a shaft from forty to fifty feet in height, wrought into pannels, and surmounted with a capital like the calix of a flower. The space between each of the compartments was occupied by rows of hieroglyphics; and the compartments themselves were filled with figures of Osiris, Isis, and Anubis, receiving offerings under different forms. A column, which seemed to have recently fallen down at its side, consisted of the same number of stones, and was sculptured in a similar manner.

Two years afterwards, the fine vestibule of Antæopolis 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. We have endeavoured to preserve in a plate an accurate representation of the appearance which it exhibited at the beginning of this century, when as yet the main parts of the pronaos were perfectly entire.*

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

Legh, p. 95. Richardson, vol. i. p. 178. Encyclop. Metropol. Egypt.

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 thirtysix 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 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

*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."