It may not be uninteresting to add a few particulars relative to this temple, the largest, perhaps, and certainly one of the most ancient, in the world.
Two of the porticoes within it appear to have consisted of pillars in the form of human figures, in the character of Hermes, that is, the lower part of the body hidden, and unshapen, with his arms folded, and in his hand the insignia of divinity; perhaps the real origin of the Grecian Caryatides.
Exclusive of these columnar statues, which have been thirty-eight in number, and the least of them thirty feet high, there are fragments, more or less mutilated, of twenty-three other statues, in granite, breccia and basalt; seventeen of which are colossal, and have been placed in front of the several entrances. They are in general from twenty-five to thirty feet in height, and executed in the best Egyptian style.
Biban-ool-Moolk, or, the Tombs of the Kings, is a most dismal-looking spot, a valley of rubbish, without a drop of water or blade of grass. The entrance to the tombs looks out from the rock like the entrance to so many mines; and, were it not for the recollections with which it is peopled, and the beautiful remains of ancient art which lie hid in the bosom of the mountain, would hardly ever be visited by man or beast. The heat is excessive, from the confined dimensions of the valley and the reflection of the sun from the rock and sand. The whole valley is filled with rubbish that has been washed down from the rock or carried out in the making of the tombs, with merely a narrow road up the centre.
Diodorus Siculus states, on the authority of the Egyptian priests, that forty-seven of these tombs were entered in their sacred registers, only seventeen of which remained in the time of Ptolemy Lagus. And in the 180th Olympiad, about 60 years B.C., when Diodorus Siculus was in Egypt, many of these were greatly defaced. Before Mr. Belzoni began his operations in Thebes, only eleven of these tombs were known to the public. From the great success that crowned his exertions, the number of them is nearly double. The general appearance of these tombs is that of a continued shaft, or corridor, cut in the rock, in some places spreading out into large chambers; in other places, small chambers pass off by a door from the shafts, &c. In some places, where the rock is low and disintegrated, a broad excavation is formed on the surface, till it reaches a sufficient depth of solid stones, when it narrows, and enters by a door of about six or eight feet wide, and about ten feet high.
The passage then proceeds with a gradual descent for about a hundred feet, widening or narrowing, according to the plan or object of the architect, sometimes with side chambers, but more frequently not. The beautiful ornament of the globe, with the serpent in its wings, is sculptured over the entrance. The ceiling is black, with silver stars, and the vulture, with outspread wings, holding a ring and a broad-feathered sceptre by each of his feet, is frequently repeated on it, with numerous hieroglyphics, which are white or variously-coloured. The walls on each side are covered with hieroglyphics, and large sculptured figures of the deities of Egypt, and of the hero for whom the tomb was excavated. Sometimes both the hieroglyphics and the figures are wrought in intaglio; at other times they are in relief; but throughout the same tomb they are generally all of one kind. The colours are green, blue, red, black and yellow, and, in many instances, are as fresh and vivid as if they had not been laid on a month. Intermixed with the figures, we frequently meet with curious devices, representing tribunals where people are upon their trials, sometimes undergoing punishment; the preparation of mummies, and people bearing them in procession on their shoulders; animals tied for sacrifice, and partly cut up; and occasionally the more agreeable pictures of entertainments, with music and dancing, and well-dressed people listening to the sound of the harp played by a priest, with his head shaved, and dressed in a loose, flowing white robe, shot with red stripes.
Two other colossal statues, called also by some the statues of Memnon, are in the plain, about half-way between the desert and the river. They are about fifty feet high, and seated each on a pedestal six feet in height, eighteen long, and fourteen broad. The stone of which they are formed is of a reddish grey.
These two statues are by the Arabs familiarly called Shamy and Damy.