Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 2.djvu/414

390 ABOHITEOTUBE [EGYPTIAN. Temple at Karunk. StutUCS. receding abacus, which has the effect of a deepening of the entablature, instead of a covering of the columns, when the capitals spread, as in this case. In the earlier Egyptian examples, however, in which the columns are swollen, and diminished in two unequal lengths, the result is different, and the form and size of the abacus appear perfectly consistent. The height of this column arid its capital, without the abacus, is six diameters. The entablature consists of an architrave and cornice, there being no equivalent for the frieze of a Greek entablature, unless the coving be so considered, in which case the cornice becomes a mere shelf. The architrave, including the torus, is about three-quarters of a diameter in height, which is half that of the whole entablature. The architrave itself is in this example sculptured in low relief, but otherwise plain. The torus, which returns and runs down the angles of the building, is gracefully banded, something like the manner in which the fasces are represented in Roman works. The coving is divided into compartments by vertical flutes, which have been thought to be the origin of triglyphs in a Doric frieze ; but these are arranged without reference to the columns, and are in other respects so totally different from them as to give but little probability to the suggestion. The compartments are beautifully enriched with hiero glyphics, except in the centre, where a winged globe is sculptured, surmounting another on the architrave, as shown in the elevation of the pronaos. The crowning tablet or fillet is quite plain and unornamented. Angular roofs are unknown in ancient Egyptian buildings, and consequently pediments are unknown in its architecture. The temple at Edfoo, though its dimensions are con siderable, is small when compared with that at Karnak. This covers about 420,000 feet, or five times as much as St Paul s, London, and more than twice as much as St Peter s at Home. The propylon is 370 feet long, or twice as much as that of St Paul s. The hypostyle hall, 1 a parallelogram of about 342 feet long, and 170 feet wide, is the most wonderful apartment in the world. It has fourteen rows of columns, nine in each row, and 43 feet high ; and two rows, six in each, of the enormous height of 62 ft., 11 ft. 6 in. in diameter, and carrying capitals which measure 22 feet across. This hall (with the two gigantic pylones) is said to cover 4000 superficial feet more than St Paul s. Beyond it is the adytum or shrine, a small apartment, measuring only 26 feet by 16 feet. In many cases the temples want the peribolus and propylsea, the edifice consisting of no more than the pronaos and the parts beyond it. In others, particularly in those of Thebes, this arrangement is doubled, and there are two pairs of the colossal moles, and another open court or second vestibule intervening between them and the portico. The central line across the courts is formed by a covered avenue of columns, of much larger size than ordi nary ; and the galleries around are of double rows of columns instead of one row with the walls. The obelisks indicated in the plan and section of Edfoo (Plate VII.), before the propykea, occupy the situation in which they are generally found, though in this case there are none. Colossal seated figures are sometimes found before the piers of the gateway ; and from them, as a base, a long avenue of sphinxes is frequently found ranged like an alley or avenue of trees from a mansion to the park gate, straight or winding, as the case may require. STATUES. Connected with the temples, and forming an important part of their decorative features, were gigantic 1 So called by Diodorus Siculus, because the middle ranges of columns, with the roof, &c., are higher than the side parts, and admit light by a range of windows opening over the side roofs, something like the clerestories of our cathedrals. Flo. 23. Sitting Figure of Memnon. statues and obelisks. The statues are of enormous pro portions. The sitting figure of Memnon is about 53 feet without the pedestal ; and that in the sepulchre of Osy- mandyas (the Meinnoniurn) is nearly 60 feet high. The face of Memnon is 7 feet high, and the ear 3 feet 6 inches long, and the shoulders mea sure nearly 26 feet across. OBELISKS. The obelisks of Egypt are generally huge monoliths of red granite or syenite. Their use originated, no doubt, in the custom of setting up stones to commem orate particular events. The Egyptians embellished these stones, first, by working them to a fine face, and afterwards by covering them with carv ings. They stand frequently in pairs before the propylon of the temples, as at Karnak and at Philse. After the conquest of Egypt the em perors transported many of these monuments to Home. At the time the celebrated Regioniaries (accounts of each of the wards or Begiones of Rome) were written, there were six great obelisks, and forty-two small ones at Rome. Of these twelve only are now left, varying in height from over 100 feet to 8| feet. The first, which now stands close to the church of St John Lateran, is 148 Roman palms in height, or a little over 108 English feet, is about 8 feet square at the base, and weighs, as is estimated, nearly 450 tons. It is covered with hieroglyphics, from which we gather it was erected in honour of Thothmes IV. It stood originally before the temple of Amen Ra, and was brought over by Caligula. Each obelisk diminishes equally towards the top that near the Lateran, 253 part of the base; that at St Peter s, 261 ; two at Thebes, -3 ; and the one near S. Maria Maggiore, 307, or nearly one-third. The diminution from the base may therefore be estimated roughly at from one-quarter to one-third. The Barberini obelisk is about 7f times as high as the diameter of the base ; Cleopatra s needle, 8^- ; the one at St Peter s 9 times, at Luxor 10 times, at the Lateran 11 times; while two at Thebes, and one in the Piazza JSTavona at Rome, have an altitude of no less than 12 times the diameter of the base. The obelisks have no entasis or swell from top to bottom like a column, but in almost all cases there is a slight convexity on the horizontal section of each face. The one in the Place de la Concorde at Paris has the peculiarity of being convex on one side, and slightly concave on an other. In all ancient examples, the small pyramid which covers the obelisk is at least ! times as high as the diameter of the top of the obelisk in which it is placed. In modern examples the pyramidion is almost always too flat, which gives a bad effect. Obelisks appear to have been used in con trast with the long horizontal lines of the temples ; so that wo are unable to judge of the effect produced by these gigantic monoliths, when placed in their original positions, for the few examples in Rome, Paris, &c., are isolated and have nothing near them to contrast them with. The enormous labour and care expended upon the Egyptian obelisks may bo judged from the fact, that the largest one at Karuak, which weighs 297 tons, must have been lifted out of the quarry, lowered into a ship, raised out of this into a car riage, transported more than a hundred miles on land, and

Obelisks.