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

PHARAONIC ARCHITECTURE. 285
years before the Christian era. The most beau-
tiful portion is the palace-residence of Rhamses
Meiamoum, with its splendid courts, enriched
with painted colonnades, and ceilings of azure,
studded with what once were golden stars. The
famous bas-reliefs exhibit the warlike deeds of
the above-named Pharaoh, who, like his cele-
brated ancestor, Rhamses Sesostris, was one of
the greatest heroes of antique Egypt. The exe-
cution of these sculptures, and of their accom-
panying ovals, or cartouches, is so fine that it has
caused me to cool a little in my admiration of
Esneh and Edfou ; but still it has not imbued me
with a real, downright enthusiastic taste for
Egyptian art. Grand and colossal as is the
architecture of the Pharaonic temples, they ex-
cite in me more wonder than delight; and,
however beautiful may be the execution of their
decorative bas-reliefs and hieroglyphics, I can see
only in them the same monotonous delineation
of figures in profile, where drawing and perspec-
tive are equally set at defiance, the same subjects
of endless offerings made by kings to gods, the
same monstrous mythology and absurd symbols,
which appear to me far less calculated to have
produced feelings of religious exaltation than to
brutify the mind that could stoop to the worship