I must not close this slight sketch of its monuments without referring
to the colossal statues so common in Egypt.

Babylonia has its winged bulls and kings of heroic size, Burma its
built effigies of Buddha, but no country but Egypt has ever produced
such mighty images as the monolith statues of her kings which adorn
her many temples, and have their greatest expression in the rock-hewn
temple of Abou Simbel and the imposing colossi of Thebes. In the case
of Abou Simbel, the huge figures of Rameses II. which form the front
of his temple are hewn out of the solid rock, and are 66 feet in
height, forming one of the most impressive sights in Egypt. Though 6
feet less in height, the colossi of Thebes are even more striking,
each figure being carved out of a single block of stone weighing many
hundreds of tons, and which were transported from a great distance to
be placed upon their pedestals in the plain of Thebes.

[Illustration: THE COLOSSI OF THEBES--MOONRISE.]

Surely in the old days of Egypt great ideas possessed the minds of
men, and apart from the vastness of their other monuments, had ever
kings before or since such impressive resting-places as the royal
tombs cut deep into the bowels of the Theban hills, or the stupendous
pyramids of Ghizeh!




CHAPTER IX