So, with a troop of friends and Theban slaves,
Led by an aged hierophant, well-versed
In mystic records of Egyptus’ land,
And hierogrammat of linguistic skill,—
Cæsar went forth, in sober merriment,
To view the skeletons of ages fled,—
The giant bones, denoting giant minds;
Those unexampled temples sempitern—
Luxor and Karnak, twain, yet linked in one
By avenue of sphinxes, multiplied,
To endless view;—and first to Luxor, built
By Amunothph; passing through the propylon huge,
Prefaced by two tall obelisks, and two
Gigantic figures human-form; beyond,
The temple-tomb of Ozymandias,
And countless gaunt mementos of the past.
But when, mid lines of sphinx and obelisk,
To Karnak Cæsar came, he said, amazed,
“Too wonderful this vision to be real,—
The work of necromancy, or a dream!
This grand confusion, these colossal forms,
This wide extent of ruin; how could die
Men who had life for this? they could not die;
Fate fails to cast them to oblivion;—
Here in their deeds they live; these silent walls,
These graven monoliths, with meaning rife,
These prostrate statues, and these columns stark,
Speak, from remotest time, to us who live.
The city of Luxor by the Nile is an ancient capital of Egypt, Thebes. Many of the great sites, such as the Valley of the Kings and the temples of Ramassess II, III and Queen Hatshepsut, are on the west bank. On the east bank of the Nile, where the modern town lies, are two great temples, the Temple of Luxor in the middle of the town, and the gigantic temple at Karnak, just outside the town to the north.
The massive pillars of the Hypostyle Hall in the Karnak temple