Explore "Sketches" by Benjamin Disraeli on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
THE characteristic of Egyptian architecture is Imagination; of Grecian architecture, Grace. When the Ptolemies assumed the sceptre of the Pharaohs, they blended the delicate taste of Ionia with the rich invention of the Nile; and they produced the most splendid creations of architectural power that can now be witnessed. Such is the refined Philoe -- such the magnificent Dendera -- such the sumptuous Edfou!
All the architectural remains of the most famous nations and the greatest empires, -- the amphitheatres, and arches, and columns of the Romans; the fanes of the Greeks; the temples of the Syrians and Sicilians; the Colosseum, the Parthenon, the courts of Baalbec, the pillars of Palmyra and Girgenti, -- sink into insignificance when compared with the structures that line the banks of an African river. The mind makes a leap amid their vastness, their variety, and their number. New combinations rise upon our limited invention and contract the taste, -- the pyramid, the propylon, the colossus, the catacomb, the obelisk, the sphinx.