164 
DESCRIPTIONS OF EGYPT. 
the greater proportion of which exist on the east- 
ern bank of the Nile. The river is, at this place, 
about three hundred yards broad. At Kourna are 
the ruins of an Egyptian temple, constructed on a 
different pjan from that of the edifices at Thebes. * 
The roofs are vaulted in a peculiar manner, and the 
hieroglyphics accurately engraved. The inhabi- 
tants of this district are a ferocious race, dark in 
their complexion, and different in their features 
from the other Egyptians, while the greater part 
of them, like the ancient Troglodytes, inhabit the 
caverns of the mountains. When Browne visited 
Kourna, a female inquired, " Are you afraid of 
" crocodiles ?" and added laconically, " We are 
" crocodiles ;"t a denomination which applies ac- 
curately to the inhabitants of all the villages of the 
Thebaid. The ruins on the western bank of the 
Nile are not only less entire, but piled in greater- 
disorder than on the eastern side of the river. 
The most entire are the Memnonium, or palace 
of Memnon,»the palace of Medinet-Abu, and two 
colossal statues, celebrated for their prodigious 
height. Some of the columns of the Memnonium 
are still about forty feet high, and ten in diameter. 
In one of the courts are fragments of an immense 
* Ripaud's Report on the Antiquities of Upper Egypt, 
p. 48. 
f Browne's Travels in Africa, p. 138. 
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