1850.] 



THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECTS JOURNAL. 



92 feet in height. Thothmosis III. made several additions, which 

 were carried on by his son, Amunothph II. (1321 b.c), in whose 

 reign the arts of painting and sculpture made rapid progress, — 

 though in the columnar hall built by him at Karnac, with reversed 

 cornices and capitals, we find a greater instance of caprice than of 

 good taste. This palace-temple was enlarged and decorated by 

 almost every succeeding monarch. To give an idea of the gigantic 

 proportions of this edifice, it may be mentioned that the great 

 liall of assembly is 329 feet in length, by 170 feet in breadth, and 

 85 feet in height, and containing 13+ columns; the lintel of the 

 doorway is formed of one sandstone block, 4-0 ft. 10 in. in length 

 and 5 ft. 2 in. in depth and breadth. Tiie walls of this enormous 

 structure are 25 feet in thickness. 



The neighbouring palace-temple of Luxor (Plate I.) was begun 

 by Amunothi)h III. about 1300 B.C., and finished by Rameses the 

 Great, nearly 100 years afterwards" Two beautiful obelisks, of 

 red granite, bear his name, and give evidence by their hieroglyph- 

 ics, cut two inches deep, of the wonderful skill of tlie Egyptians 

 in sculpturing this hard material. Tliis temple is only inferior in 

 size to that of Karnac : the length of the colonnade leading to the 

 court is 170 feet; then follows an area of 155 feet by 167 feet, sur- 

 rouniled by a peristyle, containing twelve columns on every side; 

 this terminates in a covered portico, 57 feet by 111 feet, supported 

 bv thirty-two columns. A dromos (not less than a mile in lengtli) 

 of six hundred crio-sphinxes, raised on a causeway far above the 

 level of the Nile, connected the palace-temples of Karnac and 

 Luxor, and formed the main street in the eastern district of 

 Thebes. Another great dromos — called in some papyri found at 

 Thebes, tiie "Royal street" — crossed the city in a westerly direc- 

 tion, communicating with the opposite bank of the Nile by means 

 of a ferry. The soil of the desert was paved with sandstone 

 blocks, as a foundation for the dromos. 



The palace sometimes called the Memnonium, but more properly 

 the Rameseum, was built or completed by Rameses the Great; this 

 building, and also the palace of Medinet-Aboo (built by Rameses 

 III., 1100 B.C.), do not seem to have been used as temples, but 

 probably united the citadel with tlie royal residence. The cele- 

 brated l'iii)\ called the JMemnon statues, measuring each 60 feet in 

 height as they sit, guarded the entrance to the dromos of the 

 Rameseum; the rest of the avenue was formed by numerous pairs 

 of colossi, nearly as large, but whose fragments now strew the 

 ground. 



Tlie city of Memphis has ceased to exist. The temple of Pthar, 

 the residence of tlie sacred Ajiis, and all the other great buildings 

 with which it was adorned, have been completely buried or de- 

 stroyed. Piodorus Siculus informs us tliat with its sul>urhs Mem- 

 phis had a circuit of upwards of 16 miles: but now it presents 

 nothing to the eye of the traveller but a sandy plain, an over- 

 thrown colossus of Rameses II., a few fragments of granite, and 

 some foundations. How have the miglity fallen! 



Amongst tlie numerous temples erected in Egypt, none are more 

 interesting than those adorning the sacred island of Philce. This 

 island rises majestically with its monuments in the midst of the 

 river Nile, above the first cataract, and was believed to be the 

 burial-place of Osiris: "By him who sleeps in Philce," was the 

 Egyptians most solemn oath. The island is entirely surrounded 

 by a wall, marking it as a sacred inclosure, and must have been as 

 enchanting from tlie beauty of its site, as imposing from the mag- 

 nificence of the temples with which it was covered. Numerous 

 P5'lons, p<U'ticoes, columns, and obelisks yet remain, and the hy- 

 ]i*tliral temple, or bed of Pharoah (as it is sometimes called), is 

 but little injured by time. Elegant and lofty c(dumns, with capi- 

 tals sculptured in various forms, support the entablature; two 

 opposite diiors, with iiroad imposts in the form of pilasters, afford 

 ingress and egress; and the sides of the building, instead of being 

 entirely inclosed, have the intercolumniations filled in with low 

 walls or ]ianels, to about half the height of the columns: these 

 panels are finislied with the usual bead-aud-cavetto moulding. All 

 the buildings on the island are covered with sculpture and paint- 

 ing, even to the sliafts of tlie columns. 



The Ptolemaic temples of Edfou and Esiiee deserve notice, from 

 the ex(|uisite beauty ami finish of the carving and stonework. 

 The former also possesse'd great strength as a fortification: the 

 lofty portico (like that of Dendarali) is nuicli higher tliaii tlie body 

 of the temple, and the narrow gateway of the pylon is tlie only 

 opening in its massive walls. Tlie city of Ajiollinopolis, where 

 this splendid structure was erected, was situated on an eminence 

 overlooking the river and the valley, — the great pylon was doubt- 

 less intended to command the whole. 



Many of the smaller temples, or those in the neighbourhood of 

 larger fortified temples, were without pylons, the ]irincipal entrance 

 being through the |iortico; several have a peristyle, as those of 

 Elephantine, Ermopolis, and others. 



Of those temples partly structural and partly excavated, like 

 that of Dahr-el-Bahree, it is needless to say more tlian that the 

 adytum was carved out of the rock, while the vestibule and pylon 

 were built. 



We now come to the wonderful monolithic and excavated tem- 

 ples. There are monolithic temples both at Buto and Sais. The 

 temple, or rather adytum, or shrine, at Sais, was intended by Ama- 

 sis to adorn his great temple in that city. It is said to be a 60 ft. 

 cube, carved out of one block of granite. It took 2,000 men three 

 years to convey it from the quarries of Esouan, a distance of 700 

 miles. It stands in front of the temple. There is a tradition, 

 that as the men were about to move it onwards to its intended 

 destination within the temple, the engineer heaved a deep sigli, 

 which so affected the king with the idea of weariness, that he 

 commanded the work to cease: and the shrine remains as it was 

 then left to this day. 



It has been supposed that the temples and tombs carved out of 

 the rock were the earliest attempts of the architect; but this seems 

 a mistake, so far as either Egypt or India is concerned. These 

 excavations afford a clear proof of their derivation from struc- 

 tures, in the architrave reaching from column to column — taken 

 from the beam supporting the roof: this feature is totally it 

 variance with the nature of a cave; and no further evidence can 

 be necessary, as the imitation must be subsequent to the thing 

 imitated. 



The temple of Aboo-Simbel is in Nubia, on the west bank of the 

 Nile, and belonged, with so many otlier stupendous works, to the 

 reign of Rameses the Great. It was discovered by Burckhardt in 

 1813, and afterwards further explored by Belzoni. It is hewn, 

 together \vith its colossi, in the hard gritstone rock. The four 

 colossal figures in front (only one of which has been entirely 

 cleared of sand) represent the great founder, Rameses; they mea- 

 sure each 70 feet in height, and 25 ft. 4 in. across the shoulders; 

 1 the face is 7 feet in length, and the ears 3 ft. 6 in. On the front of 

 I the thrones, female figures are carved, supposed to be intended for 

 his wife and children. During the execution of these colossi, 

 where defects in the stone were discovered, they were filled-u]> 

 with mud and straw moulded to the required form. The adytum 

 terminates 200 feet from the entrance, and there four more colossal 

 figures are seated, side by side, in the dim light. 



Another smaller excavated temple exists in the immediate neigh- 

 bourhood, dedicated to the goddess Athor: space will not allow nie 

 to enter upon the description of this, Garf-Hoseyn, and other 

 wonderful excavations with which Egypt abounds. 



The importance the Egyptians attached to the preservation of 

 the body after death, probably first induced them to seek a |)lace 

 of sepulchre in the neighbouring rock, where security would he 

 found against damp and other destroying influences. As these 

 sepulchres increased in number, as year by year the population of 

 the dead more and more exceeded that of the living, the inhabit- 

 ants of the cities below would be led to think of the brevity of 

 mortal existence, and would be impressed with the necessity of 

 preparing a permanent home in the everlasting rock, against the 

 time when they should be called to leave their transitory abode in 

 the Nile valley. It was the profitable business of the priests to 

 prepare these tombs; they frequently excavated tliem on specula- 

 tion, selling them at a high price to those who had not the means 

 of commencing a se]inlchre early in life, as was the custom among 

 the wealthy. The priests, therefore, took advantage of the natu- 

 ral feelings of the people, and in every way fostered and encou- 

 raged their passion for expensive and elaborate tomb decora- 

 tiim. 



M'herever an Egyptian city arose, we find a nicropolis in the 

 neighbouring Lyhian or Arabian mountains. These tombs consist 

 of vestibules, halls, galleries, and chambers, differing in number 

 and extent according to the wealth of the occupant, whose name, 

 rank, and mode of life, was illustrated on the walls; they had all 

 square doorways, sometimes plain, sometimes with a riclily orna- 

 mented fa ade. Frequently the entrance to the tomb was closed 

 with solid masonry, but in others the outer chamber appears to 

 have been used as a private chapel; and many had gardens planted 

 in front, wliere the flowers were tended by the hand of some faith- 

 ful mourner. 



Between three and four miles from the river, in the immediate 

 vicinity of Thebes, is a tortuous path, formed by a natural cleft in 



