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

308 AVENUES OF SPHINXES.
portraits, and record the acliievements of many
succeeding Pharaohs; among them, Sheshonk,
the Shishak of the Bible, the conqueror of Reho-
boam, who is represented returning in triumph to
Thebes, after having sacked Jerusalem, and
bringing in his train the captive Jewish king,
with his arms bound behind his back, together
with the numerous Hebrew prisoners he had
taken, all of them bearing the peculiar and
distinctive traits of the Jewish physiognomy.
There are also Ptolemaic remains at Karnak ; a
temple dedicated to the Egyptian Venus, Athor;
and a beautiful propylon, approaching more nearly
to the form of a triumphal arch, than anything I
have seen in this country.
In its original state the palace-temple of Kar-
nak is said to liave possessed twelve separate
entrances, each furnished with at least three jDro-
pyla, all guarded by colossal statues, and ap-
proached by long avenues, bordered with gigantic
sphinxes, placed at very short intervals from each
other. Five of these entrances, and their broken
propyla still remain, together with parts of the
avenues radiating from thence, and lined on
either side with headless sphinxes, which, not-
withstanding their mutilated state, present great
beauty of design, and a character of majestic