Page:A History of Art in Ancient Egypt Vol 1.djvu/478

 ;82 A History of Art in Ancient Egypt. confusion it is generally known as the Great Temple of Medinct-Abou. We shall return to the Royal Pavilion presently, and, as for the Temple of Thothmes, which was consecrated to Amen, its really ancient portion is of too little importance to detain us long. It consists merely of an isolated secos surrounded on three sides by an open gallery upheld by square piers and, upon the fourth, by a block containing six small chambers (Fig. 222). The great temple, however, whose picturesque ruins attract every visitor to Thebes, deserves to be carefully considered even in our summary review.^ It bears a strik- inor resemblance to the Rames- seum. Their dimensions are nearly the same. The first pylon at Medinet-Abou is 210 feet wide. The two courts which follow and isolate the second pylon are severally 113 feet by 140, and 126 feet by 136. The plan of Me- dinet-Abou does not differ (223) in any very important points from n [7 that of the Ramesseum. Upon idZ^Zini ^^ ^ ^ two of its sides only, those which are at right angles to the face of the pylon, the first quadrangle has colonnades. One of these colonnades, that on the right of a visitor entering the temple, consists of a row of pillars faced with caryatides of Osiris. These Osiride piers are repeated in the second court, where a double colonnade, five steps above the pavement, leads to the pronaos. The latter seems too small for the two peristyles. It has only twenty-four supporting columns, in four rows of six each, counting 1 The plan in the Description de P Egvpte {Aniiqiiiles, vol. ii. pi. 4) does not go beyond the back wall of the second court. That of Lepsius goes to the back of the hypostyle hall. {Deiiii/jicBkr, part. i. pi. 92.) Ours is much more comprehensive — it goes three stages farther back ; it was communicated to us by M. Brune, who measured the building in 1866. ^;Mix :?.u ■ D I '-:^?;ii!wy>v'&^ n h — fr ^■^ =0 0= Fig. 222. — Plan of the Temple of Thothmes (Champollion, Notices descripiives, p. 314.)