48 



THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECTS JOURNAL. 



[Feb, 



by the architects of Egypt, and forming the first elemenls of the Co- 

 rinthian and composite orders. 



It is true that there is a deficiency in, the portico of Doric columns 

 at Beni Hassan. But if the metopes and triglyphs appertaining to 

 the perfect Doric style be wanting, oval metopes (adopted as mys- 

 terious emblems under the name of veiica piscis, by the monastic ar- 

 chitects of the earliest Christian eras, alternating with triglyphs, 



are found on the entablatures of the most ancient rock-hewn temples 

 of Nubia, also at Esueh ; while Dendereh exhibits a more elaborate 

 metope, alternating with pentaglyphs. 



which consists of a Sheckinah, or golden flood of light descending on 

 an ark from between two cherubic serpents (the Urim and Thummim), 

 whose wings are stretched over the ark. 



The ground plan of the temples supplies curious matter for remark. 

 As our architects adopt the Christian cross +, so the architects of 

 Egypt adopted the Tau 



or three limbed cross of Hermes, indication of future life. This 

 ground plan may be traced equally in the palace, the temple detached 

 w troglodyte, and the tomb. The ground plan of the tombs of Lyco- 

 polis consists of a series of laits mysteriously, as in the freemason's 

 royal arch, 



r 



nnited. Ilw tau and sgiwre united, form the elements of the most 

 elegant of the scrolls called Greek, and borrowed from the Egyptians. 

 In the temples and palaces of New Spain, the Christian cross is 

 adopted for a ground plan, and such a cross is sculptured in the sacellum 

 of Palenque. But the Palmer's cross was familiar to the Egyptians 



t 



and often seen in the hands of Horus, the second person of the Trinity. 

 United with the symbol God. 



It meant Saviour God. Sir G. Wilkinson says that the Christian 

 Cenobites identified the Egyptian cross with the Christian, and adopted 

 it as a predictive mystery and symbol in their own ritual. It appears 

 among the sculptures of their chapels. It by no means follows, there- 

 fore, that the cruciform ground plan of the tombs and temples of New 

 Spain proves the conveision of the builders to Christianity. Both the 

 tau and cross were among the most ancient sacred symbols of Egypt. 



The ground plan of Lusore, and the series of obelisks, statues, 

 gateways, and sekoi, so entirely resemble the ground plan and model 

 of the Memnonium, which Champoliion ascribes to Ranieses, the father 

 of Sesostris, instead of to Memnon, while he assigns Luxore to Sesos- 

 tris as the Sesostreum, that the description of the one may almost pass 

 for the description of the other. Karnac, built bv successive kings of 

 the same dynasty, exhibits all the peculiarities of the same original 

 ground plan and design in its most highly developed and ambitious 

 character. It may justly bear competition with the troglodyte temple 

 and palace of Ipsambul, which was built by Sesostris, and olfers favour- 

 able means for comparison between the two styles : that of the de- 

 tached and that of the rock-hewn temple and palace. We have said 

 before, that the rock-hewn temples and palaces occupy both sides of 

 the valley of the Nile, from Meroe to Syene. The modern localities 

 may be named in succession, Ibrim, Deir, Amada, Sebou, Derri, Gar- 

 sery, Dukey, Offadooneh, Ipsambul. 



The whole series maybe described under one category. This holds 

 good as far as regards the larger number of the series of temples, sculp- 

 tured from the living rock. In a few instances, as at Gorsery, Dukey 

 andOft'adoonek, the rock-hewn temple is preceded by propyla, seated 

 statues and sphynxes. In all the instances, the portico of the temple, 

 the naos, pronaos, and holy place are cut from the living rock. 

 There is scarcely any difference in the model. The 4 or 6 cubic 

 pilasters which,-in the primitive temples, support the pronaos, in the 

 more elaborate shadows, as at Sebou and Ipsambul, are examples 

 by gigantic caryatides.] 



The great work of the late Champoliion "Momtmeiils de VEgypte 

 et de la Niibte," published, as it will be seen from the title, by a special 

 commission appointed by the French government, under the olis- 

 tinguished auspices of M. Guizot, the present premier of France, and 

 his late colleague, M. Thiers, when minister of public instruction — 

 contains, in its recent number, illustrations of the great architectural 

 monuments of Egypt, when architecture was in the most " high and 

 palmy state " of the ISth dynasty. It is devoted to Ipsambul ; but the 

 numbers comprise details of the two structures erected by Sesostris at 

 that place, the Speos of Athor, the goddess Venus, and the Speos, or 

 Sesostreum, cut out of the solid rock, and apparently consecrated to 

 the combined purposes of temple, palace, and tomb. In the temple or 

 Speos of Athor, there is nothing which calls for prolonged commen- 

 tary. The founder's favourite wife, whom Champoliion calls Nofre- 

 ari, is represented throughout as the presiding divinity of the temple 

 of Venus ; in one case apotheosized and worshipped by Sesostris in 

 the character of Athor; in the other associated with him in the pre- 

 sumptuous claim of divinity, he being enthroned by her side in the 

 character of Ammon. Part of a dilapidated statue of Athor appears 

 on the extreme walls of the sacellum of the temple. The figure has 

 a cow's head surmounted by a lotus, and the name Athor, which signi- 

 fies House or womb of the Sun, the Egyptian Messiah, or Bethshe- 

 mish, threatened by the prophet "with having a fire lighted in it, 

 which should destroy its images," is clearly visible above the head of 

 the broken and decayed statue. Marks of fire are met with through- 

 out the interior. The antithesis implied by the prophecy between 

 the real fire threatened and the profane fire lighted up within this 

 temple by the orgies of Venus, and the presumptuous deifications of 

 mortal beauties which cover its walls, is obvious and striking. The 

 eighth and ninth folios of the first livraison represent the front ele- 

 vation of the great Speos of Ipsambul, which, indeed, depicts and re- 

 cords the Titanian ambition of its great founder. 



Four of the Caryatides wliich support the architrave are enormous 

 colossal statues of Sesostris himself, and two of his favourite wife, in 

 the characterof Venus or Athor. At the foot of each of his statues stand 



