AND LOWER EGYPl'. 237 



The Arabian who commanded at Luxor for 

 hnunn-Jbou-AUy and to whom I presented a letter 

 from that piince, received me very well. We 

 mounted our horses on the i8th, and made, under 

 his escort, the tour of the ruins of the ancient re- 

 sidence of the kings of Egypt. The magnificence 

 which it displayed, and the extent of its circumfe- 

 lence, exceed all belief. But new events occurred 

 to hurry me away from ruins of which I intended 

 to examine the most remarkable parts and to take 

 drawinjis of them. The only one which I had 

 ti.T»e to get delineated is given in plate XXXVII. 

 which represents a siiigular colonnade of that por- 

 tion of the ruins which surrounds tlic viUage of 

 Luxor. Upper Egypt was again about to become 

 the theatre of a war between the Mamelucs. Some 

 B^ys belonging to hmdin% vanquished party had 

 found means to penetrate into Thebais, as far as 

 the Red Sea, and to acquire a sufficient number of 

 partisans there to occasion some alarm to the victo- 

 rious Mourat Bey. The latter sent a small army, 

 commanded by a Bey of his own family, to cxtcrmi- 



*' palace, was supported by a hundred and twenty columns, of 

 " six fathoms in thickness, and lofty in proportion, and inter- 

 " mingled with obelisks which so many ages have not been able 

 *' to lay low. Even colours which yield the soonest to the 

 " power of time still endure ansid the ruins of this wonderful 

 " edifice and preserve their vivacity ; so well did Egypt know 

 " how to impress the character of iminoriality on all her 

 ** works." Disc, on Univ. Hist, part iii. sect. iii. 



nate 



