Page:A History of Art in Ancient Egypt Vol 1.djvu/496

 400 A History of Art in Ancient Egypt. the human mind turn in a narrower circle than in architecture. The purpose of the building on the one hand, and the qualities of the material on the other, exercise a great influence upon form. But the purposes for which important buildings are erected are very few, neither are the materials at the command of the architect very many. The possible combinations are therefore far from numerous. Take two races placed in conditions of climate and civilization which may fairly be called analogous ; put the same materials in the hands of their architects and jjive them the same programme to carry out ; is it not almost certain that they would produce works with many features in common, and that without any knowledge of each other's work ? From this point of view only, as it seems to us, should the type of building just described be regarded. If the temple at Elephantine had possessed no other interest but that belonging to it as an example of Egyptian temple building, we might have omitted all mention of it, or at least devoted but a few words to it. And yet such types are scarce. The French explorers found a second temple of the same class not far from the first ; now, however, it exists only in their drawings.^ A third has been discovered In Nubia, which must resemble the two at Elephantine very strongly ; we mean the temple constructed by Thothmes III. on the left bank of the river, at Semneh. Although It has suffered greatly, traces of a portico are to be found about the cella, and it has been ascertained that this portico consisted both of square piers and columns.^ Finally, at El-kab (Elllthya), In Upper Egypt, there is a temple constructed upon the same plan ; it differs from that at Elephantine in having only two circular columns, those upon the facade ; all the rest of the peristyle consists of square piers. '^ The oldest part of the temple built by Thothmes II. and Thothmes III. at Medinet- Abou presents an analogous arrangement. The sanctuary is there surrounded on three sides by a portico of square piers (Fig. 222). There is nothing to forbid the supposition that these temples were once much more numerous in the valley of the Nile, but it ^ la tlie Description de I'Egypie it is called T/ie NortJicrn Temple (see vol. i. pi. 38, Figs. 2 and 3). The only difference noted by Jomard was in the ornamentation of the capitals. ^ Lepsius Denkmceler^ part i. pi. 113. ■^ Description, Antiqiiites, vol. i. pi. 71, Figs, i, 2, 3, 4 ; letterpress, vol. i. ch. vi. This temple is 50 feet long, 31 wide, and 15 feet 8 inches high.