DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4372#0193
177
and it is certainly the most beautiful and perfect piece of Egyp-
tian sculpture that can be seen throughout the whole country.
We were struck with its extraordinary delicacy; the very uncom-
mon expression visible in its features ; and with a marked cha-
racter that well entitled it to the admiration of Damis. It is of
granite, the stone the anticnts very commonly denominated as
the psKoiivcc Td&og- Its proportions are not so colossal as those of the
two which are together in the plain ; and the place in which it is
to be found exactly answers to the rsueyog rS Miyvovo;,—as de-
scribed by the same biographer,—a space within a ruined temple,
such as often occurs in abandoned cities, strewed with fragments
of columns, traces of walls, pedestals, doorways, and statues
of Hermes, or the Egyptian Mercury, partim ?nanu, partim tem-
pore consumpta.
There still remained the temple at Medmout, on the skirts of
the Eastern Desert, which we had not visited. After the stay
we had made on the Western bank, we hoped that the fall of the
water would now enable us here to complete the review of the
antiquities of Thebes. We dropped down the river to the vil-
lage of Haschashe, five miles below El-Gournou on the opposite
bank. Here is a large canal which penetrates quite to the De-
sert, and is continued along it in a Southerly direction, till it
meets the river again above Luxor; thus surrounding Eastern
Thebes in its whole extent. Near the village, the remains of a
Saracen bridge with brick arches attest that it has once been a
place of considerable importance. We were very much disap-
pointed in again learning that the season was not yet sufficiently
advanced for us to put in execution our intended visit to Med-
mout, as the state of the inundation still rendered all access to
it from the river equally impracticable by land or by the canals.
2 a
CHAP-
and it is certainly the most beautiful and perfect piece of Egyp-
tian sculpture that can be seen throughout the whole country.
We were struck with its extraordinary delicacy; the very uncom-
mon expression visible in its features ; and with a marked cha-
racter that well entitled it to the admiration of Damis. It is of
granite, the stone the anticnts very commonly denominated as
the psKoiivcc Td&og- Its proportions are not so colossal as those of the
two which are together in the plain ; and the place in which it is
to be found exactly answers to the rsueyog rS Miyvovo;,—as de-
scribed by the same biographer,—a space within a ruined temple,
such as often occurs in abandoned cities, strewed with fragments
of columns, traces of walls, pedestals, doorways, and statues
of Hermes, or the Egyptian Mercury, partim ?nanu, partim tem-
pore consumpta.
There still remained the temple at Medmout, on the skirts of
the Eastern Desert, which we had not visited. After the stay
we had made on the Western bank, we hoped that the fall of the
water would now enable us here to complete the review of the
antiquities of Thebes. We dropped down the river to the vil-
lage of Haschashe, five miles below El-Gournou on the opposite
bank. Here is a large canal which penetrates quite to the De-
sert, and is continued along it in a Southerly direction, till it
meets the river again above Luxor; thus surrounding Eastern
Thebes in its whole extent. Near the village, the remains of a
Saracen bridge with brick arches attest that it has once been a
place of considerable importance. We were very much disap-
pointed in again learning that the season was not yet sufficiently
advanced for us to put in execution our intended visit to Med-
mout, as the state of the inundation still rendered all access to
it from the river equally impracticable by land or by the canals.
2 a
CHAP-