A Text-Book of the History of Architecture: Seventh Edition, revised — John Shaqi
A Text-Book of the History of Architecture: Seventh Edition, revisedHamlin, A. D. F. (Alfred Dwight Foster)
History
A Text-Book of the History of Architecture: Seventh Edition, revised
Hamlin, A. D. F. (Alfred Dwight Foster)
Architecture -- History
+TOMBS OF THE NEW EMPIRE.+ Some of these are structural, others
excavated; both types displaying considerable variety in arrangement and
detail. The rock-cut tombs of Bab-el-Molouk, among which are twenty-five
royal sepulchres, are striking both by the simplicity of their openings
and the depth and complexity of their shafts, tunnels, and chambers.
From the pipe-like length of their tunnels they have since the time of
Herodotus been known by the name _syrinx_. Every precaution was taken to
lead astray and baffle the intending violator of their sanctity. They
penetrated hundreds of feet into the rock; their chambers, often formed
with columns and vault-like roofs, were resplendent with colored reliefs
and ornament destined to solace and sustain the shadowy Ka until the
soul itself, the Ba, should arrive before the tribunal of Osiris, the
Sun of Night. Most impressively do these brilliant pictures,[2] intended
to be forever shut away from human eyes, attest the sincerity of the
Egyptian belief and the conscientiousness of the art which it inspired.
[Footnote 2: See Van Dyke’s _History of Painting_, Figure 1.]
While the tomb of the private citizen was complete in itself, containing
the Ka-statues and often the chapel, as well as the mummy, the royal
tomb demanded something more elaborate in scale and arrangement. In some
cases external structures of temple-form took the place of the
underground chapel and serdab. The royal effigy, many times repeated in
painting and sculpture throughout this temple-like edifice, and flanking
its gateways with colossal seated figures, made buried Ka-statues
unnecessary. Of these sepulchral temples three are of the first
magnitude. They are that of +Queen Hatasu+ (XVIIIth dynasty) at
Deir-el-Bahari; that of +Rameses II.+ (XIXth dynasty), the +Ramesseum+,
near by to the southwest; and that of +Rameses III.+ (XXth dynasty) at
Medinet Abou still further to the southwest. Like the tombs, these were
all on the west side of the Nile; so also was the sepulchral temple of
Amenophis III. (XVIIIth dynasty), the +Amenopheum+, of which hardly a
trace remains except the two seated colossi which, rising from the
Theban plain, have astonished travellers from the times of Pausanias and
Strabo down to our own. These mutilated figures, one of which has been
known ever since classic times as the “vocal Memnon,” are 56 feet high,
and once flanked the entrance to the forecourt of the temple of
Amenophis. The plan of the Ramesseum, with its sanctuary, hypostyle
hall, and forecourts, its pylons and obelisks, is shown in Figure 8, and
may be compared with those of other temples given on pp. 17 and 18. That
of Medinet Abou resembles it closely. The Ramesseum occupies a rectangle
of 590 × 182 feet; the temple of Medinet Abou measures 500 × 160 feet,
not counting the extreme width of the entrance pylons. The temple of
Hatasu at Deir-el-Bahari is partly excavated and partly structural,
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