HEAD OF CROCODILE.
We have not landed since we left Beni-Hassan. Miss Roper has been making a sketch of our reis and the crew. Rahaba looks on her sketch-book and colour-box as some kind of magic possessions, and contrived to save them from the fire in consequence.
Miss Roper took the sketch at sunset. The sky was flooded with gorgeous tints, and their glow was reflected on our reis as he sat in his blue robes and crimson turban, smoking his pipe. We shall reach Thebes to-night, and shall go on shore early to-morrow to see some of the interesting sights of which Mr. Roper has been telling us.
RUINS OF THEBES.
Our boat was moored as near as possible to the village of Koorneh, or Karnac, as it is often called. We went on shore early in the morning and visited the small palace and temple of Koorneh, and then rode on for about twenty minutes to the palace-temple of Rameses the Second. This is one of the most interesting temples in the valley of the Nile. The entrance leads into a court where are the ruins of the largest statue in the world. It is made of granite from the quarries of Syene.
Mr. Roper told us that this was a statue of the king, seated on his throne with his hands resting on his knees. Judging from the fragments the foot must have been eleven feet long and about four feet ten inches wide. The statue measured twelve feet ten inches from the shoulder to the elbow, twenty-two feet four inches across the shoulders.
The throne and the legs are quite destroyed. The figure is broken at the waist, and the upper part is thrown back on the ground. No one knows who erected or who destroyed this giant statue. We gazed at the ruin with astonishment, almost with awe.
In a beautiful court, with a double row of columns, we saw some interesting sculpture. An enemy is flying from the Egyptians. The complexions and features of the men are quite different from those of the Egyptians. They are fleeing towards the river in chariots; some are represented as drowning in the river, and others as entreating for mercy. In the grand hall we saw another battle-scene.
The great hall leads into a room with eight columns, which support the roof. On it are represented the Egyptian months, and on the wall are sacred arks borne by priests. The side walls of the temple are destroyed, so that the pillars are seen to great advantage.