Although, as already mentioned, numerous buildings of the great Pharaonic dynasties are to be found scattered all along the banks of the Nile, it is at Thebes only that the temples are so complete as to enable us to study them with advantage, or to arrive at a just appreciation of their greatness. That city was practically the capital of Egypt during the whole of the 18th and 19th dynasties, and has been fortunate in having had no great city built near it since it fell into decay; unlike Memphis in this respect, which has been used as a quarry during the last 14 or 15 centuries. It has also had the advantage of a barrier of rocky hills on its western limits, which has prevented the sand of the desert from burying its remains, as has been the case at Abydus and elsewhere. The ruins that still remain are found scattered over an area extending about 2¼ miles north and south, and 3½ miles east and west. The principal group is at Karnac, on the eastern bank of the Nile, consisting of one great temple 1200 feet long, and five or six smaller temples grouped unsymmetrically around it. About two miles farther south is the temple at Luxor 820 feet long, and without any dependencies. [Illustration: 19. Rameseum at Thebes. Scale 100 ft. to 1 in.] On the other side of the river is the great temple of Medeenet-Habû, built by the first king of the 19th dynasty, 520 feet in length; the Rameseum, 570 feet long, and the temple at Koorneh, of which only the sanctuary and the foundations of the Propyla now exist. Of the great temple of Thothmes and Amenophis very little remains above ground—it having been situated within the limits of the inundation—except the two celebrated colossi, one of which was known to the Greeks as the vocal Memnon. When complete it probably was, next after Karnac, the most extensive of Theban temples. There are several others, situated at the foot of the Libyan hills, which would be considered as magnificent elsewhere, but sink into insignificance when compared with those just enumerated. [Illustration: 20. Central Pillar, from Rameseum, Thebes.]