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

HYPOSTYLE OF KARNAK. 307
tecture sur une ^chelle aussi sublime, aussi large,
aussi grandiose que le firent les vieux Egyptiens
ils concevoient en hommes de cent pieds de
haut, et I'imagination, qui, en Europe, s'elance
bien au dessus de nos portiques, s'arrete et torabe
impuissante aux pieds des cent quarante colonnes
de la salle hypostyle de Karnak."
Temple or palace, whichever it was, this mighty
structure stands unrivalled in beauty and gran-
deur, worthy of the genius and magnificence of
its founder, the Pharaoh Osirei ; whose name is
encircled with a double halo in the annals of
EgYpt'mn history, as ha\ing bequeathed to his
country the greatest temple and the greatest
sovereign that it ever possessed—Karnak, and his
son, Rharases Sesostris ! Here
everything speaks
of the glorious eighteenth dynasty; the famous
race of Theban kings, who registered their great
deeds upon the walls of their palaces and of their
tombs, and left those solemn and mighty chronicles
to unfold to succeeding ages—to new races—and
to the followers of new faiths,—the histor\' of the
oldest civilization, of the most extraordinary
j)eople, and of the most mystical religion that the
world ever produced. But although Osirei was
the sole creator of the matchless hypostyle, the
storied walls and columns of Karnak possess the
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