Along the line of this old street, which, however, except at its northern end, is quite obliterated by rubbish mounds, cultivation, and palm-groves, you ride to Karnak. As you pass no houses by the way the distance seems great. Here was for many centuries the splendid centre of the most splendid city in the world. On nothing like it did the sun shine. The dwelling-houses, many of them Diodorus tells us four, some even five, stories high, were, we may be sure, not allowed to approach so near as to interfere with the solemnizing effect of the long dromos of sphinxes. This effect was the very object of these avenues of sphinxes and colossi, which were prefixed to the temples. They shut out the world as the worshipper approached the temple, and prepared his mind for the services and the influences of the house of God. The area of the sacred enclosure at Karnak was a square of about 2,000 feet each way. The enclosing wall is still everywhere traceable. In some parts it is but little injured by time. There were twenty-six temples within the enclosure. It was a city of temples. The axis of the main series points across the river to the gorge of the valley, in the Libyan hills, at the head of which were placed the tombs of the kings. Another series of temples reached down to the south-west entrance of the enclosure, where was the termination of the Luxor-Karnak street. These two series of temples may be roughly described as close and parallel to the north-eastern and north-western sides of the enclosure. The rest of the space was filled with more or less detached structures.