Page:History of Art in Sardinia, Judæa, Syria and Asia Minor Vol 1.djvu/263

 Elevation of the Temple. 239 pillar interposing between each cell, whilst the other rests upon the off-line of the wall. It will be seen that our plan is far more simple than that of the prophet, and as a natural consequence more easily read. It is foreign to our purpose to enter into a description of the wealth displayed within the temple, be it in the wainscoting of precious woods, its cedar floor and roofing, the gold and silver lavished about the altar, or the ,, --,-.-- wrought bronze of doors and barriers which made the "house of Lebanon " one of the won- ders of the world. In regard to the parbar, our aim has been to make its eleva- tion proportional with the pre- sentment of its plan. An open porch divides it from the temple, and, like most religious edifices in the Nile Valley, its peristyle towers above the rest of the building (Figs. 134, 135, and Plate V.). Now, among the alien religions in vogue at the very gates of the sanctuary one there was of avowedly Egyp- tian origin, the ritual of which the prophet witnesses through a chink or hole in the wall, when he beholds "the seventy elders of Israel, censer in hand, standing before every kind of creeping things, abominable beasts, and all the idols portrayed upon the wall round about" (Ezek. viii.). It is evident that Ezekiel alludes to serpent, cat, hawk, and bull-headed deities. If, therefore, "numi" of so decided Egyptian a type were honoured on Moriah, what more natural than that the edifice sacred to them should be Egyptian in ordinance and general appearance ? The three-storied side building, which will be remembered as receding towards the top, has nothing to break the dreary aspect of its bare surface, save the windows at different levels. It is but a subsidiary structure, upon which elaborate ornamentation or great care would have been misplaced l (Plate V.). The door 1 Ezek. xlii. 6. Fir,. 152 -Temple and lateral Chambers. Transverse Section.