Page:Outlines of European History.djvu/74

 48 Outlines of Europe aji History The splendor of the Em- pire temples at Thebes Painting and sculpture in the temples As will be seen in Fig. 28, these central columns are taller than those on each side, and the resulting difference in the level of the roof permits the insertion of a row of windows on each side of the central aisle. Such an arrangement of the roof is called a clerestory (" clear story ''), and the aisle with its columns and windows is termed a "nave." It is found in simpler form as far back as the Pyramid Age. Later it passed over to Europe, where it finally appeared as the leading form of Christian archi- tecture — the cathedral church, whose nave, side aisles, and clerestory windows^ (Fig- 170) have descended to us from the colonnaded temple halls of Egypt. These buildings of the Empire form the leading chapter in the early history of great architecture, though we should not forget that the columns em- ployed here were already in use in the Pyramid Age (Fig. 22). Such temples as these at Thebes were seen through the deep green of clustering palms, among towering obelisks, and colossal statues of the Pharaohs (Fig. 29). The whole was bright with color, flashing at many a point with gold and silver, and, mir- rored in the unruffled surface of the temple lake, it made a picture of such splendor as the ancient world had never seen before. These temples and their surrounding monuments were connected by imposing avenues of sphinxes, and thus grew up at Thebes the first great monumental city ever built by man — a city which as a whole was itself a vast and imposing monument. Much of the grandeur of Egyptian architecture was due to the sculptor and the painter. We have already viewed the vast battle scenes carved on the temple wall (Fig. 26). These scenes, like the rest of the temple, were painted in bright colors. Portrait statues of the Pharaoh also were set up before these temples ; they were often so large that they rose above the towers of the temple front itself, — the tallest part of the building, — and they could be seen for miles around (Fig. 29). The sculptors cut these colossal figures from a single block, although they were 1 These things were borrowed by the Christian architects from the Roman basilica, which in turn was derived from Greece, whither it had gone from Egypt.