DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.6551#0108
RETURN' FROM UPPER EGYPT.
77
now remain. It is also rilled up to a considerable height
by enormous masses of broken columns and of ruined
architraves, some of which appear to have been destroyed
by fire, notwithstanding the great height to which they
have been raised ; and the surface of some of the columns
towards the eastern end of the hall have not been faced
down, but merely roughly chiselled into the proper
shape and dimensions.fi What it must have been when
fresh and uninjured, and filled with multitudes of priests
and worshippers, in all the pomp and splendour of
Egyptian idolatry, can scarcely be imagined; but I con-
sider that the spectacle it affords, even in its present
dilapidated condition, an ample compensation for the
time consumed, and the trifling inconveniences neces-
sarily incurred in a voyage from England. Beyond this
temple other sacred buildings extend in a right line,
the works of successive monarchs from the earliest times ;
and an open space near the centre had been adorned with
6 Having been informed that the blocks were kept together by
wooden fastenings, I examined several; but instead of wood, I found in
the joints of one, which had partly been thrown over, cuttings about
an inch deep in the shape of wedges, with the smaller ends meeting at
the centre of the column, full of an exceedingly fine white cement of
the consistence of pounce, which, notwithstanding an exposure of pro-
bably many centuries to the intense heat of the climate, still retained
a degree of moisture. I brought away some of it with the intention
of having it analysed. In the corresponding stone, that had been placed
upon it, were similar cuttings filled up in like manner. The slabs
forming the roof of another part of the Temple had been cut in a some-
what similar manner; but I did not find any thing in them, nor discover
by what substance they had been fastened. The extreme tenacity of
the cement used in antient buildings was afterwards evident, when the
casing-stones of the Great Pyramid of Gizeh were discovered.
77
now remain. It is also rilled up to a considerable height
by enormous masses of broken columns and of ruined
architraves, some of which appear to have been destroyed
by fire, notwithstanding the great height to which they
have been raised ; and the surface of some of the columns
towards the eastern end of the hall have not been faced
down, but merely roughly chiselled into the proper
shape and dimensions.fi What it must have been when
fresh and uninjured, and filled with multitudes of priests
and worshippers, in all the pomp and splendour of
Egyptian idolatry, can scarcely be imagined; but I con-
sider that the spectacle it affords, even in its present
dilapidated condition, an ample compensation for the
time consumed, and the trifling inconveniences neces-
sarily incurred in a voyage from England. Beyond this
temple other sacred buildings extend in a right line,
the works of successive monarchs from the earliest times ;
and an open space near the centre had been adorned with
6 Having been informed that the blocks were kept together by
wooden fastenings, I examined several; but instead of wood, I found in
the joints of one, which had partly been thrown over, cuttings about
an inch deep in the shape of wedges, with the smaller ends meeting at
the centre of the column, full of an exceedingly fine white cement of
the consistence of pounce, which, notwithstanding an exposure of pro-
bably many centuries to the intense heat of the climate, still retained
a degree of moisture. I brought away some of it with the intention
of having it analysed. In the corresponding stone, that had been placed
upon it, were similar cuttings filled up in like manner. The slabs
forming the roof of another part of the Temple had been cut in a some-
what similar manner; but I did not find any thing in them, nor discover
by what substance they had been fastened. The extreme tenacity of
the cement used in antient buildings was afterwards evident, when the
casing-stones of the Great Pyramid of Gizeh were discovered.