Wilkinson, John Gardner: Topographie of Thebes, and general view of Egypt: being a short account of the principal objects worthy of notice in the valley of the Nile, to the second cataracte and Wadi Samneh, with the Fyoom, Oases and eastern desert, from Sooez to Bertenice (London, 1835)

Chap, r.] TOMB OF OSYJ1ANDYAS. 13

but no increase of dimensions, from the entrance
to the inner chambers; and while the body of the
temple, behind the portico, retained one uniform
breadth, the areas in front, and frequently the
portico itself, exceeded the inner portion of it by
their projecting sides. The peristyle and " columns
in the form of living beings," roofed colonnade,
sitting statues, and triple entrance to a chamber
supported by columns, agree well with the approach
to the great hall of this temple. The largest statue
in Egypt can scarcely be looked for but in the
building before us, yet the sculptures to which he
alludes remind us rather of those of Medeenet
Haboo; nor is it impossible that either Hecatseus
or Diodorus have united or confounded the details
of these two edifices.*

The second area is about one hundred and forty
feet by one hundred and seventy, having on the
south and north sides a row of Osiride pillars con-
nected with each other by two lateral corridors of
circular columns. Three flights of steps lead to the
northern corridor behind the Osiride pillars, the
centre one having on each side a black granite
statuet of Remeses II., the base of whose throne
is cut to fit the talus of the ascent. Behind these

* Vide my remarks on the situation of the Valley of the
Queen's Tombs. See Index.

f From this building was taken the head that has been erro-
neously called of Memnon, and which is now in the British
Museum. It is, like the colossus before mentioned, of Remeses
the Great, who founded the buildins.