DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.12665#0083
72
INCIDENTS OF TRAVEL,
temple ; and I can well imagine that, entering by
this narrow defile, with the feelings roused by its
extraordinary and romantic wildness and beauty,
the first view of that superb facade must produce
an effect which could never pass away. Even
now, that I have returned to the pursuits and
thought-engrossing incidents of a life in the busiest
city in the world, often in situations as widely dif-
ferent as light from darkness, I see before me the
fagade of that temple ; neither the Coliseum at
Rome, grand and interesting as it is, nor the ruins
of the Acropolis at Athens, nor the Pyramids, noi?
the mighty temples of the Nile, are so often pres-
ent to my memory.
The whole temple, its columns, ornaments, por-
ticoes, and porches, are cut out from and form part
of the solid rock; and this rock, at the foot of
which the temple stands like a mere print, towers
several hundred feet above, its face cut smooth to
the very summit, and the top remaining wild and
misshapen as Nature made it. The whole area
before the temple is perhaps an acre in extent,
enclosed on all sides except at the narrow en-
trance, and an opening to the left of the temple,
which leads into the area of the city by a pass
through perpendicular rocks, five or six hundred
feet in height.
It is not my design to enter into the details of the
many monuments in this extraordinary city; but,
to give a general idea of the character of all the
excavations, I cannot do better than go within the
INCIDENTS OF TRAVEL,
temple ; and I can well imagine that, entering by
this narrow defile, with the feelings roused by its
extraordinary and romantic wildness and beauty,
the first view of that superb facade must produce
an effect which could never pass away. Even
now, that I have returned to the pursuits and
thought-engrossing incidents of a life in the busiest
city in the world, often in situations as widely dif-
ferent as light from darkness, I see before me the
fagade of that temple ; neither the Coliseum at
Rome, grand and interesting as it is, nor the ruins
of the Acropolis at Athens, nor the Pyramids, noi?
the mighty temples of the Nile, are so often pres-
ent to my memory.
The whole temple, its columns, ornaments, por-
ticoes, and porches, are cut out from and form part
of the solid rock; and this rock, at the foot of
which the temple stands like a mere print, towers
several hundred feet above, its face cut smooth to
the very summit, and the top remaining wild and
misshapen as Nature made it. The whole area
before the temple is perhaps an acre in extent,
enclosed on all sides except at the narrow en-
trance, and an opening to the left of the temple,
which leads into the area of the city by a pass
through perpendicular rocks, five or six hundred
feet in height.
It is not my design to enter into the details of the
many monuments in this extraordinary city; but,
to give a general idea of the character of all the
excavations, I cannot do better than go within the