Page:An Elementary History of Art.djvu/45

 Egyptian Architecture. 15 and its capital {top), springing from the necking of the shaft and banded together with it, is supposed to resemble a lotus bud : above the capital is laid the abacus (a level tablet or shallow block), supporting the entablature (the horizontal beams and cornice). Many columns have capitals representing fully-opened flowers and palm leaves (Fig. 7), Fig-. 9. — Rock-cut Temple at Ipsambul, on the Nile. and in later temples we meet with pillars in which heads of the goddess Hathor and other deities are used as the ornaments of capitals. We must not close this notice of Egyptian pillars without a word on the so-called caryatid columns, which are square piers with colossi placed in front of them. Although not strictly architectural objects, as