Page:A history of architecture on the comparative method for the student, craftsman, and amateur.djvu/85

 EGYPTIAN ARCHITECTURE. 27 the roof over this hall, beyond which was a smaller hypostyle hall, the roof of which was carried by twelve columns, having rich floral capitals, embellished by so-called heads of Hathor. Behind this were vestibules, smaller chambers, and the sanctuary. OBELISKS are monumental pillars, originally employed in pairs before the principal entrances of temples. They are monoliths, i.e., single upright stones, square on plan with slightly rounded faces, and tapering sides, with a pyramidal summit. The height is usually about nine to ten times as great as the diameter, and the four faces were cut with hieroglyphics. The capping was of metal, for the groove into which it was fitted is in some cases still visible. The quarrying and transport of such a mass of stone without the power of a steam-engine was an engineering feat of considerable skill. Many obelisks were removed from Egypt by the Roman emperors, and at least twelve are in Rome itself. That in the centre of the Piazza of S. John Lateran is the largest in existence. It is of red granite from Syene, and is 104 feet high, or with the pedestal 153 feet, 9 feet square at the base, 6 feet 2 inches at the top, and altogether weighs about 600 tons. Cleopatra's Needle on the Thames Embankment, another example, brought to London from Alexandria, although originally erected at Heliopolis (b.c. 1500), is 68 feet 6 inches high, 8 feet square at the base, and weighs 180 tons. DWELLINGS. All these have disappeared, being only built of wood or of sun-dried bricks. Houses are shown on paintings and sculptures which have come down to us, from which they appear to have had one, two, or three stories. In the absence of any authentic remains, an illustration of the Egyptian House is given (No. 9), conjecturally restored, and erected at the Paris Exhibition, 1889, by M. Charles Garnier. The design was founded on an ancient painting, and had a garden in front, laid out in a formal style, with fish-ponds. The house was divided by a corridor in the centre, giving access to the rooms. The staircase at the back led to a verandah, and also to a flat roof, extending over the whole length of the structure. The whole building was treated with color, the upper part of the house being painted a bright yellow, and the long external wooden columns blue.