Page:Africa by Élisée Reclus, Volume 1.djvu/469

 TIIEIJE.S— LUXOR— KABNAK. 88t edifice has been laid bare. At the northern end, that is to my, in the first great courtyard approached through the double pylons, a partial clearance ha« also been efTected, revealing the existence of a small portico and several colossi, some prostrate, some still erect on their pedestals. The portico dates from Ramaes II., and it now appears that the temple, when first constructed, was not separated as it now is from the Nile by an extensive space of rising ground ; but that all the southern end of the building behind the sanctuary, and part of the western side, rose, as it were, direct from the water's edge, like the western gallery at Philae. Some remains of a great quay, inscribed with the names and titles of Amen- hotep III., have also been brought to light. M. Maspero is able now to assert that Luxor, freed from the modem excrescences by which it has hitherto been disfigured, is for grandeur of design and beauty of proportions almost equal to Kamak. The sculptures with which the chambers and columns are decorated are of the finest and most delicate execution ; while some of the wall subjects would not suffer in the comparison if placed side by side with the choicest bas-reliefs of Abydos.* For a period of three thousand years, from the twelfth dynasty to the last of the Ptolemies, temple after temple was erected at Kamak. Everywhere the eye lights on miracles of workmanship ; but the glory of this architectural museum is the chamber of colonnades, or " hypostyle," constructed in the reign of Seti I. It is the largest work of the kind in Egypt, one of those stupendous monuments which the memory instinctively conjures up when the mind iwsses in survey the great masterpieces of human genius. The ceiling of this chamber, which is no less than 76 feet high in the central nave, is supported by 134 columns, of which those in the middle row have a circumference of no less than 32 feet. All are covered with paintings and sculptures in intaglio, as are also the walls, and amongst the bas-reliefs there are some of the greatest historical importance, repre- senting the victories of the Pharaohs over the Arabs, Syrians, and Hittites. In the " great temple " near this place is the famous " wall of numbers," a chapter of the national records, a portion of which was deposited by Champollion in the Louvre, and all of which are now known, thanks to the researches of Mariette. To the same explorer is due the discovery of a geographical list of six hundred and twenty .eight names of peoples and places inscribed on gateways. Amongst the tribes enumerated, Egj'ptologists have succeeded in identifying several from Phoenicia and Palestine, from Assyria and other remote Asiatic lands, from Ethiopia and the region of aromatic herbs stretching along the African seaboard south of the Red Sea. Certain names have also been deciphered which have been referred to the distant region of the great equatorial lakes in our days again for the second or third time discovered by Speke, Grant, Baker and other explorers. According to Ilartmann, the Funj type may be recognised in the clearest manner amongst the figures of Ethiopian captives. t • Amelia B. Edwardn, " Acudcmy," March 21, 1885. t " Zeittchrift fur Siboologio," vol. i., 1869.