court, a little less extensive than the first. Right and left there are
porticos, each with a double range of columns. On the side of the
entrance and on that opposite to it there are single ranges of Osiride
figures. Many of these figures are still standing; they are 31 feet high.
THEBES
Three flights of steps lead up from this court into a vestibule
ornamented with two colossal busts of Rameses and with a row of
columns. From this vestibule the hypostyle hall is reached by three
doorways of black granite. It measures 136 feet wide and 103 deep.
Its roof is supported by forty-eight columns, in eight ranges of six
each, counting from front to rear. Five of these eight ranges are still
standing and still afford support to a part of the ceiling. This latter is
painted with golden stars
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upon a blue ground, in imitation of the vault of heaven. The side walls
have entirely disappeared.[333]
Fig. 219.—Plan of the Ramesseum (from Lepsius.)
This hall resembles that at Karnak, both in its plan and in its general
appearance. The mode of lighting is the same; the arrangement is the
same; there is in both a wide passage down the centre, supported by
columns thicker and higher than the rest, from which they are also
distinguished by the nobility of their bell-shaped capitals. At Karnak
the hall was begun by
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Rameses I. and Seti; Rameses II. did no more than carry on the work
of his predecessors. He heard the chorus of admiration with which
the completion of such a superb building must have been hailed, and
we can easily understand that he was thereby incited to reproduce its
happy arrangement and majestic proportions in the great temple
which he was erecting in his own honour on the left bank of the river.
Ambitious though he was, Rameses II. could not attempt to give the
colossal dimensions of the great temple of Amen to what was, after
all, no more than the chapel of his own tomb. The great hall at Karnak
required three reigns, two of them very long ones, for its completion.
In the Ramesseum an attempt was made to compensate for inferior
size by extra care in the details and by the beauty of the
workmanship. The tall columns of the central nave were no more than
thirty-six feet high, including base and capital, the others were only
twenty-five feet; but they surpassed the pillars at Karnak by the
elegance of their proportions.
The admiration excited in us by the ruins of Karnak is mingled with
astonishment, almost with stupefaction, but at the Ramesseum we
are more charmed although we are less surprised. We see that, when
complete, it must have had a larger share than its rival of that beauty
into which merely colossal dimensions do not enter.[334]
Beyond the hall there are wide chambers, situated upon the major
axis of the building, and each with its roof supported by eight
columns. Beyond them again there is a fourth and smaller chamber
which has only four columns. Round these rooms a number of
smaller ones are gathered; they are all in a very fragmentary state,
and among them no vestige of anything like a secos has been found.
On the other hand, the bas-reliefs in one of the larger rooms seem to
confirm the assertion of Diodorus, in his description of the Tomb of
Osymandias, that the library was placed in this part of the building.[335]
Fig. 220.—The Ramesseum. Bird's-eye view of the general
arrangement, restored by M. Ch. Chipiez.
The Ramesseum was formerly surrounded by brick structures of a
peculiar character, some of which are yet to be found in good
preservation at about 50 metres from the north face of the building.
They consist of a double range of vaults closely
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abutting on each other, numbering from ten to twelve in each range,
and surmounted by a platform. If it be true that a library was included
in the building, these curious structures, which are situated within the
outer bounding wall of the temple, may have contained rooms for
lodging and instructing students, as well as chambers for the priests.
In that case Rameses would deserve the credit of having founded,
like the Mussulman sovereigns, a médressé, or sort of university, by
the side of his turbeh and mosque. Additional probability is given 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 remains are the ruins of storehouses.
Fig. 221.—General plan of the buildings at Medinet-Abou.
About a thousand yards south-west of the Ramesseum rises the
group of buildings which is known by the name of the modern village
of Medinet-Abou. It was not until the second half of the present
century had commenced that they were cleared from the débris and
modern huts which concealed many of their parts. The group is
composed of three distinct buildings in one enclosure. The oldest is a
temple built by Thothmes II. and Thothmes III. and afterwards
enlarged 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 come upon the great temple, the funerary character of
which we have already explained (C). It is a second Ramesseum,
and to avoid
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confusion it is generally 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 importance to detain us long. 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
small chambers (Fig. 222).
The great temple, however, whose picturesque ruins attract every
visitor to Thebes, deserves to be carefully considered even in our
summary review.[337] It bears a striking 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 Ramesseum. Upon two of its sides
only, those which are at right 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 columns, in four
rows of six each, counting
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from front to back of the building. These columns are smaller in
section than those of the peristyles, and the eight which constitute the
central nave do not differ from their companions.[338] This hypostyle hall lacks, therefore, some of the distinguishing characteristics of its
rivals elsewhere. Its unambitious appearance is all the more
surprising 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
temple.
Fig. 222.—Plan of the Temple of Thothmes. (Champollion,
Notices descriptives, p. 314.)
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Was there a sanctuary behind this hypostyle hall? It would seem
rather, according to the recent investigations of Mariette, that upon
the major axis of the temple there were two small halls, each
supported by eight columns, like those in the Ramesseum; around
these many small chambers would be grouped in the fashion which is
almost universal in this part of an Egyptian religious building. The little
that can be discovered as to this point has its importance in
establishing a comparison between the temple of Rameses II. and
that of Rameses III., because it might prove that the similarity, which
we have mentioned as existing 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 temple and grouped itself so happily with
the first pylon, affording one of the most effective compositions in the
whole range of Egyptian architecture.
Fig. 223.—Plan of the great Temple at Medinet-Abou.
(Communicated by M. Brune.)
The rest of the temples in this neighbourhood 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]
We have good reason to believe that the type of temple which we
have described was a common one in other parts of Egypt 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
limits of Egypt proper, in Nubia, are in comparatively good
preservation. One of these, the Temple of Soleb, built by Thothmes
III. and reconstructed by Amenophis III., must have borne a strong
resemblance to the Ramesseum, so far as can be judged through the
discrepancies in the available plans of the first-named building.
Cailliaud only allows it one peristylar court, while Hoskins and
Lepsius
385
give it two. According to Cailliaud, its hypostyle hall, which must have
been a very beautiful one, contained forty-eight columns. After it
came another hall, with a roof supported by twelve columns. This was
surrounded by small chambers, the remains of which are very
confused. In the plan given by Lepsius there are two hypostyle halls
with a wall between them, an arrangement which is also found at
Abydos. The outer one must have had twenty-four columns, the
largest in the building, and the second forty, of rather less diameter;
the remainder of the temple has disappeared.[340]
We find analogous arrangements in the great temple of Napata
( Gebel-Barkal). Built by Amenophis III. when Napata was the seat of
an Egyptian pro-consul, and repaired by Tahraka when Ethiopia
became supreme over Egypt, this temple resembles the Theban
buildings in its plan. From a peristylar court enclosed between two
pylons, we pass into a hypostylar hall containing forty-six columns;
behind this hall comes the sanctuary, in its usual position, with its
entourage of small chambers. We may call this the classic type of
Egypt.
The temples which we have hitherto examined are chiefly remarkable
for the simplicity of their plan. A single 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 accommodation for the
material adjuncts of Egyptian worship. In the great temple at Karnak,
the anterior and posterior dependencies are developed to an
extraordinary extent, but this development is always in the direction of
the length, or to speak more accurately, of the depth of the building.
The smaller faces of the whole rectangle are continually carried
farther from
386
each other by the additions of fresh chambers and architectural
features, which are distributed, with more or less regular alternation,
on the right and left of the major axis which always passes through
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 simply designed. A good instance of a
more complex arrangement is to be found in the great temple at
Abydos (Fig. 224). It was begun by Seti I. and finished by Rameses II. Mariette freed it from the débris and modern hovels which
encumbered it, and, thanks to his efforts, there are now few
monuments in Egypt whose inner arrangements can be more clearly
and certainly perceived.
Its general shape is singular. The courts and the pronaos compose a
narrow and elongated rectangle, with which the parts corresponding
to the sanctuary and its dependent chambers form a right angle (see
Fig. 224). This salient wing has no corresponding excrescence on the other side. We might consider the building unfinished, but that there
is no sign whatever that the architect meant to complete it with
another wing at the opposite angle. The Egyptians were never greatly
enamoured of that exact symmetry which has become one of the first
artistic necessities of our time.
Still more surprising than the eccentricity of its plan, are the peculiar
arrangements which are to be found in the interior of this temple. As
at Medinet-Abou and the Ramesseum, there are two courts, each
preceded by a pylon. After these comes the pronaos. The courts differ
from those at Thebes in having no peristyles or colonnades. The only
thing of the kind is a row of square pillars standing before the inner
wall of the second court (see plan). This is a poor equivalent for the
majestic colonnades and files of caryatides which we have hitherto
encountered.
The suppression of the portico has a great effect upon the
appearance of these two courts. It deprives them of the rich shadows
cast by the long colonnades and their roofs of the Theban temples,
and the long walls must have seemed rather cold and monotonous in
spite of the bas-reliefs and paintings which covered them. Their
absence, however, is not allowed to affect the general lines of the
plan.
Fig. 224.—Plan of the Temple at Abydos (from Mariette).
We have given neither an elevation nor a section of the temple at
Abydos, because neither the one nor the other was to be had. The
building was hardly known until Mariette freed it from the débris with
which it was engulphed. He, too, studied rather as an egyptologist
than as an architect, and was content with making known its internal
arrangements by a plan. This plan does not appear to be minutely
exact. A little farther on we shall have to speak of a peculiarity which
exists at Abydos, but which is not hinted at in the adjoining plan;
some of the columns are coupled in the first hypostyle hall. We take
this fact from the Description, where the measurements are given in a
fashion which forbids all doubt of their fidelity.
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It is when we arrive at the pronaos that we fail to recognize the
disposition to which we have grown accustomed. There is no central
nave, with its columns of extra size and more careful design, leading
to the closed door of the sanctuary. There are two hypostyle halls, the
first supported by twenty-four, the second by thirty-six columns. They
are separated by a wall pierced with seven doorways, each doorway
corresponding to one of the aisles between the columns. In the
farther wall of the second of these halls, there are seven more
doorways, corresponding to the last named, and opening upon seven
oblong vaulted saloons, all of one size and completely isolated one
from another.
By their situation on the plan, by their form, and by the decoration of
their walls, these vaulted chambers declare themselves to be so
many sanctuaries. Each one of them is dedicated to some particular
deity, whose name and image appear in the decorations of the
chamber itself and also upon the lintel of the door outside. These
names and images are again repeated upon all the surfaces
presented by the aisle which leads up to the door.
The seven deities thus honoured, beginning at the right, are Horus,
Isis, Osiris, Amen, Harmachis, Ptah, and Seti himself, whom we thus
find assimilated with the greatest of the Egyptian gods. Each
chamber contains a collection of thirty-six pictures, which are
repeated from one to another with no changes beyond those
rendered necessary by the substitution of one god for another. These
pictures deal with the rites which would be celebrated by the king in
each of the seven sanctuaries.
Behind this septuple sanctuary there is a secondary hypostyle hall,
just as we find it behind the single secos of the ordinary temple. Its
roof was supported by ten columns, and access to it was obtained
through the third sanctuary, that of Osiris. This part of the temple is in
a very fragmentary condition. Very little is left of the bounding walls,
but it has been ascertained that several of these chambers were
dedicated to one or other of the deities between whom the naos was
apportioned. Thus one of the chambers referred to was placed under
the protection of Osiris, another under that of Horus, and a third
under that of Isis.
The decoration of the southern wing of the temple seems never to
have been completed. It contains a long corridor, a rectangular court
with an unfinished peristyle, several small
390
chambers with columns, and a flight of steps leading up on to the flat
roof. A dark apartment or crypt, divided into two stories by a floor of
large stone slabs, may have been used as a storehouse.
Fig. 225.—Seti, with the attributes of Osiris, between Amen, to
whom he is paying homage, and Chnoum.
These farthest apartments seem to have been arranged in no sort of
order. We shall not here enter into such matters as the construction of
the seven parallel vaults in the naos; for that a future opportunity will
be found;[341] at present our business is to make the differences between the temple at Abydos and that of Khons and its congeners,
clearly understood. The distinction lies in the seven longitudinal
subdivisions, beginning with the seven doors in the façade of the
hypostyle hall, and ending in the vaulted chambers which form the
same number of sanctuaries. Seen from outside, the temple would
not betray its want of unity;
391
it was surrounded by a single wall, the complex naos was prefaced
by courts and pylons in the same fashion as in the temples of Thebes
which we have already noticed, and it would not be until the building
was entered and explored that the fact would become evident that it
was seven shrines in one, seven independent temples under one
roof.[342]
At Thebes also we find a temple which, by its internal arrangements,
resembles that of Abydos. It is called sometimes the Palace and
sometimes the Temple of Gournah; in the inscriptions it is called the
House of Seti. Two propylons, one about fifty yards in front of the
other, form an outwork to the main building, with which they are
connected by an avenue of sphinxes. It is probable that they were
originally the doorways through brick walls, now demolished, which
formed successive enclosures round the temple. The dromos led up
to the pronaos, which was reached by a few steps. The front of the
naos is a portico of simple design, consisting of ten columns between
two square pilasters, the whole being 166 feet long by 10 feet deep.
Eight of these line columns are still erect. The wall at the back of the
portico is pierced by three doorways, to which three distinct
compartments or divisions of the interior correspond (see plan, Fig.
The only feature in which these compartments resemble one another
is their independence. They are isolated from one another by walls
which run from front to back of the naos. The most important and