Jasper County Democrat, Volume 7, Number 40, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 7 January 1905 — The Host Ancient Ruins. [ARTICLE]

The Host Ancient Ruins.

The oldest architectural ruins in the world are believed to be the rock cut temples at Ipsambool, on the left bank of the Nile, in Nubia. The largest of these ancient temples contains fourteen apartments hewn out of solid stone. The largest single stone used in this work is one which forms a veranda-like projection along one side of the main temple. It is fifty-seven feet long, fif-ty-two broad and seventeen (one account says nineteen) feet thick. This colossal stone is supported by two rows of massive square pillars, four in each row and each thirty feet high. To each of these pillars is attached a colossal figure of a human being, reaching from floor to roof. In front of the main temple are seated still other colossi, four in number, the two largest being each sixty-five feet high. The only hint we have as to the actual age of these architectural relics is from Smith, the British Egyptologist, who says, “The colossi attached to the columns which support the large stone mentioned are each painted in gaudy colors in a kind of stucco, apparently ns brilliant now after a lapse of over 4,000 years as when first laid on.”