forms, according to the ancient Egyptian taste in architecture. They are encompassed by a wall, which being joined to the entablature of the colonnade, forms a covered portico all round. The southern wall has fallen down, apparently from some sudden and violent concussion, as the stones are lying on the ground, in layers, as when placed in the wall; a proof that they must have fallen all at once. I observed some hieroglyphics sculptured upon single stones lying about in this part. The columns on the south side are joined to each other, except the two centre ones, by a low wall, half their height, in the same manner as those in the temple of the hawk-headed Osiris at Philæ. There is one large entrance, and two smaller ones, and a stair-case leading up to the top. Several paintings of Greek saints are upon the walls; but no hieroglyphics, nor sculptures, of any kind, are visible, not even the globe, common to all the Egyptian temples; neither are there any sculptures on the columns. The walls of this ruin are very neatly and well constructed. There are several Greek inscriptions upon them, in red ink; but I could only read the following clearly:
I also copied the following inscription, which is upon the wall; but I am unacquainted with the characters, and have no opportunity at present of ascertaining what they are:
There are besides, several inscriptions in the ancient popular Egyptian character, such as is seen on the manuscripts of papyrus.
The whole portico stands upon a terrace of massy stones, eight feet high towards the river; on this side is the great gate, but, as there are no steps up to it, it is probable that it was used only during the period of inundation, when vessels might moor close under it; at present, the water does not reach the temple at the time of the inundation. The portico is fifteen paces in length, and nine in breadth: there is nothing about it which denotes it to be of Egyptian origin, except the palm-leaves sculptured on the capitals of the columns; it possesses, however, an imposing simplicity, and belongs, I think, to the last epoch of Egyptian architecture. Close to the walls of the portico are the remains of another building, which had probably been a temple similar to the above, and not a part of the same structure, for I could not perceive any corresponding parts in the two buildings. A wall only remains, and the foundations of the principal building; on the former are several sculptures, one of which represents Isis sitting under a tree, and receiving offerings; it is in high relief, unlike any thing of the kind I have seen in Egyptian temples, and more resembling Grecian sculpture. This circumstance, and the Grecian-like simplicity of the portico, lead me to conjecture that both edifices were the work of the Ptolemies, who constructed temples to the Egyptian deities in several parts of Egypt, in which they imitated the architecture consecrated to their worship. I saw no hieroglyphics on the wall.
There are large mounds of rubbish, and fragments of pottery, in this place. Several travellers have expressed their astonishment at the immense heaps of rubbish consisting chiefly of pottery which are met with on the sites of ancient Egyptian towns; and, if we are to attribute their formation to the accumulation of the fragments of earthen vessels used by the inhabitants for domestic purposes, they are indeed truly surprising; but I ascribe their origin to another cause. In Upper Egypt, the walls of the peasants houses are very frequently constructed in part of jars placed on over the other, and cemented together with mud; in walls of inclosures, or in such as require only a slight roof, the upper part is very generally formed of the same materials; in the parapets also of the flat-roofed houses a double or triple row of red pots, one over the other, usually runs round the terrace, to conceal the females of the family when walking upon it. Pots are preferred to brick, because the walls formed of them are lighter, more quickly built, and have a much neater appearance. They possess, likewise, another advantage, which is, that they cannot be pierced at night by robbers, without occasioning noise, by the pots falling down, and thus awakening the inmates of the dwelling, while bricks can be removed silently, one by one, as is often done, by nightly depredators, who break into the houses in this manner. If then we suppose that pot walls were in common use by the ancient inhabitants, the large mounds of broken pottery may be satisfactorily accounted for. As for stone, it seems to have been as little used for the private habitations of the ancient Egyptians, as it is at the present day.
Near Wady Meharraka the island of Derar commences. At eight hours and three quarters is the village of Korty. About two hundred yards from the river stands a ruined temple; it is the smallest I have seen, and may truly be called an Egyptian temple in miniature, being only ten paces in length; the cella and adytum are yet standing; the pronaos seems to be buried under the sand. Of the sculptures, a few figures, and the winged globe over the gates, remain; but the whole temple is in a very mutilated state. At the end of nine hours and a half, we stopped at the house of a Shikh, on the southern extremity of Wady Dakke (وادي دقّه).
March 27th. After an hour’s march, we came to the ruin of a temple, one of the finest remains of antiquity that is met with in the valley of the Nile. In the front stands a large propylon, thirty paces in length, in the centre of which is a gate similar to that of the propylon at Edfou; before this gate lies a fragment of the body of a sphinx. There are neither hieroglyphics nor figures of any kind upon the outer wall of the propylon; in both the wings are staircases leading up to the top, exactly similar in their construction to those in the propylon at Philæ; the two wings communicate with each other by a terrace over the gate: there are numerous small chambers one above the other from the bottom to the top, in both wings. On the wall which fronts the gate of the temple, and on the sides of the gateway, are sculptures and hieroglyphics.