ANCIENT EGYPT. 23 



restoration, by the Lagidae, of a much earlier foundation, and 

 the tabernacle before you probably belonged to the more 

 ancient building. Only the pharaoh and the priests were per- 

 mitted to enter the sanctuary. The public were not admitted 

 to view the processions beyond the hypethral court, but on 

 certain occasions the members of the upper classes were 

 allowed in the pronaos or hall of columns, beyond which all 

 was sacred seclusion. The bright sunshine in the hypethral 

 court is followed in the pronaos by a dim religious light, while 

 in the sanctuary almost darkness reigns. There are no 

 dwelling rooms for the priests. The columns are inscribed 

 with figures, in intaglio, of the pharaoh, and of the vast 

 pantheon of demi-gods; while the whole temple is vivid with 

 the brightest colouring, every inscription being painted. 

 Crypts are present in some of the later temples, and these also 

 are covered with inscriptions ; indeed, almost every inch of 

 space of the entire building, both inside and out, is so treated. 

 There is a somewhat crude drawing of such a temple in the 

 museum collection, and you have a representation of the 

 Temple of Edfoo before you. 



The edict of Theodosius, 379 a.d., by which all pagan 

 religions were abolished, soon made itself felt on the monu- 

 ments of Egyyt, which were afterwards offered up to the 

 moloch of Christian fanaticism, and everywhere cruelly 

 damaged to an extent that is most distressing to us now. 

 The early Christians converted portions of the temples into 

 churches, plastering over the inscriptions on the walls with 

 stucco, which has now mostly peeled off", leaving the old 

 pictures comparatively uninjured. 



It is, of course, impossible to give anything like an adequate 

 description of more than one temple this evening. That of 

 Karnak is the most extensive and complex, being not one 

 temple, but an agglomeration of many, built over a period of 

 three thousand years ; and it is for this reason that I have 

 chosen it for exposition to you this evening. 



