Page:A History of Art in Ancient Egypt Vol 1.djvu/307

The Tomb under the Ancient Empire. 217 type allowed of numerous combinations, many of which are to be discovered in the monuments of a later period. The pyramid was employed as a terminal form throughout the whole of Egyptian history. Both Thebes and Abydos offer us many examples of its use, either in those sepulchral edifices which are still extant, or in the representations of them upon bas-reliefs. But the pyramid properly speaking was confined to the Memphite period. The princes of the twelfth dynasty seem to have constructed some in the Fayoum. The pyramids of Hawara and Illahoon correspond to those which, we are told, were built in connection with the labyrinth and upon the islands of Lake Moeris respectively. These, so far as we can judge, were the last of the pyramids. There are, indeed, in the necropolis of Thebes, upon the rocks of Drah-abou'1-neggah, a few pyramids of crude brick, some of which seem to belong to Entefs of the eleventh dynasty ; but they are small and carelessly constructed.^ When the art of Egypt had arrived at its full development, such purely geometrical forms would seem unworthy of its powers, as they did not allow of those varied beauties of construction and decoration which its architects had gradually mastered. The pyramids have never failed to impress the imaginations of those foreign travellers who have visited Egypt. Their venerable antiquity ; the memories, partly fable, partly history, which were attached to them by popular tradition ; their colossal mass and the vast space of ground which they covered, at the very gates of the capital and upon the boundary between the desert and the cultivated land, all combined to heighten their effect. Those nations who came under the living influence of Egypt could hardly, then, escape from the desire to imitate her pyramids in their own manner. We shall find the pyramidal form employed to crown buildings in Phoenicia, Judaea, and elsewhere. But the kingdom of Ethiopia, the southern annexe of Egypt and the copyist of her civilization, was the chief reproducer of the Egyptian pyramid as it was created by the kings of the ancient empire. Napata, Meroe, and other places have pyramids which may be counted by dozens. Like those in Egypt, they are the tombs of the native monarchs. We shall not attempt any study of these remains. Like all the ' Lepsius, Deiikmceler, part i. pi. 94. Rhind, Thebes^ its Tombs and their Tenants, p. 45. Mariette, Voyage dans la Haute-Egypte, vol. ii. i). 80. VOL. I. F F