a to be seen
at one of its angles.

Nearer the Lybian chain, from the Memnonian quarter inhabited by the
undertakers, dissectors, and embalmers, went up into the blue air the
red smoke of the natron boilers, for the work of death never ceased; in
vain did life spread tumultuously around, the bandages were being
prepared, the cases moulded, the coffins carved with hieroglyphs, and
some cold body was stretched out upon the funeral bed, with feet of lion
or jackal, waiting to have its toilet made for eternity.

On the horizon, but, owing to the transparency of the air, seeming to be
much nearer, the Libyan mountains showed against the clear sky their
limestone crests and their barren slopes hollowed out into hypogea and
passages.

Looking towards the other bank the prospect was no less wondrous.
Against the vaporous background of the Arabian chain, the gigantic pile
of the Northern Palace, which distance itself could scarce diminish,
reared above the flat-roofed dwellings its mountains of granite, its
forest of giant pillars, rose-coloured in the rays of the sunshine. In
front of the palace stretched a vast esplanade reaching down to the
river by a staircase placed at the angles; in the centre an avenue of
ram-headed sphinxes perpendicular to the Nile, led to a huge pylon, in
front of which stood two colossal statues and a pair of obelisks, the
pyramidions of which, rising above the cornice, showed their
flesh-coloured points against the uniform blue of the sky. Beyond and
above the boundary wall rose the side facade of the temple of Ammon.
More to the right were the temples of Khons and Oph. A giant pylon, seen
in profile and facing to the south, and two obelisks sixty cubits in
height, marked the beginning of that marvellous avenue of two thousand
sphinxes with lions' bodies and rams' heads, which reached from the
Northern Palace to the Southern Palace. On the pedestals could be seen
swelling the huge quarters of the first row of these monsters, that
turned their backs to the Nile. Farther still, there showed faintly in
the rosy light cornices on which the mystic globe outspread its vast
wings, heads of placid-faced colossi, corners of mighty buildings,
needles of granite, terraces rising above terraces, columns of palm
trees growing like tufts of grass amid these vast constructions; and the
Palace of the South uprose, with high painted walls, flag-adorned
staffs, sloping doors, obelisks, and herds of sphinxes. Beyond