CHAPTER III.

MODERN STYLES.

Decline of art - Temples at Dendera-Kalabsche - Phila-Mammeisi - Rock-cut examples-Ipsamboul-Tombs-Labyrinths-Obelisks-Domestic architecture.

FROM the time of the 19th dynasty, with a slight revival under the

worship,--and to the worship of a heavenly God, not of a deified king.

What these arrangements are will be well understood from the annexed plan of that of Edfou (woodcut No. 173), which, though not the largest, is the most complete of those remaining. It is 450 ft. in length, and 155 in width, and covering upwards of 80,000 ft.; its dimensions may be said to be equal to those of the largest of our mediæval cathedrals (Cologne or Amiens for instance). Part only of

the whole structure (that which is shaded in the plan) is roofed, and therefore it can scarcely be compared with buildings entirely under one roof.

In front of the temple are two large and splendid pylons, with the gateway in the centre, making up a façade 225 ft. in extent. Although this example has lost its crowning cornice, its sculptures and ornaments are still very perfect, and it may altogether be con

sidered as a fair specimen of its class, though inferior in dimensions to many of those of the great Pharaonic age. Within these is a court, 140 ft. by 161, surrounded by a colonnade on three sides, and rising by easy steps, the whole width of the court, to the porch or portico which, in Ptolemaic temples, takes the place of the great hypostyle halls of the Pharaohs. It is lighted from the front over low screens placed between each of the pillars, a peculiarity scarcely ever found in temples of earlier date, though apparently common in domestic edifices, or those formed of wood, certainly as early as the middle of the 18th dynasty, as may be seen from the annexed woodcut (No. 175),

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173.

Bas-relief at Tell el Amarna.

taken from a tomb of one of the sun-worshipping kings, who reigned between Amenophis III. and Horus. From this we pass into an inner and smaller porch, and again through two passages to a dark and mysterious sanctuary, surrounded by darker passages and chambers, well calculated to mystify and strike with awe any worshipper or neophyte who might be admitted to their gloomy precincts.

The celebrated temple at Dendera is similar to this, and slightly larger, but it has no forecourt, no propylons, and no enclosing outer walls. Its façade is given in the next woodcut (No. 176). Its Isisheaded columns are not equal to those of Edfou in taste or grace; but it has the advantage of situation, and this temple is not encumbered either by sand or huts, as the other is, so that its effect on travellers is always more striking.

177.

The Roman temple at Kalabsche (woodcut No. 177), above the

Cataract, is a fair speci-
men of these temples
on a smaller scale. The
section (woodcut No.
178) shows one of the
modes by which a scanty
light was introduced
into the inner cells,
and their gradation in
height. The position,
too, of its propylons is
a striking instance of
the irregularity which
distinguishes all the
later Egyptian styles
from that of the rigid,
proportion-loving, py-
ramid-builders of Mem-

phis.

This irregularity of plan was nowhere car

ried to such an extent as in the Ptolemaic temple on the island of Philæ. Here no two buildings, scarcely any two walls, are on the same axis or parallel to one another. No Gothic architect in his wildest moments ever played so freely with his lines or dimensions, and none, it must be added, ever produced anything so beautifully picturesque as this. It contains all the play of light and shade, all the variety of Gothic art, with the massiveness and grandeur of the Egyptian style; and as it is still tolerably entire, and retains much of its colour, there is no building out of Thebes that gives so favourable an impression of Egyptian

178.

Section of Temple at Kalabsche.

art as this. It is true it is far less sublime than many, but hardly one can be quoted as more beautiful than it is.

Notwithstanding its irregularity, this temple has the advantage of being nearly all of the same age, and erected according to one plan,

while the greater buildings at Thebes are often aggregations of parts of different ages; and though each is beautiful in itself, the result is often not quite so harmonious as might be desired. In this respect the Ptolemaic temples certainly have the advantage, inasmuch as they are all of one age, and all completed according to the plan on which they were designed, a circumstance which, to some extent at least, compensates for their marked inferiority in size and style, and the littleness of all the ornaments and details as compared with those of the Pharaonic period. It must at the same time be admitted that this inferiority is more apparent in the sculpture of the Ptolemaic age than in its architecture. The general design of the buildings is frequently grand and imposing, but the details are always inferior; and which in the great age add so much to the beauty of the whole, are in the Ptolemaic age always frittered away,

the sculpture and painting,

ill-arranged, and unmeaning-injurious to the general effect instead of heightening and improving it.

MAMMEISI.

Besides the temples above described, which are all more or less complex in plan, and all made up of various independent parts, there exists in Egypt a class of temples called mammeisi, dedicated to the mysterious accouchement of the mother of the gods. Small temples of this form are common to all ages, and belong as well to the 18th dynasty as to the time of the Ptolemies. One of them, built by Amenophis III. at Elephantine, is represented in plan and elevation in the annexed cut. It is of a simple peristylar form, with columns in front and rear, resembling that shown in woodcut No. 157, and 7 square piers on each flank. These temples are all small, and, like the Typhonia, which somewhat resemble them, were used as detached chapels or cells, dependent on the larger temples. What renders