The Nile boat or, glimpses of the land of Egypt / by . ted that we should have reached Keneh in themorning, but on awaking found the boat moored at the nearestpoint to Dendera, while Salem had been on shore to procuredonkeys, so that after breakfast I had nothing to do but landand proceed to the temple, with feelings of high expectationand curiosity, this being the first, as well as, by commonreport, the most beautiful in Egypt. The first opening viewentirely disappointed me, nor could I help contrasting theeffect of Greek and Eoman ruins—of the temples of Athens,and Girgenti, and
The Nile boat or, glimpses of the land of Egypt / by . ted that we should have reached Keneh in themorning, but on awaking found the boat moored at the nearestpoint to Dendera, while Salem had been on shore to procuredonkeys, so that after breakfast I had nothing to do but landand proceed to the temple, with feelings of high expectationand curiosity, this being the first, as well as, by commonreport, the most beautiful in Egypt. The first opening viewentirely disappointed me, nor could I help contrasting theeffect of Greek and Eoman ruins—of the temples of Athens,and Girgenti, and Baalbec, their ranges of columns and half-ruined porticoes, rising in picturesque disorder against thesky, with the heavy square walls and fiat roof of the Egyp-tian temple, cutting into a back-ground of yellow sand. Nordid a nearer approach altogether remove this unfavourable im-pression ; the facade, though vast, seemed heavy and halfbarbarous, and inspired none of that mingled awe and delightwhich I had anticipated. On entering, however, one cannot =S&,. fail to experience the peculiar emotions produced by Egyptianarchitecture, a feeling of gloomy sublimity which awes rather THE GREAT lORTICO. 1 I than elevates, and which to the ordinary spectator is greatlyheightened by the sculptures and hieroglyphics which everywhere cover the walls, in mute mysterious meaning, leadingback our thoughts to the recondite religious ideas which theysymbolize, and inspiring a deep and almost trembling curiosityas to the rites which were celebrated in the recesses ofthese soul-subduing temples. The flat roof in its dusky ob-scurity, and the grand portal of simple and heavy proportion,with the inner chambers receding into utter darkness, add tothe effect of this first impression. The columns of the portico, of which there are twenty-four,are peculiar ; at least there is no other instance of them on thisscale. Capitals, whose forms and details are generally borrowedfrom the lotus and palm, and
Size: 2425px × 1030px
Photo credit: © The Reading Room / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1840, booksubjectegyptdescriptionandt
