Thompson, Joseph P.: Photographic views of Egypt, past and present (Boston, 1854)

CHAPTER XX.

mother egypt — thebes — temples and monuments —
the nineteenth century.

After twenty-eight days of sailing and tracking, — a
voyage unusually protracted by contrary winds and by the
low stage of the river, — we made our mooring on the east-
ern bank of Thebes. On a Sabbath morning, — calm,
bright, and beautiful, — we awoke under the shadow of
Karnac. But though we had at last reached the object of
many longings, and the turning-point in a journey of more
than six thousand miles from homo, the instinct of curiosity
was absorbed in the emotion of gratitude, and the Sabbath
was welcomed as a day of rest and of praise. For weeks
we had talked and read only of Thebes; but now that
Thebes was gained, New York usurped its place in thought,
upon its own soil. Such is the power of religious associa-
tion, and of the sacred memories of home. The Sabbath
ended, a week was given to the exploration of the scenes
and monuments around us.

The site of Thebes was chosen with admirable wisdom.
The parallel ridges of naked limestone hills — the barriers
of the Lybian and Arabian deserts that for five hundred
miles skirt the valley of the Nile, at a distance of from three
to five miles apart, — here expand into a huge basin of more
than fifty miles in circumference, and break into peaks of
from a thousand to thirteen hundred feet high, or file off in
serried ranks on either side. These mountains guard the