122 TRAVELS TO DISCOVER 



The temples at Medinet Tabu are the moft elegant of thefe. 

 The hieroglyphics are cut to the depth of half-a-foot, hi 

 fome places, but we have ftill the fame figures, or rather a 

 lefs variety, than at Dendera. 



The hieroglyphics are of four forts ' r firft,.fuch as have 

 only the contour marked, and, as it were, fcratched only 

 in the ftone. The fecond are hollowed; and in the 

 middle of that fpace rifes the figure in relief, fo that the 

 prominent part of the figure is equal to the flat, unwrought 

 furface of the ftone, and feems to have a frame round it,. 

 deiigned to defend the hieroglyphic from mutilation. The 

 third fort is in relief, or baffo relievo, as it is called, where 

 the figure is left bare and expofed, without being funk in, 

 or defended, by any compartment cut round it in the ftone^ 

 The fourth are thofe mentioned in the beginning of this 

 defcription, the outlines of the figure being cut very deep 

 in the Hone. 



All the hieroglyphics, but the laft mentioned, which do 

 not admit it, are painted red, blue, and green, as at Dendera,, 

 and with no other colours* 



Notwithstanding all this variety in the manner of ex- 

 ecuting the hicroglyphical figures, and the prodigious mul- 

 titude which I have feen in the feveral buildings, I never 

 could make the number of different hieroglyphics amount 

 to more than five hundred and fourteen, and of thefe there 

 were certainly many, which were not really different, but 

 from the ill execution of the fculpture only appeared fo. 

 From this I conclude, certainly, that it can be no entire lan- 

 guage which hieroglyphics are meant to contain, for no 



language 



