The walls and columns of the Ramesseum, the magnificent temple built by Ramses II, and those of Medinet Habu, the great temple built by Ramses III, were covered with pictures in relief, made in the golden days of Theban prosperity.
TWO WEATHER-WORN FIGURES OF PRODIGIOUS SIZE
"The ancient artists, to perpetuate their work, used chisels on lasting stone instead of brushes on perishable canvas," remarked the professor as we examined the reliefs, "and their pictures carved on the stone walls have endured through centuries."
We saw battle scenes with the king leading in the fray, archers discharging arrows, charioteers riding down the foe, and enemies fleeing in dismay; triumphal marches with the king borne aloft on a canopied litter, fan-bearers waving fans, musicians blowing trumpets and beating drums, courtiers bearing standards, and captives led in chains; festal processions with the king marching in front, the sacred white bull festooned with wreaths, maidens carrying flowers, and priests bearing images; and nations paying tribute to the king upon his throne, Nubians bringing leopard skins, giraffes, and grinning apes, and princes presenting gems, costly vases, and golden shields. One picture at Medinet Habu represented the soldiers cutting off the right hands of their enemies who had been slain in battle and bringing these gruesome emblems of the dead to the secretaries to be counted and recorded. The secretaries had counted and recorded twelve thousand five hundred and thirty-five hands. To enumerate the many interesting scenes sculptured on the temple walls would be like cataloguing a picture gallery.
At the Ramesseum, the enormous Colossus of Ramses lay broken on the ground, overthrown by some mighty force.
"This huge granite figure," said Mahmoud, "was, before its fall, the largest statue ever carved out of one block of stone. Its height was nearly sixty feet, the fingers three feet long, and its weight has been estimated at one thousand tons."
The Colossi of Memnon, the two enormous seated figures in the midst of level cultivated fields, were passed and photographed as we returned to Luxor. Their hugeness may be judged by comparing their size with the height of the tourists alongside in the illustration.
"During the weeks of inundation each year," said Mahmoud, after he had told us the dimensions of the statues and the mythical stories associated with them, "these grain fields as far as the vegetation extends are covered with water to a depth of from ten to fifteen feet. When the Nile is at its height the heads of the great Colossi, surrounded by water, rise forty feet above the flood."
A bath and a thorough brushing of clothes at the hotel removed the desert sand. We sipped our afternoon tea in the shaded garden and then the party of forty-two persons boarded the Nile steamer Amasis in time for an evening dinner on the boat. Suit cases and satchels were unpacked and the staterooms made cozy, for the Amasis was to be the tourists' home for a number of days during the trip down the Nile.