I dare not, Sir, warrant all that Diodorus Siculus advances, on the faith of preceding writers; for, in his time, the greatest part of these edifices were no longer in existence. Nay, I confess that, in any other country, fuch marvellous edifices would pafs for mere chimæras; but in this land of fecundity, which feems to have been firft honoured by the creative genius of the arts, they acquire probability. Let us examine the remains of those monuments, and our eyes will oblige us to believe in miracles. Thefe remains are heaped together near Medinet-Abou (ƒ), in the circumference of about half a league. The temple, veftibules, and periftyles, prefent only piles of ruins, among which fome pyramidal gates rear their heads, whose solidity has rendered them indestructible; but the numerous coloffal figures, defcribed by Diodorus, though mutilated, still fubfift. That neareft the ruins, which is of yellow marble, is funk in the earth, one third of its height. On a line with it is another of fpotted marble, black and white, thirty feet

(f) Medinet-Abou fignifies the city of the father. That Memnonium ftood here cannot be doubted, fince it is alfo called, in the Itinerary, Papa, or Father.

long,

long, with many hieroglyphics sculptured on its back. In the space between them, the ground is covered with fragments of columns, and broken ftatues, denoting the arrangement of the veftibules. Beyond are two other coloffal ftatues, totally disfigured, and a hundred fathom ftill further, the traveller is ftruck with aftonishment at the fight of two gigantic figures, which feem like rocks, and are feated befide each other. Their pedestals are nearly equal, and formed from blocks of granite, thirty feet long, and eighteen wide. The smallest of these ftatues is, alfo, one fole ftone; the other, the largest in Egypt, is formed of five different pieces of granite, and broken in the middle, This should seem to be the statue of Ofymandyas (g), for we find two figures, fculptured in baffo-relievo, the length of his legs,. and rifing one third as high as himself.

(g) The only objection to this opinion is that, according to Diodorus Siculus, the statue of Ofymandyas, with thofe of his mother and daughter, were all formed from one fole block; and this coloffus is composed of feveral pieces: but the first of these pieces, reaching from the fole of the foot to the elbows, comprehends the two other figures, which, perhaps, is what the historian means to fay. The remainder is conformable to his defcription,

Thefe

These were the mother and daughter of this prince. The other coloffus, of one fingle stone, corresponding to the dimensions Diodorus Siculus gives, alfo reprefented the mother of the king. You will form fome idea of the gigantic fize of the grand coloffus, when you are told that its foot, alone, is near eleven feet long, which answers to the seven cubits of Diodorus. This ftatue, the half of which remains on its bafe, and which Strabo calls the ftatue of Memnon, uttered a found at fun-rifing. Its fame formerly was very great. Several writers have spoken of it with enthufiafm, regarding it as one of the feven wonders of the world. A crowd of Greek and Latin infcriptions, which are ftill legible on the base and legs of the coloffus, atteft that princes, generals, governors, and men of all conditions, have heard this miraculous found. You know, Sir,` what the judicious Strabo thought, and, I hope, you will be of his opinion. Such, Sir, are the remains of Thebes, and her hundred gates, the antiquity of which is loft in the obfcurity of ages, and which ftill contains proofs of the perfection of the arts in thofe moft diftant times. All here is fub

lime, all majeftic. Its kings feem to have acquired the glory of never dying, while their obelisks and coloffal ftatues exift, and to have only laboured for immortality. They could preserve their memory against the efforts of time, but not against the barbarism of conquerors; thofe moft dreadful fcourges of science and nations, which, in their pride, they have too often erafed from the face of the earth.

I have the honour to be, &c.

LETTER

LETTER V.

THE ROUTE BETWEEN

ESNA.

THEBES AND

A defcription of Armant, formerly Hermunthis, where are two antique temples, built in honour of Jupiter and Apollo, the latter in good prefervation. Remarks on Okfor and its pottery; on the ancient temple near the town of Efna, in which the Turks boufe their cattle; and on another temple, west of that, where the Egyptians worshipped Neith, the Minerva of the Greeks: on the convent founded by St. Helena, and the cemetery of the martyrs; alfo on the ftone baram, and its ufe in making kitchen utenfils.

To M. L. M.

Grand Cairo.

WITH pain, Sir, one tears one's self from Thebes and her hundred gates (h).

Her

monuments

(b) I delight in this epithet, by which Homer, at a ftroke, paints the grandeur of that city. It is fublime, becaufe not exaggerated. A little attention to the por