nd it is estimated that the great
church of Notre Dame in Paris could be set down in this hall. Sixteen
rows of columns--one hundred and thirty-four in all--support the roof.
Looking down the two central rows of columns toward the sanctuary, one
gets some idea of the effect of this colossal architecture when the
pillars were all perfect and the fierce sunshine of ancient Egypt
brought out their barbaric wealth of gold and brilliant colors.

The walls of this immense hall are covered with pictures in relief
depicting the victories of Seti and Rameses over the Libyans and the
people of Palestine. These designs represent the two monarchs as
performing prodigies of valor on the field of battle and then bringing
the trophies of war as an offering to the gods. The festal hall of
Thotmes III is made noteworthy by twenty unique columns arranged in two
rows. The Temple of Karnak was made beautiful by two fine obelisks of
pink granite from Assuan, erected by Queen Hatasu. One is in fragments,
but the other rises one hundred and one-half feet from amid a ruined
colonnade. It is the loftiest obelisk known with the single exception of
that in front of the Lateran in Rome, which is taller by only three and
one-half feet. The inscription records that it was made in seven months.

The impression left by the ruins of Karnak is bewildering. The modern
mind has great difficulty in conceiving how any monarch, no matter how
great his resources, could spend years in erecting these huge structures
in honor of his gods. Here are scores of colossal statues of Rameses,
Seti and Amenophis, each of which required six months to carve from a
single slab of red or black granite. Here are hundreds of columns of
from forty to sixty feet high, covered from capital to base with richly
carved hieroglyphs. Here are splendid halls, larger than anything known
in our day, which were picture galleries in stone, blazing with gold,
red, purple and other colors. And here are obelisks that have preserved
through all these centuries the story of their dedication.

The mind is staggered by so great a mass of work, representing untold
misery of thousands of wretched slaves brought from all parts of the
then known world. These slaves were made to work under the terrible
Egyptian sun; if they were overcome by the heat and stopped for a
moment's rest their bare backs felt the cruel lash of the overseer; if
they fell under the heat and the burden they were dragged out a