once enhanced the effect of these spirited representations is not dimmed, hut crumbled 
away; where it exists, the colours are as vivid as ever. 
This unequalled hall is one hundred feet in length, and from it eight lesser chambers, 
all sculptured, open to the right and left. Straight on is a low doorway, opening 
into a second hall, of similar height, supported by four square pillars; and within 
all is the adytum, wherein stands a simple altar of the living rock, in front of four 
large figures seated on rocky thrones. The inner shrine is hewn at least one hundred 
yards into the rock; and here, in the silent depths of that great mountain, these 
awful idols, with their mysterious altar of human sacrifice, looked very pre-Adamitic 
and imposing. They seemed to sit there waiting for some great summons which 
should awaken and reanimate these “ kings of the earth who lie in glory, every one 
in his own house.” 
The Temples of Ipsamboul both date from the time of Remeses II., whose history 
is deeply indebted to the stony chronicles which the chisel wrote therein. 
