Page:A History of Art in Ancient Egypt Vol 1.djvu/437

 The Temple under the New Empire. 347 as the hypostyle hall at Karnak, and added to it over and over again, giving rise to interesting changes in the proportion, arranofement and decoration. One of the most intelligent of the ancient travellers, namely, Strabo, attempted the work of discrimination which it is now our duty to undertake. He wrote for people accustomed to the clear and simple arrangements of the Greek temple, and he attempted to give them some idea of the Egyptian temple, such as he found it in that Heliopolis whose buildings made such an impression upon all the Greeks who saw them.^ His description is, perhaps, rather superficial. It says nothing of some accessory parts which were by no means without their importance, and those details which most strongly attracted the author's attention are not mentioned in their natural order, w^hich would seem to be that in which the visitor from without would meet them in his course from the main door to the sanctuary. But Strabo had one great advantage over a modern writer. He saw all these great buildings in their entirety, and could follow their arrangement with an easy certainty which is impossible in our day, when so many of them present nothing but a confused mass of ruins, and some indeed, such as the temple at Luxor, are partly hidden by modern ruins. We shall, then, take Strabo for our guide, but we shall endeavour to give our descriptions in better sequence than his, and to fill up some of the gaps in his account by the study of those remains which are in the best state of preservation. In our descriptions we shall advance from simple buildings to those which are more complex. We should soon lose the thread of our argument if we were to begin by attacking temples which are at once so complicated and so muti- lated as those of Karnak and Luxor. The character of each of statue of Rameses which still lies there upon its face — must have rivalled Karnak in extent and in the number of its successive additions. According to Diodorus (i. 50) it was Moeris (Amenemhat III.) who built the southern propylons of this temple, which, according to the same authority, surpassed all their rivals in mag- nificence. At a much later period, Sesostris (a Rameses) erected several colossal monoliths, from 20 to 30 cubits high, in front of the same temjjle (Diodorus, cap. Ivii. ; Herodotus, ii. 140) ; at the same time he must have raised obelisks and constructed courts and pylons. Herodotus attributes to two other kings, whom he names Rhampsinite and Asychis, the construction of two more pylons on the eastern and western sides of the temple (ii. 121 and 136). Finally Psemethek I. built the southern propylons and the pavilion where the Apis was nursed after his first discovery. Herodotus, ii. 153.) I. Strabo, xvii, i, 28.