ARCHITECTURE. 11 
painting, such as covers the walls and ceilings of our theatres and other 
public buildings, whatever may be the subject they represent. 
On the right bank of the Nile we see the ruins of a palace near the village 
of Luxor (El-Kusr), standing close to the river upon a platform about nine 
feet above the surrounding ground, about 2200 feet in length, by 1100 in 
breadth, and fenced in with brickwork. The ruins consist of a large number 
of columns, the circumference of some of which is 18 or 19 feet, and that of 
others about 30 feet, 9 inches. Three obelisks, and the extensive propylea 
represented on pl. 6, jig. 8, indicate a royal palace. In front of the palace 
was a double row of colossal sphinxes, about 200 in number, which led to 
the temple, the ruins of which are near the village of Carnak. This avenue 
of sphinxes is terminated by two obelisks, which, afew years ago, were still 
standing; they are of unequal dimensions, but both are monoliths of the 
red granite of Syene. The one on the left hand side, without the point (which 
is 7 feet long), is 77 feet 73 inches high, its base being about 6 feet 34 inches in 
width. The other, without the point of about 4 feet, is 72 feet 64 inches high, 
with a base of the same dimensions as the first; it weighs about 352,276 lbs. 
The bases on which the obelisks were placed were of different heights, for 
the purpose of equalizing the general height of the shafts. The form of 
these obelisks shows the thorough knowledge of optical effect possessed by 
the Egyptians. The plane surface of a very slender body, when exposed to 
a bright sun, appears to be rounded towards the edges. To avoid this, they 
gave the surfaces a convexity of 15 lines, and this had the effect of making 
them seem flat, for otherwise one of the edges would have appeared like 
one half of a cylinder, very bright, and the other entirely dark. 
The viceroy of Egypt, Mahomed Ali, presented the two above mentioned 
obelisks to the king of France. The westerly one was taken down by M. 
Lebas in the year 1833, and transported to Paris, where it has been erected 
in the Place de la Concorde. The labors attending the removal began as 
early as 1829, and the whole work thus took four years. A very interesting 
model of the progress of the work in all its stages is preserved in the Naval 
Museum in Paris. The remaining obelisk is intended for the city of Mar- 
seilles. Behind the obelisks there were formerly two colossal statues of red 
and black granite intermixed; but both these monoliths have been destroyed. 
They were about 42 feet 3 inches high. Between the propylea, which are 
75 feet high, a doorway of 52 feet 4 inches in height leads to a large court 
yard surrounded by a peristyle. The propyleum is decorated with bas- 
reliefs, representing warlike scenes. In the court-yard are located the 
houses of the village of Luxor, the yard being about 169 by 138 feet, with 
a covered colonnade of 76 columns, 27 feet 74 inches high. The second pro- 
pyleeum opens to the roof of that colonnade, where the inhabitants were wont 
- to pass the night under tents. The passage from this court to the third pro- 
pyleum is by a gallery of 14 columns remarkable for their height and thick- 
ness, being 10 feet 6 inches in diameter by 62 feet 7 inches inheight. They 
are composed of stone rings filled up inside with bricks, mortar, and cement, 
with capitals 16 feet 117 inches at the top by 10 feet 94 inches below, and 
shaped like an inverted bell. The architrave is composed of stone blocks, 
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