CAIRO. FROM THE EAST. (J 0 N T E N T 8. TITLE-PAGE— TRAVELLER’?? BOAT AT IBRUI, CAIRO, FROM THE EAST. CAIRO, THE MOSQUE OF THE EMEER AKHOOR. CAIRO, TOMBS IN THE SOUTHERN CEMETERY. CAIRO, THE EZBEKEEYEH. CAIRO, THE 3LOSQUE OF EL-HAKIM. CAIRO, THE CITADEL GATEWAY. CAIRO, THE MOSQUE OF KAITBEY. CAIRO, THE CITADEL. STREET VIEW IN CAIRO. GEEZEH, THE SPHYNX AND GREAT PYRAMID. THE PYRAMIDS OF GEEZEH. THE PYRAMIDS OF SAKKARAH. THE PYRAMIDS OF DAHSHOOR, FROM THE EAST. THE NILE, FROM THE QUARRIES OF TOURA. PORTICO OF THE TEMPLE OF DENDERA. CLEOPA^’RA’S TEMPLE AT ERMENT. THEBES, THE STATUES OF MEMNON. THEBES, VALLEY OF THE TOMBS OF THE KINGS. THEBES, OSIRID^ PILLARS AND GREAT FALLEN COLOSSUS. THEBES, THE RAMESEUM. THEBES, PORTICO OF THE TEMPLE OF GOORNEH. THEBES, PYLON GATEWAY AT MEDINET HABOO. THEBES, THE TEMPLE PALACE, MEDINET HABOO. THEBES, INTERIOR COURT OF MEDINET HABOO. THEBES, OSIRID^ PILLAR AT MEDINET HABOO. THEBES, NEW EXCAVATIONS AT JIEDINET HABOO. THEBES, ENTRANCE TO THE GREAT 'i’EMPLE, LUXOR. THEBES, VIEW AT LUXOR. THEBES, OBELISK AND GRANITE LOTUS COLUMN. KARNAC. THEBES, PILLARS IN THE GREAT HALL, KARNAC. THEBES, THE BROKEN OBELISK. KARNAC. THEBES, HALL OF COLU3INS, KARNAC. THEBES, SCULPTURED GATEW^AY, &c., KARNAC. THEBES, THE GRANITE PYLON, KARNAC- THEBES, THE COURT OF SHISIIAK, KARNAC. THEBES, INTERIOR OF THE HALL OF COLUMNS, KARNAC. ;X.!' so % ■' ST •1 "■ '.>' •r '. ' ■ ‘ -..t,A :-'i' f " ■\':u '■ ri ■.Ir -»■ .-J . )t*w . *, ,V« ir .VtiSMl!!- ■ .«)(■(■ '.■ •■‘"■T-fl^.M' ♦ ■■ ■•aJ^.’iA- .' s ' '■ ■'W , * ...... . ' • ' • Y ■S' ">. ■!»' I • M «^jAv^-- - ' '-•*- ’ r>:^; '‘'V. 1 -' •''i;i:*'*^'’ - ■•".■.■■v.vi 4 - < •■ L V».% ’ .. ■' '“■'>■ v,i. 4 ■ -K"- >(tT M-itxvf’ ’"■ ■■ ;., - ■ T ^ j '■ ; 7 ?* ■ ’ V ■• -i i 'Vi ^.A' * .-.j >v 1 J .i-j/ . 0.*. >,..,4»A. . '^U,■ - J ■- •''*''?*'<(jj^^‘‘.( ' '*>'« ... .- ‘ ' ,-i.- 4 i<^ ._*h(; ^1 i"' ' .. .^^r*. >.-t* '• "•' 4 "i' i< ■ .■ •. '• . <' ..iif: "'K' . ^ ^ *'.„-• , . . .• * . . ■_. .. _ ^ , , * .u 3 1 j I ;J, '' j;i *■,’ . ,1 .V . -;Ui. ■ fin> ..iTi oi'. -O'-' - -- u : . . urtwin- R . ■ •%' >5 s ../ir «*fljfiii^i rt yi ■'h ■■ •■•' H ' •■ • V ' ■' 4 ^?BHI% , .f. '•■■'" 5 ■' •%'•• -j- ., A ^ - ,.. if r*«^ * 1 % St. 4 ■it. fit. CAIRO. FROM THE EAST. FEW years ago Cairo was siUTounded by vast mounds of rubbish, covering, in some places, a wiilth of lialf a mile, and rising to a height of a hundred feet. They almost touched the L city-wall, and were the accumulation of centuries, formed, on three sides of the town, by the rubbish, dust, and offal daily thrown on them; and, on one side, the south, by the destruction of a former town, once the metropolis of Egypt after the Arab conquest. These mounds have been removed on the west of Cairo, and have given place to the plantations of olive, and other trees, and prickly pear orchards, which now reach down to the \(V bank of the Kile. The removal of the mounds was beneficial to the health of the city by affording made the neighbouring quarters of Cairo very damp. On the north also the mounds have been partially removed; on the south they still remain, being too extensive to meddle with; and so, too, on the east, where they form almost a range of hills. From this range the view we are about to describe was taken. Tiie visitor to the Eastern Cemetery, called that of Kaitbi^y, passes over these elevations: all along the walls he cannot fail to be struck by the picturesque views thus obtained: they are chiefly over the oldest portion of the town the “city” itself, that first founded by the heretic dynasty of Western Africa, who invaded Ef^ypt in the year of the Flight 3b8 ; all tlie rest of Cairo, in its great extent, consisting of gradual additions to this small area. The photograph, however, does not embrace the latter; it is taken a little on the south of it, and gives the housetops of the chief modern approach to the Citadel. The road, here called the Tebbaneh, runs under the mosque in the centre of the view, and continues beneath the other mosque, which is seen, apparently, in the foreground on the left, but is really several hundred yards distant. The street- view, given in the earlier part of this series, was taken in tlie street beneath the first-mentioned mosque, and on referring to that view, the reader -will perceive the minaret of the other, and part of the walls of the mosque belonging to it, a short distance up the street. The mosque in the centre is one of the best examples in Cairo, and dates from the most flourishing period of the art. The minaret presents that combination of bold solidity with elegance of form and detail which belongs only to that period. Its proportions seem to us to be fiiultless, aud it is certainly equal to any other in Cairo. The same may be said of the domes; and the treatment of the walls is, as all architecture should be, perfectly appropriate, aud, at the same time, massive, and without heaviness. The structure presents to the eye a harmonious whole, in which one cannot complain of want of grandeur on the one hand, or want of ornament on the other. The older buildings, as, for instance, the Mosque ot Ei-Hdkim, are deficient in the latter quality; the later (though still of true Arab art, we are not speaking here of buildings erected since the Turkish conquest) are deficient in the former, as in the case of the &Iosqne of Kfiitbey. Tlie history of the founder of this beautiful building may he interesting. We learn from El-Makreezee that it was the work of a lady named Barakeh. a inuwellcdeh, that is to say, horn of a slave. She was of the harcem of Hoseyn^ a son of the Sultiin Mohammad the son of Ivahioon, one of the great architects of Cairo, of the first (or Bahree, or Turkish) dynasty of ilemlook kings. Her son Shaaban came to the throne, with the title of El-Melik- el-Asliraf, at the age of ten years: his reign was troublous, for it was near the end of his dynasty, when the grandees hohl the chief power, and kept tlie kings in tlie comlition of puppets. lie tlirew off this thraldom ''f free ventilation ; but the irrigation of the plain where they stood, by means of a steam-engine, has CAIRO, FROM THE EAST. after four years, ami took tlie government into his own hands for tlie next ten years, until be was, like most Sultsins of his time, assassinated. His mother, whose virtues the historian records, built the mosque to serve the double portion of a college and a sepulchre ; and at its entrance she made a fountain (sebecl) for charitable purposes. The two domes indicate the tombs of herself and her sou, for both rest in the mosque; a dome being almost always raised to cover a tomb. It was built in the year of the Flight- 771, and is called the Collegiate Mosque of the Mother of the Sultdn (Medreset Umm-es-Sultdn). The site of the mosque was anciently one of the burial-grounds of the old city above mentioned, and appropriately we see a small enclosed graveyard in the right foreground of the view. Immediately in front is a portion of the city-wall, the work of the renowned Salah-ed-Deen (Saladin), with one of the round towers that flank it at intervals on this side of Cairo. Tlie general view over the city is highly illustrative of the aspect of Cairo. There are the clustering domes, no less than five, immediately before the spectator, wdth four mosques (for there is a small old minaret on the right), and in the distance, the domes and minarets are almost countless. In front of the principal mosque stands one of those quaint prison-like houses that, in a housetop-view, liere and there over-top their lesser neighbours, and by their dismal ugliness, call to mind, first of all, the many crimes that may have been committed within them. Yet these liouses, on the side next the main street, are generally ornamented with the beautiful projecting windows of lattice-work, and we think, with Mr. ]\Ionckton Milnes, of the “Tliousand and One Nights,” and “concealed jewels,” lutes, and carousals. And if we are fortunate enough to penetrate beyond the crooked passage of the door — aheays crooked, that no one may uninvited see beyond a few feet from the entrance, to disturb the privacy of the inmates — a cheerful, swept, and watered courtyard, with spacious arched and open-fronted reception rooms for male guests, generally surprises us • and yet again, beyond that court, there is, perhaps, one more private still — for the hareeni only. Grape- vines are trained over a trellis that shades the courts, and jasmine twines among them ; and in the mulherry-tree, whicii is often planted in the courts, cooes the wild turtle-dove. An air of quiet decay makes the spectator a little melanclioly, but repose is, perhaps, the uppermost mental sensation. Tlie house that has raised this train of reflection is shut in by wretched hovels ; and so such bouses always are in Cairo, except in a few favoured quarters. One of these hovels is in such a state of dilapidation that we must believe it to be a “AVakf,” or building left as legacy to a mosque; all the most wretched ruins in Cairo being niosque-propei'ty. >V, ■< ' . • ■ ,! . ■ r,i U1 ii. 0 i( i) Yf % Vi -J!* *. : .1 '\l:'<^jr ^ l_ ' (*ii 9^^ ./- '• .'^ ■ I* ■“ -ft <>M ' ' »*■-. . ik T"*it',-ft » »i* *'• ^ ■ «** .' ■ l‘■.“".t■. .tf t/i''"- jinCp«<4Wiii± ■ 1 ' - ■• ^ . ' -W ;. V- • • • ■ '-i ‘‘sv: " . - ; >.. .4 ... / j ft. ■ ' ** 1 .« tk> r'V. » it .. 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M.w ,-■ " i ■ ;.: * - ■ ■ ■ Fi' .- KMEEIi A KOI!. E lyfosqne of tlie Etneer Akliu: lur i^iii Cairo coimtioiily proDOinicoil “Yuklioor”) stands a little to the north-east of the great square railed the lluineyleli, wliich is between the Citadel and effect, and who has enjoyed the perfect combination of these (pialities in one view of Cairo, commanding \vill fail to record that privilege with tiie deep feeling of lirst and fresh impressions ; for, in all that is most striking and interesting, Cairo is unlike any other city in the world. The mosques are its most character- istic objects, and exhibit every beauty of the Alliambra, with iar greater elegance and purity both in the details and in the general forms. But their architecture displays considerable variety, commencing with the grand and massive style of Ilm-Tooloon and El-ITiikim, ami gradually assuming lighter I'orms in the age ol the Memlook Sultdns. When we enter the city, and find it extensively dilapidated, and here ami there an exquisite mosque or public fountain half in ruins, often disfigured by unsightly bouses, built against, and almost into, their walls, as in t!ie present illustration, the question arises whether the religion or the taste of the Egyptians has degenerated, ami whether they cease to value beauty of form and detail in the exterior of their mosques and of their dwellings; and it is answered by the fact, with respect to the former, of the alienation ol church-property by the state; and, with respect to the latter, by the poverty and oppression of the people. Cairo may be compared to the dominant religion of its inhabitants; it exhibits a mnltitiido of grantl ami imposing objects, choked up with such as are mean, unseemly, and foul. Tlie large mosques are open the whole day for the admission of worshippers; others are open only lor morning and noon prayers. One — the Mosque El-Azhar — is open all niglit, and is the chief refuge in Cairo of the homeless poor. In general, a mosque of Cairo, however small, encloses a square court, open to the sky, having in its centre either a tank or a fountain for ablution, and suiTouniled by porticoes, composed ot pillars and arches supporting a fiat roof, which extends to the outer walls. The portico in the direction of Mekkeh is wider than the others, and contains in the middle of the inner side of its external wall the niche tliat marks that direction, with the pulpit a little to the right of it; and this portico is the principal place of prayer. Many of the mosques are colleges as well as places of worship ; some are sepulchral, the tomb of the founder being beneath the dome, or beneath one of the domes, for some mosques have more than one; and a common adjunct to a mosque is a free school, the room appropriated to which is generally in the upper part of the building, and has one of its sides open externally. An account of the congregational and other prayer? would far exceed our limits; they have been fully described in the “Modern Egyptians. The exterior of the ilusque of the Emeer Akhor is presented with such wonderful effect by the triitli the Mosque of the Sulti'in ITasan. It is one of the best examples ot the ilosque arcliitecture of the period of the Circassian Memlook Sultans, coininencing a little before, and ending a little after, the fifteenth century. It must not be confounded with a mosque bearing the same name, hut also called the Nasireeyeh, near one ot the western gates ot the city called by the latter name. No one who can be touched by grandeur of form, symmetry of proportion, and extraorJ| l! 1 1’fi;. THE MOSQUE OU KAITBEY. LONG the eastern side of Cairo extends an unbroken eliaiii of lofty mounds, commanding fine views of the whole ot the citvj and between this chain and the Mukattain lange lies a lono' sandy tract, containing innumerable tombs, which compose what is commonly called “the Eastern Cemetery,” or “the Cemetery of the Sahra.” The central portion of this great biiriaCground is called “ Kaitbey,” after the Sultiin buried in its principal tomb; and sometimes this name is applied to the whole of the cemetery. Some more properly call it “ the Tombs of the Jlemlook SultAiis,” because many of the most beautiful of the sepulchres oi those i^rinces are comprised in it. Tliese mausolea are erroneously termed “ the Tombs of the Cali[)hs,” for not one of the tombs of the Khaleefehs (commonly called Caliphs) now exists: they were Imricd in the spot now occupied by the principal Turkish bazAr of Cairo, called “ KliAn el-Klialeelee ; but their bones were afterwards exhumed, and thrown upon the mounds of rubbish mentioned above. El-Melik El-Ashraf KAitbdy, whose tomb forms the principal object in this view, began to reign on the nth of Regeb, in the year of the Fiiglit 872 (a. d. 14G8), and died on the 27th of Zu-l-Kaadeh, 901, having reigned twenty-nine years and four months; and El-Is-liAkee writes that no one of the Circassian kings reigned as long as be did, and that it is said he became a kutb before his death.” By “kutb” is meant the corypheeus of all the saints of his age, a personage respecting whom the most absurd superstitions are enter- tained, not only by the vulgar among the Muslims, but also by their learned men. The kutb is believed to exercise authority, both spiritual and temporal, over all the other saints, and to be a kind of mediator between God and mankind in general. His office is represented as being very much like that of Elijah, whom many of the RIusHms assert to have been the kutb of bis time. They believe that he has tlie power of renderiug himself invisible; that be can transport himself instantaneously from any one place to any other on the earth ; and that he has a number of favourite stations, one of which is in Cairo. According to El-Is-hAkee, Kaitbey was “buried in the tomb which he had built in the SalirA during his lifetime;” and he states that there are dwellings for the poor, and for its chief ministers, belonging to that tomb. He also writes that Kaitbdy built many mosques, rihdts (which are public buildings for the accommodation of persons who devote themselves to religious exercises), and also colleges, fountains, Ac. ; and that he did more good works than can be enumerated. Although the almshouses built by hioi exist, and are partially inhabited, the stillness of death generally pervades the place, except on Fridays, as on that day the Muslims visit the tombs of their relations and friends. The geometrical ornamentation of the exterior of the dome of the Mosque ot KaitbAy is singularly beautiful, and the transition from the circle to the octagon, and from the octagon to the square, gives the appearance and the reality of durability, and aids much in forming a composition wliicb perfectly satisfies the eye. The dome and minarets are unsurpassed in elegance by any others in or around Cairo. The interior of this mosque is noble in size and proportions, and beautiful in its ornamental details. Under the dome, against the side that is towards Mekkeh, are placed two shrines, each containing a stone held in great veneration, one of them having a depression which is believed to be an impress of the Prophet’s foot, tlie other having two similar depressions, to wliich the same belief atiplies. The superstitious THE MOSQUE OF KAITBEY. visitor kisses eacli of these stones, or touches it witli his right ham), which lie tlien kisses, persuaded that a special blessing will result from this observance. Europeans are often admitted into this mosque upon the simple condition of removing their shoes before they cross the threshold. Standing between the mosque and the point from which this view is taken, is a tomb with a dome unusually flat, supported by pillars. Of Ivditbf'y, it is related by El-Is-bdkee, that when the merchant Mahraood brought liim as a slave to l\Iisr {which is Egypt or Cairo), one of the Jlemlooks who were brought as slaves with him conversed with him and with the camel-driver, who was leading the camel that bore them both, on a certain night in the month of Ramadan, and they said, “May be this luminous night is the Night of Decree, and perhaps in this night prayer will be answered, so let each of us ask for the fulfilment of his particular wish.” And Kditbdy said, “I desire the office of Sultan of Egypt from God, whose name be exalted!” And the second said, “I desire to be a great Emeer.” Then they looked towards the camel-driver, and said to him, “What desirest thou of- God, whose name be exalted?” He answered, “I desire a good end.” And Kuitbey became Sultan, and bis friend became a great Emeer, and they used to say, when they met together, “ The camel-driver hath been the most fortunate among us.” i T n [J E I THE CITADEL OF CAIRO, WITH THE MOSQUE OF MOHAMMAD ’ALEE, FROM A CEMETERY TO THE SOUTH-EAST, AT THE FOOT OF THE GEBEL EL-MUHATTAM. HE Citadel (El-Kal’ah) was founded by Saldh-ed-Deen (Saladin), a. D. 117G-7. It overlooks Cairo from the south-east, crowning a rocky hill 250 feet above the level of the plain ; and was constructed mainly of the materials of a number of small pyramids, adjacent to those I which still form conspicuous, though distant objects, as seen from this elevation. The great mosque within its walls we watched for years in its slow progress. It is the Mosque of Mohammad ’Alee; and there, by his direction, he was interred. The architecture is of a mixed character, and not rich in decoration, though the building is very costly: its columns are of alabaster, and its proportions have a certain grandeur; but the minarets, being very lofty, and peculiarly slender, produce an incongruous effect. To the right of it is the extensive ruined mosque of the Sultdii Mohammad Ibn-Kala-oon, with two minarets, and the base ol a dome. It was built in the early part of the fourteenth century. On the round tower, a little more to the right, may be traced a telegraph, the first of a series extending to Alexandria. Several very large palaces are included in the Citadel, together with a labyrinth of private dwellings. The lower strata of the Mukattam range will interest the geologist, and many a powerful glass will be used to magnify the base, which, in two semicircular projections, is happily brought into the right of this view. The Gebel El-Mnkattam commands the Citadel, as the latter commands Cairo. Between them runs a shallow valley, in which the most interesting objects are the cemetery in this view, and the picturesque houses and enclosures attached to it. These were erected for the accommodation of mourners who periodically pay their visits here to wail at the tombs of their relations and friends, especially on the occasions of the two Moham- madan festivals — the greater and lesser ’Eed, called by the Turks the two Beirams, when the cemeteries are crowded to excess, and, as the houses are private property, tents are pitched for those who do not possess them. Long trains of women and children are then seen visiting the burial-grounds, and the first impression is that it is an interesting and affecting sight, and it is natural to listen, and to liush every sound besides, that the melancholy and measured wail may be heard as it is borne upon the air. "While the periodical expression of sorrow does violence to established conviction, that the anguish of bereavement belongs to no particular day, tliere is something in the belief that those Eastern mourners are on their way to perform pious duties whicii fascinates the spectator; but, if they be followed to the houses, it will be seen that, with very few exceptions, they have brought with tliem every luxury that their homes could spare — cushions, mattresses, prayer-carpets, and good cheer of every description suitable to the climate. The rich are attended by their slaves, and the poorer have begged and borrowed all that they require for the journey and the stay. Especially on the occasions of the two festivals, the so-called sorrowing Muslims eat, drink, and enjoy them- selves during three days and nights ; and they delight in unusually large gatherings, for the reason, often expressed, that the more numerous the party, the merrier are the groups assembled. The women generally take a palm-branch to break up and place on the tomb, and some cakes or bread to distribute to the poor : this is done for the sake of the dead, in whose register it is supposed to be put down by the recording angel. THE CITADEL OF GAIKO, Ac. The grave is an arched vault, in which the corpse is laid, without a coftiii, merely wrapped in the grave- clothes, ill order, as it is believed, that the dead may be able to sit up during the first night after the burial, to be visited and examined by two angels, and to be unmercifully punished by them if unable to answer satisfactorily their questions. The body is laid upon its right side, or in an inclined position, with the face towards Mekkeh, Over the grave is an oblong monument of stone, with an erect stone at the head and foot — that at the head in many instances bearing an inscription, and in not a few cases having a turban, or some other head- dress carved on the top. In the view before us it will be observed that two of the tombs are more conspicuous than the rest : these are tombs of persons of consequence, and are of a very elegant description, each being canopied with a pyramidal roof, supported by four pillars and arches. In many cases, the oblong monument immediately over the grave is of marble, richly sculptured, and the headstone bears an inscription, generally including a few words from the Kur-d,n, in raised gilt letters upon a bright blue ground. STREET VIEW IN CAIRO. extent of Cairo is about three miles in length, and a mile and a half in breadth. It contains groat thoroughfare-streets, by-streets, and quarters, and several extensive open ; spaces, gardens, &c. Every quarter has one, two, or more gates, and so have many of the V i by-streets, and these are closed at night, a doorkeeper opening to any person giving a satis- ' factory answer. The gates of the city-wall (which, by the way, hardly deserves to be thus called, except the portion on the northern, and some portions on the eastern side) are kept by sentries, and not opened after nightfall to any but persons who can give the password of the night. The stillness of the city not very long after nightfall becomes remarkably striking. One might then pass through a mile’s length of its intricate streets and scarcely see a living being, except the sentry here and there at a guard-house, a watchman making known his presence by occasionally uttering some religious ejacu- lation, and now and then a pack of houseless dogs, very vigilant at night in guarding their own distinct quarters, and most useful scavengers by day. The thorough-fare streets alone are worthy of the name, for the others are only lanes, and narrow ones ; and those composing the quarters are so tortuous that it often seems marvellous that the grooms can thread them. The wider streets, with their bits of glorious sunlight generally high overhead, and their deep welcome shade, preserve the picturesque effect of the olden time in the principal quarters, because tliere we find the projecting windows of turned wmodeu lattice-work (the meshrebeeijehs ) ; while in those inhabited chiefly by Turks and officers of the government the windows are generally of glass, having the lower part covered by outer trellis-blinds. Mohammad ’Alee issued two orders with regard to the erection of new houses. He forbade their having meshrebeeyehs, and he ordered that they should be build two feet further back tlian their neighbours. The first order was made on account of the frequent and most destructive fires, the dry wood igniting with dreadful rapidity, and communicating from lattice to lattice, curling through and about the light and beautiful work which forms the screen of the hareem, and hides from the public eye what are termed b\’ an idiom of the country “the guarded jewels.” With soft divans spread within them, the women are con- tented to watch all that passes in the busy street, or even in the silent lane : — “ Behind the veil, where depth is traced By many a complicated line, — Behind the lattice, closely laced With filigree of choice design, — Behind the lofty garden wall, Where stranger face can ne’er surprise, — That inner world her all-in-all, The Eastern woman lives and dies.” * The second order oi Mohammad ’Alee was occasioned by the innovation of carriages, and given in the prospect of its becoming a growing wood, and that eventually entire new streets would be erected ; but the result is curious, increasing the irregularity of the lines of houses and shops. The latter had also stone • “Palm Leaves,” by Richard Monckton Milnes, Esq., M.P., p. 14. STREET VIEW IN CAIRO. benolies in front for the accommodation of customers, and these were removed by the Pasha s direction. It is grievous to see the consternation occasioned by the introduction of carriages in a city so unsuited to their presence. Men, women, children, camels, horses, and donkeys, escape from the threatened destruction to the spaces in front of the newly-erected houses, and to the lanes and quarters opening into the main thoroughfares. The street in this view gives an idea of the repose of Eastern life in the Muslim quarters, undisturbed by association with the bustling, anxious European— the only trace of Western civilization being found m the number affixed to the house on the right— 125. A map of Cairo is very curious, showing how entirely persons are mistaken who, seeing only the streets and lanes, imagine it to bo a crowded city. All the best houses have courts— some very spacious— into which the principal apartments look ; and although for the purposes of ventilation the plan may be imperfect, it is the only one suitable to Eastern lite. In the view may be noticed a window through which a person sitting within might be easily seen by passengers in the street: it is the window of a room appropriated to the reception of male visitors, and therefore is in the lower part of the house. The upper floor of the house in the foreground on the right is evidently roofless, as the sky is seen through the lattice; and this floor, with few partitions, or without any, and rarely with so high a wall, forms in the Egyptian house the terrace— so called by Europeans— on which the family pass the early mornings and the evenings, and on which, in the hottest season, their mattresses are sometimes spread for the night. These terraces are sometimes paved, but more frequently have a smooth coat of plaster. In the nearest lattice-window, facing the spectator, is a projection in which the porous water-bottles are placed for cooling the water by evaporation. Several others may be observed in the view, not so near. On the left, in the ground-floors of two houses, are three shops— mere recesses, like deep cupboards, having no communication with the houses. The houses beyond are modernized. The minarets of two mosques rise on the left, the nearer of them having lost what originally formed its uppermost portion. THE SPHYNI AND GREAT PYRAMID, GEZEH. ^HE day and hour in a man’s life upon which he first obtains a view of “Tiie Pyramids,” A is a time to date from for many a year to come ; he is approaching, as it were, the presence of an immortality which has mingled vaguely with his thoughts from very childhood, and river. At low water the ride from the modern town of Gezeh, through palm groves, and fields of corn and lupins, is a pleasant one. The Pyramids are in full view almost all the way, and seem ever to remain suddenly oppressive. They stand on a finely elevated plateau of sandstone, on the declivities of which are many picturesque rock tombs, forming part of the necropolis of the neighbouring city of Memphis, now marked only by huge mounds. This necropolis consists partly of tombs of this nature, partly of sunk shafts, partly of massive mausolea, and stretches for many miles along the edge of the desert, around the grandest of its sepulchres, the Pyramids. These Pyramids are believed to be the oldest (as they certainly are among the mightiest and most enduring) monuments of human art in the world. The largest was built in the reign of Shufa (the Cheops of the Greek writers), and therefore possesses an antiquity of not less than four thousand years ; but although thus much has been ascertained by the evidence of contemporary hieroglyphics, the history of the erection of the structure is preserved only (or perhaps perverted) in the traditions recorded by Herodotus, Diodorus, and others. Among many remarkable facts recorded by these authors may be mentioned one, that 360,000 men were employed in the work for twenty years. Its base is 746 feet, its height 450 feet ; it covers an area of about twelve acres, a space which is often — for the sake of familiar illustration — compared with the nearly equal one occupied by Lincolu’s-Inn-Fields. The second Pyramid (called Belzoni’s, of which an illustration will be given in a future number) still retains a portion of the layer of polished granite with which the whole exterior was originally cased. Aud the Great Pyramid has been similarly finished, although none of the granite stones now remain, having probably been removed in course of the extensive spoliations carried on during the reign of the Caliphs, to procure building material for the then rising city of Cairo. There are at Gezeh three principal pyramids, and other interesting remains, which will amply repay research : as the great paved road which probably led from the river, the remains of temples, and passages — now chiefly underground — leading to no one knows whither, and some of which are built or lined with massive blocks of alabaster and granite. The Sphynx, whose base has moi’e than once of late years been to a greater or less extent uncovered, is again almost entirely hidden by the drifted sand, and the entrance to a small temple — executed in the sandstone rock between its fore paws — is, in consequence, no longer visible. The profile, as given in my view, is truly hideous. I fancy that I have read of its beautiful, calm, majestic features ; let my reader look at it, and say if he does not agree with me, that it can scarcely have been, even in its palmiest days, otherwise than exceedingly ugly. I shall not be expected to give details of the explorations which have been made from time to time into the interiors of the Pyramids. Suffice it to say that they have been, at intervals of many centuries, opened and again closed. Belzoni and Colonel Vyse have been the two successful explorers of modern times ; tlie former displayed wonderful tact and perseverance in reopening the second Pyramid, but was not rewarded by any very important discovery — its one central chamber contained a sarcophagus sunk in tlie floor. That these buildings were intended maitdy as sepulchres, is now the almost universal opinion. ? t has been to him unconsciously an essential and beautiful form, and the most majestic mystery ever created by man. “The Pyramids” par excellence (for there are several of inferior magnitude in the vicinity, as those of Saccara and Dashour) are situated nearly opposite Cairo, about six miles to the west of the at the same distance from the eye, even until one stands close under them, when their vastness becomes THE PYRAMIDS OE EL-GEEZEH, FROM THE SOUTH-WEST. RCHITECTURE was the greatest of the arts with the aocicnt Egyptians ; sculpture and painting were but aids to it; and therefore the graven and pictured parts of one great whole, when separated, lose their significance. Even a colossus or an obelisk is not a solitary and detached work, to be judged by itself, but a part of a harmonious structure, planned according to undeviating principles. In seeking for the governing ideas wlience the system of architecture sprang, we must remember that the art was wholly religious. Not alone were the Egyptians a nation much given to worship, but they raised no dui'able structures save tombs and 'If temples. Man was not neglected while the gods were honoured, but he was provided with an enduring 7 dwelling-place for his long rest, not for his time of probation. His house w'as the tomb, “ the house appointed for all living.” His religion taught the immortality of the soul; and, in some sort, the resurrection of the body. Connected with these truths was the feeling that the sacred body should suffer no vicissitudes after its sepulture; and therefore it was embalmed, and placed in a lasting tomb. Very anciently, in the dawn of history, the tombs were the chief buildings ; and the temples seem to have owed their character somewhat to them. Both, however, embody the great tenets of the belief of Egypt, which, here at least, overpower the miserable idolatries with which they were interwoven. They are durable in material and construction, grand and massive in form, and rich, though sober, in colour. They stand in the desert, away or apart from the homes of men, where none of the signs of life can take the soul from the contemplation of eternity. The most characteristic of the monuments of this art are the Pyramids ; for they express most plainly the grand ideas that gave their founders determination to raise edifices which no later age has tried to rival. There are structures in other lauds which resemble them in form, but not in symmetry, strength, and vastness. The Babylonian towers are not unlike them, nor are the tumuli of Asia Minor and the Tauric Chersonese, and the Pyramids of America. But not the greatest of these, neither Nebuchadnezzar s Tower, nor the Tomb of Alyattes, nor the Pyramid of Cholula, are worthy to be mentioned with the Egyptian wonders. The Pyramids were in all cases tombs, and nothing more. That they were places of sepulture is enough to any one acquainted with the character of the ancient Egyptians to prove that they had no other use; but were it not so, our knowledge of their structure would afford conclusive evidence. The principle of their con- struction was discovered by Mr. James Wild, the architect who accompanied the Prussian expedition. A rocky site was first chosen, and a space made smooth, except a slight eminence in the centre, to form a peg upon which the structure should be fixed. Within the rock, and usually below the level of the future base, a sepulchral chamber was excavated, with a passage, inclining downwards, leading to it from the north. Upon the rock was first raised a moderate mass of masonry, of nearly a cubic form, but having its four sides inclined inwards; upon this a similar mass was placed; and around, other such masses, generally about half as deep. At this stage the edifice could be completed by a small pyramidal structure being raised on the top, and the sides of the steps filled in, the whole being ultimately cased, and the entrance-passage, which bad of course been continued through the masonry, securely closed; or else the work could be continued on the same principle. In this manner it was possible for the building ol a pyramid to occupy the lifetimo of its founder, without there being any risk of his leaving it incomplete. THE PYRAMIDS OF EL-GEEZEH, FROM THE SOUTH-WEST. The chambers within the Pyramids were constructed merely to receive the sarcophagi of those who built them ; and the passages, for their conveyance. Both are therefore of no great size, and practical in form, with little or no decoration. They have, however, a strange, unearthly aspect, and in some instances their propor- tions are noble. The Grand Gallery in the Great Pyramid must be mentioned as a most striking interior. The chief Pyramids stand in the Necropolis of Memphis, on the edge of the Great Desert, about four miles from the west bank of the Nile. They extend for about fifteen miles— the most northern being opposite to Cairo. The desert is here a slightly-raised rocky tract, high enough above the valley to give the Pyramids a commanding position, but not so high as to dwarf their size. First to the north is the ruined Pyramid of Aboo-Ruweysh, then the famous group of El-Geezeh, and lurther those of Aboo-Seer, Sakkarah, and Dahshoor. Still beyond, to the south, are other Pyramids, but they cannot be assigned to the Memphite burial-ground. These Pyramids were the tombs of kings, and probably also of other royal personages. The oldest of which the date is known may be assigned to about b.c. 2440; and it is reasonable to suppose that all belong to a period of about a thousand years, or somewhat less, commencing about b.c. 2050. The Memphite kingdom had come to a close, and royal Pyramids were no longer built, when Moses led the Israelites out of Egypt, at a time for which the history of Europe has not even I'eliable traditions. OI|« y THE PYRAMIDS OF SAXKARAH, FROM THE NORTH-EAST. f N any view of the range of Memphite Pyramids, the group of Sakkarah is readily distinguished by ihe striking appearance of its chief monument, the Pyramid of Steps. This group is about twelve miles southward of Cairo, four from the west bank of the Nile, and near the village of Sakkarah. The elevation of the ridge of the desert is here greater than usual, and the site of these Pyramids, especially the chief one, is not inferior to that of the group of El-Geezeh. This seems to have been the most crowded part of the Necropolis, and the Pyramids are more numerous and nearer together than is generally the case. The Pyramid of Steps rises high above its smaller neigh- bours, and is distinguished alike from them and from the more distant Pyramids by its present form. Besides the other Pyramids, the group comprises a structure resembling a truncated pyramid, which is called by the Arabs “Mastabat Fara’oon,” or Pharaoh’s Seat. The view comprises the Pyramid of Steps, and another pyramid to the north-east of it. Both are admir- ably presented, the regular masonry of the one contrasting with the rubble of the other. The distance of the larger of the structures, the dazzling sunlight, and as strong shade on both, the undulations of shifting sand, with here aud there a rauminy-pit, into which an unwary passer-by may easily fall, bring back to the mind every characteristic of this striking view. The lesser features are not wanting to render it complete : there, in the foreground, is a liuinau skull, and a little beyond it the skull of a sacred bull. It is no unusual chance that brings them here: throughout the whole vast Necropolis the bones of men and of bulls and ibises are strewn around the mouths of the desecrated pits. The vast abundance of the remains of human mummies attests the ancient populousness of Egypt, and the length of time for which this was a favourite bui-ial-place. At Thebes the tombs occupy a comparatively small space, yet there we are astonished at their number, and the multitude of fragments of mummies strewn about. At Memphis, the same is the case over a great tract; aud we are led to suppose that, during the remote time before the supremacy of Thebes, when the former was the most important city of Egypt, the population of the country was extremely dense, as, indeed, we must infer from the coustructioii of monuments requiring so much labour as the Pyramids. These vast cities of the dead, full of pits dug in the rock, tombs of masonry, and sepulchral grottoes cut in the sides of the slight rocky elevations, are a special feature oi Egypt, on the whole unparalleled elsewhere : as we view them, we understand the meaning of the complaint ot the Israelites to Moses, when Pharaoh pursued them : — “Because [there were] no graves in Egypt, hast thou taken us away to die in the wilderness?” (Ex. xiv. 11.) The Pyramid of Steps is of smaller dimensions than the spectator would suppose, its position on an eminence about 90 feet above the plain, and the manner in which the pyramidal form is broken, giving it an advantage over most of the otlier Pyramids. The present perpendicular height, according to Mr. Perring’s measurement, is 190 feet 6 inches; and the original base, on the north and south sides, was 351 feet 2 inches, and, on the east and west sides, 393 feet 11 inches. It is, as the author just mentioned observes, the only Pyramid in Egypt the sides of which do not exactly face the cardinal points, the north side being 4° 35' east of the true north in its direction. The interior is very remarkable. The more ancient part consists of an inclined passage, leading to a narrow and lofty chamber, connected with small apartments. One of these is beneath the great chamber, and is entered by the roof through an aperture which was closed by a THE PYRAMIDS OF SAKKARAH, FROM THE NORTH-EAST. block of granite resembling the stopper of a buttle. A passage from the south-east angle of the great chamber leads to small rooms, round the doorway of one of which was a hieroglyphic inscription, which has been removed, and is now in the Berlin Museum. It comprises the name and titles of an ancient king, Ra-nub- rekhee, or Nub-rekhee-ra, not enclosed as usual in an oval ring, but followed by a circular ring, as a determinative sign. The determinative signs, it may be observed, are representations (ideographs) used to determine tlie sense of words written phonetically. This inscription shows the origin of the practice of placing the royal names in oval rings, and is probably of the remotest period, before that practice was introduced. The king may not improbably be the Necher&phus, or Necherochis, of Manetiio, chief of his Third Dynasty, whose accession may be placed b.c. 2650. The exceptional direction of the Pyramid, its irregular dimensions, and the very archaic character of this inscription, make this by no means an unreason- able conjecture. Besides these passages and chambers, there are beneath the Pyramid a gallery and numerous passages of a much later date, showing that the monument was appropriated as a place of sepulture long after its foundation, but yet in ancient times. A great period must have elapsed before a royal tomb could have been so diverted from its original use. The condition of the ruined Pyramid to the left in the view makes it difBcult, if not impossible, to ascertain the original dimensions; probably its base was about 231 feet square, and its height 14G; now the base is about 210 feet, and the height 108. It is rudely constructed of large unsquared stones. Within it are excavated passages and chambers, once lined with fine masonry, which has been partly torn away. In one of the principal apartments, Mr. Perring observed the remains of a small sarcophagus of basalt, without any ornament: it had been removed from its original position. Probably the date of this monument, judging from its architectural peculiarities, is not far distant from that of the groups oi El-Geezeh and Aboo-Seei, which are of the period of the contemporary Fourth and Fifth Dynasties. HE PYRAMIDS OP DAHSHOOR THE PYRAMIDS OP DAHSHOOR, PROM THE EAST. f N this view the principal object is the Southern Bricl: Pyramid of Dalishoor. It is a picturesque mass, of very irregular form, rising out of a mound made by its own ruins. l.he peasants have quarried it for building materials, and given it the rugged shape it now wears. We can scarcely regret their barbarism, which has varied the aspect of what must have long been a mere rounded Pyramid, and produced these admirable contrasts of light and shade, and of rough and smooth surface. It is built of unburnt brick, and was originally cased with stone, wliicli appears to have '' been the uniform practice with brick Pyramids. The external appearance of all Pyramids seems to have been the same. Within they were constructed in three principal ways: some were built with hewn blocks of stone, others were of rubble-work, kept together by stoue walls, and others again of crude brick. All, however, were cased alike with hewn stones. To the right is seen the huge form of the Soutliern Stone Pyramid, clear and sharp in outline, and on this side but little ruined. Between the two chief objects the upper part of the Isorthern Brick Pyramid rises over the undulating plain of sand. In the earliest times, when the Pyramids were perfect, their appearance must have been far less picturesque, from tlie want of variety in their form and colour. Yet we cannot view them without an earnest wish to know how this vast Necropolis looked when every Pyramid- was perfect, and stood in the midst of its group of tombs, the whole forming a memorial, complete in its way, of the reign of a Pharaoh. The central monument attested by its size the length of liis reign, and the tombs around it contained in their sculptures records of the lives of bis subjects. Now we can only conjecture what must have been the appearance of parts of the field. The most important Pyramids indeed remain, but the tombs around have been destroyed, or lie buried beneath the sand. How long ago these ilemphite brick Pyramids have been despoiled, in part at least, of their stone casings, seems evident from a story told by' Herodotus. He says that a king Asyebis, wishing to eclipse all his predecessors, left a Ijramid of brick, upon which was this inscription cut in stone — “Despise me not in comparison with the stone Pyramids, for I have surpassed them all, as much as Jupiter surpasses the other gods. A pole was plunged into a lake, and the mud which clave to it was gathered, and bricks were made of the mud, and thus was I formed.” (ii. 136.) Such a tale could only have been invented when the chief material of the Pyramid had been exposed, and it ceased to resemble a monument of stone. Perhaps there was an inscription on a small temple attached to the Pyramid, to which this meaning was given by the guide of the Greek traveller. It is not necessary to show how impossible is its genuineness, like that of many other inventions of the “Greek quarter” of Memphis in ancient times. Brick Pyramids most probably liad their origin in a time at which the outlay of labour required for tlie construction of stone ones, except of the smallest dimensions, could not be bestowed, lliese of Dahslioor may thus be assigned with probability to the later days of the jMernphitc kingdom. Herodotus, as we have seen, speaks of a king Asycliis as founder of a brick Pyramid, not improbably one of these two ; and, in such a case, it is reasonable to suppose he would he correct as to the name. Me gain, however, very little by this supposition, since we cannot determine the cbrouological place of this king, who is nut known to be mentioned by any other writer, or in tlie inscriptions of Egypt. If Asychis be a cornqi- THE PYRAMIDS OF DAHSHOOR, FROM THE EAST. tion of Sheslionk, the Egyptian name of Sliishak, and the king intended be therefore the head of the Twenty-second Dynasty, he cannot have raised a Memphite Pyramid. These brick Pyramids have not been opened in modern times. A knowledge of their interior would give us some idea of their date, in relation to the other Pyramids. In the Memphite Pyramids there are marked differences of interior, indicating various ages in the remote period to which they belong. The small brick Pyramids at Thebes, which are of a later time, are again of a different internal style ; and the Pyramids of Ethiopia differ in exterior and interior both from these and the more ancient Memphite monuments. Externally, the relative age of these structures is, however, always far less evident than internally ; and when their casing was perfect, any distinct evidence must, probably, have been wholly wanting, except in the case of those of Etliiopia ; for we are not disposed to believe tha*^ the Pyramids themselves bore contemporary inscriptions. VALLEY OF THE NILE FROM THE QUARRIES OF TOURA. liave now done with Cairo — have seen the last of its striped mosques and its fantastically ^ * hcautiful minarets ; its ricketty houses and ruin heaps — the grandeur of the past and the mean- ness of the present. We have worn out two or three gloriously exciting ever-memorable days on the Field of Pyramids and Tombs. We are not satisfied by any means ; were our lives of antediluvian measure, we would surely have devoted one entire year to our cane-bottomed chair on the portico of Shepherd’s Hotel. Those solemn, fusty, loose-twisted old Arabs, whose bare ^ logs eternally act pendulum to the movement of their little nodding pit-a-pating donkeys — that imperturbable Turk, covered with braid and buttons, upon a gilt and jewelled saddle, upon a cloth of crimson and gold, upon a great stately ass, sixteen hands high and worth eighty golden guineas — those imsldng young tradesmen, the / donkey-boys, with filurillo faces, and four or five tongues a-piece — Arabic, English, Amencan, French, Italian — with backs as brown and dusty as their beasts, as ichaclcahle, and almost as insensitive — those shabby, tasselly, furtive-looking vagabonds, the Bedouin, with their strings of ]»alf-starved, grumbling, disjointed camels — oh! to sec such stage effects, and hundreds more — unutterably well done — pass you by in eternal sunshine, one little year out of nine hundred were short allotment indeed ! And then that Field of Pyramids and Tombs, twenty-five miles long, swelling into momiiains at Geezeh, and Sakkarah, and Dashour, and dropping at every mile between into strange mysterious “Valleys of tlie Sliadow of Death,” thousands of them yet unexplored by the living — why, if we were to spend half a century here it would not be much, compared witli the four thousand years that its grim tenants have passed in its populous solitudes. But since our days in the land of Egypt are at most three score and ten, we have torn ourselves from Cairo the enchanted, shaken hands with the mummies, and abandoned ourselves, upon the bosom of the “ Father of Rivers,” in a modern Arab “ ark of bulrushes,” literally “pitched within and without wdth pitch.” We are twelve miles from Cairo. Our “ark” is moored at the village of Toura, a name which is probably derived from that of the ancient town which once stood here called, Tnocus Magnus; which again, according to Strabo and Diodorus, w'as so called from the Trojan captives of Menelaus. The ancient historians mention the mountains which bound the plain of Toura as the site of the quarries from which the material for the Pyramids was obtained ; and an inspection of these quarries will confirm this information, for they are of great extent, and contain hieroglyphic tablets and inscriptions, with the names of early kings. The northern portion is still worked, and a railway has been laid down by the Pacha from the mountain to the river ; but many of the ancient quarries are on the very summit of the hill, around the place from wdiich our view is taken. We have had a long weary trudge over that hot sandy plain ; it is four or five miles across, and the rocks are steep and high ; and the black sailor-man, with bare legs and feet, wdio carried our camera, had to rest half-way up, and eat his all-day biscuit and smoke a pipe ; but we are amply rewarded by the view from the summit. This is a worthy glimpse of the Nile valley; you see the great river for twenty or thirty miles, fringed with palm groves and villages, and dotted with white sails ; and you see in the dim distance the Pyramids of Geezeh, perhaps twenty miles away, but cutting great broad-based wedges into the clear blue sky. This view was taken during the progress of the inundation, a large tract of the country in the direction of the Pyramids being overflowed. The quarries consist of innumerable caves or chambers, many of them connected by subterraneous passages, and are interesting not only from their extent and antiquity, but because that here may be seen the manner in which the stone was cut. Tiers of stones were removed in the form of steps until the intended floor of the quarry was reached. The reader is referred to Sir Gardner Wilkinson’s work for translations of some of the hieroglyphic inscriptions which are found in these quarries. PO RT I C 0 OF T H L PORTICO OF THE TEMPLE OF DENDERA, / T- 3ITH tlie exception of the Portico of Esneh, 'which was exhumed by the order of Mahommed Ali, Deiidera is the first temple ruins which the traveller sees on his way up to Thebes. It is very imposing; and it enjoys two or three notable advantages over many other of the celebrities of the Nile valley. In the first place the locale is forsaken by the peasantry, and one can explore and admire without being subjected to the odious concomitants of Arab filth and Arab impertinence. Secondly, the ruin having been early buried in the ddbris of the old town, and lately cleared by Ibrahim Pacha, it is the most completely exposed and the most j}er/ect ruin of the series. Happily, we were not jiossessed by that critically sensitive state of mind which would have enabled us to detect the want of taste and spirit in its design and sculpture. We thought the effect ol’ the interior view of the Portico was one of the loftiest and deepest character, little inferior to anything else in Egypt. The one thing to be lamented is, the early Christian defacement of the capitals which represented Athor or Isis, to whom the temple was dedicated. These heads are, I believe, all of them more or less destroyed. Scarcely half the height of the columns of the Portico is seen in my view, which was necessarily taken from the outside. “The Portico,” says Sir Gardner Wilkinson, “is supported by twenty-four columns, and is open at the front above the screens that unite its six columns ; and in each of the side walls is a small doorway. To the Portico succeeds a hall of six columns, with three rooms on either side, then a cential chamber communicating on one side with two small rooms, and on the other with a staircase. This is followed by another similar chamber (with two rooms on the west and one on the east side), immediately before the isolated sanctuary, which has a passage leading round it and communicating with three rooms on either side. The total length of the temple is about 220 feet, by 40 to 50 feet wide. In front was the dromos, extending 110 paces to an isolated stone pylon, bearing the names of Domitian and Trajan,” Dendera, then, is about 1900 years of age. Professor Brutsch says of it, “The inscriptions on its walls mention by name Ptolemy, Neocaisar, Augustus, Tiberius. Claudius, and Nero, as having all been engaged in its erection or embellishment.” The hieroglyphics of Dendera furnish many curious varieties of form not to be found in the purer and more ancient style which characterized the age of Psammeticus. This Temple was dedicated to the worship of the goddess Athor, which was one of the appellations of Isis, the representative of every beneficent form of the ifuitfulness of nature. Hie goddess bears the following title in many of the inscriptions at Dendera: “Athor, the Queen of Tentyra, the Eye of the Sun, the Queen ot Heaven, the Ruler of the celestial Gods, the Queen of ilirtli and Song, the Golden One amongst the Goddesses.” In another inscription she is strangely designated — “The Great Queen of the Golden Garland.” In a long subterranean chamber at Dendera, divided into many compartments, and to which the only access is by a hole in a wall and a flight of stone steps, are the empty name-tablets of a king, accompanied by this noticeable i-ecord : — “ He is the Golden Horus, the Magnanimous ; he loves the Gods of Egypt, and is King even as Pthah ; he governs in the North and in the South ; he came into Egypt, and his warriors were favourable ; at his side were Gods and Goddesses in blissful enjoyment; they gave him the Empire of the East and of the West, to him the victorious Bull.” In another chamber it is recorded of the same unnamed monarch (who is presumed to be Augus- tus), that he it was who built a shrine for Athor, and that she visibly appeared to signify her approval of the honour by assuming the form of a golden ibis, the emblem of the human soul. But the most interesting objects of all at Dendera are the richly coloured astronomical representations upon the ceiling of the Portico. Prominent among these is the zodiac, which afforded the French savans of Napoleon the presumptive evidence of the incorrectness of the usually received Biblical chronology. One philosopher “fixed” the date of the inscribed zodiac at 4000 years at the lowest computation, and a similar one at Esneh was “proved” to date from 17,000 years b.c. These “triumphs” of infidel skill were soon most completely overthrown by the eminent Champollion, who deciphered the titles of Augustus Cmsar as being contemporary with the erection of Dendera ; and in a similar manner the venerable antiquity of Esneh was shown to date from the reign of Antoninus, a.d. 140, instead of 17,000 n.c. CLEOPATRA’S TEMPLE AT ERMENT. % Uil&Cllj uputi do ilUUl l-IlL Ull 111 U1 i.lLllCi XXOW blrclIJ^C llJdt X110 Qd^ '*^^*^should ever come wbcn things thrice the- age of “Old England” itself are looked upon as of too late a date to excite emotion — nay, almost to command interest! Yet such is the case, or at least 'V:, the fashion in Egypt. A work which docs not boast of at least three thousand years is “ degenerate ” — V modern — of no interest. Let us struggle against this prejudice ; admitting the old adage, “ that all things inspired Goths, wandered through the land — the time of hooded monks and mail-dad knights, VOYAGE up the Nile completely unsettles one’s previous ideas of antiquity. We have been used to gaze upon the crumbling monuments of Old England with a sort of national family pride. The tenth century — the period when their architects and builders, vagrant hordes of must be judged by comparison,” we will, if you please, compare Cleopatra’s Temple at Erment, not with the older monuments of Egypt, but with antiquities which are regarded at home as interesting and important. Cleopatra lived shortly before the Christian era, consequently, the columns which compose my picture, aud which formed the portico of the smaller of two temples which once stood here, are little short of two thousand years old. A further portion of the same temple still exists, but it has been greatly broken up of late by the Turks for the sake of the stone. The sculptures represent Cleopatra making offerings to various deities ; amongst others to Basis, the sacred Bull of Hermonthis, which was the ancient name of Erment. Her son, by Julius Cmsar, xvliq was named Neocsesar, or Caesarion, also appears amongst tlm sculptures. Erment is situated on the west bank of the river, about seven miles south of Thebes, from which place it may be visited. The ride is over the rich plain of Tliebes, covered (when free from water) with interminable crops of beans, and of the small Egyptian pea, and abounding in quails, and partridges. My own recollections of a visit to Erment arc these: — Approaching it from the south, a large island with shallow water on its western side prevented the near approach of the dahibieh; we therefore took the “sandal” (small rowing boat), witli a couple of our crew, to whose guidance we resigned ourselves,— the dragoman, although he had been up the river, according to his own statement, sixteen times, and w'as certainly one of the smartest men of his class whom we saw in Egypt, liaving no idea where the temple lay. We were accordingly put ashore, with our cumbrous loads of apparatus, &c., and began our walk over the rough ground, and under the hot sun ; not having the temple in view, but hoping on and on, — through the beds of dry canals, — through dirty mud villages, suffocating us with noxious dust, and swarming with vermin, and curs, and black children, naked and hideous. Mile after mile we went — almost parallel with the river — until we began to regard our guides, our temple-mania, our stars, our photographic lumber, ourselves and each other, as so many palpable mockeries and snares. Such were our feelings when we came suddenly in sight of these beautiful columns, and the weary and dusty walk was soon forgotten in the pleasure of transferring them to glass. This done, 'we toiled back to a nearer point of the river, but had not proceeded far before our further progress was barred by the shallowness of the water. AVe w’ere hungry and exhausted, but there was nothing for it but to go overboard, and, up to the knees in water, xve dragged the clumsy old boat over the shallows, and succeeded at length in launching her into a deep narrow channel — a sort of little cataract or rapid — down which we shot towards the dahibieh, cheered and comforted by the prospects of dinner. Excited by the near approach to the lazy city of Thebes, our sailors rowed vigorously. In a fit of vulgar exultation, we loaded up the forty barrels of our revolvers, and awoke the after-dinner Howadji who slumbered in the cabins, and the echoes which slept in the grand old Temple of Luxor, with a rapid succession of forty bangs — gunpowder, two drachms ; brown paper, two inches, well rammed down ! V. . THE STATUES OF MEMNON, PLAIN OF THEBES. OT to waste time in vain regrets that I can offer nothing which is new to the learned in such matters with regard to these celebrated statues, and being weary of recounting “with what emotions of interest and wonder I beheld,” &c., I shall be content to lay before ray readers whatever I can glean ot interest and information from the best sources already before the public, following, as usual, chiefly Sir Gardner Wilkinson. I have previously described the position of these colossi— viz., in the midst of the cultivated land on the plain of Thebes— consequently, during the inundation of the Nile, they are surrounded on all sides for a considerable distance by water. But there is good reason to suppose that this was not the case at the period of their erection. In all probability they then stood on the dry rising ground, the paved “dromos" to which tliey formed the approach being now buried to the depth of seven or eight feet below the alluvial soil, where it strikes the pedestals at a height of three feet ten inches above their bases. It is, therefore, clear that this part of the Nile valley has been raised by successive deposits at least to the extent of eight or ten feet. Behind these two statues, in a line with the p.aved dromos alluded to, are vestiges of several other colossal figures; but the temple to which this avenue. 1100 feet in length, once led has utterly disappeared, some of its foundations alone being traceable. In the neighbourhood are some broken st,atues of the king, syenite sphynxes, and several lion-headed figures of black granite; also two large tablets of gritstone, with the usual circular summits in the form of Egyptian shields, npon which are long sculptured inscriptions, and the figures of the king (Amunoph III.), and of his queen. Sir G. Wilkinson says —“I believe that this dromos, or paved approach to the temple, was part of the Boyal Street mentioned m some papyri found at Thebes, which, crossing the western portion of the city from the temple, communicated by means of a ferry with that of Luxor, founded by the same Amunoph, on the other side of the river ; as the great dromos of sphynxes connecting the temples of Luxor and Ivaruac formed the main street in the eastern district of Thebes.” As regards the shattered condition of these statues, I liave only to refer to the Photograph, wliich will again, I fear, contradict some of the representations of previous artists. In the distance is seen the range of hills which form the western boundary of the plain, studded with rows of sepulchral caves; and between the statues is the Memnonium. At a future stage of this work wo purpose giving a nearer view of these statues, and in connection with it something of their history, of the conjectures of the learned respecting them, and translations of the inscriptions. The height of each is now 53 feet above the plain, 7 feet more of the pedestal being burled, making a total of 60 feet. They measure 18 feet across the shoulders, 10 feet 6 inches from the top of the head to the shonlder, 16 feet 6 inches from the top of the shoulder to the elbow, 17 feet 9 inches from the elbow to the finger’s end, and 19 feet 8 inches from the knee to the plant of the foot. The thrones are ornamented with figures of the god Nilus, who, holding the stalks of two plants familiar to the river, is engaged in binding up a pedestal or table, surmounted by the name of the Egyptian monarch a symbolic group indicating his dominion over the upper and lower countries. iiwtjffcjj YALLEY OF THE TOMBS OF THE IQNHS, THEBES. is notliing in the whole Valley of the Nile which is more grandly characteristic of Old Egypt, or whicli leaves upon the mind of the traveller a more powerful and lasting ®f impression, than a visit to the Tomhs of the Kings, at Thebes. They are situated at a distance » of five or six miles from the river, at the extremity of a dee]i and romantic gorge in the X glll i mountains. The entire coarse of this ravine presents a spectacle of desolate grandeur. which is in the highest degree impressive, and prepares the mind fully to appreciate the effect of the kingly sepulchres to which it leads. There is not a blade of grass, nor a sign of life except when a solitary vulture wheels overhead, or a jackal is seen stealing amongst the hot loose stones. An artificial road has been cut in the bottom of the gorge— this is represented in my view, which is taken from a spot near the termination of the valley, where the tombs commence. Some twenty-seven of these have been discovered, but the entrances are so small as not to be recognisable in a distant general view. At about this place the valley, divides into two branches: in the western of which only two tombs have been opened— viz., those of Amenotoph III. and King Ai— both of the eighteenth dynasty; in the eastern branch are found numerous tombs of the kings of the ninteenth and twentieth dynasties ; the most celebrated and beautiful of which is that of Seti I., which is named after its modern discoverer, Belzoni. The rock into which these excavations are made, is of the most beautifully compact limestone; the passages and chambers are covered with liierf'glyphic sculpture, nmcli of wliich is still brilliantly coloureil. Professor Brugsch supplies me with the followiifg description of these celebrated tombs : — The Tlieban tombs are for the most part entered by a passage, leading from a sort of outer court, and often decorated with paintings and inscriptions, into an inner and larger court, corresponding to the pronaos of the temples. From another, and still interior apartment, we descend by a deep, and olteii perpendicular opening, into the sepulchral chamber, which is usually of a square form. In many cases several descending openings were made in addition to tlie one leading only to the real place of entombment. The inscriptions and paintings were arranged according to a prescribed order ; thus, near the entrance, were the names and titles of the deceased, and a prayer to the rising and setting sun. In the inner chamber were inscribed the praises of the deities presiding over tombs, and in other parts of the sepulchre were various biographical and historic- records connected with the life and times of the deceased. So extensive were these places of interment, that the area of the ground-plan of a single private tomb, near Thebes, is 23,809 square feet, and the royal tombs are constructed on a much larger scale. Over their entrance is the symbol denoting a monarch’s restiug- a figure of the ram-headed god Amuu, inscribed in a solar disk, and accompanied by the sacred beetle. In some of the tombs also are most interesting astronomical records; the god Amnn, tliat is, the Invisible or Self-Concealing Deity, is often styled the “ Sun God.” The beetle symbolizes tiie annual circuit of the constellations; and its association with the emblem of the “Sun God” appears intended to indicate that the emtombed monarcli has gone to accomjiany the heavenly bodies in tlieir celestial courses, and to be for ever united to Amnn, the supreme object of Theban adoration. In the tomb of Seti I. are represented the four chief races of mankind ; the Rotu, or Egyptians, created by Horus ; the Amu, or Semitic race, created by Pacht; the Nahesu, Negroes, or Ethiopians, created by Ilorus; the Temelm, or Europeans, created by Pacht. Amongst the astronomical records in these tombs is the list of the thirty-six divisions of the lieavens, and the names of the chief Egyptian constellations, and of the planets. Inscriptions in Latin and Greek here and there indicate the visits of Greeks and Romans. They must have seen their sarcophagi only, for the Persians had previously rifled the mummies, and taken rich booty from the royal remains; happiljq however, tliey spared the hieroglyphic inscriptions and paintings. It is only the visitors of a later age, from the lands of modern European civilization, that appear to have been ambitious of the fame oi making a systematic onslaught with hammer and chisel on these precious remnants ot antiquity. In many cases, in order to obtain a single square inch of hieroglyphics from a royal tomb, all the adjoining letters bavy been destroyed and knocked away, sometimes to the extent of a square foot.