Above these is a large oblong square block, still larger than the capitals, with four flat fronts, disposed like pannels, that is, with a kind of square border round the edges, while the faces and fronts are filled with hieroglyphics; as are the walls and ceilings of every part of the temple. Between these two apartments in the extremities, there are three other apartments, resembling the first, in every respect, only that they are smaller.
The whole building is of common white stone, from the neighbouring mountains, only those two in which have been sunk the pirns for hanging the outer doors, (for it seems they had doors even in those days) are of granite, or black and blue porphyry.
The top of the temple is flat, the spouts to carry off the water are monstrous heads of sphinxes; the globes with wings, and the two serpents, with a kind of shield or breast-plate between them, are here frequently repeated, such as we see them on the Carthaginian medals.
The hieroglyphics have been painted over, and great part of the colouring yet remains upon the stones, red, in all its shades, especially that dark dusky colour called Tyrian Purple; yellow, very fresh; sky-blue (that is, near the blue of an eastern sky, several shades lighter than ours); green of different shades; these are all the colours preserved.
I could discover no vestiges of common houses in Dendera more than in any other of the great towns in Egypt. I suppose the common houses of the ancients, in these warm countries, were constructed of very slight materials, after they left their caves in the mountains. There was indeed no need for any other. Not knowing the regularity of the Nile’s inundation, they never could be perfectly secure in their own minds against the deluge; and this slight structure of private buildings seems to be the reason so few ruins are found in the many cities once built in Egypt. If there ever were any other buildings, they must be now covered with the white sand from the mountains, for the whole plain to the foot of these is o’erflowed, and in cultivation. It was no part, either of my plan or inclination, to enter into the detail of this extraordinary architecture. Quantity, and solidity, are two principal circumstances that are seen there, with a vengeance.
It strikes and imposes on you, at first sight, but the impressions are like those made by the size of mountains, which the mind does not retain for any considerable time after seeing them; I think, a very ready hand might spend six months, from morning to night, before he could copy the hieroglyphics in the inside of the temple. They are, however, in several combinations, which have not appeared in the collection of hieroglyphics. I wonder that, being in the neighbourhood, as we are, of Lycopolis, we never see a wolf as an hieroglyphic; and nothing, indeed, but what has some affinity to water; yet the wolf is upon all the medals, from which I apprehend that the worship of the wolf was but a modern superstition.
Dendera stands on the edge of a small, but fruitful plain; the wheat was thirteen inches high, now at Christmas; their harvest is in the end of March. The valley is not above five miles wide, from mountain to mountain. Here we first saw the Doom-tree in great profusion growing among the palms, from which it scarcely is distinguishable at a distance. It is the [113]Palma Thebaica Cuciofera. Its stone is like that of a peach covered with a black bitter pulp, which resembles a walnut over ripe.
A little before we came to Dendera we saw the first crocodile, and afterwards hundreds, lying upon every island, like large flocks of cattle, yet the inhabitants of Dendera drive their beasts of every kind into the river, and they stand there for hours. The girls and women too, that come to fetch water in jars, stand up to their knees in the water for a considerable time; and if we guess by what happens, their danger is full as little as their fear, for none of them, that ever I heard of, had been bit by a crocodile. However, if the Denderites were as keen and expert hunters of Crocodiles, as some [114]historians tell us they were formerly, there is surely no part in the Nile where they would have better sport than here, immediately before their own city.
Having made some little acknowledgment to those who had conducted me through the ruins in great safety, I returned to the Canja, or rather to my tent, which I placed in the first firm ground. I saw, at some distance, a well-dressed man, with a white turban, and yellow shawl covering it, and a number of ill-looking people about him. As I thought this was some quarrel among the natives, I took no notice of it, but went to my tent, in order to rectify my quadrant for observation.
As soon as our Rais saw me enter my tent, he came with expressions of very great indignation. “What signifies it, said he, that you are a friend to the Bey, have letters to every body, and are at the door of Furshout, if yet here is a man that will take your boat away from you?”