THEBES : THE GLORY OF A GREAT PAST. By Jean
Capart and Marcellc Werbrouck. Translated by Professor W. E. Caldwell and edited by Miss E. Louisa Thonipson. (J. Allen and Unwin. 63s. net.)—This superb quarto, abound- ing in excellent photographs, is produced in Belgium at the expense of the Queen Elizabeth Egyptological Foundation, and is the work of two first-rate scholars. Its purpose is to describe clearly the stupendous ruins of ancient Thebes, lying in and around the little Arab village of Karnak, which were for a thousand years from 2000 B.C. the centre of the ancient world. The authors have succeeded admirably in their for- midable task, and they show in detail how the sculptures and tomb-paintings elucidate Egyptian history and religion. They point out that the yearly floods are ruining the temples, as the saltpetre left when the water 'subsides eats away the stone. The fullest possible record of the monuments is thus needed. The authors incidentally give the reader some idea of the size of Karnak by saying that it is as long as Piccadilly from the Circus to Hyde Park Corner, and that the temple enclosure of Amon alone contains sixty-taro acres—almost the size of the Green Park. The Egyptian Kings did things on the grand scale.
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