208 
DESCRIPTIONS OF EGYPT. 
count of four colossal statues, 60 feet high, 
which are placed in front of it, in one of which, 
that had been thrown down, he could barely reach 
from the tip of the ear to the forehead. The 
front was nearly covered beneath a bed of sand, 
50 feet deep, which M. Belzoni succeeded, by the 
most extraordinary exertions, in clearing aw^ay. 
The excavation was then found to contain four- 
teen chambers and a great hall ; the last of which 
contained eight colossal figures in an erect posi- 
tion, each thirty feet high ; the walls and pilas- 
ters were covered wdth hieroglyphics and statues, 
the sculpture of which was, in several respects, 
superior to any thing that has yet been found in 
Egypt. Generally speaking, the grand specimens 
of the architecture of Egypt are above ground, 
those of Nubia beneath it. The temples in the 
latter country, constructed of masonry, are com- 
paratively small and ill built ; while its excava- 
tions seem almost to rival the grandeur of Thebes 
and Tentyra. 
M. Belzoni, however, made his most remark- 
able discoveries within the limits of Egypt, on 
ground trodden by numerous travellers, but the 
objects of which had evaded their researches, as 
well as those made by the French Savans, with 
every advantage of power and numbers. He 
succeeded in carrying down to Alexandria, and 
transmitting to the British Museum, a colossal 
