Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-10-12
and the middle finger Of each hand is a
yard and q half long

and the middle finger of each hand Is q
yard and a half long
AS I stood beside the pedestal, with my
feet on Gingerbread's saddle. could not
reach to the top, and find it difficult to
give any comparative idea of the enor-
nous weight of the structures.
These two mighty figures sit side by
side on the edge Of the Nile valley. They
were erected in honor Of an Egyptian king
who lived thirty-five hundred-odd years
ago; and the temple. which he constructed
behind them. has now entirely disappeared.
They are right on the edge Of the valley,
with the desert mountains in the rear.
My way was through green fields, and as
I looked at them l thought Of how they
had watched the people sowing and reap.
Ing for more than thirty-hve hundred
years.
Not far from these monuments are the
ruins Of the Temple Of Rameses II, the
Pharaoh who oppressed the Egyptians
and would not let them go. Among them
saw the remains of statue of that
OLD king, which show that they belong to
a structure at least sixty feet high. There
is no granite nearer here than in the
quarries of Assouan, and this mighty
statue must have been cut out there and
brought down the Nile to Thebes. a dis
lance of 1876 miles.
Toting the Obelisks.
Consider the obelisks which the Egyp-
tians made at those quarries and carried
down the Nile to Thebes and also to
Cairo and Alexandria. There are two
obelisks still at this place You may see
them in the great temple at Karnak,
which Is not more than a twenty-minute
walk from Luxor. They weigh some
thing IKE 400 tons each, and it would
take LOCO horses to haul them. If thew
were broken up and loaded upon wagons.
Each Is one solid block of granite. and
each was carried in that shape to this
place. There are inscriptions on the Der
al Bahari Temple which show that these
rles, covered with hieroglyphic carvings,
brought here and put up all in the space
OF seven months. l doubt whether our
engineers could do the job as quick or as
we'll
We thought 1t a wonderful work to
bring the Alexandria obelisk from Egypt
to New York. 1t was carried there in the
hold OF steamer. and to load it
the bow Of the vessel had to be cut
and the obelisk dragged in The
Mediterranean on a barge, and that which
now stands in London was brought there
In an iron watertight cylinder, which
was carried to Alexandria in pieces and
built around the obelisk as 1t lay upon
the shore. When the great stone was
thoroughly incased the whole was rolled
into the sea and thus lowed to London.
After landing, the modern engineers had
great trouble to get the obelisks where
they wanted them. That Of New York
was rolled along upon iron balls which
ran In iron groves. laid down for the
purpose. and that of London was slid
over creased ways to the place where it
now stands on the banks of the Thames
Unearthing the Oldest of. Temples.
The oldest temple of Egypt by 1000
years is now being unearthed here by the
agents Of the Egyptian exploration fund.
This lies near the famous temple of Der
al Bahari, and in branch valley from
where the tomb Of the kings are When
I visited it the excavators were at
work. and the men in charge told me they
had great hopes of making valuable dis
coveries. 1t was with James Teackle
Dennis, the American representative of
the excavation fund, that 1 went over the
temple. / met him at the little one-story