s of this avenue, of this suite of aisles, which measures more
than 800 yards in length. Formerly, then, on these evenings it shone
horizontally beneath the terrible ceilings--between these rows of
pillars which are as high as our Colonne Vendome--and threw, for some
seconds, its colours of molten copper into the obscurity of the holy
of holies. And then the whole temple would resound with the clashing of
music, and the glory of the god of Thebes was celebrated in the depths
of the forbidden halls.

*****

Like a cloud, like a veil, the continual red-coloured dust floats
everywhere above the ruins, and, athwart it, here and there, the sun
traces long, white beams, But at one point of the avenue, behind the
obelisks, it seems to rise in clouds, this dust of Egypt, as if it were
smoke. For the workers of bronze are assembled there to-day and, hour by
hour, without ceasing, they dig in the sacred soil. Ridiculously small
and almost negligible by the side of the great monoliths they dig and
dig. Patiently they clear the ruins, and the earth goes away in little
parcels in rows of baskets carried by children in the form of a chain.
The periodical deposits of the Nile, and the sand carried by the wind of
the desert, had raised the soil by about six yards since the time when
Thebes ceased to live. But now men are endeavouring to restore the
ancient level. At first sight the task seemed impossible, but they
will achieve it in the end, even with their simple means, these fellah
toilers, who sing as they labour at their incessant work of ants. Soon
the grand hypostyle will be freed from rubbish, and its columns, which
even before seemed so tremendous, uncovered now to the base, have added
another twenty feet to their height. A number of colossal statues, which
lay asleep beneath this shroud of earth and sand, have been brought
back to the light, set upright again and have resumed their watch in the
intimidating thoroughfares for a new period of quasi-eternity. Year
by year the town-mummy is being slowly exhumed by dint of prodigious
effort; and is repeopled again by gods and kings who had been hidden for
thousands of years![*] Year in, year out, the digging continues--deeper
and deeper. It is scarcely known to what depth the debris and the ruins
descend. Thebes had endured for so many centuries, the earth here is so
penetrated with human past, that it is averred that, under the oldest of
the known temples there are still others,