DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.12249#0038
8
THEBES.
cut into two very unequal divisions by the sweeping
curves of the broad and gently flowing stream of the
Nile, which glides in where a bend in the hilly out-
line of the desert bounds the horizon to the south,
and similarly is lost towards the north. Eirst, as
being immediately in front, although three miles
distant on the eastern bank of the river, and almost
casting its shadow upon the water, the eye rests on
the great Temple of Luxor, with its obelisk, its low
heavy towers, and its sturdy columns struggling in
noble contrast with the mud or crude brick hovels of
the modern village, which crowd around and even on
them. A mile farther and to the north, the massive
portal towers of Karnak overtop a grove of palms
which partially hide the forest of clustering pillars,
the avenues of sphinxes and bulls, the obelisks, the
statues, the endless sculptured halls, and cells, and
colonnades, covering an area full half a mile in diameter,
amid acres of mounds which bury other buildings within
the precincts of this sacred range, where age after age
had lavished its efforts of religious zeal, grafting temple
upon temple.* Between these two grand groups of
* It is scarcely necessary to say that it is no part of my plan to
enter into minute descriptions of the various Theban temples, repeating
details already elaborately set forth in the well-known repositories of
Egyptian research, and which those who prize them in their complete-
ness will prefer to seek there,— e.g. in "Wilkinson's earlier work, Thebes
and View of Egypt, or in its subsequent editions under different titles,
the last being the Handbook, 1858 ; in his Architecture of Ancient Egypt;
in Champollion's Lettres ecrites d'Egypte et de Nubie, and his Mo-
numents de I'Egypte; Eosellini's Monumenti dell' Egitto; Lepsius'
THEBES.
cut into two very unequal divisions by the sweeping
curves of the broad and gently flowing stream of the
Nile, which glides in where a bend in the hilly out-
line of the desert bounds the horizon to the south,
and similarly is lost towards the north. Eirst, as
being immediately in front, although three miles
distant on the eastern bank of the river, and almost
casting its shadow upon the water, the eye rests on
the great Temple of Luxor, with its obelisk, its low
heavy towers, and its sturdy columns struggling in
noble contrast with the mud or crude brick hovels of
the modern village, which crowd around and even on
them. A mile farther and to the north, the massive
portal towers of Karnak overtop a grove of palms
which partially hide the forest of clustering pillars,
the avenues of sphinxes and bulls, the obelisks, the
statues, the endless sculptured halls, and cells, and
colonnades, covering an area full half a mile in diameter,
amid acres of mounds which bury other buildings within
the precincts of this sacred range, where age after age
had lavished its efforts of religious zeal, grafting temple
upon temple.* Between these two grand groups of
* It is scarcely necessary to say that it is no part of my plan to
enter into minute descriptions of the various Theban temples, repeating
details already elaborately set forth in the well-known repositories of
Egyptian research, and which those who prize them in their complete-
ness will prefer to seek there,— e.g. in "Wilkinson's earlier work, Thebes
and View of Egypt, or in its subsequent editions under different titles,
the last being the Handbook, 1858 ; in his Architecture of Ancient Egypt;
in Champollion's Lettres ecrites d'Egypte et de Nubie, and his Mo-
numents de I'Egypte; Eosellini's Monumenti dell' Egitto; Lepsius'