8 



Account of Mamallaipur. 



[No. SO, 



The Bath as, or Monolithic temples to the south of the vil- 

 lage, are probably the most ancient of the remains at Mamal- 

 laipur. Their inscriptions are in a character so completely 

 obsolete, that the most learned natives, according to Dr. 

 Babington, are unable to decypher them. This species of 

 sculpture is remarkable, and much more rare than mere ex- 

 cavations. It was however practiced by the ancient Egyp- 

 tians, and Herodotus (Lib. 11. cap. 155) has given a short des- 

 cription of a monolithic temple of Latona, which stood at Buto, 

 near the Sebennytic mouth of the Nile. He says it measur- 

 ed 40 cubits or 60 feet in height, breadth, and width : and its 

 roof consisted of a separate stone, four cubits high. This 

 temple, which must have been conveyed to its site, must have 

 weighed on the lowest computation upwards of 5000 Tons. 

 At the 175th chapter of the same book, he describes another 

 monolithic temple at Sais, which had been brought thither by 

 ' kino- Amasis from Elephantine, the island opposite Syene, 

 immediately below the first cataract ; a distance of twenty 

 days sail, or of TOO miles ,by land. The outside measurement 

 of this monolith he states to be— length 21 cubits, breadth 

 14, and height 8: the inride measurement was — length 18 

 cubits and 1 pygon ; breadth 1 2 cubits ; and the height 5 

 cubits. Taking the cubit in round numbers at 1 foot 6 inches 

 and the pygon at 1 foot 3 inches, the temple must have 

 been externally 31 feet 6 inches long, 21 feet broad and 12 

 feet high: and internally 28 feet 3 inches long, 18 feet broad, 

 and 7| feet high. This monolith then was inferior in point 

 of mere size to the largest of those at Mamallaipur ; the di- 

 mensions of which externally, according to Mr. Goldingham, 

 are as follows ; — length 49 feet, breadth 25 feet, and height 

 25 feet. But we must remember that while these are in loco 

 naturae, being cut in fact from large boulders or distinct 

 masses of granite, the monolith of Amasis had to be conveyed 

 to its site by manual labor ; and Herodotus affirms that two 

 thousand boatmen were occupied in its removal for a period of 

 upwards of three years. After all indeed it was not placed 



