DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4020#0066
54
Plate
CXIII.
Plate
XC1X.
TRAVELS IN EGYPT
by the hands of a great master. We sind, however, no other remains of it at
present, tho' there may be such concealed under the sand, which covers so
many other antiquities.
Lastly, I have thought proper to add to this description, a particular plan
of the remarkable ruins of the palace of Memnon in the ancient Thebes.
When I had completely considered all that appeared to me worthy of at-
tention, I took my rout, with the persons that accompanied me, along the
mountains, and at various distances I entered into several grottos. After which
we arrived at
Me dine t Habu It is a city at present ruined, and which had been
built to the west of the Nile, at about three quarters of a league within
land, and upon a part of the ruins of Thebes. We there found an antique
and magnificent portal. The Arabs had made of it a gate to their town. It
faced the Nile; and as it is well preserved, and is of an extraordinary beauty,
I have taken the design of it.
We afterwards went over several little hills formed by ruins and sand; and we
arrived at a square building, which was a kind of anti-chamber with regard to
the portal, and built of large blocks of white {lories of the height of a man.
We see still the remains of them appearing above ground. The upper part is
covered with a plain cornish. Oppoiite to the portal there is a pretty larpe
opening, which has on each side a piece of a wall, adorned with hieroglyphics.
This square building does not properly terminate at the portal, but at the walls
of the ancient town, of which you still see some remains to the north of the
portal. The face of this square building is marked letter <?, in order to distin-
ouim it from another wall, which is nearer to the portal by twenty paces, and
makes another separation. It is without a cornish; and the piece os wall, which
is near its opening, is likewise filled with hieroglyphics, and is separated from it
as may be seen in the design. In advancing a dozen paces further you arrive at
two columns, composed of divers great stones. They have no hieroglyphics;
but their chanelled capitals are incrustated with colours, and have the prettied:
effect, in the world, tho' they have not the advantage of being made by the rules
of any order of architecture.
When you have palTed these columns, you have to climb over an abun-
dance of large blocks os stone, that embarrass the passage of the portal. They
are all filled with hieroglyphics; and I observed there, amongst others, four
frizes of a greyisti stone, with branched-work in baffo relievo. They were lying
on the ground amongst the other ruins; and they struck me the more as I per-
ceived that it was a work of the Romans, adorned, in the middle, with the
heads of Diana and Bacchus; and in the rest covered with foliages of the
vine and oak. I perceived nothing like it, neither nigh, nor at a distance;
and I saw no buildings, where these srizes could have been made use of. All
the rest was of an Egyptian or an Arabian architecture; the last being, as is
well
Plate
CXIII.
Plate
XC1X.
TRAVELS IN EGYPT
by the hands of a great master. We sind, however, no other remains of it at
present, tho' there may be such concealed under the sand, which covers so
many other antiquities.
Lastly, I have thought proper to add to this description, a particular plan
of the remarkable ruins of the palace of Memnon in the ancient Thebes.
When I had completely considered all that appeared to me worthy of at-
tention, I took my rout, with the persons that accompanied me, along the
mountains, and at various distances I entered into several grottos. After which
we arrived at
Me dine t Habu It is a city at present ruined, and which had been
built to the west of the Nile, at about three quarters of a league within
land, and upon a part of the ruins of Thebes. We there found an antique
and magnificent portal. The Arabs had made of it a gate to their town. It
faced the Nile; and as it is well preserved, and is of an extraordinary beauty,
I have taken the design of it.
We afterwards went over several little hills formed by ruins and sand; and we
arrived at a square building, which was a kind of anti-chamber with regard to
the portal, and built of large blocks of white {lories of the height of a man.
We see still the remains of them appearing above ground. The upper part is
covered with a plain cornish. Oppoiite to the portal there is a pretty larpe
opening, which has on each side a piece of a wall, adorned with hieroglyphics.
This square building does not properly terminate at the portal, but at the walls
of the ancient town, of which you still see some remains to the north of the
portal. The face of this square building is marked letter <?, in order to distin-
ouim it from another wall, which is nearer to the portal by twenty paces, and
makes another separation. It is without a cornish; and the piece os wall, which
is near its opening, is likewise filled with hieroglyphics, and is separated from it
as may be seen in the design. In advancing a dozen paces further you arrive at
two columns, composed of divers great stones. They have no hieroglyphics;
but their chanelled capitals are incrustated with colours, and have the prettied:
effect, in the world, tho' they have not the advantage of being made by the rules
of any order of architecture.
When you have palTed these columns, you have to climb over an abun-
dance of large blocks os stone, that embarrass the passage of the portal. They
are all filled with hieroglyphics; and I observed there, amongst others, four
frizes of a greyisti stone, with branched-work in baffo relievo. They were lying
on the ground amongst the other ruins; and they struck me the more as I per-
ceived that it was a work of the Romans, adorned, in the middle, with the
heads of Diana and Bacchus; and in the rest covered with foliages of the
vine and oak. I perceived nothing like it, neither nigh, nor at a distance;
and I saw no buildings, where these srizes could have been made use of. All
the rest was of an Egyptian or an Arabian architecture; the last being, as is
well