TEMPLE OF A’MADA AT HASSAIA, NUBIA. 
In tliis small Temple are seen tlie names of tlie third Thotlimes, together with that 
of his son Amunoph II., and his grandson Thotlimes IV.; that of Osirtasen III. lias 
also been found. The colours of the painted sculptures are in remarkable preservation, 
which is due, probably, to the means which were employed to obliterate them; for 
tlie early Christians, when they used the ancient temples as churches, overlaid these 
representations with plaster, to efface all traces of idolatry, and thus preserved the 
painting which is now restored. A portico, a transverse corridor, and three inner 
chambers, constitute the whole of this elegant little Temple. It is now half buried 
in sand. The sanctuary is entire, and its walls, as well as those of the two lateral 
apartments with which it communicates, are covered with small and beautifully executed 
hieroglyphics: which, though slightly raised, are still sharp, and the colours so remarkably 
preserved that they might be transferred to paper. The pronaos is supported by 
square pillars covered with hieroglyphics so inferior to those in the adytum that no 
doubt can exist that they w r ere executed at different periods. 
Above the pronaos is a clumsy mud dome, utterly out of character with the building, 
and, most probably, added when the Temple was adopted as a Christian church. 
The remains of an ancient town, amidst which the Temple appears to have stood, 
can be traced, and it probably lies buried in the sand which has here so greatly 
accumulated. Not far from this arid site of the Temple of A’mada the Nile is bordered 
with vegetation and groves of palm-trees; and the sandy soil beyond is relieved 
by highly pictu respue forms of the Libyan mountains. 
Wilkinson’s Egypt and Thebes. 
Roberts’s Journal. 
