[This is the seventeenth volume of the _Library of Entertaining
Knowledge_; and, like the majority of its predecessors, it aims
at rendering popular, and of obvious interest, subjects which had
hitherto been abstruse and uninviting. It is the first of a series
of volumes to be published on the Antiquities of the British
Museum, so as in some measure to set them free from their national
imprisonment; for such we must term any assemblage of works of art
(the property of the country), which are not unconditionally open
to public inspection.
The portion before us is the first of two volumes devoted to
the Egyptian Antiquities in the Museum. It has been diligently
compiled; and rendered more interesting than would be a bare
account of what the Museum contains, by correct notices generally
"of the history of art among the Egyptians." The best authorities
have been consulted and acknowledged, as Hamilton, Heeren, Gau,
and Belzoni, and the more recent labours of Mr. James Burton.
The whole is attractively arranged in chapters; on the Physical
Character of Egypt; Political Sketch of Ancient Egypt, and the
monuments of the respective divisions of the country. We subjoin
an extract, containing a graphic outline of _Thebes_:]
We pass by Kennéh, on the east bank, from which travellers may go to
Cosseir to embark on the Red Sea; we hasten by the remains of Kouft,
the ancient Coptos, and the solitary propylon of Kous, standing alone
without its temple,--to the plain of Thebes, to the most wonderful
assemblage of ruins on the face of the earth.
All travellers agree that it is impossible to describe the effect
produced by the colossal remains of this ancient capital; nor does it
lie within our plan to attempt this description at present any farther
than is necessary to make our readers acquainted with the general
character and localities of the existing temples of Egypt.
No knowledge of antiquity, no long-cherished associations, no
searching after something to admire, is necessary here. The wonders of
Thebes rise before the astonished spectator like the creations of some
superior power. "It appeared to me," says Belzoni, "like entering
a city of giants, who, after a long conflict, were all destroyed,
leaving the ruins of their various temples as the only proofs of their
former existence." Denon's description of the first view of Thebes by
the French army, which he accompanied in the expedition into Upper
Egypt, is singularly characteristic. "On turning the point of a chain
of mountains which forms a kind of promontory, we saw all at once
ancient Thebes in its full extent--that Thebes whose magnitude has
been pictured to us by a single word in Homer, _hundred-gated_, a
poetical and unmeaning expression which has been so confidently
repeated ever since. This city, described in a few pages dictated
to Herodotus by Egyptian priests, which succeeding authors have
copied--renowned for numerous kings, who, through their wisdom, have
been elevated to the rank of gods; for laws which have been revered
without being known; for sciences which have been confided to proud
and mysterious inscriptions, wise and earliest monuments of the arts
which time has respected;--this sanctuary, abandoned, desolated
through barbarism, and surrendered to the desert from which it was
won; this city, shrouded in the veil of mystery by which even colossi
are magnified: this remote city, which imagination has only caught a
glimpse of through the darkness of time,--was still so gigantic an
apparition, that at the site of its scattered ruins, the army halted
of its own accord, and the soldiers, with one spontaneous movement,
clapped their hands." It is, however, rather unfortunate for Denon's
description, that another traveller denies that there is such an
approach to Thebes as is mentioned in the extract, and he assures us
that the ruins cannot be seen till the traveller comes near them; and
further, that to produce such astonishing effects as the Frenchman
describes, we ought to be _very_ near them or _among_ them. Without
pretending to reconcile these contradictions, we can readily believe
that the ruins may produce a considerable effect, even at some
distance, if Denon's drawings are at all correct. As to the impression
made by a near inspection of these wonderful remains, there is no
discrepancy among travellers.
Thebes lay on each side of the river, and extended also on both sides
as far as the mountains. The tombs, which are on the western side,
reach even into the limits of the desert. Four principal villages
stand on the site of this ancient city,--Luxor and Carnak on the
eastern, Gournou and Medinet-Abou on the western side. The temple of
Luxor is very near the river, and there is here a good ancient jettée,
well built of bricks. The entrance to this temple is through a
magnificent propylon, or gateway, facing the north, 200 feet in front,
and 57 feet high above the present level of the soil. Before the
gateway stand the two most perfect obelisks that exist, formed, as
usual, of the red granite of Syene, and each about 80 feet high,
and from 8 to 10 feet wide at the base. Travellers differ in their
estimate of the width of the base, some, perhaps, taking the actual
measure on the surface of the soil while others may make allowance
for that part that is buried; for that the soil is much elevated will
appear from what follows: "Between these obelisks and the propylon are
two colossal statutes, also of red granite; from the difference of
the dresses it is judged that one was a male, the other a female,
figure;--they are nearly of equal sizes. Though buried in the ground
to the chest, they still measure 21 and 22 feet from thence to the top
of the mitre." Another cause of discrepancy in the measurements
may be, that the adjacent sides of the obelisks are of different
dimensions; which is generally the case.
It is this gateway that is filled with those remarkable sculptures,
which represent the triumph of some ancient monarch of Egypt over an
Asiatic enemy, and which we find repeated, both on other monuments of
Thebes, and partly also on some of the monuments of Nubia, as, for
example, at Ipsambul. This event appears to have formed an epoch
in Egyptian history, and to have furnished materials both for the
historian and the sculptor, like the war of Troy to the Grecian poet.
The whole length of this temple is about 800 feet.
But the remains of Carnak, about one mile and a quarter lower down the
river, are still more wonderful than Luxor: one of the buildings is
probably the temple of Ammon, which we know from Diodoius was on this
side of the river. An irregular avenue of sphinxes, considerably
more than a mile in length (about 6,560 feet), connected the northern
entrance of the temple of Luxor with it; but this was only one
of several proud approaches to perhaps the largest assemblage of
buildings that ever was erected. For a minute description of Carnak
we must refer to the plans in the great French work, and to Dr.
Richardson's and Mr. Hamilton's accounts. The irregularities in the
structure and approaches of this building show that the various parts
of it were raised at different periods, for indeed it would have been
impossible for any one sovereign to have completed such a monument in
his life-time; and we know, also, that the great temple at Memphis
received numerous additions during a long succession of ages. Some
parts, both of this temple and of the larger building at Carnak
(sometimes called a palace), have been constructed out of the
materials of earlier buildings, as we see from blocks of stone being
occasionally placed with inverted hieroglyphics. It is impossible
without good drawings and very long descriptions, to give anything
like an adequate idea of the enormous remains of Carnak, among which
we find a hall whose roof of flat stones is sustained by more than
130 pillars, some 26 feet, and others as much as 34 feet, in
circumference. The remains on the western side of the river are,
perhaps, more interesting than those on the east. That nearly all
the monuments of Thebes belong to a period anterior to the Persian
conquest, B.C. 525, and that among them we must look for the oldest
and most genuine specimens of Egyptian art, is clear, both from the
character of the monuments themselves and from historical records; nor
is this conviction weakened by finding the name of Alexander twice on
part of the buildings at Carnak, which will prove no more than that
a chamber might have been added to the temple and inscribed with his
name; or that it was not unusual for the priests to flatter conquerors
or conquerors' deputies by carving on stone the name of their new
master. Thebes was the centre of Egyptian power and commerce, probably
long before Memphis grew into importance, or before the Delta was made
suitable to the purposes of husbandry by the cutting of canals and the
raising of embankments.
[In a note to this passage, it is stated that "Herodotus has given
no description of Thebes. Denon several times quotes Herodotus
for what is not in that author. But this is so common, even with
people who have claims to scholarship, that it has become almost
a fashion to say that any thing is in Herodotus." So that the
audience of Lord Goderich with the late King, as described in the
_Edinburgh Review_, in the Herodotean (or _says_ he and _says
she_) dialect, is no great license.]
[The volume is profusely embellished.]
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