Volume II Part 13 (1/2)

-- 8 _Doors and Windows_

So far we have been concerned with the structure and shape of Egyptian buildings; we have now to describe the openings pierced in their substance for the adht, for the circulation of their inhabitants and for the entrance of visitors froyptians were peculiar in many ways and deserve to be carefully described

DOORS

The plans of Egyptian doorways do not always show the saements The embrasure of which we moderns make use is seldom met with It occurs in the peripteral te 141) The doorways of the te 142, and in the passage which traverses the thickness of the pylons, there is in thea kind of chamber into which, no doubt, double doors fell back on either side (Fig 143)

In their elevations doorways show still greater variety

Let us consider in the first place those by which access was gained to the _temenos_, or outer inclosure, of the temple They may be divided into three classes

First of all coreat doorway flanked on either side by a tohich greatly exceeds it in height (Fig 207, Vol I) Chayptian texts themselves a distinction is made between the _pylon_ and that which he calls the _propylon_ The latter consists of a door opening through the centre of a single pyra a facade to the temple itself, it is used for the entrances to the outer inclosure Figs 144 and 145 show the different hieroglyphs which represent it[136]

[136] Froyptienne_, p 53

These propylons, to adopt Champollion's term, seem to have included two different types which are non to us only through the Ptoles, as the boundary walls of the Pharaonic period have alateith them

[Illustration: FIG 141--Plan of doorway, Temple of Elephantine]

[Illustration: FIG 142--Plan of doorway, Temple of Khons]

We have illustrated the first type in our restoration, page 339, Vol

I (Fig 206) The doorway itself is very high, in which it resembles many propylons of the Greek period which still exist at Karnak and Denderah[137] The thickness of the whole mass and its double cornice, bethich the covered way on the top of the walls could be carried, are features which we also encounter in the propylon of Denderah and in that of the te but the wall, and a gateway, in Egypt, iyptians had anything analogous to the triu, to which all access was forbidden to the crowd The doors may well have been numerous, but, if they were to be of any use at all, they must have been connected by a continuous barrier which should force the traffic to pass through theypten_, p 250

[138] FELIX TEYNARD, _Vues d'egypte et de Nubie_, pl 106

[Illustration: FIG 143--Plan of doorway in the pylon, Temple of Khons _Description_, iii 54]

[Illustration: FIGS 144, 145--The pylon and propylon of the hieroglyphs]

In our restorations this doorway rises above the walls on each side and stands out from them, on plan, both within and without We may fairly conjecture that it was so The architect would hardly have wasted rich decoration and a well designed cornice upon a mass which was to be almost buried in the erections on each side of it It must have been conspicuous from a distance, and this double relief would make it so There are, moreover, a few instances in which these secondary entrances have been preserved together with the walls through which they provided openings, and they fully confirateway to the outer court of the Teateway certainly belongs to the Ptole, but we have no reason to suppose that the architects of the Macedonian period deserted the ancient forms

[Illustration: FIG 146--Gateway to the court-yard of the small Temple at Medinet-Abou _Description_, ii 4]

[Illustration: FIG 147--A propylon with its masts]

The propylons were decorated within one of the royal to 147) Judging from the scenes and inscriptions which accoht this represented a propylon at the Ramesseum That the artist should, as usual, have omitted the wall, need not surprise us e rereat brick inclosures ypte et de la Nubie_, _Notices Descriptives_, p 504

The second type of propylon differs fro a very much smaller doorway in comparison with its total mass In the former the door reaches almost to the cornice, in the latter it occupies but a very s 147, and, still148, which was also copied by Champollion from a tomb at Thebes[140] In one of these examples the walls are nearly vertical, in another they have a considerable slope, but the arranges to the towers the 149, which was coive an idea of the general composition of which the door with its carved jambs and architrave, and the toith its masts and banners, are the elements The two types only differ from one another in the relative dimensions of their important parts, and the transition between them may have been almost imperceptible It would seem that in the Ptolemaic epoch the wide and lofty doors were the chief objects of adh which they were pierced were thought of more importance

[140] _Notices Descriptives_, p 431

[Illustration: FIG 148--A propylon]

If we examine the doorways of the tereat variety in the manner in which they are combined architecturally with the walls in which they occur