GRAND ENTRANCE TO THE TEMPLE OF LUXOR, 
One of the most beautiful scenes in the work is this approach to the magnificent 
Temple of Luxor, but it has been shorn of a striking feature by the removal of one 
of its Obelisks, which now decorates the Place Louis XY. in Paris,— a spot which, 
as it has changed its name with every revolution in France, it may be as well to 
preserve here by that by which it was longest known. 
How beautiful, how grand the approach to Luxor must have been, when these 
Obelisks stood before the colossal statues of Remeses II., one on either side of the 
approach to the stupendous pylons, enriched with sculpture and painting, by which 
the Temple was entered! 
This sketch is made from the summit of a mound that overlooks the huts of 
the village of Luxor, which, like the foul nests of the swallow, disfigure the beautiful 
objects to which they are attached; it is here that the vast propylon and the remaining 
Obelisk, in their half-buried state, are best seen, though surrounded by the mud-huts 
of the modern Arab village, each covered by clusters of pigeon-houses, composed of 
brown earthen pots, in which they breed. The incredible quantity of such pots even 
now used by the inhabitants of Egypt leads one to conjecture that the same custom 
prevailed in remote times, and may in some degree account for the prodigious quantities 
of broken earthenware found on or near the sites of the ancient towns and cities. 
The mud-huts of the natives bear the common character of Egyptian buildings in 
the extension of their bases; they are all pyramidal, sloping upwards to their roofs, 
but upright within,— a principle adopted, in all probability, by far more ancient inhabitants 
than those who built the oldest of the structures of Egypt. 
The propyla are enriched with elaborate sculpture, recording the military deeds 
and conquests of Remeses II. A besieged city surrounded by water is represented; in 
which this Pharaoh is seen in his war-chariot triumphant over his vanquished foes. 
On the right wall Remeses II. is again represented, seated on a throne giving audience 
to his subjects, or sitting in judgment on his captives at the gate of the camp,— 
the Eastern locality for its customary administration. 
The perforations or openings seen in these propyla, and the grooves or steps imme¬ 
diately below, were for affixing the flag-staffs, on which floated the banners on the 
days of ceremony. One only of the colossal statues of Remeses is seen between the 
Obelisk and the propylon; the other is concealed in this view, but the unseen statue 
appears in another plate in this work, which represents a side view of the remaining 
Obelisk and both the statues, and also in a vignette of this statue alone. 
Over the left propylon appears the top of the minaret of the Mosque of Abd 
Alhajaj. The Nile and the Libyan mountains are seen beyond, and mark in this 
view the relative position of the Temple to tlm river. 
