3-070-568 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Sketches in Egypt: the Ruins of Thebes - Valley of the Tombs of the Kings, 1883.'The tombs of the Kings are decorated with marvellous paintings of religious subjects, the designs of which, half grotesque, half mystical, like the scenes of Dante's "Inferno," afford a very curious study. The sculptured alabaster sarcophagus in the Soane Museum, Lincoln's-inn-fields, was brought from one of these tombs. On the same side of the Nile, the western bank, opposite Luxor and Karnak, are the two colossal statues of Amenoph III., one of which, called by Greeks the statue of Memnon, was made by a cunning trick to utter, as it seemed, a musical sound at the moment of sunrise. The Temple of Medinet Abou is at a short distance, and there are many other remains of stately edifices. All these belonged to the Royal City of Thebes, which extended for miles on both sides of the river, and which was preeminent in magnificence in the ancient world. It was destroyed by the Persian conqueror, Cambyses, in the sixth century before the Christian era. We may refer to Mr. Stanley Lane Poole's excellent little book on "Egypt," in the "Foreign Countries" series of Messrs. Sampson Low's publications, for a concise account of the ruins of Thebes'. From "Illustrated London News", 1883.