EGYPTIAN ARCHITECTURE
The remains of monumental architecture in Egypt afford a remarkable
opportunity of studying the development from primitive types of
structure. The earliest, which comprise the _pyramids_, _mastabas_, and
two examples of _temples_, represent developed forms of the _tumulus_
and _dolmen_, while the later temples, which began to appear in the
Twelfth Dynasty, exhibit their origin in the primitive hut of the
country.
THE ANCIENT EMPIRE
=Great Sphinx.=--Meanwhile among the earliest monuments, of uncertain date
and origin, is the Great Sphinx of =Gizeh=. It is the prototype of the
sphinxes that were afterwards used to form avenues of approach to the
temples, being distinguished from the Greek type of Sphinx by the fact
that the recumbent lion body is wingless and carries a male instead of
female head and bust. The heads of the later sphinxes represented
portraits of the reigning kings, the conception symbolised in the whole
figure being the royal power. An inscription, however, upon a small
temple, which was erected between the paws of the Great Sphinx in the
Eighteenth Dynasty, records that it was made in honour of Harmachis, one
of the forms of the Sun-god, Ra.
Hewn out of the living rock, it faces eastward, as if on guard over the
pyramids and the entrance to the Nile Valley. The dimensions, when the
sand was cleared from
[Illustration: SECTION OF PYRAMID
SHOWING KING’S CHAMBER, QUEEN’S CHAMBER AND A THIRD ONE BELOW. P. 40]
[Illustration: MODELS OF MASTABAS
FROM THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART, N. Y. P. 40]
[Illustration: TYPES OF EGYPTIAN COLUMNS
BELL OR CAMPANIFORM HATHOR-HEADED LOTUS BUD: UPPER FROM
BENI HASSAN
P. 52]
[Illustration: TEMPLE-TOMB OF RAMESES II AT ABOU-SIMBEL.
P. 45]
[Illustration: PLAN OF RAMESSEUM OR TEMPLE-TOMB OF RAMESES II
NEAR DEIR-EL-BAHRI. SHOWING PYLONS, TWO FORECOURTS WITH COLONNADES;
HYPOSTYLE HALL OR HALL OF COLUMNS, AND THE SANCTUARY AND RITUAL
CHAMBERS. TYPE OF ALL EGYPTIAN TEMPLE PLANS. P. 46]
[Illustration: © Metropolitan Museum of Art, N. Y.
MODEL HYPOSTYLE HALL AT KARNAK
SHOWING CONSTRUCTION AND DECORATION. P. 51]
[Illustration: PERIPTERAL SANCTUARY
SURROUNDED ON FOUR SIDES BY COLUMNS. AT PHILÆ. P. 53]
[Illustration: TEMPLE OF EDFOU
ENTRANCE TO HYPOSTYLE HALL. METHOD OF ADMITTING LIGHT IN PTOLEMAIC
PERIOD. P. 54]
[Illustration: EXAMPLE OF CARVED DECORATION P. 48]
the body in the nineteenth century, were found to be: length, 189 feet;
height, 66 feet. The face, which was originally painted red, has lost
part of the nose and beard, as the result of being used as a target by
the Mameluke cavalry.
=Pyramids.=--The Pyramids, numbering over a hundred, were the sepulchres
of the kings of the first twelve Dynasties. Some, for example, the one
at =Sakkarah=, attributed to Senefrou of the Third Dynasty, are of the
form known as _stepped-pyramids_, their sides ascending in six bold
steps; there is one at =Dashour= which slopes steeply from the ground and
then breaks to a gentler slope; but the usual type is an unbroken
pyramid on a square base.
Three of these, situated at =Gizeh=, are of surprising size and known by
the names of their builders: =Cheops= or Khufu; =Chephren= or Khafra, and
=Mycerinus= or Menkara; all of the Fourth Dynasty. The largest of these,
that of =Cheops=, known as the Great Pyramid, is 482 feet high, with a
side length of 764 feet. It is, in fact, 150 feet higher than St. Paul’s
Cathedral, 50 feet higher than St. Peter’s, while it covers an area
nearly three times that of the latter.
The evolution of the pyramid form has been traced from the method of
burial. In prehistoric times the body was laid in a square pit which was
roofed over with poles and brushwood, covered with sand. The kings of
the First Dynasty lined the pit with wood. Later a wooden chamber with a
beam roof was erected within the pit, descent to which was by a stairway
on one side. Still later, the whole was covered by a pile of earth, held
in place by dwarf walls. Then, in the Third Dynasty, the earth was
replaced by a mass of brickwork with a sloping passage leading down to
the mummy chamber, and subsequently stone was employed. The completed
development is represented in the pyramids of Gizeh.
They are constructed of limestone upon a foundation of levelled rock and
were originally finished on the outside with massive blocks of polished
stone. The entrance is on the north side by a passage, which first
descends and then rises to the principal chamber, which contained the
king’s sarcophagus. This was lined on the east and west sides with
immense stones, supporting several layers of horizontal blocks, crowned
with a gable, formed of stones, which are so placed that they exert no
thrust upon the stones below. A similar gable formed the ceiling of the
Queen’s Chamber, which is situated at a lower level, while at a still
lower level is a third chamber.
The statues and sculptured reliefs, discovered in the pyramids and
mastabas of the Fourth to Sixth Dynasties, exhibit not only a highly
developed skill in the cutting of hard and soft stone, and ivory and
wood and in beating copper but also remarkable expression of character.
The minute statuette in ivory of Cheops, though the face is only about a
quarter of an inch in length, is a portrait of extraordinary force, and
the life-size figure of Chephren, carved in hard diorite, is equally
distinguished for its serenity and power. The character of all the
sculpture, even of low-reliefs of everyday scenes, is but little
naturalistic, being impressed with a certain grandeur, as of something
inevitable and immutable.
The earliest example of wall-painting appears at Sakkarah in the Pyramid
of Onas, the last king of the Fifth Dynasty; where, amid the record of
ritual observances, is depicted the grinding of the god’s bones to make
bread.
=Mastabas.=--From the methods of burial were also developed the type of
the =mastabas= or tombs of the royal family, priests, and chieftains,
which were erected at =Sakkarah=, near Memphis, during the Fourth, Fifth,
and Sixth Dynasties. The name is derived from the Arabian term for a
bench, the familiar type of which is a seat, supported upon boards that
slope inward. Similarly the tomb has a flat roof and _battered_, or
inward sloping, walls of masonry. It is entered usually on the east
side, by a passage that descends to the Chamber of Offering, which
contains, to hold the offerings, a sculptured table. Near it a vertical
pit, or well, from forty to fifty feet deep, is sunk in the solid rock,
communicating with the mummy chamber. Another hidden chamber, often
connected with the Chamber of Offering, is known as the _Serdab_, which
was intended to serve as a home for the deceased’s Ka or “double.” It
contained a statue of the deceased and sometimes a model of his home and
representations of his occupations during life. Thus, in the =Mastaba of
Thy=, with a view to inducing the Ka to overlook the break that has
occurred in the life of the deceased, the reliefs depict harvest
operations, ship-building scenes, the arts and crafts of the period, the
slaughtering of sacrificial animals and Thy himself traversing the
marshes in a boat.
=Sphinx Temple.=--Akin to the mastaba is the earliest type of temple, such
as the so-called Sphinx Temple, which although near the Great Sphinx is
now attributed to Chephren. Partially excavated out of rock, it is T
shaped in plan, with two rows of square piers in the longitudinal
portion and one row in the transverse, supporting the stone beams of the
roof. The piers are monoliths of polished granite, while the interior
walls are veneered with slabs of alabaster. The whole was embedded in a
rectangular mass of masonry. Another temple of the Fourth or Fifth
Dynasty is represented as restored in a model in the Metropolitan
Museum, New York.
FIRST THEBAN MONARCHY OR MIDDLE EMPIRE
With the removal of the seat of government from Memphis to Thebes
commenced the First Theban Monarchy or Middle Empire, comprising the
Eleventh, Twelfth, and Thirteenth Dynasties. Abydos and Beni Hassan now
became the place of tombs.
Two types of tomb distinguish this period. One, frequently found at
=Abydos=, consists of a pyramidal structure with a cubical porch on one
side, entered by an arched portal. The latter feature proves that the
Egyptians were familiar with the principle of the arch, although they
did not employ it in their monumental buildings. It appears later in the
elliptical barrel-vaultings which crowned the long tunnel-like cellars
that Rameses I (The Great) erected for the storage of grain. The above
mentioned tombs were structural, whereas those of the second type were
excavated in the vertical rock-wall that forms the west bank of the
Nile; their entrance thus being toward the east. At =Beni Hassan= is a
group of thirty-nine such tombs which show a marked progress in
architectural design.
The front of each presents a porch, composed of columns supporting a
cornice, the latter being surmounted by a row of projections or
_dentils_ that resemble the ends of beams. The shafts of the columns are
polygonal, with eight, sixteen, or thirty-two faces, and are surmounted
by a square _abacus_. It has been conjectured that these columns may be
the prototype of the Doric column and accordingly their type has been
designated as _proto-Doric_. Meanwhile the columns inside the tomb
exhibit a stage in the development of the _lotus_ column; the motive of
their design having been derived from a post around the top of which had
been fastened the decoration of a cluster of lotus buds. The interior
walls of these tombs are decorated with pictorial scenes, executed in
red, yellow, and blue.
=Obelisks.=--To the Twelfth Dynasty belongs the earliest =Obelisk= still in
position; that of =Usertesen I=, in the necropolis of =Memphis=, its
companion having fallen. For these developed forms of the monolithic
_menhir_, regarded by the Egyptians as symbols of royalty and of the
Sun-god, Ra, were placed in pairs, usually before the entrance of a
temple. Their design was of great refinement, the taper being regulated
very carefully in proportion to the width and height. The top was
crowned with a small pyramid which in certain instances, at any rate,
was capped with metal. The sides of the shaft were given a slight convex
curve, or _entasis_, to offset the effect of concavity which they might
have produced if rectilinear, and also to relieve the rigidity of the
design. It is one of the instances which prove that the Egyptians
understood and practised the principle of _asymmetry_, or deviation from
strictly geometrical formality--a subject we shall study more fully in
Hellenic and Gothic architecture.
The two obelisks now known as =Cleopatra’s Needles=, one of which is on
the Thames Embankment, London, the other in Central Park, New York, were
removed from Heliopolis to Alexandria by the Romans. They were
originally erected by Thothmes III of the Eighteenth Dynasty, whose
half-sister, Queen Hatasu, numbered among her achievements the
completion and erection of an obelisk, 100 feet high, in the short space
of seven months.
From this period of the Middle Empire survive the fragments of three
temples. Amid the ruins of =Bubastis= have been found examples of the type
of _clustered lotus_ columns, while portions of polygonal columns,
discovered among the ruins of the Great Temple at Karnak, have been
identified as belonging to a temple of the Twelfth Dynasty. The evidence
which these remains afford of the fact that such columns were employed
in actual construction as well as in rock-cut form, has been
corroborated by the recent discovery of a sepulchral temple on the south
side of the Temple of Deir-el-Bahri--to be mentioned later--of which it
is the prototype. For the earlier was reached by steps that led up to a
solid mass of masonry, which in the opinion of some authorities was
crowned by a pyramid. It was surrounded by a peristyle, composed of an
outer range of square piers and an inner one of octagonal columns.
It is surmised, in fact, that during the Middle Empire, which was a
period of great development in the arts of peace, many of the
architectural problems were worked out in temples, afterwards destroyed,
to make way for the superior developments that were achieved under the
Second Theban Empire.
SECOND THEBAN EMPIRE OR NEW EMPIRE
No architectural monuments mark the period of Hyksos usurpation. But the
expulsion of the invaders and the restoration of the power alike of the
monarchy and of the national religion produced an outburst of patriotic
ardour that was fostered by rulers of exceptional greatness. The
Eighteenth, Nineteenth, and Twentieth Dynasties are brilliant with the
prowess and architectural creations that are associated with such names
as Thothmes, Amenophis, Queen Hatasu, Seti and Rameses.
The =Tombs= of the New Theban Empire comprised both the structural and the
excavated types. The rock-cut royal tombs are distinguished by the
extent and complexity of their shafts, passages, and chambers, designed
to baffle the efforts of any possible marauder, while notwithstanding
the darkness which fills all the spaces, the walls are brilliantly
decorated with coloured reliefs for the propitiation of the Ka. In
contrast with the interior is the extreme simplicity of the entrance, of
which the main features are the majestic colossal seated figures of the
Monarch, which take the place of the statue within the tomb. The
grandest example is the =Temple-Tomb of Rameses II= at =Abou Simbel=.
An exception to this external simplicity is the =Temple-Tomb= of =Queen
Hatasu= at =Deir-el-Bahri=, which, however, presents a combination of the
structural and excavated types, for projecting from the face of the rock
was an extensive portico, from which steps seem to have descended to a
terrace bounded by a peristyle and communicating by another flight of
steps with the lower ground--an impressive architectural ensemble,
designed, apparently, for ritual ceremonies.
The most magnificent examples of the purely structural Tomb are the
=Ramesseum= or =Tomb of Rameses II=, near =Deir-el-Bahri=, and that of =Rameses
III= at =Medinet Abou=. They may have been rivalled by the =Amenopheum= or
Tomb of Amenophis III, of which, however, scarce a trace remains except
the colossal seated figures, fifty-six feet high, of the King and his
Queen. The former is known as the “Vocal Memnon,” a name given to it by
the Greeks, after that of the son of Eos (Dawn), because of the legend,
that when the statue was smitten by the rays of the rising sun, it gave
forth a sound as of a broken chord.
The Ramesseum is a sepulchral temple and its plan, involving a sanctuary
and ritual chambers, a hall of columns entered between pylons, and
forecourts, presents the typal form of Temple plan.
=Temples.=--The New Theban Empire was the great age of Temple Building. It
is characteristic of the conservatism of the Egyptians not only that the
style of their monumental architecture was evolved from the rude
primitive hut-construction but also that it preserved features of the
latter, even though the necessity for them no longer existed. And so
persistent was the adherence to these features, now transformed into
elements of beauty, that they were continued even in the later temples,
built during the period of Roman domination.
It has been suggested that the origin of the style can be discovered in
the modelled and sculptured reliefs of the house of the deceased, found
in the earliest rock-cut tombs. The house represents a developed stage
of the still earlier hut, the character of which was determined by the
scarcity of wood. Instead, therefore, of employing poles, connected by
wattled twigs or reeds and covered with mud, the Egyptians fashioned the
alluvial deposit into bricks, dried in the sun, which they laid in
horizontal courses, each layer projecting inwards, until the walls met
at the top. Gradually this beehive form of construction was modified in
the better class of dwellings, by the adoption of a square plan and the
use of the trunks of palm trees to form the lintel of the door and to
support a flat mud-covered roof. The representations at =Gizeh= show that
bundles of reeds were used to reinforce the angles of the structure and
were also laid along the top of the walls, so as to form a rolled
border, corresponding to what is later called a _torus_. This, through
the weight of the roof, had a tendency to be forced outward, so that it
formed what was practically a concave cornice along the top of the wall.
Hence the so-called _cavetto_ cornice which is one of the marked
distinctions of the Egyptian monumental style. Moreover, while the
sun-dried bricks acquire a hardness and compactness, they are unable to
sustain much pressure, so that it was necessary to make the walls
thicker at the bottom than at the top. From this resulted the _batter_
of the walls, which is another distinctive characteristic of the
Egyptian style. Further, owing to the intense heat, windows were
dispensed with and the walls in consequence were unbroken except by the
entrance. To this day the houses of the poorer classes are built as of
old and present the rudiments out of which was developed the style of
the stone-built temples, so vastly impressive in the embodied suggestion
of elemental grandeur and eternal durability.
From the outside were visible only the walls and portal of the
rectangular temple enclosure. The walls sloped backward, like the glacis
of a fortification. A clustered torus moulding, as of reeds bound
together at intervals, so as to produce alternate hollows and swells,
ran up each of the angles of the masonry and along the top of the walls,
where it was surmounted by a cavetto cornice, terminating in a square
moulding. A similar finish crowned the entrance door and its flanking
pylons. The door, framed at the sides and top with squared blocks of
stone, frankly proclaimed the post and beam principle that also
governed the interior construction of the temple.
The door was flanked by _pylons_, each a truncated pyramid with oblong
base; the form, in fact, of a hut grandiosely enlarged into a decorative
feature of immense impressiveness. Set into its walls were rings to hold
flag-staffs, and the surface of the pylon, like that of the walls, was
resplendent with coloured reliefs, extolling the prowess of the King who
had erected the temple. His statue flanked the doorway, in front of
which soared two obelisks, while the roadway that led to the temple was
embellished with an avenue of sphinxes. These avenues were of great
length, the one from Karnak to Luxor extending a mile and a half.
On the lintel over the door was the winged globe, symbol of the Sun’s
flight through the sky to conquer Night. Other symbolic ornaments
adorned the jambs and the various cornices, while historic pictures,
recording the achievements of the monarch’s rule, covered the surfaces
of walls and pylons. All were executed in the same way as the symbolic
ornament and the pictures in honour of the deity, which covered the
walls, columns, beams, and ceiling of the interior of the temple. The
forms were either cut down in very low relief or enclosed by incised
lines, the edges of which on the side nearer to the form were slightly
rounded, in order to give a sense of modelling. In both cases the
designs were filled in with the primary colours, blue, red, and yellow.
Thus the decoration, derived from the method of drawing patterns in the
mud of a wall while it was still damp, was inset, its higher parts being
in the same plane as the wall’s surface--a method distinctively mural
which also maintained the avoidance of projections. This avoidance of
projecting members, except in the cornice, was a marked characteristic
of the Egyptian use of the post and beam principle, as compared with the
use of it by the Greeks and Romans.
The essential feature of the temple within the enclosure was the
sanctuary of the deity to whom the temple was dedicated, around which
were grouped chambers for the service of the priests in connection with
the ritual. Entrance to this Holy of Holies and its subsidiary cells was
through a _hypostyle hall_, so called because its ceiling of slabs of
stone was supported upon stone beams that rested upon columns. The
latter, to withstand the weight of the superincumbent mass, were of
great girth and closely ranged, so that an effect as of the depths of a
forest was produced, rendered more mysterious and apparently limitless
by the dim and fitful light. This penetrated through _clerestory_
windows, covered with pierced stonework and set in the sides of the
central portion of the roof, which, supported on higher columns, rose
above the side roofs, as the nave of a Gothic cathedral rises above the
level of the aisles. When one recollects that the interior was
completely covered with symbolic ornament and pictures, one can imagine
no mode of lighting better adapted to produce a phantasy of effect, to
preclude distinctness of vistas and promote a suggestion of limitless
immensity, according with the idea of the eternal continuity of the
soul’s existence, on which the religion of the Egyptians was founded.
The only approximation in architecture to the mysterious grandeur of the
hypostyle hall, leading to the sanctuary, is the nave and aisles and
choir of a Gothic cathedral. But the latter presents a great difference,
since it was arranged for the congregational service of crowds of
worshippers and, partly for this reason and partly because it was a
product of the comparatively sunless north, it is flooded through its
numerous and large stained-glass windows more abundantly with “dim
religious light.”
It remains to note the approach to this hall through an open court which
was surrounded on two or three sides by a colonnade or peristyle, while
an avenue of columns frequently led through the centre from the main
entrance of the pylons to the portal of the hall.
This combination of Court, Hall, and Sanctuary with its Chambers,
already present in the =Ramesseum=, formed the essential of every temple
plan, even during the period of Roman occupation. But while the nucleus
of the plan was organically complete, unity of effect was abandoned in
actual practice owing to the additions made to the original temple by
successive kings, who would contribute another hall of columns or
another court and sometimes erect another temple as an annex. The most
remarkable example of this gradual accretion of additional features is
to be found at Karnak; a group of temples in honour of the Sun-god
Ra-Ammon, the building of which extended throughout the period of the
New Empire.
=Temples of Karnak.=--The nucleus of the scheme was the granite sanctuary
and chambers erected by Usertesen I of the Twelfth Dynasty. In the
Eighteenth Dynasty Thothmes I added to the west front of this a columned
hall with pylon entrances, surrounding the interior wall with _Osirid_
statues, seated statues of Osiris, the wise and beneficent ruler of the
Second Dynasty, who after his death was honoured as the King of the Dead
in the nether world. Later a third pair of pylons was built by Rameses
I; and this was utilised as one of the sides of the Great Hypostyle
Hall begun by Seti I and completed by Rameses II. It communicated
through another pair of immense pylons with the Great Court of Sheshonk.
In the northwest corner of the latter Seti II of the Nineteenth Dynasty
erected a small temple, while, protruding into the court on the opposite
side was the temple of =Ammon=, built by Rameses III of the Twentieth, who
also built the adjacent temple of =Chons=, connected with the main group
of buildings by an avenue of Sphinxes. It was from this temple that the
long avenue of sphinxes, already mentioned, extended to the =Temple of
Luxor=.
Meanwhile, during the Eighteenth Dynasty, Thothmes III had erected at
some distance to the eastward of Usertesen’s original sanctuary, a large
hall and adjoining chambers. These are supposed to have been his palace,
though it is urged to the contrary that they offered but little
accommodation for the retinue of servants and officials which
distinguished an oriental court, besides being gloomy as a residence.
Possibly, however, Thothmes under the spell of religious feeling may
have used this palace for occasional occupation, even as Philip II of
Spain built a palace in connection with a monastery, a school of priests
and a great church and mausoleum--the aggregate of functions represented
in the Escoriál.
The climax of the architectural ensemble at =Karnak= is Seti’s =Great
Hypostyle Hall=, the most imposing example known of post and beam
construction. It is 338 feet wide with a depth of 170. A double row of
six mighty columns 70 feet high and nearly 12 in diameter support the
central nave, on each side of which the flat roof is supported by 61
columns, each about 42 feet high and 9 wide. The capitals of the taller
columns are of the so-called _bell_ type; those of the lower ones,
_lotus bud_.
=Column Types.=--Reference already has been made to the _lotus-bud_ type
of columns found in the interior of some of the tombs at =Beni Hassan=.
These represented a conventionalised design as of four buds with long
stems bound around a circular post. The later columns, however, of the
lotus-bud type were no longer only a decorative feature but had to
support the immense weight of the beams and ceiling slabs, consequently
the diameter was increased to about one sixth of the height. The capital
suggests either one bud with numerous petals crowning a smooth circular
shaft or a cluster of buds and stalks bound at intervals with rows of
fillets; the design in both cases being more conventionalised than in
the early examples.
The _bell_, or _campaniform_ type is distinguished by a smooth shaft
crowned with a conventionalised single blossom of the lotus, the petals
of which flare or curve outward so as to resemble the shape of an
inverted bell.
Another example of the flaring capital is that of the _palm_ column, the
fronds of which are bound by fillets to a smooth shaft. It is a type
that appears in the later temples and was varied by the architects of
the Ptolemaic period, who substituted for the palm other motives derived
from river plants.
An exceptional form, which appears in =Temples of Isis=, as at =Denderah=,
=Edfou=, and =Esneh=, is the so-called _Hathor-headed_ column, which has a
cubical capital, embellished on each side with a face of the goddess and
surmounted by a miniature temple. The latter takes the place of the
_impost_ block which in the other types of column sustains the weight of
the beam and protects the carving of the capital.
In certain instances the columns were superseded by piers with
rectangular shafts, which sometimes were unadorned in their impressive
simplicity, at other times ornamented with lotus flowers and stalks or
heads of Hathor. In the so-called _Osirid pier_ a colossal statue of the
god projects from the face of the pier, being the only example of a
feature added to a pier or column for purposes solely of symbolic
ornament and without any structural function.
* * * * *
Next to Karnak in magnificence and extent is the neighbouring =Temple of
Luxor=. Another important example of the period is the temple erected at
=Abydos= by Seti I dedicated to Osiris and other deities. In consequence
it is distinguished by seven sanctuaries, ranged side by side and roofed
over with horizontal courses of stonework, each of which projects inward
over the one below it, until they meet at the top, the undersides being
chiselled into the form of a vault.
A few examples are found of the _peripteral_ type of temple, consisting
of a _cella_ or sanctuary, surrounded on the four sides by columns. In
one instance--the temple erected by Amenophis III at =Elephantine=--the
columns are confined to the front and rear, while at the sides are
square piers. These structures are small, and, in two cases, at =Philae=,
are unaccompanied by a cella; which suggests that they were used as
waiting places in connection with the adjoining temples.
PTOLEMAIC AND ROMAN PERIODS
During the period of political decadence the building of temples
declined, but it was renewed under the rule of the Ptolemies and
continued during the Roman occupation. While, notwithstanding foreign
domination, the Egyptian type was in the main adhered to, an important
change of detail was adopted in the manner of lighting the hypostyle
hall. The light was admitted from the front, over the top of screen
walls, which were erected between the columns to about half their
height. A celebrated example is at =Edfou=, the most perfectly preserved
temple of this period, which also conforms most closely to the old type.
For in other instances there was a growing tendency to introduce
novelties of detail, characterised by greater elaboration and
ornateness. It is signally represented in the =Temple of Isis= on the
island of =Philae=, for here the shape of the site has produced
irregularities in the planning of the various buildings, which enhances
the general picturesqueness of the whole group. Unfortunately, in
consequence of the erection of the Assouan Dam, these temples at =Philae=
are submerged for the greater part of the year.
How far the Egyptians studied orientation, or the placing of a temple
with reference to the points of the compass, is uncertain. But there are
grounds for supposing that in some cases they orientated the principal
entrance toward the sun or a certain star, the exact position of which
on some particular day would indicate to the priests the exact time of
year.
=Palace and Domestic Architecture.=--Of palace architecture the only
conjectured remains are the buildings erected in the rear of the Temple
of Karnak by Thothmes III and the pavilion of Medinet Abou on the west
bank of the Nile at Thebes; the unsuitability of which as royal
residences has already been noted.
A clue to the laying out of a town and the character of domestic
buildings has been found at =Tel-el-Amarna= and at =Kahun=, in the Fayoum.
On the latter site Petrie discovered the walls of a town which was
erected for the overseers and workmen employed in the construction of
the pyramid of =Illahun= (2684-2666 <small>B.C.</small>) and abandoned after the
completion of the work. The streets ran at right angles; and the houses
were built around open courts, whence the light was derived, for there
were no windows giving on to the streets. The houses varied in size from
the one room hut of the labourer to the group of rooms with their own
court occupied by the overseer, while a still larger group in the centre
of the town was the residence of the governor.
From these remains and from pictures of “soul houses,” found in the
tombs, it is concluded that the houses of the richer classes
corresponded to a Roman villa; consisting that is to say of detached
buildings built within enclosures, which were surrounded on the interior
with colonnades and were laid out with groves, fishponds, and other
ornamental features. The material employed in the walls and buildings
was sunburnt brick which was overlayed with stucco decorated in bright
colours. The walls in the case of the residences were carried up through
two or three stories with windows in the upper ones and a verandah under
the flat roof. The latter, constructed of timbers, supporting smaller
beams, filled in with mud, was reached by a staircase in the rear. When
the rooms exceeded nine feet or so in width, their ceilings were
supported by columns or posts.