Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 7.djvu/802

778 8 EGYPT [KL-KAUN AK. rest. This great hall is therefore crowded with columns, and tho effect is surprisingly grand. The spectator, being generally unable to see beyond the columns which are immediately around him, perceives the vast dimensions which, if viewed from a distance, might lose their effect. The forest of columns seems interminable in whatever direction he looks, producing a result unsurpassed in any other Egyp tian temple. The partial ruin of its stone roof, and of some of the columns, renders the hall the more picturesque, and makes us wonder at the force which must have been expended in attempting to demolish it. This grand hall was built by Setee I., Dynasty XIX., and sculptured partly in his reign and partly in that of his son and successor Ramses II., who lias sometimes effaced his father s name to sub stitute his own. It commemorates, not in its grandeur alone, but also by its sculptures, the magnificence and power of these two great Pharaohs. The sculptures of the interior of the walls represent these kings making offerings to the gods, and the like subjects occupy the columns. Far more interesting are those which adorn the exterior of the walls, and record the achievements of the same kings, those of Setee I. being on the north wall, and those of Ramses II. on the south. The former are of much greater interest than the latter, as far as we can judge, and in this respect inferior to none in Egypt. The scenes on the north wall are arranged in three compartments, of which the upper one has been nearly destroyed. In these scenes the king is represented of a gigantic size, charging in his chariot, and putting to the rout his enemies, capturing their strongholds, and returning home in triumph. The chief nations are the Kheta or Hittites ; the Ruten (Luten), at this time a great nation of Syria ; the Skasu, or Arabs ; the Khalu, Syria, or Syrians ; and Remcnen, Armenia. Among the captured places is Ketesh, in those days the most impor tant stronghold between Egypt and Mesopotamia. There is also a long list of countries, cities, and tribes, conquered or ruled by the king, among which we find A T aharina, that is Aram-naharaim, or Mesopotamia, Kesh, Rush, or Ethiopia, &c. The battle-scenes of Ramses II. on the south wall do not, as far as they are seen, equal these in interest. Here also is a list of the king s conquests and possessions, and on the west side of a wall which joins this one at right angles, forming the side of a court of the southern approach to the temple, is a representation of the capture of Askelena or Ascalon, and an inscription recording the treaty between Ramses II. and the Kheta, concluded in the twenty-first year of his reign. The back of thehypostyle hall is formed by a ruined propylon bearing the name of Amenophis III., and then at a distance of about 50 feet is another propylon, entirely ruined. In the space between these propyla, which was a court, stands a beautiful obelisk of red granite, upwards of 70 feet high, raised by Thothmes I. The fragments of its fellow, which was more to the north, strew the ground. Behind the second of these propyla is another granite obelisk, 108 feet high, and according to M. Mariette the loftiest known (Monuments of Upper Egypt, 170). This great obelisk of El-Karnak is a monument of Queen Hatshepu of Dynasty XVIII., and an inscription on its pedestal records the period which elapsed (nineteen months) from the time that it was begun to be cut in the quarry until its completion in the queen s sixteenth year. The fellow of the great obelisk, which stood to the south of it, has been broken, and its fragments occupy its place. Beyond the great obelisk is the chief sanctuary, a structure almost entirely of granite, divided into two apartments, which was built under Philip Aridaeus, in the place, no doubt, of one destroyed by Cambyses or Ochus. The space between the hypostyle hall and this sanctuary is extremely ruined, the huge stones being piled up in heaps as though
 * iu earthquake had overthrown the temple. But this

destruction was probably due to human violence. Behind the sanctuary are fragments of a very ancient part of the temple, bearing the name of Usurtesen I., Dynasty XII. Considerably farther is a large oblate building of the time of Thothmes III., which affords a remarkable example of architectural caprice, its columns having inverted shafts and capitals, and its cornices being likewise inverted. Behind this and a stone wall of inclosure are ruined chambers, and far beyond, directly behind the centre of the great temple, in the crude brick wall of inclosure, is a hand some portal, never finished, bearing the name of Nectanebes II. The southern approach to the temple of El-Karnak from that of El-Uk.sur is, as before mentioned, by a ruined avenue of sphinxes, which ends near the great structure, and two other avenues begin. The westernmost of these, which is of colossal rams, conducts to a temple situate not far to the south-west of the first court of the great temple : we approach it through a stately portal bearing in its inscrip tions the name of Ptolemy Euergetes I. The front of the temple, before which was another avenue of rams, is a propylon, which is almost uninjured. Behind it is a court having a double row of columns on each side and at the end, and again behind this is a hall supported by eight columns, and many small chambers. This temple was dedicated to Khuns, the third member of the Thebau triad. It was begun under Dynasty XX., and continued by the high-priest kings. A small edifice having sculptures of the time of the Greek and Roman rule stands on the west of the court of this temple. The avenue of sphinxes which branches off at the same place as the avenue of rams leading to the temple of Khuns takes an easterly direction and ends where another begins at right angles to it, which connects the southern courts leading to the great temple- with a separate inclosure. The latter contains a lake which has the shape of a horseshoe, and the remains of the temple of Mut. At the northern extremity of the avenue, which is of criosphinxes, is a propylon form ing the front of a large court ending in a second pro- pylon, which, like the other, is much ruined. Beyond this, but not in exactly the same direction, after a vacant space, the approach continues through two smaller propyla, the second of which is nearly destroyed. Each fronts a court, and at the end of the secondof these courts was the great side entrance to the temple. The first and second propyla were, like the criosphinxes, monuments of King Har-em-heb, or Horus, of Dynasty XVIII., and were partly builtof materials of a temple or palace of the sun-worshipping kings whom he overthrew. The third propylon is more ancient, for it bears the name of Thothmes III. and Amenophis II., as well as of subsequent kings; the age of the fourth is not certain; the name of Ramses II. occurs here, but it may have been founded before his time. There is an inclosure in the angle formed eastward by the third and fourth propyla with the great temple, which contains a sacred lake. Adjoining the great crude-brick wall of inclosure at its north-eastern portion is another containing the ruins of an important temple. The chief approach is through a stately portal of the Ptolemaic period, in the crude-brick wall. The temple to which it conducted was very beautiful and costly, as we can judge from its remains, which show with how much violence it was destroyed. It seems to have been founded under Dynasty XVIII. There are two small temples or chapels, one of the time of Achoris and the other of that of Nectanebes I. and II., in the same inclosure. Another crude-brick inclosure of small dimensions, near the south-east corner of that of the great temple, contains some unimportant remains of a small edifice. This brief description will convey some idea of the magnitude of the temple of Amen-ra at Thebes, with its