Ramessides and their successors occupied themselves in filling it with
furniture, and in taking steps for the repair of any damage that might
accrue to the hall or pillars; they had their cartouches or inscriptions
placed in vacant spaces, but they did not dare to modify its
arrangement. It was reserved for the Ethiopian and Greek Pharaohs, in
presence of the hypostyle and pylon of the XIXth dynasty, to conceive of
others on a still vaster scale.

[Illustration: 236.jpg PAINTINGS OF CHAIRS]

Ramses, having completed the funerary chapel of Seti at Qurneh upon the
left bank of the river, then began to think of preparing the edifice
destined for the cult of his "double"--that Eamesseum whose majestic
ruins still stand at a short distance to the north of the giants of
Amenothes. Did these colossal statues stimulate his spirit of emulation
to do something yet more marvellous? He erected here, at any rate,
a still more colossal figure. The earthquake which shattered Memnon
brought it to the ground, and fragments of it still strew the soil where
they fell some nineteen centuries ago. There are so many of them that the
spectator would think himself in the middle of a granite quarry.*

* The ear measures 3 feet 4 inches (feet ?) in length; the
statue is 58 feet high from the top of the head to the
sole of the foot, and the weight of the whole has been
estimated at over a thousand tons.

[Illustration: 237.jpg THE REMAINS OF THE COLOSSAL STATUE OF RAMSES II.
AT THE RAMESSEUM]

Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a photograph by Beato

The portions forming the breast, arms, and thighs are in detached
pieces, but they are still recognisable where they lie close to each
other. The head has lost nothing of its characteristic expression, and
its proportions are so enormous, that a man could sleep crouched up
in the hollow of one of its ears as if on a sofa. Behind the court
overlooked by this colossal statue lay a second court, surrounded by a
row of square pillars, each having a figure of Osiris attached to it.
The god is represented as a mummy, the swathings throwing the body and
limbs into relief.

[Illustration: 238.jpg THE RAMESSEUM]

Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph by Beato; the great
blocks in the foreground are the fragments of the colossal
statue of Ramses II.

His hands are freed from the bandages and are crossed on the breast, and
hold respectively the flail an