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

19G

egypt, past and present.

tinuous line of gateways, corridors, areas, and temples
eight hundred feet in length by from one hundred to two
hundred feet in breadth, and containing some of the best
specimens of the old Egyptian sculpture. If, then, the old
avenue to Karnac shall be restored, and the buried frag-
ments of sphinxes, obelisks, and colossi, made to line as of
old this dromos of more than a mile in length, reaching from
the massive gateway of Rameses II. at Luxor to the no
less majestic, though isolated gateway, of Ptolemy Euer-
getes at Karnac, Thebes in her ruin will exhibit a wonder
such as the world has not seen since her fall.

It is to be hoped that Mons. Maunier will be continued
in his office till this great work is accomplished. Just now,
however, all labor is suspended in consequence of the new
conscription for the army, for fear of which the laborers
have deserted their homes and have fled to the mountains,
where they are hunted -by soldiers who, a few years since,
doubtless themselves fled from a similar conscription. "What
a comment is this upon a government, which with one
hand compels Labor for a pittance to disentomb the past,
and with the other drives Labor to bury itself in the rocks,
where kings built their sepulchres. Labor groaning under
Despotism built those mighty monuments; Labor groaning
under Despotism digs out their ruins ; Labor groaning under
Despotism seeks a momentary refuge from Egypt's petty
tyrant, among the tombs of Egypt's most resplendent
dynasty. — "It shall be the basest of the king-
doms."