Letters of an African Traveller. 365 



Making but a short stay there, I embarked in the neigh- 

 bouring Babylonia, and turning away from Rhodes proud of its 

 Nilometer, I found, running upwards, Cimopolis, and the city 

 that calls to remembrance the depraved licentiousness of Adrian, 

 the Lower Abydos, Licopolis, and many other places not men- 

 tioned with us. 



The picturesque prospect of a thousand cavities called to 

 my mind the anchorites of Thebes. 



Following the well-employed journey I observed Abutis, 

 Arroditophopolis, and Tentea, where, in the temple of Isis, I 

 tasted with wonder the Egyptian learning, and turning towards 

 the opposite shore I passed by Coenas, and Little ApoUinopolis ; 

 reviewing near thereto the city of One Hundred Gates. 



Here is Carmak with its boundless walks of sphinxes, the 

 Propylteon, porticos of granite, the courts, the squares, and the 

 temple, with eighteen orders of columns hieroglyphically sculp- 

 tured, the circumference of which seven men hardly span with 

 their arms. 



Luxor with its obelisks and innumerable colonnades. 



Behold Medinet-Ahu covered with endless ruins, and 

 with the monstrous colossus that saluted the appearance of the 

 king of the stars, and still shadows the Theban plain. 



Follow and behold Gowm, where the seat of Memnon 

 makes a rich display; and the bright image of the great 

 Sesostris. 



But of the tombs of these subterranean abodes, that which 

 an Italian, Giovanni Belzoni, opened last year, under the aus- 

 pices of Mr. Salt, consul-general of England in Egypt, feeds 

 the doubt, whether it is the production of a mortal hand. 



The interior is entered through an ample gate, when a path 

 with walls beautifully sculptured, leads to galleries still more 

 beauteous, by the side of which are the royal rooms, which 

 preserve in diffuse painting the Egyptian mysteries, and the 

 different nations first known. The sanctuary of Isis captivates 

 both the eye and the mind. 



Then a superb catacomb of pure alabaster hieroglyfied both 

 externally and internally, rises in the centre of the great£r wing, 



