rises twenty-seven feet above the sand. The whole of Upper Egypt is described as having been very populous. The government of ancient Egypt was monarchical. Among the natural curiosities of Egypt, the most remarkable is the river Nile, which is described in a separate article. The present population of Egypt is about two millions and a half; and when a Roman province, it is supposed that it contained upward of seven millions. The French invaded this country in 1798, under Bonaparte, who defeated the Egyptians in several engagements; but after his departure a strong British force arrived to aid the country, and the French were expelled, 1801.

The climate of Egypt is very hot, and in general, unhealthy: rain in this country in summer is considered a phenomenon. The plague frequently visits its inhabitants. But during the autumn and winter, Egypt is considered one of the most delightful and pleasant countries in the world.

Grand Cairo, the capital, is a large and populous city, containing about 300,000 inhabitants. The castle of this place is said to have been built by the celebrated Saladin, in which are the remains of the most noble monuments; but the greatest part of this once majestic building is now in ruins.

Alexandria, once the seat of learning and royal magnificence, lies now, for the greater part, in ruins. This city was built by Alexander the Great, B. C. 332, and was long the seat and capital of the Ptolemys. According to Josephus, Alexandria was esteemed the finest city in the world, Rome only excepted. At Alexandria was the celebrated library, consisting of 700,000 volumes, which was begun to be collected by Ptolemy Philadelphus, and completed by his successors. This library is said to have been destroyed by the Saracens, at the command of the calif Omar. Alexandria now contains about 6,000 inhabitants. The most remarkable antiquities near Alexandria are two obelisks, commonly called Cleopatra's Needles, covered with hieroglyphics, Pompey's Pillar, and the ancient Tower of Pharos. Cleopatra's Needles are about 60 feet high, and consist each of a single stone, seven feet square at the base. One of them is now overturned, broken, and lying under the sand, the other is represented by the annexed engraving.

Pharos, a watchtower, so celebrated in antiquity, was reckoned one of the seven wonders of the world. It was 400 feet high, and was destroyed by the Turks.

SUEZ, formerly a place of great trade, is now a small town, and gives name to the isthmus that joins Africa to Asia. Near this city, the children of Israel are supposed to have entered the gulf, when they crossed the Red sea. The Egyptians are of a tawny complexion. They display little of that love for science and literature for which their ancestors were so renowned. Here it was that geometry was invented, and it is generally supposed, that it was of the Egyptian priests that PYTHAGORAS acquired the knowledge of the "True System of the World."

Among the many monuments of antiquity which the destroying hand of time has spared for the admiration of posterity, there is none more wonderful than those found in Egypt-" The land of the Pharaohs." In many respects it is the most interesting country on the face of the earth; we continue our remarks with a description of the "Northern gate of Dendera or Tentyra." The ruin is described in Russel's interesting "View of Ancient and Modern Egypt." He remarks:—

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Dendera, which is commonly identified with the ancient Tentyra, presents some very striking examples of that sumptuous architecture which the people of Egypt lavish 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, which is also 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 arise with healing in 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 has 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 labors 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, thirty-two feet high, and covered with hieroglyphics. On the front, Isis is in general the principal figure to whom offerings 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 with cows' horns, mitred snakes, lotus-flowers, vases, little boats, graduated staffs, and other instruments of their emblematical worship. The interior of the pronaos is adorned with sculptures, most of them preserving part of the paint with which.

they have been covered. Those on the ceiling are peculiarly rich and varied, all illustrative of the union between the astronomical and religious creeds of the ancient Egyptians; yet, though each separate figure is well preserved and perfectly intelligible, we must be more intimately acquainted with the real principles of the sciences, as they were then taught, before we can undertake to explain the signs in which they were imbodied.

"The sekos, or interior of the temple, consists of several apartments, all the walls and ceilings of which are in the same way covered with religious and astronomical representations. The roofs, as is usual in Egypt, are flat, formed of oblong masses of stone resting on the side-walls; and when the distance between these is too great, one or two rows of columns are carried down the middle of the apartment, on which the huge flags are supported. The capitals of these columns are very richly ornamented with the budding lotus, the stalks of which, being extended a certain way down the shaft, give it the appearance of being fluted, or rather scolloped. The rooms have been lighted by small perpendicular holes cut in the ceiling, and, where it was possible to introduce them, by oblique ones in the sides. But some idea might be formed of the perpetual gloom in which the apartments on the ground-floor of the sekos must have been buried, from the fact, that where no side-light could be introduced, all they received was communicated from the apartment above; so that, notwithstanding the cloudless sky and the brilliant colors on the walls, the place must have been always well calculated for the mysterious practices of the religion to which it was consecrated. On one corner of the roof there was a chapel or temple twenty feet square, consisting of twelve columns, exactly similar in figure and proportions to those of the pronaos. The use to which it may have been applied, must probably remain one of the secrets connected with the mystical and sometimes cruel service in which the priests of Isis were employed, though it is by no means unlikely that it was meant as a repository for books and instruments collected for the more innocent and exalted pursuits of practical astronomy. "The western wall of the great temple is particularly interesting for the extreme elegance of the sculpture, as far as Egyptian sculpture is susceptible of that character-for the richness of the dresses in which the priests and deities are arrayed, and even of the chairs in which the latter are seated. Here are frequent representations of men who seem prepared for slaughter or just going to be put to death. On these occasions, one or more appear with their hands or legs tied to the trunk of a tree, in the most painful and distorted attitudes.

"The grand projecting cornice, one of the most imposing features of Egyptian architecture, is continued the whole length of this and the other walls; a moulding separates it from the architrave; and, being carried down the angles of the building, gives to the whole a solid finished appearance, combined with symmetry of parts and chasteness of ornament.

"In a small chapel behind the temple, the cow and the hawk seem to have been particularly worshipped, as priests are frequently seen kneeling before them, presenting sacrifices and offerings. In the centre of the ceiling is the same front face of Isis, in high relief, illuminated, as it were, by a body of rays, issuing from the mouth of the same long figure, which, in the other temples, appear to encircle the heavenly bodies. About two hundred yards eastward from this chapel, is a propylon of small dimensions, resembling in form that which conducts to the great temple, and, like it, built in a line with the wall which surrounds the sacred enclosure. Among the sculptures on it, which appear of the same style, but less finished than those on the large temple, little more is worthy of notice than the frequent exhibition of human slaughter by men or by lions. Still farther toward the east, there is another propylon, equally well preserved with the rest, about forty feet in height, and twenty feet square at the base. Among these sacred figures on this building, is an Isis pointing with a reed to a graduated staff, held by another figure of the same deity, from which are suspended scales containing wateranimals; the whole group, perhaps, being an emblem of her influence over the Nile, in regulating its periodical inundations.

"The enclosure, within which all the sacred edifices of Dendera, with the exception of the last propylon, are contained, is a square of about a thousand feet. It is surrounded by a wall, which, where best preserved, is thirty-five feet in height, and fifteen feet thick. The crude bricks of which it is built, were found to be fifteen inches and a half long, seven and three quarters broad, and four inches and three quarters thick. There have been, at certain intervals, projections of the wall or towers; but it is difficult to say whether for purposes of defence or strength.

"Dr. Richardson observes, in reference to the sculptures on the temple of Dendera, that 'the female figures are so extremely well executed, that they do all but speak, and have a mildness of feature and expression that never was surpassed.' Everything around appears to be in motion, and to discharge the functions of a living creature; being, at the same time, so different from what is ever seen in Europe, that the mind is astonished, and feels as if absolutely introduced to personages of the remotest ages to converse with them, and to witness the ceremonies by which they delighted to honor their gods. The temple of Dendera, says this author, is by far the finest in Egypt; the devices have more soul in them; and the execution is of the choicest description.

"EDFOU, the Apollinopolis Magna of the Greeks (of which we here give an elegant and correct engraving), presents several architectural remains 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 periptoral, and is, at the same time, distinguished by having, on its several columns, the appalling figure of Typhon, the emblem of the evil principle.