ABSTRACT
At last we were at Thebes, - in the afternoon of this Tuesday, the 19th of January. We were very happy; for there was no hurry. On either hand lay the plain of Thebes; and before us there was leisure to explore it. We staid eight days; giving five to the western bank, and three to the eastern. We made, we thought, good use of our time, exploring daily as much as we could without plunging ourselves into too much fatigue and excitement. What the excitement is can be known only to those who have spent successive days in penetrating the recesses of the palaces, and burying themselves in the tombs of the Pharaohs, who lived among the hundred gates of this metropolis of the world before the Hebrew infant [Moses] was laid among the nests of the Nile water-fowl. Perhaps some hint of what the interest of Thebes is may be derived from such poor account as I am able to give of what we saw there: but I shall tell only what we saw, and nothing of what we felt. That can be spoken of nowhere but on the spot.
