of
Thebes. This colossus is fifty feet in height; and its base is covered
with inscriptions of Greek and Roman travellers, vouching that they
had listened to the wild sunrise melody. This statue and its remaining
companion, though now isolated in their situation, were once part of an
enormous temple, the ruins of which yet remain, and the plan of which
may yet be traced.

The Memnonion itself is now near at hand. In the colossal Caryatides
we recognise the vast genius that excavated the rocks of Ipsambul, and
supported a cavern temple upon the heads of giants. From the Memnonion
came the statue that is now in the British Museum. But this figure,
though a fine specimen of Egyptian sculpture, sinks, so far as magnitude
is concerned, into insignificance, when compared with the statue of the
supposed Sesostris, which, broken off at the waist, now lies prostrate
in the precincts of the sanctuary. This is, probably, the most huge
colossus that the Egyptians ever constructed. The fragment is of red
granite, and of admirable workmanship. Unfortunately, the face is
entirely obliterated. It lies upon its back, and in its fall has
destroyed all the temple within reach. It measures more than sixty feet
round the shoulders, the breadth of the instep is nearly seven feet, and
the hieroglyphical figures engraven on the arm are large enough for a
man to walk in.

Perhaps the most interesting group of ruins at Thebes is the quarter of
Medoenet Habu, for here, among other vast remains, is that of a
palace; and it is curious, among other domestic subjects, that we find
represented on the walls, in a very admirable style, a Pharaoh playing
chess with his queen. It is these domestic details that render also the
sepulchres of Thebes so interesting. The arts of the Egyptians must be
studied in their tombs; and to learn how this remarkable people lived,
we must frequent their burial-places. A curious instance of this is,
that, in a tomb near Beni-hassan, we learn by what process the Egyptians
procured from the distant quarries of Nubia those masses of granite with
which they raised the columns of Karnak and the obelisks of Luxor.

If I were called upon to describe in a word the principal and
primary characteristic of Egyptian architecture, I should at once say
Imagination, as Grace is the characteristic of the architecture of the
Greeks. Thus, when the Ptolemies assumed the sceptre of the Pharaohs,
they blended the delicate taste of Ionia t