164 
DElSCRIPTIONS OF EGYPT. 
greatly dilapidated, so that it is difficult to trace 
the form of the building. It is at Carnac, how- 
ever, that the finest ruin exists. Four avenues, 
three of which are formed by rows of sphinxes, 
lead to four magnificent porticoes. The middle 
consists of a grand saloon, formed by ranges of 
columns of prodigious magnitude. The ruins of 
this edifice are surrounded with the remains of 
sphinxes, obelisks, statues, and mutilated columns, 
all of which are sculptured with hieroglyphical 
figures. The Libyan mountain, on the west of 
Thebes, contains numerous excavations, which oc- 
cupy nearly three-fourths of its elevation, but the 
entrances of many of which are now filled up with 
sand. The most spacious and most ornamented 
of these caverns are those which are lowest on 
the mountain ; those which are formed in the 
more elevated parts, though similar in plan, are 
more rude in construction as well as execution. 
A passage of considerable length, cut in the free- 
stone, leads to the anterior chamber, from which 
another passage, winding abruptly to the right, 
leads to the great sepulchral chamber, in the 
middle of which is placed a sarcophagus of red 
granite. * In the least decorated caverns, are 
represented the arts which flourished, and the 
trades which were practised, at the epocha of 
* Browne's Travels, p. 137. 
