The Project Gutenberg EBook of Manual Of Egyptian Archaeology And Guide To The Study Of Antiquities In Egypt, by Gaston Camille Charles Maspero This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net Title: Manual Of Egyptian Archaeology And Guide To The Study Of Antiquities In Egypt Author: Gaston Camille Charles Maspero Release Date: December 20, 2004 [EBook #14400] Language: English Character set encoding: ASCII *** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK EGYPTIAN ARCHAEOLOGY *** Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Robert Connal and the PG Online Distributed Proofreading Team. MANUAL OF EGYPTIAN ARCHAEOLOGY AND Guide to the Study of Antiquities in Egypt. _FOR THE USE OF STUDENTS AND TRAVELLERS_. BY G. MASPERO, D.C.L. OXON. MEMBER OF THE INSTITUTE OF FRANCE; PROFESSOR AT THE COLLEGE DE FRANCE; EX-DIRECTOR GENERAL OF EGYPTIAN MUSEUMS. _TRANSLATED BY_ AMELIA B. EDWARDS. _NEW EDITION, REVISED AND ENLARGED BY THE AUTHOR_. With Three Hundred and Nine Illustrations. 1895. PREFACE TO THE FOURTH AND REVISED EDITION. Notwithstanding the fact that Egyptology is now recognised as a science, an exact and communicable knowledge of whose existence and scope it behoves all modern culture to take cognisance, this work of M. Maspero still remains the Handbook of Egyptian Archaeology. But Egyptology is as yet in its infancy; whatever their age, Egyptologists will long die young. Every year, almost every month, fresh material for the study is found, fresh light is thrown upon it by the progress of excavation, exploration, and research. Hence it follows that, in the course of a few years, the standard text-books require considerable addition and modification if they are to be of the greatest value to students, who must always start from the foremost vantage-ground. The increasing demand for the _Egyptian Archaeology_ by English and American tourists, as well as students, decided the English publishers to issue a new edition in as light and portable a form as possible. This edition is carefully corrected, and contains the enlarged letterpress and many fresh illustrations necessary for incorporating within the book adequate accounts of the main archaeological results of recent Egyptian excavations. M. Maspero has himself revised the work, indicated all the numerous additions, and qualified the expression of any views which he has seen reason to modify in the course of his researches during the past eight years. By the headings of the pages, the descriptive titles of the illustrations, and a minute revision of the index, much has been done to facilitate the use of the volume as a book of reference. In that capacity it will be needed by the student long after he first makes acquaintance with its instructive and abundant illustrations and its luminous condensation of the archaeological facts and conclusions which have been elucidated by Egyptology through the devotion of many an arduous lifetime during the present century, and, not least, by the unremitting labours of M. Maspero. _April, 1895_. PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION. To put this book into English, and thus to hand it on to thousands who might not otherwise have enjoyed it, has been to me a very congenial and interesting task. It would be difficult, I imagine, to point to any work of its scope and character which is better calculated to give lasting delight to all classes of readers. For the skilled archaeologist, its pages contain not only new facts, but new views and new interpretations; while to those who know little, or perhaps nothing, of the subjects under discussion, it will open a fresh and fascinating field of study. It is not enough to say that a handbook of Egyptian Archaeology was much needed, and that Professor Maspero has given us exactly what we required. He has done much more than this. He has given us a picturesque, vivacious, and highly original volume, as delightful as if it were not learned, and as instructive as if it were dull. As regards the practical side of Archaeology, it ought to be unnecessary to point out that its usefulness is strictly parallel with the usefulness of public museums. To collect and exhibit objects of ancient art and industry is worse than idle if we do not also endeavour to disseminate some knowledge of the history of those arts and industries, and of the processes employed by the artists and craftsmen of the past. Archaeology, no less than love, "adds a precious seeing to the eye"; and without that gain of mental sight, the treasures of our public collections are regarded by the general visitor as mere "curiosities"--flat and stale for the most part, and wholly unprofitable. I am much indebted to Mr. W.M. Flinders Petrie, author of _The Pyramids and Temples of Gizeh_, for kindly translating the section on "Pyramids," which is entirely from his pen. I have also to thank him for many valuable notes on subjects dealt with in the first three chapters. To avoid confusion, I have numbered these notes, and placed them at the end of the volume. My acknowledgments are likewise due to Professor Maspero for the care with which he has read the proof-sheets of this version of his work. In departing from his system of orthography (and that of Mr. Petrie) I have been solely guided by the necessities of English readers. I foresee that _Egyptian Archaeology_ will henceforth be the inseparable companion of all English-speaking travellers who visit the Valley of the Nile; hence I have for the most part adopted the spelling of Egyptian proper names as given by the author of "Murray's Handbook for Egypt." Touching my own share in the present volume, I will only say that I have tried to present Professor Maspero's inimitable French in the form of readable English, rather than in a strictly word-for-word translation; and that with the hope of still further extending the usefulness of the book, I have added some foot-note references. AMELIA B. EDWARDS. WESTBURY-ON-TRYM, _August_, 1887. CONTENTS. CHAPTER I. ARCHITECTURE--CIVIL AND MILITARY. Sec. 1. HOUSES:--Bricks and Brickmaking--Foundations--Materials--Towns-- Plans--Decoration Sec. 2. FORTRESSES:--Walls--Plans--Migdols, etc. Sec. 3. PUBLIC WORKS:--Roads--Bridges--Storehouses--Canals--Lake Moeris-- Dams--Reservoirs--Quarries CHAPTER II. RELIGIOUS ARCHITECTURE. Sec. 1. MATERIALS; PRINCIPLES OF CONSTRUCTION:--Materials of Temples-- Foundations of Temples--Sizes of Blocks--Mortars--Mode of hoisting Blocks--Defective Masonry--Walls--Pavements--Vaultings--Supports-- Pillars and Columns--Capitals--Campaniform Capitals--Lotus-bud Capitals--Hathor-headed Capitals Sec. 2. TEMPLES:--Temples of the Sphinx--Temples of Elephantine--Temple at El Kab--Temple of Khonsu--Arrangement of Temples--Levels--Crypts-- Temple of Karnak--Temple of Luxor--Philae--The Speos, or Rock-cut Temple--Speos of Horemheb--Rock-cut Temples of Abu Simbel--Temple of Deir el Bahari--Temple of Abydos--Sphinxes--Crio-sphinxes Sec. 3. DECORATION:--Principles of Decoration--The Temple a Symbolic Representation of the World--Decoration of Parts nearest the Ground-- Dadoes--Bases of Columns--Decoration of Ceilings--Decoration of Architraves--Decoration of Wall-surfaces--Magic Virtues of Decoration --Decoration of Pylons--Statues--Obelisks--Libation-tables--Altars-- Shrines--Sacred Boats--Moving Statues of Deities CHAPTER III. TOMBS. Sec. 1. MASTABAS:--Construction of the Mastaba--The Door of the Living, and the Door of the Dead--The Chapel--Wall Decorations--The Double and his Needs--The _Serdab_--Ka Statues--The Sepulchral Chamber Sec. 2. PYRAMIDS:--Plan of the Pyramid comprises three leading features of the Mastaba--Materials of Pyramids--Orientation--Pyramid of Khufu-- Pyramids of Khafra and Menkara--Step Pyramid of Sakkarah--Pyramid of Unas--Decoration of Pyramid of Unas--Group of Dashur--Pyramid of Medum Sec. 3. TOMBS OF THE THEBAN EMPIRE; THE ROCK-CUT TOMBS:--Pyramid-mastabas of Abydos--Pyramid-mastabas of Drah Abu'l Neggah--Rock-cut Tombs of Beni Hasan and Syene--Rock-cut Tombs of Siut--Wall-decoration of Theban Catacombs--Tombs of the Kings of the Eighteenth Dynasty at Thebes--Valley of the Tombs of the Kings--Royal Catacombs--Tomb of Seti I.--Wall-decorations of Royal Catacombs--Funerary Furniture of Catacombs--Ushabtiu--Amulets--Common Graves of the Poor CHAPTER IV. PAINTING AND SCULPTURE. Sec. 1. DRAWING AND COMPOSITION:--Supposed Canon of Proportion--Drawing Materials--Sketches--Illustrations to the _Book of the Dead_-- Conventional Treatment of Animal and Human Figures--Naturalistic Treatment--Composition--Grouping--Wall-paintings of Tombs--A Funerary Feast--A Domestic Scene--Military Subjects--Perspective--Parallel between a Wall-painting in a Tomb at Sakkarah and the Mosaic of Palestrina Sec. 2. TECHNICAL PROCESSES:--The Preparation of Surfaces--Outline-- Sculptors' Tools--Iron and Bronze Tools--Impurity of Iron--Methods of Instruction in Sculpture--Models--Methods of cutting Various Stones-- Polish--Painted Sculptures--Pigments--Conventional Scale of Colour-- Relation of Painting to Sculpture in Ancient Egypt Sec. 3. SCULPTURE:--The Great Sphinx--Art of the Memphite School--Wood- panels of Hesi--Funerary Statues--The Portrait-statue and the Double --_Chefs d'oeuvre_ of the Memphite School--The Cross-legged Scribe--Diorite Statue of Khafra--Rahotep and Nefert--The Sheikh el Beled--The Kneeling Scribe--The Dwarf Nemhotep--Royal Statues of the Twelfth Dynasty--Hyksos Sphinxes of Tanis--Theban School of the Eighteenth Dynasty--Colossi of Amenhotep III.--New School of Tel el Amarna--Its Superior Grace and Truth--Works of Horemheb--School of the Nineteenth Dynasty--Colossi of Rameses II.--Decadence of Art begins with Merenptah--Ethiopian Renaissance--Saite Renaissance--The Attitudes of Statues--Saite Innovations--Greek Influence upon Egyptian Art--The Ptolemaic and Roman Periods--The School of Meroe--Extinction of Egyptian Art CHAPTER V. THE INDUSTRIAL ARTS. Sec. 1. STONE, CLAY, AND GLASS:--Precious Stones--Lapidary Art--Beads and Amulets--Scarabaei--Statuettes--Libation Tables--Perfume Vases--Kohl- pots--Pottery--Clay--Glazes--Red and Painted Wares--Ushabtiu--Funerary Cones--Painted Vases--"Canopic" Vases--Clay Sarcophagi--Glass--Its Chemical Constituents--Clear Glass--Coloured Glass--Imitations of Precious Stones in Glass--Glass Mosaics--Miniature Objects in Coloured Glass--Glass Amulets--Coloured Glass Vases--Enamels--The Theban Blue-- The Enamels of Tell el Amarna--Enamelled Ushabtiu of Amen Ptahmes-- Enamelled Tiles of the Step Pyramid at Sakkarah--Enamelled Tiles of Tell el Yahudeh Sec. 2. WOOD, IVORY, LEATHER; TEXTILE FABRICS:--Bone and Ivory--Elephant Tusks--Dyed Ivory--Egyptian Woods--Wooden Statuettes--Statuette of Hori--Statuette of Nai--Wooden Toilet Ornaments--Perfume and Unguent Spoons--Furniture--Chests and Coffers--Mummy-cases--Wooden Effigies on Mummy Cases--Huge Outer Cases of Ahmesnefertari and Aahhotep--Funerary Furniture--Beds--Canopies--Sledges--Chairs--Stools--Thrones-- Textiles--Methods of Weaving--Leather--Breast-bands of Mummies-- Patchwork Canopy in Coloured Leather of Princess Isiemkheb-- Embroideries--Muslins--Celebrated Textiles of Alexandria Sec. 3. METALS:--Iron--Lead--Bronze--Constituents of Egyptian Bronze-- Domestic Utensils in Bronze--Mirrors--Scissors--Bronze Statuettes-- The Stroganoff Bronze--The Posno Bronzes--The Lion of Apries--Gilding --Gold-plating--Gold-leaf--Statues and Statuettes of Precious Metals --The Silver and Golden Cups of General Tahuti--The Silver Vases of Thmuis--Silver Plate--Goldsmith's Work--Richness of Patterns-- Jewellery--Funerary Jewellery--Rings--Seal-rings--Chains--The Jewels of Queen Aahhotep--The Ring of Rameses II.--The Ear-rings of Rameses IX.--The Bracelet of Prince Psar--Conclusion NOTES INDEX LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. FIGURE 1. Brickmaking, tomb of Rekhmara, Eighteenth Dynasty 2. House with vaulted floors, Medinet Habu 3. Plan of the town of Kahun, Twelfth Dynasty 4. Plan of house, Medinet Habu, Twentieth Dynasty 5. Plan of house, Medinet Habu, Twentieth Dynasty 6. Facade of house of Second Theban Period 7. Plan of house of Second Theban Period 8. Restoration of hall in Twelfth Dynasty house, Kahun 9. Box representing a house 10. Wall-painting in Twelfth Dynasty house, Kahun 11. View of mansion, tomb of Anna, Eighteenth Dynasty 12. Porch of mansion of Second Theban Period 13. Porch of mansion of Second Theban Period 14. Plan of Theban house and grounds, Eighteenth Dynasty 15. A perspective view of same 16. Part of palace of Ai, El Amarna tomb, Eighteenth Dynasty 17. Perspective view of part of palace of Ai 18. Frontage of house, Second Theban Period 19. Frontage of house, Second Theban Period 20. Central pavilion of house, Second Theban Period 21. Ceiling decoration from house at Medinet Habu, Twentieth Dynasty 22. Ceiling decoration, Twelfth Dynasty style 23. Ceiling decoration, tomb of Aimadua, Twentieth Dynasty 24. Door of house, Sixth Dynasty tomb 25. Facade of Fourth Dynasty house, sarcophagus of Khufu Poskhu 26. Plan of second fortress at Abydos, Eleventh or Twelfth Dynasty 27. Walls of same fortress, restored 28. Facade of fort, tomb at Beni Hasan, Twelfth Dynasty 29. Plan of main gate, second fortress of Abydos 30. Plan of S.E. gate of same 31. Plan of gate, fortress of Kom el Ahmar 32. Plan of walled city at El Kab 33. Plan of walled city at Kom Ombo 34. Plan of fortress of Kummeh 35. Plan of fortress of Semneh 36. Section of platform of same 37. Syrian fort, elevation 38. Town walls of Dapur 39. City of Kaclesh, Ramesseum 40. Plan of pavilion of Medinet Habu, Twentieth Dynasty 41. Elevation of same 42. Canal and bridge of Zaru, Karnak, Nineteenth Dynasty 43. Cellar with amphorae 44. Granary 45. Plan of Store City of Pithom, Nineteenth Dynasty 46. Store-chambers of the Ramesseum 47. Dike at Wady Gerraweh 48. Section of same dike 49. Quarries of Silsilis 50. Draught of Hathor capital, quarry of Gebel Abufeydeh 51. Transport of blocks, stela of Ahmes, Turrah, Eighteenth Dynasty 52. Masonry in temple of Seti I., Abydos 53. Temple wall with cornice 54. Niche and doorway in temple of Seti I., Abydos 55. Pavement in same temple 56. "Corbelled" vault in same temple 57. Hathor pillar in temple of Abu Simbel, Nineteenth Dynasty 58. Pillar of Amenhotep III., Karnak 59. Sixteen-sided pillars, Karnak 60. Fluted pillar, Kalabsheh 61. Polygonal Hathor-headed pillar, El Kab 62. Column with square die, Contra Esneh 63. Column with campaniform capital, Ramesseum 64. Inverted campaniform capital, Karnak 65. Palm capital, Bubastis 66. Compound capital 67. Ornate capitals, Ptolemaic 68. Lotus-bud column, Beni Hasan, Twelfth Dynasty 69. Lotus-bud column, processional hall of Thothmes HI., Karnak 70. Column in aisle of Hypostyle Hall, Karnak 71. Hathor-head capital, Ptolemaic 72. Campaniform and Hathor-headed capital, Philae 73. Section of Hypostyle Hall, Karnak 74. Plan of the temple of the Sphinx 75. South temple of Elephantine 76. Plan of temple of Amenhotep III., El Kab 77. Plan of temple of Hathor, Deir el Medineh 78. Plan of temple of Khonsu, Karnak 79. Pylon with masts, wall-scene, temple of Khonsu, Karnak 80. Ramesseum, restored 81. Plan of sanctuary at Denderah 82. Pronaos, temple of Edfu 83. Plan of same temple 84. Plan of temple of Karnak in reign of Amenhotep III 85. Plan of Hypostyle Hall, Karnak 86. Plan of great temple, Luxor 87. Plan of buildings on island of Philae 88. Plan of Speos, Kalaat Addah 89. Plan of Speos, Gebel Silsileh 90. Plan of Great Speos, Abu Simbel 91. Plan of Speos of Hathor, Abu Simbel 92. Plan of upper portion of temple of Deir el Bahari 93. Plan of temple of Seti I., Abydos 94. Crio-sphinx from temple of Wady Es Sabuah 95. Couchant ram, from Avenue of Sphinxes, Karnak 96-101. Decorative designs from Denderah 102. Decorative group of Nile gods 103. Dado decoration, hall of Thothmes III., Karnak 104. Ceiling decoration, tomb of Bakenrenf, Twenty-sixth Dynasty 105. Zodiacal circle of Denderah 106. Frieze of uraei and cartouches 107. Wall-scene from temple of Denderah 108. Obelisk of Heliopolis, Twelfth Dynasty 109. Obelisk of Begig, Twelfth Dynasty 110. "Table of offerings" from Karnak 111. Limestone altar from Menshiyeh 112. Wooden naos, in Turin Museum 113. A mastaba 114. False door in mastaba 115. Plan of forecourt, mastaba of Kaaepir 116. Plan of forecourt, mastaba of Neferhotep 117. Door in mastaba facade 118. Portico and door of mastaba 119. Plan of chapel, mastaba of Khabiusokari 120. Plan of chapel, mastaba of Ti 121. Plan of chapel, mastaba of Shepsesptah 122. Plan of chapel, mastaba of Affi 123. Plan of chapel, mastaba of Thenti 124. Plan of chapel, mastaba of Red Scribe 125. Plan of chapel, mastaba of Ptahhotep 126. Stela in mastaba of Merruka 127. Wall-scene from mastaba of Ptahhotep 128. Wall-scene from mastaba of Urkhuu 129. Wall-scene from mastaba of Ptahhotep 130. Plan of serdab in mastaba at Gizeh 131. Plan of serdab and chapel in mastaba of Rahotep 132. Plan of serdab and chapel in mastaba of Thenti 133. Section of mastaba showing shaft and vault, at Gizeh 134. Section of mastaba, at Sakkarah 135. Wall-scene from mastaba of Nenka 136. Section of Great Pyramid 137. The Step Pyramid of Sakkarah 138. Plan and section of pyramid of Unas 139. Portcullis and passage, pyramid of Unas 140. Section of pyramid of Unas 141. Mastabat el Faraun 142. Pyramid of Medum 143. Section of passage and vault in pyramid of Medum 144. Section of "vaulted" brick pyramid, Abydos, Eleventh Dynasty 145. Section of "vaulted" tomb, Abydos 146. Plan of tomb, Abydos 147. Theban tomb with pyramidion, wall-scene, tomb at Sheikh Abd el Gurneh 148. Similar tomb 149. Section of Apis tomb, Eighteenth Dynasty 150. Tombs in cliff opposite Asuan 151. Facade of rock-cut tomb of Khnumhotep, Beni Hasan, Twelfth Dynasty 152. Facade of rock-cut tomb, Asuan 153. Plan of tomb of Khnumhotep, Beni Hasan, Twelfth Dynasty 154. Plan of unfinished tomb, Beni Hasan, Twelfth Dynasty 155. Wall-scene, tomb of Manna, Nineteenth Dynasty 156. Plan of tomb of Rameses IV. 157. Plan of tomb of Rameses IV., from Turin papyrus 158. Plan of tomb of Seti I. 159. Fields of Aalu, wall-scene, tomb of Rameses III. 160. Pestle and mortar for grinding colours 161. Comic sketch on ostrakon 162. Vignette from _Book of the Dead_, Saite period 163. Vignette from _Book of the Dead_, papyrus of Hunefer 164-5. Wall-scenes, tomb of Khnumhotep, Beni Hasan 166. Wall-scene, tomb, Eighteenth Dynasty 167. Wall-scene, tomb of Horemheb 168. Wall-scene, Theban tomb, Ramesside period 169. Wall-scene, tomb of Horemheb 170. Wall-scene, Ramesseum 171. Wall-scene, Medinet Habu 172. Wall-scene, Ramesseum 173. Wall-scene, Ramesseum 174. Wall-scene, tomb of Rekhmara 175. Wall-scene, tomb of Rekhmara 176. Wall-scene, mastaba of Ptahhotep 177. Palestrina mosaic 178. Sculptor's sketch, Ancient Empire tomb 179. Sculptor's sketch, Ancient Empire tomb 180. Sculptor's correction, Medinet Habu, Twentieth Dynasty 181. Bow drill 182. Sculptor's trial-piece, Eighteenth Dynasty 183. The Great Sphinx of Gizeh 184. Wooden panel, mastaba of Hesi 185. Cross-legged scribe, in the Louvre, Ancient Empire 186. Cross-legged scribe, at Gizeh, Ancient Empire 187. King Khafra 188. The "Sheikh el Beled" (Raemka), Ancient Empire 189. Rahotep, Ancient Empire 190. Nefert, wife of Rahotep, Ancient Empire 191. Head of the "Sheikh el Beled," Ancient Empire 192. Wife of the "Sheikh el Beled," Ancient Empire 193. The kneeling scribe, at Gizeh. Ancient Empire 194. A bread-maker, Ancient Empire 195. The dwarf Nemhotep, Ancient Empire 196. One of the Tanis sphinxes, Hyksos period 197. Bas-relief head of Seti I. 198. Amen and Horemheb 199. Head of a queen, Eighteenth Dynasty 200. Head of Horemheb 201. Colossal statue of Rameses 11. 202. Queen Ameniritis. 203. Thueris, Saite period 204. Hathor cow, Saite period 205. Pedishashi, Saite period 206. Head of a scribe, Saite period 207. Colossus of Alexander II. 208. Hor, Graeco-Egyptian 209. Group from Naga, Ethiopian School 210. _Ta_ amulet 211. Frog amulet 212. _Uat_ amulet 213. _Uta_ amulet 214. A scarab 215-7. Perfume vases, alabaster 218. Perfume vase, alabaster 219. Vase for antimony powder 220. Turin vases, pottery 221-3. Decorated vases, pottery 224. Glass-blowers, wall-scene, Twelfth Dynasty 225-6. Parti-cloured glass vases 227. Parti-coloured glass vase 228. Glass goblets of Nesikhonsu 229. Hippopotamus in blue glaze 230-1. Theban glazed ware 232. Cup, glazed ware 233. Interior decoration of bowl, Eighteenth Dynasty 234. Lenticular vase, glazed ware, Saite period 235. Tiled chamber in Step Pyramid of Sakkarah 236. Tile from same 237. Tile, Tell el Yahudeh, Twentieth Dynasty 238. Tile, Tell el Yahudeh, Twentieth Dynasty 239. Inlaid tiles, Tell el Yahudeh, Twentieth Dynasty 240-1. Relief tiles, Tell el Yahudeh, Twentieth Dynasty 242. Spoon 243. Wooden statuette of officer, Eighteenth Dynasty 244. Wooden statuette of priest, Eighteenth Dynasty 245. Wooden statuette of Nai 246-54. Wooden perfume and unguent spoons 255. Fire-sticks, bow, and unfinished drill-stock, Twelfth Dynasty 256. Dolls, Twelfth Dynasty 257. Tops, tip-cat, and toy boat, Twelfth Dynasty 258-60. Chests 261. Construction of a mummy-case, wall-scene, Eighteenth Dynasty 262. Mask of Twenty-first Dynasty coffin of Rameses II 263. Mummy-case of Queen Ahmesnefertari 264. Panel portrait from the Fayum, Graeco-Roman 265. Carved and painted mummy-canopy 266. Canopied mummy-couch, Graeco-Roman 267. Mummy-sledge and canopy 268. Inlaid chair, Eleventh Dynasty 269. Inlaid stool, Eleventh Dynasty 270. Throne-chair, wall-scene, Twentieth Dynasty 271. Women weaving, wall-scene, Twelfth Dynasty 272. Man weaving carpet or hangings, wall-scene, Twelfth Dynasty 273. Cut leather work, Twenty-first Dynasty 274-5. Barks with cut leather-work sails, Twentieth Dynasty 276-7. Bronze jug 278. Unguent vase, or spoon (lamp for suspension?) 279. Bronze statuette of Takushet 280. Bronze statuette of Horus 281. Bronze statuette of Mosu 282. Bronze lion from Horbeit, Saite period 283. Gold-worker, wall-scene 284. Golden cup of General Tahuti, Eighteenth Dynasty 285. Silver vase of Thmuis 286. Silver vase of Thmuis 287. Piece of plate, wall-scene, Twentieth Dynasty 288-95. Plate, wall-scenes, Eighteenth Dynasty 296. Signet-ring, with bezel 297. Gold _cloisonne_ pectoral, Dahshur, Twelfth Dynasty 298. Mirror of Queen Aahhotep, Eighteenth Dynasty 299-300. Bracelets of same 301. Diadem of same 302. Gold _Usekh_ of same 303. Gold pectoral of same 304-5. Poignards found with mummy of Queen Aahhotep 306. Battle-axe found with same 307. Model funerary bark found with same 308. Ring of Rameses II 309. Bracelet of Prince Psar EGYPTIAN ARCHAEOLOGY. CHAPTER I. _ARCHITECTURE--CIVIL AND MILITARY_. Archaeologists, when visiting Egypt, have so concentrated their attention upon temples and tombs, that not one has devoted himself to a careful examination of the existing remains of private dwellings and military buildings. Few countries, nevertheless, have preserved so many relics of their ancient civil architecture. Setting aside towns of Roman or Byzantine date, such as are found almost intact at Koft (Coptos), at Kom Ombo, and at El Agandiyeh, one-half at least of ancient Thebes still exists on the east and south of Karnak. The site of Memphis is covered with mounds, some of which are from fifty to sixty feet in height, each containing a core of houses in good preservation. At Kahun, the ruins and remains of a whole provincial Twelfth Dynasty town have been laid bare; at Tell el Mask-hutah, the granaries of Pithom are yet standing; at San (Tanis) and Tell Basta (Bubastis), the Ptolemaic and Saitic cities contain quarters of which plans might be made (Note 1), and in many localities which escape the traveller's notice, there may be seen ruins of private dwellings which date back to the age of the Ramessides, or to a still earlier period. As regards fortresses, there are two in the town of Abydos alone, one of which is at least contemporary with the Sixth Dynasty; while the ramparts of El Kab, of Kom el Ahmar, of El Hibeh, and of Dakkeh, as well as part of the fortifications of Thebes, are still standing, and await the architect who shall deign to make them an object of serious study. * * * * * 1.--PRIVATE DWELLINGS. The soil of Egypt, periodically washed by the inundation, is a black, compact, homogeneous clay, which becomes of stony hardness when dry. From immemorial time, the fellahin have used it for the construction of their houses. The hut of the poorest peasant is a mere rudely-shaped mass of this clay. A rectangular space, some eight or ten feet in width, by perhaps sixteen or eighteen feet in length, is enclosed in a wickerwork of palm- branches, coated on both sides with a layer of mud. As this coating cracks in the drying the fissures are filled in, and more coats of mud are daubed on until the walls attain a thickness of from four inches to a foot. Finally, the whole is roofed over with palm-branches and straw, the top being covered in with a thin layer of beaten earth. The height varies. In most huts, the ceiling is so low that to rise suddenly is dangerous both to one's head and to the structure, while in others the roof is six or seven feet from the floor. Windows, of course, there are none. Sometimes a hole is left in the middle of the roof to let the smoke out; but this is a refinement undreamed of by many. [Illustration: Fig. 1.--Brickmaking, from Eighteenth Dynasty tomb-painting, Tomb of Rekhmara.] At the first glance, it is not always easy to distinguish between these huts of wattle and daub and those built with crude bricks. The ordinary Egyptian brick is a mere oblong block of mud mixed with chopped straw and a little sand, and dried in the sun. At a spot where they are about to build, one man is told off to break up the ground; others carry the clods, and pile them in a heap, while others again mix them with water, knead the clay with their feet, and reduce it to a homogeneous paste. This paste, when sufficiently worked (Note 2), is pressed by the head workman in moulds made of hard wood, while an assistant carries away the bricks as fast as they are shaped, and lays them out in rows at a little distance apart, to dry in the sun (fig. I). A careful brickmaker will leave them thus for half a day, or even for a whole day, after which the bricks are piled in stacks in such wise that the air can circulate freely among them; and so they remain for a week or two before they are used. More frequently, however, they are exposed for only a few hours to the heat of the sun, and the building is begun while they are yet damp. The mud, however, is so tenacious that, notwithstanding this carelessness, they are not readily put out of shape. The outer faces of the bricks become disintegrated by the action of the weather, but those in the inner part of the wall remain intact, and are still separable. A good modern workman will easily mould a thousand bricks a day, and after a week's practice he may turn out 1,200, 1,500, or even 1,800. The ancient workmen, whose appliances in no wise differed from those of the present day, produced equally satisfactory results. The dimensions they generally adopted were 8.7 x 4.3 x 5.5 inches for ordinary bricks, or 15.0 x 7.1 x 5.5 for a larger size (Note 3), though both larger and smaller are often met with in the ruins. Bricks issued from the royal workshops were sometimes stamped with the cartouches of the reigning monarch; while those made in private factories bore on the side a trade mark in red ochre, a squeeze of the moulder's fingers, or the stamp of the maker. By far the greater number have, however, no distinctive mark. Burnt bricks were not often used before the Roman period (Note 4), nor tiles, either flat or curved. Glazed bricks appear to have been the fashion in the Delta. The finest specimen that I have seen, namely, one in the Gizeh Museum, is inscribed in black ink with the cartouches of Rameses III. The glaze of this brick is green, but other fragments are coloured blue, red, yellow, or white. The nature of the soil does not allow of deep foundations. It consists of a thin bed of made earth, which, except in large towns, never reaches any degree of thickness; below this comes a very dense humus, permeated by slender veins of sand; and below this again--at the level of infiltration-- comes a bed of mud, more or less soft, according to the season. The native builders of the present day are content to remove only the made earth, and lay their foundations on the primeval soil; or, if that lies too deep, they stop at a yard or so below the surface. The old Egyptians did likewise; and I have never seen any ancient house of which the foundations were more than four feet deep. Even this is exceptional, the depth in most cases being not more than two feet. They very often did not trouble themselves to cut trenches at all; they merely levelled the space intended to be covered, and, having probably watered it to settle the soil, they at once laid the bricks upon the surface. When the house was finished, the scraps of mortar, the broken bricks, and all the accumulated refuse of the work, made a bed of eight inches or a foot in depth, and the base of the wall thus buried served instead of a foundation. When the new house rose on the ruins of an older one decayed by time or ruined by accident, the builders did not even take the trouble to raze the old walls to the ground. Levelling the surface of the ruins, they-built upon them at a level a few feet higher than before: thus each town stands upon one or several artificial mounds, the tops of which may occasionally rise to a height of from sixty to eighty feet above the surrounding country. The Greek historians attributed these artificial mounds to the wisdom of the kings, and especially to Sesostris, who, as they supposed, wished to raise the towns above the inundation. Some modern writers have even described the process, which they explain thus:--A cellular framework of brick walls, like a huge chess-board, formed the substructure, the cells being next filled in with earth, and the houses built upon this immense platform (Note 5). [Illustration: Fig. 2.--Ancient house with vaulted floors, against the northern wall of the great temple of Medinet Habu] [Illustration: Fig. 3.--Plan of three-quarters of the town of Hat-Hotep- Usertesen (Kahun), built for the accommodation of the officials and workmen employed in connection with the pyramid of Usertesen II. at Illahun. The workmen's quarters are principally on the west, and separated from the eastern part of the town by a thick wall. At the south-west corner, outside the town, stood the pyramid temple, and in front of it the porter's lodge. Reproduced from Plate XIV. of _Illahun, Kahun, and Gurob_, W.M.F. Petrie.] But where I have excavated, especially at Thebes, I have never found anything answering to this conception. The intersecting walls which one finds beneath the later houses are nothing but the ruins of older dwellings, which in turn rest on others still older. The slightness of the foundations did not prevent the builders from boldly running up quite lofty structures. In the ruins of Memphis, I have observed walls still standing from thirty to forty feet in height. The builders took no precaution beyond enlarging the base of the wall, and vaulting the floors (fig. 2).[1] The thickness of an ordinary wall was about sixteen inches for a low house; but for one of several storeys, it was increased to three or four feet. Large beams, embedded here and there in the brickwork or masonry, bound the whole together, and strengthened the structure. The ground floor was also frequently built with dressed stones, while the upper parts were of brick. The limestone of the neighbouring hills was the stone commonly used for such purposes. The fragments of sandstone, granite, and alabaster, which are often found mixed in with it, are generally from some ruined temple; the ancient Egyptians having pulled their neglected monuments to pieces quite as unscrupulously as do their modern successors. The houses of an ancient Egyptian town were clustered round its temple, and the temple stood in a rectangular enclosure to which access was obtained through monumental gateways in the surrounding brick wall. The gods dwelt in fortified mansions, or at any rate in redoubts to which the people of the place might fly for safety in the event of any sudden attack upon their town. Such towns as were built all at once by prince or king were fairly regular in plan, having wide paved streets at right angles to each other, and the buildings in line. The older cities, whose growth had been determined by the chances and changes of centuries, were characterised by no such regularity. Their houses stood in a maze of blind alleys, and narrow, dark, and straggling streets, with here and there the branch of a canal, almost dried up during the greater part of the year, and a muddy pond where the cattle drank and women came for water. Somewhere in each town was an open space shaded by sycamores or acacias, and hither on market days came the peas-ants of the district two or three times in the month. There were also waste places where rubbish and refuse was thrown, to be quarrelled over by vultures, hawks, and dogs. [Illustration: Fig. 4.--Plan of house, Medinet Habu] [Illustration: Fig. 5.--Plan of house, Medinet Habu.] [Illustration: Fig. 6.--Facade of a house toward the street, second Theban period.] [Illustration: Fig. 7.--Plan of central court of house, second Theban period.] [Illustration: Fig. 8.--Restoration of the hall in a Twelfth Dynasty house. In the middle of the floor is a tank surrounded by a covered colonnade. Reproduced from Plate XVI. of _Illahun, Kahun, and Gurob_, W.M.F. Petrie.] [Illustration: Fig. 9.--Box representing a house (British Museum).] The lower classes lived in mere huts which, though built of bricks, were no better than those of the present fellahin. At Karnak, in the Pharaonic town; at Kom Ombo, in the Roman town; and at Medinet Habu, in the Coptic town, the houses in the poorer quarters have seldom more than twelve or sixteen feet of frontage. They consist of a ground floor, with sometimes one or two living-rooms above. The middle-class folk, as shopkeepers, sub- officials, and foremen, were better housed. Their houses were brick-built and rather small, yet contained some half-dozen rooms communicating by means of doorways, which were usually arched over, and having vaulted roofs in some cases, and in others flat ones. Some few of the houses were two or three storeys high, and many were separated from the street by a narrow court, beyond which the rooms were ranged on either side of a long passage (fig. 4). More frequently, the court was surrounded on three sides by chambers (fig. 5); and yet oftener the house fronted close upon the street. In the latter case the facade consisted of a high wall, whitewashed or painted, and surmounted by a cornice. Even in better houses the only ornamentation of their outer walls consisted in angular grooving, the grooves being surmounted by representations of two lotus flowers, each pair with the upper parts of the stalks in contact (see figs. 24, 25). The door was the only opening, save perhaps a few small windows pierced at irregular intervals (fig. 6). Even in unpretentious houses, the door was often made of stone. The doorposts projected slightly beyond the surface of the wall, and the lintel supported a painted or sculptured cornice. Having crossed the threshold, one passed successively through two dimly-lighted entrance chambers, the second of which opened into the central court (fig. 7). The best rooms in the houses of wealthier citizens were sometimes lighted through a square opening in the centre of a ceiling supported on wooden columns. In the Twelfth Dynasty town of Kahun the shafts of these columns rested upon round stone bases; they were octagonal, and about ten inches in diameter (fig. 8). Notwithstanding the prevalence of enteric disease and ophthalmia, the family crowded together into one or two rooms during the winter, and slept out on the roof under the shelter of mosquito nets in summer. On the roof also the women gossiped and cooked. The ground floor included both store-rooms, barns, and stables. Private granaries were generally in pairs (see fig. 11), brick-built in the same long conical shape as the state granaries, and carefully plastered with mud inside and out. Neither did the people of a house forget to find or to make hiding places in the walls or floors of their home, where they could secrete their household treasures--such as nuggets of gold and silver, precious stones, and jewellery for men and women--from thieves and tax-collectors alike. Wherever the upper floors still remain standing, they reproduce the ground- floor plan with scarcely any differences. These upper rooms were reached by an outside staircase, steep and narrow, and divided at short intervals by small square landings. The rooms were oblong, and were lighted only from the doorway; when it was decided to open windows on the street, they were mere air-holes near the ceiling, pierced without regularity or symmetry, fitted with a lattice of wooden cross bars, and secured by wooden shutters. The floors were bricked or paved, or consisted still more frequently of merely a layer of rammed earth. The rooms were not left undecorated; the mud-plaster of the walls, generally in its native grey, although whitewashed in some cases, was painted with red or yellow, and ornamented with drawings of interior and exterior views of a house, and of household vessels and eatables (fig. 10). The roof was flat, and made probably, as at the present day, of closely laid rows of palm-branches covered with a coating of mud thick enough to withstand the effects of rain. Sometimes it was surmounted by only one or two of the usual Egyptian ventilators; but generally there was a small washhouse on the roof (fig. 9), and a little chamber for the slaves or guards to sleep in. The household fire was made in a hollow of the earthen floor, usually to one side of the room, and the smoke escaped through a hole in the ceiling; branches of trees, charcoal, and dried cakes of ass or cow dung were used for fuel. [Illustration: Fig. 10.--Wall-painting in a Twelfth Dynasty house. Below is a view of the outside, and above a view of the inside of a dwelling. Reproduced from Plate XVI. of _Illahun, Kahun, and Gurob_, W.M.F. Petrie.] [Illustration: Fig. 11.--View of mansion from the tomb of Anna, Eighteenth Dynasty.] The mansions of the rich and great covered a large space of ground. They most frequently stood in the midst of a garden, or of an enclosed court planted with trees; and, like the commoner houses, they turned a blank front to the street, consisting of bare walls, battlemented like those of a fortress (fig. 11). Thus, home-life was strictly secluded, and the pleasure of seeing was sacrificed for the advantages of not being seen. The door was approached by a flight of two or three steps, or by a porch supported on columns (fig. 12) and adorned with statues (fig. 13), which gave it a monumental appearance, and indicated the social importance of the family. [Illustration: WALL-PAINTINGS, EL AMARNA. Fig. 12.--Porch of mansion, second Theban period, Fig. 13.--Porch of mansion, second Theban period.] Sometimes this was preceded by a pylon-gateway, such as usually heralded the approach to a temple. Inside the enclosure it was like a small town, divided into quarters by irregular walls. The dwelling-house stood at the farther end; the granaries, stabling, and open spaces being distributed in different parts of the grounds, according to some system to which we as yet possess no clue. These arrangements, however, were infinitely varied. If I would convey some idea of the residence of an Egyptian noble,--a residence half palace, half villa,--I cannot do better than reproduce two out of the many pictorial plans which have come down to us among the tomb-paintings of the Eighteenth Dynasty. The first (figs. 14, 15) represent a Theban house. The enclosure is square, and surrounded by an embattled wall. The main gate opens upon a road bordered with trees, which runs beside a canal, or perhaps an arm of the Nile. Low stone walls divide the garden into symmetrical compartments, like those which are seen to this day in the great gardens of Ekhmim or Girgeh. [Illustration: Fig. 14.--Plan of a Theban house with garden, from Eighteenth Dynasty tomb-painting.] In the centre is a large trellis supported on four rows of slender pillars. Four small ponds, two to the right and two to the left, are stocked with ducks and geese. Two nurseries, two summer-houses, and various avenues of sycamores, date-palms, and dom-palms fill up the intermediate space; while at the end, facing the entrance, stands a small three-storied house surmounted by a painted cornice. [Illustration: Fig. 15.--Perspective view of the Theban house, from Eighteenth Dynasty tomb-painting.] [Illustration: Fig. 16.--Part of the palace of Ai, from tomb-painting, Eighteenth Dynasty, El Amarna.] The second plan is copied from one of the rock-cut tombs of Tell el Amarna (figs. 16, 17). Here we see a house situate at the end of the gardens of the great lord Ai, son-in-law of the Pharaoh Khuenaten, and himself afterwards king of Egypt. An oblong stone tank with sloping sides, and two descending flights of steps, faces the entrance. The building is rectangular, the width being somewhat greater than the depth. A large doorway opens in the middle of the front, and gives access to a court planted with trees and flanked by store-houses fully stocked with provisions. Two small courts, placed symmetrically in the two farthest corners, contain the staircases which lead up to the roof terrace. This first building, however, is but the frame which surrounds the owner's dwelling. The two frontages are each adorned with a pillared portico and a pylon. Passing the outer door, we enter a sort of long central passage, divided by two walls pierced with doorways, so as to form three successive courts. The inside court is bordered by chambers; the two others open to right and left upon two smaller courts, whence flights of steps lead up to the terraced roof. This central building is called the _Akhonuti_, or private dwelling of kings or nobles, to which only the family and intimate friends had access. The number of storeys and the arrangement of the facade varied according to the taste of the owner. The frontage was generally a straight wall. Sometimes it was divided into three parts, with the middle division projecting, in which case the two wings were ornamented with a colonnade to each storey (fig. 18), or surmounted by an open gallery (fig. 19). The central pavilion sometimes presents the appearance of a tower, which dominates the rest of the building (fig. 20). The facade is often decorated with slender colonnettes of painted wood, which bear no weight, and merely serve to lighten the somewhat severe aspect of the exterior. Of the internal arrangements, we know but little. As in the middle-class houses, the sleeping rooms were probably small and dark; but, on the other hand, the reception rooms must have been nearly as large as those still in use in the Arab houses of modern Egypt. [Illustration: Fig. 17.--Perspective view of the Palace of AT, Eighteenth Dynasty, El Amarna.] [Illustration: Fig. 18.--Frontage of house, second Theban period.] [Illustration: Fig. 19.--Frontage of house, second Theban period.] [Illustration: Fig. 20.--Central pavilion of house, in form of tower, second Theban period.] The decoration of walls and ceilings in no wise resembled such scenes or designs as we find in the tombs. The panels were whitewashed or colour- washed, and bordered with a polychrome band. The ceilings were usually left white; sometimes, however they were decorated with geometrical patterns, which repeated the leading motives employed in the sepulchral wall- paintings. Thus we find examples of meanders interspersed with rosettes (fig. 21), parti-coloured squares (fig. 22), ox-heads seen frontwise, scrolls, and flights of geese (fig. 23). [Illustration: Fig. 21.--Ceiling pattern from behind, Medinet Habu, Twentieth Dynasty.] [Illustration: Fig. 22.--Ceiling pattern similar to one at El Bersheh, Twelfth Dynasty.] I have touched chiefly upon houses of the second Theban period,[2] this being in fact the time of which we have most examples. The house-shaped lamps which are found in such large numbers in the Fayum date only from Roman times; but the Egyptians of that period continued to build according to the rules which were in force under the Pharaohs of the Twelfth, Eighteenth, Nineteenth, and Twentieth Dynasties. As regards the domestic architecture of the ancient kingdom, the evidences are few and obscure. Nevertheless, the stelae, tombs, and coffins of that period often furnish designs which show us the style of the doorways (fig. 24), and one Fourth Dynasty sarcophagus, that of Khufu Poskhu, is carved in the likeness of a house (fig. 25). [1] Many of the rooms at Kahun had vaulted ceilings. [2] Seventeenth to Twentieth Dynasties. 2.--FORTRESSES. Most of the towns, and even most of the larger villages, of ancient Egypt were walled. This was an almost necessary consequence of the geographical characteristics and the political constitution of the country. The mouths of the defiles which led into the desert needed to be closed against the Bedawin; while the great feudal nobles fortified their houses, their towns, and the villages upon their domains which commanded either the mountain passes or the narrow parts of the river, against their king or their neighbours. [Illustration: Fig. 23.--Ceiling pattern from tomb of Aimadua, Twentieth Dynasty.] [Illustration: Fig. 24.--Door of a house of the Ancient Empire, from the wall of a tomb of the Sixth Dynasty.] [Illustration: Fig. 25.--Facade of a Fourth Dynasty house, from the sarcophagus of Khufu Poskhu.] The oldest fortresses are those of Abydos, El Kab, and Semneh. Abydos contained a sanctuary dedicated to Osiris, and was situate at the entrance to one of the roads leading to the Oasis. As the renown of the temple attracted pilgrims, so the position of the city caused it to be frequented by merchants; hence the prosperity which it derived from the influx of both classes of strangers exposed the city to incursions of the Libyan tribes. At Abydos there yet remain two almost perfect strongholds. The older forms, as it were, the core of that tumulus called by the Arabs "Kom es Sultan," or "the Mound of the King." The interior of this building has been excavated to a point some ten or twelve feet above the ground level, but the walls outside have not yet been cleared from the surrounding sand and rubbish. In its present condition, it forms a parallelogram of crude brickwork measuring 410 feet from north to south, and 223 feet from east to west. The main axis of the structure extends, therefore, from north to south. The principal gateway opens in the western wall, not far from the northwest corner: but there would appear to have been two smaller gates, one in the south front, and one in the east. The walls, which now stand from twenty-four to thirty-six feet high, have lost somewhat of their original height. They are about six feet thick at the top. They were not built all together in uniform layers, but in huge vertical panels, easily distinguished by the arrangement of the brickwork. In one division the bedding of the bricks is strictly horizontal; in the next it is slightly concave, and forms a very flat reversed arch, of which the extrados rests upon the ground. The alternation of these two methods is regularly repeated. The object of this arrangement is obscure; but it is said that buildings thus constructed are especially fitted to resist earthquake shocks. However this may be, the fortress is extremely ancient, for in the Fifth Dynasty, the nobles of Abydos took possession of the interior, and, ultimately, so piled it up with their graves as to deprive it of all strategic value. A second stronghold, erected a few hundred yards further to the south-east, replaced that of Kom es Sultan about the time of the Twelfth Dynasty, and narrowly escaped the fate of the first, under the rule of the Ramessides. Nothing, in fact, but the sudden decline of the city, saved the second from being similarly choked and buried. [Illustration: Fig. 26.--Plan of second fortress at Abydos, Eleventh or Twelfth Dynasty.] [Illustration: Fig. 27.--Walls of second fort at Abydos, restored.] [Illustration: Fig. 28.--Facade of fort, from wall-scene, Beni Hasan, Twelfth Dynasty.] [Illustration: Fig. 29.--Plan of main gate, second fortress of Abydos.] [Illustration: Fig. 30.--Plan of south-east gate, second fortress of Abydos.] [Illustration: Fig. 31.--Plan of gate, fortress of Kom el Ahmar.] The early Egyptians possessed no engines calculated to make an impression on very massive walls. They knew of but three ways of forcing a stronghold; namely, scaling the walls, sapping them, or bursting open the gates. The plan adopted by their engineers in building the second fort is admirably well calculated to resist each of these modes of attack (fig. 26). The outer walls are long and straight, without towers or projections of any kind; they measure 430 feet in length from north to south, by 255 feet in width. The foundations rest on the sand, and do not go down more than a foot. The wall (fig. 27) is of crude brick, in horizontal courses. It has a slight batter; is solid, without slits or loopholes; and is decorated outside with long vertical grooves or panels, like those depicted on the stelae of the ancient empire. In its present state, it rises to a height of some thirty-six feet above the plain; when perfect, it would scarcely have exceeded forty feet, which height would amply suffice to protect the garrison from all danger of scaling by portable ladders. The thickness of the wall is about twenty feet at the base, and sixteen feet above. The top is destroyed, but the bas-reliefs and mural paintings (fig. 28) show that it must have been crowned with a continuous cornice, boldly projecting, furnished with a slight low parapet, and surmounted by battlements, which were generally rounded, but sometimes, though rarely, squared. The walk round the top of the ramparts, though diminished by the parapet, was still twelve or fifteen feet wide. It ran uninterruptedly along the four sides, and was reached by narrow staircases formed in the thickness of the walls, but now destroyed. There was no ditch, but in order to protect the base of the main wall from sappers, they erected, about ten feet in advance of it, a battlemented covering wall, some sixteen feet in height. These precautions sufficed against sap and scaling; but the gates remained as open gaps in the circuit. It was upon these weak points that besiegers and besieged alike concentrated their efforts. The fortress of Abydos had two gates, the main one being situate at the east end of the north front (fig. 29). A narrow cutting (A), closed by a massive wooden door, marked the place in the covering wall. Behind it was a small _place d'armes_ (B), cut partly in the thickness of the wall, and leading to a second gate (C) as narrow as the first. When, notwithstanding the showers of missiles poured upon them from the top of the walls, not only in front, but also from both sides, the attacking party had succeeded in carrying this second door, they were not yet in the heart of the place. They would still have to traverse an oblong court (D), closely hemmed in between the outer walls and the cross walls, which last stood at right angles to the first. Finally, they must force a last postern (E), which was purposely placed in the most awkward corner. The leading principle in the construction of fortress-gates was always the same, but the details varied according to the taste of the engineer. At the south-east gate of the fort of Abydos (fig. 30) the _place d'armes_ between the two walls is abolished, and the court is constructed entirely in the thickness of the main wall; while at Kom el Ahmar, opposite El Kab (fig. 31), the block of brickwork in the midst of which the gate is cut projects boldly in front. The posterns opening at various points facilitated the movements of the garrison, and enabled them to multiply their sorties. [Illustration: Fig. 32.--Plan of the walled city at El Kab.] The same system of fortification which was in use for isolated fortresses was also employed for the protection of towns. At Heliopollis, at San, at Sais, at Thebes, everywhere in short, we find long straight walls forming plain squares or parallelograms, without towers or bastions, ditches or outworks. The thickness of the walls, which varied from thirty to eighty feet, made such precautions needless. The gates, or at all events the principal ones, had jambs and lintels of stone, decorated with scenes and inscriptions; as, for instance, that of Ombos, which Champollion beheld yet _in situ_, and which dated from the reign of Thothmes III. The oldest and best preserved walled city in Egypt, namely, El Kab, belongs probably to the ancient empire (fig. 32). The Nile washed part of it away some years ago; but at the beginning of the present century it formed an irregular quadrilateral enclosure, measuring some 2,100 feet in length, by about a quarter less in breadth. The south front is constructed on the same principles as the wall at Kom es Sultan, the bricks being bedded in alternate horizontal and concave sections. Along the north and west fronts they are laid in undulating layers from end to end. The thickness is thirty-eight feet, and the average height thirty feet; and spacious ramps lead up to the walk upon the walls. The gates are placed irregularly, one in each side to north, east, and west, but none in the south face; they are, however, in too ruinous a state to admit of any plan being taken of them. The enclosure contained a considerable population, whose dwellings were unequally distributed, the greater part being concentrated towards the north and west, where excavations have disclosed the remains of a large number of houses. The temples were grouped together in a square enclosure, concentric with the outer wall; and this second enclosure served for a keep, where the garrison could hold out long after the rest of the town had fallen into the hands of the enemy. [Illustration: Fig. 33.--Plan of walled city at Kom Ombo.] [Illustration: Fig. 34.--Plan of fortress of Kummeh.] [Illustration: Fig. 35.--Plan of fortress of Semneh.] [Illustration: Fig. 36.--Section of the platform at A B, of the preceding plan.] The rectangular plan, though excellent in a plain, was not always available in a hilly country. When the spot to be fortified was situate upon a height, the Egyptian engineers knew perfectly well how to adapt their lines of defence to the nature of the site. At Kom Ombo (fig. 33) the walls exactly followed the outline of the isolated mound on which the town was perched, and presented towards the east a front bristling with irregular projections, the style of which roughly resembles our modern bastions. At Kummeh and Semneh, in Nubia, where the Nile rushes over the rocks of the second cataract, the engineering arrangements are very ingenious, and display much real skill. Usertesen III. had fixed on this pass as the frontier of Egypt, and the fortresses which he there constructed were intended to bar the water-way against the vessels of the neighbouring negro tribes. At Kummeh, on the right bank, the position was naturally strong (fig. 34). Upon a rocky height surrounded by precipices was planned an irregular square measuring about 200 feet each way. Two elongated bastions, one on the north-east and the other on the south-east, guarded respectively the path leading to the gate, and the course of the river. The covering wall stood thirteen feet high, and closely followed the line of the main wall, except at the north and south corners, where it formed two bastion-like projections. At Semneh, on the opposite bank, the site was less favourable. The east side was protected by a belt of cliffs going sheer down to the water's edge; but the three other sides were well- nigh open (fig. 35). A straight wall, about fifty feet in height, carried along the cliffs on the side next the river; but the walls looking towards the plain rose to eighty feet, and bristled with bastion-like projections (A.B.) jutting out for a distance of fifty feet from the curtain wall, measuring thirty feet thick at the base and thirteen feet at the top, and irregularly spaced, according to the requirements of the defence. These spurs, which are not battlemented, served in place of towers. They added to the strength of the walls, protected the walk round the top, and enabled the besieged to direct a flank attack against the enemy if any attempt were made upon the wall of circuit. The intervals between these spurs are accurately calculated as to distance, in order that the archers should be able to sweep the intervening ground with their arrows. Curtains and salients are alike built of crude brick, with beams bedded horizontally in the mass. The outer face is in two parts, the lower division being nearly vertical, and the upper one inclined at an angle of about seventy degrees, which made scaling very difficult, if not impossible. The whole of the ground enclosed by the wall of circuit was filled in to nearly the level of the ramparts (fig. 36). Externally, the covering wall of stone was separated from the body of the fortress by a dry ditch, some 100 to 130 feet in width. This wall closely followed the main outline, and rose to a height which varied according to the situation from six to ten feet above the level of the plain. On the northward side it was cut by the winding road, which led down into the plain. These arrangements, skilful as they were, did not prevent the fall of the place. A large breach in the southward face, between the two salients nearest to the river, marks the point of attack selected by the enemy. [Illustration: Fig. 37.--Syrian fort.] [Illustration: Fig. 38.--The town-walls of Dapuer.] [Illustration: Fig. 39.--City of Kadesh, Ramesseum.] [Illustration: Fig. 40.--Plan of the pavilion of Medinet Habu.] [Illustration: Fig. 41.--Elevation of pavilion, Medinet Habu.] New methods of fortification were revealed to the Egyptians in the course of the great Asiatic wars undertaken by the Pharaohs of the Eighteenth Dynasty. The nomadic tribes of Syria erected small forts in which they took refuge when threatened with invasion (fig. 37). The Canaanite and Hittite cities, as Ascalon, Dapur, and Merom, were surrounded by strong walls, generally built of stone and flanked with towers (fig. 38). Those which stood in the open country, as, for instance, Qodshu (Kadesh), were enclosed by a double moat (fig. 39). Having proved the efficacy of these new types of defensive architecture in the course of their campaigns, the Pharaohs reproduced them in the valley of the Nile. From the beginning of the Nineteenth Dynasty, the eastern frontier of the Delta (always the weakest) was protected by a line of forts constructed after the Canaanite model. The Egyptians, moreover, not content with appropriating the thing, appropriated also the name, and called these frontier towers by the Semitic name of _Magdilu_ or Migdols. For these purposes, or at all events for cities which were exposed to the incursions of the Asiatic tribes, brick was not deemed to be sufficiently strong; hence the walls of Heliopolis, and even those of Memphis, were faced with stone. Of these new fortresses no ruins remain; and but for a royal caprice which happens to have left us a model Migdol in that most unlikely place, the necropolis of Thebes, we should now be constrained to attempt a restoration of their probable appearance from the representations in certain mural tableaux. When, however, Rameses III. erected his memorial temple[3] (figs. 40 and 41), he desired, in remembrance of his Syrian victories, to give it an outwardly military aspect. Along the eastward front of the enclosure there accordingly runs a battlemented covering wall of stone, averaging some thirteen feet in height. The gate, protected by a large quadrangular bastion, opened in the middle of this wall. It was three feet four inches in width, and was flanked by two small oblong guard-houses, the flat roofs of which stood about three feet higher than the ramparts. Passing this gate, we stand face to face with a real Migdol. Two blocks of building enclose a succession of court-yards, which narrow as they recede, and are connected at the lower end by a kind of gate-house, consisting of one massive gateway surmounted by two storeys of chambers. The eastward faces of the towers rise above an inclined basement, which slopes to a height of from fifteen to sixteen feet from the ground. This answered two purposes. It increased the strength of the wall at the part exposed to sappers; it also caused the rebound of projectiles thrown from above, and so helped to keep assailants at a distance. The whole height is about seventy-two feet, and the width of each tower is thirty-two feet. The buildings situate at the back, to right and left of the gate, were destroyed in ancient times. The details of the decoration are partly religious, partly triumphal, as befits the character of the structure. It is unlikely, however, that actual fortresses were adorned with brackets and bas-relief sculptures, such as we here see on either side of the fore-court. Such as it is, the so-called "pavilion" of Medinet Habu offers an unique example of the high degree of perfection to which the victorious Pharaohs of this period had carried their military architecture. Material evidence fails us almost entirely, after the reign of Rameses III. Towards the close of the eleventh century B.C., the high-priests of Amen repaired the walls of Thebes, of Gebeleyn, and of El Hibeh opposite Feshn. The territorial subdivision of the country, which took place under the successors of Sheshonk, compelled the provincial princes to multiply their strongholds. The campaign of Piankhi on the banks of the Nile is a series of successful sieges. Nothing, however, leads us to suppose that the art of fortification had at that time made any distinct progress; and when the Greek rulers succeeded the native Pharaohs, they most probably found it at much the same stage as it was left by the engineers of the Nineteenth and Twentieth Dynasties. [3] At Medinet Habu. 3.--PUBLIC WORKS. A permanent network of roads would be useless in a country like Egypt. The Nile here is the natural highway for purposes of commerce, and the pathways which intersect the fields suffice for foot-passengers, for cattle, and for the transport of goods from village to village. Ferry-boats for crossing the river, fords wherever the canals were shallow enough, and embanked dams thrown up here and there where the water was too deep for fordings, completed the system of internal communication. Bridges were rare. Up to the present time, we know of but one in the whole territory of ancient Egypt; and whether that one was long or short, built of stone or of wood, supported on arches or boldly flung across the stream from bank to bank, we cannot even conjecture. This bridge, close under the very walls of Zaru,[4] crossed the canal which separated the eastern frontier of Egypt from the desert regions of Arabia Petraea. A fortified enclosure protected this canal on the Asiatic side, as shown in the accompanying illustration (fig. 42). The maintenance of public highways, which figures as so costly an item in the expenses of modern nations, played, therefore, but a very small part in the annual disbursements of the Pharaohs, who had only to provide for the due execution of three great branches of government works,--namely, storage, irrigation, mining and quarrying. [Illustration: Fig. 42.--Canal and bridge, Zaru, Karnak.] [Illustration: Fig. 43.--Cellar, with amphorae.] [Illustration: Fig. 44.--Granary.] The taxation of ancient Egypt was levied in kind, and government servants were paid after the same system. To workmen, there were monthly distributions of corn, oil, and wine, wherewith to support their families; while from end to end of the social scale, each functionary, in exchange for his labour, received cattle, stuffs, manufactured goods, and certain quantities of copper or precious metals. Thus it became necessary that the treasury officials should have the command of vast storehouses for the safe keeping of the various goods collected under the head of taxation. These were classified and stored in separate quarters, each storehouse being surrounded by walls and guarded by vigilant keepers. There was enormous stabling for cattle; there were cellars where the amphorae were piled in regular layers (fig. 43), or hung in rows upon the walls, each with the date written on the side of the jar; there were oven-shaped granaries where the corn was poured in through a trap at the top (fig. 44), and taken out through a trap at the bottom. At Thuku, identified with Pithom by M. Naville,[5] the store-chambers (A) are rectangular and of different dimensions (fig. 45), originally divided by floors, and having no communication with each other. Here the corn had to be not only put in but taken out through the aperture at the top. At the Ramesseum, Thebes, thousands of ostraka and jar-stoppers found upon the spot prove that the brick-built remains at the back of the temple were the cellars of the local deity. The ruins consist of a series of vaulted chambers, originally surmounted by a platform or terrace (fig. 46). At Philae, Ombos, Daphnae,[6] and most of the frontier towns of the Delta, there were magazines of this description, and many more will doubtless be discovered when made the object of serious exploration. [Illustration: Fig. 45.--Plan of Pithom.] [Illustration: Fig. 46.--Store-chambers of the Ramesseum.] [Illustration: Fig. 47.--Dike at Wady Gerraweh.] The irrigation system of Egypt is but little changed since the olden time. Some new canals have been cut, and yet more have been silted up through the negligence of those in power; but the general scheme, and the methods employed, continue much the same, and demand but little engineering skill. Wherever I have investigated the remains of ancient canals, I have been unable to detect any traces of masonry at the weak points, or at the mouths, of these cuttings. They are mere excavated ditches, from twenty to sixty or seventy feet in width. The earth flung out during the work was thrown to right and left, forming irregular embankments from seven to fourteen feet in height. The course of the ancient canals was generally straight: but that rule was not strictly observed, and enormous curves were often described in order to avoid even slight irregularities of surface. Dikes thrown up from the foot of the cliffs to the banks of the Nile divided the plain at intervals into a series of artificial basins, where the overflow formed back-waters at the time of inundation. These dikes are generally earth-works, though they are sometimes constructed of baked brick, as in the province of Girgeh. Very rarely are they built of hewn stone, like that great dike of Kosheish which was constructed by Mena in primaeval times, in order to divert the course of the Nile from the spot on which he founded Memphis.[7] The network of canals began near Silsilis and extended to the sea-board, without ever losing touch of the river, save at one spot near Beni Suef, where it throws out a branch in the direction of the Fayum. Here, through a narrow and sinuous gorge, deepened probably by the hand of man, it passes the rocky barrier which divides that low- lying province from the valley of the Nile, and thence expands into a fanlike ramification of innumerable channels. Having thus irrigated the district, the waters flow out again; those nearest the Nile returning by the same way that they flowed in, while the rest form a series of lakes, the largest of which is known as the Birket el Kurun. If we are to believe Herodotus, the work was not so simply done. A king, named Moeris, desired to create a reservoir in the Fayum which should neutralise the evil effects of insufficient or superabundant inundations. This reservoir was named, after him, Lake Moeris. If the supply fell below the average, then the stored waters were let loose, and Lower Egypt and the Western Delta were flooded to the needful height. If next year the inundation came down in too great force, Lake Moeris received and stored the surplus till such time as the waters began to subside. Two pyramids, each surmounted by a sitting colossus, one representing the king and the other his queen, were erected in the midst of the lake. Such is the tale told by Herodotus, and it is a tale which has considerably embarrassed our modern engineers and topographers. How, in fact, was it possible to find in the Fayum a site which could have contained a basin measuring at least ninety miles in circumference? Linant supposed "Lake Moeris" to have extended over the whole of the low-lying land which skirts the Libyan cliffs between Illahun and Medinet el Fayum; but recent explorations have proved that the dikes by which this pretended reservoir was bounded are modern works, erected probably within the last two hundred years. Major Brown has lately shown that the nucleus of "Lake Moeris" was the Birket el Kurun.[8] This was known to the Egyptians as _Miri, Mi-uri,_ the Great Lake, whence the Greeks derived their _Moiris_ a name extended also to the inundation of the Fayum. If Herodotus did actually visit this province, it was probably in summer, at the time of the high Nile, when the whole district presents the appearance of an inland sea. What he took for the shores of this lake were the embankments which divided it into basins and acted as highways between the various towns. His narrative, repeated by the classic authors, has been accepted by the moderns; and Egypt, neither accepting nor rejecting it, was gratified long after date with the reputation of a gigantic work which would in truth have been the glory of her civil engineers, if it had ever existed. I do not believe that "Lake Moeris" ever did exist. The only works of the kind which the Egyptians undertook were much less pretentious. These consist of stone-built dams erected at the mouths of many of those lateral ravines, or wadys, which lead down from the mountain ranges into the valley of the Nile. One of the most important among them was pointed out, in 1885, by Dr. Schweinfurth, at a distance of about six miles and a half from the Baths of Helwan, at the mouth of the Wady Gerraweh (fig. 47). It answered two purposes, firstly, as a means of storing the water of the inundation for the use of the workmen in the neighbouring quarries; and, secondly, as a barrier to break the force of the torrents which rush down from the desert after the heavy rains of springtime and winter. The ravine measures about 240 feet in width, the sides being on an average from 40 to 50 feet in height. The dam, which is 143 feet in thickness, consists of three layers of material; at the bottom, a bed of clay and rubble; next, a piled mass of limestone blocks (A); lastly, a wall of cut stone built in retreating stages, like an enormous flight of steps (B). Thirty-two of the original thirty-five stages are yet _in situ_, and about one-fourth part of the dam remains piled up against the sides of the ravine to right and left; but the middle part has been swept away by the force of the torrent (fig. 48). A similar dike transformed the end of Wady Genneh into a little lake which supplied the Sinaitic miners with water. Most of the localities from which the Egyptians derived their metals and choicest materials in hard stone, were difficult of access, and would have been useless had roads not been made, and works of this kind carried out, so as to make life somewhat less insupportable there. [Illustration: Fig. 48.--Section of dike at Wady Gerraweh.] In order to reach the diorite and grey granite quarries of the Hammamat Valley, the Pharaohs caused a series of rock-cut cisterns to be constructed along the line of route. Some few insignificant springs, skilfully conducted into these reservoirs, made it possible to plant workmen's villages in the neighbourhood of the quarries, and also near the emerald mines on the borders of the Red Sea. Hundreds of hired labourers, slaves, and condemned criminals here led a wretched existence under the rule of some eight or ten overseers, and the brutal surveillance of a company of Libyan or negro mercenary troops. The least political disturbance in Egypt, an unsuccessful campaign, or any untoward incident of a troubled reign, sufficed to break up the precarious stability of these remote establishments. The Bedawin at once attacked the colony; the workmen deserted; the guards, weary of exile, hastened back to the valley of the Nile, and all was at a standstill. The choicest materials, as diorite, basalt, black granite, porphyry, and red and yellow breccia, which are only found in the desert, were rarely used for architectural purposes. In order to procure them, it was necessary to organise regular expeditions of soldiers and workmen; therefore they were reserved for sarcophagi and important works of art. Those quarries which supplied building materials for temples and funerary monuments, such as limestone, sandstone, alabaster, and red granite, were all found in the Nile valley, and were, therefore, easy of access. When the vein which it was intended to work traversed the lower strata of the rock, the miners excavated chambers and passages, which were often prolonged to a considerable distance. Square pillars, left standing at intervals, supported the superincumbent mass, while tablets sculptured in the most conspicuous places commemorated the kings and engineers who began or continued the work. Several exhausted or abandoned quarries have been transformed into votive chapels; as, for instance, the Speos Artemidos, which was consecrated by Hatshepsut, Thothmes III. and Seti I. to the local goddess Pakhet.[9] [Illustration: Fig. 49.--Quarries of Silsilis.] [Illustration: Fig. 50.--Draught of Hathor capital in quarry of Gebel Abufeydeh.] The most important limestone quarries are at Turah and Massarah, nearly opposite Memphis. This stone lends itself admirably to the most delicate touches of the chisel, hardens when exposed to the air, and acquires a creamy tone most restful to the eye. Hence it was much in request by architects and sculptors. The most extensive sandstone formations are at Silsilis (fig. 49). Here the cliffs were quarried from above, and under the open sky. Clean cut and absolutely vertical, they rise to a height of from forty to fifty feet, sometimes presenting a smooth surface from top to bottom, and sometimes cut in stages accessible by means of steps scarcely large enough for one man at a time. The walls of these cuttings are covered with parallel striae, sometimes horizontal, sometimes slanting to the left, and sometimes to the right, so forming lines of serried chevrons framed, as it were, between grooves an inch, or an inch and a half, in width, by nine or ten feet in length. These are the scars left upon the surface by the tools of the ancient workmen, and they show the method employed in detaching the blocks. The size was outlined in red ink, and this outline sometimes indicated the form which the stone was to take in the projected building. The members of the French Commission, when they visited the quarries of Gebel Abufeydeh, copied the diagrams and squared designs of several capitals, one being of the campaniform pattern, and others prepared for the Hathor-head pattern (fig. 50).[10] The outline made, the vertical faces of the block were divided by means of a long iron chisel, which was driven in perpendicularly or obliquely by heavy blows of the mallet. In order to detach the horizontal faces, they made use of wooden or bronze wedges, inserted the way of the natural strata of the stone. Very frequently the stone was roughly blocked out before being actually extracted from the bed. Thus at Syene (Asuan) we see a couchant obelisk of granite, the under side of which is one with the rock itself; and at Tehneh there are drums of columns but half disengaged. The transport of quarried stone was effected in various ways. At Syene, at Silsilis, at Gebel Sheikh Herideh, and at Gebel Abufeydeh, the quarries are literally washed by the waters of the Nile, so that the stone was lowered at once into the barges. At Kasr es Said,[11] at Turah, and other localities situate at some distance from the river, canals dug expressly for the purpose conveyed the transport boats to the foot of the cliffs. When water transit was out of the question, the stone was placed on sledges drawn by oxen (fig. 51), or dragged to its destination by gangs of labourers, and by the help of rollers. [Illustration: Fig. 51.--Bas-relief from one of the stelae of Ahmes, at Turrah, Eighteenth Dynasty.] [4] The bas-relief sculpture from which the illustration, fig. 42, is taken (outer wall of Hypostyle Hall, Karnak, north end) represents Seti I. returning in triumph from one of his Syrian campaigns. He is met at Zaru by the great officers of his court, who bring bouquets of lotus- blossoms in their hands. Pithom and other frontier forts are depicted in this tableau, and Pithom is apparently not very far from Zaru. Zaru, Zalu, is the Selle of the Roman Itineraries.--A.B.E. [5] See _The Store City of Pithom and the Route of the Exodus,_ by Ed. Naville, with 13 Plates and 2 Maps; published by the Egypt Exploration Fund. First edition 1885, second edition 1885. Truebner & Co., London. --A.B.E. [6] For an account of the explorations at Daphnae (the "Tahpanhes" of the Bible, the _Tell Defenneh_ of the present day) see Mr. Petrie's memoir, entitled _Tanis, Part II, (including Nebesheh, Gemayemi, Defenneh, etc.)_, published by the Egypt Exploration Fund.--A.B.E. [7] The remains of this gigantic work may yet be seen about two hours' distance to the southward of Medum. See Herodotus, book II.; chap. 99.--A.B.E. [8] See _The Fayum and Lake Moeris_. Major R.H. Brown, R.E. [9] Officially, this temple is attributed to Thothmes III., and the dedicatory inscription dates from the first year of his reign; but the work was really that of his aunt and predecessor, Queen Hatshepsut. [10] See also an exact reduction of this design, to scale, in Mr. Petrie's work _A Season in Egypt_, 1887, Plate XXV. [11] Chenoboscion.--A.B.E. CHAPTER II. _RELIGIOUS ARCHITECTURE_. In the civil and military architecture of Ancient Egypt brick played the principal part; but in the religious architecture of the nation it occupied a very secondary position. The Pharaohs were ambitious of building eternal dwellings for their deities, and stone was the only material which seemed sufficiently durable to withstand the ravages of time and man. I.--MATERIALS AND PRINCIPLES OF CONSTRUCTION. It is an error to suppose that the Egyptians employed only large blocks for building purposes. The size of their materials varied very considerably according to the uses for which they were destined. Architraves, drums of columns, lintel-stones, and door-jambs were sometimes of great size. The longest architraves known--those, namely, which bridge the nave of the hypostyle hall of Karnak--have a mean length of 30 feet. They each contain 40 cubic yards, and weigh about 65 tons. Ordinarily, however, the blocks are not much larger than those now used in Europe. They measure, that is to say, about 2-1/2 to 4 feet in height, from 3 to 8 feet in length, and from 2 to 6 feet in thickness. Some temples are built of only one kind of stone; but more frequently materials of different kinds are put together in unequal proportions. Thus the main part of the temples of Abydos consists of very fine limestone; but in the temple of Seti I., the columns, architraves, jambs, and lintels,-- all parts, in short, where it might be feared that the limestone would not offer sufficient resistance,--the architect has had recourse to sandstone; while in that of Rameses II., sandstone, granite, and alabaster were used. At Karnak, Luxor, Tanis, and Memphis, similar combinations may be seen. At the Ramesseum, and in some of the Nubian temples, the columns stand on massive supports of crude brick. The stones were dressed more or less carefully, according to the positions they were to occupy. When the walls were of medium thickness, as in most partition walls, they are well wrought on all sides. When the wall was thick, the core blocks were roughed out as nearly cubic as might be, and piled together without much care, the hollows being filled up with smaller flakes, pebbles, or mortar. Casing stones were carefully wrought on the faces, and the joints dressed for two-thirds or three-quarters of the length, the rest being merely picked with a point (Note 6). The largest blocks were reserved for the lower parts of the building; and this precaution was the more necessary because the architects of Pharaonic times sank the foundations of their temples no deeper than those of their houses. At Karnak, they are not carried lower than from 7 to 10 feet; at Luxor, on the side anciently washed by the river, three courses of masonry, each measuring about 2-1/2 feet in depth, form a great platform on which the walls rest; while at the Ramesseum, the brickwork bed on which the colonnade stands does not seem to be more than 10 feet deep. These are but slight depths for the foundations of such great buildings, but the experience of ages proves that they are sufficient. The hard and compact humus of which the soil of the Nile valley is composed, contracts every year after the subsidence of the inundation, and thus becomes almost incompressible. As the building progressed, the weight of the superincumbent masonry gradually became greater, till the maximum of pressure was attained, and a solid basis secured. Wherever I have bared the foundations of the walls, I can testify that they have not shifted. [Illustration: Fig. 52.--Masonry in temple of Seti I. at Abydos.] The system of construction in force among the ancient Egyptians resembles in many respects that of the Greeks. The stones are often placed together with dry joints, and without the employment of any binding contrivance, the masons relying on the mere weight of the materials to keep them in place. Sometimes they are held together by metal cramps, or sometimes--as in the temple of Seti I., at Abydos--by dovetails of sycamore wood bearing the cartouche of the founder. Most commonly, they are united by a mortar-joint, more or less thick. All the mortars of which I have collected samples are thus far of three kinds: the first is white, and easily reduced to an impalpable powder, being of lime only; the others are grey, and rough to the touch, being mixtures of lime and sand; while some are of a reddish colour, owing to the pounded brick powder with which they are mixed. A judicious use of these various methods enabled the Egyptians to rival the Greeks in their treatment of regular courses, equal blocks, and upright joints in alternate bond. If they did not always work equally well, their shortcomings must be charged to the imperfect mechanical means at their disposal. The enclosure walls, partitions, and secondary facades were upright; and they raised the materials by means of a rude kind of crane planted on the top. The pylon walls and the principal facades (and sometimes even the secondary facades) were sloped at an angle which varied according to the taste of the architect. In order to build these, they formed inclined planes, the slopes of which were lengthened as the structure rose in height. These two methods were equally perilous; for, however carefully the blocks might be protected while being raised, they were constantly in danger of losing their edges or corners, or of being fractured before they reached the top (Note 7). Thus it was almost always necessary to re-work them; and the object being to sacrifice as little as possible of the stone, the workmen often left them of most abnormal shapes (fig. 52). They would level off one of the side faces, and then the joint, instead of being vertical, leaned askew. If the block had neither height nor length to spare, they made up the loss by means of a supplementary slip. Sometimes even they left a projection which fitted into a corresponding hollow in the next upper or lower course. Being first of all expedients designed to remedy accidents, these methods degenerated into habitually careless ways of working. The masons who had inadvertently hoisted too large a block, no longer troubled themselves to lower it back again, but worked it into the building in one or other of the ways before mentioned. The architect neglected to duly supervise the dressing and placing of the blocks. He allowed the courses to vary, and the vertical joints, two or three deep, to come one over the other. The rough work done, the masons dressed down the stone, reworked the joints, and overlaid the whole with a coat of cement or stucco, coloured to match the material, which concealed the faults of the real work. The walls rarely end with a sharp edge. Bordered with a torus, around which a sculptured riband is entwined, they are crowned by the _cavetto_ cornice surmounted by a flat band (fig. 53); or, as at Semneh, by a square cornice; or, as at Medinet Habu, by a line of battlements. Thus framed in, the walls looked like enormous panels, each panel complete in itself, without projections and almost without openings. Windows, always rare in Egyptian architecture, are mere ventilators when introduced into the walls of temples, being intended to light the staircases, as in the second pylon of Horemheb at Karnak, or else to support decorative woodwork on festival days. The doorways project but slightly from the body of the buildings (fig. 54), except where the lintel is over-shadowed by a projecting cornice. Real windows occur only in the pavilion of Medinet Habu; but that building was constructed on the model of a fortress, and must rank as an exception among religious monuments. [Illustration: Fig. 53.--Temple wall with cornice.] [Illustration: Fig. 54.--Niche and doorway in temple of Seti I. at Abydos.] [Illustration: Fig. 55.--Pavement of the portico of Osiris in the temple of Seti I. at Abydos.] The ground-level of the courts and halls was flagged with rectangular paving stones, well enough fitted, except in the intercolumniations, where the architects, hopeless of harmonising the lines of the pavement with the curved bases of the columns, have filled in the space with small pieces, set without order or method (fig. 55). Contrary to their practice when house building, they have scarcely ever employed the vault or arch in temple architecture. We nowhere meet with it, except at Deir el Bahari, and in the seven parallel sanctuaries of Abydos. Even in these instances, the arch is produced by "corbelling"; that is to say, the curve is formed by three or four superimposed horizontal courses of stone, chiselled out to the form required (fig. 56). The ordinary roofing consists of flat paving slabs. When the space between the walls was not too wide, these slabs bridged it over at a single stretch; otherwise the roof had to be supported at intervals, and the wider the space the more these supports needed to be multiplied. The supports were connected by immense stone architraves, on which the roofing slabs rested. [Illustration: Fig. 56.--"Corbelled" arch, temple of Seti I. at Abydos.] The supports are of two types,--the pillar and the column. Some are cut from single blocks. Thus, the monolithic pillars of the temple of the sphinx (Note 8), the oldest hitherto found, measure 16 feet in height by 4- 1/2 feet in width. Monolithic columns of red granite are also found among the ruins of Alexandria, Bubastis,[12] and Memphis, which date from the reigns of Horemheb and Rameses II., and measure some 20 to 26 feet in height. But columns and pillars are commonly built in courses, which are often unequal and irregular, like those of the walls which surround them. The great columns of Luxor are not even solid, two-thirds of the diameter being filled up with yellow cement, which has lost its strength, and crumbles between the fingers. The capital of the column of Taharka at Karnak contains three courses, each about 48 inches high. The last and most projecting course is made up of twenty-six convergent stones, which are held in place by merely the weight of the abacus. The same carelessness which we have already noted in the workmanship of the walls is found in the workmanship of the columns. [Illustration: Fig. 57.--Hathor pillar, Abu Simbel.] [Illustration: Fig. 58.--Pillar of Amenhotep III., Karnak.] The quadrangular pillar, with parallel or slightly inclined sides, and generally without either base or capital, frequently occurs in tombs of the ancient empire. It reappears later at Medinet Habu, in the temple of Thothmes III., and again at Karnak, in what is known as the processional hall. The sides of these square pillars are often covered with painted scenes, while the front faces were more decoratively treated, being sculptured with lotus or papyrus stems in high relief, as on the pillar- stelae of Karnak, or adorned with a head of Hathor crowned with the sistrum, as in the small speos of Abu Simbel (fig. 57), or sculptured with a full-length standing figure of Osiris, as in the second court of Medinet Habu; or, as at Denderah and Gebel Barkal, with the figure of the god Bes. At Karnak, in an edifice which was probably erected by Horemheb with building material taken from the ruins of a sanctuary of Amenhotep II. and III., the pillar is capped by a cornice, separated from the architrave by a thin abacus (fig. 58). By cutting away its four edges, the square pillar becomes an octagonal prism, and further, by cutting off the eight new edges, it becomes a sixteen-sided prism. Some pillars in the tombs of Asuan and Beni Hasan, and in the processional hall at Karnak (fig. 59), as well as in the chapels of Deir el Bahari, are of this type. Besides the forms thus regularly evolved, there are others of irregular derivation, with six, twelve, fifteen, or twenty sides, or verging almost upon a perfect circle. The portico pillars of the temple of Osiris at Abydos come last in the series; the drum is curved, but not round, the curve being interrupted at both extremities of the same diameter by a flat stripe. More frequently the sides are slightly channelled; and sometimes, as at Kalabsheh, the flutings are divided into four groups of five each by four vertical flat stripes (fig. 60). The polygonal pillar has always a large, shallow plinth, in the form of a rounded disc. At El Kab it bears the head of Hathor, sculptured in relief upon the front (fig. 61); but almost everywhere else it is crowned with a simple square abacus, which joins it to the architrave. Thus treated, it bears a certain family likeness to the Doric column; and one understands how Jomard and Champollion, in the first ardour of discovery, were tempted to give it the scarcely justifiable name of "proto-Doric." [Illustration: Fig. 59.--Sixteen-sided pillars, Karnak.] The column does not rest immediately upon the soil. It is always furnished with a base like that of the polygonal pillar, sometimes square with the ground, and sometimes slightly rounded. This base is either plain, or ornamented only with a line of hieroglyphs. The principal forms fall into three types: (1) the column with campaniform, or lotus-flower capital; (2) the column with lotus-bud capital; (3) the column with Hathor-head capital. [Illustration: Fig. 60.--Fluted pillar, Kalabsheh.] [Illustration: Fig. 61.--Polygonal Hathor-headed pillar, El Kab.] I. _Columns with Campaniform Capitals_.--The shaft is generally plain, or merely engraved with inscriptions or bas-reliefs. Sometimes, however, as at Medamot, it is formed of six large and six small colonnettes in alternation. In Pharaonic times, it is bulbous, being curved inward at the base, and ornamented with triangles one within another, imitating the large leaves which sheathe the sprouting plant. The curve is so regulated that the diameter at the base and the top shall be about equal. In the Ptolemaic period, the bulb often disappears, owing probably to Greek influences. The columns which surround the first court at Edfu rise straight from their plinths. The shaft always tapers towards the top. It is finished by three or five flat bands, one above the other. At Medamot, where the shaft is clustered, the architect has doubtless thought that one tie at the top appeared insufficient to hold in a dozen colonnettes; he has therefore marked two other rings of bands at regular intervals. The campaniform capital is decorated from the spring of the curve with a row of leaves, like those which sheathe the base. Between these are figured shoots of lotus and papyrus in flower and bud. The height of the capital, and the extent of its projection beyond the line of the shaft, varied with the taste of the architect. At Luxor, the campaniform capitals are eleven and a half feet in diameter at the neck, eighteen feet in diameter at the top, and eleven and a half feet in height. At Karnak, in the hypostyle hall, the height of the capital is twelve and a quarter feet, and the greatest diameter twenty-one feet. A square die surmounts the whole. This die is almost hidden by the curve of the capital, though occasionally, as at Denderah, it is higher, and bears on each face a figure of the god Bes (fig. 62). [Illustration: Fig. 62.--Column with square die, Contra Esneh.] [Illustration: Fig. 63.--Column with campaniform capital, Ramesseum.] The column with campaniform capital is mostly employed in the middle avenue of hypostyle halls, as at Karnak, the Ramesseum, and Luxor (fig. 63); but it was not restricted to this position, for we also find it in porticoes, as at Medinet Habu, Edfu, and Philae. The processional hall[13] of Thothmes III., at Karnak, contains one most curious variety (fig. 64); the flower is inverted like a bell, and the shaft is turned upside down, the smaller end being sunk in the plinth, while the larger is fitted to the wide part of the overturned bell. This ungraceful innovation achieved no success, and is found nowhere else. Other novelties were happier, especially those which enabled the artist to introduce decorative elements taken from the flora of the country. In the earlier examples at Soleb, Sesebeh, Bubastis, and Memphis, we find a crown of palm branches springing from the band, their heads being curved beneath the weight of the abacus (fig. 65). Later on, as we approach the Ptolemaic period, the date and the half-unfolded lotus were added to the palm-branches (fig. 66). [Illustration: Fig. 64.--Inverted campaniform capital, Karnak.] [Illustration: Fig. 65.--Palm capital, Bubastis.] [Illustration: Fig. 66.--Compound capital.] Under the Ptolemies and the Caesars the capital became a complete basket of flowers and leaves, ranged row above row, and painted in the brightest colours (fig. 67.) At Edfu, Ombos, and Philae one would fancy that the designer had vowed never to repeat the same pattern in the same portico. [Illustration: Fig. 67.--Ornate capitals, Ptolemaic.] [Illustration: Fig. 68.--Lotus-bud column, Beni Hasan.] [Illustration: Fig. 69.--Lotus-bud column, processional hall, Thothmes III., Karnak.] [Illustration: Fig. 70.--Column in the aisles of the hypostyle hall at Karnak.] II. _Columns with Lotus-bud Capitals_.--Originally these may perhaps have represented a bunch of lotus plants, the buds being bound together at the neck to form the capital. The columns of Beni Hasan consist of four rounded stems (fig. 68). Those of the Labyrinth, of the processional hall of Thothmes III., and of Medamot, consist of eight stems, each presenting a sharp edge on the outer side (fig. 69). The bottom of the column is bulbous, and set round with triangular leaves. The top is surrounded by three or five bands. A moulding composed of groups of three vertical stripes hangs like a fringe from the lowest band in the space between every two stems. So varied a surface does not admit of hieroglyphic decoration; therefore the projections were by degrees suppressed, and the whole shaft was made smooth. In the hypostyle hall at Gurneh, the shaft is divided in three parts, the middle one being smooth and covered with sculptures, while the upper and lower divisions are formed of clustered stems. In the temple of Khonsu, in the aisles of the hypostyle hall of Karnak, and in the portico of Medinet Habu, the shaft is quite smooth, the fringe alone being retained below the top bands, while a slight ridge between each of the three bands recalls the original stems (fig. 70). The capital underwent a like process of degradation. At Beni Hasan, it is finely clustered throughout its height. In the processional hall of Thothmes III., at Luxor, and at Medamot, a circle of small pointed leaves and channellings around the base lessens the effect, and reduces it to a mere grooved and truncated cone. In the hypostyle hall of Karnak, at Abydos, at the Ramesseum, and at Medinet Habu, various other ornaments, as triangular leaves, hieroglyphic inscriptions, or bands of cartouches flanked by uraei, fill the space thus unfortunately obtained. Neither is the abacus hidden as in the campaniform capital, but stands out boldly, and displays the cartouche of the royal founder. [Illustration: Fig. 71.--Hathor-head capital, Ptolemaic.] III. _Columns with Hathor-head Capitals_.--We find examples of the Hathor- headed column dating from ancient times, as at Deir el Bahari; but this order is best known in buildings of the Ptolemaic period, as at Contra Latopolis, Philae, and Denderah. The shaft and the base present no special characteristics. They resemble those of the campaniform columns. The capital is in two divisions. Below we have a square block, bearing on each face a woman's head in high relief and crowned with a naos. The woman has the ears of a heifer. Her hair, confined over the brow by three vertical bands, falls behind the ears, and hangs long on the shoulders. Each head supports a fluted cornice, on which stands a naos framed between two volutes, and crowned by a slender abacus (fig. 71). Thus each column has for its capital four heads of Hathor. Seen from a distance, it at once recalls the form of the sistrum, so frequently represented in the bas- reliefs as held in the hands of queens and goddesses. It is in fact a sistrum, in which the regular proportions of the parts are disregarded. The handle is gigantic, while the upper part of the instrument is unduly reduced. This notion so pleased the Egyptian fancy that architects did not hesitate to combine the sistrum design with elements borrowed from other orders. The four heads of Hathor placed above a campaniform capital, furnished Nectenebo with a composite type for his pavilion at Philae (fig. 72). I cannot say that the compound is very satisfactory, but the column is in reality less ugly than it appears in engravings. [Illustration: Fig. 72.--Campaniform and Hathor-headed capital, Philae.] [Illustration: Fig. 73.--Section of the hypostyle hall at Karnak to show the arrangement of the two varieties: campaniform and lotus-bud columns.] Shafts of columns were regulated by no fixed rules of proportion or arrangement. The architect might, if he chose, make use of equal heights with very different diameters, and, regardless of any considerations apart from those of general harmony, might design the various parts according to whatever scale best suited him. The dimensions of the capital had no invariable connection with those of the shaft, nor was the height of the shaft dependent on the diameter of the column. At Karnak, the campaniform columns of the hypostyle hall measure 10 feet high in the capital, and 55 feet high in the shaft, with a lower diameter of 11 feet 8 inches. At Luxor, the capital measures 11-1/2 feet, the shaft 49 feet, and the diameter at the spring of the base 11-1/4 feet. At the Ramesseum, the shaft and capital measure 35 feet, and the spring diameter is 6-1/2 feet. The lotus-bud or clustered column gives similar results. At Karnak, in the aisles of the hypostyle hall, the capital is 10 feet high, the shaft 33 feet, and the base diameter 6-3/4 feet. At the Ramesseum, the capital is 5- 1/2 feet high, the shaft 24-1/2 feet, and the base diameter 5 feet 10 inches. We find the same irregularity as to architraves. Their height is determined only by the taste of the architect or the necessities of the building. So also with the spacing of columns. Not only does the inter- columnar space vary considerably between temple and temple, or chamber and chamber, but sometimes--as in the first court at Medinet Habu--they vary in the same portico. We have thus far treated separately of each type; but when various types were associated in a single building, no fixed relative proportions were observed. In the hypostyle hall at Karnak, the campaniform columns support the nave, while the lotus-bud variety is relegated to the aisles (fig. 73). There are halls in the temple of Khonsu where the lotus- bud column is the loftiest, and others where the campaniform dominates the rest. In what remains of the Medamot structure, campaniform and lotus-bud columns are of equal height. Egypt had no definite orders like those of Greece, but tried every combination to which the elements of the column could be made to lend themselves; hence, we can never determine the dimensions of an Egyptian column from those of one of its parts. [12] For an account of the excavations at Bubastis, see Eighth and Tenth Memoirs of the Egypt Exploration Fund, by M.E. Naville. [13] French "Promenoir"; this is perhaps best expressed by "Processional Hall," in accordance with the description of its purpose on p. 67. --A.B.E. 2. THE TEMPLE. [Illustration: Fig. 74.--Plan of temple of the Sphinx.] Most of the famous sanctuaries--Denderah, Edfu, Abydos--were founded before Men a by the _Servants of Hor_.[14] Becoming dilapidated or ruined in the course of ages, they have been restored, rebuilt, remodelled, one after the other, till nothing remains of the primitive design to show us what the first Egyptian architecture was like. The funerary temples built by the kings of the Fourth Dynasty have left some traces.[15] That of the second pyramid of Gizeh was so far preserved at the beginning of the last century, that Maillet saw four large pillars standing. It is now almost entirely destroyed; but this loss has been more than compensated by the discovery, in 1853, of a temple situate about fifty yards to the southward of the sphinx (fig. 74). The facade is still hidden by the sand, and the inside is but partly uncovered. The core masonry is of fine Turah limestone. The casing, pillars, architraves, and roof were constructed with immense blocks of alabaster or red granite (Note 9). The plan is most simple: In the middle (A) is a great hall in shape of the letter T, adorned with sixteen square pillars 16 feet in height; at the north-west corner of this hall is a narrow passage on an inclined plane (B), by which the building is now entered;[16] at the south-west corner is a recess (C) which contains six niches, in pairs one over the other. A long gallery opening at each end into a square chamber, now filled with rubbish (E), completes the plan. Without any main door, without windows, and entered through a passage too long to admit the light of day, the building can only have received light and air through slanting air-slits in the roofing, of which traces are yet visible on the tops of the walls (_e, e_) on each side of the main hall (Note 10). Inscriptions, bas-reliefs, paintings, such as we are accustomed to find everywhere in Egypt, are all wanting; and yet these bare walls produce as great an impression upon the spectator as the most richly decorated temples of Thebes. Not only grandeur but sublimity has been achieved in the mere juxtaposition of blocks of granite and alabaster, by means of purity of line and exactness of proportion. Some few scattered ruins in Nubia, the Fayum, and Sinai, do not suffice to prove whether the temples of the Twelfth Dynasty merited the praises lavished on them in contemporary inscriptions or not. Those of the Theban kings, of the Ptolemies, and of the Caesars which are yet standing are in some cases nearly perfect, while almost all are easy of restoration to those who conscientiously study them upon the spot. At first sight, they seem to present an infinite variety as to arrangement; but on a closer view they are found to conform to a single type. We will begin with the sanctuary. This is a low, small, obscure, rectangular chamber, inaccessible to all save Pharaoh and the priests. As a rule it contained neither statue nor emblem, but only the sacred bark, or a tabernacle of painted wood placed upon a pedestal. A niche in the wall, or an isolated shrine formed of a single block of stone, received on certain days the statue, or inanimate symbol of the local god, or the living animal, or the image of the animal, sacred to that god. A temple must necessarily contain this one chamber; and if it contained but this one chamber, it would be no less a temple than the most complex buildings. Very rarely, however, especially in large towns, was the service of the gods thus limited to the strictly necessary. Around the sanctuary, or "divine house," was grouped a series of chambers in which sacrificial and ceremonial objects were stored, as flowers, perfumes, stuffs, and precious vessels. In advance of this block of buildings were next built one or more halls supported on columns; and in advance of these came a courtyard, where the priests and devotees assembled. This courtyard was surrounded by a colonnade to which the public had access, and was entered through a gateway flanked by two towers, in front of which were placed statues, or obelisks; the whole being surrounded by an enclosure wall of brickwork, and approached through an avenue of sphinxes. Every Pharaoh was free to erect a hall still more sumptuous in front of those which his predecessors had built; and what he did, others might do after him. Thus, successive series of chambers and courts, of pylons and porticoes, were added reign after reign to the original nucleus; and--vanity or piety prompting the work--the temple continued to increase in every direction, till space or means had failed. [Illustration: Fig. 75.--South Temple of Amenhotep III. at Elephantine.] [Illustration: Fig. 76.--Plan of temple of Amenhotep III., at El Kab.] The most simple temples were sometimes the most beautiful. This was the case as regards the sanctuaries erected by Amenhotep III. in the island of Elephantine, which were figured by the members of the French expedition at the end of the last century, and destroyed by the Turkish governor of Asuan in 1822. The best preserved, namely, the south temple (fig. 75), consisted of but a single chamber of sandstone, 14 feet high, 31 feet wide, and 39 feet long. The walls, which were straight, and crowned with the usual cornice, rested on a platform of masonry some 8 feet above the ground. This platform was surrounded by a parapet wall, breast high. All around the temple ran a colonnade, the sides each consisting of seven square pillars, without capital or base, and the two facades, front and back, being supported by two columns with the lotus-bud capital. Both pillars and columns rose direct from the parapet; except on the east front, where a flight of ten or twelve steps, enclosed between two walls of the same height as the platform, led up to the _cella_. The two columns at the head of the steps were wider apart than those of the opposite face, and through the space thus opened was seen a richly-decorated door. A second door opened at the other end, beneath the portico. Later, in Roman times, this feature was utilised in altering the building. The inter-columnar space at the end was filled up, and thus was obtained a second hall, rough and bare, but useful for the purposes of the temple service. These Elephantine sanctuaries bring to mind the peripteral temples of the Greeks, and this resemblance to one of the most familiar forms of classical architecture explains perhaps the boundless admiration with which they were regarded by the French savants. Those of Mesheikh, of El Kab, and of Sharonah are somewhat more elaborate. The building at El Kab is in three divisions (fig. 76); first, a hall of four columns (A); next, a chamber (B) supported by four Hathor-headed pillars; and in the end wall, opposite the door, a niche (C), approached by four steps. Of these small oratories the most complete model now remaining belongs to the Ptolemaic period; namely, the temple of Hathor at Deir el Medineh (fig. 77). Its length is just double its breadth. The walls are built with a batter inclining inwards,[17] and are externally bare, save at the door, which is framed in a projecting border covered with finely-sculptured scenes. The interior is in three parts: A portico (B), supported by two lotus flower columns; a pronaos (C), reached by a flight of four steps, and separated from the portico by a wall which connects the two lotus flower columns with two Hathor-headed pilasters _in antis_; lastly, the sanctuary (D), flanked by two small chambers (E, E), which are lighted by square openings cut in the ceiling. The ascent to the terrace is by way of a staircase, very ingeniously placed in the south corner of the portico, and furnished with a beautiful open window (F). This is merely a temple in miniature; but the parts, though small, are so well proportioned that it would be impossible to conceive anything more delicate or graceful. [Illustration: Fig. 77.--Plan of temple of Hathor, Deir el Medineh.] [Illustration: Fig. 78.--Plan of temple of Khonsu, Karnak.] [Illustration: Fig. 79.--Pylon, with masts, from a bas-relief in the temple of Khonsu at Karnak.] [Illustration: Fig. 80.--The Ramesseum restored, to show the rising of the ground.] [Illustration: Fig. 81.--Crypts in the thickness of the walls, round the sanctuary at Denderah.] [Illustration: Fig. 82.--The pronaos of Edfu, as seen from the top of the eastern pylon.] We cannot say as much for the temple which the Pharaohs of the Twentieth Dynasty erected to the south of Karnak, in honour of the god Khonsu (fig. 78); but if the style is not irreproachable, the plan is nevertheless so clear, that one is tempted to accept it as the type of an Egyptian temple, in preference to others more elegant or majestic. On analysis, it resolves itself into two parts separated by a thick wall (A, A). In the centre of the lesser division is the Holy of Holies (B), open at both ends and isolated from the rest of the building by a surrounding passage (C) 10 feet in width. To the right and left of this sanctuary are small dark chambers (D, D), and behind it is a hall of four columns (E), from which open seven other chambers (F, F). Such was the house of the god, having no communication with the adjoining parts, except by two doors (G) in the southern wall (A, A). These opened into a wide and shallow hypostyle hall (H), divided into nave and aisles. The nave is supported by four lotus- flower columns, 23 feet in height; the aisles each contain two lotus-bud columns 18 feet high. The roof of the nave is, therefore, 5 feet higher than that of the sides. This elevation was made use of for lighting purposes, the clerestory being fitted with stone gratings, which admitted the daylight. The court (I) was square, and surrounded by a double colonnade entered by way of four side-gates and a great central gateway flanked by two quadrangular towers with sloping fronts. This pylon (K) measures 105 feet in length, 33 feet in width, and 60 feet in height. It contains no chambers, but only a narrow staircase, which leads to the top of the gate, and thence up to the towers. Four long grooves in the facade, reaching to a third of its height, correspond to four quadrangular openings cut through. the whole thickness of the masonry. Here were fixed four great wooden masts, formed of joined beams and held in place by a wooden framework fixed in the four openings above mentioned. From these masts floated long streamers of various colours (fig. 79). Such was the temple of Khonsu, and such, in their main features, were the majority of the greater temples of Theban and Ptolemaic times, as Luxor, the Ramesseum, Medinet Habu, Edfu, and Denderah. Though for the most part half in ruins, they affect one with a strange and disquieting sense of oppression. As mystery was a favourite attribute of the Egyptian gods, even so the plan of their temples is in such wise devised as to lead gradually from the full sunshine of the outer world to the obscurity of their retreats. At the entrance we find large open spaces, where air and light stream freely in. The hypostyle hall is pervaded by a sober twilight; the sanctuary is more than half lost in a vague darkness; and at the end of the building, in the farthest of the chambers, night all but reigns completely. The effect of distance which was produced by this gradual diminution of light, was still further heightened by various structural artifices. The parts, for instance, are not on the same level. The ground rises from the entrance (fig. 80), and there are always a few steps to mount in passing from one part to another. In the temple of Khonsu the difference of level is not more than 5-1/4 feet, but it is combined with a lowering of the roof, which in most cases is very strongly marked. From the pylon to the wall at the farther end, the height decreases continuously. The peristyle is loftier than the hypostyle hall, and the hypostyle hall is loftier than the sanctuary. The last hall of columns and the farthest chamber are lower and lower still. The architects of Ptolemaic times changed certain details of arrangement. They erected chapels and oratories on the terraced roofs, and reserved space for the construction of secret passages and crypts in the thickness of the walls, wherein to hide the treasure of the god (fig. 81). They, however, introduced only two important modifications of the original plan. The sanctuary was formerly entered by two opposite doors; they left but one. Also the colonnade, which was originally continued round the upper end of the court, or, where there was no court, along the facade of the temple, became now the pronaos, so forming an additional chamber. The columns of the outer row are retained, but built into a wall reaching to about half their height. This connecting wall is surmounted by a cornice, which thus forms a screen, and so prevented the outer throng from seeing what took place within (fig. 82). The pronaos is supported by two, three, or even four rows of columns, according to the size of the edifice. For the rest, it is useful to compare the plan of the temple of Edfu (fig. 83) with that of the temple of Khonsu, observing how little they differ the one from the other. [Illustration: Fig. 83.--Plan of temple, Edfu.] [Illustration: Fig. 84.--Plan of the temple of Karnak in the reign of Amenhotep III.] [Illustration: Fig. 85.--Plan of Hypostyle Hall, Karnak.] [Illustration: Fig. 86.--Plan of great temple, Luxor.] [Illustration: Fig. 87.--Plan of the Isle of Philae.] Thus designed, the building sufficed for all the needs of worship. If enlargement was needed, the sanctuary and surrounding chambers were generally left untouched, and only the ceremonial parts of the building, as the hypostyle halls, the courts, or pylons, were attacked. The procedure of the Egyptians under these circumstances is best illustrated by the history of the great temple of Karnak. Founded by Usertesen I., probably on the site of a still earlier temple, it was but a small building, constructed of limestone and sandstone, with granite doorways. The inside was decorated with sixteen-sided pillars. The second and third Amenemhats added some work to it, and the princes of the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Dynasties adorned it with statues and tables of offerings. It was still unaltered when, in the eighteenth century B.C., Thothmes I., enriched with booty of war, resolved to enlarge it. In advance of what already stood there, he erected two chambers, preceded by a court and flanked by two isolated chapels. In advance of these again, he erected three successive pylons, one behind the other. The whole presented the appearance of a vast rectangle placed crosswise at the end of another rectangle. Thothmes II. and Hatshepsut[18] covered the walls erected by their father with bas-relief sculptures, but added no more buildings. Hatshepsut, however, in order to bring in her obelisks between the pylons of Thothmes I., opened a breach in the south wall, and overthrew sixteen of the columns which stood in that spot. Thothmes III., probably finding certain parts of the structure unworthy of the god, rebuilt the first pylon, and also the double sanctuary, which he renewed in the red granite of Syene. To the eastward, he rebuilt some old chambers, the most important among them being the processional hall, used for the starting-point and halting-place of ceremonial processions, and these he surrounded with a stone wall. He also made the lake whereon the sacred boats were launched on festival days; and, with a sharp change of axis, he built two pylons facing towards the south, thus violating the true relative proportion which had till then subsisted between the body and the front of the general mass of the building. The outer enclosure was now too large for the earlier pylons, and did not properly accord with the later ones. Amenhotep III. corrected this defect. He erected a sixth and yet more massive pylon, which was, therefore, better suited for the facade. As it now stood (fig. 84), the temple surpassed even the boldest architectural enterprises hitherto attempted; but the Pharaohs of the Nineteenth Dynasty succeeded in achieving still more. They added only a hypostyle hall (fig. 85) and a pylon; but the hypostyle hall measured 170 feet in length by 329 feet in breadth. Down the centre they carried a main avenue of twelve columns, with lotus-flower capitals, being the loftiest ever erected in the interior of a building; while in the aisles, ranged in seven rows on either side, they planted 122 columns with lotus-bud capitals. The roof of the great nave rose to a height of 75 feet above the level of the ground, and the pylon stood some fifty feet higher still. During a whole century, three kings laboured to perfect this hypostyle hall. Rameses I. conceived the idea; Seti I. finished the bulk of the work, and Rameses II. wrought nearly the whole of the decoration. The Pharaohs of the next following dynasties vied with each other for such blank spaces as might be found, wherein to engrave their names upon the columns, and so to share the glory of the three founders; but farther they did not venture. Left thus, however, the monument was still incomplete. It still needed one last pylon and a colonnaded court. Nearly three centuries elapsed before the task was again taken in hand. At last the Bubastite kings decided to begin the colonnades, but their work was as feeble as their, resources were limited. Taharkah, the Ethiopian, imagined for a moment that he was capable of rivalling the great Theban Pharaohs, and planned a hypostyle hall even larger than the first; but he made a false start. The columns of the great nave, which were all that he had time to erect, were placed too wide apart to admit of being roofed over; so they never supported anything, but remained as memorials of his failure. Finally, the Ptolemies, faithful to the traditions of the native monarchy, threw themselves into the work; but their labours were interrupted by revolts at Thebes, and the earthquake of the year 27 B.C. destroyed part of the temple, so that the pylon remained for ever unfinished. The history of Karnak is identical with that of all the great Egyptian temples. When closely studied, the reason why they are for the most part so irregular becomes evident. The general plan is practically the same, and the progress of the building was carried forward in the same way; but the architects could not always foresee the future importance of their work, and the site was not always favourable to the development of the building. At Luxor (fig. 86), the progress went on methodically enough under Amenhotep III. and Seti I., but when Rameses II. desired to add to the work of his predecessors, a bend in the river compelled him to turn eastwards. His pylon is not parallel to that of Amenhotep III., and his colonnades make a distinct angle with the general axis of the earlier work. At Philae (fig. 87) the deviation is still greater. Not only is the larger pylon out of alignment with the smaller, but the two colonnades are not parallel with each other. Neither are they attached to the pylon with a due regard to symmetry. This arises neither from negligence nor wilfulness, as is popularly supposed. The first plan was as regular as the most symmetrically-minded designer could wish; but it became necessary to adapt it to the requirements of the site, and the architects were thenceforth chiefly concerned to make the best of the irregularities to which they were condemned by the configuration of the ground. Such difficulties were, in fact, a frequent source of inspiration; and Philae shows with what skill the Egyptians extracted every element of beauty and picturesqueness from enforced disorder. [Illustration: Fig. 88.--Plan of Speos, Kalaat Addah, Nubia.] [Illustration: Fig, 89.--Plan of Speos, Gebel Silsileh.] [Illustration: Fig. 90.--Plan of the Great Speos, Abu Simbel.] [Illustration: Fig. 91.--Speos of Hathor, Abu Simbel.] [Illustration: Fig. 92.--Plan of the upper portion of the temple of Deir el Bahari, showing the state of the excavations, the Speos of Hathor (A); the rock-cut sanctuary (B); the rock-cut funerary chapel of Thothmes I. (C); the Speos of Anubis (D); and the excavated niches of the northern colonnade. Reproduced from Plate III. of the _Archaeological Report of the Egypt Exploration Fund_ for 1893-4.] [Illustration: Fig. 93.--Plan of temple of Seti I., at Abydos.] The idea of the rock-cut temple must have occurred to the Egyptians at an early period. They carved the houses of the dead in the mountain side; why, therefore, should they not in like manner carve the houses of the gods? Yet the earliest known Speos-sanctuaries date from only the beginning of the Eighteenth Dynasty. They are generally found in those parts of the valley where the cultivable land is narrowest, as near Beni Hasan, at Gebel Silsileh, and in Nubia. All varieties of the constructed temple are found in the rock-cut temple, though more or less modified by local conditions. The Speos Artemidos is approached by a pillared portico, but contains only a square chamber with a niche at the end for the statue of the goddess Pakhet. At Kalaat Addah (fig. 88), a flat narrow facade (A) faces the river, and is reached by a steep flight of steps; next comes a hypostyle hall (B), flanked by two dark chambers (C), and lastly a sanctuary in two storeys, one above the other (D). The chapel of Horemheb (fig. 89), at Gebel Silsileh, is formed of a gallery parallel to the river (A), supported by four massive pillars left in the rock. From this gallery, the sanctuary chamber opens at right angles. At Abu Simbel, the two temples are excavated entirely in the cliff. The front of the great speos (fig. 90) imitates a sloping pylon crowned with a cornice, and guarded as usual by four seated colossi flanked by smaller statues. These colossi are sixty-six feet high. The doorway passed, there comes a first hall measuring 130 feet in length by 60 feet in width, which corresponds to the usual peristyle. Eight Osiride statues backed by as many square pillars, seem to bear the mountain on their heads. Beyond this come (1) a hypostyle hall; (2) a transverse gallery, isolating the sanctuary, and (3) the sanctuary itself, between two smaller chambers. Eight crypts, sunk at a somewhat lower level than that of the main excavation, are unequally distributed to right and left of the peristyle. The whole excavation measures 180 feet from the doorway to the end of the sanctuary. The small speos of Hathor, about a hundred paces to the northward, is of smaller dimensions. The facade is adorned with six standing colossi, four representing Rameses II., and two his wife, Nefertari. The peristyle and the crypts are lacking (fig. 91), and the small chambers are placed at either end of the transverse passage, instead of being parallel with the sanctuary. The hypostyle hall, however, is supported by six Hathor-headed pillars. Where space permitted, the rock- cut temple was but partly excavated in the cliff, the forepart being constructed outside with blocks cut and dressed, and becoming half grotto, half building. In the hemi-speos at Derr, the peristyle is external to the cliff; at Beit el Wally, the pylon and court are built; at Gerf Husein and Wady Sabuah, pylon, court, and hypostyle hall are all outside the mountain, The most celebrated and original hemi-speos is that built by Queen Hatshepsut, at Deir el Bahari, in the Theban necropolis (fig. 92),[19] The sanctuary and chapels which, as usual, accompany it, were cut about 100 ft. above the level of the valley. In order to arrive at that height, slopes were made and terraces laid out according to a plan which was not understood until the site was thoroughly excavated. Between the hemi-speos and the isolated temple, the Egyptians created yet another variety, namely, the built temple backed by, but not carried into, the cliff. The temple of the sphinx at Gizeh, and the temple of Seti I. at Abydos, may be cited as two good examples. I have already described the former; the area of the latter (fig. 93) was cleared in a narrow and shallow belt of sand, which here divides the plain from