THE SPHYNX.

AT an inconsiderable distance from the great Egyptian pyramids, and by an almost imperceptible descent, the traveller arrives at the Sphynx, the enormous bulk of which instantly attracts his attention. It is cut out of the solid rock, and is said to have been the sepulchre of Amasis. The height of this figure is twenty-seven feet; and the beginning of the breast thirty-three feet in width. The nose has been shamefully mutilated. "Although," Denon remarks, "the proportions are colossal, the outline is pure and graceful; the expression is mild, gracious, and tranquil; the character is African; but the mouth, the lips of which are thick, has a softness and delicacy of execution truly admirable; it seems real life and flesh. Art must have been at a high pitch when this monument was executed; for, if the head is deficient in what is called style, that is the straight and bold lines which give expression to the figures under which the Greeks have designated their deities, yet sufficient justice has been rendered to the fine simplicity and character of nature displayed in this figure."

EGYPTIAN TEMPLES AND MONUMENTS.

THE ruins of the TEMPLE OF HERMOPOLIS, or the great city of Mercury, afford a precise idea of the immense range and high perfection the arts had attained in Egypt. The stones have preserved their original destination, without having been altered or deformed by the works of modern times, and have remained untouched for four thousand years! They are of freestone, of the fineness of marble, and have neither cement, nor mede of union, besides the perfect fitting of the respective parts. The colossal proportions of this edifice evince the power the Egyptians possessed to raise enormous masses. The diameter of the columns, which are placed at equal intermediate distances, is 8 feet 10 inches; and the space between the two middle columns, within which the gate was included, twelve feet, which gives 120 feet for the portico: its height is 60 feet. Not any spring of an arch remains to throw light on the dimensions of the whole extent of the temple, or of the nave.

The architecture is still richer than the doric order of the Greeks. The shafts of the pillars represent fasciae, or bundles; and the pedestal, the stem of the lotus. Under the roof between the two middle columns, are winged globes; and all the roofs are ornamented with a wreath of painted stars, of an aurora colour on a blue ground.

THE TEMPLE OP APOLLINOPOLIS MAGNA is described by Denon as surpassing in extent, majesty, magnificence, and high preservation, whatever he had seen in Egypt, or elsewhere. This building is a long suite of pyramidal gates, of courts decorated with galleries, of porticoes, and of covered naves, constructed, not with common stones, but with entire rocks. This superb edifice is situated on a rising ground, so as to overlook, not only its immediate vicinity, but the whole valley. On the right is the principal gate, placed between two huge mounds of buildings, on the walls of which are three orders of hieroglyphic figures increasing in their gigantic dimensions, insomuch that the last have a proportion of twenty-five feet. The inner court is decorated with a gallery of columns, bearing two terraces, which come out at two gates, through which is the passage to the stairs, leading to the platform of the mounds. Behind the inner portico are several apartments, and the sanctuary of the temple. A wall of circumvalation is decorated both within and without with innumerable hieroglyphics, executed in a very finished and laborious style. This magnificent temple appears to have been dedicated to the evil genius, the figure of Tryphon being represented in relief on the four sides of the plinth which surmounts each of the capitals. The entire freize, and all the paintings within, are descriptive of Isis defending herself against the attacks of that monster.

The ruins of the ancient city of THEBES, which Homer has characterised by the single expression of THE CITY WITH A HUNDRED GATES, are of so immense an extent as to convince the spectator that fame has not magnified its size; for, the diameter of Egypt not being sufficient to contain it, its monuments rest on two chains of contiguous mountains, while its tombs occupy the vallies towards the west, far on into the desert. A large temple on the eastern side is more than two leagues and a half distant from Medinet-Abu, where the most western temple is situated. The modern village of Karnac is built on a small part of the site of a

single temple, which requires half a mile to walk round. The remains of this temple are thus described by Denon.

"Of the hundred columns of the portico alone, the smallest are seven feet and a half in diameter, and the largest twelve. The space occupied by the circumvallation of the temple contains lakes and mountains. In short, to be enabled to form a competent idea of so much magnificence, the reader ought to fancy what is before him to be a dream, as he who views the objects themselves rubs his eyes to know whether he is awake. The avenue leading from Karnac to Luxor, a space nearly half a league in extent, contains a constant succession of sphynxes and other chimerical figures to the right and left, together with fragments of stone walls, of small columns, and of statues."

The village of Luxor is also built on the side of the ruins of a temple, not so large as that of Karnac, but in a better state of preservation, the masses not having as yet fallen through time, and by the pressure of their own weight. The most collossal parts consist of fourteen columns of nearly eleven feet in diameter, and of two statues in granite, at the outer gate, buried up to the middle of the arms, and having in front of them the two largest and best preserved obelisks known. The French, when in Egypt, deemed their means insufficient, not to hew out, but merely to transport these two monuments, which are not more than a fragment of one of the numerous edifices of the astonishing city of Thebes. They are of rose-colour granite, are still seventy feet above the ground, and to judge by the depth to which the figures seem to be covered, about thirty feet more may be reckoned to be concealed from the eye, making in all one hundred feet for their height. Their preservation is perfect; and the hieroglyphics with which they are covered being cut deep, and in relief at the bottom, show the bold hand of a master, and a beautiful finish. The gravers which could touch such hard materials must have been of an admirable temper; and the machines to drag such enormous blocks from the quarries, to transport them thither, and to set them upright, together with the time required for the labour, surpass all conception!

In speaking of the gate of the temple, which is now become that of the village of Luxor, Denon remarks as follows. "Nothing can be more grand, and at the same time

more simple, than the small number of objects of which this entrance is composed. No city whatever makes so proud a display at its approach as this wretched village, the population of which consists of two or three thousand souls, who have taken up their abode on the roofs and beneath the galleries of this temple, which has, nevertheless, the air of being in a manner uninhabited.

THE TOMBS OF THE KINGS OF THEBES are grottoes consisting of a regular double gallery supported by pillars, behind which is a row of chambers, often double. In proportion as the height of these grottoes increase, they become more richly decorated; and the spectator is soon convinced, by the magnificence both of the paintings and sculptures, and of the subjects they represent, that he is among the tombs of great men or heroes. Those which appear to have belonged to the ancient kings, are only distinguished from the others by the magnificence of the sarcophagi, and the mysterious solitude of their situation; the others immediately overlooking the great buildings in the city. The sculpture in all is incomparably more laboured and higher finished than that of the temples, and displays a high perfection of the art. The lines of the hieroglyphics have been cut with a firmness of touch, and a precision, of which marbles offer but few examples; and the figures have a particular elegance and correctness of contour. Small subjects taken from nature are introduced; and in these the groups of persons are given in perspective; and cut in deep relief, in simple and natural attitudes. Several of these subjects bear but little analogy to the spot in which they are immured; for bass-reliefs are seen representing games, such as rope-dancing, and asses taught to play tricks and rear ou their hind legs, sculptured with all the traits of genuine nature and simplicity.

The plan of these excavations is singular; and many are so vast and complicated, that they might be mistaken for labyrinths, or subterraneous temples. After passing the elegant apartments described above, long and gloomy galleries present themselves, winding backwards and forwards in numerous angles, and seeming to occupy a great extent of ground. They are melancholy, repulsive, and without any decoration; but open from time to time into other chambers covered with hieroglyphics, and branch out

into narrow paths, leading to deep perpendicular pits. At the bottom of these pits are other adorned chambers; and lower still a new series of perpendicular pits and horizontal chambers, until at length, ascending a long flight of steps, the visitor reaches an open place on a level with the chambers he first entered.

THE ANCIENT LATOPOLIS, now called Esneh, presents, among its remains, the portico of a temple which is considered as one of the most perfect monuments of ancient architecture. It is very well preserved, and possesses a great richness of sculpture. It is composed of eighteen noble and elegant columns, with broad capitals; and the hieroglyphics in relief with which it is covered withinside and without, have been executed with great care. They contain among other subjects, a zodiac, and large figures of men with crocodiles' heads. The capitals, though all different, have a very fine effect; and, as a proof that the Egyptians did not borrow from other nations, it may be remarked, that all the ornaments of which these capitals are composed, have been taken from the productions of their own country, such as the lotus, the palm tree, the vine, the rush, &c.

CRYPTE, OR CATACOMBS OF ALEXANDRIA.

In the construction of these primeval sepulchres a prodigious labour has been bestowed. They are situated about half a league along the shore, to the westward of the modern city of Alexandria. Their intricacy is such that the guides will not enter them without being provided with a clue of thread, to secure their retreat. Doctor Clarke has been very particular in his description of these subterraneous abodes of the dead; and from his interesting narrative the following particulars are extracted.

"The original entrance to them is now closed, and is externally concealed from observation. The only place by which admittance to the interior is practicable, is a small aperture made through the soft and sandy rock, barely large enough to admit a person upon his hands and knees. Here it is not unusual to encounter jackals, escaping from the interior, when alarmed by any person approaching: on this account the guides recommend the practice of discharging a gua, or pistol, to prevent any sally of this kind. Having passed this aperture with lighted tapers, we arrived, by gradual