Page:A History of Art in Ancient Egypt Vol 1.djvu/477

 The Temple under the New Empire. 381 abutting on each other, numbering from ten to twelve in each range, and surmounted by a platform. If it be true that a library was included in the building, these curious structures, which are situated within the outer bounding wall of the temple, may have contained rooms for lodging and instructing students, as well as chambers for the priests. In that case Rameses would deserve the credit of having founded, like the Mussulman sovereigns, a n^t'dress^, or sort of university, by the side of his tu7'dch and mosque. Additional probability is given to this conjecture both by certain discoveries which have been made in tombs near the Ramesseum and by the evidence of several papyri.^ But for these texts we should be inclined to believe that these remains are the ruins of storehouses. About a thousand yards south-west of the Ramesseum rises the group of build- ings which is known by the name of the modern villaafe of Medinet-Abou, It was not until the second half of the present century had commenced that they were cleared from the debris and modern huts which concealed many of their parts. The group is composed of three distinct building's in one enclosure. The oldest is a temple built by Thothmes II. and Thothmes III, and afterwards enlarged by the Ptolemies and the Roman Emperors (A on plan). The other two date from the time of Rameses III., the founder of the twentieth dynasty. They both lie upon the same axis, they are connected by a sphinx avenue, and they must certainly be considered as two parts of one whole. The first of the three which we encounter in approaching the group from the river is known as the Royal Pavilion or Pavilion of Rameses III. (B). Ninety yards farther to the north we come upon the great temple, the funerary character of which we have already explained (C). It is a second Ramessewn, and to avoid ' Ebers, yEg}'pfen, vol. ii. p. 312. Fig. 221. — General plan of the buildings at Medinet-Abou.