stood in the middle of this stately palace, was supported by 120 pillars, each of which was six fathoms in circumference, and of proportionable height, intermixed with obelisks which so many ages have not been able to demolish. Painting had displayed all her art and magnificence in this edifice. The colors themselves, which soonest feel the injury of time, still remain amidst the ruins of this wonderful structure, and preserve their beauty and lustre. So happily could the Egyptians imprint a character of immortality on all their works.—[Lib. 17, p. 805.] Strabo, who was on the spot, describes a temple he saw in Egypt very much resembling that of which we have been speaking.
The ruins of Thebes, lie on both sides the Nile, for a space of nearly nine miles along the river, and reaching far inland. The modern names of Luxor, Carnac and Kourna are given only to parts of the same city, whose ancient circuit was 27 miles, the whole of which space is now full of fallen columns, colossal statues and obelisks. It is reported to have had an hundred gates, out of each of which it could send 20,000 soldiers and 200 chariots. The palace of Memnon, with its vast porticoes, colossal statues, and almost endless rows of columns, shows that the kings who once reigned here were very rich, and that the artists by whom the edifices were erected were able and intelligent men, although they were built so long ago that history can tell us very little about them.
Thebais, derives its name from Thebes, which with its hundred palaces and hundred gates, might vie with the noblest cities of the world. It was celebrated by Homer, an Ethiopian, whose description is generally familiar. It acquired the surname of Hecatompylos, to distinguish it from the other Thebes, in Bœotia. It was equally large and populous, and according to history it could send out at once 200 chariots and 10,000 fighting men at each of its gates. The Greeks and Romans have celebrated its magnificence and grandeur, though they saw only its ruins, so august were its remains.—[Strabo and Rollin.]
The Thebans, says Diodorus, considered themselves as the most ancient people of the East, and asserted that philosophy and astronomy originated with them.
