CHAPTER II.

_RELIGIOUS ARCHITECTURE_.

In the civil and military architecture of Ancient Egypt brick played the

principal part; but in the religious architecture of the nation it occupied

a very secondary position. The Pharaohs were ambitious of building eternal

dwellings for their deities, and stone was the only material which seemed

sufficiently durable to withstand the ravages of time and man.

I.--MATERIALS AND PRINCIPLES OF CONSTRUCTION.

It is an error to suppose that the Egyptians employed only large blocks for

building purposes. The size of their materials varied very considerably

according to the uses for which they were destined. Architraves, drums of

columns, lintel-stones, and door-jambs were sometimes of great size. The

longest architraves known--those, namely, which bridge the nave of the

hypostyle hall of Karnak--have a mean length of 30 feet. They each contain

40 cubic yards, and weigh about 65 tons. Ordinarily, however, the blocks

are not much larger than those now used in Europe. They measure, that is to

say, about 2-1/2 to 4 feet in height, from 3 to 8 feet in length, and from

2 to 6 feet in thickness.

Some temples are built of only one kind of stone; but more frequently

materials of different kinds are put together in unequal proportions. Thus

the main part of the temples of Abydos consists of very fine limestone; but

in the temple of Seti I., the columns, architraves, jambs, and lintels,--

all parts, in short, where it might be feared that the limestone would not

offer sufficient resistance,--the architect has had recourse to sandstone;

while in that of Rameses II., sandstone, granite, and alabaster were used.

At Karnak, Luxor, Tanis, and Memphis, similar combinations may be seen. At

the Ramesseum, and in some of the Nubian temples, the columns stand on

massive supports of crude brick. The stones were dressed more or less

carefully, according to the positions they were to occupy. When the walls

were of medium thickness, as in most partition walls, they are well wrought

on all sides. When the wall was thick, the core blocks were roughed out as

nearly cubic as might be, and piled together without much care, the hollows

being filled up with smaller flakes, pebbles, or mortar. Casing stones were

carefully wrought on the faces, and the joints dressed for two-thirds or

three-quarters of the length, the rest being merely picked with a point

(Note 6). The largest blocks were reserved for the lower parts of the

building; and this precaution was the more necessary because the architects

of Pharaonic times sank the foundations of their temples no deeper than

those of their houses. At Karnak, they are not carried lower than from 7 to

10 feet; at Luxor, on the side anciently washed by the river, three courses

of masonry, each measuring about 2-1/2 feet in depth, form a great platform

on which the walls rest; while at the Ramesseum, the brickwork bed on

which the colonnade stands does not seem to be more than 10 feet deep.

These are but slight depths for the foundations of such great buildings,

but the experience of ages proves that they are sufficient. The hard and

compact humus of which the soil of the Nile valley is composed, contracts

every year after the subsidence of the inundation, and thus becomes almost

incompressible. As the building progressed, the weight of the

superincumbent masonry gradually became greater, till the maximum of

pressure was attained, and a solid basis secured. Wherever I have bared the

foundations of the walls, I can testify that they have not shifted.

[Illustration: Fig. 52.--Masonry in temple of Seti I. at Abydos.]

The system of construction in force among the ancient Egyptians resembles

in many respects that of the Greeks. The stones are often placed together

with dry joints, and without the employment of any binding contrivance, the

masons relying on the mere weight of the materials to keep them in place.

Sometimes they are held together by metal cramps, or sometimes--as in the

temple of Seti I., at Abydos--by dovetails of sycamore wood bearing the

cartouche of the founder. Most commonly, they are united by a mortar-joint,

more or less thick. All the mortars of which I have collected samples are

thus far of three kinds: the first is white, and easily reduced to an

impalpable powder, being of lime only; the others are grey, and rough to

the touch, being mixtures of lime and sand; while some are of a reddish

colour, owing to the pounded brick powder with which they are mixed. A

judicious use of these various methods enabled the Egyptians to rival the

Greeks in their treatment of regular courses, equal blocks, and upright

joints in alternate bond. If they did not always work equally well, their

shortcomings must be charged to the imperfect mechanical means at their

disposal. The enclosure walls, partitions, and secondary façades were

upright; and they raised the materials by means of a rude kind of crane

planted on the top. The pylon walls and the principal façades (and

sometimes even the secondary façades) were sloped at an angle which varied

according to the taste of the architect. In order to build these, they

formed inclined planes, the slopes of which were lengthened as the

structure rose in height. These two methods were equally perilous; for,

however carefully the blocks might be protected while being raised, they

were constantly in danger of losing their edges or corners, or of being

fractured before they reached the top (Note 7). Thus it was almost always

necessary to re-work them; and the object being to sacrifice as little as

possible of the stone, the workmen often left them of most abnormal shapes

(fig. 52). They would level off one of the side faces, and then the joint,

instead of being vertical, leaned askew. If the block had neither height

nor length to spare, they made up the loss by means of a supplementary

slip. Sometimes even they left a projection which fitted into a

corresponding hollow in the next upper or lower course. Being first of all

expedients designed to remedy accidents, these methods degenerated into

habitually careless ways of working. The masons who had inadvertently

hoisted too large a block, no longer troubled themselves to lower it back

again, but worked it into the building in one or other of the ways before

mentioned. The architect neglected to duly supervise the dressing and

placing of the blocks. He allowed the courses to vary, and the vertical

joints, two or three deep, to come one over the other. The rough work done,

the masons dressed down the stone, reworked the joints, and overlaid the

whole with a coat of cement or stucco, coloured to match the material,

which concealed the faults of the real work. The walls rarely end with a

sharp edge. Bordered with a torus, around which a sculptured riband is

entwined, they are crowned by the _cavetto_ cornice surmounted by a flat

band (fig. 53); or, as at Semneh, by a square cornice; or, as at Medinet

Habu, by a line of battlements. Thus framed in, the walls looked like

enormous panels, each panel complete in itself, without projections and

almost without openings. Windows, always rare in Egyptian architecture, are

mere ventilators when introduced into the walls of temples, being intended

to light the staircases, as in the second pylon of Horemheb at Karnak, or

else to support decorative woodwork on festival days. The doorways project

but slightly from the body of the buildings (fig. 54), except where the

lintel is over-shadowed by a projecting cornice. Real windows occur only in

the pavilion of Medinet Habu; but that building was constructed on the

model of a fortress, and must rank as an exception among religious

monuments.

[Illustration: Fig. 53.--Temple wall with cornice.]

[Illustration: Fig. 54.--Niche and doorway in temple of Seti I. at Abydos.]

[Illustration: Fig. 55.--Pavement of the portico of Osiris in the temple of

Seti I. at Abydos.]

The ground-level of the courts and halls was flagged with rectangular

paving stones, well enough fitted, except in the intercolumniations, where

the architects, hopeless of harmonising the lines of the pavement with the

curved bases of the columns, have filled in the space with small pieces,

set without order or method (fig. 55). Contrary to their practice when

house building, they have scarcely ever employed the vault or arch in

temple architecture. We nowhere meet with it, except at Deir el Baharî, and

in the seven parallel sanctuaries of Abydos. Even in these instances, the

arch is produced by "corbelling"; that is to say, the curve is formed by

three or four superimposed horizontal courses of stone, chiselled out to

the form required (fig. 56). The ordinary roofing consists of flat paving

slabs. When the space between the walls was not too wide, these slabs

bridged it over at a single stretch; otherwise the roof had to be supported

at intervals, and the wider the space the more these supports needed to be

multiplied. The supports were connected by immense stone architraves, on

which the roofing slabs rested.

[Illustration: Fig. 56.--"Corbelled" arch, temple of Seti I. at Abydos.]

The supports are of two types,--the pillar and the column. Some are cut

from single blocks. Thus, the monolithic pillars of the temple of the

sphinx (Note 8), the oldest hitherto found, measure 16 feet in height by 4-

1/2 feet in width. Monolithic columns of red granite are also found among

the ruins of Alexandria, Bubastis,[12] and Memphis, which date from the

reigns of Horemheb and Rameses II., and measure some 20 to 26 feet in

height. But columns and pillars are commonly built in courses, which are

often unequal and irregular, like those of the walls which surround them.

The great columns of Luxor are not even solid, two-thirds of the diameter

being filled up with yellow cement, which has lost its strength, and

crumbles between the fingers. The capital of the column of Taharka at

Karnak contains three courses, each about 48 inches high. The last and most

projecting course is made up of twenty-six convergent stones, which are

held in place by merely the weight of the abacus. The same carelessness

which we have already noted in the workmanship of the walls is found in

the workmanship of the columns.

[Illustration: Fig. 57.--Hathor pillar, Abû Simbel.]

[Illustration: Fig. 58.--Pillar of Amenhotep III., Karnak.]

The quadrangular pillar, with parallel or slightly inclined sides, and

generally without either base or capital, frequently occurs in tombs of the

ancient empire. It reappears later at Medinet Habû, in the temple of

Thothmes III., and again at Karnak, in what is known as the processional

hall. The sides of these square pillars are often covered with painted

scenes, while the front faces were more decoratively treated, being

sculptured with lotus or papyrus stems in high relief, as on the pillar-

stelae of Karnak, or adorned with a head of Hathor crowned with the

sistrum, as in the small speos of Abû Simbel (fig. 57), or sculptured with

a full-length standing figure of Osiris, as in the second court of Medinet

Habû; or, as at Denderah and Gebel Barkal, with the figure of the god Bes.

At Karnak, in an edifice which was probably erected by Horemheb with

building material taken from the ruins of a sanctuary of Amenhotep II. and

III., the pillar is capped by a cornice, separated from the architrave by a

thin abacus (fig. 58). By cutting away its four edges, the square pillar

becomes an octagonal prism, and further, by cutting off the eight new

edges, it becomes a sixteen-sided prism. Some pillars in the tombs of Asûan

and Beni Hasan, and in the processional hall at Karnak (fig. 59), as well

as in the chapels of Deir el Baharî, are of this type. Besides the forms

thus regularly evolved, there are others of irregular derivation, with

six, twelve, fifteen, or twenty sides, or verging almost upon a perfect

circle. The portico pillars of the temple of Osiris at Abydos come last in

the series; the drum is curved, but not round, the curve being interrupted

at both extremities of the same diameter by a flat stripe. More frequently

the sides are slightly channelled; and sometimes, as at Kalabsheh, the

flutings are divided into four groups of five each by four vertical flat

stripes (fig. 60). The polygonal pillar has always a large, shallow plinth,

in the form of a rounded disc. At El Kab it bears the head of Hathor,

sculptured in relief upon the front (fig. 61); but almost everywhere else

it is crowned with a simple square abacus, which joins it to the

architrave. Thus treated, it bears a certain family likeness to the Doric

column; and one understands how Jomard and Champollion, in the first ardour

of discovery, were tempted to give it the scarcely justifiable name of

"proto-Doric."

[Illustration: Fig. 59.--Sixteen-sided pillars, Karnak.]

The column does not rest immediately upon the soil. It is always furnished

with a base like that of the polygonal pillar, sometimes square with the

ground, and sometimes slightly rounded. This base is either plain, or

ornamented only with a line of hieroglyphs. The principal forms fall into

three types: (1) the column with campaniform, or lotus-flower capital; (2)

the column with lotus-bud capital; (3) the column with Hathor-head capital.

[Illustration: Fig. 60.--Fluted pillar, Kalabsheh.]

[Illustration: Fig. 61.--Polygonal Hathor-headed pillar, El Kab.]

I. _Columns with Campaniform Capitals_.--The shaft is generally plain, or

merely engraved with inscriptions or bas-reliefs. Sometimes, however, as at

Medamot, it is formed of six large and six small colonnettes in

alternation. In Pharaonic times, it is bulbous, being curved inward at the

base, and ornamented with triangles one within another, imitating the large

leaves which sheathe the sprouting plant. The curve is so regulated that

the diameter at the base and the top shall be about equal. In the Ptolemaic

period, the bulb often disappears, owing probably to Greek influences. The

columns which surround the first court at Edfû rise straight from their

plinths. The shaft always tapers towards the top. It is finished by three

or five flat bands, one above the other. At Medamot, where the shaft is

clustered, the architect has doubtless thought that one tie at the top

appeared insufficient to hold in a dozen colonnettes; he has therefore

marked two other rings of bands at regular intervals. The campaniform

capital is decorated from the spring of the curve with a row of leaves,

like those which sheathe the base. Between these are figured shoots of

lotus and papyrus in flower and bud. The height of the capital, and the

extent of its projection beyond the line of the shaft, varied with the

taste of the architect. At Luxor, the campaniform capitals are eleven and a

half feet in diameter at the neck, eighteen feet in diameter at the top,

and eleven and a half feet in height. At Karnak, in the hypostyle hall, the

height of the capital is twelve and a quarter feet, and the greatest

diameter twenty-one feet. A square die surmounts the whole. This die is

almost hidden by the curve of the capital, though occasionally, as at

Denderah, it is higher, and bears on each face a figure of the god Bes

(fig. 62).

[Illustration: Fig. 62.--Column with square die, Contra Esneh.]

[Illustration: Fig. 63.--Column with campaniform capital, Ramesseum.]

The column with campaniform capital is mostly employed in the middle avenue

of hypostyle halls, as at Karnak, the Ramesseum, and Luxor (fig. 63); but

it was not restricted to this position, for we also find it in porticoes,

as at Medinet Habû, Edfû, and Philae. The processional hall[13] of

Thothmes III., at Karnak, contains one most curious variety (fig. 64); the

flower is inverted like a bell, and the shaft is turned upside down, the

smaller end being sunk in the plinth, while the larger is fitted to the

wide part of the overturned bell. This ungraceful innovation achieved no

success, and is found nowhere else. Other novelties were happier,

especially those which enabled the artist to introduce decorative elements

taken from the flora of the country. In the earlier examples at Soleb,

Sesebeh, Bubastis, and Memphis, we find a crown of palm branches springing

from the band, their heads being curved beneath the weight of the abacus

(fig. 65). Later on, as we approach the Ptolemaic period, the date and the

half-unfolded lotus were added to the palm-branches (fig. 66).

[Illustration: Fig. 64.--Inverted campaniform capital, Karnak.]

[Illustration: Fig. 65.--Palm capital, Bubastis.]

[Illustration: Fig. 66.--Compound capital.]

Under the Ptolemies and the Caesars the capital became a complete basket of

flowers and leaves, ranged row above row, and painted in the brightest

colours (fig. 67.) At Edfû, Ombos, and Philae one would fancy that the

designer had vowed never to repeat the same pattern in the same portico.

[Illustration: Fig. 67.--Ornate capitals, Ptolemaic.]

[Illustration: Fig. 68.--Lotus-bud column, Beni Hasan.]

[Illustration: Fig. 69.--Lotus-bud column, processional hall, Thothmes

III., Karnak.]

[Illustration: Fig. 70.--Column in the aisles of the hypostyle hall at

Karnak.]

II. _Columns with Lotus-bud Capitals_.--Originally these may perhaps have

represented a bunch of lotus plants, the buds being bound together at the

neck to form the capital. The columns of Beni Hasan consist of four rounded

stems (fig. 68). Those of the Labyrinth, of the processional hall of

Thothmes III., and of Medamot, consist of eight stems, each presenting a

sharp edge on the outer side (fig. 69). The bottom of the column is

bulbous, and set round with triangular leaves. The top is surrounded by

three or five bands. A moulding composed of groups of three vertical

stripes hangs like a fringe from the lowest band in the space between

every two stems. So varied a surface does not admit of hieroglyphic

decoration; therefore the projections were by degrees suppressed, and the

whole shaft was made smooth. In the hypostyle hall at Gûrneh, the shaft is

divided in three parts, the middle one being smooth and covered with

sculptures, while the upper and lower divisions are formed of clustered

stems. In the temple of Khonsû, in the aisles of the hypostyle hall of

Karnak, and in the portico of Medinet Habû, the shaft is quite smooth, the

fringe alone being retained below the top bands, while a slight ridge

between each of the three bands recalls the original stems (fig. 70). The

capital underwent a like process of degradation. At Beni Hasan, it is

finely clustered throughout its height. In the processional hall of

Thothmes III., at Luxor, and at Medamot, a circle of small pointed leaves

and channellings around the base lessens the effect, and reduces it to a

mere grooved and truncated cone. In the hypostyle hall of Karnak, at

Abydos, at the Ramesseum, and at Medinet Habû, various other ornaments, as

triangular leaves, hieroglyphic inscriptions, or bands of cartouches

flanked by uraei, fill the space thus unfortunately obtained. Neither is

the abacus hidden as in the campaniform capital, but stands out boldly, and

displays the cartouche of the royal founder.

[Illustration: Fig. 71.--Hathor-head capital, Ptolemaic.]

III. _Columns with Hathor-head Capitals_.--We find examples of the Hathor-

headed column dating from ancient times, as at Deir el Baharî; but this

order is best known in buildings of the Ptolemaic period, as at Contra

Latopolis, Philae, and Denderah. The shaft and the base present no special

characteristics. They resemble those of the campaniform columns. The

capital is in two divisions. Below we have a square block, bearing on each

face a woman's head in high relief and crowned with a naos. The woman has

the ears of a heifer. Her hair, confined over the brow by three vertical

bands, falls behind the ears, and hangs long on the shoulders. Each head

supports a fluted cornice, on which stands a naos framed between two

volutes, and crowned by a slender abacus (fig. 71). Thus each column has

for its capital four heads of Hathor. Seen from a distance, it at once

recalls the form of the sistrum, so frequently represented in the bas-

reliefs as held in the hands of queens and goddesses. It is in fact a

sistrum, in which the regular proportions of the parts are disregarded. The

handle is gigantic, while the upper part of the instrument is unduly

reduced. This notion so pleased the Egyptian fancy that architects did not

hesitate to combine the sistrum design with elements borrowed from other

orders. The four heads of Hathor placed above a campaniform capital,

furnished Nectenebo with a composite type for his pavilion at Philae (fig.

72). I cannot say that the compound is very satisfactory, but the column is

in reality less ugly than it appears in engravings.

[Illustration: Fig. 72.--Campaniform and Hathor-headed capital, Philae.]

[Illustration: Fig. 73.--Section of the hypostyle hall at Karnak to show

the

arrangement of the two varieties: campaniform and lotus-bud columns.]

Shafts of columns were regulated by no fixed rules of proportion or

arrangement. The architect might, if he chose, make use of equal heights

with very different diameters, and, regardless of any considerations apart

from those of general harmony, might design the various parts according to

whatever scale best suited him. The dimensions of the capital had no

invariable connection with those of the shaft, nor was the height of the

shaft dependent on the diameter of the column. At Karnak, the campaniform

columns of the hypostyle hall measure 10 feet high in the capital, and 55

feet high in the shaft, with a lower diameter of 11 feet 8 inches. At

Luxor, the capital measures 11-1/2 feet, the shaft 49 feet, and the

diameter at the spring of the base 11-1/4 feet. At the Ramesseum, the shaft

and capital measure 35 feet, and the spring diameter is 6-1/2 feet. The

lotus-bud or clustered column gives similar results. At Karnak, in the

aisles of the hypostyle hall, the capital is 10 feet high, the shaft 33

feet, and the base diameter 6-3/4 feet. At the Ramesseum, the capital is 5-

1/2 feet high, the shaft 24-1/2 feet, and the base diameter 5 feet 10

inches. We find the same irregularity as to architraves. Their height is

determined only by the taste of the architect or the necessities of the

building. So also with the spacing of columns. Not only does the inter-

columnar space vary considerably between temple and temple, or chamber and

chamber, but sometimes--as in the first court at Medinet Habû--they vary in

the same portico. We have thus far treated separately of each type; but

when various types were associated in a single building, no fixed relative

proportions were observed. In the hypostyle hall at Karnak, the campaniform

columns support the nave, while the lotus-bud variety is relegated to the

aisles (fig. 73). There are halls in the temple of Khonsû where the lotus-

bud column is the loftiest, and others where the campaniform dominates the

rest. In what remains of the Medamot structure, campaniform and lotus-bud

columns are of equal height. Egypt had no definite orders like those of

Greece, but tried every combination to which the elements of the column

could be made to lend themselves; hence, we can never determine the

dimensions of an Egyptian column from those of one of its parts.

[12] For an account of the excavations at Bubastis, see Eighth and Tenth

Memoirs of the Egypt Exploration Fund, by M.E. Naville.

[13] French "Promenoir"; this is perhaps best expressed by "Processional

Hall," in accordance with the description of its purpose on p. 67.

--A.B.E.

2. THE TEMPLE.

[Illustration: Fig. 74.--Plan of temple of the Sphinx.]

Most of the famous sanctuaries--Denderah, Edfû, Abydos--were founded before

Men a by the _Servants of Hor_.[14] Becoming dilapidated or ruined in the

course of ages, they have been restored, rebuilt, remodelled, one after the

other, till nothing remains of the primitive design to show us what the

first Egyptian architecture was like. The funerary temples built by the

kings of the Fourth Dynasty have left some traces.[15] That of the second

pyramid of Gizeh was so far preserved at the beginning of the last century,

that Maillet saw four large pillars standing. It is now almost entirely

destroyed; but this loss has been more than compensated by the discovery,

in 1853, of a temple situate about fifty yards to the southward of the

sphinx (fig. 74). The façade is still hidden by the sand, and the inside is

but partly uncovered. The core masonry is of fine Tûrah limestone. The

casing, pillars, architraves, and roof were constructed with immense blocks

of alabaster or red granite (Note 9). The plan is most simple: In the

middle (A) is a great hall in shape of the letter T, adorned with sixteen

square pillars 16 feet in height; at the north-west corner of this hall is

a narrow passage on an inclined plane (B), by which the building is now

entered;[16] at the south-west corner is a recess (C) which contains six

niches, in pairs one over the other. A long gallery opening at each end

into a square chamber, now filled with rubbish (E), completes the plan.

Without any main door, without windows, and entered through a passage too

long to admit the light of day, the building can only have received light

and air through slanting air-slits in the roofing, of which traces are yet

visible on the tops of the walls (_e, e_) on each side of the main hall

(Note 10). Inscriptions, bas-reliefs, paintings, such as we are accustomed

to find everywhere in Egypt, are all wanting; and yet these bare walls

produce as great an impression upon the spectator as the most richly

decorated temples of Thebes. Not only grandeur but sublimity has been

achieved in the mere juxtaposition of blocks of granite and alabaster, by

means of purity of line and exactness of proportion.

Some few scattered ruins in Nubia, the Fayûm, and Sinai, do not suffice to

prove whether the temples of the Twelfth Dynasty merited the praises

lavished on them in contemporary inscriptions or not. Those of the Theban

kings, of the Ptolemies, and of the Caesars which are yet standing are in

some cases nearly perfect, while almost all are easy of restoration to

those who conscientiously study them upon the spot. At first sight, they

seem to present an infinite variety as to arrangement; but on a closer view

they are found to conform to a single type. We will begin with the

sanctuary. This is a low, small, obscure, rectangular chamber, inaccessible

to all save Pharaoh and the priests. As a rule it contained neither statue

nor emblem, but only the sacred bark, or a tabernacle of painted wood

placed upon a pedestal. A niche in the wall, or an isolated shrine formed

of a single block of stone, received on certain days the statue, or

inanimate symbol of the local god, or the living animal, or the image of

the animal, sacred to that god. A temple must necessarily contain this one

chamber; and if it contained but this one chamber, it would be no less a

temple than the most complex buildings. Very rarely, however, especially in

large towns, was the service of the gods thus limited to the strictly

necessary. Around the sanctuary, or "divine house," was grouped a series of

chambers in which sacrificial and ceremonial objects were stored, as

flowers, perfumes, stuffs, and precious vessels. In advance of this block

of buildings were next built one or more halls supported on columns; and in

advance of these came a courtyard, where the priests and devotees

assembled. This courtyard was surrounded by a colonnade to which the public

had access, and was entered through a gateway flanked by two towers, in

front of which were placed statues, or obelisks; the whole being surrounded

by an enclosure wall of brickwork, and approached through an avenue of

sphinxes. Every Pharaoh was free to erect a hall still more sumptuous in

front of those which his predecessors had built; and what he did, others

might do after him. Thus, successive series of chambers and courts, of

pylons and porticoes, were added reign after reign to the original nucleus;

and--vanity or piety prompting the work--the temple continued to increase

in every direction, till space or means had failed.

[Illustration: Fig. 75.--South Temple of Amenhotep III. at Elephantine.]

[Illustration: Fig. 76.--Plan of temple of Amenhotep III., at El Kab.]

The most simple temples were sometimes the most beautiful. This was the

case as regards the sanctuaries erected by Amenhotep III. in the island of

Elephantine, which were figured by the members of the French expedition at

the end of the last century, and destroyed by the Turkish governor of Asûan

in 1822. The best preserved, namely, the south temple (fig. 75), consisted

of but a single chamber of sandstone, 14 feet high, 31 feet wide, and 39

feet long. The walls, which were straight, and crowned with the usual

cornice, rested on a platform of masonry some 8 feet above the ground. This

platform was surrounded by a parapet wall, breast high. All around the

temple ran a colonnade, the sides each consisting of seven square pillars,

without capital or base, and the two façades, front and back, being

supported by two columns with the lotus-bud capital. Both pillars and

columns rose direct from the parapet; except on the east front, where a

flight of ten or twelve steps, enclosed between two walls of the same

height as the platform, led up to the _cella_. The two columns at the head

of the steps were wider apart than those of the opposite face, and through

the space thus opened was seen a richly-decorated door. A second door

opened at the other end, beneath the portico. Later, in Roman times, this

feature was utilised in altering the building. The inter-columnar space at

the end was filled up, and thus was obtained a second hall, rough and bare,

but useful for the purposes of the temple service. These Elephantine

sanctuaries bring to mind the peripteral temples of the Greeks, and this

resemblance to one of the most familiar forms of classical architecture

explains perhaps the boundless admiration with which they were regarded by

the French savants. Those of Mesheikh, of El Kab, and of Sharonah are

somewhat more elaborate. The building at El Kab is in three divisions (fig.

76); first, a hall of four columns (A); next, a chamber (B) supported by

four Hathor-headed pillars; and in the end wall, opposite the door, a niche

(C), approached by four steps. Of these small oratories the most complete

model now remaining belongs to the Ptolemaic period; namely, the temple of

Hathor at Deir el Medineh (fig. 77). Its length is just double its breadth.

The walls are built with a batter inclining inwards,[17] and are externally

bare, save at the door, which is framed in a projecting border covered with

finely-sculptured scenes. The interior is in three parts: A portico (B),

supported by two lotus flower columns; a pronaos (C), reached by a flight

of four steps, and separated from the portico by a wall which connects the

two lotus flower columns with two Hathor-headed pilasters _in antis_;

lastly, the sanctuary (D), flanked by two small chambers (E, E), which are

lighted by square openings cut in the ceiling. The ascent to the terrace is

by way of a staircase, very ingeniously placed in the south corner of the

portico, and furnished with a beautiful open window (F). This is merely a

temple in miniature; but the parts, though small, are so well proportioned

that it would be impossible to conceive anything more delicate or graceful.

[Illustration: Fig. 77.--Plan of temple of Hathor, Deir el Medineh.]

[Illustration: Fig. 78.--Plan of temple of Khonsû, Karnak.]

[Illustration: Fig. 79.--Pylon, with masts, from a bas-relief in the temple

of Khonsû at Karnak.]

[Illustration: Fig. 80.--The Ramesseum restored, to show the rising of the

ground.]

[Illustration: Fig. 81.--Crypts in the thickness of the walls, round the

sanctuary at Denderah.]

[Illustration: Fig. 82.--The pronaos of Edfû, as seen from the top of the

eastern pylon.]

We cannot say as much for the temple which the Pharaohs of the Twentieth

Dynasty erected to the south of Karnak, in honour of the god Khonsû (fig.

78); but if the style is not irreproachable, the plan is nevertheless so

clear, that one is tempted to accept it as the type of an Egyptian temple,

in preference to others more elegant or majestic. On analysis, it resolves

itself into two parts separated by a thick wall (A, A). In the centre of

the lesser division is the Holy of Holies (B), open at both ends and

isolated from the rest of the building by a surrounding passage (C) 10

feet in width. To the right and left of this sanctuary are small dark

chambers (D, D), and behind it is a hall of four columns (E), from which

open seven other chambers (F, F). Such was the house of the god, having no

communication with the adjoining parts, except by two doors (G) in the

southern wall (A, A). These opened into a wide and shallow hypostyle hall

(H), divided into nave and aisles. The nave is supported by four lotus-

flower columns, 23 feet in height; the aisles each contain two lotus-bud

columns 18 feet high. The roof of the nave is, therefore, 5 feet higher

than that of the sides. This elevation was made use of for lighting

purposes, the clerestory being fitted with stone gratings, which admitted

the daylight. The court (I) was square, and surrounded by a double

colonnade entered by way of four side-gates and a great central gateway

flanked by two quadrangular towers with sloping fronts. This pylon (K)

measures 105 feet in length, 33 feet in width, and 60 feet in height. It

contains no chambers, but only a narrow staircase, which leads to the top

of the gate, and thence up to the towers. Four long grooves in the façade,

reaching to a third of its height, correspond to four quadrangular openings

cut through. the whole thickness of the masonry. Here were fixed four

great wooden masts, formed of joined beams and held in place by a wooden

framework fixed in the four openings above mentioned. From these masts

floated long streamers of various colours (fig. 79). Such was the temple of

Khonsû, and such, in their main features, were the majority of the greater

temples of Theban and Ptolemaic times, as Luxor, the Ramesseum, Medinet

Habû, Edfû, and Denderah. Though for the most part half in ruins, they

affect one with a strange and disquieting sense of oppression. As mystery

was a favourite attribute of the Egyptian gods, even so the plan of their

temples is in such wise devised as to lead gradually from the full sunshine

of the outer world to the obscurity of their retreats. At the entrance we

find large open spaces, where air and light stream freely in. The hypostyle

hall is pervaded by a sober twilight; the sanctuary is more than half lost

in a vague darkness; and at the end of the building, in the farthest of the

chambers, night all but reigns completely. The effect of distance which was

produced by this gradual diminution of light, was still further heightened

by various structural artifices. The parts, for instance, are not on the

same level. The ground rises from the entrance (fig. 80), and there are

always a few steps to mount in passing from one part to another. In the

temple of Khonsû the difference of level is not more than 5-1/4 feet, but

it is combined with a lowering of the roof, which in most cases is very

strongly marked. From the pylon to the wall at the farther end, the height

decreases continuously. The peristyle is loftier than the hypostyle hall,

and the hypostyle hall is loftier than the sanctuary. The last hall of

columns and the farthest chamber are lower and lower still. The architects

of Ptolemaic times changed certain details of arrangement. They erected

chapels and oratories on the terraced roofs, and reserved space for the

construction of secret passages and crypts in the thickness of the walls,

wherein to hide the treasure of the god (fig. 81). They, however,

introduced only two important modifications of the original plan. The

sanctuary was formerly entered by two opposite doors; they left but one.

Also the colonnade, which was originally continued round the upper end of

the court, or, where there was no court, along the façade of the temple,

became now the pronaos, so forming an additional chamber. The columns of

the outer row are retained, but built into a wall reaching to about half

their height. This connecting wall is surmounted by a cornice, which thus

forms a screen, and so prevented the outer throng from seeing what took

place within (fig. 82). The pronaos is supported by two, three, or even

four rows of columns, according to the size of the edifice. For the rest,

it is useful to compare the plan of the temple of Edfû (fig. 83) with that

of the temple of Khonsû, observing how little they differ the one from the

other.

[Illustration: Fig. 83.--Plan of temple, Edfû.]

[Illustration: Fig. 84.--Plan of the temple of Karnak in the reign of

Amenhotep III.]

[Illustration: Fig. 85.--Plan of Hypostyle Hall, Karnak.]

[Illustration: Fig. 86.--Plan of great temple, Luxor.]

[Illustration: Fig. 87.--Plan of the Isle of Philae.]

Thus designed, the building sufficed for all the needs of worship. If

enlargement was needed, the sanctuary and surrounding chambers were

generally left untouched, and only the ceremonial parts of the building, as

the hypostyle halls, the courts, or pylons, were attacked. The procedure of

the Egyptians under these circumstances is best illustrated by the history

of the great temple of Karnak. Founded by Ûsertesen I., probably on the

site of a still earlier temple, it was but a small building, constructed of

limestone and sandstone, with granite doorways. The inside was decorated

with sixteen-sided pillars. The second and third Amenemhats added some work

to it, and the princes of the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Dynasties adorned

it with statues and tables of offerings. It was still unaltered when, in

the eighteenth century B.C., Thothmes I., enriched with booty of war,

resolved to enlarge it. In advance of what already stood there, he erected

two chambers, preceded by a court and flanked by two isolated chapels. In

advance of these again, he erected three successive pylons, one behind the

other. The whole presented the appearance of a vast rectangle placed

crosswise at the end of another rectangle. Thothmes II. and Hatshepsût[18]

covered the walls erected by their father with bas-relief sculptures, but

added no more buildings. Hatshepsût, however, in order to bring in her

obelisks between the pylons of Thothmes I., opened a breach in the south

wall, and overthrew sixteen of the columns which stood in that spot.

Thothmes III., probably finding certain parts of the structure unworthy of

the god, rebuilt the first pylon, and also the double sanctuary, which he

renewed in the red granite of Syene. To the eastward, he rebuilt some old

chambers, the most important among them being the processional hall, used

for the starting-point and halting-place of ceremonial processions, and

these he surrounded with a stone wall. He also made the lake whereon the

sacred boats were launched on festival days; and, with a sharp change of

axis, he built two pylons facing towards the south, thus violating the true

relative proportion which had till then subsisted between the body and the

front of the general mass of the building. The outer enclosure was now too

large for the earlier pylons, and did not properly accord with the later

ones. Amenhotep III. corrected this defect. He erected a sixth and yet more

massive pylon, which was, therefore, better suited for the façade. As it

now stood (fig. 84), the temple surpassed even the boldest architectural

enterprises hitherto attempted; but the Pharaohs of the Nineteenth Dynasty

succeeded in achieving still more. They added only a hypostyle hall (fig.

85) and a pylon; but the hypostyle hall measured 170 feet in length by 329

feet in breadth. Down the centre they carried a main avenue of twelve

columns, with lotus-flower capitals, being the loftiest ever erected in the

interior of a building; while in the aisles, ranged in seven rows on either

side, they planted 122 columns with lotus-bud capitals. The roof of the

great nave rose to a height of 75 feet above the level of the ground, and

the pylon stood some fifty feet higher still. During a whole century, three

kings laboured to perfect this hypostyle hall. Rameses I. conceived the

idea; Seti I. finished the bulk of the work, and Rameses II. wrought nearly

the whole of the decoration. The Pharaohs of the next following dynasties

vied with each other for such blank spaces as might be found, wherein to

engrave their names upon the columns, and so to share the glory of the

three founders; but farther they did not venture. Left thus, however, the

monument was still incomplete. It still needed one last pylon and a

colonnaded court. Nearly three centuries elapsed before the task was again

taken in hand. At last the Bubastite kings decided to begin the colonnades,

but their work was as feeble as their, resources were limited. Taharkah,

the Ethiopian, imagined for a moment that he was capable of rivalling the

great Theban Pharaohs, and planned a hypostyle hall even larger than the

first; but he made a false start. The columns of the great nave, which were

all that he had time to erect, were placed too wide apart to admit of being

roofed over; so they never supported anything, but remained as memorials of

his failure. Finally, the Ptolemies, faithful to the traditions of the

native monarchy, threw themselves into the work; but their labours were

interrupted by revolts at Thebes, and the earthquake of the year 27 B.C.

destroyed part of the temple, so that the pylon remained for ever

unfinished. The history of Karnak is identical with that of all the great

Egyptian temples. When closely studied, the reason why they are for the

most part so irregular becomes evident. The general plan is practically the

same, and the progress of the building was carried forward in the same

way; but the architects could not always foresee the future importance of

their work, and the site was not always favourable to the development of

the building. At Luxor (fig. 86), the progress went on methodically enough

under Amenhotep III. and Seti I., but when Rameses II. desired to add to

the work of his predecessors, a bend in the river compelled him to turn

eastwards. His pylon is not parallel to that of Amenhotep III., and his

colonnades make a distinct angle with the general axis of the earlier work.

At Philae (fig. 87) the deviation is still greater. Not only is the larger

pylon out of alignment with the smaller, but the two colonnades are not

parallel with each other. Neither are they attached to the pylon with a due

regard to symmetry. This arises neither from negligence nor wilfulness, as

is popularly supposed. The first plan was as regular as the most

symmetrically-minded designer could wish; but it became necessary to adapt

it to the requirements of the site, and the architects were thenceforth

chiefly concerned to make the best of the irregularities to which they were

condemned by the configuration of the ground. Such difficulties were, in

fact, a frequent source of inspiration; and Philae shows with what skill

the Egyptians extracted every element of beauty and picturesqueness from

enforced disorder.

[Illustration: Fig. 88.--Plan of Speos, Kalaat Addah, Nubia.]

[Illustration: Fig, 89.--Plan of Speos, Gebel Silsileh.]

[Illustration: Fig. 90.--Plan of the Great Speos, Abû Simbel.]

[Illustration: Fig. 91.--Speos of Hathor, Abû Simbel.]

[Illustration: Fig. 92.--Plan of the upper portion of the temple of Deir el

Baharî, showing the state of the excavations, the Speos of Hathor (A); the

rock-cut sanctuary (B); the rock-cut funerary chapel of Thothmes I. (C);

the Speos of Anubis (D); and the excavated niches of the northern

colonnade. Reproduced from Plate III. of the _Archaeological Report of the

Egypt Exploration Fund_ for 1893-4.]

[Illustration: Fig. 93.--Plan of temple of Seti I., at Abydos.]

The idea of the rock-cut temple must have occurred to the Egyptians at an

early period. They carved the houses of the dead in the mountain side; why,

therefore, should they not in like manner carve the houses of the gods? Yet

the earliest known Speos-sanctuaries date from only the beginning of the

Eighteenth Dynasty. They are generally found in those parts of the valley

where the cultivable land is narrowest, as near Beni Hasan, at Gebel

Silsileh, and in Nubia. All varieties of the constructed temple are found

in the rock-cut temple, though more or less modified by local conditions.

The Speos Artemidos is approached by a pillared portico, but contains only

a square chamber with a niche at the end for the statue of the goddess

Pakhet. At Kalaat Addah (fig. 88), a flat narrow façade (A) faces the

river, and is reached by a steep flight of steps; next comes a hypostyle

hall (B), flanked by two dark chambers (C), and lastly a sanctuary in two

storeys, one above the other (D). The chapel of Horemheb (fig. 89), at

Gebel Silsileh, is formed of a gallery parallel to the river (A), supported

by four massive pillars left in the rock. From this gallery, the sanctuary

chamber opens at right angles. At Abû Simbel, the two temples are excavated

entirely in the cliff. The front of the great speos (fig. 90) imitates a

sloping pylon crowned with a cornice, and guarded as usual by four seated

colossi flanked by smaller statues. These colossi are sixty-six feet high.

The doorway passed, there comes a first hall measuring 130 feet in length

by 60 feet in width, which corresponds to the usual peristyle. Eight

Osiride statues backed by as many square pillars, seem to bear the

mountain on their heads. Beyond this come (1) a hypostyle hall; (2) a

transverse gallery, isolating the sanctuary, and (3) the sanctuary itself,

between two smaller chambers. Eight crypts, sunk at a somewhat lower level

than that of the main excavation, are unequally distributed to right and

left of the peristyle. The whole excavation measures 180 feet from the

doorway to the end of the sanctuary. The small speos of Hathor, about a

hundred paces to the northward, is of smaller dimensions. The façade is

adorned with six standing colossi, four representing Rameses II., and two

his wife, Nefertari. The peristyle and the crypts are lacking (fig. 91),

and the small chambers are placed at either end of the transverse passage,

instead of being parallel with the sanctuary. The hypostyle hall, however,

is supported by six Hathor-headed pillars. Where space permitted, the rock-

cut temple was but partly excavated in the cliff, the forepart being

constructed outside with blocks cut and dressed, and becoming half grotto,

half building. In the hemi-speos at Derr, the peristyle is external to the

cliff; at Beit el Wally, the pylon and court are built; at Gerf Husein and

Wady Sabûah, pylon, court, and hypostyle hall are all outside the mountain,

The most celebrated and original hemi-speos is that built by Queen

Hatshepsût, at Deir el Baharî, in the Theban necropolis (fig. 92),[19] The

sanctuary and chapels which, as usual, accompany it, were cut about 100 ft.

above the level of the valley. In order to arrive at that height, slopes

were made and terraces laid out according to a plan which was not

understood until the site was thoroughly excavated.

Between the hemi-speos and the isolated temple, the Egyptians created yet

another variety, namely, the built temple backed by, but not carried into,

the cliff. The temple of the sphinx at Gizeh, and the temple of Seti I. at

Abydos, may be cited as two good examples. I have already described the

former; the area of the latter (fig. 93) was cleared in a narrow and

shallow belt of sand, which here divides the plain from the desert. It was

sunk up to the roof, the tops of the walls but just showing above the level

of the ground. The staircase which led up to the terraced roof led also to

the top of the hill. The front, which stood completely out, seemed in

nowise extraordinary. It was approached by two pylons, two courts, and a

shallow portico supported on square pillars. The unusual part of the

building only began beyond this point. First, there were two hypostyle

halls instead of one. These are separated by a wall with seven doorways.

There is no nave, and the sanctuary opens direct from the second hall.

This, as usual, consists of an oblong chamber with a door at each end; but

the rooms by which it is usually surrounded are here placed side by side in

a line, two to the right and four to the left; further, they are covered by

"corbelled" vaults, and are lighted only from the doors. Behind the

sanctuary are further novelties. Another hypostyle hall (K) abuts on the

end wall, and its dependencies are unequally distributed to right and left.

As if this were not enough, the architect also constructed, to the left of

the main building, a court, five chambers of columns, various passages and

dark chambers--in short, an entire wing branching off at right angles to

the axis of the temple proper, with no counterbalancing structures on the

other side. These irregularities become intelligible when the site is

examined. The cliff is shallow at this part, and the smaller hypostyle hall

is backed by only a thin partition of rock. If the usual plan had been

followed, it would have been necessary to cut the cliff entirely away, and

the structure would have forfeited its special characteristic--that of a

temple backed by a cliff--as desired by the founder. The architect,

therefore, distributed in width those portions of the edifice which he

could not carry out in length; and he even threw out a wing. Some years

later, when Rameses II. constructed a monument to his own memory, about a

hundred yards to the northward of the older building, he was careful not to

follow in his father's footsteps. Built on the top of an elevation, his

temple had sufficient space for development, and the conventional plan was

followed in all its strictness.

[Illustration: Fig. 94.--Crio-sphinx from Wady Es Sabûah.]

[Illustration: Fig. 95.--Couchant ram, with statuette of royal founder,

restored from the Avenue of Sphinxes at Karnak.]

Most temples, even the smallest, should be surrounded by a square

enclosure or temenos.[20] At Medinet Habu, this enclosure wall is of

sandstone--low, and embattled. The innovation is due to a whim of Rameses

III., who, in giving to his monument the outward appearance of a fortress,

sought to commemorate his Syrian victories. Elsewhere, the doorways are of

stone, and the walls are built in irregular courses of crude bricks. The

great enclosure wall was not, as frequently stated, intended to isolate the

temple and screen the priestly ceremonies from eyes profane. It marked the

limits of the divine dwelling, and served, when needful, to resist the

attacks of enemies whose cupidity might be excited by the accumulated

riches of the sanctuary. As at Karnak, avenues of sphinxes and series of

pylons led up to the various gates, and formed triumphal approaches. The

rest of the ground was in part occupied by stables, cellarage, granaries,

and private houses. Just as in Europe during the Middle Ages the population

crowded most densely round about the churches and abbeys, so in Egypt they

swarmed around the temples, profiting by that security which the terror of

his name and the solidity of his ramparts ensured to the local deity. A

clear space was at first reserved round the pylons and the walls; but in

course of time the houses encroached upon this ground, and were even built

up against the boundary wall. Destroyed and rebuilt century after century

upon the self-same spot, the _débris_ of these surrounding dwellings so

raised the level of the soil, that the temples ended for the most part by

being gradually buried in a hollow formed by the artificial elevation of

the surrounding city. Herodotus noticed this at Bubastis, and on

examination it is seen to have been the same in many other localities. At

Ombos, at Edfû, at Denderah, the whole city nestled inside the precincts of

the divine dwelling. At El Kab, where the temple temenos formed a separate

enclosure within the boundary of the city walls, it served as a sort of

donjon, or keep, in which the garrison could seek a last refuge. At Memphis

and at Thebes, there were as many keeps as there were great temples, and

these sacred fortresses, each at first standing alone in the midst of

houses, were, from the time of the Eighteenth Dynasty, connected each with

each by avenues of sphinxes. These were commonly andro-sphinxes, combining

the head of a man and the body of a lion; but we also find crio-sphinxes,

which united a ram's head with a lion's body (fig. 94). Elsewhere, in

places where the local worship admitted of such substitution, a couchant

ram, holding a statuette of the royal founder between his bent forelegs,

takes the place of the conventional sphinx (fig. 95). The avenue leading

from Luxor to Karnak was composed of these diverse elements. It was one

mile and a quarter in length, and there were many bends in it; but this

fact affords no fresh proof of Egyptian "symmetrophobia." The enclosures of

the two temples were not oriented alike, and the avenues which started

squarely from the fronts of each could never have met had they not deviated

from their first course. Finally, it may be said that the inhabitants of

Thebes saw about as much of their temples as we see at the present day. The

sanctuary and its immediate surroundings were closed against them; but they

had access to the façades, the courts, and even the hypostyle halls, and

might admire the masterpieces of their architects as freely as we admire

them now.

[14] _Hor-shesû_, "followers," or "servants of Horus," are mentioned

in the Turin papyrus as the predecessors of Mena, and are referred to

in monumental inscriptions as representing the pre-historic people of

Egypt. It is to the Hor-shesû that Professors Maspero and Mariette

attribute the making of the Great Sphinx.--A.B.E.

[15] For a full description of the oldest funerary chapel known, that of

King Sneferû, see W.M.F. Petrie's _Medum_.

[16] Conf. Mr. Petrie's plan of this temple in _Pyramids and Temples of

Gizeh_, Plate VI.--A.B.E.

[17] That is to say, the wall is vertical on the inside; but is

built much thicker at the bottom than at the top, so that on the

outside it presents a sloping surface, retiring with the height of

the wall.--A.B.E.

[18] "Hatshepsût," more commonly known as "Hatasû;" the new reading is,

however, more correct. Professor Maspero thinks that it was pronounced

"Hatshopsitû."--A.B.E.

[19] For full illustrated account of the complete excavation of this

temple, see the _Deir el Baharî_ publications of the Egypt

Exploration Fund.

[20] Temenos, _i.e._, the enclosure wall of the Temple, within which

all was holy ground.--A.B.E.

3.--DECORATION.

[Illustration: Figs. 96 to 101.--DECORATIVE DESIGNS, FROM DENDERAH.]

[Illustration: Fig. 96.]

[Illustration: Fig. 97.]

[Illustration: Fig. 98.]

[Illustration: Fig. 99.]

[Illustration: Fig. 100.]

[Illustration: Fig. 101.]

[Illustration: Fig. 102.--Two Nile-gods, bearing lotus flowers and libation

vases.]

[Illustration: Fig. 103.--Dado decoration, hall of Thothmes III., Karnak.]

[Illustration: Fig. 104.--Ceiling decoration, from tomb of Bakenrenf

(Bocchoris), Sakkarah, Twenty-sixth Dynasty.]

Ancient tradition affirmed that the earliest Egyptian temples contained

neither sculptured images, inscriptions, nor symbols; and in point of fact,

the Temple of the Sphinx is bare. But this is a unique example. The

fragments of architraves and masonry bearing the name of Khafra, which were

used for building material in the northern pyramid of Lisht, show that this

primitive simplicity had already been abandoned by the time of the Fourth

Dynasty. During the Theban period, all smooth surfaces, all pylons, wall-

faces, and shafts of columns, were covered with figure-groups and

inscriptions. Under the Ptolemies and the Caesars, figures and hieroglyphs

became so crowded that the stone on which they are sculptured seems to be

lost under the masses of ornament with which it is charged. We recognise at

a glance that these scenes are not placed at random. They follow in

sequence, are interlinked, and form as it were a great mystic book in which

the official relations between gods and men, as well as between men and

gods, are clearly set forth for such as are skilled to read them. The

temple was built in the likeness of the world, as the world was known to

the Egyptians. The earth, as they believed, was a flat and shallow plane,

longer than its width. The sky, according to some, extended overhead like

an immense iron ceiling, and according to others, like a huge shallow

vault. As it could not remain suspended in space without some support, they

imagined it to be held in place by four immense props or pillars. The floor

of the temple naturally represented the earth. The columns, and if needful

the four corners of the chambers, stood for the pillars. The roof, vaulted

at Abydos, flat elsewhere, corresponded exactly with the Egyptian idea of

the sky. Each of these parts was, therefore, decorated in consonance with

its meaning. Those next to the ground were clothed with vegetation. The

bases of the columns were surrounded by leaves, and the lower parts of the

walls were adorned with long stems of lotus or papyrus (fig. 96), in the

midst of which animals were occasionally depicted. Bouquets of water-plants

emerging from the water (fig. 97), enlivened the bottom of the wall-space

in certain chambers. Elsewhere, we find full-blown flowers interspersed

with buds (fig. 98), or tied together with cords (fig. 99); or those

emblematic plants which symbolise the union of Upper and Lower Egypt under

the rule of a single Pharaoh (fig. 100); or birds with human hands and

arms, perched in an attitude of adoration on the sign which represents a

solemn festival; or kneeling prisoners tied to the stake in couples, each

couple consisting of an Asiatic and a negro (fig. 101). Male and female

Niles (fig. 102), laden with flowers and fruits, either kneel, or advance

in majestic procession, along the ground level. These are the nomes, lakes,

and districts of Egypt, bringing offerings of their products to the god.

In one instance, at Karnak, Thothmes III. caused the fruits, flowers, and

animals indigenous to the foreign lands which he had conquered, to be

sculptured on the lower courses of his walls (fig. 103). The ceilings were

painted blue, and sprinkled with five-pointed stars painted yellow,

occasionally interspersed with the cartouches of the royal founder. The

monotony of this Egyptian heaven was also relieved by long bands of

hieroglyphic inscriptions. The vultures of Nekheb and Ûati, the goddesses

of the south and north, crowned and armed with divine emblems (fig. 104),

hovered above the nave of the hypostyle halls, and on the under side of the

lintels of the great doors, above the head of the king as he passed through

on his way to the sanctuary. At the Ramesseum, at Edfû, at Philae, at

Denderah, at Ombos, at Esneh, the depths of the firmament seemed to open to

the eyes of the faithful, revealing the dwellers therein. There the

celestial ocean poured forth its floods navigated by the sun and moon with

their attendant escort of planets, constellations, and decani; and there

also the genii of the months and days marched in long procession. In the

Ptolemaic age, zodiacs fashioned after Greek models were sculptured side by

side with astronomical tables of purely native origin (fig. 105). The

decoration of the architraves which supported the massive roofing slabs was

entirely independent of that of the ceiling itself. On these were wrought

nothing save boldly cut inscriptions, in which the beauty of the temple,

the names of the builder-kings who had erected it, and the glory of the

gods to whom it was consecrated, are emphatically celebrated. Finally, the

decoration of the lowest part of the walls and of the ceiling was

restricted to a small number of subjects, which were always similar: the

most important and varied scenes being suspended, as it were, between earth

and heaven, on the sides of the chambers and the pylons.

[Illustration: Fig. 105.--Zodiacal circle of Denderah.]

These scenes illustrate the official relations which subsisted between

Egypt and the gods. The people had no right of direct intercourse with the

deities. They needed a mediator, who, partaking of both human and divine

nature, was qualified to communicate with both. The king alone, Son of the

Sun, was of sufficiently high descent to contemplate the god in his temple,

to serve him, and to speak with him face to face. Sacrifices could be

offered only by him, or through him, and in his name. Even the customary

offerings to the dead were supposed to pass through his hands, and the

family availed themselves of his name in the formula _sûten ta hotep_ to

forward them to the other world. The king is seen, therefore, in all parts

of the temple, standing, seated, kneeling, slaying the victim, presenting

the parts, pouring out the wine, the milk, and the oil, and burning the

incense. All humankind acts through him, and through him performs its duty

towards the gods. When the ceremonies to be performed required the

assistance of many persons, then alone did mortal subordinates (consisting,

as much as possible, of his own family) appear by his side. The queen,

standing behind him like Isis behind Osiris, uplifts her hand to protect

him, shakes the sistrum, beats the tambourine to dispel evil spirits, or

holds the libation vase or bouquet. The eldest son carries the net or

lassoes the bull, and recites the prayer while his father successively

presents to the god each object prescribed by the ritual. A priest may

occasionally act as substitute for the prince, but other men perform only

the most menial offices. They are slaughterers or servants, or they bear

the boat or canopy of the god. The god, for his part, is not always alone.

He has his wife and his son by his side; next after them the gods of the

neighbouring homes, and, in a general way, all the gods of Egypt. From the

moment that the temple is regarded as representing the world, it must, like

the world, contain all gods, both great and small. They are most frequently

ranged behind the principal god, seated or standing; and with him they

share in the homage paid by the king. Sometimes, however, they take an

active part in the ceremonies. The spirits of On and Khonû[21] kneel before

the sun, and proclaim his praise. Hor, Set, or Thoth conducts Pharaoh into

the presence of his father Amen Ra, or performs the functions elsewhere

assigned to the prince or the priest. They help him to overthrow the victim

or to snare birds for the sacrifice; and in order to wash away his

impurities, they pour upon his head the waters of youth and life. The

position and functions of these co-operating gods were strictly defined in

the theology. The sun, travelling from east to west, divided the universe

into two worlds, the world of the north and the world of the south. The

temple, like the universe, was double, and an imaginary line passing

through the axis of the sanctuary divided it into two temples--the temple

of the south on the right hand, and the temple of the north on the left.

The gods and their various manifestations were divided between these two

temples, according as they belonged to the northern or southern hemisphere.

This fiction of duality was carried yet further. Each chamber was divided,

in imitation of the temple, into two halves, the right half belonging to

the south, and the left half to the north. The royal homage, to be

complete, must be rendered in the temples of the south and of the north,

and to the gods of the south and of the north, and with the products of the

south and of the north. Each sculptured tableau must, therefore, be

repeated at least twice in each temple--on a right wall and on a left wall.

Amen, on the right, receives the corn, the wine, the liquids of the south;

while on the left he receives the corn, the wine, and the liquids of the

north. As with Amen, so with Maut, Khonsû, Mentû, and many other gods. Want

of space frequently frustrated the due execution of this scheme, and we

often meet with a tableau in which the products of north and south together

are placed before an Amen who represents both Amen of the south and Amen of

the north. These departures from decorative usage are, however,

exceptional, and the dual symmetry is always observed where space permits.

[Illustration: Fig. 106.--Frieze of uraei and cartouches.]

In Pharaonic times, the tableaux were not over-crowded. The wall-surface

intended to be covered was marked off below by a line carried just above

the ground level decoration, and was bounded above by the usual cornice, or

by a frieze. This frieze might be composed of uraei, or of bunches of

lotus; or of royal cartouches (fig. 106) supported on either side by divine

symbols; or of emblems borrowed from the local cult (by heads of Hathor,

for instance, in a temple dedicated to Hathor); or of a horizontal line of

dedicatory inscription engraved in large and deeply-cut hieroglyphs. The

wall space thus framed in contained sometimes a single scene and sometimes

two scenes, one above the other. The wall must be very lofty, if this

number is exceeded. Figures and inscriptions were widely spaced, and the

scenes succeeded one another with scarcely a break. The spectator had to

discover for himself where they began or ended. The head of the king was

always studied from the life, and the faces of the gods reproduced the

royal portrait as closely as possible. As Pharaoh was the son of the gods,

the surest way to obtain portraits of the gods was to model their faces

after the face of the king. The secondary figures were no less carefully

wrought; but when these were very numerous, they were arranged on two or

three levels, the total height of which never exceeded that of the

principal personages. The offerings, the sceptres, the jewels, the

vestments, the head-dresses, and all the accessories were treated with a

genuine feeling for elegance and truth. The colours, moreover, were so

combined as to produce in each tableau the effect of one general and

prevailing tone; so that in many temples there were chambers which can be

justly distinguished as the Blue Hall, the Red Hall, or the Golden Hall. So

much for the classical period of decoration.

[Illustration: Fig. 107.--Wall of a chamber at Denderah, to show the

arrangement of the tableaux.]

As we come down to later times, these tableaux are multiplied, and under

the Greeks and Romans they become so numerous that the smallest wall

contained not less than four (fig. 107), five, six, or even eight

registers. The principal figures are, as it were, compressed, so as to

occupy less room, and all the intermediate space is crowded with thousands

of tiny hieroglyphs. The gods and kings are no longer portraits of the

reigning sovereign, but mere conventional types without vigour or life. As

for the secondary figures and accessories, the sculptor's only care is to

crowd in as many as possible. This was not due to a defect of taste, and to

the prevalence of a religious idea which decided but enforced these

changes. The object of decoration was not merely the delight of the eye.

Applied to a piece of furniture, a coffin, a house, a temple, decoration

possessed a certain magic property, of which the power and nature were

determined by each being or action represented, by each word inscribed or

spoken, at the moment of consecration. Every subject was, therefore, an

amulet as well as an ornament. So long as it endured, it ensured to the god

the continuance of homage rendered, or sacrifices offered, by the king. To

the king, whether living or dead, it confirmed the favours granted to him

by the god in recompense for his piety. It also preserved from destruction

the very wall upon which it was depicted. At the time of the Eighteenth

Dynasty, it was thought that two or three such amulets sufficed to compass

the desired effect; but at a later period it was believed that their number

could not be too freely multiplied, and the walls were covered with as many

as the surface would contain. An average chamber of Edfû or Denderah yields

more material for study than the hypostyle hall of Karnak; and the chapel

of Antoninus Pius at Philae, had it been finished, would have contained

more scenes than the sanctuary of Luxor and the passages by which it is

surrounded.

Observing the variety of subjects treated on the walls of any one temple,

one might at first be tempted to think that the decoration does not form a

connected whole, and that, although many series of scenes must undoubtedly

contain the development of an historic idea or a religious dogma, yet that

others are merely strung together without any necessary link. At Luxor, and

again at the Ramesseum, each face of the pylon is a battle-field on which

may be studied, almost day for day, the campaign of Rameses II. against the

Kheta, which took place in the fifth year of his reign. There we see the

Egyptian camp attacked by night; the king's bodyguard surprised during the

march; the defeat of the enemy; their flight; the garrison of Kadesh

sallying forth to the relief of the vanquished; and the disasters which

befell the prince of the Kheta and his generals. Elsewhere, it is not the

war which is represented, but the human sacrifices which anciently

celebrated the close of each campaign. The king is seen in the act of

seizing his prostrate prisoners by the hair of their heads, and uplifting

his mace as if about to shatter their heads at a single blow. At Karnak,

along the whole length of the outer wall, Seti I. pursues the Bedawîn of

Sinai. At Medinet Habû Rameses III. destroys the fleet of the peoples of

the great sea, or receives the cut-off hands of the Libyans, which his

soldiers bring to him as trophies. In the next scene, all is peace; and we

behold Pharaoh pouring out a libation of perfumed water to his father Amen.

It would seem as if no link could be established between these subjects,

and yet the one is the necessary consequence of the others. If the god had

not granted victory to the king, the king in his turn would not have

performed these ceremonies in the temple. The sculptor has recorded the

events in their order:--first the victory, then the sacrifice. The favour

of the god precedes the thank-offering of the king. Thus, on closer

examination, we find this multitude of episodes forming the several links

of one continuous chain, while every scene, including such as seem at first

sight to be wholly unexplained, represents one stage in the development of

a single action which begins at the door, is carried through the various

halls, and penetrates to the farthest recesses of the sanctuary. The king

enters the temple. In the courts, he is everywhere confronted by

reminiscences of his victories; and here the god comes forth to greet him,

hidden in his shrine and surrounded by priests. The rites prescribed for

these occasions are graven on the walls of the hypostyle hall in which they

were performed. These being over, king and god together take their way to

the sanctuary. At the door which leads from the public hall to the

mysterious part of the temple, the escort halts. The king crosses the

threshold alone, and is welcomed by the gods. He then performs in due order

all the sacred ceremonies enjoined by usage. His merits increase by virtue

of his prayers; his senses become exalted; he rises to the level of the

divine type. Finally he enters the sanctuary, where the god reveals himself

unwitnessed, and speaks to him face to face. The sculptures faithfully

reproduce the order of this mystic presentation:--the welcoming reception

on the part of the god; the acts and offerings of the king; the vestments

which he puts on and off in succession; the various crowns which he places

on his head. The prayers which he recites and the favours which are

conferred upon him are also recorded upon the walls in order of time and

place. The king, and the few who accompany him, have their backs towards

the entrance and their faces towards the door of the sanctuary. The gods,

on the contrary, or at least such as do not make part of the procession,

face the entrance, and have their backs turned towards the sanctuary. If

during the ceremony the royal memory failed, the king needed but to raise

his eyes to the wall, whereon his duties were mapped out for him.

[Illustration: Fig. 108.--Obelisk of Ûsertesen I., of Heliopolis.]

Nor was this all. Each part of the temple had its accessory decoration and

its furniture. The outer faces of the pylons were ornamented, not only with

the masts and streamers before mentioned, but with statues and obelisks.

The statues, four or six in number, were of limestone, granite, or

sandstone. They invariably represented the royal founder, and were

sometimes of prodigious size. The two Memnons seated at the entrance of the

temple of Amenhotep III., at Thebes, measured about fifty feet in height.

The colossal Rameses II. of the Ramesseum measured fifty-seven feet, and

that of Tanis at least seventy feet. The greater number, however, did not

exceed twenty feet. They mounted guard before the temple, facing outwards,

as if confronting an approaching enemy. The obelisks of Karnak are mostly

hidden amid the central courts; and those of Queen Hatshepsut were imbedded

for seventeen feet of their height in masses of masonry which concealed

their bases. These are accidental circumstances, and easy of explanation.

Each of the pylons before which they are stationed had in its turn been the

entrance to the temple, and was thrown into the rear by the works of

succeeding Pharaohs. The true place of all obelisks was in front of the

colossi, on each side of the main entrance.[22] They are always in pairs,

but often of unequal height. Some have professed to see in them the emblem

of Amen, the Generator; or a finger of the god; or a ray of the sun. In

sober truth, they are a more shapely form of the standing stone, or menhir,

which is raised by semi-civilised peoples in commemoration of their gods or

their dead. Small obelisks, about three feet in height, are found in tombs

as early as the Fourth Dynasty. They are placed to right and left of the

stela; that is to say, on either side of the door which leads to the

dwelling of the dead. Erected before the pylon-gates of temples, they are

made of granite, and their dimensions are considerable. The obelisk of

Heliopolis (fig. 108) measures sixty-eight feet in the shaft, and the

obelisks of Luxor stand seventy-seven and seventy-five and a half feet

high, respectively. The loftiest known is the obelisk of Queen Hatshepsût

at Karnak, which rises to a height of 109 feet. To convey such masses, and

to place them in equilibrium, was a sufficiently difficult task, and one is

at a loss to understand how the Egyptians succeeded in erecting them with

no other appliances than ropes and sacks of sand. Queen Hatshepsût boasts

that her obelisks were quarried, shaped, transported, and erected in seven

months; and we have no reason to doubt the truth of her statement.[23]

[Illustration: Fig. 109.--Obelisk of Ûsertesen I., Begig, Fayûm.]

Obelisks were almost always square, with the faces slightly convex, and a

slight slope from top to bottom. The pedestal was formed of a single square

block adorned with inscriptions, or with cynocephali in high relief,

adoring the sun. The point was cut as a pyramidion, and sometimes covered

with bronze or gilt copper. Scenes of offerings to Ra Harmakhis, Hor, Tûm,

or Amen are engraved on the sides of the pyramidion and on the upper part

of the prism. The four upright faces are generally decorated with only

vertical lines of inscription in praise of the king (Note 11). Such is the

usual type of obelisk; but we here and there meet with exceptions. That of

Begig in the Fayûm (fig. 109) is in shape a rectangular oblong, with a

blunt top. A groove upon it shows that it was surmounted by some emblem in

metal, perhaps a hawk, like the obelisk represented on a funerary stela in

the Gizeh Museum. This form, which like the first is a survival of the

menhir, was in vogue till the last days of Egyptian art. It is even found

at Axûm, in the middle of Ethiopia, dating from about the fourth century of

our era, at a time when in Egypt the ancient obelisks were being carried

out of the country, and none dreamed of erecting new ones. Such was the

accessory decoration of the pylon. The inner courts and hypostyle halls of

the temple contained more colossi. Some, placed with their backs against

the outer sides of pillars or walls, were half engaged in the masonry, and

built up in courses. At Luxor under the peristyle, and at Karnak between

each column of the great nave, were also placed statues of Pharaoh; but

these were statues of Pharaoh the victor, clad in his robe of state. The

right of consecrating a statue in the temple was above all a royal

prerogative; yet the king sometimes permitted private persons to dedicate

their statues by the side of his own. This was, however, a special favour,

and such monuments always bear an inscription stating that it is "by the

king's grace" that they occupy that position. Rarely as this privilege was

granted, it resulted in a vast accumulation of votive statues, so that in

the course of centuries the courts of some temples became crowded with

them. At Karnak, the sanctuary enclosure was furnished outside with a kind

of broad bench, breast high, like a long base. Upon this the statues were

placed, with their backs to the wall. Attached to each was an oblong block

of stone, with a projecting spout on one side; these are known as "tables

of offerings" (fig. 110). The upper face is more or less hollowed, and is

often sculptured with bas-relief representations of loaves, joints of beef,

libation vases, and other objects usually presented to the dead or to the

gods. Those of King Ameni Entef Amenemhat, at Gizeh, are blocks of red

granite more than three feet in length, the top of which is hollowed out in

regular rows of cup-holes, each cup-hole being reserved for one particular

offering. There was, in fact, an established form of worship provided for

statues, and these tables were really altars upon which were deposited

sacrificial offerings of meat, cakes, fruits, vegetables, and the like.

[Illustration: Fig. 110.--Table of offerings, Karnak.]

[Illustration: Fig. 111.--Limestone altar.]

[Illustration: Fig.112.--Naos of wood in the Museum at Turin.]

The sanctuary and the surrounding chambers contained the objects used in

the ceremonial of worship. The bases of altars varied in shape, some being

square and massive, others polygonal or cylindrical. Some of these last are

in form not unlike a small cannon, which is the name given to them by the

Arabs. The most ancient are those of the Fifth Dynasty; the most beautiful

is one dedicated by Seti I., now in the Gizeh Museum. The only perfect

specimen of an altar known to me was discovered at Menshîyeh in 1884 (fig.

111). It is of white limestone, hard and polished like marble. It stands

upon a pedestal in the form of a long cone, having no other ornament than a

torus about half an inch below the top. Upon this pedestal, in a hollow

specially prepared for its reception, stands a large hemispherical basin.

The shrines are little chapels of wood or stone (fig. 112), in which the

spirit of the deity was supposed at all times to dwell, and which, on

ceremonial occasions, contained his image. The sacred barks were built

after the model of the Bari, or boat, in which the sun performed his daily

course. The shrine was placed amidship of the boat, and covered with a

veil, or curtain, to conceal its contents from all spectators. The crew

were also represented, each god being at his post of duty, the pilot at the

helm, the look-out at the prow, the king upon his knees before the door of

the shrine. We have not as yet discovered any of the statues employed in

the ceremonial, but we know what they were like, what part they played,

and of what materials they were made. They were animated, and in addition

to their bodies of stone, metal, or wood, they had each a soul magically

derived from the soul of the divinity which they represented. They spoke,

moved, acted--not metaphorically, but actually. The later Ramessides

ventured upon no enterprises without consulting them. They stated their

difficulties, and the god replied to each question by a movement of the

head. According to the Stela of Bakhtan,[24] a statue of Khonsû places its

hands four times on the nape of the neck of another statue, so transmitting

the power of expelling demons. It was after a conversation with the statue

of Amen in the dusk of the sanctuary, that Queen Hatshepsût despatched her

squadron to the shores of the Land of Incense.[25] Theoretically, the

divine soul of the image was understood to be the only miracle worker;

practically, its speech and motion were the results of a pious fraud.

Interminable avenues of sphinxes, gigantic obelisks, massive pylons, halls

of a hundred columns, mysterious chambers of perpetual night--in a word,

the whole Egyptian temple and its dependencies--were built by way of a

hiding-place for a performing puppet, of which the wires were worked by a

priest.

[21] That is, the spirits of the North, represented by On (Heliopolis), and

of the South (Khonû).--A.B.E.

[22] At Tanis there seems to have been a close succession of obelisks and

statues along the main avenue leading to the Temple, without the usual

corresponding pylons. These were ranged in pairs; _i.e._, a pair

of obelisks, a pair of statues; a pair of obelisks, a pair of shrines;

and then a third pair of obelisks. See _Tanis_, Part I., by

W.M.F. Petrie, published by the Egypt Exploration Fund, 1884.--A.B.E.

[23] This fact is recorded in the hieroglyphic inscription upon the

obelisks.--A.B.E.

[24] This celebrated tablet, preserved in the Bibliothèque Nationale,

Paris, has been frequently translated, and is the subject of a

valuable treatise by the late Vicomte de Rougé. It was considered

authentic till Dr. Erman, in an admirable paper contributed to the

_Zeitschrift,_ 1883, showed it to have been a forgery concocted

by the priests of Khonsû during the period of the Persian rule in

Egypt, or in early Ptolemaic times. (See Maspero's _Hist. Ancienne

des Peuples de l'Orient_, chap, vi., pp. 287, 288. Fourth

Edition.)--A.B.E.

[25] The Land of Incense, called also in the inscriptions "The Land of

Pûnt," was the country from which the Egyptians imported spices,

precious woods, gums, etc. It is supposed to represent the southern

coasts of the Red Sea, on either side the Bab el Mandeb. Queen

Hatshepsût's famous expedition is represented in a series of coloured

bas-relief sculptures on the walls of her great temple at Deir el

Baharî, reproduced in Dr. Dümichen's work, _The Fleet of an Egyptian

Queen_, and in Mariette's _Deîr el Baharî_. For a full account

of this temple, its decoration, and the expedition of Hatshepsût, see

the _Deir el Baharî_ publications of the Egypt Exploration Fund.