Thebes – its Temples and Tombs –
Thebes must have been the greatest and most mag-
nificent city in Egypt. Almost as old as the flood, sit-
uated in a fertile valley, where it expanded to a vast
amphitheater, adorning both banks of the Nile, it was in
extent, wealth, and architectural glory, the flower and
crown of ancient civilization. Nearly a thousand years
before Christ, Homer sang of its hundred gates, and
some of the sacred prophets speak of it as being “populous,” or
containing a “multitude.” No one can visit its present un-
paralleled ruins, or linger among the gorgeous mausoleums
of its kings and princes, without being deeply impressed
with a sense of its former vastness and grandeur. The
contrast suggested by the present Thebes, a miserable represe-
ntative even of Arab filth and squalidness, is overwhelmingly
powerful; and the imagination is continually struggling
to restore and repeople the city, and look upon its splendor
or it was devastated by the Persian conqueror. But these
mournful relics and the utter devastation of the once imperial
Metropolis teach us most impressive lessons.

“Thousands of years have rolled along,
And blasted empires in their pride;
And witnessed scenes of crime and wrong,
Till men by nations died.

Thousands of summer-suns have shone,
Till earth grew bright beneath their sway,
Since thou, untenanted and lone,
Went rendered to decay

It was a warm beautiful firemorn when we came in sight
of the remains of this ancient and wonderful city. The high hills
that guard the rally from the vast desert on either hand re-
ceded as we approached and opposed an immense plateau
now mainly covered with green fields of waving wheat and
grass. Soon our lovely is caught over the left bank of the river a small