43 2 INDIAN ROCK TEMPLES. 



hills and mountains, but others are upon the banks of 

 great rivers, and especially at the confluence of such 

 streams: the confluence of the Jumna and the Ganges, 

 for instance, at Allahabad, is a good example of these 

 last, where the sands at certain festivals may be seen 

 covered at this point by thousands of these people, 

 bathing in, and drinking the sacred waters; but the 

 temple here is confined to a small one within the 

 fort. 



The wonderful rock temples of India however, con- 

 stitute the most striking monuments of this kind. Many 

 of these cave temples belong to Buddhism, and accord- 

 ing to Sir R. Temple the total number of them thus 

 far discovered, amounts to nearly 1000; * of these 

 some are known to be effaced, whilst others exist in 

 a defaced state, but many having been carved in the 

 hardest rock, are imperishable. 



" The fondness for excavating their sacred places out of the 

 mountain sides (continues Sir R. Temple) was a characteristic of 

 the early races of India." " Often the traveller at the entrance, 

 turning round, beholds the spreading landscape, the very 

 prospect which the Buddhists of old commanded, as they 

 contemplated the wealth and civilization of the plains and 

 valleys at their feet, whence the support of their national 

 institutions was derived." f 



In Egypt a splendid example of one of these rock- 

 hewn temples is to be seen in the Nubian desert at 

 Abu Simbel on the banks of the Nile, between the 

 first and second cataracts. The fondness of the ancient 

 Egyptians for the construction of rock-hewn tombs, is 

 also well known. Many of them date from periods of 



* India in 1880, by Sir Richd. Temple, 2nd Edition, 1881, pp. 26 

 and 27. 



-j- Ibid., pp. 26 and 27. 



