But it will not be denied, at the same time, that wherever we find a striking similarity in the works, the habits, the opinions, and the taste of ancient communities, we may safely admit the conclusion that there must have been some intercourse between them.

Proceeding on this broad principle, every one who has examined the remains of Eastern kingdoms has been struck with the conviction that the people of Egypt, of Nubia, and of India have derived their notions of religious architecture from the same source. In all the three countries are beheld similar excavations in the living rock, carried to an immense extent, and decorated with colossal figures; huge masses of building raised above ground, and displaying a profusion of statuary and carving; and also those monolithic shrines, or chambers cut out in a single stone, which seem to defy all the mechanical powers that modern invention has supplied to the arts. That the land of the Pharaohs was indebted to Ethiopia for the rudiments, and perhaps even for the finished patterns, of architectural skill, is no longer questioned by any writer whose studies have qualified him to form a judgment. Gau, whose splendid work on Nubia has accomplished every thing which the antiquary could desire, hesitates not to maintain as one of his first principles, that the country just named was the cradle of Egyptian architecture, and that its monuments embrace the whole period during which this art flourished in the latter. In other words, he states that all the architecture of Egypt has its types in the buildings of Nubia, from the first rude effort to cut a temple in the rock to the construction of those detached edifices which were afterward erected under the government of the Greeks and Romans.*

When we consider the troglodyte habits of the natives in all hot climates, the eagerness with which, by retiring into caverns, they shun the alternate plagues of the solar beams and the drenching rain, we shall not be surprised to learn that they prepared, in similar recesses, a dwelling for their gods, and a convenient asylum for the rites of their religion. At a later period, when they began to enjoy the blessings of security and wealth, and had opened their minds to the sentiments of taste, they appear to have added to their ex

• Gau's Nubia, Preface. British Museum, p. 130

cavated temples the ornament of a portico, a propylon, and sometimes even to have hewn down the face of the mountain itself into the form of a splendid building. The progress of a corresponding refinement has been traced both in India and Nubia. We may distinguish, says Gau, in the architectural history of this period three great epochs; the first comprehends the temples cut in the sides of hills; the second those which are detached from the rock-cut chambers, but retain the colossal masses of the primitive type; and the third embraces the small edifices of Maharraga, Gartaas, Dondour, and several structures in Egypt.

In laying before our readers some account of the monuments, which continue to perpetuate the genius and power of the ancient inhabitants of the Upper Nile, we shall follow the line of research suggested by the distinguished author to whom we have just referred, and describe them according to the simplicity of their formation, which, under the light they are now contemplated, is equivalent to their comparative age. We may however remark in the outset, that although Gau, as a professional writer, has the merit of reducing to scientific principles the distinguishing features of the several orders of building, the notion of measuring their relative antiquity by a reference to the simplicity of their structure had suggested itself to other authors on more general grounds. Waddington, for example, discovered at Gebel el Berkal two temples, which, from being excavated in the solid rock and having only their exterior chambers formed of masonry, resemble those of Girshé, Sebona, and Derr. The smaller of the two has six halls or apartments, five of which are cut in the body of the mountain; while the other, which constitutes the entrance, and is thirty-six feet square, stands on an artificial stone foundation, by means of which it is elevated to the height of the rock wherein the former are hollowed out. For the dimensions of the temple and of its subordinate parts we refer to the original work, where they appear to be given with much accuracy. It is necessary however to observe, that near the adytum, or sacred shrine, there are figures of Jupiter Ammon and of Horus. There are vestiges of hieroglyphics, too, in all the chambers. On the whole, the learned author concludes, from the plainness of the masonry, from the rudeness and decay of the remaining sculptures, and from the raggedness and decompo

sition of the walls, though they had been sheltered probably for ages by the solid rock from the sun and wind, that this is older than any of the temples of Egypt or even of Nubia.*

Burckhardt visited the ruined structure at Seboua; before which, he tells us, is a propylon similar to that of Gorne at Thebes. The pronaos has five columns without capitals on each of its longest sides: in front of each, and joined to it, is a colossal figure (like those at Gorne) sixteen feet in height, having the arms crossed upon the breast, with the flail in one hand and the crosier in the other. Opposite to the entrance there lies on the ground a huge statue, the head and bust of which are buried in the sand: it probably stood on the side of the gate, like the colossi at Luxor; it is a male figure, and in the same attitude as those on the façade of the temple of Isis at Ebsamboul. In front of the propylon, and about thirty yards distant from it, are two statues ten feet in height, and seven paces from each other; their faces are towards the river, and they are attached by the back to a stone pillar of equal elevation; they are rudely executed, proportion being so little observed that the ears are half the length of the head; they both wear the high bonnet, and represent unbearded males. An avenue of sphinxes leads from the bank to the temple; but the greater part of them are now buried. Four remain by the side of the two lastmentioned statues, differing from each other in shape and size, but all having the bodies of lions with the heads of young men, and the usual narrow beard under the chin. "The whole fabric appears to be of the remotest antiquity, and to have been imitated by the more modern architects of Egypt; for the propylon and the pronaos, with its colossal figures, are found at Gorne on a larger scale; the two statues in advance of the propylon are the miniatures of those in front of the Memnonium; and the sphinxes are seen at Karnac."t

The sculptures, as well from the friable nature of the stone as from their great age, are much obliterated; but a Briareus with two bodies may still be distinguished on the outside wall of the propylon. A similar remark applies to the rock-cut temple of Derr, on which the same representation is seen; the pattern, as it would appear, for those

*Journal of a Visit to some Parts of Ethiopia, p. 169. † Travels, p. 90.

more magnificent labours of the statuary which adorn the ruins at Luxor and Edfou. It is deserving of notice, however, that the excavated fane at Derr has no construction in front like that of Gebel el Berkal; no outer chambers, or pronaos, or propylon, formed of stone and mortar. It shows, says Gau, in its marks of age, and in the imperfection of its execution, traces of the highest antiquity, and of the infancy of the art. This infant state is easily recognised in all parts of the architecture, and in the remnants of the primitive sculpture; as, for example, the statues with their backs to the pillars of the pronaos, and that in the niche of the sanctuary, which is a portion of the solid rock. The bas-reliefs of the interior walls show, on the contrary, the progress which the arts made in the interval between the commencement and the completion of this excavation. In fact, it appears that this, which is certainly one of the oldest monuments in Lower Nubia, contains in itself a history of the gradual improvement of architecture and sculpture as applied to sacred places. Here, as elsewhere, the procession of the ship is exhibited on the walls of the adytum; an emblem to which we shall hereafter call the attention of the reader, as being connected at once with the ancient current of population, and with the origin of many of the religious opinions that were common to Egypt and Ethiopia.

There

The temple of Girshé evidently belongs to the more simple order of structures, and indicates a very imperfect condition of all the arts connected with architecture. is a portico, consisting of five square columns on each side, cut out of the rock, with a row of circular ones in front constructed of several blocks, and which originally supported an entablature. Of these only two remain. Before each of the square-sided columns stands a colossal statue of sandstone about eighteen feet high, holding a flail in one hand, the other hanging down. They all represent male figures, with the narrow beard under the chin, and the high sphinx-cap on the head; the shoulders being covered with hieroglyphical inscriptions. On both sides of the portico is an open alley hewn in the rock, from whence, perhaps, the materials of the first colonnade were taken. The pronaos, which is entered from the portico by a large gate, is eighteen paces square, and contains two rows, three in each, of immense columns or rather props, for they are without capi

tals, measuring five feet by seven in the plan. In front of each of these is a colossal figure more than twenty feet in height, representing the usual juvenile character, with the corn measure or bonnet on his head, the hands crossed upon the breast, and holding the flail and crosier. All those statues are rudely executed; the outlines of their bodies being very incorrect, and their legs mere round blocks; yet they had a striking effect in this comparatively small apartment. "Indeed," says Burckhardt, "accustomed as I had been to the grandeur of Egyptian temples, of which I had examined so many incomparable specimens, I was nevertheless struck with admiration on entering this gloomy pronaos, and beholding these immense figures standing in silence before me. They immediately recalled to my memory the drawings I had seen of the caves near Surat and other Indian excavated temples, which in many respects bear a strong resemblance to those of Nubia. On the side-walls of the pronaos are four recesses or niches, in each of which are three statues of the natural size, representing the different symbolical male and female figures which are seen on the walls of the temples of Egypt. The centre figures are generally clothed in a long dress, while the others are naked. All these, as well as the colossi, are covered with a thick coat of stucco, and had once been painted; they must then have had a splendid appearance. A door leads from the pronaos into the cella, in the middle of which are two massy pillars, and on either side a small apartment, which was probably a place of sepulture; in the floor of each are high stone benches which may have served for supporting mummies, or perhaps as tables for embalming the bodies deposited in the temple. Of the sculpture and hieroglyphics with which the walls of this temple were covered very little is now discernible, the sandstone being of a very friable nature and soon falling to decay. Added to this, the walls are quite black with smoke from the fires kindled by the neighbouring shepherds, who often pass the night in the temple with their cattle; enough, however, still remains to show that the sculptures are rudely executed. The colossal figures are in good preservation, particularly those of the pronaos."

* Burckhardt's Travels, p. 99, 100.