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TEMPLE OF LUXOR

1888

TENEMENTS

ceremonies were adjoining. Karnak is the greatest and most important of all the temple-palaces, for such in reality they were, being built by the king for the worship of the god and also for royal ceremonies and festivities. "The temple of Karnak perhaps is the noblest effort of architectural magnificence ever produced by the hand of man." (J. Fergusson.) Its construction extended over 2,000 years and was the work of 21 kings. It is 1,200 feet long and about 360 in width, the great hypostyle hall being 340 ft. by 170 ft. The sanctuary or inner part was originally built by Osortasen (i2th dynasty). Amen-ophis (the first of the restored race) enclosed it in a greater temple measuring 120 feet square. In front of this Thothmes built a magnificent hall backed by piers and surrounded by colossal statues. Back of it Thothmes III erected a peculiar building in comparison with the rest, 140 feet long and 55 feet wide. It consisted of two rows of massive, square columns which supported the roof on the outer sides while in the center the roof was raised and supported by taller but circular columns with reversed capitals. This is similar to the buildings of Assyria but quite unlike Egyptian ones. The progress of construction was brought to a standstill by the sun-worshippers in the i8th dynasty, but was resumed by Menephthah who started the

freat hall,   "the masterpiece  of Thebes.'* t  covered   59,500, square  feet,   and  contained 150 columns 8 to 10 feet in diameter, ending in a capital of flowering lotuses and rich in colored design.

Rhamses I of the igth dynasty built a small temple in front of this, and the great court was added by the kings of the 22nd dynasty. The building was now complete as we find the plan of the whole in the ruins of to-day. There were 12 entrances to the temple, the most important of which were the one that opened to the boat-landing on the Nile at the northwest and the great gate on the south that gave access from the avenue, which was a mile and a half long and lined on each side with sphinxes, that connected with the temple of Luxor. But this gate was surpassed in grandeur by the former. From the boat-landing on the Nile, a mile distant, an imposing roadway of sphinxes led to the wall of the great court, connected with it by a court containing four obelisks and colossi of the king. The entrance to this was flanked by huge pylons of stone, 180 feet high and decorated with inscriptions, flat designs and sculpture in flat and in high relief. It was painted with brilliant oriental colors. Within this a row of columns led to a second pylon which formed a gateway or entrance to the great hypostyle hall, ana was treated in the same manner as the former ones. Avenues of sphinxes

led from similar gateways to the surrounding temples. Consult Jas. Fergusson: History of Architecture; C. T. Matthews: The Story of Architecture; and Perrot and Chipiez: History of Art in Ancient Egypt.

Temple of Luxor, The, is next in beauty and importance to Karnak and is in its vicinity. Being built very near the Nile may account for its destruction; yet it may not have been finished. It is ruined, and the materials have been carried away. The utter disregard the Egyptians had for regularity and symmetry is plainly to be seen in this temple. There is a considerable angle in the axis of the whole structure, and right angles in the angles of the courtyards are rare. The columns are irregularly spaced, an irregularity which seems to have vitiated their whole scheme of building. It is 830 feet long, has a width varying from 100 to 200 feet, and is much simpler than Karnak, being built by only two kings, Amenophis III erecting the southern part containing the sanctuary, royal apartments etc., and Rhamses the Great, the northern part, consisting of a large fore-court deflecting from the major axis of the building and facing the temple of Karnak, with which it was connected. A large hall adjoining this and similar to the hypostyle hall at Karnak is attributed to the latter king. The floor of this hall is raised a few feet above that of the court and is reached by a flight of steps. In front of the huge pylon at the entrance of the great court are two colossi of Rhamses the Great, and two obelisks formerly were there also.

Ten'dril, an organ developed by many climbing plants as a holdfast. Tendrils may be modified branches, leaves or parts of leaves. In every case they are very sensitive, and have the power of rapid coiling or contraction when they come in contact with a support. In the grape-vine, when the tendrils reach a support, they coil about it, and growing unequally are thrown into spirals, thus drawing the vine toward the support. Sometimes a tendril has a sucker-like disk at its tip. When the disk becomes fastened to a support, the straight tendril becomes a spiral, and the plant is drawn toward the support. The stimulus which calls forth this response of the tendril is known as the contact stimulus.

Tenements. A tenement, properly, is any house constructed for the separate living of more than one family; but the term usually is applied only to the poorer classes of apartment-houses. In our large cities millions dwell in such houses under dreadful conditions. Our country is especially liable to the evil, because deluged with immigrants of a low standard of living and because slow to interfere b)r laws with the greed and wickedness of individuals. In consequence, while in the rest of the world the densest population occurs in