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

210 TEMPLES OF IBSAMBOUL.
first place they do not wear turbans, but the
mitre-shaped head-dress of the Egyptian Kings
bearing in front the serpent, the badge of
royalty; and there is such an interval between
their mitres and the ceiling that two of our
Arabs climbed up to the top of them, and
squatting on the extreme summit of the head-
dress in their usual sitting posture, not only
found ample space for themselves there, but
looked like some well-proportioned ornament
appertaining to them.
The temple is dedicated to Osiris, or Ammon
Re, the Jupiter of the ancient Egyptians, but the
embellishments are all in honour of Rhamses the
Great, during whose reign the fane of Ibsam-
boul was probably excavated and adorned. The
walls of the pronaos are covered with the most
spirited sculptured representations of th^it great
monarch's war against, and conquest of, some
Asiatic nation ; the figures are as large as life,
and although characterized by the stiffness and
ignorance of drawing exhibited in the ancient
Egyptian delineations of the human body, they
are remarkable in point of expression, especially
those that represent the sacrifice by Rhamses' own
hand of his captives. These battle scenes are
interspersed with the royal cartouches, or ovals.