英国语文第六册(双语):尼罗河流域(2)
When the flood is at the highest, the whole valley and delta of the Nile appear as a vast inland sea, dotted with towns and villages, and scattered mounds, barely emerging from the surface. At this season all communication has to be maintained by boats, save where, between places of importance, a few viaducts have been raised. Between September and December the river subsides, and the land is tilled; and by June the harvest has been reaped. But the cultivators of Egypt need not limit their labours to the production of a single crop: in lands advantageously situated as many as three crops are annually raised by means of artificial irrigation, managed by water-wheels of the simplest construction; the crops being chiefly grain, cotton, and indigo.
当洪水泛滥的时候，整个尼罗河河谷和三角洲就像一个巨大的内陆海，城镇和村庄星罗相接，零星的土堆几乎没有露出水面。在这个季节，所有的通讯都必须由船只来维持，除了一些重要地点之间的高架桥。在九月到十二月之间，河水会消退，土地被耕种。到了六月，收割已经完成。不过，埃及的耕种者不需要把他们的劳动限制在单一的农作物上：在地理位置优越的土地上，通过人工灌溉，由最简单的水车进行操作，人们每年可最多种植三种农作物。其中农作物的品种主要是谷物、棉花和木蓝。
Alexandria, the second town of Egypt, and its chief mercantile port, is but a desolate and wretched-looking city, not-withstanding the advantages it has of late years derived from its position in the route of the overland journey to India. The Turkish quarter is yet most filthy and unwholesome, and the mass of the inhabitants are to all appearance plunged in squalor and poverty. This town, which, from its fine harbour, has been termed "The key of Egypt," does not stand on the site of the famous city built by Alexander the Great, which, according to Pliny, was fifteen miles in circuit, and contained three hundred thousand inhabitants. The ancient city, which was burnt to ashes, with its world-renowned library, by the Kaliph Omar, in the year 640, stood to the south of the present Alexandria, on a site which is now covered for the space of six or seven miles in circuit with a confused mass of ruins. Here stands the famous Pompey's Pillar; and hence it was that many of the spoils which enrich the public places and the museums of European cities were derived.
亚历山大港是埃及的第二大城镇，也是埃及的主要商业港。虽说它在通往印度的陆路上占据了优势，但它仍是一座荒凉而破败的城市。土耳其有四分之一的地区仍属最肮脏、最不卫生的地区，从表面上看，大部分居民都生活在肮脏和贫穷之中。这座小城因其优美的海港而被称为“埃及的钥匙”，但它并非坐落在亚历山大大帝建造的著名城市的遗址上。据普林尼所述，这座城市周长15英里，有30万居民。公元640年，位于现亚历山大城南部的古城连同举世闻名的图书馆都被哈里发奥马尔烧成灰烬，之后这里方圆六七英里内都变成了废墟。著名的庞贝柱便矗立在这里，许多丰富了欧洲城市公共场所和博物馆的战利品也出自这里。
