Page:An Elementary History of Art.djvu/41

 Egyptian Architecture. 11 square ; the second was 450 ft. high, with a base 707 ft. square ; and the third was much smaller, being only 218 ft. high by 354 ft. square. The workmanship of the masonry in the Great Pyramid and the great skill with which the chambers and galleries that it contains were constructed, have excited the admiration and wonder of all skilled observers. Extensive private sepulchres, more or less deeply excavated in the rock, are connected with the pyramids. The fine obelisk of Osortasen I. at Heliopolis is a monument of the second golden age of the old empire, which commenced rather more than two thousand years before the Christian era. It is a simple memorial column, cut with geometrical precision from a single stone, with a square base, gradually tapering sides, and a pyramidal or pointed top. To the same period is also ascribed the formation of the rock-cut tombs at Beni-hassan, in Middle Egypt, remarkable for their pillars which closely resemble Greek Doric columns. About 2000 b.c. Egypt was invaded by an Asiatic people called the Shepherd-Kings, who drove the rulers of the land into Upper Egypt, and reduced the people to sub- jection. It was not until 1400 B.C. that the intruders were expelled, after which commenced the era of the " New Empire," with Thebes for its capital. In the period included between 1600 b.c. and 1300 B.C., Egypt reached the zenith of her greatness, and Egyptian architecture its fullest development. It was the golden age of art — the age of the construction of the great temples. The Egyptian temples, like the Indian, consist of a cluster of different parts enclosing a small sacred centre or