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. VI.] TEMPLE OF PTHAH. 343

the recovery of his sight; and on the south of the
temple of Vulcan were added the sacred grove and
chapel of Proteus. The western vestibule was the
work of Rhampsinitus, who also erected two statues,
twenty-five cubits in height; and that on the east
was of Asychis. It was the largest, and most mag-
nificent of all these propyla, and excelled, as well
in the beauty of its sculpture as in its dimensions.
Several grand additions were afterwards made by
Psamaticus, who, besides the southern vestibule,
erected a large hypsethral court, where Apis was
kept when exhibited in public. It was surrounded
by a peristyle of Osiride figures, twelve cubits in
height, which served instead of columns, and which
were, no doubt, similar to those in the Memnonium,
at Thebes.

The Delta.—Of the numerous cities in the Delta
little now remains but mounds and a few fragments
of ancient monuments. Many of the modern towns
occupy their sites, and the Coptic prefixes Mit and
Tel generally indicate, like Birbeh, Khareib, and El-
amood, the position or the ruins of an ancient place.

The three sea-ports of modern Egypt are Alex-
andria, Rasheed (Rosetta), and Damiat. The first
has been the emporium for all commerce carried on
between Egypt and Europe, from an early period;
and though it enjoyed but few advantages during
the early period of Arab dominion, it regained much
of its pristine opulence under the reigns of the
Abbasides and the rival caliphs.