of Thebes in Egypt. 381 
the upper part, where they have but very rarely had opportuni- 
ties of making extensive researches, and more rarely still leisure 
and talents for transmitting to us by faithful drawings what they 
had seen. Of all those travellers, Pocock and Norden are al- 
‘most the only ones who deserve to be mentioned. But in the 
present day the slightest examination is sufficient to show how 
inadequate they are to give an accurate idea of the monuments 
of this country :—thus their reports furnish not the slightest idea 
of those wonders of antiquity with which we have been since 
made acquainted. It was the French expedition to Egypt 
which revealed to us the secrets of that country. M. Denon, by 
his Voyage and the engravings which accompanied it, was the 
first who gave a more precise idea of the monuments of Upper 
Egypt, and partly of those of Thebes*. This work fixed the at- 
tention of Europe on the country, and gave hopes of making 
further discoveries. The reports of M. Denon, however, only 
excited without satisfying our curiosity. 
- Among so great a number of monuments, it was necessary to 
select and to publish only a few; and the finances of an indivi- 
dual, although seconded by government, prescribed certain limits 
to his researches. | 
The French government has already commenced the publica- 
tion of a superb work upon Egypt ancient as well as modern, 
its monuments, productions, inhabitants, &c. The first num- 
ber appeared in 1811. It comprehends Upper Egypt, from the 
southern frontier to Thebes, and is divided (like the numbers 
which succeeded it) into three parts: viz. Antiquities, Natural 
History, and Modern Statistics: The antiquities, which alone 
engross our attention at present, are the monuments. of Philo, 
Elephantinus, Assuan, Esne, Edfu, Eleuthiyas, and some others less 
markable. ‘The second number of the work is far more mag- 
nificent than the first:—here engraving seems to have made ef- 
forts to surpass herself; and 161 folios, part of them of such a size 
as never issued from any press before, now present us with the 
faithful image of that ancient Thebes where the most ancient kings 
of the earth resided: and ifthe moderns must confess that they . 
«ould not now build such monuments, the arcl.itects of those 
Aistant ages, if they were to revisit the earth, could not contem- 
te without admiration those superb engravings of their works. 
‘The price of this work (the second number costs 1600 franes in 
Paris, or 80/. in London) precludes it from having an extensive 
circulation, and if it were reduced in size it would lose its splen- 
did character. 
_At the moment when the great French work reached the 
 * See the work now publishing by Mr. Taylor, of Hatton Garden, re- 
ferred to in our last volume.—Enit. 
¢ Gottingen 
