Page:A history of architecture on the comparative method for the student, craftsman, and amateur.djvu/82

 24 COMPARATIVE ARCHITECTURE. The Great Temple of Ammon, Karnac, is the grandest, extending oxer an area of 1,200 feet by 360 feet, and originally was connected with the Temple of Luxor by an avenue of sphinxes. It was not built on an original plan, but owes its size, disposition and magnificence to the additions of many later kings, from the first monarchs of the twelfth dynasty down to the Ptolemaic period. It has six pylons added in successive genera- tions, a great court measuring 338 feet by 275 feet, the great hypostyle hall, and other halls, courts and a sanctuary. The Hypostyle hall measures 338 feet by 170 feet, covering about the same area as Notre Dame, Paris. The roof is supported by 134 columns in sixteen rows. The central avenues are about So feet in height as compared with 140 feet at Amiens Cathedral, and have columns 69 feet high and iif feet in diameter, the capitals of which are of the lotus blossom type (No. 10 l) so as to receive the light from the clerestory. The side avenues are about 46 feet high and have columns 42 feet 6 inches in height and 9 feet in diameter, the capitals being of the lotus bud type, on which the clerestory light would fall. The impression pro- duced on the spectator by the forest of columns is most awe- inspiring, and the eye is led from the smaller columns of the side avenues, which gradually vanish into semi-darkness, giving an idea of unlimited size, to the larger columns of the central avenues lighted by the clerestory, which is formed in the differ- ence of height between the central and side avenues, a form of lighting more fully developed in the Gothic period. The walls of the hall, the column shafts, and the architraves are covered with incised inscriptions, still retaining their original colored decora- tions relating to the gods and personages concerned in the erection of the structure. The Temple of Sethos I., Abydos, was dedicated to Osiris and other deities of Abydos. It was built by Sethos I. (b.c. 1366-1333), and completed by Rameses II. (b.c. 1333-1300). The walls are of fine grained limestone, and the reliefs on them are among the finest Egyptian sculptures. In common with other temples it has pylons, a first and second fore-court and two hypostyle halls, but instead of one sanctuary it has seven arranged side by side, dedicated to six deities and a deified king; hence the front of this temple was divided into seven parts, each with its separate gateway and portal. The seven sanctuaries are each roofed by means of horizontal courses, every course project- ing beyond that immediately below, and the undersides afterwards rounded off in the form of a vault by the chisel. It further differs from others in having a wing at right angles to the main structure in consecjuence of a hill immediately behind the temple. The Great Temple of Abu-Simbel, built by Rameses II. (b.c 1333-1300), is one of the most stupendous creations of