proceed to Edfou, the Apollinopolis Magna of the Greeks, which presents several architectural re mains worthy of notice. There are two temples in a state of great preservation; one of them consisting of high pyramidal propyla, a pronaos, portico, and sekos, the form most generally used in Egypt; the other is peripteral, and is at the same time distinguished by having, on its several columns, the appalling figure of Typhon, the emblem of the Evil Principle.

The pyramidal propylon which forms the principal entrance to the greater temple, is one of the most imposing monuments extant of Egyptian architecture. Each of the sides is a hundred feet in length, thirty wide, and a hundred high. Many of the figures sculptured on it are thirty feet in height, and are executed in so masterly and spirited a style as to add considerably to the grand effect of the building. In each division there is a staircase of 150 or 160 steps, which conduct the visitor into spacious apartments at different elevations. The horizontal sections of each wing diminish gradually from 100 feet by 30, to 83 by 20, as will appear to the eye from the accompanying plate; although the solidity and height of the propylon give it more the aspect of a fortress or place of defence than of the approach to a religious edifice. As an explanation of this peculiarity, we are told that the addition of these gateways to a temple was permitted as a favour to such of the ancient kings of Egypt as, for their pious and beneficent actions, became entitled to perpetuate their names in the mansions of their gods. The Ptolemies, who claimed the right of sovereignty from conquest, in

dulged in the same magnificence, and built porticos, propyla, and even temples. Cleopatra, in her misfortunes, is said to have removed with the most valuable part of her property to an edifice of a very extraordinary size and structure, which she had formerly erected near the fane of Isis. Most probably, as Mr Hamilton thinks, it was a propylon of the kind just described. Nothing could be better adapted for her purpose; inasmuch as the variety of apartments offered every convenience that could be desired, and when the small door at the bottom of the staircase was closed, it was perfectly inaccessible.

In no part of Egypt are more colossal sculptures seen on the walls of a public building than on the larger temple at Edfou. These, we are told, are extremely well executed, and in some cases the colours are still completely unchanged. Priests are seen paying divine honours to the Scarabæus, or beetle, placed -an insect which is said to have upon an altar, been typical of the sun, either because it changes its appearance and place of abode every six months, or because it is wonderfully productive. We regret to find that both the temples, though well preserved, are almost concealed among heaps of dirt and rubbish; indeed the terrace of the larger one is occupied by several mud cottages belonging to the villagers, and the interior chambers of the sekos are indiscriminately used as sinks, granaries, or stables.

*

Hadjur Silsili would not detain the traveller in his progress up the Nile, were it not for the immense quarries from which, it is very probable, were hewn at different times those remarkable co

* Egyptiaca, p. 88.-Denon, vol. ii. p. 184.

lumns, statues, and obelisks, which lend to Thebes, Dendera, and Hermonthis, their chief attraction even at the present day. Sphinxes, monolithic temples, and other monuments of Egyptian architecture, in an unfinished state, are still found near the rocks out of which they were cut. There is a large mass of stone, eighteen feet in every direction, supported only by a pillar of white earth three feet in diameter, serving as an example of that peculiar vanity which has been attributed to the Egyptians, and which made them attract the admiration of posterity by works of the boldest design, and requiring the application of the most extraordinary mechanical powers.

Koum Ombos, supposed to represent the ancient capital of the Ombite Nome, attracts notice by the remains of a magnificent temple. The façade consists of a portico of fifteen columns, five in front and three deep, thirteen of which are still standing. The ornaments above the entrances are equally rich and highly finished. Towards the north-west angle of the enclosure is a small temple of Isis, the capitals of which are square, and have on each of the four sides the countenance of the goddess beautifully carved. The sculptures on the walls are very numerous, and even now, at the end of two thousand years, preserve the brilliancy of their first colouring.*

Es Souan, a town of which the origin is comparatively modern, stands near the site formerly occupied by the ancient Syené. The decline of

* It was dedicated in the reign of King Ptolemy and Queen Cleopatra, his sister.-See Hamilton's Egyptiaca, P. 75.

commercial intercourse between Egypt and Ethio pia has gradually reduced this place to the condi tion of a poor village, subsisting on the scanty portion of cultivable land that spreads out between the river and the rocks of the desert. On the acclivity of an adjoining hill is an ancient temple of small dimensions, and differing somewhat in form from similar monuments in Egypt; but, being buried in rubbish up to the capitals of the columns and the architrave, it has not been minutely examined by recent travellers. Pococke imagined it to be the once celebrated observatory of Syené, although no pains were taken to ascertain its precise structure or object. The position of the famous well remains equally unknown. In fact, there is no approach to agreement among observers as to the northern limit of the torrid zone, the place where the disc of the sun was reflected from the surface of the water on the day of the summer solstice. The calculations of Bruce led him to believe that Es Souan is situated in latitude 23° 28′; whereas Nouet, a French astronomer, asserts that its true parallel is in latitude 24° 8' 6". But it ought to be kept in mind that Syené stood a little farther towards the south than the town which now represents it; while it is not improbable that the point which marked the return of the solar orb, in his annual course, may have been fixed at the remotest extremity of the ancient city.

The quarries of Syené have been long celebrated, and sufficient vestiges of them still remain to render it credible that they furnished the materials for the colossal monuments of Egypt. They are seen at the foot of the mountains on the east, and some of

them are close to the river. The marks of the chi

sels and drills are distinctly visible, as well as of the powerful wedges with which, when the sides were cleared, the blocks were started from their bed. In one quarry there was found a half-finished obelisk between 70 and 80 feet long, and 10 feet broad. In others were columns in a rough state, possessing similar dimensions; while along the breast of the hill were observed the marks of immense blocks, thirty and forty feet in length, which had been separated from the rock.

The island of Elephantiné is much richer in architectural remains than the town we have just described. Romans and Saracens, it is true, have done all in their power to deface or to conceal them; but, as Denon remarks, the Egyptian monuments continue devoted to posterity, and have resisted equally the ravages of man and of time. In the midst of a vast field of bricks, and other pieces of baked earth, a very ancient temple is still left standing, surrounded with a pilastered gallery and two columns in the portico. Nothing is wanting but two pilasters on the left angle of this ruin. Other edifices had been attached to it at a later period, but only some fragments were remaining, which could give no idea of their form when perfect,-proving only that these accessory parts were much larger than the original sanctuary.-Could this be the temple of Cneph, the good genius, that one of all the Egyptian gods who approaches the nearest to our ideas of the Supreme Being? Or is it the temple of this deity which is placed six hundred paces farther to the north, having the same form and size, though more in ruins,-all the ornaments of which are accompanied by the serpent, the em