Volume I Part 33 (1/2)
[Illustration: FIG 232--Temple of Amenophis III at Eilithyia; froement, which is a constant principle in Greek architecture, is no ypt But in spite of this difference the siht be called a chance likeness, if the word chance had any place in history, is full of interest for the historian of art
The following facts are sufficient to prove that it was the sested the external situation of their colonnades As long as the cella was large enough to ad the space or destroying its proportions, we find the columns inside Of this the temple of Amenophis III at Eilithyia, a plan and section of which we take fros 232 and 233),[351] is an instance
It is prefaced by a chamber, very ruinous, and wider than it is deep
It is now difficult to say whether this was an uncovered court or a hypostyle hall[352] Iular cha internally 28 feet by 22 feet 6 inches
The roof ht very possibly have been supported by the four columns, as their bases were 4 feet in diameter A niche contrived in the further wall of the naos acted the part of a _secos_
[351] _Denkmaeler_, part i pl 100
[352] The internal ives it four columns, but at present there are only the reea_ (LEPSIUS, _Denkmaeler_, part i pl 115)
Here too we find a very sih to admit, and even to demand, the use of internal columns, it never entered the architect's head to surround it with a portico externally Thus arranged, the chapel, as we have called these buildings, was nothing more than an epitome of the temple, and there is no need for insistance upon the variations which it presents upon a single theme, upon a first principle which sometimes was developed into a colossal structure like that at Karnak, sos where a few paces carry the visitor from one extremity to the other
We may say the same of those subterranean terotto_, or _half-grotto_, according to whether they are entirely rock cut, or prefaced by architectural constructions They are chiefly found in Lower Nubia, a fact which has souration of the soil In that portion of the Nile Valley the river is embraced so closely by the rocks bethich it flows that it would, we are told, have been difficult to find a site for a constructed teeration If we examine a map of Nubia we shall find many places where either one or the other of the two chains of hills fall back fro fringe of level ground This is cropped and tilled by little groups of natives, who live, as a rule, at the mouth of those _wadis_, or dry torrent beds, which intersect the mountains These strips of arable land are always either level or of a very gentle slope It would, therefore, not be very difficult to obtain a site for such little oratories as were required for the scanty population, for the soldiers in the nearest hbouring quarry Even supposing that it pleased the king to choose some deserted site in a conquered province for the erection of so would be required Great te, the military commanders, and the priest resided, in which the popular cereion were performed
[Illustration: FIG 233--Teitudinal section, froyptian architect did not hesitate to cut away part of the side of aa level site for building In this fashi+on Seti obtained a site for his great teht have been done, at much less cost, for these little Nubian temples It would always have been easy with pick and chisel to adapt soe or cornice of the cliffs for their reception, or to cut a sort of courtyard in the slope of the hill, in which a sht have been erected We must not seek, then, for a reason for the multiplication of these rock temples in the Nubian section of the Nile Valley either in natural conditions or in the want of architectural resource Even in Egypt proper there are chapels cut in the flanks of the hills; near Beni-Hassan there is the _Speos Artemidos_, and near assouan, close to the quarries of Gebel Silsilis,[353] there is another Below the first cataract, however, these grottos are as rare as they are numerous on the other side of the frontier, where, indeed, they soypt, unless it be the finest of the sepulchral excavations at Thebes, can give an idea How are we to account for this difference, or rather contrast?
[353] See, for Gebel Silsilis, LEPSIUS, _Denkmaeler_, part i pl
102
This question isexplanation seems to us, however, the h they were closely connected as early as the sixth dynasty, the former never lost its character of a conquered province In Ethiopia ypt proper Between the sixth and the eleventh dynasty the hold of Egypt upon Ethiopia had been lost at least once Reconquered by the kings of the first Theban period, it regained its independence during the dohteenth dynasty had, therefore, to begin the work of subjugation all over again, and it did its work hly than any of its predecessors Then, when the Egyptian sceptre ruled as far south as Napata and the great bend of the Nile, the governors of the southern provincesthe incursions of the negroes fro the warlike tribes who lived within the conquered frontier At such ti himself must often have been compelled to take the field and lead his armies in person A constructed tereat risk of destruction in a country exposed to the repeated incursions of savage tribes; columns and piers would soon be overturned by their ruthless ar rock would offer a ht be scraped down or daubed over, but the time and patience required for any serious attack upon the li
Such dae as could be done in a short time and by the weapons of the invaders could readily be repaired when the raid was over
We think it probable, therefore, that subterranean architecture was preferred throughout this region because the political condition of the province was always uration of the country required it Where security was assured by the presence of a strong and perarrison, as at Semneh and kuypt
They are found, too, in those localities--Soleb and Napata for instance--where there was a large urban population, and therefore fortifications and troops for their defence Everywhere else it was found uardianshi+p of its ownrock, and to bury it in faces of the cliffs This kind of work, yptian workmen For many centuries they had been accustomed, as we have seen, to hollow out the flanks of their mountains, and to decorate the cha-places of their dead In the execution of such works they ree of practised skill which reat temple at Ipsamboul, as to build one of the sa the conquerors of Nubia to fill it with underground temples Such a method of construction was at once expeditious and durable, a double advantage, which would be greatly appreciated in the early years of the occupation of the province When security was established, the same process continued to be used from love for the art itself When Rameses II cut those two caves in the rock at Ipsaures, have such an effect upon the travellers of to-day, it was neither because he was pressed for time, nor because he was doubtful of the tenure of his power The ypt and the security of her conquests seeyptian es of himself because he wished to astonish his contemporaries and their posterity with the boldness and novelty of the enterprise At Thebes he had built, on the right hand of the river, the hall of Karnak and the pylons of Luxor; on the left bank, the _Teined no pendant reat temple carved fron, higher than any of those which adorned the courtyards at Thebes, would see countless generations of Egyptians pass before their feet in their journeys up and down the Nile The hypostyle hall at Karnak was a reat temple at Ipsamboul was the yptians from the earliest periods of their civilization, the art which i by excavations in the living rock
Subterranean architecture had, of course, to go through a regular course of development before it was capable of such works as the tomb of Seti, at Thebes, and the temples of Ipsamboul In the necropolis of Memphis, and in that of the First Theban Empire, its ambition was more easily satisfied So, too, the first rock-cut tehteenth dynasty Two of thehbourhood of Ipsamboul but on the other side of the river, one near the castle of Addeh, the other at Ferag The latter was cut by the king Harmhabi (or Armas) It is composed--as also is that of Addeh--of a hall supported by four columns, two lateral chambers, and a sanctuary There is an equally sypt which dates frorotto at Beni-Hassan, which, ever since antique times, has been known as the _Speos Artemidos_ The Goddess Sekhet, to which it was consecrated, had been identified with the Greek Arteun by Thothmes III, carried on by Seti I, and seems never to have been finished The temple proper is prefaced by a kind of portico of square pillars cut, with the roof which they support, froe about nine feet deep leads to the naos, which is a quadrangular chamber about thirteen feet square, with a niche in the further wall in which an ie of the lion-headed Goddess probably stood[354] The most iurated by Harmhabi and restored and embellished by Rameses II[355] The hemispeos at Redesieh, in the same district, is a work of Seti I[356]
[354] _Description de l'egypte, Antiquites_, vol iv pl 65, Fig 1 The French draughtsive nothing but a picturesque view of the facade
[355] LEPSIUS, _Denkmaeler_, part i pl 102; ROSELLINI (vol
iii pl 32, Fig 3) gives a view of the interior of the Silsilis chapel
[356] LEPSIUS, _Denkmaeler_, part i pl 101
[Illustration: FIG 234--The speos at Addeh; plan from horeau]
[Illustration: FIG 235--The speos at Addeh Longitudinal section; from horeau]
Only one subterranean temple later than the nineteenth dynasty is known to us, namely, that which is cut in the flanks of the Gebel-Barkal at Napata[357] It is called the _Typhoniuures which stand before the piers It dates from the time of Tahrak, and was one of the works hich the faht becoyptian cities which he had taken and occupied[358] All the other rock-cut temples were the work of Rameses II; they are, as we ascend the Nile, Beit-el-Wali, near Kalabcheh (Figs 236 and 237); Gherf-Hossein, or Gircheh, Wadi-Seboua, Dayr, and Ipsamboul