edifices rises the mountain, which here attains a height of about I'iOO feet. It gradually recedes in a south- westerly direction, and is sejiarated from the cultiva- ted tract by a strip of desert in which are numerous tombs, partly excavated in two isolated hills, and two small temples. A tortuous valley, which commences not far from the northernmost of the temples on this bank, leads to those valleys in which are excavated the wonderful tombs of the kings, near the highest part of the mountain, which towers above them in bold and jjicturesque forms" {Enqjclop. Britannica, art. Eg3'pt, p. 50G). At the entrance to the temide of El-Uksur stood two verj' line obelisks of red granite, one of which is now in the centre of the Place de la Concorde, at Paris. There is also a portal with wings 200 feet in width, covered wiih sculptures of the highest inter- est, illustrating the time of Rameses II. Within is a magnificent avenue of 14 columns, having capitals of the bill-shaped flowers of the papyrus. They are 60 feet high, and elegantly sculptured. These are of the time of Amenoph III. — On a south portal of the great temjile of El-Karuak is a list of countries sulidued by Sheshonk I, or Shishak, the head of the 22d dynasty. Among the names is that of the kingdom of Judah, as before mentioned. The great hypostyle hall in this temple is the most magnificent woi-k of this class in Egypt. Its length is 170 feet, its width 329; it is supported by 134 columns, the loftiest of which are nearlj- 70 feet in height and about 12 in diameter, and the rest more than 40 feet in height and about 9 in di- emeter. The great columns, 12 in number, form an avenue through the midst of the court from the en- trance, and the others are arranged in rows very near together on each side. There is a tansverse avenue made by two rows of the smaller columns being placed further apart than the rest. This great hall is there- fore crowded with columns, and the efiect is surpass- ingly grand. The forest of pillars seems intermina- ble in whatever direction one looks, producing a result unequalled in any other Egj'ptian temple. This great hall was the work of Sethi I, the head of the 19th- dynasty, who came to the throne B.C. cir. 1340, and it was sculptured partly in his reign and partly in that of his son and successor Rameses II. — The liameseum remains to be briefly noticed. This temple on the edge of the desert is perhaps the most beautiful ruin in Egypt, as Karnak is tiie grandest. It al.'o records the glories of Rameses II, of whom there is in one of its courts a colossal statue hewn out of a single block of red granite, supposed to weigh nearh'- 900 tons, and transported thither from the quarries of Syene. This temple is also noted for containing the celebrated astronomical ceiling, one of the most precious records of ancient Ei^yptian science. Not the least interesting among the monuments of Tiiebes are the tombs of the kings. The sepulchres are 20 or 21 in number. Nine- teen are sculptured, and are the mausolea of kings, of a queen with her consort, and of a prince, all of the 18th, 19th, and 20th dynasties. The paintings and sculp- tures are almost wholly of a religious character, refer- ring chiefly to a future state. Standing on the resting- ])laces of kings and warriors who figured in the history of Egypt while the -world was yet j-oung, and long be- fore tiie age of others whom we are accustomed to con- sider heroes of antiiiuity, it seems as though death it- sell' were innnortalized ; and proudly indeed may those ancient Pharaohs, who laliored so earnestly to preserve their memor}' on earth, look down \\\mu the jialtry ef- forts of later aspirants, and their slender claims to be regarded as either ancient or immortal. Sec Thebes. About twenty miles further south of the site of Thebes is the village of Edfii, representing the town called liy the Greeks Apollinopolis Magna, where is still found in a comparatively jierfect state a temiile of the Ptolemaic jieriod. See Te.^iple. Above Edfu, at .Tcliel es-Silsileh, the mountains on eFther side, which have for some time coufincd the valley to a
narrow space, reach the river, and contract its course ; and higher still, about thirty miles, is the town of As- wan, wliich represents the ancient Syene, and stands among the palm-trees on the eastern bank, opposite to the island of Elephantine. The bed of the river above this place is obstructed by numerous rocks and islands of granite, which form the rapids called the first cata- ract. During the inundation boats are enabled by a strong northerly wind to pass this cataract without aid, and, in fact, at other times the principal rapid has only a fall of five or six feet, and that not peri)endii,-u- lar. The roaring of the ti'oubled stream, and the red granite islands and rocks which stud its surface, give the approach a wild picturesqueness till we reach the open stream, less than two miles further, and the beau- tiful islantl of Philaj suddenly rises before our eyes, completely realizing one's highest idea of a sacred place of ancient Egypt. It is very small, only a quar- ter of a mile long and 500 feet broad, and contains monuments of the time of the Ptolemies. In the des- ert west of the Nile are situate the great and little wahs (oases), and the valley of the Natron lakes, con- taining four Coptic monasteries, the remains of the famous anchorite settlement of Nitria, recently noted for the discovery of various S}'rian MSS. In the east- ern desert the chief town of importance is Es-Suncis, or Suez, the ancient Arsinoe, which gives its name to the western gulf of the Red Sea.