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

KARNAK, 303
CHAPTER XV.
KARNAK. HYPOSTTLE OF KARNAK. AVENUES OF SPHINXES.
CAMBYSES. THE PERSIAN CONQUEST. WESTERN THEBES.
REFLECTIONS.
Thebes, Dec. 31, 1845.
^Ve reserved Karnak for the termination of our
week at Thebes—and rightly we did so—for had
we commenced with it, we should have found all
else mean and diminutive in comparison. No,
never did human imagination conceive, or human
hands execute, so stupendous a work !
The
ef-
fect it produced upon me at first view, was that
of absolute stupor ; and the longer I contem-
plated the giant structures of Karnak, the more I
felt impressed with the belief that the men who
created them were not like the races who now
people the earth ;
they must have been Titans
giants—beings who rode upon Mammoths, and
would have made a lap-dog of an elephant !
—
and
two days passed in examining its details, so far
from familiarizing me with the grandeur of the