Volume I Part 28 (2/2)

[Illustration: FIG 204--The Te parts of the Necropolis]

-- 2 _The Temple under the Middle Empire_

No temples constructed under the first Theban eenerally adopted the worshi+p of all those deities whose characters and attributes have been h the monue of the Ousourtesens and Ae, Amen, or Ammon, identified with Ra, already showed a tendency to become a supreme deity for the nation as a whole

To hins attributed their successes both of peace and war As the God of the king and of the capital, Ahout the whole valley of the Nile, which affected, however, neither the worshi+p of the local deities, nor the hoypt to Osiris, the God to whorave

Art, at this period, had advanced so far that there was no longer any difficulty inthe distinction between the temple and the tomb

In the sepulchres at Beni-Hassan which date from the twelfth dynasty, we find two very different kinds of support, and there was nothing to prevent the forespecially how skilful the Egyptians had shown the the excellent materials provided for them by nature The architect could, if he had chosen, have multiplied to infinity those stone supports which his distant predecessors had e of their future possibilities The obelisk set up by Ousourtesen at Heliopolis, proves that the cutting and polishi+ng of those monoliths was understood in his time, and as the obelisk seems always to have been closely coious edifices of the tie pyramidoid masses The hypostyle halls, the pylons, and the obelisks of the New Empire differed from those of the Middle Enificence of their decoration, than in their general arrangement

Of all the temples then constructed, the only one which has left any apparent traces is that which was erected at Thebes by the princes of the twelfth dynasty to the honour of Amen It fors of Karnak have been erected

The naonal columns which mark, it is believed, the site of the sanctuary properly speaking, between the granite chas of Thothmes III; these coluonal in section[299]

[299] The little that now remains of the columns and foundations of the ancient temple is marked in the plan which for _a_ In plate 8 the remains of all statues and inscriptions which date froes 36, 37, and 41-45 of the text

Ofis left to us beyond tradition and the mere mention of them in various texts This, however, is sufficient to prove their existence We shall choose exa has been found of that great temple at Heliopolis which all the Greek travellers visited and described, but we know that a part, at least, of its buildings dated from the time of the first Theban e Stern in 1873, narrates the dedication of a chapel by Ousourtesen It is probable that the obelisk was in the portion then built and consecrated to the God Ra

At Semneh, in Nubia, the fortress on the left bank of the river contains a te to the pictures and inscriptions which cover its walls, is no more than a restoration of one built, in the first instance, in honour of Ousourtesen III

This latter prince was deified at Semneh after his death, and his worshi+p continued for more than ten centuries His tens of the eighteenth dynasty, was reconstructed by Thothe to the local deities, a his pious successor to the other Gods

Many iven, but the monuments of the second Theban empire demand our attention A Thothmes or an Amenophis, a Seti or a Rameses, could dispose of all the resources of a rich country and of an aged civilization for the construction of their edifices, edifices so great and splendid that they ran no risk of being destroyed in later ti others still more sumptuous; besides which they were built at the zenith of the national greatness, at the y of an unconquered people was co froes of the monarchy a few unimportant additions were made, an obelisk or a pylon here, there a court, a colonnade, or a few chareat temples of the New Empire have come down to us with few modifications beyond those caused by the three thousand years through which they have existed, and we have little difficulty in restoring thereat hteenth, nineteenth, and twentieth dynasties The later additions, although they render the ground-plans eneral characteristics of the buildings, and in no way prevent us froinality of their conception

-- 3 _The Temple under the New Ereat Theban temples and attempt to evolve order out of their complexity of courts, halls, porticos and colonnades, it may be convenient to describe their approaches Each temple had its external and accessory parts which had their share in the religious ceremonies of which it was the theatre, and it would be difficult tothem in detail

[Illustration: FIG 205--Rans which denoted to visitors the proxiyptian temple hat the Greek travellers called a d????, that is to say a paved causeway bordered on each side with ra turned inwards to the road These avenues vary in width, that at Karnak is 76 feet between the inner faces of the pedestals;[300] within the precincts of the sacred edifice, between the first and second pylon, this width underwent a considerable increase The space between one sphinx and another on the same side of the causeas about 13 feet The _dro; there must, therefore, have been five hundred sphinxes on each side of it At the Serapeu 70 feet doards into the sand were still nearer to one another;[301] the dromos which they lined was found to be 50 feet wide and about 1,650 yards long

[300] MARIETTE, _Karnak_, p 4

[301] We may infer from what Mariette says that they were separated from one another by a distance of 12 feet 4 inches

Following our modern notions we should, perhaps, expect to find these causeways laid out upon an exactly rectilinear plan They are not so, however It has sometiyptian architecture is its dislike, or rather hatred, of a rigorous symmetry Traces of this hatred are to be found in these avenues The very short ones, such as those which extend between one pylon and another, are straight, but those which are prolonged for sos of the temple almost always oes several slight changes of direction, in order, no doubt, to avoid the to at Karnak, where the architect must have had different ht line At the point where the man-headed sphinxes of Horus succeed to those sphinxes without inscriptions the date of which Mariette found it iently to the left

These avenues of sphinxes are always outside the actual walls of the temple, from which it has been inferred that they were nification[302]

[302] MARIETTE, _Karnak_, p 5 We find, however, that sphinxes were sometimes placed in the interior of a teranite which form the chief ornaments of the principal court of the Boulak museum, were found in one of the inner halls of the temple at Karnak They date, probably, fro owes its existence

So up to their different gates It is within these gates only that the sacred inclosure called by the Greeks the t?e??? coious ceremonies were all perfor wall built at sufficient distance fro of processions and other acts of ritual

These outer walls are of crude brick At Karnak they are about 33 feet thick, but as their upper parts have disappeared through the perishable nature of the material, it is iht may have been[303] Their summits, with their crenellated parapets, must have afforded a continuous platforhts of steps