DESCRIPTIONS OF EGYPT. 
199 
the general outline of the building. These last, 
undoubtedly the most perfect, are nowhere seen 
in such perfection as at Dendera. The capitals 
of the columns consist of a head of Isis, surmount- 
ed with hieroglyphics, which is said to produce a 
very beautiful effect. 
The next great ruins surveyed by Denon were 
those of Thebes. The whole army is said to have 
made a pause, at the view of the stupendous monu- 
ments of this " city of the hundred gates. 5 ' The two 
great masses of ruins are on the sites of the vil- 
lages of Carnae and Luxor. The temple at the; 
former place is undoubtedly the largest in Egypt, 
and its piles suggested the idea of sculptured moun- 
tains. The portico, attached to a very inferior part 
of it, contains a hundred columns, from seven to 
twelve feet in diameter. Its architecture, how- 
ever, is very inferior, in point of elegance and 
beauty, to that of the temples at Dendera and 
Edfu. It appears to have been built at that early 
period, when magnitude was considered as the sole 
constituent of sublimity. From Carnac to Luxor, 
there extends, for about half a league, a road, both 
sides of which are covered with statues, of which 
the sphinxes are by far the most numerous. The 
temple at Luxor, though large, is considerably in- 
ferior to that of Carnac, but built in a much better 
taste. The entrance is particularly beautiful, being 
