AN EGYPTIAN KING ON HIS THRONE.
The next day was devoted to an excursion to the Temple of Denderah, which is on the opposite side of the Nile from Keneh, and a ride of about an hour from the landing. The party was ferried over in the ordinary boats of the natives, and found donkeys waiting on the bank with the usual crowd of importunate natives.
The Temple of Denderah is the most modern in all Egypt, as it was built less than two thousand years ago. After one is accustomed to the pyramids, and similar structures of forty or fifty centuries, and comes to the Temple of Denderah, he hesitates to rub against it for fear the paint is not sufficiently dried.
But however much he may dislike the newness of the building, he can hardly fail to admire its solidity, and the magnificence of its halls and porticos. It is the best preserved of all the temples, as its walls and columns are practically uninjured, and the roof is almost entire. A mound of rubbish extends quite around it, and from a little distance the entrance of the temple is quite invisible.
FRONT OF THE TEMPLE AT DENDERAH.
The entrance is through a fine portico of twenty-four columns. On the ceiling of this portico is a zodiac, which has been the subject of a great deal of discussion, as it was supposed to show that the signs of the zodiac were used by the ancient Egyptians. Recent discoveries show that it is of Roman origin, and less ancient than was at first believed. Every student of Egyptology has had something to say about it, and we may safely remark that there are more opinions on the subject than there are signs in the zodiac itself.