AND LOWER EGYPT. Q.^^ 



ration merely, but an ecstacy which suspended the 

 use of all my faculties. I remained for some time 

 immoveable with rapture, and I felt inclined more 

 than once to prostrate myself in token of venera- 

 tion before monuments, the rearing of which ap- 

 peared to transcend the strength and genius of man. 



Obelisks, colossal and gigantic statues, avenues 

 formed by rows of sphinxes, and which may still be 

 traced, although the greater part of the statues are 

 mutilated or concealed under the sand, porticoes of 

 a prodigious elevation, among which there is one 

 of the height of a hundred and seventy feet by two 

 hundred feet breadth ; immense colonnades, the pil- 

 lars of which are twenty and some thirty-one feet in 

 circumference ; colours still wonderful on account 

 of their brilliancy ; the granite and marble lavished 

 on the buildings, stones of high dimensions sup- 

 ported by capitals and forming the roof of these 

 magnificent edifices, in a word, thousands of co- 

 lumns overthrown, occupy a space of a vast extent. 



Let the so much boasted fabrics of Greece and 

 Rome come and bow down before the temples and 

 the palaces of the Thebes of Egypt. Its lofty ruins 

 are still more striking than their gawdy ornaments ; 

 its gigantic wrecks are more majestic than their 

 perfect preservation. The glory of the most cele- 

 brated fabrics vanishes before the prodigies of 



Egyptian 



