At Luxor, a single obelisk, the property of the English, still maintains its ancient position.  It is very beautiful, formed of red granite, and covered with elegantly carved inscriptions, running up each of the four faces.  The hieroglyphics are cut to an unusual depth, and are remarkably clear and well-formed, indicating that the monument was raised in honour of Rameses the Great, the most illustrious of all the Egyptian monarchs, and the most magnificent and prolific architect the world has ever seen.  The top of the obelisk was originally left in a rough unfinished state, the roughness having been concealed by a capping of bronze; but this having been removed long ago, the surface has become very much eroded by exposure, which somewhat detracts from the elegance of the shaft.  It has also the peculiarity that its two inner faces are sensibly curved—­a peculiarity which it is supposed was designed to make the sunlight fall with softer effect, so as to make the shadows less crude, and the angles less sharp.  The shaft, which is eighty-two feet high by eight feet in diameter at the base, is elevated upon a pedestal, which is adorned by statues in high relief of dog-headed monkeys standing in an attitude of adoration at the corners worshipping the sun, and also by standing figures of the god of the Nile presenting offerings, incised in the stone like the hieroglyphics of the shaft.  The surroundings of this obelisk are far grander than those of any other obelisk in the world.  At present the extent and dimensions of the ruins of Thebes produce an overwhelming effect upon the visitor.  But it is almost impossible for us to imagine its magnificence when its temples and obelisks were in their full perfection, and the great Rameses was carried on the shoulders of his officers through the ranks of adoring slaves to behold the completion of the works which had been designed to perpetuate his glory.  The ancient city, divided in the middle by the Nile, as London is by the Thames or Glasgow by the Clyde, covered the vast plain, with great houses in the outskirts standing in richly cultivated gardens, each temple surrounded by its own little sacred lake, over which the bodies of the dead were carried by the priests before burial, and the beautiful Mokattam Hills bounding the view, wearing the soft lilac hue of distance.  Only two or three places on earth can rival the overwhelming interest which the city possesses.  But the colossal associated temples of Karnac and Luxor are absolutely unique.  There is nothing on earth to equal them.  They are man’s greatest achievements in religious architecture.  Long rows of stupendous pillars, covered from base to top with coloured pictures and hieroglyphics, containing a whole library of actually written and pictured history and religion, look “like a Brobdingnagian forest turned into stone,” in the midst of which the visitor feels himself an insignificant insect.  A sense of superhuman awfulness, of personal nothingness and irresistible power, is what these