Page:A History of Art in Ancient Egypt Vol 1.djvu/420

 330 A History of Art in Ancient Egypt. But I could see no opening in that part of the wall which faced the pyramid. " The general symmetry of the arrangement, however, suffices to prove the connection between the two buildings. " After havine studied the construction and the materials of the Theban edifices, I was astonished by the size of the stones here made use of, and the care with which they were fixed. The walls are 6 feet 9 inches thick ; a thickness which is determined by that of the stones employed. Their length varies from 12 to 23 feet. At first I took these blocks for the face of the rock itself, elaborately worked and dressed, and I might not have discovered my mistake but for the cemented joints between the courses. " The eastward prolongation or annexe is formed of two huge walls, which are not less than 13 feet 4 inches thick. It may well be asked why such walls should have been constructed, seeing that had they been of only half the thickness they would have been quite as durable and solid. " This building forms, as it were, the continuation of an enclined plane or causeway laid out at right angles to the base line of the third pyramid, and leading up to it." ^ Jomard appears to have found no traces of pillars in any part of the edifice ; but Belzoni, whose description is, however, both short and confused, seems to have found them in the temple of the second pyramid. He speaks oi "d. portico, and he adds that some of its blocks were 24 feet high," or about the same height as the monoliths in the Temple of the Sphinx. Such blocks would, of course, be the first to be carried off and used elsewhere. In spite of this difference many of the peculiar arrangements of the sphinx temple are repeated in these buildings. There is the same squareness of plan, the same multiplicity of internal chambers, the same employment of huge masses of stone and the same care and skill in dressing and fixing them. It is now impossible to say whether these buildings, when complete, were decorated or not ; it is certain that at the present day no sign of any ornamentation, either carved or painted, is to be found upon them. We see, then, that the religious architecture of the early empire is represented by a very small number of monuments, ot which ' Description de T Egypte, Ant., vol. v. p. 654. - Belzoni, Narrative of tJie Operafio7is, ect. pp. 261-2.