608 EGYPTIAN ANTIQUITIES. 



circumscribed the grounds reserved for the worship and the priests. 

 In the midst was the large temple, its facade turning toward the west. 

 At the northwest was the mammisi; at the southwest the pylon. 

 Between the two are the remains of a sakieh which furnished the 

 necessary water for the temple. The large monument is composed, a 

 fact unique in Egypt, of two temples joined following their axes. The 

 sanctuaries are independent and the gates of the facade are double. 

 One of the sanctuaries, that of the south, was dedicated to Sebek or 

 Sobkou, while that of the north was dedicated to Haroeris. 



The sovereigns who contributed to the embellishment of the temples 

 of Ombos are Ptolemy VII, who seems to have built the greater part, 

 the Ptolomies IX, X, XIII, and the emperors Augustus, Tiberius, Cali- 

 gula, Claudius, Nero, Vespasian, Doinitian, Antonius, and Commodus 

 himself, whose cartouches are found in the exterior buildings. 



There is no doubt that most of these sovereigns of the west com- 

 pletely ignored the existence of the little town of Ombos lost in upper 

 Egypt, but their names are engraved on the monuments and furnish 

 us the date of the constructions. 



From the picturesque site on which it rises, from its singular archi- 

 tecture, and the delicacy of the sculptures covering its walls and 

 columns, the Temple of Ombos especially recommends itself to the 

 attention of visitors. 



Xearly all the scholars who have visited Egypt declared that the 

 temple was destined to be destroyed, and this opinion seemed very just, 

 because the river ate away each year a new part of the koin; but I was 

 resolved to try all efforts to save this monument, unique of its kind in 

 the valley of the Nile, from destruction. 



It was the 1st of January, 18l>3, that the excavations began; in three 

 months more than 25,000 cubic meters of earth were removed and cast 

 into the Xile. The stones bearing no inscription, which had fallen into 

 the midst of the building, were employed in the construction of a solid 

 buttress that now protects all the ruins against the current of the river. 

 One after another, each column, each architrave, each wall, has been 

 carefully strengthened, so that by the 1st of April the most important 

 work had been finished. The excavations were taken up again in 

 October of the same year. The area of clearing was extended, and 

 thus 25,000 cubic meters additional of sebakh and of sand were taken 

 out from the perimeter of the edifice. A wall of crude bricks was con- 

 structed all around the monument, to keep up the grounds of the kom 

 and to protect the entrance of the temple. 



To-day the ruins of Ombos are saved forever; it will be sufficient to 

 maintain the protective works. The buttress on the Xile has already 

 resisted two overflows without the slightest settling. 



Assouan. — I speak only from memory of the works partially executed 

 in the necropolis of Assouan, as well as of those effected in Mediuet- 

 Habou, in Denderah, and in Abydos, by the searchers of sebakh operat- 



