Page:An Elementary History of Art.djvu/42

 12 Egyptian Architecture. shrine. Towering pyramidal facades, called pylons, with their mighty cornices (Fig. 5), give an imposing appearance to the entrance ; but with this exception the temples were designed almost entirely for internal effect. They were shut in by enclosing walls, and the severe and heavy architecture can have been seen only by those admitted within the IM I I Fig. 5. — Pylon (Entrance-gate) of an Egyptian Temple. sacred precinct. Here no window -openings, no fanciful grouping of columns, break the monotony of the desolate courts, which are covered, as with a tapestry, with mystic many-coloured hieroglyphics (sacred sculptures) and repre- sentations of gods and rulers. A double row of sphinxes, or of ram-headed colossi, often leads up to the entrance,