IcS Ohfervaiions en the 'Zodiac at Dendera. 



on the perfuafion that in Edrifi the dcfcription of Bcrba was 

 move fui table \o pyi-atnids than temples. M. de Sacy replies, 

 with corjfiderabfc force, that SchiiUens would have done 

 irore julVice to Michaelis, if, infiead of indulging conjefture, 

 be bad opened ibme Arabic defcription of Egypt ; for ex- 

 ample, Macrizi's, where he would have found inftances that 

 the term could not ^-igm^y pyramids. Accordingly, a paflage 

 is ciled from that author which refers to the very place, 

 *' Of the number of Eerba is that of Dendcra, which is a 

 wonderful edifice. It has l8o windows j each day the fun 

 enters by one of thefe windows, and on the next by thefol- 

 lovvine;, till at length it reaches the lad, and then returns in a 

 contrary direftion." Vandeb [Nouvdie Relation en Vorme 

 dc Journal d'un Voyage fait en Egypte,) defcribes Dendera 

 as the fite of a wonderful temple of the antient Egyptians — ■ 

 d'une grandeur et d'line hauteur demesure'e ; and vifible 

 at two leagues dillance. He aifo, applying the account of 

 Macrizi, and confidering ll^e windows as double, makes them 

 to be as many as there are degrees in the zodiac ; To that the 

 fun, riling each day in a dirierent degree, throws his rays 

 through a diftcrent window, till, by thus completing his 

 courfe, he finiflies that of the year. For this rcafon, it is 

 added, the temple is regarded as wonderful. 



Takins: thefe defcriptions with the other compartments 

 on the ceilings, given by Dcnon, one inference, drawn by 

 M. Fourrier,"will be readily admitted, which is, that the 

 ilate of the heavens they exhibit, correlponds with the date 

 of the buildincr. It remains then to determine, from the 

 zodiac in queltion, what this date was. Dcnon, on his fe- 

 cond vifit, thus defcribes the temple : — " I went to the ruins, 

 and this lime took poHeilion of them in the plenitude of re- 

 pofe. I was firft of all delighted to find that n^,y enthufiaftic 

 admiration of the great temple was not an illufion produced 

 by the novelty of its appearance, fiuce, after having fcen all 

 the other Egyptian monuments, this dill appeared the molt 

 perfeft in its execution, and condruftcd at the happicft pe- 

 riod of the arts and fcieuces; EVERY thing in it is la- 

 boured, is interelling, is important. It would be neceflary 

 to draw the whole in its mod miinite detail, to poflcfs our- 

 felves of all that is worth carrying away." 



The date of 15,000 years before the birth of Chrili. feemg 

 but ill to agree with this account, when contralicd with the 

 ordinary remains of human efforts, and the uniform efleil: of 

 human experience. The monuments of remote ages are ni 



more 



remarkable for their. rude bulk than elaborate workmanfliip ; 

 but, if this be of the time affigned, il . follows that, in the 



uniteii 



