Page:A History of Art in Ancient Egypt Vol 1.djvu/480

 384 A History of Art in Ancient Egypt. ing. Ranges of apartments are introduced between it and the external walls of the temple. Was there a sanctuary behind this hypostyle.hall ? It would seem rather, according to the recent investigations of Mariette, that upon the major axis of the temple there were two small halls, each supported by eight columns, like those in the Ramesseum ; around these many small chambers would be grouped in the fashion which is almost universal in this part of an Egyptian religfious buildincr. The little that can be discovered as to this point has its importance in establishing a comparison between the temple of Rameses II. and that of Rameses III., because it might prove that the similarity, which we have mentioned as existing between the more public parts of the two edifices, extended to the sanctuary and its dependencies in the rear. The last of the great Theban Pharaohs certainly drew much of his inspiration from the work of his illustrious predecessors. In their present state of mutilation it is impossible to decide which was the finer of the two in their complete state. To the fine hypostyle hall of the Ramesseum, Medinet-Abou could oppose the Royal Pavilion which rose in front of the temple and grouped itself so happily with the first pylon, affording one of the most effective compositions in the whole range of Egyptian architecture. The rest of the temples in this neighbourhood and within the enclosures at Karnak are all more or less intimately allied to the type we have established, and need not be noticed in detail.^ We have good reason to believe that the type of temple which we have described was a common one in other parts of Egypt than Thebes. The temples of Memphis, of Heliopolis and of the Delta cities, have perished and, practically, left no trace behind ; but the great buildings constructed by the Theban con- querors outside the limits of Egypt proper, in Nubia, are in comparatively good preservation. One of these, the Temple of Soleb, built by Thothmes III. and reconstructed by Amen- ophis III., must have borne a strong resemblance to the Ramesseum, so far as can be judged through the discrepan- cies in the available plans of the first-nanied building. Cailliaud only allows it one peristylar court, while Hoskins and Lepsius 1 A few of these buildings — that, for instance, on the right of the great lake — seem to have been very peculiar in arrangement, but their remains are in such a state of confusion that it is at present impossible to describe their plans.