| On stone by C. Hullmandel, from a Drawing by G. A. Hoskins Esqr. | Printed by C. Hullmandel. |
GIBEL EL BIRKEL.
Published by Longman, Rees & Co. April 6th. 1835.
Other Ruins at Gibel el Birkel.—Twenty yards to the west of the Typhonium, marked in the plan, are the remains of another small temple, excavated in the rock. The first court was ornamented with columns, and on the walls I could distinguish traces of sculpture, but now too much defaced to be legible. Besides the temples already mentioned, situated under the mountain, there are the traces of another, 200 feet from the great propylon of the large temple; that is, about 700 feet from the mountain, towards the river. A fragment of a wall, 6 feet by 3 feet, is all that now remains: 300 feet beyond the latter is a single column, with a lotus-flower capital. From this column to the river are 4100 feet. The mountain is, therefore, 5100 feet distant from the Nile.
To the north of the great temple are the ruins of buildings, chiefly of brick, which seem to have formed part of the city, but they are of no very great extent. Here are scattered numerous pieces of pottery, and fragments of the same description of bread stamps which are found at Thebes, but these are without hieroglyphic inscriptions. To the east of the great temple, in the plain, are columns and traces of other temples, but now almost entirely buried by the sand.
I have described all the temples now existing at Gibel el Birkel, and mentioned the remains and traces of nine, and will now treat of the monumental decorations of its interesting Necropolis. The magnificence, power, and piety of the monarchs of Ethiopia are displayed in the public works erected in honour of the gods. In this beautiful cemetery, we have monuments either of the gratitude and attachment of their subjects, or, more probably, of their own ostentation. The kings of Egypt are supposed, for many reasons, which I will mention at another opportunity, to have had their tombs constructed long before their decease; and this instructive memorial of the transient nature of their earthly greatness was worthy of the wisdom and philosophy of so great a nation. The Ethiopians probably had the same custom; and considering, as Diodorus says of the Egyptians, their palaces only as inns where they tarried for a day, they took care to have a more suitable habitation provided for that state, in which they believed that they were to rest for ages.
Pl. 24.
| Drawn by L. Bandoni. | Printed by C. Hullmandel. |
GREAT TEMPLE, GIBEL EL BIRKEL.