EGYPT, AND SYRIA. 139 
Walled towns, it has been obferved by Pococke, were not 
common in Egypt, and therefore, he adds, it is probable that 
Thebes was never furrounded by a wall. — That the paiTage in 
Homer refers not to the gates of the city, muft readily be ad- 
mitted. But it appears to me likely that Thebes was walled, 
from fome feint remains, which are even to this day vifible. In 
the precinds of the vaft temple at Akfor, or El-KufTur, is difco- 
verable a fmall chamber, lined either with red granite or with 
porphyry, on afcendiiig to the roof of which from without, and 
directing the eye to the Southward in a ftraight line, as far as it 
can reach, an infulated mafs is feen, which has the appearance 
of having been a gate. With a telefcope, from the fame fpot, 
are vifible other ftill more imperfedl remains, under the fame cir- 
cumftanc€S, in the directions Weft and North. From their fitua- 
tion, precifely oppofed to each other, and at the three cardinal 
points, at fo great a diftance, rather than from any ftronger cir- 
cumftance, I was inclined to believe that thefe may have been 
three gates. — That to the Weft is very near the mountains on 
that fide. 
After pafling three days in and about antient Thebes, we ad- 
vanced on the 26th 0£t. 1792 on our voyage up the Nile. 
27th 00:. Came to Ifna, a large town, the refidence of the 
fugitive Beys. Here is alfo found a temple of the fame kind 
as thofe of Thebes, inferior in fize, but tolerably well pre- 
fcrved. 
T 2 
The 
