GRAND PORTICO OF THE TEMPLE OF PHIL.®, NUBIA. 
“Many parts of this building,” says Wilkinson, "particularly the portico, though not 
possessing the chaste and simple style of the Pharaonic monuments, are remarkable 
for lightness and elegance; and, from the state of their preservation, they convey a 
good idea of the effect of colour combined with the details of architecture.” 
The existing brightness of the colours upon the ceiling and capitals of this beautiful 
portico furnishes, perhaps, the most perfect specimen that remains to us of such decorative 
art, as it was employed to enrich and beautify the temples of Egypt. In its use 
here exquisite taste has been displayed in design and arrangement, and the result 
is a beauty and harmony in the effect which, while - under contemplation, excites an 
emotion of pleasure which cannot be described; and so perfect is the colouring that 
remains to us in many parts, that we are aided to imagine what the effect must have 
been in the structures of Thebes when those gorgeous halls and temples, yet in their 
pristine beauty, were so enriched, and at a period, from the evidence which exists, 
the highest in art, in the history of Egypt. 
Under the cove of the cornice, and immediately over the grand entrance, is the 
winged sphere, the attribute of Athor. Extending from this on either side around 
the court is a succession of the cartouches of the Ptolemaic founders, and in the 
centre of the frieze is represented the sacred boat, or ark, with the scarabmus and 
other emblems. Immediately below, and on the soffits between the centre pillars, the 
sacred beetle is again represented, but with expanded wings : this emblem, alternated 
with the sacred vulture, thence extends to the great entrance of the adytum. The 
rest of the ceiling is spangled with gold stars upon a blue ground: and the effect, 
together with the elaborate carving of the walls and columns, is very magnificent. 
In this Temple, a screen formerly existed between the front row of pillars: this 
has been removed, but when or why it is difficult to conjecture. In the great French 
Work on Egypt these columns are represented as perfect, and as if such a mural 
screen had never existed; but the rough parts by which the pillars to the connecting 
screen were thus attached are as obvious as they are represented in Mr. Roberts’s 
sketch. It might have been removed by the early Christians, for the ruins of a 
Christian altar are here; and the symbol of the Greek cross is still seen on various 
parts, and on the columns of the portico—evidence of the appropriation of this, as 
were most of the temples in Nubia, to the Christian worship, when our holy religion 
was established in the valley of the Nile. 
Wilkinson’s Egypt and Thebes. 
Roberts’s Journal. 
