Twenty years around the world

by John Guy Vassar

On arriving at Dendera, within a day’s sail of Thebes, we visited the ruins of the temple, &c., which stands about a mile and a half from the river, on the side of the desert, and occupies an area of three and a half miles in circumference. It is the first temple one sees on coming up the Nile, and is decidedly the best preserved one in Egypt. It is impossible to describe this superb building, which I found much more beautiful than I had expected, although considerably choked up with sand and stones, and forming the centre of an Arab village, which was abandoned from some cause or other. Their huts not only surrounded it, but crowned the summit of the temple itself. Nothing can exceed its magnificence. It is as rich in sculpture, hieroglyphics, and mythological paintings, as the greatest lover of antiquity could desire. Its dimensions are enormous. The vestibule, or porch, has twenty-one figures along the ceiling, ending with the vulture, the guardian genius of the kings and heroes of Egypt. On each hand are three rows of columns, with three columns in each row—making eighteen—which occupy the body of the vestibule. The exterior walls, as well as the interior, and columns, are covered with sculptured devices of the most remarkable execution: the winged globe, vulture, hawk, ibis, Isis, Osiris, gods, goddesses, priests, and women, sacred boats, with the sacred bulls which were formerly exhibited to the admiring multitude. What is most remarkable is, that after the lapse of two thousand years, the painting should appear, in many instances, as if executed but a month ago. There are several other smaller temples and gates of the city still standing, which are also full of interest. Dendera, which was anciently called Tentyra, is situated near the west bank of the Nile, about two hundred and sixty miles south by east of Cairo, and its ruins bespeak its former greatness.

In my next I shall endeavor to give you some idea of the gigantic ruins of Thebes, with Luxor and Karnak, which are said to have extended twenty-three miles in circumference; and the valley of the Nile not being able to contain them, their extremities rested upon the bases of the mountains of Arabia and Africa.

XXXI.

Djirjeh, Upper Egypt, February 20, 1842.

My last was from Thebes, after having made the ancient port of Luxor and found ourselves some seven or eight hundred miles from the sea, secured to the old quay where the Egyptian boatmen tied their boats three thousand years ago. On the eastern or Arabian side of the Nile are the immense ruins of Luxor and Karnak. The temple of Luxor is a mere skeleton; the greater part of the columns stand yet, but the outside walls have been thrown down, and the materials carried away. It stands very near the river bank, and was supposed to be for the use of the boatmen. The temple was six hundred feet in length; the interior court was three hundred feet long and one hundred and sixty feet wide, and the double row of columns, twelve feet diameter and one hundred and forty feet high, were covered with sculpture. Before a magnificent gateway of the temple stands the survivor of the beautiful obelisks which have withstood the hand of time for three thousand years. It is a single block of red granite, eighty or ninety feet high, covered with sculpture and hieroglyphics beautifully executed. Its fellow was taken by the French, and now stands in the Place de la Concorde at Paris. The refinement of civilization has dared to remove what the grossness of barbarism feared to touch. The obelisks were among the few objects spared by the Persians on entering Egypt, probably from the fact that they were the symbols of the sacred element, fire, which the Persians worshipped.

The gateway of this magnificent ruin is two hundred feet long and sixty feet high; the front of the interior wall is covered with sculpture, representing the battle scenes of an Egyptian warrior in different attitudes, advancing at the head of his army, breaking through the ranks of the enemy; sometimes in a chariot drawn by fiery steeds, with plumes waving over their heads, the bow bent, the arrow drawn to its extremity, whilst the dead and wounded are falling under the wheels of his car; with a great variety of other devices.

Leaving Luxor we proceeded to Karnak, a distance of about two miles, and in approaching the ruins of the immense temples which occupy a mile in diameter, we passed through the avenue of sphinxes, each a solid block of granite, lining the whole length of the road, which was sixty feet wide, regularly formed, and shaded by rows of poplar trees. Many are broken, but some are quite perfect, and solemn as when the ancient Egyptians passed to worship in the great temple of Ammon. Here we saw several rows of sphinxes. The grand temple of Karnak, which was twelve hundred feet in length, and four hundred and twenty feet in breadth, stood in the centre of a series of smaller temples, with avenues of sphinxes and colossal statues radiating from it. The principal entrances, of which there were twelve, were so contrived as exactly to front the corresponding temples on the other side of the river at Thebes, which must have added much to the effect produced by the annual processions of the priests and gods of Egypt, when they were carried in solemn triumph from the Arabian to the Lybian side of the Nile. Some of the smaller temples surrounding this gigantic structure are larger than many other temples elsewhere. Here are seen many colossal statues, twenty or thirty feet high, some sitting, others erect. In front of the body of the temple is a large court, with an immense colonnade on each side, of thirty columns in length, and through the middle two rows of columns fifty feet high; then comes an immense portico, the roof supported originally by one hundred and thirty-four columns; I counted one hundred and twenty-six still standing, which measured from thirty to thirty-six feet in circumference. Here are three beautiful obelisks, seventy feet high, the sanctuary of highly polished granite, the walls of which are covered with sculpture representing offerings to the gods. The walls inside and out, as also the columns in every part, are covered with every variety of device, representing the acts of their kings, the worship of their gods, &c. Here are immense walls and gates and ruins, with cemeteries, in which are still standing colossal figures of rams, and those of men with the heads of animals. In fact, it is impossible to form any correct estimate of these gigantic remains. One is struck with wonder and confusion, and, to use the language of Dr. Richardson, who, looking from one of the gateways, exclaims, “the vast scene of havoc and destruction presents itself in all the extent of this immense temple, with its columns, and walls, and immense propylons, all prostrate in one heap of ruins, looking as if the thunders of heaven had smitten it at the command of an insulted God.”

I have visited all the ruins of Thebes, on the other side of the river, which occupied several days, but it is useless to attempt to describe them, as what I have already spoken of is not half of the ruins of this once magnificent city. Many are prostrate and nearly buried in the sand, but the traces are still visible. The temples of Goorneh, Northern Dair, Memnonium and Medinet Abou, with their columns and colossal figures, still raise their giant skeletons above the sands, and, as Mr. Stevens has said, “volumes have been written upon them, and volumes may yet be written, and he that reads all will have but an imperfect view of Thebes—that all the temples were connected by long avenues of sphinxes, statues, propylons, and colossal figures, and the reader’s imagination will work out the imposing scene that was presented in the crowded streets of the now desolate city, when, with all the gorgeous ceremonies of pagan idolatry, the priests, bearing the sacred image of their god, and followed by thousands of the citizens, made their annual procession from temple to temple, and, ‘with harps, and cymbals, and songs of rejoicing,’ brought back their idol, and replaced him in his shrine in the grand temple at Karnak.”

The tombs of the kings are by far the most ancient and interesting of all the antiquities of Thebes. There is nothing in the world like them, and he who has not seen them can scarcely believe in their existence. The whole mountain range is one vast cemetery, and it is supposed that some millions of bodies were deposited there. On passing through an Arab village, one half of which was composed of excavations for mummies, in which the Arab finds a better resting-place than his mud cottage, we were almost suffocated with the dust and scorching rays of the sun, and were also surrounded by scores of men, women, and children, with various relics of antiquity, such as heads, hands, and feet of mummies, also remnants of sarcophagi, beautifully painted. The road is through a dreary waste of sand after leaving the fertile valley of the Nile, and the tombs show their dark and gloomy openings in one of the most desolate spots imaginable. There are very many of these tombs, but the principal one, which is called Belzoni’s, having been discovered by him, is three hundred and nine feet long, and contains fourteen chambers of different sizes. A flight of thirty steps descends to the entrance, where the doorway, wide and lofty, is without sculpture. Here is a hall, extremely beautiful, twenty-seven feet long and twenty-five feet broad, having at the end an open door leading into a chamber twenty-eight feet long by twenty-five feet broad, the walls covered with painted figures as perfect as if only a month old. Another flight of steps here descends to a chamber twenty-four feet by thirteen. The walls are covered with figures, marching in solemn procession to the regions of the dead. This flight of steps leads to another doorway, over which is seen the sign of the goddess of darkness. Advancing to the next corridor, the walls are covered with figures of boats, rams, mystic emblems of the gods of Egypt, &c. Another apartment is adorned by massive square pillars, which, like the others, are covered with hieroglyphics. Returning into the great chamber, and descending a flight of eighteen steps, we follow a continuation of the corridor, the walls of which are covered with paintings representing the actions of the monarch, perhaps the tomb of Pharaoh. In passing from hall to hall, we saw a lofty arched saloon, thirty-two feet long and twenty-seven feet broad. One of those chambers is forty-three feet long and eighteen wide. One apartment is adorned with two columns and a raised stone bench, hollowed out, in recesses extending all around the chamber. In the centre of the grand saloon was found a sarcophagus, of the finest oriental alabaster, only two inches thick, minutely sculptured within and without with several hundred figures, and, it is said, perfectly transparent when a light is placed upon it. The walls of these chambers and other tombs are generally covered with intaglio and relief, representing funeral processions, the serpent, and many other emblems of eternity—sarcophagi, religious processions, a great variety of animals and birds, agricultural scenes and implements, sacrifices, sacred boats, gods, goddesses, priests, chained captives, the cutting off hands from the arms by way of punishment, &c. &c. These magnificent halls, by the light of our torches, produced a magic effect in going from the dreary desert without.

After having visited many of the tombs of the kings and others, we took the statues of Shamy and Damay on our route. These two sitting statues, of enormous size, are in the centre of a vast cultivated plain, and are of equal size, being fifty-two feet high and forty feet apart. The thrones on which they sit, are thirty feet long, eighteen broad, and eight feet high. Both have suffered considerably from violence, particularly the vocal Memnon. These figures were formerly part of a grand avenue of sphinxes.