Travel
Diary of Mrs. R.P. Eaton:
Europe,
Egypt, and Palestine, ca. 1857
along which, in some instances for miles, were ranged double
rows of colossal sphinxes of gray, red, and black granite.
The edifice is said to have occupied about seventy-five acres,
it having been embarked from time to time, by different mon-
archs, each striving to outdo his predecessor. In the grand hull
there are still standing over a hundred columns, nine to twelve feet
in diameter, and many of them sixty feet high. All are covered
With various hieroglyphical sculptures are paintings, whose colors
are still bright after the lapse of nearly forty centuries. In one place
you see a group of pews held captive by an Egyptian king. The
characters interpreted agree with the Bible account of Shishab’s
victory over the king of Judah. A striking verification of the sac-
red record. Profound and various are one’s reflections as he w-
anders amidst these sublime relics, fallen columns, broken obelisks
and shattered sphinxes. What immense processions of people once
marched along these avenues, gathered in these halls, and worshiped
at the shrine of Amon! What treasures home the polaries of idol-
atry lavished upon their gods!
Grand as are the temples of Luxor and Harmak, there were others
on the opposite or west side of the river, well worthy of belonging to the
city of a hundred gates. Passing some ten miles on a fertile plain, once
a past of Thebes, you come first to the Temple Pavce or Hoormeh, farther
on is the famous memmorium; and still beyond is a cluster of
magnificent temples called Medenet Houbee. A group of all these together
though each deserves a separate description, for they are certainly grand old
and paintings – buildings “of which the very ruins are tremendous.”
-- On the borders of the green bale or plain, not far
from the temple last alluded to are two colossal statues, in a sitting
pasture, about sixty feet high, I believe, one of which that on the
right as you approach from the river, is the renowned Pearl Memmon.
It is an immense figure of Remeses, and was saluted to give forth
a musical sound at the rising of the sun. The statue by its
side is nameless. Together they form striking objects – on being appr-
oached from the river. At the Memmorium there is a still larger
statue of Hermesis II. Once a single block of Ipenite or granite, but
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