Burckhardt, John Lewis, 1784-1817; Nile River Valley -- Description and travel; Nubia -- Description and travel
By digging at Gourne, in the plain between the Memnonium, and Medinet
Habou,[12] in a western direction from the two sitting colossi, about
half a mile distant from them, he found a mutilated colossal head of
granite, of much larger dimensions than the one he carried off, or
any other at Thebes, being from ten to twelve feet across the front.
You remember the small pond, within the enclosure of the interior
part of the temple of Karnak, towards the side of Luxor,[13] which
encircles on three sides an elevated ground. A row of Andro-sphynxes,
or whatever they may be called, stand there, which the French had
dug up, and of which Mr. William Banks carried off last year the
two best. In digging farther on in the line in which these statues
stood, Mr. Belzoni has discovered eighteen others, of similar shape,
but of much superior workmanship, all in beautiful preservation;
he has brought down six of them to Mr. Salt, who had furnished
him with money for the express purpose of procuring antiquities;
besides the commission to carry off the head. By the side of these
figures he has found another statue, of a hard, large grained sand
stone: it is a whole length naked figure, sitting upon a chair,
with a ram’s head upon the knees; the face and body entire;
with plaited hair falling down to the shoulders. This is one of
the finest, I should say the finest Egyptian statue I have seen;
the expression of the face is exquisite, and I believe it to be
a portrait. From the beautiful preservation of all these figures,
which is so rare in Egypt, Mr. Belzoni argues, that the Egyptians
used this place to hide their idols, when the Persians came to
destroy them, and he hopes, in going up a second time to Thebes,
to find at the same place other treasures. He has likewise found
at Karnak, the four sided monument, with figures in high relief
on three sides of it, of which the French talk so highly in their
work, and of which they have given a drawing. But it was in quite a
different place from that indicated by them, for Mr. Belzoni found
it under ground far to the east of the adytum of Karnak. This,
with a dozen of Sphinxes, he has been obliged to leave on the shore
of the river near Karnak, the boat being already over loaded. The
head alone weighs, I believe, from twelve to fifteen tons.
Mr. Belzoni, who is as enterprising as he is intelligent,
high-minded, and disinterested, further informs us, that he has dug
up the colossus, indicated by the French upon their map of Karnak,
as laying on the N. W. side of the abovementioned pond, under the
name of “Colosse renversé.” He has turned it up, and finds it
to be a torso without head, or feet, about thirty feet in length,
of beautiful workmanship; he says that he has seen nothing in Egypt,
not even excepting our head, that can be compared to it, as it
is a true imitation of nature, not done in the usual hard style,
but according to the best rules of art.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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