PALACE OF CLEOPATRA.

THEBES, called also Diospolis, the city of Jupiter or of Ammon, was in the days of Homer regarded as the great wonder of the world, and it continues to be so at the present day. The entire breadth of the valley on both sides of the river, an area of about nine miles, is covered with enormous temples, that seem more like mountains than human edifices, with colossal statues, sphinxes, and obelisks, whose magnitude ensures their duration. Where the habitations of the living end, the dwellings of the dead begin, and extend a considerable distance into the western mountains. The city was built on both sides of the river, which is here about half a mile wide, and its parts were not, as far as we know, connected by a bridge. The western bank, being almost wholly occupied by public monuments, could not have contained many private houses; but on the eastern bank the monuments are all close to the river, and the space between them and the Arabian mountains was open for habitations. On the western side are the palace and temple now called Medínet Abú, the colossus of Memnon, the palace and tomb of Osymandyas, and the temple of Gurnú. These are all covered with a profusion of sculptures, depicting scenes in Egyptian history. It has been calculated that the largest of the colossal statues, when complete, weighed more than eight hundred tons.

DR. W. C. TAYLOR.

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