Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 7.djvu/803

779 RAMESKUM.] EGYPT 779 appendages; but no one who has not seen that wonder- J ful assemblage of ruins can picture to himself the massive- ness of its castle-like propyla, the grandeur of its hall of columns, the beauty of its great obelisk, and the sublimity of its heaped-up ruins. Of the city of Thebes there are scarcely any remains. Doubtless its edifices were of perishable materials. Beginning our examination of the monuments of the western bank, where was the great suburb of the Memnonia, from the northward, the first object of interest is the Setheum, a small temple of Setee I., which the natives call Kasr-Er-llubeyk, at the ruined village of El-Kurneh. A portico, originally supported by ten columns, of which two have fallen, extends along the whole front of the building. Three entrances lead to the interior of the temple : the middle one of these is the door of a hall having twelve columns. From this apartment we pass into several small chambers, which are of little interest, like the ruined chambers which we enter from the northern door. The southern door is the entrance of a separate part of the edifice, which contains a small hall supported by two columns, and three chambers behind it, the middle one of which was a sanctuary or chapel, devoted, as its sculptures show, to the worship of Ramses I., the father of Setee I. The inscriptions of the temple tell us that it was dedicated to Amen-ra by its founder Setee I., and continued by his son Ramses II., and his grandson Menptah. It was the funereal chapel of the tombs of Ramses I. and Setee I. The great temple of Ramses II, which may be called the Rameseum of El-Kurneh, but is commonly though incorrectly known as the Memnonium, is situate at a dis tance of about a mile to the westward of the Setheum, and is like it on the edge of the desert, which here is much farther from the Nile. Notwithstanding that its condition is much more ruined than that of other edifices of Thebes, the beautiful architecture of what remains, and the historical interest of its spirited sculptures, render it altogether second alone in its attractions to the great pile of El-Karnak. A propylon, 225 feet in width, of which a great part has been thrown down, forms the front of the edifice. Through its portal we enter a spacious court 180 feet wide and 142 long. It had originally a double colonnade on either side, every column of which has been destroyed, while the side walls have been entirely demolished and the end wall partially. On the back of the propylon are sculptured a battle and other scenes of a campaign in the king s eighth year. In this court is one of the most wonderful objects at Thebes, a colossal statue of Ramses II., broken in pieces, exceeding in its weight and equalling in its dimen sions any other known Egyptian statue. It was of a single block of red granite, and must have been transported hither from the quarries of Syene, notwithstanding that its weight was, according to Sir Gardner Wilkinson s computation, about 887 tons, 5| cwt. (Modern Egypt and Thebes, ii. 144, 145). It was 60 feet in height, representing the king seated on his throne, and was placed on the left side of the entrance to the second court. Of that court, happily, there are more remains than of the first. Its width was about 170 feet and its length about 140, so that it was not much smaller than the other court. It had a double colonnade in each side and at the end, and but a single colonnade at the front. These were of columns having capitals of the form of the papyrus bud, except eight of the ten form ing the front row, that is, all of that colonnade but the two extreme columns, and, in like manner, the correspond ing ones of the opposite row, which were Osiridean pillars, formed of a square block, having in front a figure of Ramses as Osiris. Many of the columns and pillars have been demolished; but those which yet stand enable us to judge how magnificent this part of the temple must have been. On what remains of the front wall of the couft, that is, on its northern half, are very remarkable sculptures. Here is a great scene representing a battle between the Egyptians, led by Ramses II., and the Kheta or Hittites, near the strong city of Ketesh. The king of Egypt is portrayed routing the chariots of the enemy, who flee in disorder towards Ketesh, across a double moat, beyond which and beneath the city a strong force of regular infantry endeavours to protect their retreat. This was doubtless the decisive action of the campaign ogainst the confederates, which must be regarded as the most important of the wars which distinguished the reign of Ramses II. Higher up on the same wall is a procession of priests bear ing small statues of kings, the first of which is that of Menes, the earliest sovereign of Egypt, the second of a Munt-hotp, of Dynasty XI., and the subsequent ones of the kings of Dynasties XVIII. and XIX., as far as Ramses II., with whom the series ends. Next to the second court is a hypostyle hall, which is the most admirable part of the temple. It measures 100 feet in length and 133 in breadth, and originally contained forty-eight columns in eight longitudinal rows, each con sisting of six columns. A central avenue is formed by twelve lofty columns, about 36 feet high, which have capitals of the shape of the papyrus flower ; while the columns on each side, about 24 feet high, have capitals of the shape of the bud of the same flower. The elegance of the form and the justness of the proportions of all these columns is not equalled in any other Egyptian temple, and render this hall one of the most beautiful structures of its kind.- Happily, although much injured, it has suffered less from violence than the first and second courts. On its front wall, to the left as one enters, are curious sculptures, representing the rout of a hostile force, and the capture of a town, the walls of which the Egyptians ascend by means of scaling ladders : Ramses II. and six of his sons lead the army. On the end wall are religious subjects, and a series of the sons and daughters of Ramses II., whose legitimate offspring they seem to have been, twenty-six in number, twenty-three sons and three daughters. At the temple of Wadee-es-Suboo a, in Nubia, a much larger number of children of this king were represented. Beyond the hypostyle hall are two smaller chambers, the first of which is entered by a doorway in the middle of the end wall of the hall. It is supported by eight columns, and has on its walls representations of mythological sub jects. It is chiefly remarkable, however, for its astronomical ceiling, one of the most precious records of ancient Egyptian science. Behind this is a ruined chamber, which seems to have been of the same dimensions. The other apartments which must have adjoined these are entirely demolished. This temple was the chapel of the king s tomb. The description which Diodorus Siculus gives from Hecatseus of Abdera of the Tomb of Osymandyas agrees best with the Rameseum of El-Kurneh; and the mention of the sacred library is in accordance with the character of the sculptures of the first chamber beyond the hypostyle hall, as well as with the statement in several papyri that they were written by the scribes in this temple, in which, or attached to which, was a kind of college (Lepsius, Chronologic der Aeyypter, i. 39, 53). To the south-west of the Rameseum of El-Kurneh, at a distance of less than half a mile, a mound just within tho cultivable plain marks the site of a magnificent temple of Amenophis III., which may be called the Amenophium, and which, there is reason to believe, was destroyed by Cambyses. Of the obelisks and colossi which stood on either side of the approach of the Amenophium, all are thrown down except the two gigantic statues, one of which is known as the Vocal Memnon. The latter indeed, was