DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4794#0215
follow. The height of the Sphynx, is 26 feet;
the circumference of the head 12; while the
length of the back is supposed to be nearly 60
feet. But relative to the supposition of a sub-
terraneous passage from thence to the pyramids
it is proved totally unfounded. A very ele-
gant print has lately been published of the
Sphynx in this metropolis.
OF THE ANCIENT CITY OF THEBES.
Next in point of fame to the monuments
we have described, is Thebes, the ancient city
of an hundred gates, as it is termed by Homer.
M. Denon, the latest describer of these noble
ruins, ©bserves the situation of Thebes is as
beautiful as imagination can conceive, and its
extent leaves no doubt of the amplitude: the
width-of Egypt not being sufficient to contain
this famous city, it has rested its extremities
on the two chains of mountains bv which it is
J
bordered, and its ancient burial place fills the
valley to the West, far into the desert.
Four little towns still divide the relics of
the edifices of Thebes, and even the river, by
its meandringj seems proud of flowing amidst its
ruins.
Between twelve and one-o’clock the French,
army which M. Denon attended, arrived in a
desert, which was the burying-ground : the
rock, cut on its inclined plane, presented, on
three sides of a square regular apertures, behind
which double and treble galleries and chanu--
bers have served for sepulchres. Denon-and -
the circumference of the head 12; while the
length of the back is supposed to be nearly 60
feet. But relative to the supposition of a sub-
terraneous passage from thence to the pyramids
it is proved totally unfounded. A very ele-
gant print has lately been published of the
Sphynx in this metropolis.
OF THE ANCIENT CITY OF THEBES.
Next in point of fame to the monuments
we have described, is Thebes, the ancient city
of an hundred gates, as it is termed by Homer.
M. Denon, the latest describer of these noble
ruins, ©bserves the situation of Thebes is as
beautiful as imagination can conceive, and its
extent leaves no doubt of the amplitude: the
width-of Egypt not being sufficient to contain
this famous city, it has rested its extremities
on the two chains of mountains bv which it is
J
bordered, and its ancient burial place fills the
valley to the West, far into the desert.
Four little towns still divide the relics of
the edifices of Thebes, and even the river, by
its meandringj seems proud of flowing amidst its
ruins.
Between twelve and one-o’clock the French,
army which M. Denon attended, arrived in a
desert, which was the burying-ground : the
rock, cut on its inclined plane, presented, on
three sides of a square regular apertures, behind
which double and treble galleries and chanu--
bers have served for sepulchres. Denon-and -