ANCIENT EGYPT. 3 1 



are cut in full, and others in half relief. The hall was roofed 

 in with stone slabs, some of which are still in situ, and the 

 lintel stones of the doorway are about 40 feet long. 



Most of the decorations are the work of Rameses II. The 

 pictures consist mainly of groups of figures of the deities, the 

 centre of which is usually Pharaoh, the son of the sun, pre- 

 senting offerings. Most of the later kings have inscribed their 

 cartouches in every available place. 



This noble hall is in danger of a gradual collapse, as the 

 bases of the pillars are being gradually undermined by 

 corrosion caused by the action of the nitre-charged sand and 

 by the infilteration of water from the Nile. Some of the 

 columns have fallen, and others seem about to fall. 



No language can express the grandeur of this building ; but 

 I have endeavoured to give you some idea of its present 

 condition in the drawing on the screen, which is from the 

 pencil of Mrs. Clephan. 



Sethi I., whose portrait from the monuments is before you, 

 and under whose auspices the greater portion of this hall was 

 built, was a great ruler and truly remarkable man; some 

 references to his warlike achievements are inscribed on the 

 temple walls. The style and finish of the work of his reign 

 is much superior to that executed by the architects and 

 artists under his son Rameses II. His tomb is perhaps, after 

 the great pyramid, the most remarkable in the world; the 

 sarcophagus lies in Sir John Soane's museum in London, 

 while his mummy is at Cairo. A photograph of it, with the 

 sweet placid face, is here reproduced.* 



. The inscriptions on the outer walls are of great historic 

 value. On the north side is a representation of Sethi's cam- 

 paigns against the Shasu (Bedouins), Remenu (Armenians), 

 Kheta (Hittites or Syrians), Ruten (Assyrians), Upper Ruten 

 (Palestine), and the types of the different Asiatic nations are 

 very distinctive and characteristic. An assault on a fortress 

 is represented, of which inscription there is a copy in the 

 museum, and a picture is given of the felling and trans- 



* I.e., on the screen, but not with the text as here printed. 



