l66 TRAVELS IN UPPER 



these paintings, at the expiration of some thou- 

 sands of years, possess still a brilliancy to which 

 our freshest colours do not approach, and they 

 are still as lively as if they had been newly laid on. 



I have said that the front of this temple, an 

 admirable, and but little known woik of the ge- 

 nius and the patience, v^hich, among the ancient 

 people of Egypt, produced wonders, was an 

 hundred and thirty two feet and some inches in 

 length. I took its other dimensions with the 

 same exactness. 1 he depth of the peristyle is an 

 hundred and fifteen fett three inches, and its 

 breadth sixty feet eleven inches. The tvvo sides 

 of the edifice are two hundred and fifty four (eet 

 jiine inches and a half in length ; finally, the 

 depth is a hundred and ten feet eleven inches. 

 The summit of the temple is flattened, and 

 formed of very large stones, which are laid from 

 one pillar to another, or on two walls of separa- 

 tion. Several of these masses are eighteen feet 

 long and six broad. Rubbish heaped up, and 

 the sand which collects there, have raised the soil 

 tj a level with the roof of the building, and you 

 easily ascend it from behmd, although the front 

 is still elevated seventy feet above ground. The 

 inhabitants of this canton had availed themselves 

 or this disposition ; they had built a village on 

 the very summit of the temple, as on a basis 

 more firm than the inconstant sands or marshy 



