Page:A History of Art in Ancient Egypt Vol 1.djvu/424

 334 A History of Art in Ancient EcvrT. in working the excellent materials provided for them by nature. The architect could, if he had chosen, have multiplied to infinity those stone supports which his distant predecessors had employed, apparently with some inkling of their future possibilities. The obelisk set up by Ousourtesen at Heliopolis, proves that the cutting and polishing of those monoliths was understood in his time, 'and as the obelisk seems always to have been closely combined with the pylon, it is not improbable that the religious edifices of the time of Ousourtesen were prefaced by those huge pyramidoid masses. The hypostyle halls, the pylons, and the obelisks of the New Empire differed from those of the Middle Empire rather in their extent and in the mao-nificence of their decoration, than in their o-eneral arranofement. Of all the temples then constructed, the only one which has left any apparent traces is that which was erected at Thebes by the princes of the twelfth dynasty to the honour of Amen, It forms the central nucleus around which the later buildings of Karnak have been erected. The name of Ousourtesen is to be read upon the remains of the polygonal columns which mark, it is believed, the site of the sanctuary properly speaking, between the granite chambers and the buildings of Thothmes III. ; these columns, like those at Beni-Hassan, are hexagonal in section.^ Of many other buildings erected at this period, nothing is left to us beyond tradition and the mere mention of them in various texts. This, however, is sufficient to prove their existence. We shall choose examples of them from the two extremities of Egypt. Nothing has been found of that great tem[)le at Heliopolis which all the Greek travellers visited and described, but we know that a part, at least, of its buildings dated from the time of the first Theban empire, because a MS. at Berlin, published by Herr Ludwig Stern in 1873, narrates the dedication of a chapel by Ousourtesen. It is probable that the obelisk was in the portion then built and consecrated to the god Ra. At Semneh, in Nubia, the fortress on the left bank of the river contains a temple of Thothmes HI., which, according to the pictures and inscriptions which cover its walls, is no more than a ^ The little that now remains of the columns and foundations of the ancient temple is marked in the plan which forms plate 6 of Mariette's Karnak, Fig. a. In plate 8 the remains of all statues and inscriptions which date from the same period are figured. See also pages ^(y, 37, and 41-45 of the text.