=Column Types.=--Reference already has been made to the _lotus-bud_ type of columns found in the interior of some of the tombs at =Beni Hassan=. These represented a conventionalised design as of four buds with long stems bound around a circular post. The later columns, however, of the lotus-bud type were no longer only a decorative feature but had to support the immense weight of the beams and ceiling slabs, consequently the diameter was increased to about one sixth of the height. The capital suggests either one bud with numerous petals crowning a smooth circular shaft or a cluster of buds and stalks bound at intervals with rows of fillets; the design in both cases being more conventionalised than in the early examples. The _bell_, or _campaniform_ type is distinguished by a smooth shaft crowned with a conventionalised single blossom of the lotus, the petals of which flare or curve outward so as to resemble the shape of an inverted bell. Another example of the flaring capital is that of the _palm_ column, the fronds of which are bound by fillets to a smooth shaft. It is a type that appears in the later temples and was varied by the architects of the Ptolemaic period, who substituted for the palm other motives derived from river plants. An exceptional form, which appears in =Temples of Isis=, as at =Denderah=, =Edfou=, and =Esneh=, is the so-called _Hathor-headed_ column, which has a cubical capital, embellished on each side with a face of the goddess and surmounted by a miniature temple. The latter takes the place of the _impost_ block which in the other types of column sustains the weight of the beam and protects the carving of the capital. In certain instances the columns were superseded by piers with rectangular shafts, which sometimes were unadorned in their impressive simplicity, at other times ornamented with lotus flowers and stalks or heads of Hathor. In the so-called _Osirid pier_ a colossal statue of the god projects from the face of the pier, being the only example of a feature added to a pier or column for purposes solely of symbolic ornament and without any structural function. * * * * * Next to Karnak in magnificence and extent is the neighbouring =Temple of Luxor=. Another important example of the period is the temple erected at =Abydos= by Seti I dedicated to Osiris and other deities. In consequence it is distinguished by seven sanctuaries, ranged side by side and roofed over with horizontal courses of stonework, each of which projects inward over the one below it, until they meet at the top, the undersides being chiselled into the form of a vault.