ecuted in a masterly
style. It is at the feet of these obelisks that one may judge of the
high degree of perfection to which the Egyptians had carried their
knowledge in mechanics. We have seen that it costs fortunes to move
them from their place. They were followed by two colossal statues
forty feet high. After passing through three different large courts,
filled with columns of great dimensions, the traveler reached the
sanctuary, surrounded by spacious halls supported by columns, and
exhibiting the most beautiful mass of sculpture in the best style of
execution.

"It is absolutely impossible," again exclaims Belzoni, "to imagine the
scene displayed, without seeing it. The most sublime ideas that can
be formed from the most magnificent specimens of our present
architecture, would give a very incorrect picture of these ruins. It
appeared to me like entering a city of giants, who, after a long
conflict, were all destroyed, leaving ruins of their various temples,
as the only proofs of their former existence. The temple of Luxor," he
adds, "presents to the traveler at once one of the most splendid
groups of Egyptian grandeur. The extensive propylaeon, with the two
obelisks, and colossal statues in the front; the thick groups of
enormous columns, the variety of apartments, and the sanctuary it
contains. The beautiful ornaments which adorn every part of the walls
and columns, cause in the astonished traveler an oblivion of all that
he has seen before."

So far Belzoni; and in this he is borne out by Champollion, who speaks
of Thebes in terms of equal admiration. "All that I had seen, all that
I had admired on the left bank," says this learned Frenchman,
"appeared miserable in comparison with the gigantic conceptions by
which I was surrounded at Karnac. I shall take care not to attempt to
describe any thing; for either my description would not express the
thousandth part of what ought to be said, or, if I drew a faint
sketch, I should be taken for an enthusiast, or, perhaps, for a
madman. It will suffice to add, that no people, either ancient or
modern, ever conceived the art of architecture on so sublime and so
grand a scale as the ancient Egyptians."

The Great Pyramid, which is yet an enigma, stands for our
astonishment. Herodotus tells us, when speaking of the Labyrinth of
Egypt, that it had 3,000 chambers, half of them above and half below
ground. He says, "The upper chambers I myself passed through and saw,
and wh