Philoe, the burial-place of Osiris, is covered with buildings,
temples, colonnades, gateways, and terrace walls, which are magnificent
even in their ruin, and must have been superb when still entire, and
filled with crowds of priests and devotees, accompanied by all the flags
and standards, gold and glitter, of the ceremonies of their emblematical
religion.

Excepting the Pyramids, nothing in Egypt struck me so much as when on a
bright moonlit night I first entered the court of the great temple of
Philoe. The colours of the paintings on the walls are as vivid in many
places as they were the day they were finished: the silence and the
solemn grandeur of the immense buildings around me were most imposing;
and on emerging from the lofty gateway between the two towers of the
propylon, as I wandered about the island, the tufts of palms, which are
here of great height, with their weeping branches, seemed to be mourning
over the desolation of the stately palaces and temples to which in
ancient times all the illustrious of Egypt were wont to resort, and into
whose inner recesses none might penetrate; for the secret and awful
mysteries of the worship of Osiris were not to be revealed, nor were
they even to be spoken of by those who were not initiated into the
highest orders of the priesthood. Now all may wander where they choose,
and speculate on the uses of the dark chambers hidden in the thickness
of the walls, and trace out the plans of the courts and temples with the
long lines of columns which formed the avenue of approach from the
principal landing-place to the front of the great temple.

The whole island is encumbered with piles of immense squared stones, the
remains of buildings which must have been thrown down by an earthquake,
as nothing else could shake such solid works from their foundations.[9]
The principal temple, and several smaller ones, are still almost entire.
One of these, called by the natives the Bed of Pharaoh, is a remarkably
light and airy-looking structure, differing, in this respect, from the
usual character of Egyptian architecture. On the terrace overhanging the
Nile, in front of this graceful temple, I had formed my habitation,
where there are some vaults of more recent construction, which are
usually taken possession of by travellers and fitted up with the
carpets, cushions, and the sides of the tents which they bring with
them.

Every one who travels in Egypt is more or less a sportsman, for the