Medinet Haboo.—One outward inclosure, or brick wall, seems to have contained three distinct, though connected, buildings, to which we may arbitrarily assign the names of the chapel, the palace and the temple. The principal entrance to the palace from the plain being blocked up, it is only to be approached now by a side doorway from the pronaos of the chapel. Of this building, which may once have been the residence of the sovereigns of Egypt, one tower only is remaining. This was divided into three stories, in each of which are two apartments. The stone pavement of the lower rooms is still perfect, but the upper floors and the wooden beams which supported them have entirely disappeared. The interior walls have not such a profusion of sculptures as those without. At each side of one of the windows is an Isis, with the hawk's wing, kneeling, and wearing the lunar crescent on her head. At another window are four projecting sphinxes; and in a corner of one of the rooms are two females, with baskets of lotuses on their heads, carrying a plate of cakes to the king, who is sitting; before him stands another female, with the same head-dress, stretching out her arm, while he puts some of the delicacies into his mouth.
Ebek, the most northern of all the Theban monuments, is only remarkable because the plan on which it is constructed is very different from that of all other temples in Egypt. It has a single row of columns in front, and the rest of the building is distributed into a variety of comparatively small apartments.
Memnonium.—The term Memnonium is used by Strabo to designate that part of ancient Thebes which lies on the western side of the river. The French savans, however, without sufficient reason, have restricted it to the magnificent ruin which we are going to describe. This beautiful relic of antiquity looks to the east, and is fronted by a stupendous propylon, of which two hundred and thirty-four feet in length are still remaining. The propylon stands on the edge of the soil; but the area cultivable, or space for the dromos behind it, is floored by the solid rock, on which the rest of the temple is erected. The eastern wall is much fallen down, and both ends are greatly dilapidated. Every stone in the propylon appears to have been shaken and loosened in its place, as if from the concussion of an earthquake, for no human violence seems adequate to produce such an effect in such an immense mass of building as that under consideration. A stair enters from each end, by which to ascend to the top of the propylon, from which passages go off in a number of chambers, as in the temples of Phylæ Edifore, &c.
This colossus measures six feet ten inches over the foot, and sixty-two or sixty-three feet round the shoulders. It has been broken off at the waist, and the upper part is laid prostrate on the back; the face is entirely obliterated, and, next to the wonder excited at the boldness of the sculptor who made it, and the extraordinary powers of those who erected it, the labour and exertions that must have been used for its destruction, are most astonishing. It could only have been brought about with the help of military engines, and must then have been the work of time. Its fall has carried along with it the whole of the wall of the temple which stood within its reach. It was not without great difficulty and danger that we could climb on its shoulder and neck, and in going from thence upon its chest, assisted by Arab servants.
Dendera.—The centuries that this great temple of Venus has seen have scarcely affected it in any important part; and have given it no greater appearance of age and ruin than what serves to render it more venerable and imposing. After seeing innumerable monuments of the same kind throughout the Thebaid, it seemed as if we were now arrived at the highest pitch of architectural excellence that was ever attained on the borders of the Nile. Here we found concentrated the united labour of ages, and the last effort of human art and industry in that regular uniform line of construction, which had been adopted in the earliest times. After admiring the general effect of the whole mass, its elegance, solidity, correct proportions and graceful outlines, it was difficult to decide what particular objects were to be first examined. Whether its sculptures or paintings, typical and ornamental, the distribution of the interior apartments, the details of the capitals and columns, the mystical meaning of particular representations here seen for the first time; the zodiacs,[14]or the other celestial phenomena, sculptured on the ceilings, all seemed objects of high interest and importance, all invited a nearer and closer inspection. The portico consists of twenty-four columns in three rows, each above twenty-two feet in circumference, thirty-two high, and covered with hieroglyphics. The peculiar form of the square capital, with a front face of the goddess on each side, particularly attracted our attention. We were at first struck by the singularity of an idea so foreign to the common notions of Greek architecture; but the eye is soon reconciled to it; and the solemn and mild monotony of these faces impresses the spectator with a silent, reverential awe, a willing conviction of the immediate presence of the deity of the place in her most gracious character; and, indeed, the Greeks, in their Caryatides, seem in some degree to have added their sanction to the principle.
The sekos, or the interior of the temple, consists of several apartments, all the walls and ceilings of which are in the same way covered with religious and astronomical representations. The roofs are, like the rest in Egypt, flat; the oblong masses of stone resting on the side walls; and, when the distance of these is too great, one or two rows of the columns are carried down the middle of the apartment, by which the roof is supported. The capitals of these columns are very richly ornamented with the budding lotus, the stalks of which being carried down some way below the capital, give the shaft the appearance of being fluted, or rather scolloped.