A pilgrimage to the temples and tombs of Egypt, Nubia, and ...

144 TEMPLE OF LUXOR.
capital, a phalanx of colossi ! But
it was only
when we had threaded our way through the
labyrinth of huts and mangers which choke up
the once fair proportions of this magnificent ruin,
and had arrived at the northern extremity where
the great entrance is situated, that we could form
a just conception of the massive grandeur of
the Temple of Luxor, or understand the precise
nature of the old and genuine Egyptian architec-
ture (by w^hicli I mean that of the time of the
Pharaohs) as applied to sacred structures. There
stands the great Propylon (two masses of stone
in the form of truncated pyramids, covered with
sculptured battle-scenes and hieroglyphics ),
flanking the great entrance gate, on each side
of which is seated a colossal statue of granite now
buried to the shoulders in rubbish, and bearing
on their mutilated countenances traces of the
Persian Conqueror's vain attempt to destroy the
enduring work of Egyptian hands. Think of the
aw^e which these mute memorials of races long
since extinct must inspire, w^hen one remembers
that they have been ruins since the time of
Cambyses, and have been seated unchanged there
through long ages of change, as though watching
for the return of their false gods to the sanctu-
ary, while the Persian, and the Macedonian, and