568

TEMPLE OF EDFOO.

may successfully vie with the wretched inhabitants of any part of Egypt.

Entering the village, we passed a crowd of wailing women, with dishevelled hair, grouped round the door of a man who had just died. As we drew near, the vehemence of their music and mourning wondrously increased; but when we passed by, they threw off the bitterness of their grief, abandoned their instruments and tears, and set up a clamorous demand for buckshish!

The temple of Edfoo, though half enveloped in filth, is an imposing structure. The entrance is through a magnificent gateway two hundred feet long, thirty feet thick, and one hundred in height. It was constructed of sand-stone from the quarries of Gébel Silsili, and is adorned on all sides with sculpture. This gateway opens upon an area two hundred feet in length and a hundred and twenty-five in width; a sculptured corridor extends along the sides, supported by a massive wall, which is continued round the temple. Traversing the court, now converted into a granary of the Pacha, we approached the portico, which is a hundred and eight feet by forty, and supported by columns twenty feet in circumference. These are crowned with sculptured capitals thirtyseven feet in circumference. Every part of the temple and corridor was covered with hieroglyphics and deified figures. The great door being choked up with rubbish, we could only enter through a small aperture in the roof. We found quite a village on top of the temple: Arabs, goats, sheep, calves, hens,

dogs, and dirt were there mingled in rank confu

sion.

We entered one of the rookeries, and descended with lighted torches, by a small dark hole, into the rooms of the temple. Crawling upon our hands and knees from one apartment to another, we found the interior filled with dirt almost to the ceiling. Every part was covered with hieroglyphics, which were fresh and unimpaired. The Arabs rushed in after us till there was scarcely room to move round; the air was close, and the dust intolerable. When we drew ourselves out of this dust-hole, we were half suffocated.

After examining the more imperfect ruins of another small temple, we returned to the boat, and dropped down the river to El Kab, anciently Eilethyas. The walls of this city, four miles in circuit, were constructed with the mud of the Nile. They are about thirty feet thick at the base, thirty in height, and well preserved. The ruins of the ancient city afforded us little amusement. Ascending the mountain, however, we found its sides perforated with tombs. They have all been violated, and have suffered much from the "scientific research" or Vandalism of European antiquarians. We penetrated one to the distance of fifty feet. It was hewn in the rock, twelve feet in width, and the same in height. The paintings on the walls exhibit a variety of domestic and agricultural scenes. On one side, a lady and gentleman entertain a party of friends: musicians are introduced to enliven the scene. On the opposite wall, various implements of husbandry are represented. Many of

these are similar to those seen in the hands of the Egyptians at the present day. Scribes are taking account of the flocks and herds. The wine-press is also represented, together with fishing and fowling scenes, ploughing, sowing, reaping, treading out, winnowing, measuring, and housing the grain. Other tombs are similarly decorated, and similarly despoiled and disfigured by the charcoal and chiselled names

of visiters.

Leaving the plains of El Kab, we resumed our boat, and the next morning were at Esneh, where we touched for a slight reinspection of the temple, and then continued on to Thebes.'

572

TEMPLE OF REMESES.

CHAPTER XLII.

Palace-Temple of Remeses the Great.- His Conquests and Progeny. Statue of Remeses the Great.- Vocal Memnon. Shrine of Latona at Butos. - Ruined Temples of Medéenet Háboo.

WE landed on the western bank of the river, and rode across the plain to the "Memnonium." This was the palace-temple of "Remeses the Great," or "Sesostris," a Pharaoh who had a long and prosperous reign in what is called the "Augustan age of Egypt." Ascending the throne 1355 years B. C.,* he triumphantly carried his arms through Asia, and passed into Europe.† Diodorus represents his conquests as being more extensive than those of Alexander. He says: "Sesostris not only invaded those nations which the Macedonian afterward subdued, but likewise those he never set foot upon. He passed the river Ganges, and pierced through all India to the Main Ocean." Loaded with the spoils of his enemies, he returned to Egypt, fired with an ambitious desire to leave behind him eternal monuments of his memory."§ This temple is one of those monuments;

• Wilkinson's Ancient Egyptians, i. 48. + Diod. i. 59.

† Herod. ii. 102–110.

§ Ibid. i. 60.