Two years afterward, the fine vestibule of antropolis was entirely levelled with the ground. The Nile, in this part of its course, had long been advancing towards the eastern side of the valley, and washing away the foundations of such buildings as stood upon its right bank: when, in the year just mentioned, in consequence of an unusually high inundation, it completed the work of destruction, reducing this splendid monument of ancient piety to a mass of ruins.* As our object in this survey of ancient buildings and ruined cities is not confined to a mere topographical description, we omit several small towns situated on either bank of the Nile, because they no longer present any remains of art to connect them with the period to which our retrospect extends. In ascending the Thebaid, however, we are arrested by the interesting relics of Abydos, the modern Arabat, supposed by Strabo to have been the residence of Memnon; although in the days of this geographer it was already reduced to a paltry village. A few blocks and columns of granite continue to assure the traveller that the desolate region which he has entered was once the scene of splendour and an active population. A large building, too, of the highest antiquity, convinces him that Abydos must have held a distinguished place among the cities of Upper Egypt. Mr. Hamilton tells us that this edifice appeared entire, but was so much choked up with sand that it was extremely difficult either to enter the apartments or to examine the architecture. The area which it occupied was nearly a rectangle of 350 feet by 150. The pillars were conjectured to be about thirty feet in height; which did not, however, exhibit any remarkable sculptures or paintings, One peculiarity of this building could not be observed without interest."From the west point we could enter into seven chambers of similar dimensions, measuring thirty-six feet in length, sixteen feet and a half in width, and five feet six inches in height; the only instance of the kind I have ever witnessed of undoubted Egyptian architecture. The arches, however, are not constructed on the principle of the arch, and cannot therefore be adduced as any evidence of such principles having been known to, and put in practice

* Leigh, p. 95; Richardson, vol. i. p. 178; Encyclop. Metropol. Egypt.

by the Egyptians. The architraves, or rather rafters of the rooms, as well as the upper layer of stones on each side-wall, are cut out so as to resemble an arched roof; and perhaps they are thus executed in imitation of those which the same people used to form for the catacombs and sepulchres which they excavated in the rocks."*

Four hundred paces farther north are the traces of another building, which appears to have been a temple, though little now remains but the fragments of three granite gateways. In size it has been much inferior to the edifice just described, being only 250 feet in length, and 120 feet wide. Such ruins seem to justify the conclusion, which has been drawn by recent travellers, that Arabat represents the ancient Abydos, and also that the great structure is the Memnonium celebrated by Strabo.

As the sand continues to gain ground all along the precincts of the western desert, the difficulty of entering this palace of Memnon is every year increased. In 1821, when Sir F. Henniker visited Egypt, the external lineaments of the building were so entirely obliterated that it was not easy to imagine a building could be concealed in the spot where he was directed to seek for it. On the roof, which alone occupies nearly as much space as the neighbouring village, he paced fifty-four long steps on stones that have never yet been removed, though he observed signs of destruction at either end. There are some small chambers in the pile, in which the colour of the painting is so well preserved that doubts immediately arise as to the length of the time it has been done. The best works even of the Venetian school betray their age; but the colours, here supposed to have been in existence two thousand years before the time of Titian, are at this moment as fresh as if they had been laid on an hour ago. The stones of which this fabric is built measure in some cases about twenty-two feet in length; the span of the arch is cut in a single stone;

*Hamilton's Egyptiaca, p. 259. This author remarks, "Savary's pompous account of Abydos is a fictitious narrative of a place he never saw, and bears more resemblance to the remains at Dendera than to any other in Egypt. It is composed of the description of this place by M. Chevalier, Governor of Chandernagore, improved by a few embellishments of his own invention.

a portico is still visible; each individual part is of exquisite workmanship, but badly put together. This writer agrees with Mr. Hamilton in the opinion that the ancient Egyptians did not understand the principle of the arch. One chamber, in particular, appears to demonstrate at once their intention and their inability,—the span of the arch being cut in two stones, each of which bears an equal segment of the circle. These placed together would naturally have fallen, but they are upheld by a pillar placed at the point of contact,- -an expedient which leaves no doubt that in this point of architectural invention the subjects of the Pharaohs had not attained their usual success. If, says Sir Frederick, those who raised the Pyramids and built Thebes, and elevated the obelisks of Luxor, had been acquainted with the principle of the arch, they would have thrown bridges across the Nile, and have erected to Isis and Osiris domes more magnificent than those of St. Peter's and St. Paul's.*

It was in one of the inmost chambers of the larger edifice at Abydos that Mr. W. Bankes, in 1818, discovered a large hieroglyphical tablet containing a long series of royal names, as was evident from the ring, border, or, as the French call it, the cartouche, which surrounds such inscriptions. On examination, it proved to be a genealogical table of the immediate predecessors of Ramesses the Great, the Sethos or Sethosis of Manetho, the Sesoosis of Diodorus, and the Sesostris of Herodotus. A careful comparison of it with other documents has enabled M. Champollion to ascertain, with a considerable degree of probability, the period in which the sixteenth and following dynasties mentioned by Manetho must have occupied the throne. The epochs thus determined, though still liable to some objections, are supported by so many concurrent and independent testimonies as to warrant the expectation, now entertained by many chronologists, that they will ultimately be established beyond the reach of controversy.t

Dendera, which is commonly identified with the ancient Tentyra, presents some very striking examples of that

* A Visit to Egypt, p. 112.

† Encyclopædia Metropolitana, article Egypt.

sumptuous architecture which the people of Egypt lavished upon their places of worship. The gateway in particular which leads to the temple of Isis has excited universal admiration. Each front, as well as the interior, is covered with sculptured hieroglyphics, which are executed with a richness, a precision, elegance of form, and variety of ornament, surpassing in many respects the similar edifices which are found at Thebes and Philoe. The height is forty-two feet, the width thirty-three, and the depth seventeen. "Advancing along the brick ruins," says Dr. Richardson, "we came to an elegant gateway or propylon, which is also of sandstone, neatly hewn, and completely covered with sculpture and hieroglyphics remarkably well cut. Immediately over the centre of the doorway is the beautiful Egyptian ornament usually called the globe, with serpent and wings, emblematical of the glorious sun poised in the airy firmament of heaven, supported and directed in his course by the eternal wisdom of the Deity. The sublime phraseology of Scripture, 'the Sun of Righteousness shall rise with healing on his wings,' could not be more emphatically or more accurately represented to the human eye than by this elegant device." The temple itself still retains all its original magnificence. The centuries which have elapsed since the era of its foundation have scarcely affected it in any important part, and have impressed upon it no greater appearance of age than serves to render it more venerable and imposing. To Mr. Hamilton, who had seen innumerable monuments of the same kind throughout the Thebaid, it seemed as if he were now witnessing the highest degree of architectural excellence that had ever been attained on the borders of the Nile. Here were concentrated the united labours of ages, and the last effort of human art and industry, in that uniform line of construction which had been adopted in the earliest times.

The portico consists of twenty-four columns, in three rows; each above twenty-two feet in circumference, thirtytwo feet high, and covered with hieroglyphics. On the front, Isis is in general the principal figure to whom offer ings are made. On the architrave are represented two processions of men and women bringing to their goddess, and to Osiris, who is sitting behind her, globes encompassed