiced here side by side until the pagan priesthood was officially disbanded by Justinian in about 550 AD.

Other Structures on the Island

monuments besides the temple of Isis that were moved from Philae to Agilika Island, some of which are extraordinary monuments. To the north of Hadrian's gate on the western side of the island and of the Temple of Isis is the ruined temple built by the Emperor Claudius and dedicated to Harendotes, "Horus the protector (or avenger) of his Father", one of the many forms of Horus.

North of the Temple of Isis is the ruined temple of Augustus, which was built in the eighteenth year of his reign. Notably, a stone bearing a trilingual inscription of Cornelius Gallus was found here. Gallus was the first Roman Prefect appointed after the death of Cleopatra VII. Now in the Egyptian Antiquities Museum in Cairo, it records his victory when he successfully suppressed a revolt by the Egyptians in 29 BC. North of this is the Roman town gate that leads to a quay, also built by the Romans along the northeast side of the island. This spectacular gate was probably a triumphal arch built by the Roman Emperor Diocletian.
Down south from here on the eastern side of the island adjacent to the main temple complex of Isis is the temple of Hathor, built by Ptolemy VI Philometor and Ptolemy VIII Euergetes II. It consists of a colonnaded hall and a forecourt. The colonnade was decorated by Augustus and is filled with carvings of festivities in recognition of Isis and Hathor, the Aphrodite of Greece and goddess of all the joys of the senses. Here we find scenes of music and drinking. Augustus offers a festal crown to Isis and flowers to Nephthys. Bes is also here, beating a tambourine and playing a harp, while an ape plays a lute. In fact, flute players, harpers and dancing apes flow round the pillars while priests carry in an antelope for the feast.
Further south is the last important monument on the island itself, which always seems to catch the eye of the visitor. This is the so-called Kiosk, sometimes referred to as "Pharaoh's Bed". The rectangular building has fourteen columns with beautifully carved floral capitals that once supported a wooden roof. Only two of the screen walls between the columns are completed. They show the Emperor Trajan burning incense before Isis and Osiris and offering wine to Isis and Horus. The Kiosk is often ascribed to Trajan, but is might well have been built earlier than this, possibly during the reign of Augustus. This unfinished building is one of the most popular monuments of Philae and was in ancient times the formal entrance to the island.
In addition to these ruins, there are also two ancient Coptic churches, as well as the remains of a Coptic monastery. Reportedly, there were as many as two additional Christian churches on the original island, and there is a Bishop of Philae mentioned in the year 362 AD. The original island of Philae contained mud-brick settlement remains on the northern part of the island, and to the east and southeast, which would have originally housed the staff that served the temple, but these structures were left to be flooded by the lake.
Before leaving Philae, we must also mention the island of Bigeh (Biggeh, Biga), located just to the south of new Philae and a little to the west of the original island. By the start of the Graeco-Roman Period, this site had come to be viewed as both the tomb of Osiris and the source of the Nile, which was believed to issue from a cavern deep beneath the island. A special sanctuary was built there in ancient times, but the area was prohibited to people and thus became known in Greek as the Abaton, or "forbidden place". According to legend, the left leg of Osiris was buried here after his body had been cut up by his brother Seth. The burial place on Bigeh was said to be surrounded by 365 altars on which the priests laid daily offerings of milk. Although originally of greater religious importance than nearby Philae, Bigeh thus remained outside the normal development cycle of temple building and growth, so it was Philae that was developed instead. The remains of the small temple at Bigeh are on the eastern side of the island, opposite the location of the original Philae.
Once every ten days and on annual festivals, the statue of Isis was carried out of her temple at Philae to visit the tomb of her husband on Bigeh.
It is difficult to overrate the importance of the religious complex at Philae. It provides us with a major late cult center which is exceptionally well preserved. Beginning in the Saite period and continuing into the 30th Dynasty it underwent a spectacular flowering in the Graeco-Roman Period and, because of the circumstances of its dismantling and removal, there is possibly a unique insight into its architectural evolution until and including its conversion to a Christian center. As the last bastion of the ancient Egyptian religious culture, it is no coincidence that the latest datable hieroglyphic inscription (August 24, 394 AD) comes from Philae. The latest demotic inscription is also found here, dating to 452 AD.
It seems only fitting to depart Philae with words of Amelia Edwards, as she too leaves the island:

"It has been a hot day, and there is dead calm on the river. My last sketch finished, I wander slowly round from spot to spot, saying farewell to Pharaoh's Bed - to the Painted Columns - to every terrace, palm, and shrine, and familiar point of view. I peep once again into the mystic chamber of Osiris. I see the sun set for the last time from the roof the the Temple of Isis. Then, when all that wondrous flush of rose and gold has died away, comes the warm afterglow. No words can paint the melancholy beauty of Philae at this hour. The surrounding mountains stand out jagged and purple against a pale amber sky. The Nile is glassy. Not a breath, not a bubble, troubles the inverted landscape. Every palm is twofold; every stone is doubled. The big boulders in med-stream are reflected so perfectly that it is impossible to tell where the rock ends and the water begins. The Temples, meanwhile, have turned to a subdued golden bronze; and the pylons are peopled with shapes that glow with fantastic life, and look ready to step down from their places.
The solitude is perfect, and there is a magical stillness in the air. I hear a mother crooning to her baby on the neighbouring island - a sparrow twittering in its little nest in the capital of a column below by feet - a vulture screaming plaintively among the rocks in the far distance.
I look; I listen; I promise myself that I will remember it all in years to come - all these solemn hills, these silent colonnades, these deep, quiet places of shadow, these sleeping palms. Lingering till it is all but dark, I at last bed them farewell, fearing lest I may behold them no more."