the most simple form,
the oratory, under the
Eighteenth Dynasty :
that of the single
chamber with or with-
out columns in the
interior, and that of
the peripteral temple,
which, though it does not lend itself to scientific combinations,
may, if judiciously treated, produce true masterpieces. The
131 K 2
FIG. 245.— COURT OF THE TEMPLE OF
RAMESES UI. AT KARXAK. (Phot. Legrain.)
ART IN EGYPT
FIG. 246.— TEMPLE OF KHOXSU AT THEBES;
SECTION CUT THROUGH ITS GRAND AXIS
(After Chipiez) (Hist, de I'Art, vol. I, p. 355).
chapel of Khnum at Elephantine was certainly the most finished
example of the latter: the relative proportion of the parts was
calculated so scientifically
that the artists of the
French expedition never
wearied in their admi-
ration of its perfection.
It is a surprise to those
who are accustomed to
consider Egyptian archi-
tecture a massive and
colossal art, to find it
producing works posi-
tively Greek in their
precision and elegance.
There is reason to be-
lieve that this peripteral form was unknown in the first Theban
period, and that it was invented, or at least brought to per-
fection, at the beginning of the second. Almost at the same time
there appeared a more developed, though as yet restricted model,
which I will call the temple of
the small town. That of Amada,
which dates from the time of
Thothmes III. and Amenophis II.,
consists of three long parallel
ducts (Fig. 244), in the centre the
sanctuary of Amon-Ra and Ra-
Harmachis, and on either side two
little rooms in a line. Originally
these were disconnected, and access
to the further of the two could
only be obtained from the Holy
of Holies, but later, doors were
pierced between the partition-walls,
and the rooms were made to com-
municate. The three aisles lead
into a transverse vestibule occupy-
ing the entire breadth of the build-
ing, and preceded by a portico
with four proto- Doric columns.
Ending here, the temple was com-
plete, but Thothmes IV., the successor of Amenophis II., inter-
Dosed, between the portico and the brick enclosing wall, a
132
FIG. 247.— rOT.OSSI IN FRONT
OF THE 'JEMl'LK OK I.UXOR.
(Phot. Bcuto.)
THE SECOND THEBAN AGE
FIG. 24S.— NOPTH STDK OF THK AVEXUE OF RAMS
AT KARNAK DlHINc; THK INL'NDATIOX.
(Phot. Legrain.J
hypostyle hall of twelve square pillars in four rows, the last
two of which, right and left, were connected by party walls;
later again, Seti I. re-
placed the plain wall
on which the hall
abutted towards the
east, by a composite
pylon, consisting of
a sandstone gateway
between two brick
towers. Even with all
these additions, Ama-
da is very small, for
it measures barely
30 feet in width by
72 feet in depth, and
the height is about
15 feet, but the execution is very careful, and does credit to
the provincial Theban art of the Eighteenth Dynasty. The blocks
are accurately adjusted, the sculpture is delicate, and the paint-
ing brilliant; the brush has accentuated the work of the chisel,
and has expressed the details of figures and hieroglyphics with
great elaboration. The temple of Ptah. at Karnak, built by the
the Amenemhats
and reconstructed
by Thothmes III.,
was rebuilt so ex-
tensively under the
Ptolemies that it
would be impru-
dent to insist upon
its original form;
I think , however,
that the arrange-
ment must have
resembled that of
Amada. On the
other hand , the
temple of Rame-
ses III. at Karnak
is of a more de-
veloped type. The chevet is here divided into three compartments
with the sanctuary in the middle, and just as at Amada, the two
133
249.— COURT OF AMKNOPHTS IH. AT LUXOR SEEN
FROM THE NORTH EAST. (Phot. Beato.)
ART IN EGYPT
FIG. 250.— SOUTH-EAST OF THE TEMPLE OF AMENO-
PHIS III. AT LUXOR. (Phot. Beato.)
rooms which terminate the wings open only into the sanctuary,
but the remaining space contains, besides the chapels dedicated
to the goddess and
the divine son,
serving-rooms, one
of which, that on
the west , does
duty as the cage
of the staircase
which led to the
terraces. In ad-
dition , the trans-
verse vestibule of
Amada has be-
come a hypostyle
hall with two rows
of columns, and the
pronaos is arrang-
ed, as is also the pylon, on a new plan which was applied on
a larger scale at Medinet-Habu. It is on a higher level than
that of the court, and is reached from the latter by an inclined
plane; towards the
east and the west
it adjoins porticoes
which terminate
against the pylon,
and colossal statues
of the king as Osi-
ris are set against
the pillars which
border these porti-
coes (Fig. 245). It
is permissible to
suppose that the
temple of Mentu,
built by Ameno-
phis III,, was simi-
lar in arrangement,
but these ruins have
not yet been suffi-
ciently studied to
justify an assertion. What we may, however, affirm without
rashness is that the temple of the small town, as we see it
134
Fir;. 251.
GREAT COLONNADE OF HKKU-EM-HEB AND SETI
AT THK TKMl'LK OK LU'XOK.
THE SECOND THEBAN AGE
was simply a reduction of the
and that the arrangements
both. The
temple of the
were in the main
FIG. 252.— SOUTH-WEST ANGLE OF THE
COURT OF RAMESES II. AT THE TEMPLE
OF LUXOR. (Phot. Beato.J
at Amada,
great city,
the same in
sanctuary was at the
end, against the back
wall, between two rooms,
or two series of rooms,
the dwellings of the
other gods of the triad,
used for the secondary
services of worship. A
vestibule extending right
across the building divid-
ed these intimate apart-
ments from those re-
gions accessible to the
public, hypostyle halls,
courts, monumental gate-
ways flanked by towers;
obelisks or a guard of sphinxes rose on the terrace in front.
Well-preserved examples of this type are so rare that we cannot
exactly follow its evolution be-
tween the Eighteenth and Nine-
teenth Dynasties. It culminated,
towards the end of the Nine-
teenth Dynasty, in a conception
of which the temple of Khonsu
at Thebes is the most lucid and
complete realisation. (Fig. 246).
The distinction between the
private dwelling of the god,
and the space open to the
public is clearly defined. The
one is separated from the other
by a wall in which two doors
are pierced; the first, on the
longitudinal axis , was a state
portal , for solemn ceremonies,
when Khonsu came out of his
sanctuary, and for the official
visits of the Pharaohs; the se-
cond, placed towards the western extremity, was the household
postern, by which the priest came and went every day, and
135
FIG. 253.— ONE OF THE CHAPELS OF
GEBKL-SILSILEH. (Phot. Thedenat.)
ART IN EGYPT
FIG. 254.
PLAN OF THE SPEOS OF HERU-
EM-HEB AT SILSILEH.
was also used by the sovereign when he visited the god in-
formally. Beyond this barrier, we find the tripartite arrangement
I have described above; in the middle, the shrine of Khonsu,
and on either side, the chapels
of the paredri, then the serving-
rooms, but with new combina-
tions. In the temple of Ra-
meses III. at Karnak, the Holy
of Holies was a single chamber,
in which not only the idol was
enclosed, but also the ban on
which the idol was seated when
it left its retreat to show itself
in public. In the temple of
Khonsu, it consisted of three
chambers in a line on the axis: first, against the end wall, a
dark cabinet which was the mysterious residence of the master,
then, in front of this, an anteroom with four columns, and
finally, in front of the anteroom, a vast hall in the centre of
which rose the pink granite cell which contained the ark. This
cell had a back door by which the image was brought out on
specified days for embarkation, and a front door from which it
emerged in state. The chambers of the side-aisles communicated
with one or the other of these three chambers, according to
the use for which they were destined, those of the paredri
with the ante-room, the others with the shrine of the boat.
The staircase which led to the terraces was concealed on the
right, in the angle form-
ed by the exterior east
wall, and the interior par-
tition wall. Beyond this,
the public parts of the build-
ing began , and , in the
first place, the hypostyle
hall which traversed it from
east to west. The central
aisle was defined by four
columns with bell -shaped
capitals 23 feet high, and
the wings contain two lotus
columns 18 feet high; the light is furnished, as at Karnak, by
a clerestory between the terrace of the central aisle, and the
lateral platforms. The pronaos is supported on twelve columns
136
FA(,AUIi OK
EM-HEB.
IIK SI'KOS OK iiiaiC-
(Phot. T/iedcnat.)
THE SECOND THEBAN AGE
in two rows; an inclined way descends from it into the court,
which is bordered south, east, and wes by a double row of lotus col-
umns. Access was
freely accorded by
four lateral pos-
terns, and by a
pylon measuring
104 feet long-,
60high and 33 wide.
It is solid , save
for the staircase,
which runs straight
from the north-
eastern corner of
the block to the plat-
form over the door
and thence to the
summits of the two
towers. The facade
was grooved with
four cavities to hold
the masts for pennons. A pair of obelisks, and colossal statues rose
in front, their backs to the pylon, their faces to the city (Fig. 247),
often precedel by long avenues of sphinxes or rams (Fig. 248), and all
these protected the
FIG. 256.— FAgADE OF THE HEMI-SPEOS OF
BET-EL-WALI. (Phot. Oropesa.)
god against evil in
fluences. It is pro-
bable that the
majority of the
Ramesside temples
were built on this
plan with slight var-
iations ; it per-
sisted during the
centuries which
followed the fall
of the Second The-
ban Empire , and
in its main lines,
to the end of the
pagan period.
In addition to these regular buildings, the constituents of which
were brought together more or less on fixed principles, there
137
FIG. 257.
-AVENUE OF SPHINXES AT WADI SABU'A.
(Phot. Oropesa.)
ART IN EGYPT
were some at Thebes, and no doubt in other great cities of
Egypt, the arrangement of which does not agree with any recog-
nised type, Luxor, as conceived by Amenophis III., is inspired
by the same idea as the temple of Khonsu. It was to have a
■,ii|.kii«Tfffi-flr«'
FIG. 258.
SECTION OF THE HEMI-SPEOS OF GARF-HUSEN (After Gau).
pylon turned to the north-east, a court with porticoes, at the
end of which was the pronaos with its eight rows of lotus columns
(Fig. 249), (almost a hypostyle hall left open in front), then behind
this pronaos, the true hypostyle hall, which has lost its columns,
and no longer extends right across the building; it is flanked
right and left by dark rooms used for the most part as auxiliary
chapels. As usual, the hypostyle hall and its annexes terminated
the public part of the temple, and a wall, pierced with a state
doorway and a service-postern, separated them from the actual
abode of Amon. This comprised in its axis two rooms with four
columns each, the farther one of which contained the sacred ark,
then a second hypostyle hall, and against the back wall, a final
room with columns, which
was the sanctuary. Right
and left of this row of
apartments were succes-
sive chapels, in one of
which, on the east, the
marriage of Queen Mut-
emua with Amon, and the
birth of Amenophis III
were described and pic-
tured; along the east and
west walls little rooms,
or rather closets, were ranged, the uses of which are not cer-
tainly known, but in which it is probable that clothes, jewels,
perfumes, furniture, and gold and silver plate were stored
(Fig. 250). The building was almost finished when the king,
138
FIG. 25g. — FA(, ADE OK THE UlTTLE SI'EOS AT
ABU .siMUEU. {Phot. Oropesa.)
THE SECOND THEBAN AGE
modifying the design, replaced the pylon by a thick wall and
laid on the north the foundations of another hypostyle hall, which,
had it been com-
pleted ,
had no para
would have
el. Only
the central aisle with
its columns 52 feet
high was erected
(Fig. 251), and the dis-
turbances in the reign
oi Amenophis IV.
compelled the archi-
tect to stop the decor-
ation. When it was
resumed, the course
of the Nile had de-
viated eastward, and
Heru-em-heb was
obliged to deflect the
main axis to find room for
a pylon w^hich Rameses II.
finished and faced with sculp-
tures. Karnak shows more
irregularity and incoherence
even than Luxor, and this
is not surprising, when we
remember that all the Theban
Pharaohs from the Seven-
teenth to the Twentieth
Dynasty vied with each other
in enlarging it without any
definite plan. A big book
would not be too much to
devote to its history, and
even this could not be com-
plete, for lack of evidences
bearing on the earlier periods.
The original bunding, that
of the Twelfth Dynasty, has
disappeared, and we do not
know what were its main
features. The Ahmessids,
from Amenophis I. to Thoth-
^^
1
II G. 260. FACADK OF
ABU SlMBKl..
THK GKKAT SI'KOS OF
(Phot. Oropcsa.)
the new court (Fig. 252) and for
fk;. 261. nohthkrn kxtrfmity of
THK KSPLAXADF BEFORE THK (iKEAT
SFKOS OF ABU SiMBEL.. (Phot. Oropesa)
139
ART IN EGYPT
FIG. 262.
THE PYRAMID-MASTABA OF AN APIS AT
SAKKARAH (After Mariette).
mesIII., surrounded it with
buildings which in some
ways repeat the combi-
nations at Luxor, with a
room for the boat in
the centre, and auxiliary
chapels in the side aisles,
but also with a perfect-
ly novel element, three
pylons rising one behind
the other from east
to west. Thothmes III.,
having reached this point,
returned to the east, and
there re-constructed some
old buildings, the most imposing of
which, an audience-chamber, bears the
traditional, but inaccurate, name of
ambulatory; he then enclosed the whole
with a stone wall, dug out the lake
on the south, and, anxious to provide
a triumphal entrance for the god, erected
two enormous pylons on the Luxor
road, to which Heru-em-heb soon added
two others. Thothmes IV. and Amen-
ophis 111. erected a still more massive
pylon in front of those on the west,
FIG. 263.— A THEBAN TOMB
WITH A PYRAMIDAL SUMMIT.
FIG. 204.— TOMB OF THOTHMES in.
140
which Rameses I. preceded
by another yet more gi-
gantic: between the two
he built the famous hypo-
style hall which Seti I.,
Rameses II. , and the Ra-
meses of the Twentieth
Dynasty finished deco-
rating. Karnak is not,
strictly speaking, a single
temple; it is a haphazard
mass of temples and store-
houses (cf. Fig. 172). It
must be looked upon in
THE SECOND THEBAN AGE
FIG. 265.— DECORATION OF THE EKD WALL, IN THE TOjrB-CHAMBER OF
RAMESES V. (Phot. Golenischeff.)
the history of Egyptian art, not as a normal creature, long con-
sidered , and produced on a preconceived plan but rather as
a marvellous monster,
whose limbs are grafted
on to the original body
fortuitously, regardless
of logic and symmetry.
Taken in detail, the
parts are often admirable
in execution; when we
attempt to coordinate
them, we find it im-
possible to reduce them
to unity.
With the ideas which
prevailed in Egypt on
the nature of the temple
and the tomb , it was
inevitable that sooner or later it would be proposed to instal
the house of the god in the rock. We have as yet no authority
141
FIG. 266.
-PLAN OF THE HYPOGEUM OF
AMEX<)PHIS II.
ART IN EGYPT
267.— GENERAL VIEW OF DER-EL-BAHARI.
(Phot. Beato.)
for saying whether
this came about un-
der the Memphite
or the first The-
ban Empire ; the
most ancient sub-
terranean temples
known to us, speos
and hemi- speos,
date from the
Eighteenth Dynas-
ty. Queen Hat-
shepset had a vesti-
bule with eight
pillars, a passage
and an inner cham-
ber, which was the
sanctuary , cut in
the rock near Beni-
Hasan , in honour of the lioness-goddess Pekhet ; two centuries
later Seti I. hollowed the chapel of Redesiyeh on the road to
the gold mines. When we examine these carefully, we find
that the architect took the isolated temple of the small town,
and imbedded it in the mountain. Occasionally it is only a single
apartment, with a
fagade set between
columns, as at Sil-
sileh (Fig. 253),
but the type of
El-Kab prevailed
in general , and if
the door-way con-
necting vestibule
and sanctuary was
elongated, and
transformed into
a passage, it was
partly because the
safety of the faith-
ful required a stone
partition more so-
lid than an ordi-
nary wall of ma-
-.,
^rm
FIG. 2O8. -\()HTH-WKST AN(;i.
AT I)i':h-ki.-hahai
!•; OK rnK ksi
(Plu)t. Btdto.)
142
THE SECOND THEBAN AGE
affTTTTII I
Li-j-miitttii
3c:
tnr
FIG. 269.
PLAN OF THE MKMXOXILM OF
SETI I. AT ABVDOS.
sonry. Indeed, when we compare the cavern -temple in general
with the disengaged temple, we must recognise that the arrange-
ment of the two is in the main
identical; the differences are the
result of special conditions which
the new surroundings imposed on
the architect, and are not more
marked than those which distinguish
the free mastaba from the sepulchral
chapel hollowed in the rock. The
taste for the speos developed towards
the end of the Eighteenth Dynasty,
and two, not the least interesting
among them, were the work of
Heru-em-heb. At Silsileh (Fig. 255)
the speos is a long gallery sup-
ported by four massive pillars left in
the rock, with the sanctuary adjoining
it at right angles (Fig. 254). Aba-
huda, a little to the north of the
Second Cataract, has no true fagade,
but a portion of the cliff was planed
vertically, a few steps were cut in
front, and a high, narrow door, hardly more than a slit, was
pierced in the rock. The hypostyle hall, supported by four poly-
gonal columns, leads to the three usual chapels; these, however,
instead of being arranged
in a line, parallel one with
another, are placed on
the three sides, the sanc-
tuary at the end, facing
the entrance, the cham-
bers of the mother and
son right and left of the
hypostyle hall. Rameses II
showed a special pre-
ference for this type of
building, and Nubia is
full of those which he
dedicated ostensibly to
his father Amon, but in
reality to his own divinity. The oldest and the most elegant
of all these, the hemi-speos of Bet-el -Wali, has a deep vestibule,
143
FIG. 270.— ONE OF THE HYPOSTYLE HALLS IN
THE MEMNONIUM OF SETI I. (Phot. Beato.J
ART IN EGYPT
FIG. 271.— FACADE OF A SEPULCHRAL, TEMPLE AT KURNAH. (Phot. Beato.)
suggested on the fagade by two square pillars, and covered
with a roof not cut in the rock, but vaulted with bricks
(Fig. 256). Three doors — those on the sides are later than
the central one — lead to the transverse vestibule, where two
rather squat proto-Doric pillars have been cut out in the rock;
the Holy of Holies contains three statues which represent the
three gods of the local triad. At Wadi-es-Sabu'a, at Der, at
Garf-Husen, the excavation and its outworks of masonry attained
the dimensions of the isolated temple of a large town. The pro-
pylaea of Sabu'a, recently exhumed, form a magnificent array
of colossal figures and sphinxes with human faces or falcons'
heads (Fig. 257). Garf-Husen possessed a sanctuary, two hy-
postyle halls, the larger
upheld by pillars adorned
with Atlantes, a court with
porticoes of the same type
as that ot the Ramesseum,
a pylon, courts, and
an avenue of sphinxes
(Fig. 258). The little speos
of Abu Simbel is less
complex in design. Its
fagade towards the river
is decorated with six
colossal standing figures
in niches, four for Ra-
two for his wife Nefcrt-ari (Fig. 259). The hypostyle
on the summits of which heads
\V .11 I UK KAMK
(Phot. Beato.)
meses II
hall has six polygonal pillars
144
THE SECOND THEBAN AGE
of Hathor are placed instead of capitals,
the vestibule by three doors, and three
with the vestibule,
It communicates with
chapels are connected
nr.
/
•?. — STOREHOUSES WITH BRICK VAII.TS IX
THE RAMESSELM. (Phot. Baraize.)
the sanctuary in the
centre, facing the en-
trance, the other two
at the two extremi-
ties. The large adjoin-
ing speos (Fig. 260)
is a complete temple,
built in the spirit
which governed the
plan of the isolated
temples, and contain-
ing all the consti-
tuent parts of these.
First of all there is an
esplanade of beaten
earth ; a short flight
of steps connects it with a terrace, bordered by a solid balus-
trade, behind which rose in a single line twenty figures of alter-
nate Osiris-mummies and falcons (Fig. 261), eight to the right
and eight to the left of the central landing. Behind this line,
the slanting pylon,
cut in the rock,
presents its vast
surface , the four
prescribed colos-
sal statues watch-
ing impassibly
along it. Beyond
the pylon, in the
place of the co-
court , was
130 feet
bordered,
the court
of Rameses III. at
Karnak , by eight
square pillars, each
with an Osiris set
against it. This sort of covered yard was followed by the
hypostyle hall, and, at the end of this was the sanctuary between
145 L
vered
a hall
long ,
like
274. — SECOND COIRT OF THE TEMPLE OF
MEDIXET-HABU. (Phot. Beato.)
ART IN EGYPT
FIG. 275.— FACADE OF THE PALACE OF RAMESES III.
TOWARDS THE FIRST COURT OF THE TEMPLE AT
MED1^â– ET-HABU. (Phot. Beato.J
the cells of the paredri. Eight crypts, on a lower level than the
central nave, were distributed unequally on either side, simu-
lating the accessory
chambers. The dif-
ferences and inequa-
lities of the arrange-
ment are explained
by the necessity
imposed upon the
builder of choosing
the most solid strata
in the stone, and
of making sure that
his work should not
be crushed by the
mountain.
If the isolated tem-
ple thus buried itself
in imitation of the
old sepulchral cha-
pels, these, by an inverse phenomenon, were often detached
from the hypogea to which they belonged, and became isolated
temples. Tombs of private per-
sons were of two sorts , as in
the first Theban period; one,
hollowed out entirely in the
cliff, the other in the manner
of pyramid-mastabas , but with
important modifications in the
relative importance of the pyra-
mid and the mastaba. The latter,
which at first had been gradually
decreased till it became merely
an insignificant base, steadily
grew until it almost recovered
its original size, while the pyra-
mid shrank to the dimensions
of the pyramidium on an obelisk.
There is only, as far as I know,
a single specimen of the kind,
the chapel of Apis discovered
by Mariette in the Serapeum sixty years ago (Fig. 262). The
mastaba is still in existence, a chamber of masonry perched on
146
FH;. 276. — DECORATION OF THE
( EILINCi AND ONE OF THE ROOMS
OF THE PALACE OF AMENOPHIS III.
AT MEDINET-HAHF.
THE SECOND THEBAN AGE
KIG. 277.
PAVKMENT OF ONE OK THE HALLS OF THE PALACE
OK AMENOPHIS IV. AT KL-AMAHNA.
a solid basement, adorned on the outside, towards the corners,
with polygonal engaged columns, and crowned with a cavetto.
The pyramidium
has disappeared
almost entirely,
and the vault is
under the building,
but independent
of it; it is ap-
proached by an in-
clined plane which
descends into the
ground a little
way in front of
the door of the
mastaba. Monu-
ments of this kind
abounded at The-
bes, but they have
all been destroyed, and we should not suspect their existence were
they not frequently represented in paintings. The pyramidium
was more or less pointed , and it was built of brick ; a gable-
window was occasionally pierced in it which gave light to the
interior, and it terminated in a point of black stone, either
granite or schist (Fig. 263). The hypogea properly so-called,
with which the Theban mountains are riddled, so to say, still
followed the tradition of
the Twelfth Dynasty in
so far as to retain the
hypostyle hall behind the
fagade, but the available
space was restricted, and
in order to economise
this, a less ambitious plan
was adopted from the
beginning of the Eigh-
teenth Dynasty. It shows
generally an open court,
roughly quarried in the
hillside, where the pre-
liminary rites of burial
were performed , then a long , narrow ante-room , to the end
of which the stele was often relegated; its decoration included
H7 L 2
via. 27s.
DETAIL OK A PAVEMENT IX THE PALACE OK
AMENOPHIS UI. AT MEDINET-HABU.
ART IN EGYPT
FIG. 279.— THK MIGDOL AT MEDINET-HABU.
(Phot. Thidenat.)
representations of the
various scenes of burial,
the funeral banquet, the