The Egyptians apply colors freely to their architecture. This peculiarity increases in a wonderful degree the richness and harmony of the general effect. The cloudless sky of Egypt gives brilliancy to all the colors of nature, and these imitated on the walls of temples and palaces, have a beauty and splendor that must be seen to be appreciated. Granite, serpentine stone, breccia, or basalt, whatever be the material, its appearance, however elaborately polished, is by the Egyptians enriched, as they believe, and as I begin to think, by the pencil. The profusion with which they employ colors and sculpture in their temples, palaces, and tombs, has no parallel on earth. In Syria they are subsidiary to architecture. Here they are a part of it. The sloping outer walls, the external surfaces,--ceiling, column, and pylon,--are all covered with sculpture. Their sculptured bass-reliefs unite the qualities of a cameo and an intaglio, the figure itself rising from the broadly cut and deep outline of the design. Thus, though the design is in relief, the figure does not project, and is protected from injury. The colors which are laid on these are softened by their retiring below the surface. Real bass-reliefs, however, exist on the monuments of the age of Sesortasen I. The adytum of the temple which I am describing so minutely, with descriptions of the peculiarities of the architecture of the Egyptians (knowing your architectural taste and curiosity about all such subjects, my dear mother), was, unlike any of the halls I had traversed, much smaller, and yet far more beautiful than any of them. It was a square chamber, the ceiling of which was painted blue and studded with stars, while the moon shone down, a shield of polished silver, from the zenith point. Figures of vultures, hawks, and other emblems, were placed upon columns around the hall, and separated only by the winged asp-encircled sun. These figures were richly colored, and the eyes of the birds glittered with diamonds set in them. Upon the entablature around the hall were sculptured the twelve months. All these, and the walls, were beautifully painted, with a harmony of distribution and combination of their gorgeous colors singularly pleasing to the eye. Hieroglyphics, traced in gold on blue panels, recorded the virtues and deeds of Horus. The floor of this sumptuous chamber represented the great circle of the sun through the twelve constellations, and also the images of the seven planetary gods, executed in the pavement with almost every variety of colored stone, such as the emerald, amethyst, agate, lapis lazuli, root of emerald, cornelian, greenstone, hæmatite, all interset with gold, silver, and bronze. Nothing could be richer. A sun of pure gold was placed in the centre of this wonderful zodiac, if I may so term it, for I do not know whether it is a true planetary configuration which is represented with a fixed date, or simply arbitrary, and executed as an ornament.