of Thebes in Egypt. 407 
five leagues off. The researches made on the spot have shown 
that this building contained four similar colossi, one of which of 
granite seems to have been placed beside that just mentioned. 
By a second buttress, less elevated than the former, we enter 
into a peristyle which is also 140 feet long by 160 broad. This 
peristyle was surrounded by galleries formed to the north and 
the south by a double row of columns; on the east by a single 
row of caryatid pillars, and on the west by columns and caryatid 
pillars. The southern part is demolished; but the northern 
part is in sufficient preservation to enable us to judge of the 
whole with some certainty. This peristyle also contains two 
colossi, each about twenty-three feet high. One is entirely of 
black granite; the other has also a black body, buat the head 
is of red granite. This head is preserved. It has a calmness 
full of grace, and that happy physiognomy which more than 
beauty itself has the art of pleasing; the corners of the mouth, 
a little raised towards the eye, express a smile. We cannot 
represent a divinity under traits which can make it more venc- 
rated. ; 
From the peristyle we enter by three doors into a vast apart- 
ment, the roof of which is supported by sixty columns in ten 
rows, each containing six columns; four of those columns are 
still standing, but dispersed. This hall was divided into three 
compartments. We may conceive an idea of the majesty of 
the whole, when we recollect that the columns of the middle 
eompartment, greater than the rest, are thirty-five feet high, 
and more than six feet in diameter. Adjoining this hall is a 
second and a third, and in each are eight columns still standing, 
and of the same size. 
Such are the remains of a building which, great as it now 
appears, must have been formerly still more extensive. If_it 
excite admiration as a monument of architecture, it is not less re- 
markable on account of the sculptures which cover its walls. The 
latter are still partly covered with sacred hieroglyphics, and partiy 
historical bas-reliets. ‘The former represent, as usual, divinities, 
and the offerings which are made to them; but the bas-reliefs 
deserve a particular examination. Unfortunately it is the same 
with them as with the whole building—a small part only re- 
mains. 
The first of these bas-reliefs is on the interior surface of the 
first of the two grand buttresses. It is a representation of a 
battle—The infantry advance in close column: at the head is 
the chief, of a colossal height, in a chariot. * Further off is seen 
the tumult of the battle. The chiefs in their ehariots precipitate 
themselves on the enemy. Dead, wounded, and dying-—men 
and horses flying—all is confusion, In the middle of the field 
Ced of 
