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of the reins of harmak, and presently we saw through our glasses, fine views
of massive columns seeming to rise up out of the soil, in which indeed they
are deeply imbedded. These were a fashion of Luxor, and are long our boat
was made fast to the east bank only a few minutes’ walk from these
stupendous relics. After an early dinner we wandered among them. Some of
the mud cabins in the present village of Thebes are built upon and among
the grand old ruins of the temple of Luxor. Magnificent columns covered
with hieroglyphics, and still standing in their original positions, are
filled around and half covered with the accumulated dust and filth of ages,
while some are entirely obscured by the wretched hovels that cluster about
them, and can be seen only by entering these repulsive abodes, amid yelping
ears, braying donkeys, cackling fouls, and dirty Arabs.
But as you look upon these old pillars of stone, exquisitely chiseled,
wander through the halls that yet remain, and survey their vast gateways
and colossal statues, you feel that they who built them were men of genius
and power.
One of the most beautiful objects here is an obelisk of red granite,
more than three thousand years old, and yet its appearance and its hieroglyphics
are still fresh and unimpaired. Another of the same size firmly stood
near it, but now it adorns the Place de la Concorde in Paris.
A mile and a half north of Luxor are the ruins of Harnak, the grandest
temple in Egypt, if not in the world. I visited it just at evening, enjoying
it as it turned as gorgeous a
sunset a mortal vision could desire. Ah! What varied scenes, What splendid
pageants, what age of Glory and decay, that setting sun has witnessed
here. It is impossible to describe harmak.
One must see it, or the will has no adequate idea of its Astonishing
magnitude or beauty. Such an array of massive gates, towers, columns,
obelisks, and statues is a perfect marvel. Think of a temple including
its famous halls and apartments, twelve
hundred feet long and about five hundred feet wide, its massive walls
rising like palisades, and its immense pillars
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