Page:A History of Art in Ancient Egypt Vol 1.djvu/438

 34^ A History of Art in Ancient Egypt. the elements of an Egyptian temple of this period will be readily perceived if we begin our researches with one which is at once well preserved, simple in its arrangements, and without those successive additions which do so much to complicate a plan. Of all the ruins at Thebes the Temple of K/ions, which stands to the south-west of the great temple at Karnak, is that which most completely fulfils these conditions.^ Time has not treated it very badly, and, although the painted decoration may be the work of several successive princes, we are inclined to believe from the simplicity of the plan that most of the architectural part of the work was begun and completed by Rameses III. The advanced pylon, or propylon, which stands some forty metres in front of the whole building and was erected by Ptolemy Euergetes, may be omitted from our examination. The really ancient part of the structure begins with the rows of sphinxes which border the road behind the propylon. They lead up to a pylon of much more modest dimensions than that of Ptolemy. In front of this pylon there is no trace of either obelisks or colossal figures. As the whole temple is no more than about 233 feet long and 67 feet wide, it may not have been thought worthy of such ornaments, or perhaps their small size may have led to their removal. In any case, Strabo appears to have seen religious edifices in front of which there were neither obelisks nor the statues of royal founders. Immediately behind this pylon lay a rectangular court sur- rounded by a portico of two rows of columns standing in front of a solid wall. In this wall and in the columns in front of it we recognise the wings of which Strabo speaks ; the two walls of the smne height as those of the temple, zvhich are prolonged in fi'ont of the pronaos. There is but one difficulty. Strabo says that the space between these walls diminishes as they approach the sanctuary.^ His court must therefore have been a trapezium with its smallest side opposite to the pylon, rather than a rectangle. We have searched in vain for such a form among the plans of those pharaonic 1 This is the temple which the members of the Egyptian institute call the Great Southern Temple. In the background of our illustration (Fig. 208) the hypostyle hall and the southern pylons of the Great Temple are seen. " Toi) Se Trpoi'dov Trap' eKarepov TrpoKeirai to, Xeyofxeva Trrepa- ecm oe ravra Irrovij/r] tw vacp Tei^T] 8vo, Kar dp^^a? jxkv a(f>€crTWTa dir' dXXr^Xwv [xiKpov irXeov, 7] to 7ruT0<; ecrrt t^s Kpr^TTtSos Tov v€(s), €7r€tT' €ts TO TTpocrOev TTpoLovTi KOT eTTtvcuouo'as ypa/A/Atts fJ-^XP'- '^''IX'^^ irevTTjKovTa -q k^Kovra. — SxRADO, xvii, i, 28.