THE COLOSSAL STATUES IN THE PLAIN OF THEBES, 
DURING THE INUNDATION OF THE NILE. 
If the solitude of these stupendous figures, seated here for more than thirty-three 
centuries from the period of their erection, in the midst of a great and populous 
city, to the present time, where, in the solemn silence of a desert, they exist only 
as the relics of a remote age, is capable of exciting increased emotion, it is when 
the waters spread over the plain of Thebes, and, isolating these statues, render 
them inaccessible and make their dreai'iness still more impressive. 
The annual rise of the Nile is the unfailing evidence of unchanged nature. Its 
course may have been guided into other channels, or embanked to guard the sacred 
edifices in the valley from its power; the ability and skill of the ancient Egyptians 
may have controlled and directed it and distributed its blessings; still it returned 
at the same period, averaged the same quantity, fertilised the same soil, and was 
governed by unerring laws, ages before the reign of Menes as at the present day. 
These statues and the distant temples, the works of man, though passing slowly 
to decay, attest the grandeur which once existed in this mighty city, of which these 
ruins are all that remain to attest what Thebes and her people were. The same 
rising sun still gilds the land in unchanged brightness and undiminislied fervour, 
and the artist, by availing himself of the union of those enduring elements with the 
transient character of the works of man, makes his picture a moral and its effect 
sublime. 
In the description which has been given of another view of these statues, it is 
stated that they both represented the Pharaoh Amunoph III., the sovereign of the 
Hebrew Exodus; but the romance of history has given interest to that statue which, 
as they are here presented from behind, is seen on the left. It is the Vocal Memnon, 
so called from the early belief, that at sunrise sounds issued from it; and this is 
attested by travellers who heard and recorded it by inscriptions on the statue eighteen 
centuries ago. 
When Strabo w r as at Thebes, the upper portion of the statue had been destroyed, 
as he was told, by an earthquake, but an inscription exists which refers this injury 
to Cambyses,— one of the acts of that barbarian when he conquered Egypt. It was, 
at a later period, restored imperfectly by masonry in blocks of sandstone cramped 
together, and this condition of the statue is represented in both our sketches: the 
restoration was made about the time of Adrian. Pausanias says that “ the Thebans 
deny this to be the statue of Memnon, but that of Phamenoph.” An inscription 
on the left foot of this statue bore the name of Phamenoth. The examination of 
the hieroglyphics by Champollion has discovered the name of Amunoph, and no doubt 
remains of his accuracy. 
The sound said to be emitted by the statue has been attested by many hearers, 
