Towns rise from the water's edge; and not only towns, but obelisks, farm-houses, and towers of Graeco-Italian style, more like the buildings depicted in Pompeian landscapes than the monuments of the Pharaohs.

Of these buildings, only the large temple in the middle distance to the right of the picture, with its pylon gateway and its four Osirian colossi, recalls the general arrangement of Egyptian architecture.

To the left, a party of sportsmen in a large boat are seen in the act of harpooning the hippopotamus and crocodile.

To the right, a group of legionaries, drawn up in front of a temple and preceded by a priest, salute a passing galley.

Towards the middle of the foreground, in the shade of an arched trellis thrown across a small branch of the Nile, some half-clad men and women are singing and carousing.