356 E G " 
fince the Nile, during its inundation, would conftantly 
convey thefe materials to the places of their deftination. 
The mania of eredling monuments among the Egyptians, 
thews itfelf on every fide in thefe quarries.f which, after 
having furnilhed materials for the eredlion of temples, 
were themfelves confecrated by. monuments, and deco¬ 
rated wit'll religious edifices. On the fiiore of the Nile 
may be feen porticoes with columns, entablatures, and 
cornices, covered, with hieroglyphics, all cutout of the 
folid rock; and likewife a large number of tombs, alfo 
hollowed ,out of the mountain. Thefe tombs are full 
very curious, though they are disfigured with trenches 
and rubbifh. In feveral of them final 1 private chambers 
are found, many of which Contain large, fealed figures ; 
thefe chambers are adorned with hieroglyphics traced on 
the rock, and terminated with coloured ftueco, reprefent- 
ing offerings of bread, fruits, liquors, fowls, &c. The ceil¬ 
ings, alfo of (lucco, are ornamented with painted fcrolls 
in an exquifite tafle ; the.floor is inlaid with a number of 
tombs of the fame dimenfions and form as are-given to 
the cafes of mummies, and equal in number to the fculp- 
tured figures : thofe that rcprefent men have fniall fquare 
beards, with a'head-drefs hanging behind over the flioul- 
ders ; the women have the fame dreffes, but falling down 
in front ovej- their naked necks. Thefe latter are com¬ 
monly reprefented with one arm palling' within the arm 
of the figure befide them, and the other holding a lotus 
'flower, a plant of Acheron, the emblem of death. The 
tombs that contain but a Angle figure are probably thofe 
of men who have died in celibacy ; where three are con¬ 
tained, they reprefent perhaps a'hufband who had two 
wives, either at one time or (uccefiively. The doors are 
all decorated with jambs covered with hieroglyphics, and 
furmounted with a coping, which forms a cornice, and 
an entablature on which a winged globe is always fctilp- 
tured. The choice of this fitu.atioii for the habitations 
of the dead, fliew.s, that at all times in Egypt, the filence 
of the defert has been the afylum of death, fince even 
now thfi Egyptians carry their dead into the defert three 
leagues from their habitations, that 'the drynefs of the 
fands may preferve them from corruption ; and they go 
thither every week to pray over their remains. 
The banks of the Nile from Ombos to Tentyra are 
greatly infefled with crocodiles ; but they feem to prefer 
certain reaches of the river, and abound mod: of all near 
Hermontes, called alfo CrocodUopolis. At the ]aft-men¬ 
tioned place Denon faw three of them ; one, much larger 
than the reft, was nearly, twenty-five feet long; they were 
all afteep, fo that he could approach them within twenty 
paces, and had time to diftinguifh all the pecnliarites 
which give them fuch a hideous afpedl : he fays they 
refembled difmounted cannon. He fired on one with a 
heavy mnfquet ; the ball (truck him and rebounded from 
Iris feales; lie made a leap of ten feet, and dived into the 
river. They are not to bp feen about Syene ; but re-ap- 
pear above the cataracts. 
From Ombos and Sililis the road leads to Chenubis. 
Within a quarter of a league of this city are two tombs 
hewn out of the rock, and a finall fandtuary furrounded 
by-a gallery, having a portico in front. Of profound an¬ 
tiquity are the temples of Chenubis, the ruins of which, 
as well as thofe of the city itfelf, are in fo disjointed a 
fiate, and fo varied in their proportions; that it is very 
difficult to form any corre.it idea of their plan. The mod 
confiderable and rnoft elevated parts confiftof fix columns, 
the capitals of three of which belly out, while thofe cf 
the three others, which are parallel to them, are gutter¬ 
ed, and united by an entablature. In the front of this 
fragment of ruins, to the fouth, are the bafes of a por¬ 
tico, which appears not-to have been finiflied ; and, in 
the fame direition, is a block of granite which feems to 
have belonged to a coloffid ftatue. In an eaftern direc¬ 
tion is a fine bafin of water, the circumference of which 
is lined and decorated by a,gallery formed of columns. 
r P T. 
Tn the weftern part of the city the gate of a fahdhiary 
prefects itfelf, together with two very minute fragments. 
In the front is a lining in the form of a quay on the Nile. 
Among thefe architedhiral remains are feveral ruins of 
fculpture ; among others a group of two figures coupled 
together, three feet in height, the heads of which have 
been broken off. What is mod curious at Chenubis, is 
.an inclofure,. the walls of which are built of unbaked 
bricks, and .are of a conical fhape, having.at their bafe 
a thicknefs of upwards of tweiity-feven feet. This extra¬ 
ordinary work, of which hiftory makes no mention, is in 
many parts in an entire ftate. It has been fuppofed that 
it was of Arabic conftrudtion ; but as there are no traces 
of Arabic edifices on the (cite of Chenubis, it is prefivm- 
r.ble that it is a work of high antiquity, and in this cafe 
there can never be occafion to conftruit fortifications of 
any other;defeription in Egypt, with the exceptions of 
the jambs and embrafures, together with fuch other 
parts as are expofed to friction. In this inftance all the 
great rnafles have completely refilled the ravages of time, 
and may (till be employed in any defenfive meafures. At 
a confiderable diftance are the remains of two temples, 
the plans of. which could not be traced. Thefe ruins 
feemed to fce depofited there merely to point out the 
feite of the city of Juno Lucina, which the infallible 
d’Anville has laid down in this latitude. 
Repairing' Thebes on the right fide of the river, we 
approach Kous, which is the ancient Apollinopolis Parva. 
It is fituated at the entrance of the opening of the defert 
which leads to Berenice and Collir, and is (till beautiful 
on the fouth fide. Its immenfe plantations of melons,- 
and its numerous and abundant gardens, muft for ever 
make it delicious to the inhabitants of the fhores of the 
Red Sea, and to the thirfty travellers who crofs the defert. 
It has fucceeded to the commerce and Chriftian eftablilh- 
ment of Coptos; for the Copts are its mod numerous 
inhabitants.' Here is the top of a gate, the only remnant 
that is left of the ancient Apollinopolis Parva. This (ingle 
fragment appears larger than all the reft of the town, and 
offers a ftriking pidture of the eternity that characterizes 
the Egyptian architecture. The other parts of the edi¬ 
fice are doubtlefs buried under the mountain of rubbifh 
that is occupied by the modern town. This gate bears 
an inferipfion greatly pofterior to the original monument, 
and affords a curious example of fkilful flattery in a pre¬ 
fect of Upper Egypt, in the time of the Ptolemies, and 
who, on account of fome repairs twenty or thirty centu¬ 
ries after the firft building of the temple, ventured to 
dedicate it to his matters, to inferibe the gate with then- 
names, in order to tranfmit them to pofterity. Thus the 
glory of kings can only refill the flood of time by being 
exalted on the monuments raifed by the arts ; deprived 
of this fupport, they are buried in the overwhelming 
ftream, leaving behind them only empty names that hif¬ 
tory repeats in vain. What would become of Achilles 
without his‘immortal monument, the Iliad of Homer; 
or of Sefoftris, without the remains of thefe his coeval 
temples ? The names of Pericles, of Auguftus, of the 
Medicaean Lorenzo, are illuminated by the torch of li¬ 
terature and the arts; while the tombs of Genferic, A-t- 
ti 1 a, Tamerlane, and the other barbarian deftroyers, are 
loft among the common ruins of time ! 
The ruins of Keft or Coptos, once fo famous for its 
commerce with the eaft, are feen at a little diftance from 
Kous. Nothing of its ancient fplendour can now be dif- 
tinguifhed ; but the extent of the heaps of ruins with 
which it is furrounded, points out the feite of the an¬ 
cient city. The old town is as defolate as the defert, on 
the border cf which it (lands. It remains in nearly the 
fame ftate in which it was left by the (conflagration which 
terminated the long fiege that deftroyed it in the third 
century, under the perfecutions of Diocletian. The old 
limits of the city have' been abandoned, and to this has 
fucceeded an Arab town; with a boundary wall of un¬ 
baked 
