Page:A History of Art in Ancient Egypt Vol 2.djvu/189

 The Illumination of the Temples. i6^ buildings, which, being closely shut against the laity, could not be illuminated from windows in their side walls. Palaces and private houses could have their windows as lar^e and as numerous as they chose, but the temple could only be lighted from the roof, or at least from parts contiguous to the roof. The hypostyle hall at Karnak, with its lofty walls and close ranges of columns, would have been in almost complete darkness had it been left to depend for light upon its doors alone. But the difterence of height between the central aisle and those to the right and left of it. was taken advantage of to introduce the light required for the proper display of its magnificent decorations. '■     ! -■ ! Fig. 156. — Ciausira of the Hypostyle Hall, Karnak. Discriptiort, iii. 2^ The wall which filled up the space between the lower and upper sections of roof, forming something almost identical with the clerestory of a Gothic cathedral, was constructed of upright sand- stone slabs, about sixteen feet high, which were pierced with numerous perpendicular slits. Stone gratings, or claustra as the Romans would have called them, were thus formed, through which the sunlight could stream into the interior. The slits were about ten inches wide and six feet high. The illustration on page 163 shows how the slabs were arranged and explains, moreover, the general disposition of the roof Fig. 156 gives the claustra in detail, in elevation, in plan, and in perspective.
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