CAIRO TO ASSOUAN.

beino- struck, gives out the exact sound described by Strabo and others.1 For a trifling-
backsheesh, an Arab climbs up the statue, and, unseen by persons in the plain below,
produces as often as is wished the note "like the breaking of an harp string," which
was thrice repeated in honor of the Emperor Hadrian on his visit to Thebes.

Crossing the river to Luxor, which lies on the opposite bank, we find an Arab vil-
lage, built within and upon the temples of Amenophis in. and Rameses II. The effect
is grotesque, and detracts sorely from their impressiveness. The silence and the sense
of loneliness, which
elsewhere give such
a weird solemnity
to the ruins, are
here dispelled by
the miserable
hovels which
cluster round the
stately columns,
and the swarms of
beggars clamor-
ously demanding
backsheesh. There
is, however, one
part of the ruins
remote from the
village which is
not infested by
these annoyances,
and here it is possi-
ble to admire the
graceful, yet
massive columns,
and realize, in
some measure,
what Egyptian
architecture was in
i t s most perfect
period of develop-
ment.

The temple-
palaces of Luxor

and Karnak were united by a magnificent avenue of sphinxes, which led for nearly two
miles across the plain. Th» roadway between them was sixty-three feet in width, and
as the sphinxes were only twelve feet apart, the number of these majestic figures was
almost incredible. For fifteen hundred feet from Luxor, they were of the usual form,
with female heads ; thence to Karnak they were crio, or ram-headed sphinxes, as being
sacred to Anion. A similar avenue led from the main front to a quay and flight of

1 But see an article in the Quarterly Review for April, 1S75, maintaining the first of these explanations.

105

PALACE OF HAMESES HE, MEDINET-ABU.