Page:A History of Art in Ancient Egypt Vol 1.djvu/431

 The Temple under the New Empire. 341 common consent been na.med py/o7is. They seem to have been in great favour with the architects of Egypt, who succeeded by their means in rendering their buildings still more original than they would have been without them.^ The pylon is composed of three parts intimately allied one with another ; a tall rectangular doorway is flanked on either hand by a pyramidal mass rising high above its crown. Both portal and towers terminate above in that hollow gorge which forms the cornice of nearly all Egyptian buildings. Each angle of the towers is accentuated by a cylindrical moulding, which adds to the firmness of its outlines. This moulding bounds all the flat surfaces of the pylon, which are, moreover, covered with bas-reliefs and paintings. It serves as a frame for all this decoration, which it cuts off from the cornice and from the uneven line which marks the junction of the sloping walls with the sandy soil. From the base of the pylon spring those vertical masts from whose summits many coloured streamers flutter in the sun.- In consequence of the inclina- tion of the walls, these masts, being themselves perpendicular, were some distance from the face of the pylon at its upper part. Brackets of wood were therefore contrived, through which the masts passed and by which their upright position was preserved ; without some such support they would either have been liable to be blown down in a high wind, or would have had to follow the inclination of the wall to which they were attached, which would have been an ' The word ttuAwv strictly means the place before the door (like Ovpm), or rather great door (upon the augmentative force of the suffix wv, wros, see Ad. Regnier, Traite de la Forinatioji des Mots dans la Laiigue Grecque, § 184). Several passages in PoLYBius {Thesaurus^ s. v.) show that in the military language of his time the term was employed to signify a fortified doorway with its flanking towers and other defences. We may therefore understand why Diodorus (i. 47) made use of it in his description of the so-called tomb of Osymandias. Strabo (xvii. i, 28) preferred to use the word irpoirvXixiv. Modern usage has restricted the word propylajim to Greek buildings, and/j7f« to the great doorways which form one of the most striking features of Egyptian architecture. '■^ We learn the part played by these masts and banners in Egyptian decoration entirely from the representations in the bas-reliefs. The facade of the temple of Khons is illustrated in one of the bas-reliefs upon the same building. That relief was reproduced in the Description de PEgypte (vol. iii. pi. 57, Fig. 9), and is so well known that we refrained from giving it in these pages. It shows the masts and banners in all their details. Another representation of the same kind will be found in Cailliaud,j Voyage a Meroe, plates, vol. ii. pi. 64, Fig. i. See in the text, vol. iii. p. 298. It is taken from a rock-cut tomb between Dayr-el-Medinet and Medinet-Abou.