"Karnak is the crowning marvel of temples raised with hands... Never did the wreck of human handiwork present such a scene of sublime and wild desolation... Every round pillar, every square obelisk, and every plain surface, a sculptured record of mystic religion, natural knowledge, or historic triumph. See that vast battlepiece the warrior, the chariot, the pursuing, the pursued, the dying, and the dead... But the sceptre of Karnak's king is for ever broken-the golden city has ceased her graven images are broken-judgments are executed in No-her multitude cut off-and her fences rent asunder. Thus saith the Lord of hosts, Behold, I will punish No Amon, and Pharaoh, and Egypt, with their gods, and their kings; and they shall be there a base kingdom, and there shall be no more a prince of the land of Egypt.'"-NOZRANI in Egypt.

"Very imperfect ideas can be formed of the extensive ruins of Thebes, even from the accounts of the most skilful and accurate travellers. It is absolutely impossible to imagine the scene displayed, without seeing it. The most sublime ideas that can be formed from the most magnificent specimens of our present architecture, would give a very incorrect picture of these ruins; for such is the difference, not only in magnitude, but in form, proportion, and construction, that even the pencil can convey but a faint idea of the whole. It appeared to me like entering a city of giants, who, after a long conflict, were all destroyed, leaving the ruins of their various temples as the only proofs of their former existence. The temple of Luxor presents to the traveller at once one of the most splendid groups of Egyptian grandeur The unrivalled colossal figures in the plains of Thebes, the number of tombs excavated in the rocks-those in the great valley of the kings-with their paintings, sculptures, mummies, sarcophagi, figures, &c., are all objects worthy of the admiration of the traveller; who will not fail to wonder how a nation which was once so great as to erect these stupendous edifices,

...

could so far fall into oblivion, that even their language and writing are totally unknown to us."-BELZONI'S Travels, pp. 37, 38.

"We took a view of the Temple of Luxor. Before the principal gateway are two immense statues of granite in a bad state of preservation. The body of each statue is about nine feet in diameter from side to side... Before the statues are two obelisks... The wall is standing, about fifty or sixty feet high. From the top of it we had a good view of the village. We saw the stupendous ruins of this ancient temple; around it immense heaps of rubbish; and in the midst of the ruins and rubbish, one hundred and fifty or two hundred mud huts. The temple seems to have consisted of two principal parts; one near the gate we have mentioned, and the other connected with it by a passage now indicated by two rows of columns, seven in a row, each about thirty feet in circumference, built of stones four feet thick. Beyond these columns are a variety of apartments, the walls of which are covered with hieroglyphics; and there are in all not less than one hundred and fifty or two hundred columns, of different forms, sizes, and heights. In these apartments, without doubt, were once offered pagan sacrifices.”—Memoirs of the REV. PLIN Y FISK, PP. 228, 229.

TOMBS OF THE KINGS.

"The tombs of the kings are situated among the barren mountains, which skirt Thebes upon the west, in a narrow valley where desolation sits enthroned. Not a tree or shrub is to be seen; not a blade of grass or herbage; not even a trace of moss upon the rocks; but all is naked and shattered, as if it had been the sport of thunders and lightnings and earthquakes ever since the creation. The tombs are entered by narrow portals in the sides of this valley, from which a corridor usually leads by a slight descent to halls and apartments on

either side, all decorated with paintings in vivid colours, representing scenes drawn from the life of the deceased monarch, and from those of the Egyptian deities,-or sometimes also from the occupations of common life. In this respect these tombs afford the finest illustrations of the manners and customs of the ancient Egyptians.

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In the chief apartment is usually a large sarcophagus. Here the kings of the nations, all of them, lay in glory, every one in his own house;' but they have been cast out as an abominable branch.' The tombs of the priests and private persons are found in the sides of the hills adjacent to the city. They are on a smaller scale; but are often decorated with equal skill and beauty, with scenes drawn from common life.

Among the tombs of the kings, one has become a sort of album for travellers. The names of Burckhardt, Belzoni, Irby and Mangles, and many other travellers, are there. All these tombs are entirely exposed to the depredations of the Arabs and of travellers; and are every year becoming more and more defaced. The tomb justly regarded by Wilkinson as by far the most curious of all the tombs in Thebes, was occupied at the time of our visit by an Arab family with their cattle. The walls were already black with smoke, and many of the paintings destroyed."-ROBINSON's Researches.

"The paintings in the Tombs of the Kings are exquisitely coloured, and as fresh as if of yesterday. One wanders through these marvellous subterranean vaulted galleries, scooped in the solid rock, with a feeling approaching to incredulity; it is so hard to believe that these brilliant tints and finished designs upon smooth stucco, should be as old as the time of Moses, or thereabouts: sofas, ottomans, arm-chairs, camp-stools, drawers, wash-hand stands, and baskets of all shapes, attract and perplex the eye with their variety and elegance of form and contrivance . . . The harp and guitar appear to have been favourite instruments; a man ploughing with a yoke of oxen, a sower walking behind with a basket, and jerking handsful of the seed over his head; urns of all shapes and sizes, admirably formed and adorned with foliage of the lotus; shirts of mail, swords, shields, spears, bows, quivers, and so on, to an immense extent, and of inexhaustible interest.

"The approach to the royal tombs through the pass of the Beban el Melook, on the western shore of the Nile, is through a valley which might well represent that of the shadow of death'-frightful, silent, scorching sterility. The entrance is by a square porch, cut in the perpendicular face of the rock ... and here, we believe, were deposited in granite sarcophagi, the embalmed remains of the Pharaohs of Egypt,—not in damp, dark, and mouldering vaults, but in regal halls and gorgeous

galleries, destined apparently to be lighted up in all their painted pomp, with the blaze of a thousand perfumed torches. Here might the ruling monarch of Egypt hold solemn court with his princes and peers, around the bones of the last Pharaoh gathered to his fathers; and in the career of perilous power, and pride, and pleasure, might perchance listen to a truer and sterner voice than a courtier's whispering, 'Learn to die!'

"Besides these regal and lonely cemeteries, one has to grope one's way through a necropolis of Theban dead, interred some three thousand years ago, in numberless excavations (in the rocky hill). These tombs are now occupied during the hot season by the families and flocks of the neighbouring Arabs. The paintings in these catacombs are descriptive of private life.”—NOZRANI in Egypt.

HOUSE IN THEBES.

'To-day we heard of a house belonging to the government, which might be had. In the evening we went to look at it. In the lower apartments we found some Arabs sitting on the ground at supper. There was a jackass in the same room. Passing by them, we came to the stairs. Three or four of the steps were broken down, so as to render it almost impossible to ascend. On reaching the top, we found the floor of the rooms was made thus :-Beams of the palm-tree supported small branches of the same and reeds, and these were covered with earth, so that the chamber floors had nearly the same appearance as the streets. In the first room, the branches, which supported the earth, having given way, there were several holes so large that we got over them with difficulty; and, on entering another room, we found the floor so weak that it shook under our feet, and we dared to walk across it only with a very cautious step. In this situation our light was extinguished, and we had some apprehensions about our return, until an