Page:A history of architecture on the comparative method for the student, craftsman, and amateur.djvu/78

 20 COMPARATIVE ARCHITl-XTUKE. period, the slaughtering of sacrificial animals, and Thy himself sailing through the marshes in a boat with a surrounding papyrus thicket. (b.) In the Middle Empire tombs were either of the Pyramidal form, as at Abydos, or were rock-cut, as in the vertical cliffs bounding the Nile valley (No. 6). The Tombs at Beni-Has^n, in Upper Egypt, form a remark- able group of these rock-cut examples. There are 39 in all, arranged in a row in the rocks as shown (No. 6). They were made during the twelfth dynasty (b.c. 2778-2565), a period which was particularly remarkable for the progress of the arts of peace. The entrance to the Tomb of Khnemhotep, known as Tomb No. 3, has two sixteen-sided columns, sometimes considered to be a prototype of the Greek Doric order. These are slightly fluted and have an entasis, and the deeply projecting cornice has stone beams carved out of the solid rock, indicating a derivation from a wooden origin. (c.) During the New Empire tombs were rock-cut and structural, and in many cases accompanied by sepulchral temples. Thebes, which for a time was the necropolis of the Egyptian kings, has a large number of tombs dating mostly from the New Empire, and forming a contrast to the pyramids which formed the graves of the earlier kings. These tombs consist of a series of chambers connected with passages hewn in the rock, and were intended only for the reception of the sarcophagi. Amongst the most important of these are those of Rameses III., IV., and IX., and that of Sethos I., usually known as Belzoni's tomb from its discoverer in 181 7. The structure of all is very similar, consist- ing of three corridors cut in the rock leading into an ante-room, beyond which is the sepulchral chamber, where the granite sarcophagus was placed in a hollow in the floor. The walls, from the entrance to the sarcophagus chamber, were sculptured with hieroglyphics of pictures and texts necessary to the deceased in the future life, and mostly representing him sailing through the under-world accompanied by the sun god. The texts were mostly taken from various books relating to the ceremonies which were essential for insuring the immortality of the departed. The mortuary or sepulchral temples, such as those of Der-el- bahri, Medinet-Habou, the Ramesseum, and others, were utilized for offerings and other funereal rights for the dead. TEMPLES. The purposes for which they were used and their component parts are important. They were sanctuaries where only the king and priests penetrated, and in which mysteries and processions formed a great part of the religious serxices. They differ.