rd the bank of the Nile.

The embarkation of this enormous statue presented difficulties almost as
great as those which attended its disinterment and land transport.
Nevertheless, the intelligence and perseverance of Belzoni surmounted
every obstacle; and he brought his wondrous conquest to London, where
its arrival produced a sensation similar to that caused more recently in
Paris by the sight of the Obelisk of Luxor. Loaded with praise, and also
with more substantial gifts, Belzoni, now become an important personage,
returned to Egypt and to his friend Mr. Salt. The latter proposed to him
to go up the Nile, and attempt the removal of the sand-hills which
covered the principal portion of the magnificent temple of Ebsamboul.
Belzoni readily consented, set out for Lower Nubia, ventured boldly
among the savage tribes who wander through the sandy desert; returning
to Thebes, he was rewarded, not only by the success of his special
mission, but also by discovering the temple of Luxor.

In all his undertakings, however enterprising, Belzoni was aided and
cheered by the presence of his wife. The expedition to Nubia was,
however, thought too hazardous for her to undertake. But in the absence
of her husband she was not idle; she dug up the statue of Jupiter Ammon,
with the ram's head on his knee; which is now in the British Museum.

The temple of Luxor had been so completely and for so long a period,
buried in sand, that even its existence remained unsuspected. It had
been dedicated to Isis by the Queen of Rameses the Great; and the
descriptions which travelers give of it, resemble those of the palaces
in the "Arabian Nights." Four colossal figures, sixty-one feet in
height, are seated in front. Eight others, forty-eight in height, and
standing up, support the roof of the principal inner hall, in which
gigantic bas-reliefs represent the whole history of Rameses. Sixteen
other halls, scarcely smaller than the first, display, in all their
primitive splendor, many gorgeous paintings, and the mysterious forms of
myriads of statues.

After this discovery, Belzoni took up his temporary abode in the valley
of _Biban el Mouloch_ (Tombs of the Kings). He had already remarked
there, among the rocks, a fissure of a peculiar form, and which was
evidently the work of man. He caused this opening to be enlarged, and
soon discovered the entrance to a long corridor, whose walls were
covered with sculptures and hieroglyphical paintings. A deep