DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4372#0399
583
fragments, we found a granite capital of large dimensions, the
sculptures of which represented the spreading branches of the
palm-tree. It was, I think, the first capital of this stone that Ave
had yet seen among the monuments of antient Egyptian architec-
ture, and there is much reason to believe that granite columns were
confined to the limits of the Delta. The mounds which enclose
what appears to have been the site of the great temple, being
1000 feet long, 700 wide, and of a great height, are composed of
crude bricks like the other sacred enceintes throughout the coun-
try, to which additions have been made by successive buildings of
the same materials, which have crumbled into dust, and served
as foundations for those of a later date. The apertures in some
of these walls formed by the rains, appear like deep ravines left
by mountain torrents. The larger enclosures, which mark the
boundaries of the antient city, are of a very great extent; not less,
as far as we were able to calculate, than five miles in circum-
ference. We could distinguish the principal entrances, and the
bases, on which rested avenues of columns or colossal sphinxes,
conducting to the gates; and very large remains of a dromos of
granite pillars, leading to the temple. Nearly the whole country
around, even at this season of the year, (early in February,) was
inundated, and impassable except along the canals and remains
of causeways. Very few villages serve to relieve the melancholy
prospect of a large extent of deserts and marshes. One of the
few villages we saw, if a parcel of huts built of mud and reeds
deserve that name, is within half a mile of the ruins, on the
other side of the canal; it is called El Ouaick. This supplied
us with a couple of men, whom we employed in excavating among •
the foundations. On the top of one of the mounds, as we were
observing several parcels of bricks piled upon one another, our
niides
gl
fragments, we found a granite capital of large dimensions, the
sculptures of which represented the spreading branches of the
palm-tree. It was, I think, the first capital of this stone that Ave
had yet seen among the monuments of antient Egyptian architec-
ture, and there is much reason to believe that granite columns were
confined to the limits of the Delta. The mounds which enclose
what appears to have been the site of the great temple, being
1000 feet long, 700 wide, and of a great height, are composed of
crude bricks like the other sacred enceintes throughout the coun-
try, to which additions have been made by successive buildings of
the same materials, which have crumbled into dust, and served
as foundations for those of a later date. The apertures in some
of these walls formed by the rains, appear like deep ravines left
by mountain torrents. The larger enclosures, which mark the
boundaries of the antient city, are of a very great extent; not less,
as far as we were able to calculate, than five miles in circum-
ference. We could distinguish the principal entrances, and the
bases, on which rested avenues of columns or colossal sphinxes,
conducting to the gates; and very large remains of a dromos of
granite pillars, leading to the temple. Nearly the whole country
around, even at this season of the year, (early in February,) was
inundated, and impassable except along the canals and remains
of causeways. Very few villages serve to relieve the melancholy
prospect of a large extent of deserts and marshes. One of the
few villages we saw, if a parcel of huts built of mud and reeds
deserve that name, is within half a mile of the ruins, on the
other side of the canal; it is called El Ouaick. This supplied
us with a couple of men, whom we employed in excavating among •
the foundations. On the top of one of the mounds, as we were
observing several parcels of bricks piled upon one another, our
niides
gl