The Visitor,
Sitting On The Porch Or On The Rim At El Tovar, Cannot Realize That Below
His Feet, As
It were, there is an almost exact duplication of the wall and
slopes of talus, the thrilling precipices, the alcoves,
Recesses,
promontories and the like, that he sees on the north side. And yet a trip
down the trail on to the plateaus reveals these stupendous facts in a
manner that is surprising even to those who, for years, have been familiar
with them. How much more, then, is such an experience to a tyro. I have met
men who were world-wide travelers, and who were visiting the Canyon for the
first time; some of these were expert geologists, yet they refused to go
down the trail, with the excuse that they could fully grasp the scenery
from the rim. But that is impossible. The human mind cannot realize the
effects of vastness and power this Canyon scenery produces, except when one
stands below the cliffs and looks up. And where the opportunity is given of
looking both up to towering walls, and down over beetling precipices, the
effect is enhanced.
The Tonto Sandstones. Below the plateau, slight slopes lead the eye to the
last of the stratified rocks, the Tonto sandstones of the Cambrian period.
These are readily distinguished, mainly by their deep buff color and the
fact that generally they are found resting on the archaean or unstratified
rocks, locally though incorrectly termed the granite, which makes the Inner
Gorge through which the river runs. This "granite" is in the main a
blackish gneiss.
The Algonkian Strata. Though the Tonto sandstones usually occupy the
location named, there is a deviation from this in the presence of some
remnants of strata of the Algonkian period, directly opposite El Tovar.
This deviation is discussed in the chapter "How the Canyon was Formed."
These remarkable rocks occur to the left (west) of Bright Angel Creek, and
lie immediately above the gneiss. Their brilliant red reveals them, and
they can be followed up under the base of the Cheops and to a small wash to
the left of Osiris. At the mouth of Bright Angel, they rest upon the
archaean, with the Tonto sandstones above them, but just in front of the
Battleship a break in the gneiss occurs, and on the portion nearest us the
Algonkian strata totally disappear, for the Tonto strata rest directly upon
the gneiss.
Zoroaster, Brahma and Deva Temples. Now, in turn, let the eye rest upon the
temples, towers and buttes that stand in the heart of the Canyon, more or
less detached from the main wall. To the right of Bright Angel Creek,
striking buttes keep guard. The nearest is an angular mass of solid,
unrelieved rock, sloping in a peculiarly oblique fashion. It is Zoroaster
Temple, seven thousand one hundred and thirty-six feet in elevation. Close
behind it is a more ornate and dignified mass, Brahma Temple, named after
the first of the Hindoo triad, the supreme creator, to correspond with the
Shiva Temple, soon to be described, on the right. Shiva, the destroyer;
Brahma, the creator. The one controlling the forces that have destroyed the
strata; the other dominating the powers that have brought these structures
into existence. Brahma is seven thousand five hundred and fifty-four feet
in elevation. Behind Brahma is another butte, which, however, cannot always
be dissevered from the main wall. It has no cap of cherty limestone. It can
be readily discerned, therefore, by its flat-topped appearance. It is Deva
Temple, seven thousand three hundred and forty-four feet above sea level.
Buddha Temple and Cloister; Manu Temple. To the left of the Bright Angel
Gorge, quite an assemblage of buttes awaits inspection. The dominating pile
almost opposite Brahma - across Bright Angel - is Buddha Temple, and below it
is Buddha Cloister. Beyond this is another butte, which, however, at times,
can scarcely be detected from the main walls of the Kaibab. Yet it is a
separate butte of great proportions, and is named Manu Temple, after the
great law-giver of the Hindoos. Buddha's elevation is seven thousand two
hundred and eighteen feet, while Manu's is seven thousand one hundred and
ninety-two.
Cheops Pyramid. To the left of Buddha Temple, and nearer to us, is a
massive though less ornately carved monument than Buddha. It is Cheops
Pyramid, a detached mass of the red-wall limestone, which, however, is
rapidly losing its red color, owing to the disappearance of the red strata
from above. Cheops is five thousand three hundred and fifty feet in
elevation, and is of a peculiar shape, as of some quaint and Oriental
device of symbolic significance.
Isis and Shiva Temples. Just above, and farther to the left, is a peculiar
temple, resting upon sloping taluses of the red strata beneath, its cap
formed of alone, narrow ridge of cross-bedded sandstone. It has two great
cloisters in front, and is named Isis Temple, after the feminine god of the
Egyptians. Isis has an elevation of seven thousand twenty-eight feet, and
is the eastern support of the gigantic rock mountain which towers over all
the lesser structures. This is Shiva Temple, a solid mass, sliced off from
the main Kaibab. The elevation is seven thousand six hundred and fifty
feet, and it is thus described by Dutton, who named it: "It is the
grandest of all the buttes, and the most majestic in aspect, though not the
most ornate. Its mass is as great as the mountainous part of Mount
Washington. The summit looks down six thousand feet into the dark depths of
the inner abyss, over a succession of ledges as impracticable as the face
of Bunker Hill Monument. All around it are side gorges, sunk to a depth
nearly as profound as that of the main channel. It stands in the midst of
a great throng of cloister-like buttes, with the same noble profiles and
strong lineaments as those immediately before us, with a plexus of awful
chasms between.
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