science of the antient Egyptians. There are hieroglyphics, in various divifions, engraved on these obelisks, three of which remain ftanding, and the other is thrown down. Proceeding eastward from the great temple, after croffing heaps of rubbish, we come to a building, called, by Strabo, the Sanctuary, which is fmall. The gate is ornamented with columns, three of which are grouped, and united under one fole capital. Within are various apartments of granite. Here the virgin confecrated to Jupiter was kept, and who offered herself in facrifice after a very extraordinary manner. (y) I have only defcribed thofe parts of the temple, Sir, which are in best preservation. Within its vaft limits are feveral edifices, almost destroyed, which, no doubt, appertained to the priests and facred animals. Near the ruins is a large expanse of water; and we meet, at every step, with remains of columns, (y) Jovi quem præcipué colunt (Thebani) virgo quædam genere clariffima et fpecie pulcherrima facratur ; quales Græci Pallacas vocant. Ea pellicis more cum quibus vult coit ufque ad naturalem corporis purgationem. Poft purgationem, vero, viro datur; fed priufquam nubat, poft pellicatûs tempus, in morture morem lugetur. Strabo, lib. 17. fphinxes, fphinxes, ftatues, coloffal figures, and ruins, fo magnificent that the imagination is kept in continual admiration and amazement. Were the ground, occupied by the various entrances, porticos, and courts, appertaining to the temple, the temple, measured, we fhould find the whole was, at least, half a league in circumference; and that Diodorus Siculus was not deceived, when he allowed it that extent. The plain, lying between Carnac and Luxor, is not lefs than a league in length, and was once covered with the houfes of the of Egyptians, who lived in that eastern part Thebes. Though, according to Diodorus Siculus (2), they were five ftories high, and folidly built, they have not been able to refift the ravages of time and conquerors, but are totally destroyed (a). The ground is at prefent much raised, by the annual floodings (z) Diodorus Siculus, lib. 1. (a) Pocock, deceived by this total deftruction, imagined Thebes formerly contained no great buildings, except the temples, and that the inhabitants there lived in huts, or tents, &c. The teftimony of Diodorus Siculus refutes this affertion, of of the river, which has covered it with feveral feet of mud, and the ruins are below the furface. Corn, flax, and vegetables, grow in the very places where, three thousand years ago, public fquares, palaces, and numerous edifices, were the admiration of the enlightened people who inhabited them. At the farther end of this plain is the village of Luxor, near which are the avenues and remains of another temple, ftill more ruinous than the first. Its extent is spacious, and so are its courts, which are entered under porticos fupported by columns forty feet high, without eftimating the bafe, buried under the fand. Pyramidal majestic gates, abounding in hieroglyphics; the remains of walls built with flags of granite, and which the barbarity of men only could overturn; rows of coloffal marble figures, forty feet high, one third buried in the ground; all declare what the magnificence of the principal edifice, the fcite of which is known by a hill of ruins, must have been. But nothing can give a more fublime idea of its grandeur than the two obelisks, by which it was embellished, and which feem to have been placed there by by giants, or the Genii of fable. They are each a folid block of granite, feventy-two feet high, above the furface, and thirty-two in circumference; but, being funk deep in the fand and mud, they may well be supposed ninety feet from the bafe to the fummit. The one is fplit, towards the middle; the other perfectly preferved. The hieroglyphics they contain, divided into columns, and cut in bas-relief projecting an inch and a half, do honour to the sculptor; the hardness of the stone has preserved them from being injured by the air. Nothing can be more majestic than these obelisks. Egypt is the fole country in the world where men have performed works like thefe; yet there is not a city on the face of the globe where they would not become its grandest ornament. Such, Sir, are the most remarkable monuments found at present, on the eastern fide of Thebes. Their very aspect would awaken the genius of a polished nation, but the Turks and Copts, crushed to duft beneath an iron fceptre, behold them without astonishment, and build huts, which scarcely can screen them from the fun, in their neighbourhood. Thefe |