Morris tribune., 1881-03-03
THEBES.

Then taken back to Heaven"
THEBES.
Its Monuments Its Palaces and it's Temples
Its Twin Giants That Keep Watch Over
the Relics of the Past.
Hundred Gatedv'-the pupulous NO
of the prophets a history in itself. 1t
was great city when Abraham led his hocks
to drink of the waters of the Nile. A thous-
and years had rolled over its monuments
and palaces when the Greek warriors en-
| camped before the walls Of Troy. Homer
sang of it as the richest city in the world,
| through each of whose hundred gates two
hundred heroes poured forth to battle and to
| victory.
On reaching this venerable city of the
| dead, writes a correspondent to the Roches-
ter Express, the traveller first visits the
| "Colossi," the twin giants which setting
alone amid the wide sea of verdure, seem to
keep vigilant though silent watch over the
relics of the past. They are called by the
natives ''Tama" and "Chama."
There they sit, keeping watch, hands on
knees, gazing straight forward, seeming,
though so much of the faces is gone, to be
looking over to the monumental piles on the
other side of the river, which became gor-
geous temples after these throne seats were
placed here-the most immovable thrones
that have ever been established on this
non is much delapidated. The injury is
due either to Cambyses, or, as Strabo says,
to an earthquake. One would likely think
that nature, rather than man, had done it,;
| but how came the earthquake to leave the
mass of the throne and body unhurt, while
| SCATTERING the shoulders and head? On the
pedestal is represented old N1lus, the river
| god once more busy, as in all times, wreath
ing the royal throne with the lotus and his
water-plants. Alas, that his ineaments
should be etfaced; that dull blank pre-
walls where the sculptor: as we can fancy,
had carved an expression of sublime intel
ligence and conscious power.
| The old stories tell US that from this stat
ue, when the sun rose over the purple
mountains of Araby, and flushed its solemn
lips with light, there poured forth q respon-
sive strain:
morn from Memnon drew
| Rivers of melody
soft, sad song, like that of a breaking
| lutestring:
| ''Soft as Memnon's harp at morning,
Touched with light by heavenly warning.
The Greeks called it Memnon's statue
and tabled that his matin- music was his
greeting to his mother Aurora-thus identi-
| flying the colossal monument of the great
| Egyptian king with their own mystic hero,
the son of Tithonus and Aurora, who was
slain by Achilles in the Trojan war.
When the Nile overhows these statues
rise above the watery expanse like islands
of stones. The Colossi now tower about
ffty-three feet above the soil, and arc sunk
seven feet in the burning sands. From the
elbow to the finger ends, each colossal arm
measures seventeen feet nine inches; and
from the knee to the plant of the foot, nine
teen feet and eight inches. The foot was
nineteen feet ten inches.
Still keeping on the western bank of the
river, we next direct our steps to the mag
nifcent palace of Rameses the Great, the
| Rameseum or as it is more commonly, but
enormously called, the Memnonium. If il
were possible for the spirits of the dead tc
revisit the glimpses of the moon, and haunt
the scenes most dear to them during theil
earthly existence, surely the old Egyptian
kings would nightly roam among these
hoary ruins, and lament the vanished
splendors of their creed and dynasty. The
Rameseum was both palace and temple
the residence of the sovereign and his gods
1t was unworthy of neither, for never did ever
Egyptian architecture create a more splend.
id pile. What art Uncomfortable to us,
has erected, violence Uncomfortable to us,
has overthrown; and the heaped-up stones
of the Rameseum are more powerful com.
mentary on the nothingness of human am.
bition than the homilies of Thousand
moralists.
At the entrance lie the remains of the
largest statue ever fashioned by Egyptian
sculptor. 1t was fitting ornament for
city of giants; such an effigy as would have
adorned palace built and inhabited by I'll
tans. When entire it must have weighed
about SS7 tons, 5 1-2 cwt.! 1t is composed
of Syene granite. The second court is di.
vided by pillars into aisles or avenues, fl
entrances to the splendor of the Crane
Hall, which seemed like some stately fores
petrifed into stone with the lotus, the papy
rus and the river plants all suddenly froze1
in the midst of their budding life. The
voted to the glorifcation of Rameses
Everywhere we see him honered with thu
priceless gifts of life and power; or he il
intrusted with the sword and scepter, tt
smite his foes with the one, and to rule hi
subjects with the other.
An inscription dedicates the hall to tn,
kings father, who says: 1T is my will
that your edifce be as stable as the sky.
Alas! time has painfully falsiied the boast
The sculptures of the exterior walls breathe
only of battle and strife-the pride, poml
and circumstance of victorious war. Rame
ses is represented as standing aloft in hi
war chariot, drawing his huge bow, tn
reins tied round his waist and his quive
at his side. The conqueror drives head
long over PROSTATE and bound captives
|, while his enemies fall all round him in al
the attitudes of despair and degradation
Such was the Romeseum, but family ant
feebly described. 1t looked toward tn
east, facing the magnificent temple at Kar
nae. It's propylon, in the days of its glory
was in itself a structure of the highest arch
itectural grandeur, and the portion still OK
tant measures 234 feet in length. The prin
cipal edifce was about 600 feet long, an
200 feet broad, containing six courts an
chambers, with about 100 columns thirt
feet high,
Did the Eypytians build for time or eter