tectures of Egypt and Persepolis, to refer to fig. 26., where he will find a precisely similar use of the great cavetto which crowned the buildings of both countries. The writer who, in the Description Abrigée des Monumens de la Haute Egypt, has found that this great curve is borrowed from the bending leaves of the palm tree, has mistaken the elements of decoration for substantial constructive art, and has forgotten that the first object follows long after the latter. But we doubt if he really meant what his words import. The ceilings of Egypt are invariably monotonous. The non-use of the arch, whereon we have touched in a preceding page, and the blocks of stone which the country afforded, allowed little scope for display of varied form. In the colonnades of the country, architraves of stone rest on the columns (see fig. 54.), on which transversely are placed those which actually form the ceilings, just like the floor boards of a modern economical English building. On them are often found some of the most interesting representations that are in existence : we allude to those of the zodiacal constellations disposed circularly about the centre of the apartments in which they are placed. Though nothing has been deduced from these to satisfy us on the date of their continent buildings, they are not the less worthy of further investigation, which, however, it is not our province here to pursue. 81. The gates and portals of the Egyptian temples were either placed, as at Carnak and Luxor (figs. 62. and 63.), in masses of masonry, or between columns, as already noticed, inclined upwards, having generally a reed moulding round them, and the whole crowned with a large cavetto. They were plentifully covered with hieroglyphics; frequently fronted by a pair of obelisks; and on their sides were placed staircases of very simple construetion, leading to platforms on their summits. It is now difficult to account for the extraordinary labour bestowed on these masses of masonry. More than pictorial effect must have been the motive. The reader will, by turning back to fig. 52., be equally surprised with ourselves when he contemplates, in the gateway at the Temple of Apollinopolis Magna, such The masses in these are always pyramidal, and bear great resemblance to the gates of modern fortifications. Sometimes they are extremely simple, and do not rise so high as the adjacent buildings which flank them. Their thickness is enormous, some of them extending to the extraordinary depth of fifty feet.

Fig. 62.

vast efforts developed on so apparently minor a point.

Fig. 63,

82. Windows were not frequently used. When they occur they are long small parallelograms, rarely ornamented, but splayed inside. Many of the apartments were without windows at all.

83. We have, in a previous page, alluded to the Pyramids; to which we here add, that. whatever might have been their purpose, it is certain that the form adopted in them - one that, among other people, was devoted to the purposes of sepulture-was of all architectural forms that calculated to ensure durability, and was, moreover, well suited to the views of a nation which took extraordinary means to preserve the body after life, and expended large sums on their tombs.

that which con

84. ORNAMENT or DECORATION may be considered under two heads, sists in objects foreign to the forms of the edifices themselves, such as statues, obelisks, &c.; and that which is actually affixed to them, such as the carving on the friezes, basreliefs, &c.

85. The former of these are remarkable for the size and beauty of the materials whereof they are composed. First for notice are their statues of colossal dimensions, which are mostly, if not always, in a sitting attitude. The two here given (fig. 64.) are from the Memnonium.

They are generally isolated, and placed on simple pedestals. The use of Caryatides, as

66

they are called, perhaps improperly, in Egyptian architecture, if we may judge from remains, does not appear to have been very frequent. In the tomb of Osymandyas, we find, according to Diodorus, that there was a peristylium, 400 feet square, supported by animals 16 cubits high, each in one stone, instead of columns. The same author (vol. i. f. 56. ed. Wesseling), speaking of Psammeticus, says, Having now obtained the whole kingdom, he built a proFig. 64. pylæum, on the east side of the temple, to the God at Memphis; which temple he encircled with a wall; and in this propylæum, instead of columns, substituted colossal statues 12 cubits in height." Statues of sphinxes in allies or avenues were used for ornamenting the dromos of their temples. Of this species of ornament the ruins of Thebes present a magnificent example. They were placed on plinths facing one another, and about ten feet apart. Examples of lions also occur. The form of the Egyptian obelisks is too well known to need a description here. They have been alleged to be monuments consecrated to the sun. From the situation they often occupy, it is clear they were used neither as gnomons nor solar quadrants.

Fig. 65.

COLOSSAL STATUES FROM THE MEMNONIUM.

PRESENTATION TO OSIRIS.

86. Amongst the ornaments affixed to their buildings, or rather forming a part of them, the most frequent are hieroglyphics and bas-reliefs. The custom of cutting the former upon almost every building was, as we now find, for the purpose of record; but it is nevertheless to be considered as ornamental in effect. The figures that are sculptured on the walls of the temples are mostly in low relief, and are destitute of proportion; and, when in groups, are devoid of sentiment. Painting was another mode of decoration. The grottoes of the Thebaid, and other subterranean apartments, abound with pictures, not only of hieroglyphics, but of other subjects. But the taste of all these, either in drawing, colouring, or composition, is not better than that of their sculpture. (See an example in fig. 65.) Yet in both these arts, from the precision with which they are cut and the uniformity of line and proportion they exhibit, a certain effect is produced which is not altogether displeasing.

87. The nymphæa lotus, or water lily, seems to have been the type of much of the ornament used for the purpose of decoration. The leaf of the palm tree was another object of imitation, and is constantly found in the capitals of their columns. The use of the palm leaf in this situation may have been derived from a popular notion mentioned by Plutarch, (Symposiac. lib. vi. cap. 4.), that the palm tree rose under any weight that was placed upon it, and even in proportion to the degree of depression it experienced. This supposed peculiarity is also mentioned by Aulus Gellius (lib. iii. cap. 6.). The reed of the Nile, with its head, enters into some combinations of ornament, and moreover fashioned into bundles, seems to have been the type of some of the species of their columns. In their entablatures and elsewhere, animals of all sorts occasionally find a place as ornaments, even down to fishes, which occur in a frieze at Assouan; and, as we have before observed, there are few buildings of importance in which the winged globe does not appear as an orna.

ment.

88. Some observations on the taste, style, and character of Egyptian architecture, will conclude this section. If the type was, as we imagine, derived from the early subterranean edifices of the people, whose customs allowed of no change or improvement, we cannot be surprised at the great monotony that exists in all their monuments. The absence of variety in their profiles, by means of projecting and re-entering parts, of the use of the arch, of the inclined roof, and of all deviation from those shades of different developments, which impart character to a work of art, generated the monotony, the subject of our complaint. It cannot be denied that in those arts which have nature for their model, the artists of Egypt never sought excellence in true representation. Now architecture is so allied to the other arts, that the principles by which they were guided in these latter were carried through in

the former. It was impossible that the abstract imitation of nature, which constitutes almost the essence of architecture, which is founded upon the most refined observations of the impressions of different objects on our senses, which indicates numberless experiments and successive trials, and which therefore requires the independence of the artist, could be developed in a country where the restrictions of religion and the spirit of routine became the dominant genius of all the arts. In positive imitation, whose existence and principles have been already traced from grottoes and hollowed subterranean apartments, the types of Egyptian architecture were unsusceptible of variety, and very remote from that which characterises invention. The monotony thence resulting was attended by another effect, that of endeavouring to correct it by a profusion of hieroglyphics. As to the other ornaments employed, they seem to have flowed from caprice, both in selection and employment, resting on no fixed principles of necessity or fitness, nor subject to any laws but those of chance. The original forms, indeed, of Egyptian architecture, unfounded, like those of Greece, on a construction with timber, would not suggest the use of ornament. Nothing 1 seemed fixed, nothing determined by natural types. We must, however, except some of their columns, which do appear to have been formed with some regard to imitation.

89. In the architecture of Egypt we find great want of proportion, or that suitable ratio which the different parts of a body should bear to each other and to the whole. In all organised beings, their parts so correspond, that, if the size of a single part be known, the whole is known. Nature has thus formed them for the sake of dependence on and aid to each other. In works of art, the nearer we approach a similar formation, the more refined and elegant will be its productions. Solidity is abused in the works of the Egyptians; the means employed always seem greater than were necessary. This discovers another cause of their monotony. The masses of material which the country produced measured their efforts and conceptions, and their invention was exhausted by a very restricted number of combinations. Their monuments are doubtless admirable for their grandeur and solidity; but the preponderance of the latter, when carried beyond certain bounds, becomes clumsiness; art then disappears, and character becomes caricature. Though we think it useful thus to analyse Egyptian art, it must not be supposed that we are insensible to its imposing, and often picturesque, effect. It can never be revived, and our observations upon it must be understood as in comparison with Greek art, which has proved so susceptible of modification that it is not likely to be abandoned in any part of the world where civilisation has appeared.

90. Though the private dwellings of the Egyptians were not comparable with their public edifices, they were not altogether devoid of splendour. Examples of them from sculptures may be seen in Sir G Wilkinson's work above quoted. In the towns they of course varied in size and plan. The streets were narrow and laid out with regularity; and the mixture, as frequently met with in eastern towns, of large houses with low hovels, appears to have been avoided. In Thebes, the number of stories were, according to Diodorus, in some cases as much as four and five. Houses of small size were usually connected together, rarely exceeding two stories. They were regular in plan, the rooms usually occupying three sides of a court-yard, separated by a wall from the street; or on each side of a long passage from a similar entrance court. The court was sometimes common to several houses. Large mansions were detached, having often different entrances on their several sides, with portals very similar in form to those of their temples. These portals were about 12 or 15 ft. high, and on each side was a smaller door. Entering through the porch, the passage was into an open court wherein was a receiving room for visitors, and this was supported by columns, and closed in the lower part by intercolumnal panels. On the opposite side of the court was another door, by which the receiving room was entered from the interior. Three doors led from this court to another of larger dimensions, ornamented with trees, communicating on the right and left with the interior parts of the building, and having a back entrance. arrangement of the interior was the same on each side of the court; six or more chambers, whose doors faced each other, opened on a corridor supported by columns on the right and left of the area, which was shaded by a double row of trees. A sitting room was placed at the upper end of one of these areas, opposite the door leading to the great court; and over this and the chambers were the apartments of the upper story. On each side of the sitting-room was a door opening on to the street. Of course there were houses on other plans, which are given by Wilkinson; but the above conveys a sufficient idea of their general distribution. On the tops of the houses were terraces, serving as well for The walls and ceilings were richly painted, and the latter were formed into compartments with appropriate borders. Some of their villas were on a very large scale, and were laid out with spacious gardens, watered by canals communicating with the Nile.

repose as exercise.

The

91. We close this section with a list of the principal ancient remains in Egypt (for which we are indebted to the Handbook, 1873, by Sir Gardiner Wilkinson), whose situations are marked on the accompanying map (fig. 66. ). At Heliopolis, modern name Matareeah (No. 1.), a little to the north of Cairo, the obelisk of Osirtasen I., and the remains of walis

mounds, and rock-cut tombs. Opposite is Ekhmeen (Panopolis) (No. 18.), Greek inscrip

scriptions, zodiac, &c. At Koft (Coptos), on east side, ruins of the old town, a pillar, and of

temples; and at the village of El Kala, to the north, a small Roman Egyptian temple. Koos (No. 21.) (Apollinopolis parva), no ruins. At Thebes or Kench (Diospolis magna), on the east bank, are Carnak and Luxor (No. 22.) (figs. 62. and 63.); on the west, tombs of the kings, private tombs, several temples, colossi of the plain, &c. At Erment (No. 23.) (Hermonthis), a temple and early Christian church. At Tofnees and Asfoon (No. 24.) mounds of old towns Esneh (Latopolis) (No. 25) possesses a fine portico (fig. 69.) cleared out in 1842, zodiac, and quay. On the east bank, four miles beyond, is El Kab (Eileithyias), ruins of a very ancient

town; the temples lately destroyed; grottoes in the mountain; and a short distance

up the valley three small temples. Edfoo (No. 26.) (Apollinopolis magna), has two temples, one cleared 1864 (figs. 50. to 54.). At Gebel Silsileh, west and east banks, are the sandstone quarries. At KomOmbo (No. 27.) (Ombos) are two temples, and a stone gateway in a crude brick wall on the east side of the inclosure,

showing an earlier temple. At Assooan (No. 28.) (Syene), ruins of a small Roman temple, columns, and granite quarries, in one of which is a broken obelisk. Island of Elephanta, opposite to Assooan, is a part of the Nilometer, with Greek inscriptions relating to the rise of the Nile; a quay, and a granite gateway. At Phila (No. 29.) temples (fig. 55.), and ruins. On the Island of Biggeh, opposite Philæ, a small ruined temple, tablets, &c.

92. In Nubia, temples at Dabod (No. 30.) (Parembole), and at Kalabsheh (No. 31.) (Talmis), apparently thrown down before it was completed. To the north of the last at Bayt el Welly a small but interesting rock-cut temple, of the time of Rameses II. A temple at Dendoor (No. 32.); and one rock-cut, of the time of Rameses II., at Gerf Hossayn (Tutzis), on west bank. At Wady Subooah (No. 33.), a temple of the same

TEMPLE AT IPSAMBOOL.

period, with an avenue of sphinxes, the adytum rock-cut, the rest built. At Amada (No 34.), a temple of Thothmes III.; and nearly opposite, on the east bank, is Dayr, the capital of Nubia, where is a rock-cut temple, of the date of Rameses II. At Aboo Simbel