DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.3715#0004
Its original inhabitants are supposed to have dwelt in caverns
in the rocks ; and Osiris, who taught them the use of husbandry,
and whom they afterwards worshipped as a god, was imagined to
have been the founder of the city. Carnac, where now stand the
ruins of the oldest and most extensive temple, on the eastern side
of the river, was the spot first inhabited, but as the population
increased, the western bank was also occupied and covered with
houses, palaces, and religious edifices. Though it has been
surmised that Homer spoke rather as a poet than as a geographer
when he describes it as having a hundred gates; yet Thebes, in
its glory, filled the whole valley, resting on each chain of mountains,
and the Nile flowed through the centre of a vast and populous
city, which is estimated to have been thirty miles in circumference.
And if it had greatly declined from its original splendour, long
prior to the earliest notice of history, an ancient geographer* still
says, that before the invasion of Cambyses, " The sun had never
shone on so magnificent a city."
The Persian conqueror, however, hastened its fall; pillaged its
temples, and carried away the ornaments of gold, silver, and
ivory, with which they were decorated. But even to this day, the
remains of this wonderful place are so considerable, that M. Denon
asserts, in his Travels in Egypt, it took him more than twenty
minutes to ride at full gallop round the exterior of the single temple
of Carnac.
But it is not the object of this short description to dwell on the
ruins of Thebes, of which it will be sufficient to mention that the
most remarkable are the temples at Carnac and at Luxor, on the
east side of the Nile. On the opposite bank are the temple
of Gournou, partly buried in the sand, the Memnonium where
anciently was the colossal statue of Osymandyas, and the two
sitting gigantic figures, each fifty-two feet high, which remain in
their original position. It was from the Memnonium that Ml".
Belzoni brought the colossal bust of the young Memnon, as it has
been called, now deposited in the British Museum.
Such are some of the most striking monuments of the mag-
nificence of the former inhabitants of Thebes; but the present
natives of Gournou, the most independent of any of the Arabs in
Egypt, and greatly superior to them all in cunning and deceit?
live in the entrance of the caves, or ancient sepulchres mentioned
above. Here, having made some partitions with earthen walls,
they form habitations for themselves, as well as for their cows,
camels, buffaloes, sheep, goats, and dogs. They cultivate a small
tract of land, extending from the rocks to the Nile; but even this
is in part neglected, for they prefer to the labours of agriculture,
the more profitable but disgusting employment of digging f°r
mummies. Aware of the eagerness with which these articles are
purchased by strangers, they fnake and arrange collections of them,
and Mr. Belzoni has frequently seen in the dwellings of the Ar»DS»
* Diodoriis Siculut. .
in the rocks ; and Osiris, who taught them the use of husbandry,
and whom they afterwards worshipped as a god, was imagined to
have been the founder of the city. Carnac, where now stand the
ruins of the oldest and most extensive temple, on the eastern side
of the river, was the spot first inhabited, but as the population
increased, the western bank was also occupied and covered with
houses, palaces, and religious edifices. Though it has been
surmised that Homer spoke rather as a poet than as a geographer
when he describes it as having a hundred gates; yet Thebes, in
its glory, filled the whole valley, resting on each chain of mountains,
and the Nile flowed through the centre of a vast and populous
city, which is estimated to have been thirty miles in circumference.
And if it had greatly declined from its original splendour, long
prior to the earliest notice of history, an ancient geographer* still
says, that before the invasion of Cambyses, " The sun had never
shone on so magnificent a city."
The Persian conqueror, however, hastened its fall; pillaged its
temples, and carried away the ornaments of gold, silver, and
ivory, with which they were decorated. But even to this day, the
remains of this wonderful place are so considerable, that M. Denon
asserts, in his Travels in Egypt, it took him more than twenty
minutes to ride at full gallop round the exterior of the single temple
of Carnac.
But it is not the object of this short description to dwell on the
ruins of Thebes, of which it will be sufficient to mention that the
most remarkable are the temples at Carnac and at Luxor, on the
east side of the Nile. On the opposite bank are the temple
of Gournou, partly buried in the sand, the Memnonium where
anciently was the colossal statue of Osymandyas, and the two
sitting gigantic figures, each fifty-two feet high, which remain in
their original position. It was from the Memnonium that Ml".
Belzoni brought the colossal bust of the young Memnon, as it has
been called, now deposited in the British Museum.
Such are some of the most striking monuments of the mag-
nificence of the former inhabitants of Thebes; but the present
natives of Gournou, the most independent of any of the Arabs in
Egypt, and greatly superior to them all in cunning and deceit?
live in the entrance of the caves, or ancient sepulchres mentioned
above. Here, having made some partitions with earthen walls,
they form habitations for themselves, as well as for their cows,
camels, buffaloes, sheep, goats, and dogs. They cultivate a small
tract of land, extending from the rocks to the Nile; but even this
is in part neglected, for they prefer to the labours of agriculture,
the more profitable but disgusting employment of digging f°r
mummies. Aware of the eagerness with which these articles are
purchased by strangers, they fnake and arrange collections of them,
and Mr. Belzoni has frequently seen in the dwellings of the Ar»DS»
* Diodoriis Siculut. .