DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.5073#0066
ABOU SIMBIL.
55
shipped in the dark enclosure, instead of enjoying blessed
liberty on the hills he could just descry without.
On the walls of the outer hall are represented the
historic deeds and conquests of the great Barneses; the
other chambers are also sculptured all over, and two or
three of them have a stone divan extending: along: the
sides: but the pictures are so blackened with smoke
as to be very difficult to decipher, and the heat and
suffocation in the inner rooms are so intense, that it
became impossible to examine half of them; strong
lungs and head are absolutely necessary for a real ex-
amination of Abou Simbil in its present state; it was
with much vexation that we turned to hurry out, but
one was forced to retain strength enough in one's faint
and semi-suffocated condition for the exit — head
foremost — through the same little hole : an operation
still more disagreeable than the entrance.
We lay down in the shadow of the rock to rest and
breathe, and to feast our eyes quietly and thoroughly
on the four colossal figures of the facade: three only are
quite uncovered by the sand, and one of these has been
destroyed to the waist, while of the fourth only the
face is visible. These enormous figures — they are
sixty-six feet in height without the pedestals — are of
the great Rameses II. seated on his throne; his posture,
the hands on the knees, signifjdng his rest after his
many conque'sts — viz. those portrayed within the
Temple; these figures are as striking as the Osirides in
the interior, but even more beautiful in face. The
countenance is as grand, and perhaps more human, with
an expression of majestic sweetness in the mouth and of
triumph in the nose, which gives a sort of conviction
to the mind that they are portraits. Till I saw those
figures, I never could believe that features of such
E 4
55
shipped in the dark enclosure, instead of enjoying blessed
liberty on the hills he could just descry without.
On the walls of the outer hall are represented the
historic deeds and conquests of the great Barneses; the
other chambers are also sculptured all over, and two or
three of them have a stone divan extending: along: the
sides: but the pictures are so blackened with smoke
as to be very difficult to decipher, and the heat and
suffocation in the inner rooms are so intense, that it
became impossible to examine half of them; strong
lungs and head are absolutely necessary for a real ex-
amination of Abou Simbil in its present state; it was
with much vexation that we turned to hurry out, but
one was forced to retain strength enough in one's faint
and semi-suffocated condition for the exit — head
foremost — through the same little hole : an operation
still more disagreeable than the entrance.
We lay down in the shadow of the rock to rest and
breathe, and to feast our eyes quietly and thoroughly
on the four colossal figures of the facade: three only are
quite uncovered by the sand, and one of these has been
destroyed to the waist, while of the fourth only the
face is visible. These enormous figures — they are
sixty-six feet in height without the pedestals — are of
the great Rameses II. seated on his throne; his posture,
the hands on the knees, signifjdng his rest after his
many conque'sts — viz. those portrayed within the
Temple; these figures are as striking as the Osirides in
the interior, but even more beautiful in face. The
countenance is as grand, and perhaps more human, with
an expression of majestic sweetness in the mouth and of
triumph in the nose, which gives a sort of conviction
to the mind that they are portraits. Till I saw those
figures, I never could believe that features of such
E 4