EGYPTIAN ARCHITECTrRE. 



EGYPTIAN ARCHITECTURE. 



nu* pyramidal towers, or u they are sometime* called pylons, covered 

 with colonial figure* in sculpture, Tbeie viut mawM of 

 which a much clearer notion will be formed from the cute (.";; 1 and 2) 

 than from a description, rose considerably higher than the temple iUelf. 

 They are rach 104 feet wide at the base, and diminish gradually to 

 84 feet at the summit, which is 1 U f-.-t hii;li, and they were crowned 



by the usual cornice ; they bad likewise the torus moulding miming 

 up their angles, and are fine examples of their claw. 

 Kpicuinu objects frequently accompiuiying these propyltoa, wen 

 obelisks, u wan the case at Luxor, where there still exist one in 

 front of each tower. These towers may almost be said to be sl 

 although they contained chambers and staircases, such spaces amounted 



[Fig. 2. Ground Plan of the Temple at Edfou.] 



to little more than voids left in the mass. Between these towers is the 

 door, which leads into a spacious court, having a colonnade carried 

 along three of its sides. Within the court the colonnades were pyc- 

 noetyle, or a diameter and a half apart, which seems to have been the 

 usual mode of intercolumniation adopted by the Egyptians, the 

 columns being seldom more than a diameter and a half from each other, 

 except hi the centre of a portico, where there was generally a doorway 

 between the column*, the lower part of the other intercolunins being 

 walled up, as described above, and as shown in the view of Denderah 

 (/? 3 )- The floor of this enclosure (now filled with rubbish and 

 wretched buildings), rises by gradual steps (as shown by lines in the 

 plan), to the portico or pronaos, which answers to the great hypostyle 

 ball of Karnak, and other older temples. This pronaos is narrower, 

 as well as smaller than the first hall, passages being cut off at its ends 

 by exceedingly thick partition walls. It consists of eighteen massive 

 pillars, six in a row, the intercolumniation, which forms the doorway, 

 In-iii- as usual the greatest Of the front pillars the intercolumnia- 

 tions are walled up to more than half the height. From this v 

 into a still narrower and smaller hall which has three rows of four 

 columns each, so disposed as to occupy the whole area, leaving i 

 narrow aisles in every direction between them a mode peculiar to 

 Egyptian architecture, occasioned by the necessity for employing such 

 thickly -net columns t prop the massive beams and slabs of stone com- 

 posing the ceiling ; and hence such apartments have obtained the name 

 of lii/poili/lt halls. Time pillar< have i|iiadi -il.-itcml IrfU-headed capitals 

 of the kind described below. To this hy |wtyle succeed two cham- 

 bers, the farther one having smaller lateral rooms attached to it, 



which, it is conjectured, were appropriated to the use of the priests ; 

 and facing its entrance was that leading into the teios, eel! 

 shrine containing the figure of the deity. Whilst all the preceding 

 vestibules and chambers are placed transversely to the longitudinal 

 direction of the building, the last and innermost aj< \nilK-l 



to that direction, and in continuation of tin- line of approach; tho 

 reason for which is obvious enough, it being almost indispensably 

 requisite that the statue of the divinity should be at one end, anil 

 directly facing the entrance. In all probability likewise the object 

 aimed at in disposing the rest as we perceive it to be, was twofold; 

 first, for the sake of having a great number of apartments to be crossed 

 before the sanctuary was readied and thus rendering it more difficult 

 of access and more mysterious ; and secondly, for the sake of contrast, 

 the other divisions of the plan being intended to be merely passed 

 through, but this, on the contrary, being the termination of tho 

 whole. If we keep this in view, and the peculiar nature of tlic worship 

 to which these temples were dedicated. 'igomcnt must be 



allowed to ! appropriate, notwithstanding that under ditl'.rcnt cir- 

 cumstances it might be objected to as constituting a very strong 

 anti-climax since every portion of it successively diminishes, the last 

 of the sacred chambers being, as tho plan ihowi, hardly equal to tho 

 space forming the great doorway lietwcen the two towers. Vet what is 

 thus an anti-climax, if we have regard to dimensions alone, became a 

 perfect climax that must have made a powerful impression on those 

 who were allowed to penetrate into the adytum the most sacred part 

 of the fane tho presence chamber, a it were, of the presiding divinity, 

 where the sanctity of the whole precinct. was concentrated in a focus, 



