[295] The actual distance is about 670 yards.
[296] Mariette, Questions relatives aux nouvelles Fouilles, etc.
[297] Description de l'Égypte, Ant., vol. v. p. 654.
[298] Belzoni, Narrative of the Operations, etc. pp. 261-2.
[299] The little that now remains of the columns and foundations of the ancient temple is marked in the plan which forms plate 6 of Mariette's Karnak, Fig. a. In plate 8 the remains of all statues and inscriptions which date from the same period are figured. See also pages 36, 37, and 41-45 of the text.
[300] Mariette, Karnak, p. 4.
[301] We may infer from what Mariette says that they were separated from one another by a distance of 12 feet 4 inches.
[302] Mariette, Karnak, p. 5. We find, however, that sphinxes were sometimes placed in the interior of a temple. The two fine sphinxes in rose granite which form the chief ornaments of the principal court of the Boulak museum, were found in one of the inner halls of the temple at Karnak. They date, probably, from the time of Thothmes III., to whom this part of the building owes its existence.
[303] Description, etc.; Description générale de Thèbes, section viii. § 1.
[304] The wall of the principal inclosure at Denderah, that on the north, is not less than 33 feet high, and between 30 and 40 thick at the base. Its surface is perfectly smooth and naked, without ornament of any kind, or even rough-cast. (Mariette, Denderah, p. 27.) At Karnak the bounding walls are in a much worse state of preservation; they are ten or twelve centuries older than those of Denderah, and those centuries have had their effect upon the masses of crude brick. Our only means of estimating their original height is by comparing, in the representations furnished to us by certain bas-reliefs, the height of walls with that of the pylons on which they abut.