Volume I Part 31 (2/2)

[335] _Ibid_, p 312

The Ramesseum was formerly surrounded by brick structures of a peculiar character, soood preservation at about 50

They consist of a double range of vaults closely abutting on each other, nue, and surmounted by a platfor, these curious structures, which are situated within the outer bounding wall of the te students, as well as chambers for the priests In that case Ra founded, like the Mussulns, a _medresse_, or sort of university, by the side of his _turbeh_ and _iven to this conjecture both by certain discoveries which have been made in tombs near the Ramesseum and by the evidence of several papyri[336] But for these texts we should be inclined to believe that these reypten_, vol ii p 312

[Illustration: FIG 220--The Raement, restored by M Ch Chipiez]

[Illustration: FIG 221--General plan of the buildings at Medinet-Abou]

About a thousand yards south-west of the Ras which is known by the nae of Medinet-Abou It was not until the second half of the present century had commenced that they were cleared from the _debris_ and roup is cos in one enclosure The oldest is a temple built by Thothed by the Ptolemies and the Roman Emperors (A on plan) The other two date from the time of Rameses III, the founder of the twentieth dynasty They both lie upon the same axis, they are connected by a sphinx avenue, and they must certainly be considered as two parts of one whole The first of the three which we encounter in approaching the group from the river is known as the Royal Pavilion or Pavilion of Rameses III

(B) Ninety yards farther to the north we coreat temple, the funerary character of which we have already explained (C) It is a second _Raenerally known as the _Great Temple of Medinet-Abou_ We shall return to the Royal Pavilion presently, and, as for the Temple of Thothmes, which was consecrated to Amen, its really ancient portion is of too little i It consists merely of an isolated secos surrounded on three sides by an open gallery upheld by square piers and, upon the fourth, by a block containing six s

222)

[Illustration: FIG 222--Plan of the Temple of Thothmes

(Chareat temple, however, whose picturesque ruins attract every visitor to Thebes, deserves to be carefully considered even in our su resemblance to the Ramesseum

Their dimensions are nearly the same The first pylon at Medinet-Abou is 210 feet wide The two courts which follow and isolate the second pylon are severally 113 feet by 140, and 126 feet by 136 The plan of Medinet-Abou does not differ (223) in any very important points from that of the Raht angles to the face of the pylon, the first quadrangle has colonnades One of these colonnades, that on the right of a visitor entering the temple, consists of a row of pillars faced with caryatides of Osiris These Osiride piers are repeated in the second court, where a double colonnade, five steps above the pavement, leads to the pronaos The latter seems too small for the two peristyles It has only twenty-four supporting colu fro These columns are sht which constitute the central nave do not differ from their companions[338]

This hypostyle hall lacks, therefore, so characteristics of its rivals elsewhere Its una after the noble proportions and rich decorations of the two external courts The effect of the hall is still farther lessened by the fact that it does not occupy the whole width of the building Ranges of apartments are introduced between it and the external walls of the teypte_ (_Antiquites_, vol ii pl 4) does not go beyond the back wall of the second court That of Lepsius goes to the back of the hypostyle hall

(_Denkmaeler_, part i pl 92) Ours is es farther back; it was co in 1866

[338] Here M Perrot is in error, as may be seen by reference to his own plan The colue of the hypostyle hall are similar in section to those of the two peristyles, except that their bases are flattened laterally in a somewhat unusual fashi+on--ED

[Illustration: FIG 223--Plan of the great Temple at Medinet-Abou

(Communicated by M Brune)]

Was there a sanctuary behind this hypostyle hall? It would seeations of Mariette, that upon the major axis of the teht columns, like those in the Rarouped in the fashi+on which is al The little that can be discovered as to this point has its i a comparison between the teht prove that the si between the more public parts of the two edifices, extended to the sanctuary and its dependencies in the rear

The last of the great Theban Pharaohs certainly drew much of his inspiration from the work of his illustrious predecessors In their present state of mutilation it is impossible to decide which was the finer of the two in their complete state To the fine hypostyle hall of the Ramesseum, Medinet-Abou could oppose the Royal Pavilion which rose in front of the terouped itself so happily with the first pylon, affording one of the yptian architecture

The rest of the tehbourhood and within the enclosures at Karnak are all more or less intimately allied to the type we have established, and need not be noticed in detail[339]

[339] A few of these buildings--that, for instance, on the right of the great lake--seeement, but their remains are in such a state of confusion that it is at present iood reason to believe that the type of temple which we have described was a coypt than Thebes The temples of Memphis, of Heliopolis and of the Delta cities, have perished and, practically, left no trace behind; but the great buildings constructed by the Theban conquerors outside the liood preservation One of these, the Temple of _Soleb_, built by Thothmes III and reconstructed by A reseh the discrepancies in the available plans of the first-na Cailliaud only allows it one peristylar court, while Hoskins and Lepsius give it two

According to Cailliaud, its hypostyle hall, which ht columns After it came another hall, with a roof supported by twelve columns This was surrounded by small chambers, the reiven by Lepsius there are two hypostyle halls with a wall between theement which is also found at Abydos The outer one , and the second forty, of rather less diameter; the remainder of the tee a Meroe_, plates, vol ii pl 9-14

LEPSIUS, _Denkmaeler_, part i pl 116, 117 HOSKINS, _Travels in Ethiopia_, plates 40, 41, and 42 The plan given by Hoskins agrees more with that of Lepsius than with Cailliaud, but it only shows the beginning of the first hypostyle hall and nothing of the second These divergences are easily understood when it is re but some ten columns of two different types reh and wide In order to obtain a really trustworthy plan, this accumulation would have to be cleared away over the whole area of the teallery, formed of six coluree of the great corridor at Luxor; by its general forous arrangereat temple of Napata (_Gebel-Barkal_) Built by Ayptian pro-consul, and repaired by Tahraka when Ethiopia becaypt, this tes in its plan From a peristylar court enclosed between two pylons, we pass into a hypostylar hall containing forty-six columns; behind this hall coe_ of sypt

The temples which we have hitherto examined are chiefly rele sanctuary forms the centre and, so to speak, the heart of the whole composition Pylons, peristylar courts and hypostylar halls, are but anterooms and vestibules to this all important chamber; while the small apartments which surround it afford the necessary accoyptian worshi+p In the great temple at Karnak, the anterior and posterior dependencies are developed to an extraordinary extent, but this developth, or to speakThe sle are continually carried farther from each other by the additions of fresh chambers and architectural features, which are distributed, with ht and left of the h the centre of the _secos_ The building, therefore, in spite of many successive additions always contrives to preserve the unity of its organic constitution

But all the great buildings in Egypt which were constructed for the service of religion were not so sie 224) It was begun by Seti I and finished by Rameses II