Part 7

LUXOR.--In approaching this temple from the north, the first object is a magnificent propylon, or gateway, which is two hundred feet in length, and the top of it fifty-seven feet above the present level of the soil. In front of the entrance are the two most perfect obelisks in the world, each of a single block of red granite, from the quarries of Elephantine; they are between seven and eight feet square at the base, and above eighty feet high; many of the hieroglyphical figures with which they are covered are an inch and three quarters deep, cut with the greatest precision. Between these obelisks and the propylon are two colossal statues, also of red granite; though buried in the ground to the chest, they still measure twenty-one and twenty-two feet from thence to the top of their mitres. The attention of the traveller is soon diverted from these masses to the sculptures which cover the eastern wing of the north front of the propylon, on which is a very animated description of a remarkable event in the campaigns of Osymandrias or Sesostris. The ruined portico, which is entered from the gateway, is of very large dimensions; from this a double row of seven columns, with lotus capitals, two-and-thirty feet in circumference, conducts you into a court, one hundred and sixty feet long, and one hundred and forty wide, terminating at each side by a row of columns, beyond which is another portico of thirty-two columns, and the adytum, or interior apartments of the building.

The temple of Luxor was probably built on the banks of the Nile, for the convenience of sailors and wayfaring men; where, without much loss of time, they might stop, say their prayers, present their offerings, &c. Great and magnificent as it is, it only serves to show us the way to a much greater, to which it is hardly more in comparison than a kind of porter's lodge; I mean the splendid ruin of the temple at Karnak. The distance from Luxor to Karnak is about a mile and a half, or two miles. The whole road was formerly lined with a row of sphinxes on each side. At present these are entirely covered up for about two-thirds of the way, on the end nearest to Luxor. On the latter part of the road, near Karnak, a row of criosphinxes (that is, with a ram's head and a lion's body), still exist on each side of the way.

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KARNAK.--The name of Diospolis is sufficient to entitle us to call the grand temple at Karnak the temple of Jupiter. This temple has twelve principal entrances, each of which is composed of several propyla and colossal gateways, or _moles_, besides other buildings attached to them, in themselves larger than most other temples. One of the propyla is entirely of granite, adorned with the most finished hieroglyphics. On each side of many of them have been colossal statues of basalt, breccia and granite; some sitting, some erect, from twenty to thirty feet in height.

The body of the temple, which is preceded by a large court, at the sides of which are colonnades of thirty columns in length, and through the middle of which are two rows of columns fifty feet high, consisting, first of a prodigious hall, or portico, the roof of which is sustained by one hundred and thirty-four columns, some of which are twenty-six feet in circumference, and others thirty-four; there are four beautiful obelisks marking the entrance by the adytum, near which the monarch is represented as embraced by the arms of Isis.

The adytum itself consists of three apartments, entirely of granite. The principal room, which is in the centre, is twenty feet long, sixteen wide, and thirteen feet high. Three blocks of granite form the roof, which is painted with clusters of gilt stars on a blue ground. Beyond are other porticoes and galleries, which have been continued to another propylon, at the distance of two thousand feet from that at the western extremity of the temple.

It may not be uninteresting to add a few particulars relative to this temple, the largest, perhaps, and certainly one of the most ancient, in the world.

Two of the porticoes within it appear to have consisted of pillars in the form of human figures, in the character of Hermes, that is, the lower part of the body hidden, and unshapen, with his arms folded, and in his hand the insignia of divinity; perhaps the real origin of the Grecian Caryatides.

Exclusive of these columnar statues, which have been thirty-eight in number, and the least of them thirty feet high, there are fragments, more or less mutilated, of twenty-three other statues, in granite, breccia and basalt; seventeen of which are colossal, and have been placed in front of the several entrances. They are in general from twenty-five to thirty feet in height, and executed in the best Egyptian style.

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BIBAN-OOL-MOOLK, OR, THE TOMBS OF THE KINGS, is a most dismal-looking spot, a valley of rubbish, without a drop of water or blade of grass. The entrance to the tombs looks out from the rock like the entrance to so many mines; and, were it not for the recollections with which it is peopled, and the beautiful remains of ancient art which lie hid in the bosom of the mountain, would hardly ever be visited by man or beast. The heat is excessive, from the confined dimensions of the valley and the reflection of the sun from the rock and sand. The whole valley is filled with rubbish that has been washed down from the rock or carried out in the making of the tombs, with merely a narrow road up the centre.

Diodorus Siculus states, on the authority of the Egyptian priests, that forty-seven of these tombs were entered in their sacred registers, only seventeen of which remained in the time of Ptolemy Lagus. And in the 180th Olympiad, about 60 years B.C., when Diodorus Siculus was in Egypt, many of these were greatly defaced. Before Mr. Belzoni began his operations in Thebes, only eleven of these tombs were known to the public. From the great success that crowned his exertions, the number of them is nearly double. The general appearance of these tombs is that of a continued shaft, or corridor, cut in the rock, in some places spreading out into large chambers; in other places, small chambers pass off by a door from the shafts, &c. In some places, where the rock is low and disintegrated, a broad excavation is formed on the surface, till it reaches a sufficient depth of solid stones, when it narrows, and enters by a door of about six or eight feet wide, and about ten feet high.

The passage then proceeds with a gradual descent for about a hundred feet, widening or narrowing, according to the plan or object of the architect, sometimes with side chambers, but more frequently not. The beautiful ornament of the globe, with the serpent in its wings, is sculptured over the entrance. The ceiling is black, with silver stars, and the vulture, with outspread wings, holding a ring and a broad-feathered sceptre by each of his feet, is frequently repeated on it, with numerous hieroglyphics, which are white or variously-coloured. The walls on each side are covered with hieroglyphics, and large sculptured figures of the deities of Egypt, and of the hero for whom the tomb was excavated. Sometimes both the hieroglyphics and the figures are wrought in intaglio; at other times they are in relief; but throughout the same tomb they are generally all of one kind. The colours are green, blue, red, black and yellow, and, in many instances, are as fresh and vivid as if they had not been laid on a month. Intermixed with the figures, we frequently meet with curious devices, representing tribunals where people are upon their trials, sometimes undergoing punishment; the preparation of mummies, and people bearing them in procession on their shoulders; animals tied for sacrifice, and partly cut up; and occasionally the more agreeable pictures of entertainments, with music and dancing, and well-dressed people listening to the sound of the harp played by a priest, with his head shaved, and dressed in a loose, flowing white robe, shot with red stripes.

Two other colossal statues, called also by some the statues of Memnon, are in the plain, about half-way between the desert and the river. They are about fifty feet high, and seated each on a pedestal six feet in height, eighteen long, and fourteen broad. The stone of which they are formed is of a reddish grey.

These two statues are by the Arabs familiarly called Shamy and Damy.

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MEDINET HABOO.--One outward inclosure, or brick wall, seems to have contained three distinct, though connected, buildings, to which we may arbitrarily assign the names of the chapel, the palace and the temple. The principal entrance to the palace from the plain being blocked up, it is only to be approached now by a side doorway from the pronaos of the chapel. Of this building, which may once have been the residence of the sovereigns of Egypt, one tower only is remaining. This was divided into three stories, in each of which are two apartments. The stone pavement of the lower rooms is still perfect, but the upper floors and the wooden beams which supported them have entirely disappeared. The interior walls have not such a profusion of sculptures as those without. At each side of one of the windows is an Isis, with the hawk's wing, kneeling, and wearing the lunar crescent on her head. At another window are four projecting sphinxes; and in a corner of one of the rooms are two females, with baskets of lotuses on their heads, carrying a plate of cakes to the king, who is sitting; before him stands another female, with the same head-dress, stretching out her arm, while he puts some of the delicacies into his mouth.

Ebek, the most northern of all the Theban monuments, is only remarkable because the plan on which it is constructed is very different from that of all other temples in Egypt. It has a single row of columns in front, and the rest of the building is distributed into a variety of comparatively small apartments.

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MEMNONIUM.--The term Memnonium is used by Strabo to designate that part of ancient Thebes which lies on the western side of the river. The French _savans_, however, without sufficient reason, have restricted it to the magnificent ruin which we are going to describe. This beautiful relic of antiquity looks to the east, and is fronted by a stupendous propylon, of which two hundred and thirty-four feet in length are still remaining. The propylon stands on the edge of the soil; but the area cultivable, or space for the dromos behind it, is floored by the solid rock, on which the rest of the temple is erected. The eastern wall is much fallen down, and both ends are greatly dilapidated. Every stone in the propylon appears to have been shaken and loosened in its place, as if from the concussion of an earthquake, for no human violence seems adequate to produce such an effect in such an immense mass of building as that under consideration. A stair enters from each end, by which to ascend to the top of the propylon, from which passages go off in a number of chambers, as in the temples of Phylæ Edifore, &c.

This colossus measures six feet ten inches over the foot, and sixty-two or sixty-three feet round the shoulders. It has been broken off at the waist, and the upper part is laid prostrate on the back; the face is entirely obliterated, and, next to the wonder excited at the boldness of the sculptor who made it, and the extraordinary powers of those who erected it, the labour and exertions that must have been used for its destruction, are most astonishing. It could only have been brought about with the help of military engines, and must then have been the work of time. Its fall has carried along with it the whole of the wall of the temple which stood within its reach. It was not without great difficulty and danger that we could climb on its shoulder and neck, and in going from thence upon its chest, assisted by Arab servants.

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DENDERA.--The centuries that this great temple of Venus has seen have scarcely affected it in any important part; and have given it no greater appearance of age and ruin than what serves to render it more venerable and imposing. After seeing innumerable monuments of the same kind throughout the Thebaid, it seemed as if we were now arrived at the highest pitch of architectural excellence that was ever attained on the borders of the Nile. Here we found concentrated the united labour of ages, and the last effort of human art and industry in that regular uniform line of construction, which had been adopted in the earliest times. After admiring the general effect of the whole mass, its elegance, solidity, correct proportions and graceful outlines, it was difficult to decide what particular objects were to be first examined. Whether its sculptures or paintings, typical and ornamental, the distribution of the interior apartments, the details of the capitals and columns, the mystical meaning of particular representations here seen for the first time; the zodiacs,[14] or the other celestial phenomena, sculptured on the ceilings, all seemed objects of high interest and importance, all invited a nearer and closer inspection. The portico consists of twenty-four columns in three rows, each above twenty-two feet in circumference, thirty-two high, and covered with hieroglyphics. The peculiar form of the square capital, with a front face of the goddess on each side, particularly attracted our attention. We were at first struck by the singularity of an idea so foreign to the common notions of Greek architecture; but the eye is soon reconciled to it; and the solemn and mild monotony of these faces impresses the spectator with a silent, reverential awe, a willing conviction of the immediate presence of the deity of the place in her most gracious character; and, indeed, the Greeks, in their Caryatides, seem in some degree to have added their sanction to the principle.

[Footnote 14: The principal zodiac has since been removed.]

The sekos, or the interior of the temple, consists of several apartments, all the walls and ceilings of which are in the same way covered with religious and astronomical representations. The roofs are, like the rest in Egypt, flat; the oblong masses of stone resting on the side walls; and, when the distance of these is too great, one or two rows of the columns are carried down the middle of the apartment, by which the roof is supported. The capitals of these columns are very richly ornamented with the budding lotus, the stalks of which being carried down some way below the capital, give the shaft the appearance of being fluted, or rather scolloped.

The following, gleaned from other sources, will, perhaps, be also acceptable as a guide to the sight-seer.

No person ought to leave Egypt without visiting Assowan and Philoe, particularly if he go up as high as Thebes; for he can form no correct judgment of Egypt and her wonderful and gigantic works, unless he sees the temples and shrubberies at Esireh Fdjou, Koon, Ombes, Assowan, and Philoe, as well as those in the Thebaid and at Tentyra. By traversing Egypt from Alexandria to Assowan, you can with ease inspect all those wonderful remains of labour and art, unequalled in the world for extent or size as architectural works, and which, to the mind of the observer, place beyond doubt the wealth, the power, the science, and great population of ancient Egypt. To attempt to convey to a person who has not seen structures of the kind, any idea of what these ruins are, is out of the question. In the granite quarries at Assowan, from whence these immense monuments were taken, are two unfinished sarcophagi and an obelisk cut and formed, but still attached to the native rock. The obelisk is shaped out and cut round on all sides except its under one, a bed which still attaches it to the rock. It measures 76 feet in length, and 12 feet broad, and in depth to the drift-sand in which it has imbedded itself 6 feet thick. The marks of the workman's chisel and wedge, with which instruments, it appears, these immense masses have been disjoined from the native rock, are as fresh as if they had been applied but yesterday. It is inconceivable how such entire masses could have been taken from their bed to the Nile, a distance of at least a mile and a half, and from thence transported to where we see them still standing, seventy, eighty, and ninety feet in height, and eight, ten and twelve feet square at the base, as at Luxor, Karnak, Helipolis, Frorun, and at Alexandria, covered with deeply engraved figures and hieroglyphics, in some places still bearing a glossy and fresh polish. In the island of Philoe there are some beautiful and extensive remains of Egyptian, as also one of Grecian, architecture. Leaving Luxor in the night of the third of May, we arrived at Khenneh the following day, and, after visiting the temple of Hentyra or of Isis, on the opposite bank of the Nile, and remaining an hour or two at Khenneh, we left that place for Cairo, where we arrived on the sixteenth of the same month.

Passing through the palm-tree grove which covers the high ridge, or mound, formed by the ruins of the ancient Memphis, the traveller approaches a small open circular plain, which is supposed to have been the Archerusian Lake of the city; on the south side of this, the large colossal statue of Sesostris is to be seen. It was discovered and laid open by Mr. Sloane and M. Coriglier, and is the most perfect statue in Egypt, and the most beautifully formed. It lies with its face downwards. It is broken off below the ankle, and the entire length of the block now remaining is thirty-six feet six inches. The ruins of the edifice before which it had stood are apparent under the rubbish which surrounds the place. The ancient Necropolis of Paccachia, or, as some writers suppose, of the city of Memphis, extends for miles round the pyramids. Indeed, from the pyramids of Dashores to those of Cheops and Copprieves, is one continued burying-ground. The pyramids of Dashores, as well as those of Saccachara, and the excavations and tombs in the rocks, may be inspected in one day. We landed at Goza, and took donkeys, and passed the day in visiting the large pyramids. The following morning we passed the island of Rhode, visited the Nilometer, and, after sailing down about half a mile, and passing the aqueducts of Lubuddia, about one-hundred yards, landed again on the island, and entered the gardens of Ibrahim Pacha.

Another writer gives the following outline of the interesting sights to be seen on the Nile.

On the eastern bank, eight miles to the south of Cairo, quarries of Maasara, from which the stone used for part of the casing of the pyramids was taken. Some hieroglyphic tablets, in one of which oxen are represented drawing a stone placed on a sledge. A little beyond the modern village is an inclined road, which leads from the quarries to the river. Thirty miles further to the south, on the same bank, is Atfëeh, mounds of Aphroditopolis, no ruins. False pyramid on opposite bank, three miles beyond El Feshu, and on eastern bank, remains of crude brick, the walls of an ancient village, called El Héebee and some hieroglyphics.

From Beuisooef is the road to the Fyoom, which, when the Nile is low, may be visited conveniently. A brick pyramid at Illahoon, another at El Howâra, and vestiges of the labyrinth, obelisk at Biggig, ruins on and near the lake Moeris, and at Qasr Kharoon. From Aboogirgeh is the shortest road to Bahnasa (Oxyriuchus) mounds, no ruins, Gebel é Tayr, north-end, grotto or rock temple, called Babyn, convent further to the south; eight miles below Minyeh is Tehneh (Acoris) on eastern bank, a Greek Ptolemaic inscription on the face of the cliff, tombs hewn in the rock, with small inscriptions at the doors, Roman figures in high relief, on the upper part of the rock, some hieroglyphic tablets, quarries on the top of the mountain, a tank, &c.

Same (eastern bank) seven miles above Minyeh, Komahmar, some grottoes, and ruins of an old town; nine miles farther (eastern hank), Beni Hassan, very fine grottoes, with curious paintings; and about a mile and a half farther, a grotto, or rock temple, of Pasht (Bubastis, or Diana), the Speos Artemidos, cat mummies in the ravine.

Antinöe, now Shekh Abadeh, few remains of the town, a theatre, the principal streets, baths, &c., outside the town, on the east, is the hippodrome. The grottoes in the mountain are unsculptured, and have some Christian inscriptions. A little to the north of Antinöe are the remains, apparently, of Besa, scarcely worthy of a visit.

At El Bersheh, a grotto on the mountain, in which a colossus is represented on a sledge. At Oshmoonayn (western bank) no remains of Hermopolis Magna. At Gebel Toona, a mountain, skirting the desert to the west are mummy-pits, a tablet of hieroglyphics, and statues in high relief. At Mellawee, and at Tamoof Tanis, superior mounds, but no ruins. At Shayda, at corner of mountains, on eastern bank, crude brick walls, and some grottoes.

At Shekh Said, the mountains recede to the eastward, leaving the river, and a little beyond is the village of Tel el Armarnar, to the north of which are the remains of a small town, and to the south the ruins of a city, which I suppose to be Alabastron: all the stone buildings have been quite destroyed, but some of the brick houses remain; near the crude brick towers of the temple are the largest houses. To the east are several fine grottoes in the face of the mountain, with curious sculptures, and on the summit of it is an ancient alabaster quarry. Six miles below Maufaloot, at El Haryib, ruins of an old town, in a ravine of the Gebel Aboolfaydee; numerous dog and cat mummies, near El Maabdeh, opposite Maufaloot; crocodile mummies in chambers of great extent in the mountain.

At E'Sioot (Lycopolis), the capital of Upper Egypt, grottoes, wolf mummies; the modern cemetery is prettily laid out. Gow (Antoepolis) a few stones of the temple, close to the river; some grottoes at the corner of the mountain, to the north, below Gow, but not containing good sculptures. Shekh Hereedee, small grottoes; Roman statue at the base of the mountain, cut out of a piece of a rock. The snake of Shekh Hereedee is still supposed to perform cures.

To the west of Soohag, near the corner of mountains, old town of Athribes, a Greek inscription in the ruined temple, grottoes in the mountain; and to the north is the white monastery, or Dayr Amba Shuoodee, nearly opposite Soohag is E'Khmim (Panopolis) Greek inscription of the temple of Pan, and some remains of other stone buildings.

Mensheeh (Ptolemais Hermii), western bank, eight miles above E'Khmim, remains of a stone quay. From Girgh go to Abydos, three hours ride, and send on the boat to Bellianeh, returning to it in the evening, two hours ride; or, coming down the river, stop at Bellianeh, and send on the boat to Girgeh. At Abydos two temples and many tombs.

How (Diospolis parva) has very few remains of Ptolemaic or Roman time. In mounds at the ridge of the desert, a mile and a half south of How, some tombs; one of Dionysius, son of Ptolemy, has some sculpture.

Qasr e Syad (Chenoboscion), remains of a quay; about one mile beyond the eastern mouth of the canal of this village, are some very ancient grottoes, with kings' names. Dendera (Teutyris) opposite Qeneh, two temples, inscriptions, zodiac, &c. Qeneh is famous for its manufacture of porous jars; from it, roads lead to Kossayr on the Red Sea.

Qoft (Coptos), ruins of the old town, and of a temple, a Christian church, canals, &c.; at the village of El Qala, to the north, is a small Roman Egyptian temple.