hundred and seventy feet long, one hundred and eighty feet broad, and seventy feet high.

But Thebes, the mighty Hecatompylus or city of a hundred gates, bears the palm of superiority over all other cities of Egypt in the extent and variety of its edifices, and their still comparatively perfect preservation. Thebes was twentythree miles in circumference, and extended across the valley of the Nile, its extremities resting upon the bases of the mountains of Arabia and Africa. According to Homer, it could send forth to battle, twenty thousand chariots of war; and Tacitus says, "when Germanicus visited its magnificent ruins, there were still to be seen on ancient obelisks, pompous descriptions in Egyptian characters, of the wealth and grandeur of the place. From the account of an elderly priest who interpreted the meaning of these hieroglyphics, it appeared that Thebes at one time contained within her walls no less than seven hundred thousand men capable of bearing arms." Its temples, too, were of immense size, many of which are in such a perfect state of preservation, as to give the traveller a vivid impression of the magnificence of the city ere the furious Cambyses with his Persian legions raised the war-cry in the populous streets of this capital of the Pharaohs, and with destroying hands levelled to earth the temples of her gods, and stripped her palaces and fanes of their immense treasures of gold, silver, ivory, and precious stones.

Stephens, in his admirable work entitled "Incidents of Travel in Egypt, Arabia Petra, and the Holy Land,"* has given a very interesting de

* Those who are desirous of acquiring much useful informa tion concerning the specimens of ancient art in Egypt and

scription of the ruins of this great city. He describes the whole extent of the area of ancient Thebes as being covered with the ruins of temples, propylons or gateways, obelisks and sphynxes. They are neither gray nor blackened, and where the skeletons of ancient temples are seen, they appear, like the bones of man, to have whitened under the sun of the desert. The most considerable of the Theban temples, now partially erect, are Luxor and Carnac, on the eastern or Arabian side of the Nile. Before the gateway of the former, two splendid obelisks stood till within a few years past. One still remains, the other now adorns a square in the centre of Paris. Between them and the gateway are two statues with mitred head-dresses, and though now buried to the chest in sand, are twenty feet above its surface. The gateway is more than two hundred feet in length at its present base, and rises upward of sixty feet above the sand. On all sides it is covered with sculptures representing the exploits of some Egyptian warrior. War chariots are seen dashing across a plain toward a walled town; the hero stands alone with piles of his enemies slain by his hands, around him. In another place he sits upon a throne with captives before him, having ropes around their necks, and arms outstretched imploring for mercy, while the vanquished monarch is tied to the triumphal car of the conqueror.

Beyond this entrance is an open court, surrounded by a ruined portico formed of a double row of columns, covered with hieroglyphics and

Arabia, with little expense, can do so by reading this very entertaining book, from the pen of one of our citizens.

other sculpturesque ornaments. These columns are twelve feet in diameter, and between thirty and forty feet high, with capitals of various forms, some exhibiting the ordinary symbol of a globe with wings, and others the budding lotus.

From Luxor to the greater temple of Carnac, a distance of two miles, the road lies between two rows of colossal sphynxes, each formed of a solid block of granite. At the end of this avenue of sphynxes, are four great propylons, similar to the grand one of Luxor, and after passing through these the whole field of the magnificent ruins of Carnac, a mile in diameter, opens to the view of the traveller. The temple is twelve

hundred feet long, and four hundred and twenty broad, and is approached through twelve rows of sphynxes, leading to as many gates. These gateways themselves are larger than ordinary temples. In front of the great temple is a court, with columns fifty feet in height; next to this is a portico, the roof of which is supported by one hundred and thirty-four columns, averaging twenty-eight feet in diameter. Next to the portico, are two obelisks seventy feet in height, which stand at the entrance of the sanctuary of the temple. This apartment is twenty feet square, formed of blocks of polished granite. The ceiling is studded with stars on a blue ground, and the walls are covered with sculptures illustrative of the mysterious uses of this sacred chamber. Connected with this grand temple by colonnades and porticoes, are others, all of which form the cluster of the Carnatic ruins; and it is easy to conceive, as Mr. Stephens justly remarks, "the imposing scene that was presented in the now desolate city, when, with all the gorgeous ceremonies of pagan idolatry, the priests, bearing the sacred image of their god, and followed by thousands of their citizens, made their annual procession from temple to temple, and with harp and cymbals, and songs of rejoicing, brought back their idol and replaced him in his shrine in the grand temple at Carnac." But the corroding tooth of decay is gradually completing the work of ruin. which the Assyrian so far advanced; and, to use the language of Dr. Richardson, Thebes looks 66 as if the thunders of heaven had smitten it at the command of an insulted God!"

In the third part of this work we have men.

tioned the Theban tombs, in which a great variety of paintings are still to be seen, fresh in appearance as if they were the work of yesterday. These tombs are situated in the Libyan mountains, on the western extremity of Thebes. The whole mountain forms one great necropolis, and on the plain between the mountains and the banks of the Nile, pits have been opened in which have been found a thousand mummies at a time. The average height of the mountains in this vicinity, is twelve hundred feet, nearly the whole of which is supposed to be excavated. Diodorus mentions forty seven of these tombs open in his time; now only twenty are known.* In point of magnificence and splendor, they vie with the temples, but like the latter, plundering barbarians have rifled them of all worth carrying away, and even the bodies of the royal dead are often sold to the traveller by some ragged Arab who is not worth a para. It has been computed that from eight to ten millions of mummied bodies lie in this vast necropolis of Thebes! But among all these temples and tombs, no trace of a dwelling is found, which proves conclusively that the domestic architecture of the Egyptians consisted of fragile tenements, not built for long existence, but to answer the temporary purposes of a people living in a mild climate. It has been said of them that they regarded the habitations of the living merely as brief restingplaces, while their temples and tombs were considered eternal monuments and mansions.

Another astonishing production of Egyptian

The reader is referred to the fifth part of this work, for a particular description of a magnificent tomb opened by that enterprising traveller, Belzoni.