The Overland Guide-book

The whole north wall is covered with historical sculptures, all of which were originally painted, representing the conquests of Osirien, the father of Sesostris. Some little attention is required to see them well. One group is more curious than the rest: the king has caught his adversary with the bow-string, and is decapitating him. Notice the triumphal return to Thebes, and remark the Nile (distinguished by crocodiles) with a bridge thrown across it.

To the south of the great temple is a tank, then come several immense propyla, part of an avenue of sphinxes, and lastly some remains of a considerable temple which was surrounded by a lake.

To the north are other remains, with a handsome propylon of Ptolemaic date, and an avenue of sphinxes.

The temple, second in importance at Karnak, is of the Pharaonic period, but approached by a pylon of Ptolemaic date, at the extremity of the great avenue of sphinxes leading to Luxor. On the right of the first or hypœtheral court, notice a sculpture illustrating the manner in which the flag masts were raised before the temples. Adjoining this temple, and on its west side, is a small temple of Oph, in which travellers sometimes lodge.

From Karnak to Luxor, it is easy to trace the line of sphinxes, which connected the palace of the latter with the temples of the former.

Luxor, with the exception of the sanctuary, is entirely Pharaonic, having been founded by Amanoph III., and finished by Rameses II., in the 15th century B.C. The granite sanctuary, like that of Karnak, is a restoration, and of the same age. In one of the halls, approachable from the river side, observe a curious set of sculptures, relative to the birth of the founder of the palace. His mother, the queen, is seated on the stool of accouchement, surrounded by midwives and genii. The latter present him the emblem of life. A little farther on, the infant is presented to and caressed by Amunre; and Thoth, the god of letters, is choosing for him his prenomen, "Sun, Lord of Justice and of Truth."

To see the interesting sculptures on the great propylon, it is necessary to visit the palace at an early hour. They relate to the conquests of Rameses II., but much attention is required to make out their details. In the midst of the fortified camp is a lion, the companion of Sesostris in war.

Lybian Suburb.– To see the tomb of the kings, one night should be passed in the valley of Biban el Melook; but the entrance of one of the excavations affords sufficient accommodation. That of Belzoni is usually preferred.

Belzoni's tomb (that of Osirien, whose conquests are de picted on the north side of the great temple of Karnak) is the most magnificent; next to that, the tomb of Rameses III. is the most interesting. It is near an angle of the rock, and will be readily distinguished by the recesses on either side of the principal shaft. These little cabinets contain some exceedingly curious sculptures or paintings, and it is from one of them that Bruce drew his harp scene.

The tombs of the queens are in a separate valley, to the west of Mehdenet Habor.

At Goorneh (old Goorneh) is the palace of Osirien. In the Aposiet are some remains of a very ancient temple, of which a portion is cut in the rock, – an arch (not masonic) very similar to those of Abydus. Between the Aposiet and the Memnonium are many tombs deserving attention.

The Memnonium (now perhaps more properly called the Rameseion, i. e., "Rameseseion," the "house of Rameses") is the most uniform and elegant of Egyptian structures. Pay particular attention to all the battle scenes, to the immense statue of Rameses II., supposed to have weighed nearly a thousand tons, to the circumstance of the bases of the columns of the hepastyle being made seats – to a very remarkable sculpture at the western extremity of the hall – to the private apartments which follow – the Pharaoh seated in the sacred Persia – the next apartment, supposed to be the library – traces of gilding on the doorways, &c.

The Colossi in the Plain.– Of these the northern one is the vocal statue of the ancients. It is of Amunoph III., the founder of Luxor, who reigned in the 15th century, B.C. Wilkinson discovered the means of deception; a stone, which, when struck, produces a sound similar to that described by Strabo or Pausanias, is still to be found in the lap. The other statue bears the same cartouches, and both are supposed by Wilkinson to have stood at the commencement of a dromio or avenue of the sphinxes running nearly twelve hundred feet towards an indistinct mass of buildings now called Kom el Hattan. Champollion and some architects suppose that they stood before a propylon.

Mehdenet Habor.– A temple-palace, a private palace or harem, and a temple. The harem is very interesting, but partly destroyed. It consists principally of a pavilion in advance of the palace, and in it are some curious sculptures, among which the king is represented playing chess with his ladies. A ladder is necessary.

The great temple-palace is remarkable not only for its architecture, but for the sculptures representing the conquests of Rameses III. (about the 13th century, B.C.) These are particularly remarkable in the hypœtheral court, where there is exhibited, in the northern side, a magnificent pageant, the coronation of the Pharaoh. The whole exterior of the northern side of the building is covered with battle scenes. Among the heaps of hands poured out before the conqueror are lions' paws. There are also heaps of phalia.

The great lake, for the ceremonies of the dead (the hippodrome of the French savans), will be best distinguished from the top of the pavilion. There are several other remains, and tombs without number.

There is no trace, whatever, of a wall of circumvallation, though the crude brick enclosures of the temples still remain.

We add to the foregoing, the observations of other writers upon the subject of some of the most interesting of these wondrous antiquities.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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,14or 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.

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 Philœ, 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 Philœ, 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 Philœ 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.