Page:A History of Art in Ancient Egypt Vol 1.djvu/432

 342 A History of Art in Ancient Egypt. unsightly arrangement. The interiors of the pylons were partly hollow ; they inclosed small chambers to which access was obtained by narrow staircases winding round a central square newel. The object of these chambers seems to have been merely to facilitate the manoeuvring of the masts and their floating banners, because when the latter were in place, the small openings which gave light to the chambers were entirely obscured. If the pylons had been intended for defensive purposes, the doors in their centres would have been kept in rear of the flanking towers, as in more modern fortifications. But instead of that being the case they are slightly salient, which proves conclusively that their object was purely decorative. The pylon which we have taken as a type of such erections, is one of those which inclose a doorway opening in the centre of one of the sides of the brick inclosure, it may be called an external pylon, or a pi^o-pylon, to make use of the word proposed by M. Ampere, but in all temples of any importance several pylons have to be passed before the sanctuary is reached. At Karnak, for instance, in approaching the great temple from the temple of Mouth, the visitor passes under four pylons, only one of which, the most southern, is connected with the inclosing wall. So, too, on the west. After passing the pylon in the outer wall, another has to be passed before the hypostyle hall is reached, and a third immediately afterwards. Then, behind the narrow court which seems to cut the great mass of buildings into two almost equal parts, there are three more at very slight intervals. Thus M. Mariette counts six pylons, progressively diminishing in size, which lie in the way of the visitor entering Karnak by the west and passing to the east. At Luxor there are three. A glance at our general view of the buildings of Karnak will give a good idea of the various uses to which the Egyptian archi- tect put the pylon. ^ There is the pro-pylon ; there are those pylons which, when connected with curtain walls, separate one courtyard from another ; there are those again, which, placed immediately in front of the hypostyle halls, form the fa9ades of the temples properly speaking. The temple is always con- ' This plate (iv.) is not a picturesque restoration ; it is merely a map in relief. Only those buildings are marked upon it which have left easily traceable remains. No attempt has been made to reconstruct by conjecture any of those edifices which are at present nothing but confused heaps of debris.