41 
Account of m% Excursion to Thebes. 
not discernible. This, like every other monument here, might 
still have been perfect, had it not been intentionally destroyed. 
On our way from this to Medinet-Aboo, we passed the two 
colossal statues on the plain, one of which has so many Greek 
and Roman inscriptions on it, in testimony of the authors having 
heard the voice of Memnon. This statue appears to have been 
broken and built up again, as the back is formed of several 
stones, instead of being in one piece, like the others. We then 
successively visited the temples of Medinet-Aboo, Luxor, and 
Cannar. Of these it would be tedious to enter into any descrip- 
tion. I took a sketch of the beautiful entrance to the first, 
which, I think, has been given only by Norden, and in a very 
poor style, as he had but little time, and many difficulties to 
combat. One, also, of part of a great court and gateway in the 
interior — and two views of Luxor from the river — but I am afraid 
to begin with Cannar, as the interior of it is a complete forest of 
pillars, and as one cannot form an idea of the plan of it till after 
long examination. It appears to be a series of temples within 
temples ; and, although the most laborious destruction has been 
employed against it, still what has been destroyed forms but a 
very trifling part of the whole ; and it has the great advantage, 
as a ruin, of standing by itself, and amidst its own fragments, 
without having its chambers half choked up with the ruins of a 
church or village, as at Dendera, or its courts occupied by an 
Arab town, as at the temples of Luxor and Medinet-Aboo. 
There are also two other temples remaining at Thebes, on the 
western side of the river ; and, besides these, the foundations 
and ruins of three others have been very lately discovered by 
Mr Salt, in the excavations wliich he has been carrying on. In 
digging near the temple of Carnac, he and the French ex-con- 
sul Douretti found about tliirty statues, consisting of sphinxes, 
female figures with lion’s heads, and several sitting and standing 
human figures, all of them niore than six or eight feet, and 
mostly of granite ; a great many of them quite perfect, and 
some of them admirably sculptured. The}^ were all found in 
one place, v/here, no doubt, they had been concealed, as they 
were built over with unbaked bricks, which were again covered v/ith 
soil. On the western side, also, Mr Salt has found a great many 
valuable antiquities, principally fine statues, among which tlicrn 
