Anecdotes of Painters, Engravers, Sculptors and Architects and Curiosities of Art | Page 3

seat of empire to Alexandria. At present, its site presents
only a few scattered villages, consisting of miserable cottages built in
the courts of the temples. The ancient structures, however, remain in a
state of wonderful preservation. Almost the whole extent of eight miles
along the river is covered with magnificent portals, obelisks decorated
with most beautiful sculptures, forests of columns, and long avenues of
sphynxes and colossal statues. The most remarkable monuments, the
ruins of which remain, are the temples of Carnac, Luxor, the
Memnonium or temple of Memnon, and the temple of Medinet Abu.

The tomb of Osymandyas, the temple of Iris, the Labyrinth, and the
Catacombs lie on the western side of the Nile. In the interior of the
mountains which rise behind these monuments, are found objects less
imposing and magnificent indeed, but not less interesting--the tombs of
the kings of Thebes. Several of these were opened by Belzoni, and
were found in great preservation, with mummies in the sarcophagi, as
well as dispersed through the chambers.
Such was ancient Thebes--a city so populous that, according to ancient
writers, in times of war 10,000 soldiers issued from each of her
hundred gates, forming an army of 1,000,000 men. That these
magnificent ruins are the remains of "the city of an hundred
gates,"--"the earliest capital in the world," cannot be doubted.
According to the measurements made by the French, their distance
from the sea on the north, is 680,000 metres (850 miles), and from
Elephantine on the south, 180,000 metres (225 miles)--corresponding
exactly with the 6,800 and 1,800 stadia of Herodotus. The
circumference of the ruins is about 15,000 metres (17½ miles),
agreeing with the 140 stadia given by Diodorus as the circumference of
Thebes. The origin of the name of this celebrated city, as well as the
date of its foundation, is unknown. According to Champollion, who
deciphered many of the inscriptions on these ruins, the Egyptian name
was Thbaki-antepi-Amoun (City of the Most High), of which the
No-Ammon of the Hebrews and Diospolis of the Greeks are mere
translations; Thebæ, of the Greeks is also perhaps derived from the
Egyptian Thbaki (the city).

THE TEMPLE OF CARNAC.
The largest of the temples of Thebes, and of any in Egypt, is that of
Carnac, on the site of the ancient Diospolis. Diodorus describes it as
thirteen stadia, or about a mile and a half in circumference, which
nearly agrees with the admeasurements of Denon. It has twelve
principal entrances; and the body of the temple, which is preceded by a
large court, consists of a prodigious hall or portico, the roof of which is
supported by one hundred and thirty-four columns, some twenty-six,

and others thirty feet in circumference; four beautiful obelisks then
mark the entrance to the shrine, which consists of three apartments,
built entirely of granite.

TEMPLE OF LUXOR.
The temple of Luxor is about one and a fourth mile above that of
Carnac, and though it is of smaller dimensions it is in a superior style
of architecture, and in more complete preservation. The entrance is
thought to surpass everything else that Egypt presents. In front are the
two finest obelisks in the world, formed of rose-colored granite, and
rising, as Denon supposes, after allowing for the portion buried in the
ground, to the height of one hundred feet. But the objects which most
attract attention, are the sculptures which cover the east wing of the
northern front. They represent on a grand scale, a victory gained by one
of the ancient kings of Egypt over their Asiatic enemies, consisting of
multitudes of figures, horses, and chariots, executed in the best style of
Egyptian art; the number of human figures introduced exceeds fifteen
hundred, five hundred of which are on foot, and the rest in chariots.

THE STATUES OF MEMNON.
There were many colossal statues of Memnon in Egypt, but the most
remarkable were the two in the Memnonium or palace of Memnon, at
Thebes. The largest is of rose-colored granite, and stood in the centre of
the principal court; its height was sixty-four feet, and its remains are
scattered forty feet around it. Rigaud, one of the French savans, says,
"the excavations are still visible where the wedges were placed which
divided the monument when it was thrown down by Cambyses." The
trunk is broke off at the waist, and the upper part lies prostrate on the
back; it measures six feet ten inches over the front of the head, and
sixty-two feet round the shoulders. At the entrance of the gate which
leads from the second court to the palace, is the famous colossal
sounding statue, which, according to Herodotus, Strabo, and Pausanias,
uttered a joyful sound when the sun rose, and a mournful one when it

set. It is also