There is another peculiarity, my dear mother, of Egyptian architecture, which no one can contemplate without an increasing impression of awe. I allude to the dromos, or double row of sphinxes--figures of which I have already spoken, and of which we have no idea in Syria, though an Assyrian noble whom I met in Sidon, described to me reposing colossi with majestic heads of kings and bodies of lions, as guarding the approach to the temples of the gods of his country. Such mysterious compounds of the human form with a lion or a ram, denoting the union of intellect with strength, are to be encountered here before every temple. These avenues of sphinxes, in profound repose and with a grave and serious aspect, are usually entered through a lofty gateway or pylon, before which are seated gigantic figures of gods, or stand obelisks of granite, placed in pairs, and richly and elaborately sculptured with hieroglyphics. Through such a gateway and avenue, I approached the city of On. A day or two ago I was in a temple dedicated to the god Horus, son of Osiris and Isis. Upon the pylon was inscribed a sun, supported by two asps with outspread wings--the emblem of Hor-hat, the good genius of Egypt--and hence to be found everywhere represented. It is this which is erroneously called, by some travellers, a winged globe. In the entrance, this god was pictured with the head of a hawk (at once his symbol and a type of the sun, from the piercing brightness of its eye), as an actor in various scenes, both celestial and terrestrial, such as hunting, sailing, and engaged in war against Typhon, and others.