Great Temple of Carnac in Thebes. 55 



at periods so remote ; and his surprise increases, as he finds 

 colours, some of them, from their nature, the least durable, 

 retaining in many places, after a lapse of thirty centuries, their 

 original freshness and brilliancy. 



The ancient Egyptians having borrowed nothing, their ar- 

 chitecture is original ; the talus, or slope, was applied to all 

 parts having a heavy superstructure ; and it is worthy of re- 

 mark, that the modern houses, or cabins, usually formed of 

 mud and straw, are generally built with their walls sloping in- 

 wards, in the form of a truncated pyramid. The ancient Egyp- 

 tians considered security as the first principle of architecture. 

 The ornamental parts, such as ceilings, cornices, and the capi- 

 tals of columns, being imitations of the productions of nature, 

 are varied almost to infinity. The capitals very frequently 

 represent the lotus flower,* either in its natural order, or re- 

 versed ; full blown, or in its progressive stages ; or they repre- 

 sent the branch of the date or palm tree, -J - and sometimes of 

 the doum tree. J Other capitals seem to be taken from the 

 volutes of Papyrus, to which the Ionic order of the Greeks 

 bears a strong resemblance. Some are not unlike the Tuscan 

 and Doric, and all are more or less coloured, or decorated with 

 branches of grapes, dates, &c. of good execution. 



In all the Egyptian edifices, even those which have suffered 

 the most from time, sufficient remains to enable a person, how- 

 ever little practised in the vestiges of antiquity, to fill up and 

 form a correct whole. In the temple we are about to de- 

 scribe, the spectator is gratified to observe the trifling degree 

 of dilapidation produced by time, the shocks of successive in- 

 vasions, the irruptions of barbarism, and the ceaseless efforts 

 at destruction of the more modern inhabitants. 



There is little doubt that ancient Thebes occupied both 

 banks of the river Nile. The gateways and propyla, parts 

 of the hundred gates celebrated by Homer, from each of 

 which might be 6ent two hundred horsemen and two hun- 

 dred cars, might be traced to the number of fifty or sixty at 



• Lotus, or water-lily — NymphoSa ullms, called in the Arabic of the 

 country, Noufar. 



* Phccnix ductylij'era. 



t Doum of the Saiie—Borastusjlabelliformiit' 



