ABU SIMBEL. 433 



enormous antiquity, as regards the historical records of 

 the human family. Many of these again are very 

 extensive affairs, and represent a vast expenditure of 

 human labour on what were probably partly tombs, 

 and partly places of religious worship. With a good 

 glass, the gaping entrances to literally thousands of 

 such places may be seen in the cliffs and mountains, 

 as the traveller ascends the Nile, every available spot 

 at certain points being absolutely honeycombed with 

 them. 



Some of the carvings cut in the solid rock which 

 forms the walls of these places, are wonderful examples 

 of human skill and artistic talent. The four colossal 

 sitting figures of Ramses the Great, which are hewn 

 out of the cliff at the entrance to the Egyptian temple 

 of Abu Simbel, are conspicuous instances of this, and 

 from the doorway, but more especially from the heights 

 above, magnificent panoramas of the barren hills and 

 pathless expanse of tawny red sands peculiar to the 

 Nubian desert, are visible; whose colourings, under the 

 ruddy glow of sunset or sunrise, form spectacles of 

 never-to-be-forgotten splendour. Most impressive at 

 all times is its stern and spacious grandeur ; its change- 

 less aspect of infinite desolation, and deathlike re- 

 pose, in which the only indications of life or movement 

 are the waters of the mighty river, silently flowing at 

 the base of the cliff beneath: otherwise there remains 

 not a single trace of human habitation or existence, 

 except the presence of the Nile boat that has borne the 

 traveller to the spot, and waits to carry him off again.* 



* It is usual for the tourist steamboats to pass the night at Abu 

 Simbel, in order to enable passengers to witness both sunset and sunrise, 

 and to see the temple by moonlight. 



VOL. II. 28 



