Page:A History of Art in Ancient Egypt Vol 1.djvu/521

 The Temple under the New Empire. 425 decorative detail a little conjecture may perhaps be allowed.^ As for the portico which ornamented the further side of the second court, its remains were visible even before the excavations of Mariette.- Those excavations have since 1858 led to the discovery of the porticos of the third court. There seems to have been only a plain wall on the left of this court, while on the right there was a long colonnade which masked a number of chambers cut in the rock which rose immediately behind it. Facing the entrance to the court there was also a colonnade which was cut in two by the steps leading to the fourth and highest terrace. In the middle of this terrace a fine doorway leading to the principal speos was raised. While all the rest of the temple was of limestone, this doorway was built of fine red granite, a distinc- tion which is to be explained by its central situation, facing the gateway in the pylon though far above it, and forming the culminating point of the long succession of terraces and inclined planes. The attention of the visitor to the temple would be instantly seized by the beauty and commanding position of this doorway, which, moreover, by its broad and mysterious shadows, suggested the secos hidden in the flanks of the mountains, to which all the courts were but the prelude. These terraced courts have surprised all visitors to the cenotaph of Hatasu. " No one will deny," says Mariette, " that the temple of Dayr-el-Bahari is a strange construction, and that it resembles an Egyptian temple as little as possible !" ^ Some have thought ^ The same idea caused M. Brune to place sphinxes upon the steps between the courts ; he thought that some small heaps of debris at the ends of the steps indicated their situation ; but M. Maspero, who recently investigated the matter, informs us that he found no trace of any such sphinxes. - We must refer those who wish to study the remains of this temple in detail to the vork devoted to it by M. Maiiette. The plan which forms plate i in the said w^ork was draw^n, in 1866, by an architect, M. Brune, who is now a professor at the Ecole des Beaux Arts. M. Brune succeeded, by intelligent and conscientious examination of all the remains, in obtaining the materials for a restoration which gave us for the first time some idea of what this interesting monument must have been in the great days of Egypt. Plate 2 contains a restored plan ; plate 3 a view in perspective of the three highest terraces and of the hill which forms their support. We have attempted to give an idea of the building as a whole. Our view- is taken from a more distant point than that of M. Brune, but except in some of the less important details, it does not greatly differ from his. ^ Mariette, Dayr-el-Bahari^ letterpress, p. 10. VOL. L 31