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LUXOR, EGYPT
Whose Afraid of Ozymandias?
It is hard to imagine what the common Egyptians must have felt when they saw the towering statues built by the pharoahs. Even today, one stands in awe at the size and grandeur of the edifices. (Check out the size of these statues relative to the tiny man sitting below.) And yet for all they made, time makes all men equal.
Photo courtesy of Bill Hocker
I met a traveler from an antique land
Who said:Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert, near them, on the sand,
Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown,
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read,
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed,
And on the pedestal these words appear:
"My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings:
Look upon my works, ye Mighty, and despair!"
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away.
-Percy Bysshe Shelley 1792-1822