\ 
 
 

 
o: U R T 
 
DESCRIPTION OF 
 
 THE EGYPTIAN COURT; 
 
 ERECTED IN THE 
 
 CRYSTAL PALACE. 
 
 BY 
 
 OWEN JONES, 
 
 ARCHITECT, 
 
 AND 
 
 JOSEPH BONOMI, 
 
 SCULPTOR. 
 
 WITH AN HISTORICAL NOTICE OF THE MONUMENTS OF EGYPT, 
 By SAMUEL SHARPE, ESQ. 
 
 Author of “ The History of Egypt.” 
 
 CRYSTAL PALACE LIBRARY; 
 
 AND 
 
 BRADBURY AND EVANS, 11, BOUVERIE STREET, LONDON. 
 
 1854. 
 

 ■ 
 
 
 
 ‘ 
 
 ' 
 
 BRADBURY AKD EVANS, 
 rlUXTERS TO THE CRYSTAL PALACE COMPANY, 
 WBI1EPRIARS. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 The authorities which have served for the reproduction 
 of portions of various Egyptian monuments forming the 
 “ Egyptian Court,” are a series of original drawings and 
 measurements which I made on the spot in 1833, in 
 company with the late Jules Goury ; and the published works 
 of Sir Gardner Wilkinson, Champollion, and others. 
 
 I have also had the invaluable aid of Mr. Joseph Bonomi, 
 who passed ten years in Egypt, from 1824 to 1834, studying 
 the sculpture and hieroglyphics ; and who has ever since been 
 exclusively occupied with Egyptian art. 
 
 Mr. Bonomi has thus been able to reproduce in the 
 “Egyptian Court” that peculiar character of sculpture, 
 which those who have visited Egypt will at once recognise. 
 To those hitherto unacquainted with the original monuments, 
 the labours of Mr. Bonomi will furnish some idea of the 
 exquisite beauty, refinement, and grandeur of Egyptian art; 
 which most published works, and the hitherto attempted 
 reproductions more especially, have failed to give. 
 
 The vast scale of the monuments of Egypt, compared with 
 the space at our command, absolutely prevented any attempt 
 at the reproduction of a single monument, or even a 
 portion of one, of the real size. The monuments forming the 
 
4 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 “ Egyptian. Court” must therefore be regarded as models on a 
 cons'iderably reduced scale. In order that we might convey 
 in our limited space the best possible idea of Egyptian art, 
 we have selected portions of monuments of the Pharaonic, 
 Ptolemaic, and Roman periods, endeavouring at the same time 
 so to arrange them that their union should not be incon¬ 
 sistent with the practice of the Egyptians; whose structures 
 were very rarely the work of one mind, but rather a succession 
 of temples, courts, and propylons, built under different kings. 
 There are many monuments in Egypt which present intervals 
 as great in the period of the construction of their several 
 portions, as do the various monuments which have been 
 reproduced in the “Egyptian Court.” 
 
 Egyptian architecture, or rather Egyptian art,—for painting, 
 sculpture, and architecture are so intimately united that 
 they are inseparable,—is the parent of every other. Un¬ 
 doubtedly the most ancient, its remains are still the most 
 abundant. The Egyptians built for immortality and obtained 
 it. Whilst obedient to religious laws, which limited the 
 direction of their art, they combined the highest sublimity 
 of conception with the most refined and delicate finish of 
 execution. While they originated, they excelled at the same 
 time all that followed after; they are inferior only to them¬ 
 selves. In every other nation, art exhibits in its progress 
 the same phases, namely, a rapid ascent from its infancy 
 to the culminating point of perfection, from which there 
 is a slow lingering decline : but in Egypt, the farther we 
 go back the more perfect is the art; we are not even 
 acquainted with its culminating point, much less with any 
 trace of its infancy. In the most perfect temples which 
 have been discovered, there are stones built in the 
 walls with hieroglyphics on the inner side, of a higher 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 5 
 
 character of art than can be found on existing monuments. 
 These were evidently stones from ruins of more ancient 
 buildings. 1 
 
 The sculpture of Egypt was regulated by the religious laws 
 of this peculiar people, and remained through ages unchanged 
 in its general forms. Its artistic character, however, was 
 constantly in a state of decline from the earliest known 
 examples, through the Ptolemaic period to the Roman. At 
 this latter period it was practised without feeling or love, merely 
 on the traditions of the past; and it then partook more of the 
 nature of a mechanical art, the peculiar grace and refinement 
 of the earlier periods giving place to coarseness and vulgarity. 
 
 The execution of the sculpture by Mr. Bonomi in the 
 “Egyptian Court,” possesses a character of an intermediate 
 stage between the Pharaonic and the Ptolemaic period. He 
 has not been able to attain to the perfection of the Pharaonic 
 period, but he is yet far above the Ptolemaic. 
 
 It may be interesting here to state the manner in which 
 these bas-reliefs and hieroglyphics have been executed. The 
 more so as it may help to explain how the Egyptians were 
 able to cover their vast monuments with ornamental sculpture, 
 to such an extent that the examination even of their ruins 
 excites our wonder and astonishment. 
 
 In Egypt, however, little now remains a mystery ; we have 
 not only found the tools with which they worked, but almost 
 know even how and by whom they were used. The carving 
 of his tomb out of the solid rock appears to have been the 
 care of an Egyptian king during the whole of his reign; and 
 according to the number of years he remained upon the throne, 
 
 1 The most perfect specimen of Egyptian Art we remember to have seen is 
 the tomb which Dr. Lepsius removed from the neighbourhood of the Pyramids, 
 and now in the Berlin Museum. 
 
6 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 so would appear to be the extent of the tomb : he went on 
 adding chamber to chamber, diving deeper and deeper into 
 the earth, till summoned by the “ devastator of palaces and 
 houses” to occupy it. It therefore happens that these tombs 
 are scarcely ever complete ; side by side with chambers 
 finished and decorated, we have others in various stages of 
 progress,—some half tunnelled in the rock, others with the 
 rock brought to a smooth surface, prepared for painting and 
 sculpture; some partially carved, others carved and partly 
 painted; so that, in a succession of chambers, we have the 
 whole process which each in its turn had to undergo. 
 
 The wall was first chiselled as smooth as possible, the 
 imperfections of the stone were filled up with cement or 
 plaster, and the whole was rubbed smooth and covered with 
 a coloured wash ; lines were then ruled perpendicularly and 
 horizontally with red colour, forming squares all over the wall, 
 corresponding with the proportions of the figures to be drawn 
 upon it. The subjects of the painting and of the hieroglyphics 
 were then drawn on the wall with a red line , most probably by 
 the priest or chief scribe, or by some inferior artist, from a 
 document divided into similar squares; then came the chief 
 artist, who went over every figure and hieroglyphic with a black 
 line , and a firm and steady hand, giving expression to each 
 curve,—deviating here, and confirming there, the former red 
 line. The line thus traced was then followed by the sculptor. 
 In this stage there are instances of a foot or head having been 
 completely sculptured, whilst the rest of the figure remains 
 in outline. The next process was to paint the figure in the 
 prescribed colours ; and in some cases the painted line deviates 
 from the sculptured line, showing that the painter was the 
 more important workman, and that, even in this last process, 
 no possible improvement was omitted. There are other 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 7 
 
 instances where a considerable deviation from the position of a- 
 leg or arm has been made after the sculpture was finished and 
 painted; the part was recarved and the defective portion 
 filled in with plaster, which having since fallen out furnishes, 
 us with this curious evidence of their practice. 
 
 The whole of this may be seen in various tombs at Thebes> 
 but in none so well as in that discovered by Belzoni, and 
 which bears his name; the diagram shows a portion of the wall 
 of a tomb squared out with lines, with the figures sketched 
 upon it. An erect figure was divided into nineteen, and a 
 sitting figure into fifteen portions. 
 
 In our reproductions a similar process has been followed, 
 The subjects were first drawn out by squares from the autho¬ 
 rities, and transferred to slabs of plaster, then corrected by 
 Mr. Bonomi, who has performed the office both of high priest 
 
8 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 and chief artist, and finally carved by a very small band of 
 mechanics under his supervision and guidance. The facility 
 which, after constant practice on the same ever-recurring lines, 
 some of these workmen have obtained of preserving the 
 peculiar character of Egyptian art, is very remarkable; and 
 helps us to understand how, by the division of labour, those 
 vast undertakings of Egypt were accomplished. 
 
 Crystal Palace. 
 June , 1854. 
 
 OWEN JONES. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 PREFACE . 3 
 
 AVENUE OF LIONS.13 
 
 HIEROGLYPHICS AND THEIR INTERPRETATION . . . . 14, 15 
 
 TEMPLE OF DENDERAH .......... 17 
 
 TEMPLE OF MEDINET HABOO ........ 18 
 
 SCULPTURED PROCESSIONS OF THE PHARAOH RAMSES . . . . 18 
 
 HALL OF COLUMNS.19, 54 
 
 TEMPLE OF KARNAC.22 
 
 TEMPLE OF HABOO-SIMBEL.23, 56 
 
 PORTICO OF PHILiE . . . . . . . . . . 26 
 
 INNER EGYPTIAN COURT.28 
 
 COURT OF AMUNOTHPH III.29 
 
 TOMB FROM BENI-HASSAN.30 
 
 PORTICO OF DENDERAH . . . . . . . .32 
 
 CORONATION OF RAMSES II. . . . . . . . . . 34 
 
 TEMPLE OF THE MENMONIUM ........ 34 
 
 SKETCH OF THE HISTORY OF EGYPT . . . . . . . 35 
 
 DESCRIPTION OF THE PYRAMIDS ....... 36 
 
 PYRAMID OF CHEOPS.36 
 
 PYRAMID OF NEF-CHOFO ......... 37 
 
 STATUE OF THE SPHINX . . . . . . . . . 38 
 
 TEMPLE OF OSIRTESEN ......... 40 
 
 TOMBS OF BENI-HASSAN.41 
 
 INVASION OF THE PHOENICIANS.43 
 
 REIGN OF QUEEN NITOCRI3.44 
 
 ERECTION OF THE OBELISKS.45 
 
 REIGN OF THOTHMOSIS III.46 
 
 REIGN OF THOTHMOSIS IV. ........ 47 
 
 STATUE OF MEMNON.48 
 
 TEMPLE OF LUXOR.49 
 
 COLUMN OF PAPYRUS BUDS.50 
 
10 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 TOMB OP OIMENEPTHAH I. ........ 51 
 
 CONQUESTS OF RAMSES II. . . . . . . . . 52 
 
 EGYPTIAN ART COMPARED WITH THE ASSYRIAN AND GREEK SCHOOLS . 57 
 
 VALLEY OF THE TOMBS OF THE KINGS. 60 
 
 THE FALL OF THEBES. 61 
 
 HIEROGLYPHIC OF THE CONQUEST OF JUDAH . . . . . . 61 
 
 REVIVAL OF ART IN EGYPT. 62 
 
 EGYPT CONQUERED BY THE PERSIANS . . . . . . . 62 
 
 BECOMES PART OF THE GREEK KINGDOM OF ALEXANDER THE GREAT . 62 
 
 REIGN OF THE TTOLEMIES. 63 
 
 TEMPLE AT PHIL.®. 64 
 
 THE ROSETTA STONE .......... 65 
 
 STUDY OF THE SACRED HIEROGLYPHICS AND ITS RESULTS . . .66 
 
 TEMPLE OF EDFOU ........ . . 67 
 
 BUST OF THE “LADY IN THE LOTUS”. 68 
 
 EGYPT BECOMES A ROMAN PROVINCE . . . . . . . 69 
 
 LIST OF EGYPTIAN KINGS. 70 
 
THE EGYPTIAN COURT. 
 
FACADE |-| T QW ^ B . |-1 THE NAVE N?l 
 
 □ CZ] 
 
 PLAN OF THE EGYPTIAN COURT. 
 
 FACADE N2XY 
 
THE EGYPTIAN COURT. 
 
 We propose to accompany the visitor in a rapid walk through 
 the Egyptian Court, chiefly with a view of pointing out the various 
 features of our reproductions, and explaining the sources from 
 which they are derived, leaving to Mr. S. Sharpe, in his historical 
 notice, to make a more detailed examination of the inscriptions, 
 paintings, and statues. By following the numbers marked on the 
 plan, the visitor will more conveniently become acquainted with 
 the “Egyptian Court.” 
 
 We approach the Egyptian Court from the nave by an avenue 
 of lions, which are cast from a pair in 
 the British Museum, known as Lord 
 Prudhoe’s Lions, and brought by the 
 present Duke of Northumberland from 
 jebel birkel. They are of a very 
 fine character of art, and may be con¬ 
 trasted with advantage with any other 
 than Egyptian attempts at represent¬ 
 ing this noble animal, which was a 
 favourite and companion of Egypt’s 
 Pharaohs. If these lions are contrasted 
 with the lions of Canova, which have 
 been considered among the finest works 
 of that artist, the superiority of the 
 Egyptian idealised form over the at¬ 
 tempted imitation of a natural lion 
 carved in stone, will be very apparent. 
 
 THE FACADE OF THE COURT TOWARDS THE NAVE. (NO. I.) 
 
 Is a reproduction of a portico of the Ptolemaic period. 
 
 run nm 
 
14 
 
 THE EGYPTIAN COURT. 
 
 Over the three entrances of the facade is the winged globe, 
 the usual protecting divinity of entrances ; between, within the 
 cartouches, are the names of her Majesty, and his Royal Highness 
 Prince Albert, in hieroglyphics which may be thus read :— 
 
 The blue, green, and red stripes between the cartouches are 
 commonly employed to decorate the Egyptian curvetto, they are 
 most probably intended for feathers, emblems of royalty. 
 
 On the frieze is the following inscription :— 
 
 >;<£HDI 
 
 e< In the 17th year of the reign of her Majesty, the ruler of the waves, 
 
 35 ansa t ui 
 
 the royal daughter Victoria lady most gracious, 
 
 the chiefs, architects, sculptors, and painters, erected this palace 
 
 kj n IK in Ik ill 
 
 and gardens with a thousand columns, a thousand decorations, 
 
 IK^I /I! 1! IK M 
 
 a thousand statues of chiefs and ladies, a thousand trees, a 
 
 IK f IK Vi S IK 
 
 thousand flowers, a thousand birds and beasts, a thousand 
 
HIEROGLYPHIC INSCRIPTION. 
 
 15 
 
 1 
 
 E53 
 
 
 
 Pi 
 
 fountains 
 
 (tanks), and 
 
 a thousand vases. 
 
 The architects, and 
 
 urn 
 
 wii 
 
 +rt m 
 
 
 painters, 
 
 and sculptors 
 
 built this palace 
 
 as a book for the 
 
 * 
 
 i i i 
 
 • i i 
 
 O 
 
 Q O 
 
 instruction of the men and women of all countries, regions, 
 
 and districts. May it be prosperous.” 
 
 This inscription reads from left to right, and occupies the whole 
 length of the fa 9 ade. The same inscription, with amplifications, 
 is again repeated round the three sides of the outer court ; it 
 begins over the centre opening, and with the additional sentence, 
 “ life, stability, and purity,” reads from the right to the left, and 
 from the left to the right. 
 
 LIFE. 
 
 STABILITY. LIFE. STABILITY. 
 
 On the abacus of the capitals are the names of Ptolemy and 
 Berenice. 
 
 The capitals and columns of this fa<jade are copied from the 
 best specimens of the order in various parts of Egypt, and their 
 succession or arrangement, from the portico at Edfu, the finest 
 
16 
 
 THE EGYPTIAN COURT. 
 
 Ptolemaic structure now existing. According to the usual 
 practice, the two centre capitals are the richest, the two next less 
 elaborate, the two last represent the palm. Various examples of 
 all these kinds of capitals are found throughout the buildings of 
 the Ptolemaic period. 
 
 The palm-leaf and lotus capitals seem to be an introduction of the 
 Ptolemaic times, which we cannot trace directly from the Pharaonic 
 period ; they appear suddenly with the Ptolemaic buildings, but the 
 intermediate stages or transitions from the more ancient capitals, 
 cannot be traced, although we may find on Pharaonic buildings flat 
 representations of lotus leaves, 1 similarly arranged in groups or 
 bunches, yet nowhere do they take the solid form as in the 
 Ptolemaic buildings. This order was adopted during the Roman 
 period to the complete exclusion of the Pharaonic types, and it is 
 remarkable that the Romans, unlike the Greeks, added no new 
 element to Egyptian art ; their masonry was generally more per¬ 
 fect than the more ancient buildings, but art rapidly declined, and 
 the sculpture especially became debased. 
 
 Shafts of the columns.—The lines of blue, red, and green, 
 which descend from the capitals, represent the stems of the buds 
 and flowers which are bound together by the horizontal bands 
 of blue and white ; below these the rings, or cartouches, containing 
 the names of Berenice and Ptolemy, separated by the ureus , or 
 sacred snake. 
 
 The palm-leaf capitals occupy the whole space from the abacus to 
 the horizontal bands, and there is at the side a remarkable loop 
 in these bands, which occurs in no other order ; below these are 
 the hieroglyphics,„signifying “life, stability, power.” 
 
 On the panels on the pilasters, forming the angles of the facade, 
 
 1 They seem to he compounded of bundles of papyrus in different stages of 
 growth, in the way we find that plant represented on the dado or base of the 
 walls of the temples, and in representations of papyrus groves in the pictures 
 on the walls of the tombs.—J. Bonomi. 
 
TEMPLE OF DENDERA. 17 
 
 are representations of the king making offerings to the divinities of 
 the temple. 
 
 Below are the names of the Crystal Palace Directors, in hiero¬ 
 glyphics. On the dwarf walls between the columns on each side the 
 central entrance, is represented the king, conducted by two of the 
 principal divinities of the temple into the first court; on the other 
 walls the king offering gifts to the other divinities of Egypt; at 
 the base of the wall is the papyrus plant, to intimate that the 
 foundation of all knowledge was the art of writing ; for by means 
 of books formed from the papyrus, knowledge was preserved and 
 transmitted to future generations. 
 
 The entrances between the columns were strengthened by a piece 
 of massive construction, reaching above the level of the dwarf walls, 
 and extending inwards, for sustaining the weight of the heavy 
 gates, and preventing damage to the adjacent columns ; the two 
 valves of the gate turned back against the jambs, when open. 
 In the portico of the Temple of Dendera the stone in which the 
 upper pivot of the gate was inserted is of black granite, and so 
 likewise was probably the lower pivot, although the temple is 
 otherwise entirely of sandstone. 
 
 The gates were frequently of wood, with the pivots of bronze, 
 and sometimes entirely of wood, as we know from specimens in the 
 British Museum, and we read that they were sometimes entirely of 
 bronze . 1 
 
 The diagram will explain this admirable contrivance, which is 
 
 1 There was, fifteen years ago, an entire valve of hard black stone to be seen 
 in the tombs of the Hebrew kings near Jerusalem.—J. Bonomi. 
 
 c 
 
18 
 
 THE EGYPTIAN COURT. 
 
 still in use in the East. At the two extremities of one side of the 
 valve were two rounded pivots,—that at the upper cylindrical, 
 that at the lower conical. The upper one was inserted into a hole 
 of the same form, but as much deeper as would be required to lift 
 the valve into its place, or out of the lower socket. The difference 
 in the form of the upper and lower pivot was essential to the 
 steady movement of the valve ; the upper, being subject to friction 
 round its sides only, whilst the lower one, besides the lateral 
 friction, had to bear that caused by the weight above. It is not 
 uncommon to find the green stains of the bronze in the granite 
 sockets, which are sometimes as much as six or eight inches in 
 diameter. 
 
 On entering the outer court (no. ii.) the sculptured picture on 
 the wall to the left is copied from a remarkable scene on the wall of 
 the second court of the temple of Medinet Haboo. The Pharaoh 
 Ramses Mai Amun, the chief of the nineteenth dynasty, is seated 
 in his chariot, attended by his servants and fan-bearers, while the 
 royal scribes count over the number of hands cut from the slain. 
 The hieroglyphic signs, representing three thousand, are engraved 
 over the head of the scribe in each compartment. 
 
 Bands of long-bearded and long-robed prisoners, headed by two 
 of the king’s sons, and other military chiefs, are brought into the 
 presence of the king. Some of the prisoners are manacled, and 
 others have their arms tied in painful positions, and all are bound 
 by a cord passing round the neck of each, held by the chief who 
 heads each group. 
 
 In the compartments above these historical sculptures is repre¬ 
 sented a religious procession, in which the king is carried on his 
 throne of state on the shoulders of the royal pages, amongst whom 
 are his four sons. His throne is supported by Truth and Justice. 
 He is preceded by the military and civil chiefs of different orders, 
 before whom are musicians, and a herald, who proclaims from a 
 roll his names and titles. Two incense-bearers accompany the 
 herald. 
 
 The battle-scene on the opposite side of the Court represents 
 the besieging of a fortified city, belonging to a people called Shet, 
 or Sheto, in the inscriptions accompanying this representation ; 
 they are of an Asiatic race, with whom, it would appear, the 
 Egyptians at this period of their history (Ramses II.) had frequent 
 warfare. The besiegers are scaling the walls, from the top of the 
 earthworks which they have raised, under the protection of large 
 conical shields, in which operation four sons of the king take a 
 
HALL OF COLUMNS 
 
 19 
 
 conspicuous part, while two other of the royal family, in the 
 midst of the battle, are mercilessly slaying the enemy. Further 
 to the left, the great hero of Egypt, in his war-chariot, drives his 
 enemies before him, who, in vain, endeavour to gain the shelter of 
 the “fenced city.” On the highest tower of the citadel the 
 inhabitants already hold out the sign of capitulation, which is 
 possibly likewise signified by the standard of the pierced shield. 
 The chief of the Sheto and his charioteer are falling from their 
 car, wounded by an arrow from the bow of the Pharaoh, while 
 others are being crushed under the wheels of his chariot . 1 
 
 VIEW OP THE RAMSEION, THEBES. 
 
 FAQADE OF THE HALL OF KARNAC COLUMNS (NO. III.) 
 
 The facade of the hall of columns (no. iii.), towards the outer 
 court, is a reproduction of a portion of the Ramseion 2 at Thebes, 
 called by some writers the Memnonium, and by Hecatseus the 
 tomb of Osymandyas. The original colossi are thirty feet high, 
 
 1 One example of a man riding on horseback occurs in this sculpture, 
 as well as in some of the other representations of the same people ; but there 
 is no instance of cavalry in the army of the Pharaohs of this period.— 
 J. Bonomi. 
 
 2 Ramseion, a hybrid Greek form for the Egyptian Ei-en-Ramos, or abode 
 of Ramses.— Birch. 
 
 c 2 
 
HALL OP KARNAC, THEBES. 
 
HALL OF COLUMNS. 
 
 21 
 
 and represent Ramses under the type of Osiris, holding the crook 
 and flail, emblematical of his protecting care of his people and 
 of his power to punish the evil-doers, at the same time that they 
 may have been intended to recal the supposed pastoral and 
 agricultural origin of Egyptian civilisation. 
 
 On the frieze over the statues is the 
 dedication of that part of the building by 
 Ramses II. “ to Ammon Ra, the king of 
 the gods,” copied from a temple at Thebes, 
 built by that Pharaoh, and dedicated to 
 that divinity. 
 
 The columns of this gallery are taken from 
 the Hall of Columns in the Temple of 
 pr * A # « i « p- Karnac. The diagram will 
 * •**••••! best explain the 
 l-f »m m » proportion which 
 Hall of Columns. our model bears 
 to the original, and a reference to 
 the plan of the Karnac Hall will 
 show how small is the portion we 
 have been enabled to reproduce. 
 
 The column, the original of 
 which is forty-seven feet high, 
 represents a single stem and bud of the papyrus, which, at the 
 same time that it is conventionalised and suited to bear the 
 
 Ramseion, 
 
 Thebes. 
 
 O O • O Q O 
 
 • O O O • Q 
 
 O O • O o © © 
 
 0 0 0 0 0 0 9 
 
 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 9 
 
 O Q O • O 9 Q 
 
 0 0 0 9 0 0 0 
 
 .. 
 
 O Q © 0 
 @90 
 © © 
 
 © © © © © © © 
 
 Q Q Q Q O Q Q 
 
 ® o o o © © ® 
 
 © © ® @ © © 
 
 © © © © © © © 
 
 O © 0 © 0 © 0 
 
 Hall of Columns, Karnac. 
 
 massive architrave, stones, and roof of the hall, still retains the 
 
22 
 
 THE EGYPTIAN COURT. 
 
 characteristic features of the plant. At the base of the shaft are 
 the leaves, which envelope that part of the stem of the plant. 
 
 On the plain space of the bud is the name and title of the suc¬ 
 cessor of the king who began this part of the Temple of Karnac ; 
 below the bud, and hanging down the upper part of the stem, are 
 sculptured and painted the various coloured fascia with which 
 probably the papyrus stems of the primitive temples were bound 
 together ; below the fascia is a representation of Oimenepthah I., 
 or Osirei (b.c. 1604), offering various gifts to the three principal 
 divinities of Thebes ; below these, and between the leaves at the 
 base, is the figure of the Phoenix as a bird with human arms, 
 to signify the return of a period or cycle of so many years, which 
 happened during the reign of the Pharaoh whose name accompanies 
 it, which addition was made to the columns of Karnac at that 
 period, as well as the names round the plain part of the bud. 
 The abacus, or square block between the architrave and capital, 
 was also sculptured with the name of the Pharaoh in whose reign 
 that period or cycle returned. The architraves are sculptured 
 with the hieroglyphics of the dedication of the temple. This part 
 of an Egyptian temple was called by the Greeks “ Zoophoros,” 
 from its bearing the figures of so many 
 animals, the figurative representatives of 
 the gods of Egypt, as well as forming the 
 letters of the alphabet. 
 
 The ceilings of the Hall are decorated 
 with a representation of the vulture with 
 outspread wings, the usual decoration of 
 the main avenues of the temples of the 
 Pharaonic period. The vulture bears in 
 its claws the single-featherd fan, carried 
 behind the king, as well as the ring 12. 
 The less important parts of the ceiling 
 are decorated with stars. 
 
 Passing through the centre avenue of 
 the Hall of Columns into the inner court, 
 and looking towards the nave, we have 
 
 ^ \ FACADE (no. V.) 
 
 The columns of this facade are repro¬ 
 duced from the side columns of the 
 Great Hall of Karnac, and bear to the original the proportion 
 exhibited in the diagram. They are of the most usual order 
 
TEiirLE 0? ABOO-SIMBEL. 23 
 
 of the temples of the period of Ramses II., the Sesostris of the 
 Greeks. 
 
 Many of the great works begun in the reign of this Pharaoh 
 were finished or usurped by his immediate successors, particularly 
 Ramses IV., whose name appears in the curvetto moulding of 
 this part of the building. On all the columns of one side the 
 centre avenue of the Hall of Columns at Karnac, this Pharaoh’s 
 name, carved over the blue, red, green, and yellow stripes which 
 existed, adorned the columns in the previous reign. 
 
 The subject on the wall to the right is usual in this situation, 
 and on the wings of the great propylce ; it represents the king, 
 with the assistance of the chief divinity of Thebes, Ammon Ra, 
 destroying all the enemies of Egypt. Our picture is taken from one 
 in the interior of the Temple of Aboo-Simbel, and chosen for being 
 the fullest and most complete representation of this subject. Below 
 the feet of the king is a list of his conquests to the east and 
 north of Egypt; above, the king offering to the principal divinities 
 of the temple. 
 
 On the left wing, or flank of this portico, is represented the 
 youthful Sesostris defeating, single-handed, three Asiatic chiefs. 
 This picture is also taken from the interior of the Great Temple of 
 Aboo-Simbel ; but the same subject is sculptured on the east wall 
 of the Temple of Karnac, and there attributed to Oimenepthah I. 
 Below this group is a list of conquests made to the south of Egypt. 
 Above, the king offers a libation and incense to the gods of Egypt. 
 
 Turning round, and on the centre axe of the Egyptian Court, 
 we face the 
 
 MODEL OF THE TEMPLE OF ABOO-SIMBEL (NO. VI.) 
 
 This model represents the facade of an ancient temple which 
 exists in Nubia, at a place called by the Arabs, Aboo-Simbel, 1 in 
 22° 20' north latitude. It was excavated from the rock by 
 Ramses III. the Great, by some considered the Sesostris of the 
 Greeks, b.c., 1565. 
 
 The facade is 117 feet long and 100 feet from the cornice to 
 the base. The colossi are sixty-one feet high, and represent 
 Ramses seated on a throne in an attitude of repose, covered by 
 the Pschent or crown of Upper and Lower Egypt, and the royal 
 urceus ; on his shoulders, breast, and at the sides of the throne on 
 
 1 The ancient Egyptian name was Abshak, the Aboccis of the Roman 
 geographers.—S. Bikch. 
 
24 
 
 THE EGYPTIAN COURT. 
 
 which he is seated, are his name and titles. The temple was 
 dedicated to the god He, or Ha, the “ Sun,” who is represented in 
 the niche in the Gentre, hawk-headed, and having on his head the 
 circular disk of the luminary over which he presided. The statue 
 of the god is twenty feet high, and at his side stands the king, 
 Hamses, offering him a small statue of the Egyptian goddess, Mei , 
 or “ Truth.” The cornice is enriched with the names and titles 
 of the monarch ; above, a range of monkey-headed statues stand 
 on their hind-legs, with up-raised arms, as if in adoration of the 
 sun ; these animals being considered, in Egyptian mythology, the 
 good bards of the sun, and the adorers of that god. 1 
 
 VIEW OF THE TEMPLE OF ABOO-SIMBEL, IN NUBIA. 
 
 This temple was discovered by Burckhardt buried in the sand 
 
 1 The colossus on the right of the door has a piece of masonry reaching from 
 the edge of the seat to the elbow, bearing the name of Oimenepthah II., at 
 
ROCK TEMPLES OF NUBIA. 
 
 25 
 
 of the contiguous deserts, little more than the heads of the colossi 
 appearing; he suggested that it was the entrance of a temple, and 
 the sand was afterwards excavated by Belzoni, Captains Irby and 
 Mangles, and Mr Beechy, and an entrance into the interior 
 obtained. 
 
 On entering the door behind the thrones, is the principal Hall, the 
 roof of which is supported by eight colossal figures of the king, thirty 
 feet high. On the ceiling are flying vultures, such as may be seen 
 on the ceiling of our Hall of Karnac, and the walls are covered 
 with very beautiful paintings, representing Ramses in his war- 
 chariot, attended by a lion, invading the territory of the enemies 
 of Egypt. 
 
 It has been customary to imagine that rock-cut temples preceded 
 constructed buildings, and to have been the earliest attempts at 
 architecture ; but the rock-temples of Nubia contradict this 
 theory ; the interiors are all imitations of constructed buildings, 
 and would furnish evidence of their being later creations, 
 independent of the historical evidence on the monuments them¬ 
 selves. The positions they occupy on the banks of the Nile furnish 
 more than sufficient reason for excavating from the rock itself, 
 rather than constructing from stones cut from the rock : wherever 
 the valley of the Nile is narrowed, as in Nubia, by the mountains 
 approaching on either side, grandeur was obtained by using the 
 rock itself; where the Nile ran through a plain as at Thebes, 
 colossal monuments were required to be raised to obtain the same 
 effect. In Lower Egypt, where the plains were still more 
 extensive, the same feeling led to the erection of the Pyramids, 
 which formed beautiful objects in the horizon for forty miles 
 round. Our model is about one-tenth of the original. 
 
 Two of the figures are reproduced the full size of the 
 originals in the Sydenham transept. The heads of the figures are 
 moulded from a cast made in Egypt by Mr. Bonomi, for Robert 
 Hay, Esq., of Linplum, and presented by him to the British 
 Museum. 
 
 whose command the masonry was inserted to save the arm from falling down ; 
 a fissure in the rock at this part having taken place after the facade was 
 finished. The upper part of the colossus on the left-hand side of the door 
 has altogether slipt down, and is now buried in the sand at the foot of the 
 statue. On the leg of the last-mentioned colossus is an inscription in Greek, 
 engraved by the soldiers of Psammetichus III., at which time it is probable 
 the sand had already buried the feet of that statue, and reached to the chest 
 of the one in the angle to the right, a cast of the head of which was brought 
 to England by Robert Hay, Esq., of Linplum, in 1830, and presented to the 
 British Museum.— J. Bonomi. 
 
26 
 
 THE EGYPTIAN COURT. 
 
 The bodies of the figures have been increased by pointing from this 
 model, and built up in their places most skilfully by M. Desachy, 
 of Paris, assisted by a very intelligent body of French workmen. 
 The (full size) figures between the legs of the statues were modelled 
 by M. Monti. 
 
 Leaving the model of Aboo-Simbel, and turning to the left, we 
 have the 
 
 VIEW OP THE ISLAND OP PHIL.E. 
 
 PHILiE PORTICO (NO. VII.) 
 
 The island of Philse, represented in the woodcut, is a granite rock 
 1000 feet long, 200 feet in its broadest part, and 1800 feet in 
 circumference ; it is situated in the centre of the Nile at 24° 1' 28" 
 north latitude beyond the frontier of Egypt, and was called by the 
 ancient Egyptians, Men-lak, or the “ Place of the Cataracts by 
 the Copts, Pilak ; by the Romans, Philse; by some travellers Philoe, 
 and by the Arabs, Anas-el-Wogud, the Social Pleasures of Wogud. 
 On the island are a series of temples, pylons, and small shrines, 
 sacred to the worship of Osiris, Isis, and Athor : these were built 
 under Nectanebo, the last of the native monarchs, who reigned 
 B.c. 387, and added to under the Ptolemies. There are likewise 
 galleries and unfinished buildings erected under the Emperors 
 Augustus, Tiberius, and Claudius. 
 
 Our example is taken from a small portico within the first court 
 of the principal edifice. The capitals of the columns in the 
 original are varied in their design; some of them we have reproduced, 
 and others are from the best specimens of the order in other parts 
 
PORTICO OF PHILCE. 
 
 27 
 
 of Egypt, and present very charming varieties of the method of 
 arranging the papyrus flowers and buds. 
 
 On the architrave we have placed the names of Ptolemy Soter, 
 and Ptolemy Neiis Dionysus ; on the abacus of the columns and on 
 the shafts, that of Ptolemy II. and Arsinoe his wife; on the pilasters 
 are the figures of the divinities most commonly found on the build¬ 
 ings of the period, and in the lower panels the Pharaoh Sevek, the 
 So of the Scriptures, is offering gifts to the temple. 1 
 
 In the panels of the low wall uniting the pilasters to the adjacent 
 columns, is sculptured the figure of Osiris, the judge of the dead, 
 lord of Amenti, attended by Isis and ISTephthys, who veil him with 
 their extended wings. The four small mummified figures with 
 hieroglyphics before them, are the four genii of Amenti, the first 
 with the head of an ape, the second that of a jackal, the third of 
 a hawk, and the fourth of a man. 2 
 
 On the other side of the wall are three female divinities, in the 
 style of sculpture prevalent at the end of the Greek dynasty and 
 the beginning of the Roman. 
 
 On the left of the Philse Portico we leave the inner court 
 through the 
 
 DOORWAY, 
 
 against which we have placed the casts of the statue of Amenoph, 
 which exists in black granite in the British Museum. These 
 statues have been restored by Mr. Bonomi, and like all the others 
 attached to the Egyptian Court have been painted in accord¬ 
 ance with the usual mode of colour of the Egyptians. Traces of 
 colour may be seen on the granite and other statues in the British 
 Museum, and there can be little doubt that, whatever the material, 
 the statues of Egypt were always painted. The material had not 
 for them the same value which it has in our eyes, and was chosen 
 not for its rarity, but for its superior durability and capacity for 
 
 1 It was with this Pharaoh that Hoshea, King of Israel, sought alliance 
 against the Assyrian monarch, Shalmaneser, b. c. 742. Besides several monu¬ 
 ments still existing in Egypt, bearing the name of this king, another most 
 remarkable collateral evidence of the important position which Egypt held 
 amongst the nations of the east at this period, as it did in more ancient times, 
 is the discovery of the impression of a seal, bearing the name of this Pharaoh, 
 in one of the chambers disclosed by the recent excavations in the large mound 
 opposite Mosul, called the “mound Kouyunjik.” The impression was made on 
 a flattened piece of fine clay, and said to have been attached to a parchment 
 document, which was probably a treaty between the Assyrian monarch and 
 the Pharaoh whose figure and name is engraved on this pilaster.—J. Bonomi. 
 
 2 In all the great mummy-fields, or ancient cemeteries of Egypt, these 
 figures, made in wax or porcelain, are invariably found with the mummy; 
 
28 
 
 THE EGYPTIAN COURT. 
 
 receiving fineness of workmanship. Passing through the doorway 
 we have the 
 
 ENTRANCE INTO THE INNER EGYPTIAN COURT (NO. IX.) 
 
 We have placed at this entrance casts of a colossal figure now 
 existing in the Royal Museum at Turin. They represent Oimene- 
 pthah II. as bearer of the standard. The arts had greatly declined 
 in the reign of this Pharaoh, and, for some reason or other, the square¬ 
 eared figure which occurs in the name of this king and that of his 
 predecessor, has been defaced in all the monuments throughout 
 Egypt, or it was converted, as in the Flaminian obelisk in the Piazza 
 del Popolo at Rome, into the hawk-headed figure. The little 
 figure on the top of the staff or standard which he bears in his 
 left hand had been purposely broken, but has been restored by 
 Mr. Bonomi. 
 
 The statue is in the attitude of walking, and in the prescribed 
 position, the left leg being in advance of the right. No statue has 
 ever yet been discovered in which this order was not observed. 
 
 Passing up the side of the Egyptian Court we have 
 portico (no. x.) 
 
 The columns of this portico are taken from the temple of Philae, 
 they represent four full-grown papyri, and four of the same plant 
 in a less advanced stage of growth ; eight small full-grown, and 
 sixteen buds of the same plant, arranged as they are in the dados 
 at the base of the portico. 
 
 On the frieze over the columns is an inscription of Tiberius 
 Caesar, as also on the abacus of the two columns. 
 
 sometimes within the cavity of the chest, sometimes in the folds of the linen 
 bandages. 
 
 Four jars are not unfrequently found in the chamber of the mummy, the covers 
 of which are contrived with the different heads ; they are supposed to have 
 contained mummified portions of the body, over which the four genii presided. 
 
COURT OF AMUNOTHPH III. 
 
 20 
 
 On the shaft of the columns are representations of the Emperor 
 Tiberius offering gifts to the divinities of Egypt; in the compart¬ 
 ments of the door-jambs are the names of Cleopatra and her son 
 Csesarion, by whom the Greek and Roman sovereignity of Egypt 
 is connected. On the wall at the side is the name of Pharaoh 
 Necho, the last native king of Egypt mentioned in the Bible, and 
 who was contemporary with Josiah (b.c. 623). 1 
 
 This mixture of the names of kings of different periods in our 
 reproductions is not so inconsistent as it may at first sight appear ; 
 we have been anxious to bring together whatever could merit 
 interest and instruct, and therefore could not be confined to repro¬ 
 ducing any monument in the exact form in which it appears in 
 Egypt; for it was so customary for one king to efface the name of 
 another and add his own, to pull down and add to the monuments 
 of his predecessor, retaining portions of them, that as many 
 varieties of dates occur on the same monument as may be found 
 in our reproductions. We now come to the 
 
 COURT OP AMUNOTHPH III. (NO. XI.) 
 
 This portico is arranged with columns of the real size ; they are 
 cast from one now existing (in black granite) in the British Museum, 
 bearing the name of Amunothph III. It probably belonged to a 
 temple in lower or middle Egypt, as granite columns are not now 
 found above the region of the Faioum, and probably never were 
 in use in the Thebaid. They represent eight buds of the papyrus 
 plant bound together in the usual manner. About half-way down 
 the stem is engraved the name of the Pharaoh with his titles and 
 prsenomen; and it may be here remarked, as this inscription testifies, 
 the name in the second ring has been inscribed over something 
 
 1 It was during the reign of Josiah that the Pharaoh whose name appears 
 on this wall, “went up against the King of Assyria to the river Euphrates,” 
 in which expedition he was opposed by the King of Judah, whom he slew 
 at Megiddo, and deposed his successor, Jeoahaz, whom he led captive to- 
 Egypt, “and put the land to a tribute of an hundred talents of silver, and a 
 talent of goldbut the influence which this Pharaoh exercised over the 
 neighbouring country of Judah, was soon to give way to that of Assyria. In 
 the works of art of this age, there is considerable elevation of style, and 
 perfection of execution. To this period belong the obelisk in the Piazza 
 Monte Citorio in Rome, and some tablets in the British Museum. Of the- 
 Persian conquest of Egypt, which followed within the same century, there are 
 no large monuments, but tablets and inscriptions bearing the name of 
 Cambyses and his successors, till Amyrtseus, whose sarcophagus is in the 
 British Museum. From the last-mentioned Pharaoh to the Greek Kings, 
 there are no monuments of importance now existing in Egypt.—J. Bonomi- 
 
30 THE EGYPTIAN COURT. 
 
 previously obliterated, as is the case wherever these two rings 
 are found throughout Egypt. Besides this evidence of ancient 
 forgery in this inscription, the shaft and the two sides of the 
 abacus of the original column are sculptured with the names of a 
 later Pharaoh ; but as these names are injurious to the effect of 
 the column they have been obliterated. 
 
 The triangular form of the papyrus stalk v is retained in the 
 eight divisions of the shaft, by a slight ridge up the centre of each. 
 
 FACADE OF THE OUTER EGYPTIAN COURT FROM THE COURT OF 
 AMUNOPH (NO. XII.) 
 
 This facade has two entrances into the outer Egyptian Court; 
 the side-parts of the gates to the left, bear the name and titles of 
 the great Ramses ; but the upper lintel of the gate, to the right, 
 that of Ramses III. the builder of Medinet Abou, and that to the 
 
 TOMB FROM BENI-HASSAN (NO. XIII.) 
 
 left, of Ramses I. The figure in a running position, at the comer 
 of the lintel stone, represents the king hastening to offer a libation 
 
TOMB OF BENI-HASSAN. 
 
 31 
 
 to the gods; this is the usual subject on the lintels of the entrances 
 to the temples of this period. 
 
 Above the dado are the figures of Nilus bearing the productions 
 of Egypt. The Egyptians personified the Nile by the figure of a 
 young person bearing a tray, loaded with the productions of the soil 
 fertilised by that stream, and of which the prolific nature is 
 intimated by the form of the bearer. 
 
 Above these figures are the curious tablets of a race of kings, who 
 appear to have been dedicated to the worship of the Sun. 
 
 A little image of Te-mai, the Goddess of Truth, or Justice, is a 
 very common offering made to the divinities by the Pharaohs of 
 the eighteenth dynasty, and is consequently to be seen in many of 
 these representations. 
 
 This tomb is a model of a portion of a tomb at Beni-Hassan, 
 where there is a variety of tombs remarkable for their high anti¬ 
 quity ; having been executed for the deposit of high functionaries of 
 government, during the rule of the supposed sixteenth and seven¬ 
 teenth dynasties. 
 
 Two of the principal sepulchres have an open portico, supported 
 by fluted columns, without base or capital; they have been termed 
 by Champollion, “Protodoric,” and supposed to have been executed 
 two thousand years before the Christian era. 
 
 Although cut out of the rock they are in imitation of constructed 
 buildings, and show the very early origin of the Greek doric column 
 and order. The paintings in the interior are the most interesting 
 in Egypt ; they are representations of domestic life, and of the 
 various arts and occupations of the Egyptians. One of the most 
 interesting of the scenes represents a royal scribe unfolding a 
 papyrus, upon which is registered the number (thirty-seven) of 
 captives from the Masthem or Masgem, foreigners presented to the 
 king by Nahai, son of Moumopth. 
 
 Passing through the tomb of Beni-Hassan, and re-entering the 
 Inner Court, and turning to the right, we have, opposite the 
 
 PORTICO AT THE ENTRANCE TO THE GREEK GALLERY (NO. XIV.) 
 
 The capitals of the columns of this small portico (or screen at 
 the entrance to the Greek Gallery) represent the lotus, or rather a 
 collection of those flowers of different sizes, ingeniously combined, 
 so as at the same time to present the appearance of a single 
 flower ; above, supporting the architrave, is the head of Athor, 
 the Egyptian Aphrodite, or Yenus, often confounded by the Greeks 
 
PORTICO OF DENDERAH. 
 
PORTICO OF DENDERAH. 
 
 33 
 
 with Isis. Her ears are those of the cow, because she was often 
 typified under that animal, her living emblem, and called “ the 
 great cow which engendered the sun.” On her head is a pylon , 
 or gateway, perhaps alluding to her name,—Hat-hor, the abode of 
 Horns. Similar columns are used in the Portico Denderah, 
 shown in the cut. 
 
 The vertical line of hieroglyphics on the front and back of the 
 shafts of the columns, is an inscription bearing 
 the name of Cleopatra Tryphsena. The inscrip¬ 
 tion on the architrave has the name of Ptolemy 
 Philometor. 
 
 On the pilasters are sculptured some of the 
 divinities of Egypt, as Amun, Athor, and 
 Neith. 
 
 The intercolumnar walls bear the name of 
 Pharaoh Shishak ; and on the pilaster to the 
 left hand (on leaving the Egyptian Court to 
 enter the Greek), is the turretted ring, sur¬ 
 mounted by the figure of an Asiatic prisoner. 
 
 These turretted rings contain the names of 
 provinces or countries; and the one from which 
 this is taken, Champollion discovered to con¬ 
 tain the characters constituting the words 
 
 Judah Melika, M J ^ U 
 
 ■ DraH- 
 
 A ^ * signifying 
 
 the kingdom of Judah, as the determinative sign, 
 
 for country or land, intimates. 1 On the other face of the inter¬ 
 columnar wall is a representation of Pharaoh Tirhakah, who 246 
 years after, opposed Sennacherib, the Assyrian monarch, who 
 threatened Jerusalem with invasion during the reign of Hezekiah 
 710 b.c. 
 
 FACADE TOWARDS THE GREEK COURT (XV.) 
 
 The lintel of the entrance to the left into the outer court bears 
 the name of Oimenephthah I., who is seen offering gifts to the 
 principal divinities of Thebes. The door-posts are occupied by a 
 successor of this Pharaoh, to whom likewise is attributable some of 
 
 1 This discovery is amongst the most interesting which the study of hiero¬ 
 glyphic writings has brought to light. We have in these few signs engraved 
 on a wall at Thebes an indisputable record of a fact recorded in the Book of 
 Kings, namely, the invasion of Judaea by the Egyptian monarch Shishak, during 
 the reign of Rehoboam, the son of Solomon, b.c. 956.—J. Bonomi. 
 
 D 
 
34 
 
 THE EGYPTIAN COURT. 
 
 the greatest works in Egypt. The tomb in the Biban el Molnk, 
 Thebes, discovered by Belzoni, was the tomb of Oimenephthah I., 
 and the sarcophagus now in the Soane Museum, once contained his 
 mortal remains. The sarcophagus, however, when discovered by 
 Belzoni, was empty ; the mummy had been removed by the first 
 invaders of the tomb, probably the Persian conquerors of Egypt. 
 
 The second gate to the left, leading into the same court, bears 
 the name of Ramses X., and the door-jambs that of his predecessor, 
 Ramses IX. The third door, under the Greek Gallery, and leading 
 into the Hall of Karnac, bears the name of Shishak I., the invader 
 of Judaea. 
 
 The subject on the wall to the right is the coronation of Ramses 
 II. by two divinities of Egypt. The subject and mode of treat¬ 
 ment is of great antiquity, and found on the walls of temples of 
 Amunoph I., the divinities only being changed for those more 
 revered at the time the original was executed. 
 
 The wall to the left of this door is occupied by a subject likewise 
 of frequent recurrence on the walls of temples of all ages ; it 
 appears to be the initiation of the king into the sacred mysteries. 
 The two divinities are pouring over the king, out of sacred vases, 
 a succession of emblems signifying Life and Power, as the Rosetta 
 
 stone interprets the signs 
 
 This ceremony is represented with great beauty on the right wall 
 of the second court of the temple of Medinet Abou. 
 
 The subject in the space between the two entrances to the Court 
 is found on a wall in a temple called the Memnonium, on the west 
 bank of the Nile, at Thebes. It represents the Great Sesostris, 
 bearing the insignia of royalty, seated with the divinity Atmoo, 
 and accompanied by the goddess of letters, and Thoth, the Ibis¬ 
 headed divinity (the Mercury of the Egyptians), who hold in their 
 left hands the palm-branch, terminating in the figure of the tadpole, 
 emblem of multitude ; while with their right hand they are occu¬ 
 pied in writing the name of the king on the fruit of a tree, which 
 is supposed to represent the Persea. 
 
 The last subject on this wall, to the left of the same entrance, 
 is a representation of the queen, Nofre Ari, wife of Ramses II., 
 crowned with the head-dress of the goddess Athor, by the two 
 divinities, Isis and Athor. 
 
 Crystal Palace, 
 June, 1854. 
 
 OWEN JONES. 
 
HISTORICAL SKETCH OF THE EGYPTIAN 
 BUILDINGS AND SCULPTURE, 
 
 BY SAMUEL SHARPE, 
 
 Author of the “ History of Egypt.” 
 
 The early history of Egypt, before the valley of the Nile became 
 a Greek state, is told in very few words. We find it 1700 years 
 before the Christian era divided into several little kingdoms, of 
 which Thebes was the chief in Upper Egypt, and Memphis in Lower 
 Egypt. In that state of division and weakness, a large part of it 
 was, after a time, made tributary by a body of Phoenician invaders, 
 who, from their wandering way of life, were called Herdsmen, or 
 Shepherds. 
 
 About 1550 B.c. the kings of Egypt united their forces and 
 drove out these Phoenicians. It was then that the Israelites settled 
 in the Delta. On this union of the several kingdoms, many of them 
 sunk under the power of Thebes. One king of Thebes conquered 
 Ethiopia, and within a century another married the queen of 
 Memphis ; and thereupon the whole of Egypt was brought under 
 one sceptre. The Israelites then quitted the country under the 
 leadership of Moses. Thebes then was the capital of the greatest 
 kingdom in the world. Its glory lasted for about 550 years ; and 
 its monuments during this period have made famous the names of 
 Thothmosis, and Amunothph, and Rameses. 
 
 From B.c. 1000 till b.c. 700, Egypt was weakened by civil war 
 and by the frequent removal of the chief power from the sovereign 
 priest of one city to the sovereign priest of another. The city of 
 Bubastis first rose to power, and a king of Bubastis gave his 
 daughter in marriage to Solomon, and afterwards conquered Judea. 
 The city of Tanis next rose to be the capital of Egypt. This was 
 at the time that Homer was writing his Iliad and Odyssey. The 
 city of Sais then gained the mastery, amidst the misery and ruin 
 that were brought about by these civil wars, and are so powerfully 
 
 d 2 
 
56 
 
 THE EGYPTIAN COURT. 
 
 described by the prophet Isaiah. And lastly, to complete the 
 misfortune, the country was conquered by the less civilised Ethio¬ 
 pians, who governed Egypt for forty years. Very few sculptured 
 monuments remain of these unsettled times. 
 
 The Ethiopian conquest, however, restored unity to the Egyptian 
 cities ; and in about the year b.c. 670, a king of Sais was acknow¬ 
 ledged as the sovereign of Upper and Lower Egypt. Under the 
 kings of Sais, Egypt enjoyed for 150 years a state of prosperity 
 equal to that which accompanied the early greatness of Thebes ; 
 and again temples were built and statues carved. A number of 
 Jews, on the conquest of their country by the Babylonians, again 
 settled in the Delta. The city of Heliopolis, where they chiefly 
 dwelt, became the most famous school of learning ; and the wise 
 men and writers of Athens eagerly came to Egypt in search of 
 knowledge. 
 
 In the year b.c. 523 Egypt was again conquered. Cambyses, 
 the son of the great Cyrus, made it a Persian province ; and in the 
 year b.c. 332, it became a Greek kingdom under Alexander the 
 Great and his successors the Ptolemies. As an introduction to a 
 review of Egyptian Art it is not necessary to carry the political 
 history further. 
 
 During the first ten centuries of the periods which we have thus 
 described, Egypt was far in advance of the rest of the world, 
 both in the arts of production and in the arts of civilisation. It 
 was the world’s teacher in everything that was worth learning, 
 except religious knowledge, which we owe to the Jews, and perhaps 
 astronomy, which may have come to us from Babylon. During 
 those years the Egyptians covered their land with most lasting 
 monuments of their progress in knowledge of many kinds, in the 
 form of pyramids, temples, obelisks, statues, sculptured figures on 
 the walls, and sculptured writing. So numerous and so rich, 
 indeed, are these monuments of the early ages, when all other 
 records are scanty and doubtful, that a history of the Egyptian 
 nation before its conquest by the Ethiopians is little more than a 
 history of its progress in Art ; a description of its sculptured monu¬ 
 ments is a description of its great actions. 
 
 Strange as it is to remark, the two great pyramids, the earliest 
 of the Egyptian buildings, are at the same time the largest ; the 
 oldest buildings in the world are still the largest in the world. 
 Chofo, a king of Memphis, called Cheops by Herodotus, was the 
 absolute monarch of a rich and industrious people, who occupied, 
 however, not one half of Egypt, and who could not have been 
 
THE PYRAMIDS. 37 
 
 three millions in number. He built one of these pyramids 
 as his tomb. Nef-Chofo, the next king, 
 built a second of nearly the same size. It 
 has been usual to consider that the largest 
 of these two pyramids was the oldest. 
 
 But surely it is more reasonable to suppose 
 that the later king, who certainly meant to 
 imitate the great work of the former, aimed 
 also at surpassing it. But now, since the 
 pyramids have been opened, we no longer 
 need trust to conjectures. The hieroglyphics found in the large 
 pyramid show that that which is first in point of size was not the 
 first in order of time. 
 
 The second in size of these two gigantic buildings is believed to 
 be a solid pile of stones all carefully squared. It stands upon 
 nearly eleven acres of ground. Its base is square, which is the 
 
 Fig. 3. 
 
 Fig. 1. Fig. 2. 
 
 Chofo. Nef-Chofo. 
 
 Fig. 4. 
 
 simplest of forms for stonework. Its four flat sides slope back¬ 
 wards, which gives to it the strongest of forms ; and they meet at 
 a point four hundred and sixty feet high. But nothing in its 
 design shows that the builder, when he began it, had determined 
 how large it should be. On the rocky ground, in the middle of 
 this mountain of stone, is a small chamber, roofed 
 with two sloping stones, and entered by a narrow 
 horizontal passage, of which the entrance was 
 carefully concealed in the masonry. Within that 
 chamber is the sarcophagus for the owner’s body. 
 
 In front of this pyramid lies the great Sphinx, 
 a huge statue partly built of stone, and partly 
 carved out of the rock. It represents a crouch¬ 
 ing lion with a man’s head. It is about one hundred and 
 
 Chamber. 
 
38 
 
 THE EGYPTIAN COURT. 
 
 eighty feet long from the fore-paws to the tail. This is at the 
 same time the oldest statue remaining to us, and the largest 
 
 Fig. 5. 
 
 that was ever made. How natural was it in later ages of less 
 industry and ambition, for people, when gazing at these wondrous 
 works, to suppose that men in days of old were of larger stature, 
 and of longer lives than themselves. 
 
 The builder employed by Nef-Chofo, evidently determined 
 that his pyramid shojild surpass the former, both in safety against 
 being opened, and in size. He began by tunnelling a passage 
 down into the rock, and forming a small chamber ninety feet 
 
 Fig. 6. 
 
 below the surface. Over this the pyramid is built. When the 
 stonework rose to the height of 135 feet, he built the chamber 
 for the sarcophagus. This was approached by a passage rising 
 from the ground at the spot where the former passage began to 
 descend. The builder then showed what a great size he meant to 
 give to his building by the care which he took lest the chamber in 
 the middle of it should be crushed by the weight which he was going 
 
THE PYRAMIDS. 
 
 39 
 
 to place upon the top of it. Over this chamber, which he covered 
 with a flat stone, he left four more spaces or 
 chambers, each covered with a flat stone, and then 
 a fifth roofed with a pair of sloping stones. Lest 
 the workmen should be troubled when they had to 
 return to the sarcophagus in this centre chamber, 
 he left air-passages reaching to the surface of the 
 pyramid. The building was then finished ; the body 
 was placed in the sarcophagus. By way of barring 
 the chamber against all future entrance, the work¬ 
 men closed it by means of a square block which 
 filled the whole passage. They probably shut some 
 of themselves in, and these men then let them¬ 
 selves down by a well from this upper passage into the passage 
 first made, ninety feet below the surface of the rock ; and thus 
 returned to the open air. The chamber under ground, which 
 is at a level with the bottom of the well, and 
 another small chamber at a level with the top 
 of the well, seem to have been made for the 
 use of the workmen in making good their retreat. 
 
 Lastly, the builder closed up the only entrance by 
 stonework, like the rest of the building. In form¬ 
 ing the passages, the builder took the same care 
 lest they should be crushed by the weights 
 overhead, as in the case of the chief chamber. 
 
 The chief passage, though only six feet wide, is 
 not roofed over without the help of eight advancing 
 courses of stone ; and the entrance is covered 
 with an enormous block which is again protected 
 by other yet larger blocks in the form of a sloping 
 roof. When broken open, the name of Nef-Chofo 
 was found painted on several of the stones. This 
 pyramid is about forty feet higher, and each side of the base 
 forty feet longer than the former pyramid. It is higher than any 
 tower, or column, or steeple, has ever been made. 
 
 To these two kings’ ambitious wish of making themselves 
 famous, to their religious care to keep their embalmed bodies safe 
 against the day of resurrection, and to the noble aim of the archi¬ 
 tects to make buildings more large, more lasting, and more grand, 
 than any that had yet been seen, we owe these greatest of works. 
 Such works bear the marks of a rude age ; but the men who could 
 produce buildings so simple and so grand were men of no ordinary 
 
 Fig. 8. 
 
 Passage. 
 
 Fig. 7. 
 
 Chamber. 
 
40 
 
 THE EGYPTIAN COURT. 
 
 minds. The pyramids naturally took their name from the Egyp¬ 
 tian words Pi-Rama, the Mountain. They stand, with a few 
 smaller pyramids, and countless other small tombs, on the low range 
 of Libyan hills which divides the sands of the desert from the culti¬ 
 vated fields near Memphis. 
 
 A gigantic causeway or road was built from the Nile in a 
 straight line towards the foot of the oldest pyramid, to help the 
 carriage of the huge stones. This causeway was afterwards 
 turned towards the pyramid of Nef-Chofo, when that was to be built ; 
 and this bend in the causeway clearly declares its change of 
 purpose, and which of these two pyramids was the second in age. 
 
 About the year b.c. 1650, a little before or a little after the 
 building of the pyramids, Osirtesen I., a king 
 Fi s- 9 * of Thebes, built the oldest of the temples in 
 
 that city. It was of no great size ; and when 
 the magnificence of later monarchs, by their 
 additions to it, produced the great Temple of 
 Karnak, this old temple of Osirtesen formed 
 the inner sanctuary. Its columns were simple 
 pillars of sixteen sides, of five diameters in 
 height. Each side is slightly fluted. It may 
 be called the polygonal column. Egypt is a 
 country with very little timber, but with very 
 good building stone of several kinds ; and the 
 origin of its architecture must be sought in its quarries. When 
 the workmen, digging into the side of a limestone 
 Fig. 10 . hill, and carrying away the blocks of stone to the 
 river’s side, found their cave getting larger, and fan¬ 
 cied that the roof was becoming unsafe, they left a 
 square block standing to uphold the mass over head. 
 As they worked further into the rock, they left other 
 blocks of the same size standing, at such distances 
 as the hardness or softness of the stone over head 
 required. These were the earliest Egyptian columns. 
 When the caves out of which the stone was 
 taken, were used as tombs, and several such tombs 
 were made side by side on the face of the hill, 
 the blocks of stone between their doorways formed 
 a row of columns, and this was the first portico. 
 When the roof of the cave was soft and crumb¬ 
 ling, it was sometimes upheld by a beam which rested on 
 the top of a column built up for the purpose. This beam, 
 
 Osirtesen I. 
 
OBELISKS AND TOMBS. 
 
 41 
 
 when imitated in stone, became the architrave. Thus in the rocky 
 cave, or quarry, we find the first traces of many of the forms in 
 
 Fig.11. Fig 12. 
 
 View of a Stone Quarry. Tombs near Thebes. 
 
 Egyptian architecture. Of course the Greek architect may have 
 copied his Doric column from seeing the trunk 
 of a tree used in his own country to uphold the 
 roof of a cottage. He need not certainly have 
 boiTOwed this useful and agreeable form from 
 Egypt; but the Egyptian columns are ten cen¬ 
 turies older than any known in Greece. 
 
 The oldest of the obelisks was also made in the 
 reign of Osirtesen. That standing on the ruins 
 of Heliopolis was made by order of this king, 
 who, together with Thebes, held the strip of 
 country on the east side of the Nile, even to 
 the Delta. An obelisk is a tall square shaft, or 
 needle of stone ; those in Egypt are all of a 
 single block, and this is sixty-seven feet high. 
 
 In this reign also, or earlier, were begun the 
 tombs of Beni-Hassan, near Antinoopolis, which 
 are grottos tunnelled into the hills, and in which 
 the older columns are of the simplest form, 
 having either four, or eight, or sixteen sides. 
 
 The walls of these tombs are covered with coloured 
 drawings, in which we see many of the cere¬ 
 monies that took place at the funeral, and from which we 
 glean some knowledge of their religious opinions. In some of 
 the paintings we see the trades, manufactures, and games ; indeed, 
 all the employments of life; painted as if to teach us the great moral 
 lesson that the habits of this early people were much the same as 
 
 Fig. 13. 
 
42 
 
 THE EGYPTIAN COURT. 
 
 our own, and that three or four thousand years make less change 
 in manners than we usually fancy. 
 
 In the Crystal Palace is a room built in imitation of one of these tombs 
 of Beni-Hassan. A shallow open cave in the face 
 of the rock has its roof upheld by two of the 
 simplest columns, each with eight flat sides. These 
 form the portico. Behind these is the entrance, 
 or doorway. The tomb itself is a square dark 
 room, measuring 22 feet by 22. Four columns 
 uphold the roof. They have each sixteen sides. 
 Every side is slightly fluted, except one in 
 each column, which bears a line of hieroglyphical 
 writing. The roof is not quite flat; it is orna¬ 
 mented with false beams, as if of wood resting on 
 the columns. If the rock over head were soft and 
 crumbling, such wooden beams would be wanted 
 to save it from falling in ; but in the caves of 
 Excavated Tomb. Beni-Hassan the rock is too firm to need support in 
 the space between the columns. Nevertheless the 
 architect thought such beams ornamental, and has imitated them in the stone. 
 This room in the Crystal Palace, has three more doorways, which, while they 
 add to the convenience of the visitor, lessen the effect of the tomb. 
 
 But centuries before the pyramids were built at Memphis, 
 centuries before Osirtesen’s temple was built at Thebes, or the 
 tombs of Beni-Hassan hollowed out of the rock, the Egyptians 
 had been busy upon sculpture, and had discovered that most 
 curious and valuable of arts, the art of writing by means of 
 hieroglyphics. They had not indeed invented an alphabet. Had 
 the art been so far improved under their care, Egyptian hiero¬ 
 glyphics would hardly be so instructive to us as they are. As the 
 art was left in its infancy, we are able to trace its growth and 
 almost its origin. 
 
 A picture or carving on the wall is easily understood. A head means 
 ahead ; a mouth, a mouth ; and an owl, an owl. (Fig. 16.) But by 
 means of such simple pictures they could not write about thoughts, 
 feelings, or qualities of men and bodies. By such pictures they 
 could not write the names of persons, of countries, or number the 
 days and years. The first step towards overcoming this difficulty, 
 the first great improvement in the art, was to use the picture not 
 for the object itself, but for its name. By this they gained the 
 means of writing a sound or syllable. Thus a head was the syllable 
 pe ; a mouth, ro ; an owl, mo. On the temple walls we find 
 several hundreds of figures so used for syllables ; and by the help 
 of such the priests found no difficulty in writing any words they 
 
INVASION OF THE PHCENICIANS. 
 
 43 
 
 chose. The next step was to use these characters for letters, and 
 not for syllables. The character for PE, became the letter P ; the 
 character for HO, the letter R, and so forth. This 
 was the invention of an Alphabet. Thus far the 
 Egyptians went. But they did not complete their 
 invention. When they began to use letters they did 
 not discontinue to use syllables. They did not them¬ 
 selves carry the art further, by making it more simple. 
 
 They left it to their Hebrew slaves to discover that it 
 was better to use a small number of these characters, 
 rather than indulge in the more ornamental variety of hundreds. 
 But in this art, as in many others, it was more difficult to make 
 a beginning than an improvement. And when we think of the 
 kind feelings and the thirst of knowledge that have been both 
 awakened and gratified by letters, and of the power that we now 
 enjoy in our libraries, of calling before us the wise of all ages to 
 talk to us and answer our questions, we must not forget the debt 
 which we owe to the priests of Upper Egypt. 
 
 The prosperity of these early times was checked, as already 
 mentioned, by the invasion of the Phoenicians. 
 
 A body of warlike plundering Arabs, wandering 
 herdsmen in their way of life, called Phoenician 
 shepherds, took possession of several towns on 
 the east side of the Delta, and made the 
 Egyptian cultivators of the soil pay tribute for 
 the enjoyment of their own harvests. The 
 division of Egypt into several states was the 
 cause of its weakness. But at length the 
 common suffering brought about union. The 
 various states united their forces under the 
 leadership of Amosis, king of Thebes ; and in 
 about the year jb.c. 1450, they drove the Phoenicians out of Egypt. 
 
 This war against the Phoenicians taught the Egyptians the 
 advantages of union. Many of the little kingdoms at this time 
 sank under the sway of either Thebes or Memphis. Thebes in 
 particular was the chief gainer by the change. From this time we 
 find Upper Egypt rising in wealth and power, and its kings 
 approaching to the rank of sovereigns of Egypt; and though we 
 are still told the names of the kings of Memphis, they seem to 
 have been sometimes under the sceptre of the kings of Thebes. 
 With Amosis began that great family of Theban kings whose build¬ 
 ings have so long been the wonder of the world. Their temples 
 
 Fig.16. 
 
 Chebra Amosis. 
 
 Fig. 15. 
 
 ^ P 
 
44 
 
 THE EGYPTIAN COURT. 
 
 and colossal statues are the models from which the Greeks copied, 
 while their obelisks even now grace the cities of those nations 
 which rose when Egypt fell. The walls of these buildings were 
 covered, outside as well as in, with hieroglyphical inscriptions, 
 containing the praises of their kings and gods ; the characters 
 formed part of the architectural ornament, and were always so large 
 and clear, that anybody passing by in a hurry, even if he were 
 running, could read them. 
 
 Amunothph I. (Fig. 17.), the next king, made some small addi¬ 
 tions to the Temple of Karnak; but the improving state of the arts in 
 his reign is best shown in the paintings and sculptures on the walls 
 of the tombs near Thebes. In one, the artist has represented a funeral 
 procession in boats, where the grieving friends are carrying a 
 mummy, with various pious offerings, to the place of burial; 
 
 Fig. 17. 
 
 Amunothph I. 
 
 Fig. 18. 
 
 Fig. 19. 
 
 u 
 
 © 
 
 another tomb has its roof strengthened by a vault of unbaked 
 bricks, a form of building which approaches very 
 Fig. 20 . nearly to the true arch. 
 
 In the reign of Mesphra Thothmosis I., 
 Egyptian art made yet further progress. He 
 added to the Temple of Karnak, and set up two 
 obelisks in front of it. His statue in the 
 Museum of Turin is the earliest known to us 
 after the great Sphinx. 
 
 Mesphra Thothmosis II., who reigned about 
 B.c. 1340, united Egypt into one kingdom by his 
 Nitocris. marriage. He was a king of Thebes, and he mar¬ 
 
 ried Nitocris (Fig. 20), the last queen of Memphis. 
 Queen Nitocris governed the kingdom with great splendour in the 
 name of her husband. She added to the Temple of Karnak, and set 
 
 
 n 
 
REIGN OF NITOCRIS. 
 
 45 
 
 up in one of the courts the two loftiest of the Egyptian obelisks, 
 each of one single stone, ninety-two feet high. She built also a 
 new temple at the foot of the Libyan hills, which was the first 
 that was built on the west side of the river. A straight road, 
 sixteen hundred feet long, between a double row of sphinxes, leads 
 from the first gateway of this temple to the door of the courtyard ; 
 three hundred and fifty-five feet further up a sloping paved road, 
 is the granite doorway into the inner court, through a wall, in 
 front of which stand sixteen polygonal columns, that once upheld 
 the portico ; and three hundred and fifty feet further is the second 
 granite doorway into the small vaulted rooms and chambers 
 tunnelled into the side of the hill. The vaults of the ceilings are 
 cut out of the flat stones ; for though the form of the arch had 
 been admired, its principle was not yet understood. 
 
 Of these early buildings every new temple, or part of a temple, 
 was grander than the last. The architects were truly great men. 
 They can have borrowed from nobody. They drew from the store¬ 
 house of their own mind, and brought forth conceptions grand 
 beyond all that had yet been seen. They discovered many of the 
 rules by which is produced the sublime in Art. They were above 
 the use of trifling ornament. They felt the dignity of their calling. 
 They had to do honour to their gods, and to raise the thoughts of 
 their fellow-worshippers towards heaven. And the later Egyptian 
 temples, which were copied from their works, are the world’s 
 models for solemn grandeur in architecture. 
 
 S. 1. in the Egyptian court is a statue of king Mesphra, or Thothmosis II., 
 hut the name on the throne is not without its difficulties, as it was used in this 
 form only on the monuments of Memphis and Lower Egypt. At one time the 
 inscription declared that this was the statue of king Mesaphra Sabacothph. 
 But at some later period, the second name was chiselled out as we now have 
 it, leaving however traces of the characters, which may yet he seen hy a 
 practised eye. Sahacothph was an Ethiopian who conquered 
 Egypt about the year b.c. 737 ; whereas this statue is one of the 
 oldest we possess, and certainly made many centuries earlier 
 than his reign. Hence it is probable that it was made for 
 Mesphra Thothmosis, and that the name of Sabacothph was 
 chiselled out to give it back to its true owner. The hieroglyphics 
 are published in “Egyptian Inscriptions, 2nd Series, Plate 38.” 
 
 This sitting figure is seven feet nine inches high above the 
 pedestal. His long hair is tied into a tail, and hangs down 
 behind, as is usual with the kings. He wears only his under¬ 
 garment, a short wrapper, reaching from his waist not quite to 
 his knee. The figure is in good proportions, being about seven 
 heads high. But the fingers and toes are straight and unformed, 
 rest open on the knees. The shins are sharp. There is no trace of the fibula, 
 which we see marked on the legs of the statues a little later. 
 
 Fig. 21. 
 
 Mesphra. 
 Both hands 
 
46 
 
 THE EGYPTIAN COURT. 
 
 After tlie death of Thothmosis II., queen Nitocris continued to 
 govern Egypt during the minority of the next king, Thothmosis III. ; 
 and for him and for herself she seems to have built the third and 
 fourth pyramids near Memphis. But this subject is not without 
 its difficulties. The historian Manetho says that she 
 built the third pyramid. Herodotus says that it was 
 built by king Mykerinus. When opened these two 
 were both found to contain the name of king Mykera. 
 (Fig. 22.) And we may perhaps reconcile these seem¬ 
 ing contradictions, by remarking that the queen’s first 
 name (Fig. 20.), is also Mykera, and hence the same 
 may have been also borne in Memphis by his wife and 
 colleague on the throne. This third pyramid shows a 
 great change in the state of the arts in Memphis. Size was no longer 
 
 valued so much as workmanship, 
 and this pyramid was beautifully 
 cased with hard granite from the 
 other end of Egypt. But one pur¬ 
 pose of the building seems to have 
 been forgotten by the builder. Its 
 size added to the monarch’s glory, 
 but not to the safety of his body : 
 for the sarcophagus was placed 
 in a chamber cut in the rock 
 which, though under the middle 
 of the pyramid, was entered by 
 a sloping passage from without ; 
 hence the body was not more 
 safe or more difficult of approach 
 in consequence of the mass of stonework which was built 
 over it. 
 
 The sculptures in the reign of Thothmosis III. (Fig. 24.) (b.c. 1320) 
 clearly declare the extent of his sway. He held all Egypt and 
 part of Ethiopia, from the copper mines at the foot of Mount Sinai, 
 to the gold mines of the Nubian desert. He was one of the 
 greatest of the Egyptian kings. The obelisk called Cleopatra’s 
 Needle was made in his reign, as also was that which now ornaments 
 the city of Constantinople. 
 
 The paintings in the tombs near Thebes, which were made 
 in the reign of Amunothph II. (Fig. 25.), b.c. 1300, the next 
 king, are among the most beautiful in Egypt. The vases and 
 borders are equal to any works of the same kind in Greece or 
 
 Fig 22. 
 
 Mykera. 
 
TEMPLE OF LUXOR. 
 
 47 
 
 Etruria. Amunothph II. was probably the Pharaoh in whose 
 reign Moses led the Israelites out of Egypt through the Red Sea. 
 
 Fig. 24. 
 
 Fig. 25. 
 
 Pharaoh was simply his title, being the Egyptian words Pa-Ouro, 
 the King. 
 
 In his statue, S. 2., he is represented as kneeling, and in the act of 
 offering to some god the two globular vessels which he holds in his hands. 
 He wears the royal helmet ornamented on the forehead with the asp, the 
 sacred serpent, called also the basilisk, and the urceus. On his belt is written 
 his name, “ The Priest Amunothph II.” for all the kings were at the head of 
 the priesthood. His countenance is not the usual Egyptian face ; and may 
 have some attempt at a portrait. He has a beard. The shoulder is well 
 formed ; the toes spread with the weight of the body. The original is in the 
 Museum of Turin. 
 
 Thothmosis IV., the next king, b.c. 1280, built a small temple 
 between the fore-legs of the great Sphinx near Memphis, and 
 on the wall we see the king in the act of worshipping the huge 
 
 Fig. 
 
 VLLS£ 
 
 ¥ 
 
 Thothmosis IV. 
 
 Fig. 27. 
 
 Amunothph III. 
 
 monster. He also built a temple at Napata, the capital of Nubia, 
 five hundred miles above the cataracts, the natural boundary of his 
 own kingdom. 
 
 On arriving at the reign of Amunothph III., b.c. 1260, we are 
 
48 
 
 THE EGYPTIAN COURT. 
 
 able to produce far more numerous specimens of Egyptian art. 
 The earlier works have not only suffered from their greater age, 
 but probably many were purposely removed to make way for newer 
 and better. But that is now no longer the case. JNo better 
 buildings or statues were afterwards made in whose favour those 
 of Amunothph III. were removed. Egyptian art had in his reign 
 almost reached its greatest excellence. His best known statue, 
 indeed, the statue best known in Egypt, is the celebrated musical 
 colossus, called the Memnon. It is one of two great figures, each 
 above fifty feet high, sitting side by side in the plain opposite to 
 Thebes, every morning casting their long shadows on the white 
 Lybian hills, and having their feet washed every autumn by the 
 inundation. They sit in front of a small temple built by this 
 king. The most northemly of the two is the sacred statue, and 
 after the fall of the city it was visited by travellers as one of 
 the chief wonders in that wonderful country, to hear the musical 
 sounds which it uttered every morning at sunrise. As a work of 
 sculpture it was, probably, when perfect, not unlike the smaller 
 statues of the same king ; though not quite so good in its propor¬ 
 tions, as it is too short in the waist. From these smaller statues, 
 which are numerous, we can better learn the state to which the 
 arts had then reached. Their attitudes are simple, and whether 
 sitting or standing, they are in straight lines. They look straight 
 forward. If they are standing the hands hang down on each side ; 
 if sitting, they rest on the knees. The bodies are without motion; 
 the faces are without expression, and make but little attempt at 
 the portrait. The hands and feet are badly formed, the beard 
 stiff, the limbs round, with only a few of the larger muscles 
 marked, and the drapery is without folds. But nevertheless there 
 is a great breadth in the parts, a justness in the proportions, and a 
 grandeur in the simplicity. At a little distance the faults are not 
 seen ; and there is nothing mean or trifling to call off the eye from 
 judging the whole. 
 
 S. 3, is a sitting statue of this king, eight feet six inches high. It is in 
 the best style of Egyptian art, well proportioned, quiet and grand. The 
 knee is well formed, the fibula is marked down the leg. He wears no 
 crown or helmet, hut the asp as an ornament on his forehead. The hair is 
 tied behind. The face has been much broken. It is in the usual style 
 of this king’s statues, of which there are a good many remaining, hut is 
 better proportioned than the musical colossus and its fellow, which are both 
 too short at the waist. 
 
 At some later time, on some change in religious politics, the word “Amun,” 
 the first half of his name, has been chiselled out. If we may judge from 
 
TEMPLE NEAR MEMPHIS. 
 
 other inscriptions, this was done at a time when the god Mandoo usurped 
 Amun’s rank and place at Thebes. We have inscriptions in which we can 
 observe that Mandoo’s name, after having been first improperly cut in, has been 
 afterwards cut out again, and Amun’s name restored to its original place. The 
 original is in the British Museum. The hieroglyphics on it are published in 
 “Egyptian Inscriptions, 1st Series, pi. 24.” 
 
 S. 4, is a small standing figure of a priest of Amun, rather less than life. 
 He wears a leopard’s skin over his dress. The skin is ornamented with stars 
 in the place of spots, and bears the name of King Amunothph III., in whose 
 reign this priest lived. The head and claws of the animal are used - as orna¬ 
 ments. The priest wears sandals. His hair is in the matted style of the 
 Nubians. The original is in the Museum of Turin. 
 
 The six noble crouching lions, S. 5, which form an avenue by which the 
 Egyptian Court is entered from the nave of the Crystal Palace, are also of this 
 reign. They are taken from the original pair in the British Museum, cut in 
 red granite. 
 
 Amunothph III. placed these lions as an ornament to his palace at Napata, 
 now called El-Barkel, the capital of Ethiopia, and about 600 miles higher 
 up the Nile than Thebes, the capital of Egypt. They are of Egyptian 
 granite, and beautifully cut by Egyptian artists in a style far superior to any 
 works made in Ethiopia. Napata remained subject to Egypt till the year b.c. 
 523, when Egypt was conquered by the Persians. Ethiopia then declared itself 
 independent, and Cambyses, the Persian king, was defeated in his attempts to 
 conquer it. A king named Amun-Aseru then reigned in Napata. But he is 
 wholly unknown to history, and his name is only saved to us by its being 
 rudely carved on the necks of these lions. 
 
 S. 6, is the sitting figure of a cat-headed goddess, named Pasht, whom the 
 Greeks called Diana. Her head is ornamented with the Sun. She wears the 
 tight transparent robe, the one garment of the Egyptian ladies. Her hands 
 are on her knees; the right is open, and the left holds the character for Life. 
 On her throne is written the name of king Shishak, who lived about the 
 year b.c. 990 ; but as we possess several statues of this goddess in exactly the 
 same style, which bear the name of Amunothph III., we are able to pronounce 
 that this was made at the same time with the others, and that Shishak had 
 his name cut upon a statue which had been made nearly 300 years earlier by 
 Amunothph III. The original is of black basalt, and is in the British 
 Museum, where it pay be compared with some which bear the earlier name of 
 Amunothph III. 
 
 Among the temples built by King Anmnothph III. the most 
 important is that of Luxor, in Thebes. Its plan was that of most 
 of the Egyptian temples, and, like many others, it has been altered 
 by later additions. It consisted of, first, a covered building con¬ 
 taining the inner sanctuary and a number of small rooms, into 
 which the priests alone entered (marked a in fig. 28) ; secondly, a 
 portico more lofty than the building itself ( b ) ; thirdly, a court¬ 
 yard (c), in front of the portico, which was surrounded by a 
 colonnade ; and fourthly, of a yet larger portico ( d ) in front of 
 the courtyard, which, being as deep as it is wide, is called the 
 Hall of Columns. This was the temple of Luxor before the time of 
 
 E 
 
50 
 
 Rameses II. 
 
 THE EGYPTIAN COURT. 
 
 This latter king added a second yard (e), in front of 
 
 Fig. 28. Fig. 29. 
 
 the Hall of Columns, a little larger than the former. The whole 
 will be understood by the plan. The columns round Amunothph’s 
 courtyard, and also those of the inner portico, are formed of a 
 cluster of eight shafts or eight stalks of the papyrus plant, tied 
 together by several bands. On the top of each is an unopened bud 
 of the same plant. The eight buds form a capital to the column ; 
 and it may be named, the Column with Eight Papyrus Buds. 
 
 In the most southerly of the Egyptian Courts the columns are of this order, 
 and formed out of eight papyrus stalks and buds. On every column is the 
 king’s name and titles in hieroglyphics, and they show the place where the 
 word “ Amun” had at some early time been cut out for religious reasons, and 
 afterwards cut in again. The original column is in the British Museum, 
 and is of granite. It is the only granite column known of so early a 
 date. It also bears the names of King Pthahmen Miothph and Osirita 
 Ramerer, who reigned five and seven reigns afterwards. They probably 
 removed it from Amunothph’s temple to make use of it in some newer temple 
 which they were building. It was afterwards removed to Alexandria to 
 ornament that Greek city, and thence brought to London. 
 
 On the architrave above the columns is an inscription in honour of this 
 king, used as an architectural ornament. It is published in “Egyptian 
 Inscriptions, pi. 24.” On the top of the cornice is a fringe of sacred asps ; 
 and underneath is the winged sun and king’s name. On the head of each 
 column, the king is styled, Beloved by Horus, Guardian of the Palaces. 
 
TOMB OF OIMENEPTHAH. 
 
 51 
 
 Amunmai-Anemneb, the next king, may have begun to reign 
 about the year b.c. 1230. 
 
 S. 7, is a group of two figures representing this king standing by the side 
 of his patron god, Amun-Ra, who is sitting. The god 
 has a beard, and wears his usual tall head-dress. His 
 hands are on his knees : the right is open, the left holds 
 the character representing Life. On his throne is written 
 the king’s name and titles ; “ The priest, the lord of the 
 'world, the son of the sun, lord of battles, Amunmai- 
 Anemneb, beloved by Amun-Ra, the giver of life.” The 
 king, who is standing, wears his hair on his shoulders, 
 and a beard. His forehead is ornamented with the sacred 
 asp. His name is written on his belt. His only garment 
 is the apron round his waist. 
 
 These two figures are not so good as many that are of 
 an earlier date. The faces, if original, are very peculiar, 
 and in the nose very unlike the usual Egyptian counte¬ 
 nance. That of the king must be meant for a portrait; and 
 the god is made like him. But as the toes of the king’s left foot have been broken 
 off, and some later artist has inserted a new block into the place in readiness 
 for a restoration, it is not impossible that the faces may have been injured 
 and restored in the same way. The original group is in the Museum of Turin. 
 
 The character here translated Battles deserves notice, because students of 
 hieroglyphics have more often translated it Diadem ; but a 
 comparison between the sentence translated by Hermapion in 
 “Ammianus,” and countless inscriptions, prove that his words, 
 
 Victorious Lord, or Lord of Battles, is the translation of the 
 annexed group. What object the last character represents is 
 doubtful; but as Misi is the Egyptian for victory, we ought 
 to find it carrying that sound with it when used in names. And 
 . accordingly such is its force in the name of JJfesa-phra Thothmosis, in fig. 18. 
 Its sound in the king’s name confirms the meaning given to it in the group 
 above. 
 
 Oimenepthah I. (b.c. 1200) is well known to us from his tomb, 
 near Thebes, which is the most beautiful in 
 Egypt, and was opened by the enterprising 
 Belzoni, in our own days, in the same state of 
 freshness as when closed on the death of its 
 owner. The walls of the large caverns made 
 for this king’s embalmed body are covered with 
 painted and highly finished sculptures, repre¬ 
 senting several curious fables. On the sarco¬ 
 phagus, belonging to the late Sir John Soane, 
 which was taken from this tomb, there is a 
 drawing of the Eternal Serpent, and also of the 
 conquerors of that great enemy of the human race, who bear along 
 its lengthy folds in solemn procession. There, also, within a 
 
 e 2 
 
 Fig. 32. 
 
 MV 
 
 4 
 
 m 
 
 Oimenepthah I. 
 
 Fig. 31. 
 
 Fig. 30. 
 
 
 & 
 
 n® 
 
 
 
 Anemneb. 
 
52 
 
 THE EGYPTIAN COURT. 
 
 garden, are seen the river which divides Life from Death, and the 
 Bridge of Life, and the keepers of that important bridge. There, 
 also, are the tombs of the dead, their doors, and the keepers of 
 those doors. The god Osiris is there sitting to judge mankind, 
 who are mounting up the steps of his lofty throne ; and before 
 him are the great scales to weigh the conduct of the dead. A 
 wicked man is being carried in a boat across the river back again 
 to earth in the form of a pig, while others are condemned to 
 work as slaves in the mines beneath his feet. 
 
 On every column in the Hall of Columns is this king’s name over his 
 figure, worshipping the Trinity of Theban gods. Herodotus tells us that in 
 Egypt the men wore two garments, and the women only one ; and these dresses 
 are well understood from the painted figures on these columns. The god wears 
 the man’s under garment, an apron tied round his loins. The king wears the 
 two garments ; and as the large outer dress is transparent, the under garment 
 is seen through it. The goddess wears the single garment of the women. 
 
 Ramses II. (b.c. 1170) was the greatest of the Egyptian kings. 
 
 His conquests reached from Meroe, within the 
 tropical rains in the south, to the mountains 
 of Armenia, which checked his march on the 
 north. And as the buildings raised in every 
 country are usually the largest where the 
 monarch’s sway is the widest, so we find the 
 architecture and sculpture with which he orna¬ 
 mented his capital and the other Egyptian 
 cities surpass, in quantity and in beauty, those 
 of any other kin g. 
 
 To Amunothph III.’s temple of Luxor, 
 Rameses added a new courtyard, surrounded 
 by a colonnade ; and, as is shown in the ground-plan (fig. 28), 
 it was built with that remarkable neglect of regularity which is so 
 common in Egypt. It has in front the two huge pyramidal 
 towers so characteristic of the Egyptian temples. Such, we may 
 suppose, were the two pillars named Jachin and Boaz, which 
 Solomon built in front of the court of the altar in his temple. 
 
 Rameses also built a new temple on the west side of the Nile, 
 opposite to Luxor. This was by the Greeks called the Memnonium; 
 and as it was dedicated to the god Amun-Ra in the name of his 
 father the late king, it was also called the Tomb of Osymundyas. 
 It consisted of two pyramidal towers, then a first courtyard, sur¬ 
 rounded by columns ; then a second courtyard, also surrounded by 
 columns ; then a great hall of columns ; and, lastly, several small 
 
 Fig. 33. 
 
 
 
 Kameses II. 
 
TEMPLE OF KARNAK. 
 
 53 
 
 chambers or sanctuaries. Such was the plan of a temple at this 
 
 Fig. 34. 
 
 Fig. 35. 
 
 time thought most suitable for the ceremonies and use of the 
 priests. It was in order to make the old Temple of Luxor more 
 nearly agree with this plan that Raineses added to it the new 
 courtyard and the towers, as in fig. 28. 
 
 When we have entered the first Egyptian Court in the Crystal Palace, the 
 facade which then fronts us is copied from one of the sides in the inner court 
 of the Memnonium. The architrave is supported by a row of eight square 
 pillars ; in front of each stands a colossal statue of the king in the form of a 
 m umm y, with the legs and arms closely bandaged, and holding 
 in one hand the sacred whip, and in the other a short 
 crosier. These are the emblems of the god Osiris, and they 
 are for that reason placed in the hands of the embalmed 
 bodies. These columns are called Osirid Pillars. In the 
 Memnonium they are thirty feet high ; here they are shorter. 
 
 No part of the weight of the building rests on the head 
 of this statue, as is the case with the caryatides in Greek 
 architecture. 
 
 R. 1. On the north wall, on the outside of this court, is one 
 of the sculptures from the Memnonium. It represents this 
 king sitting under the sacred tree (perhaps the Persea). On 
 one side sits the god Amun-ra Chem ; on the other side are 
 standing Thoth, the god of writing, and a goddess, the 
 female Thoth. They are all three writing the king’s name 
 on the undying leaves of this immortal tree. 
 
 R. 2. Within this court is represented a castle besieged by 
 an Egyptian army. The king in his chariot is slaying his 
 enemies. Some of these we remark are on horseback, and 
 this is the earliest case known of armed men so mounted. 
 
 The race of horses was at this time hardly strong enough for 
 the purpose. 
 
 Another great work of Rameses II. was the 
 Temple of Karnak, the largest building in Thebes, which 
 
THE EGYPTIAN COURT. 
 
 54 
 
 was joined to Amunothph’s temple of Luxor by an avenue 
 of sphinxes. The hall of columns, in the Temple of Kamak, 
 has its roof supported by one hundred and thirty-four 
 columns. Of these columns twelve form a central avenue, 
 and are sixty-six feet high, and twelve in diameter. The 
 others, at the sides, are not quite of such gigantic size, but are 
 forty-two feet high and nine in diameter. The 
 side columns have their massive shafts copied from 
 a single stalk of a frail papyrus plant. The capital 
 is the unopened bud. The shaft gets smaller 
 towards the bottom, like the real plant; it rises 
 out of several leaflets, and stands upon that 
 smaller portion of the root which usually shows 
 itself above the ground. If we compare this with 
 the column of eight papyrus buds (see fig. 29), 
 we may observe which of the two is the original, 
 and which is in plan borrowed from the other. 
 In Egypt wood is very scarce ; and hence a bundle 
 of papyrus stalks, tied together by bands, was 
 very naturally used instead of a post; and the 
 architect as naturally copied that form for his 
 stone columns. It could only be by an after¬ 
 thought that he made stone columns like a single 
 papyrus stalk. So thin and so frail a reed could 
 never have offered itself to his mind for such a 
 purpose, if he had not before seen the clustered column of several 
 stalks. We further remark, that on these columns of a single 
 stalk, the bands with which they are tied are wholly out of place, 
 while on the clustered columns they seem wanted to hold it 
 together. 
 
 Between the two chief of the Egyptian rooms is a crowded colonnade, copied 
 from this Hall of Columns at Karnak. Round each column is a painted 
 sculpture representing King Oimenepthali I., worshipping the Theban Trinity, 
 namely, the god Amun-Ra, the Mother Goddess, and their son Chonso. The 
 name of Rameses II. also is on every column, as well as on the blue ceiling 
 over head, among the stars with which it is spangled. 
 
 As each of the less gigantic columns in the great Hall of Kamak 
 is copied from a young papyrus stalk with an unopened bud, so 
 the larger columns of the central avenue, with a whimsical atten¬ 
 tion to propriety, are in the form of single stalks of an older 
 growth with a full-blown flower for the capital. With this we 
 may compare, first, the stalk of papyrus as represented by the 
 
PAPYRUS COLUMNS. 
 
 55 
 
 Egyptian artist in fig. 38, and then the natural plant as drawn in 
 fig. 39, where we have, first the graceful head, then the triangular 
 
 Fig. 37. 
 
 Fig.38. 
 
 
 Fig. 39. 
 
 section of the stalk, and lastly the bottom of the stalk with the 
 leaflets with which it is surrounded. These leaflets we trace in the 
 massive column together with a line from top to bottom to mark 
 the triangular shape of the stalk. But we do not find in the 
 papyrus plant the bands which we see upon the column ; these can 
 belong only to the bundle of plants. 
 
 S. 8. A sitting figure of Rameses II. The king wears a helmet 
 ornamented with the sacred asp on the forehead, and a long robe of fine 
 linen, which shows its plaits, and reaches almost to his ankles. He has 
 large sandals on his feet. On the left side of his throne stands a lady, 
 his mother, who is not quite so tall as his knee; on the right side is a 
 son of the same height, holding a flapper made of feathers. On the base 
 under his feet are slightly sculptured a number of thick-lipped Ethiopian 
 prisoners ; each is tied round the neck with a cord, which forms part of a 
 sacred water-plant, emblematical of the Nile. In the inscription on the back 
 he is styled, “The conqueror of Ethiopia ; ” and this beautiful statue was no 
 doubt made on the occasion of his wars in that country. The hieroglyphics 
 upon it are published in “Egyptian Inscriptions, 2nd Series, plate 45.” 
 
 This figure is in the very best style of Theban art. The countenance is well 
 preserved, and may be meant for a portrait. There is no beard. There is 
 
BQ 
 
 THE EGYPTIAN COURT. 
 
 more action in the figure than we have seen in the statues of the earlier kings. 
 The right hand is raised to the breast, and holds the short crosier, often held 
 by Osiris, and by deceased persons. The left hand, which rests on the knee 
 is strongly clenched. The figure is five feet seven inches high above the base. 
 The original is of black granite, and is in the Museum of Turin. 
 
 S. 9, is a group of three small figures, rather less than life, sitting 
 with their arms affectionately interlaced behind their backs. The middle 
 figure is King Rameses II., and he is thus embraced by his father, the god 
 Amun-Ra, and his mother, the goddess Athor. He is styled “the Priest, 
 the Lord of the World, the Son of the Sun, the Lord of Battles.” The original 
 is in the Museum of Turin. 
 
 S. 10, is a Sphinx, about nine feet long, in the usual attitude and character. 
 It bears the name of Rameses II. on the breast, and it was no doubt made in 
 this reign. But afterwards the name of his son Pthahmenmiothph was carved 
 upon the shoulders. 
 
 The original is in Paris. The inscription is published in “Egyptian 
 Inscriptions, 2nd Series, pi. 44.” 
 
 Among the larger works of the reign of Rameses II., was the 
 Great Temple at Abou-Simbel in Ethiopia. This temple was 
 hollowed out of the rock on the west bank of the Nile, in the 
 reign of Rameses II., about the year b.c. 1150. It is situated 
 near the second cataract. It faces the east, and the beautiful 
 painted sculptures in its dark caverns are never seen but by torch¬ 
 light, except during the few minutes that the rising sun shines in 
 at the narrow doorway. Four colossal statues of the king sit in 
 front of the temple with their backs against the rock, out of which 
 they were themselves carved. They are between sixty and seventy 
 feet high. The left arm of the figure which has its left side to the 
 door, sunk under its own weight soon after it was carved, and in 
 the reign of Oimenepthah II., about fifty years later, a small wall 
 was built up from the throne on which he sits, to support that 
 arm. . ■ - . 
 
 On the left leg of the same statue, between the instep and the 
 knee, was carved in about the year b.c. 650, a most remarkable 
 Greek inscription. Herodotus tells us that in the reign of king 
 Psammetichus I., part of his Egyptian troops that were stationed 
 at Elephantine to guard that frontier, deserted, and marched 
 southward through Ethiopia. Psammetichus sent a body of Greek 
 troops in pursuit of them, who followed them as far as this temple 
 at Abou-Simbel. There they turned back ; and our travellers now 
 read on the leg of this statue the Greek inscription which these 
 soldiers cut for their amusement, to record their march to such a 
 distant spot. 
 
 The Ethiopian artist did not give to these statues the same just 
 proportions that we admire in those of Thebes. They are broad- 
 
EGYPTIAN SCULPTURE. 
 
 57 
 
 limbed, and short in the waist, being not more than six heads high; 
 both the hands rest open on the knees. The king’s name is 
 painted on the chest, while on the arms it is tied on by means of 
 armlets. A female figure, not so high as his knee, stands on each 
 side of his feet, and between his feet one yet smaller. The 
 hieroglyphics on this doorway are published in c 4 Egyptian Inscrip¬ 
 tions, 2nd Series, pi. 29,” and the Greek writing in pi. 23. 
 
 The front of this temple on a very reduced scale, forms part of the west 
 side of the Egyptian court, while the two gigantic figures which sit side by 
 side, near the southern end of the Crystal Palace, are copies of the statues here 
 described, and of the original size. Four also of the colossal figures sit against 
 the wall on the outside of the Egyptian courts. 
 
 It. 3, is a sculpture from Abou-Simbel, representing Rameses II. killing 
 an Arab chief with his spear. The water-plant which ornaments his dress, 
 and is also pricked into his flesh, shows that he is an inhabitant of the valley 
 of the Nile. Beneath the sculpture is a row of prisoners, each bearing the 
 name of his nation. 
 
 R 4, is also from Abou-Simbel. It represents Rameses grasping in one 
 hand the hair of eleven prisoners. Their faces show that they are of various 
 races, the enemies of Egypt on all its frontiers. With one blow of his uplifted 
 sword the king is going to cut off their eleven heads. 
 
 It may be doubted whether the statues of this reign even equal 
 the quiet simplicity of the sitting 
 colossal figures of the reign of Amu- 
 nothph III. But at any rate from 
 this time, Egyptian sculpture ceased 
 to rise towards any further excellence ; 
 and it soon afterwards began slowly 
 to decline. Here then, we may pause 
 and consider the several schools to which 
 the Egyptian gave rise, and which gained 
 their knowledge from the statues and 
 buildings of Rameses and his family. 
 
 We shall better understand each by com¬ 
 paring it with the other. They are :— 
 
 1st. The Ethiopic. 
 
 2nd. The later Egyptian. 
 
 3rd. The Assyrian. 
 
 4th. The Greek. 
 
 Of these four, one only, namely the 
 Greek, carried art forward to a higher 
 degree of excellence. They were all children of the same 
 rude but healthy mother; but the other three turned aside 
 
 Fig. 40. 
 
58 
 
 THE EGYPTIAN COURT. 
 
 Fig. 41. 
 
 from the true path ; as they were misled by false taste of one kind 
 or another. Their works are of great 
 value to the antiquary and historian, 
 but they can only help the artist by a 
 comparison with those of early Egypt 
 and Greece ; they teach him what 
 temptations of ornament he has to fear, 
 and what faults of exaggeration or weak¬ 
 ness he has to shun. They offer also 
 the same help to the critic when unable 
 to find words wherewith to describe the 
 merits of the better works. He makes 
 use of these as examples, in order to 
 point out the faults from which the 
 others are free. The Ethiopian artist 
 did not keep to the true proportions 
 of the human figure. He made it too 
 broad and thick. He mistook stoutness 
 for grandeur, and strength of limb for 
 dignity. The colossal figures of king 
 Raineses II. at Abou-Simbel are only 
 six heads high. And certainly if ever 
 such a fault could be excused, it is at the front of this temple, 
 where four of these broad-limbed giants sit with their backs against 
 the rock as though to support it. But we must remember they 
 
 Fig. 42. Fig. 43. 
 
 
 were not meant for figures of Hercules or Atlas, but for the portraits 
 of kings of a cultivated people. 
 
 The later Egyptian school bears the more usual marks of a 
 
ASSYRIAN AND EGYPTIAN SCULPTURE. 
 
 59 
 
 declining state of art. The artist has more science and less 
 judgment ; more eagerness to display his knowledge of anatomy, 
 and less fear of displaying his ignorance. In particular when 
 aiming at grace and beauty, the muscles are puffed with an 
 unnatural swell. 
 
 The comparison of the Assyrian sculpture with the early 
 Egyptian is yet more favourable for the Egyptians. The Egyptian 
 artist, while every step was new to him, attempted very little 
 action in his figures, and wisely placed them at rest, and more 
 often seated. They are correctly balanced, and their limbs are 
 suited to the weights that they have to bear. 
 
 He did not give his chief attention to the unimportant, and 
 overlook that which is more so. The proportions of the whole are 
 always more correct than the proportions of the parts. He added 
 no trifling ornaments, no variety of folds in hair, or drapery, to 
 cover the want of grace and beauty. Whereas, all these faults 
 are to be seen in the Assyrian sculpture. 
 
 When we return to the Greek school, we are still further 
 reminded that it is not easy to describe excellence, except by 
 mentioning the faults from which it 
 is free. The Greek artist was able 
 to attain to almost every end which 
 the others had in view, because he 
 was not misled, as they were, into 
 false paths, towards those ends. He 
 could produce beauty without the 
 help of ornament, grace and delicacy 
 without affectation, strength without 
 coarseness, and action without loss 
 of balance. If he could give us his 
 opinion about the other schools, he would probably say of the 
 early Egyptian statues, that the makers of them were beginners, 
 who, though they had not reached to high excellence, were in the 
 right path towards it ; that if their works do not show great skill, 
 they show at least their good sense in not attempting beyond what 
 they understood. Of the Ethiopic, the later Egyptian, and the 
 Assyrian sculpture, he would probably say that they were the 
 works of men who had already missed the true path, and were 
 not in the way towards excellence. 
 
 In one merit, and perhaps only one, was the Egyptian artist 
 superior to the Greek. The Greek statues have truth, muscular 
 action, grace, beauty, and strength. They show pain, fear, love, 
 
 Fig. 44. 
 
60 
 
 THE EGYPTIAN COURT. 
 
 and a variety of passions. But none of them are equal to those 
 of Egypt, in impressing on the mind of the beholder the feelings 
 of awe and reverence. The two people were unlike in character ; 
 and the artists copying from their own minds, gave the character 
 of the nation to their statues. Plato saw nothing but ugliness in 
 an Egyptian statue. The serious gloomy Egyptians had aimed at 
 an expression not valued by the more gay and active Greeks. The 
 Egyptians however had learned the superiority of rest over action 
 in representing the sublime ; and the artist who wishes to give 
 religious dignity to his figures should study the quiet sitting 
 Egyptian colossus of the reign of Amunothph III. In Michael 
 Angelo’s statue of the Duke Lorenzo, in the Italian Court, we see 
 how that great master in the same way made use of strength at 
 rest when he wished to represent power and grandeur. 
 
 Pthahmenmiothph, the son of the great Rameses, has left us 
 few remains, except his tomb hollowed out of the rock in the 
 Valley of King’s Tombs near Thebes. He died about b.c. 1100. 
 
 S 11. The colossal Sphinx of the avenue, in front of the two colossal statues 
 near the north end of the Crystal Palace, hears this king’s name on its right 
 shoulder. But this fine work was made before the reign of this king. His 
 name is badly cut upon it over some of the original ornaments. He meant to 
 claim for himself a work of art which had been made for his father, or one of 
 his predecessors ; and in this act of appropriation he was afterwards followed 
 by one of his successors ; Shishak, who reigned more than a century later, 
 appropriated it to himself. The name of its original owner was no doubt at 
 one time carved round the base. But in that place we now find the name and 
 titles of Shishak, where he cut out the former names ; and we have 
 Shishak’s name also on the left shoulder, where he cut out this king’s 
 name. 
 
 This sphinx is a good specimen of Egyptian sphinxes in general. It is 
 about fifteen feet long. The tail is turned over the right hip. The head is 
 probably meant for that of the reigning king, as far as the sculptors had 
 learned the art of making portraits. The hair is tied behind, the beard case 
 is tied on by a strap across the cheeks, and the forehead is ornamented with 
 the sacred asp. 
 
 Twenty copies of this sphinx form the avenue in front of the colossal 
 statues, and eight more lie outside the building near the steps into the garden. 
 The original is in the Louvre in Paris. 
 
 Oimenepthah II., the next king, reigned about the year b.c. 
 1100. Nothing is known of him beyond his name on a few 
 unimportant monuments. The Theban monarchy was still at its 
 greatest height, but it was within a century of its fall. Already 
 its sculpture betrays a falling off in good taste, a sure sign of 
 lessened moral worth in the people. 
 
 S 12, is a statue representing this kirg standing. His hair is dressed in 
 
PALACE OF KINO RAMESES. 
 
 61 
 
 the rude matted fashion of the Ethiopian statues and of the modern Nubians. 
 He wears the crown of Upper Egypt, with a large sun on the top. He holds 
 in his left hand a tall standard which rests on the ground, and 
 has a small figure of a god sitting on the top. The first letter in 
 his name was originally a sitting figure, with the head of a square¬ 
 eared dog , Anubis, or the vowel A ; but this has been cut out, 
 for some religious reason, and we know from other inscriptions, 
 that it was the intention of the sculptors to have put in its place 
 a sitting figure of Osiris for the vowel 0. This statue is nine feet 
 six inches high, or with the base 13 feet. The original is in the 
 Museum of Turin, and is of red gritstone. The inscriptions are 
 published in “ Egyptian Inscriptions, 2nd Series, pi. 43.” 
 
 S 13, is a bust of the same king, taken from a statue in the 
 British Museum. It has the same Nubian head-dress as the last, 
 no beard, and the name cut on his shoulders. 
 
 In this statue we may note a very marked falling off in the style 
 of art, and the lessened excellence is as usual, accompanied by an increased 
 wish on the part of the artist to display his knowledge of anatomy, which is 
 particularly shown in the legs. 
 
 Fig.45. 
 
 a ? 
 
 Rameses III. was another of the great Theban Kings. He built 
 a palace on the western side of the river, now known by the 
 Arabic name of the city, Medina Tabou, or the City of Thebes. 
 There the painted sculptures on the walls proclaim his victories 
 over distant and neighbouring nations, and his triumphal and 
 religious procession at home. 
 
 R 5, in the Outer Court, shows us this king sitting in his chariot after his 
 victories over some Arab tribes. His attendants are boastfully counting and 
 writing down the thousands of men’s hands that they have brought home as 
 trophies of the enemies slain in battle. The handcuffed prisoners who stand 
 by, are guarded by the Egyptian bowmen. 
 
 After the fall of Thebes from the high rank of capital of 
 Egypt in the year b.c. 990, we find Shishak, King of Bubastis, 
 sovereign of the whole country. He is well known to us in the 
 Bible as the conqueror of Rehoboam, King of Judah. But on 
 the rise of Lower Egypt into power, the country was tom to 
 pieces by civil war, and we find very few statues or monuments of 
 his reign or of his immediate successors. 
 
 S 14, is a sitting figure of a cat-headed goddess, which bears this king’s 
 name ; but we have already remarked that, from the style of workmanship, 
 it seems probable that it was made in the reign of Amunothph III., and that 
 Shishak's name was afterwards put on it. 
 
 On the north side of the inner court R 6, this king is presenting vases to the 
 goddess Nephthys, queen of the world. On the other side of the two Isis- 
 headed columns, at R 7, he is presenting his offerings to Isis, the great 
 mother goddess. 
 
 R 8. Above the head of this goddess is the figure of a prisoner, bearing the 
 name of Judah Melek, or the kingdom of Judah. This figure is one among 
 
THE EGYPTIAN COURT. 
 
 many which represent the nations and tribes conquered by Shishak. It is 
 sculptured on the walls of the Temple of Karnak, by the side of the records of 
 the great Rameses conquests, and it was there placed to commemorate this 
 king’s conquest of Jerusalem, as mentioned in 2 Chronicles, ch. xii. 
 
 The civil wars which followed the rise of Lower Egypt, led to 
 the conquest of the whole country by the Ethiopians about the 
 year b.c. 737. 
 
 R. 9, between the colonnade of Philse and the temple of Abou-Simbel, we 
 have the figure and name of King Sevechus, called So in 2 Kings, ch. xvii, the 
 ally of Hoshea, king of Israel, in the wars against the Assyrians. 
 
 R 10, on the outside of the Inner Court, represents Tirhakah, the third of 
 the Ethiopian kings, the ally of Hezekiah, as mentioned in 2 Kings. He is 
 here presenting his offerings to the goddess Nephthys; and also at R 11, to 
 Isis, the mother goddess. 
 
 It was at this period (between b.c. 750, and b.c. 650) that the chief of the 
 Assyrian sculptures were made ; and the student in art would do well to com¬ 
 pare them with the Egyptian works both of an earlier and a later age. 
 
 Soon afterwards Egypt was again a prosperous kingdom under 
 a race of kings who reigned at the city of Sais. The arts again 
 flourished on the banks of the Nile. But the tastes of the artist 
 were far less simple. The statues are marked by a false delicacy. 
 The muscles are puffy, and those graceful lines which mark beauty 
 and strength in the body are exaggerated tiH the figure becomes 
 deformed. 
 
 In the year b.c. 523, Egypt was conquered by the Persians, 
 and for two hundred years was either crushed by foreign tyranny, 
 or struggling with difficulty to regain its independence. 
 
 R 12, and R 13, are sculptures bearing the name of Thaomra, the successor 
 of King Atenra-Bakan. This name is probably meant for Thannyras, the son 
 of King Inarus, who governed Egypt as a Persian province for Artaxerxes 
 Longimanus. Thaomra is worshipping the sun, a mode of worship probably 
 introduced by the Persians. Every one of the sun’s rays ends with a 
 hand which reaches to the earth, and reminds us of the bold figurative 
 words of the Bible, “ Is the Lord’s hand shortened that it cannot 
 . save ?” and also of the king’s name, Longimanus, who was so called 
 because his arm reached over Asia, Africa, and Europe. The swollen affected 
 anatomy of the figure marks the decline of art and of good taste, and helps to 
 fix the date of the sculpture to this modern time, though some of our antiquaries 
 are of opinion that it is much older. 
 
 In the year b.c. 332, Alexander the Great conquered the 
 Persians ; and then Egypt, which up to that time had been a 
 Persian province, became part of his Greek kingdom. In Egypt, 
 Alexander took the usual titles of “ God ” and “ Son of the Sun 
 
DYNASTY OF THE PTOLEMIES. 
 
 63 
 
 and when his favourite Hephssstion died in Media, he ordered that 
 he also should be worshipped in Egypt as a demigod. 
 
 T 1, is an Egyptian slab sculptured a few years before this time, which was 
 presented by some worshippers to the temple in honour of Hephsestion. It has 
 had written on it two inscriptions in bad Greek. One is: ‘‘Hephaestion, 
 the divine,” and the other is “Alexander is able to appease Olympic Jove.” 
 Thus marking how far they considered the deceased heroes as gods, or rather 
 mediators between God and man. 
 
 On the death of Alexander, his general, Ptolemy, became master 
 of Egypt; and though he governed under the modest title of 
 lieutenant to Alexander’s brother, Philip Arridseus, yet he was in 
 reality king. The temples, however, for seven years were orna¬ 
 mented with the name of Philip. 
 
 R 14. The sculpture on the front of the Egyptian Court represents King 
 Philip presenting a pair of eyes to the god Ra. At R 15, he is making an 
 offering to Sebek, the crocodile-headed god. At R 16, he is between the Ibis¬ 
 headed god Thoth, and the hawk-headed god Horus-Ra, and the latter is 
 putting the hieroglyphical character for Life into his mouth. On the inside 
 of the same wall the sculptures represent the same king at R 17, making 
 his offering to Thoth, at R 18 to Horus-Ra, and at R 19 again to Horus-Ra. 
 
 It was not till after some few years that Ptolemy ventured to 
 take the title of king, and to govern Egypt in his own name. He 
 then put his name on his coins, and on such of the temples as were 
 then being built. 
 
 At R 20, on the wall in front of the Outer Court, Ptolemy is represented 
 presenting offerings to Amun-Ra, king of the gods, and to Athor, queen of 
 heaven. On the columns and door-posts also we have the name of Ptolemy 
 and of his queen Berenice, to mark the age of the architecture as belonging to 
 his reign. He is there styled, The priest, the lord of the world, the sovereign 
 lord of Egypt, like his father Amun-Ra, king Ptolemy giver of life. 
 
 •The colonnade in front of the Outer Court is of the style of this king’s reign. 
 
 One of the remarkable changes in the form of the Egyptian temples which 
 had been made during the few last centuries was the introduction of a low 
 wall or screen, built between the columns, to stop the gaze of the people 
 outside. It was never wanting in the temples built under the Ptolemies, and 
 is here seen at the front of the Outer Court. It showed the growing wish of 
 the priesthood to mark the separation between themselves and the laity. 
 
 The family of the Ptolemies, some of whom were remarkable for 
 their wisdom, and others for their vices, remained sovereigns of 
 Egypt for 300 years. While reigning in Alexandria and raising 
 a heavy tribute from the oppressed Egyptians, they still left them 
 to live under their own laws, and allowed them the enjoyment 
 of their old religion. During their reigns the country was never 
 disturbed by invasion, and. not often by civil war or rebellion ; 
 
64 
 
 THE EGYPTIAN COURT. 
 
 the arts, which had been wholly checked under the Persians, again 
 flourished on the banks of the Nile. New temples were built 
 by the religious zeal of the people, which only varied from those 
 built under the native kings, in obedience to that slow change of 
 taste and fashion which is always taking place in all countries. 
 The fashion of sculpture changes faster, because statues may be 
 made in a few months, but buildings, such as those in Egypt, 
 are the work of several generations, and hence the fashion in 
 architecture changed more slowly. 
 
 In the reign of Ptolemy II., surnamed Philadelphus, was built 
 a temple at Philse, a small and sacred island near the cataracts, 
 and one of the most beautiful spots in Egypt. Later additions, 
 however, were made to this temple under several of the suc¬ 
 ceeding Ptolemies. The courtyards were surrounded by cells, 
 in which the priests dwelt. These buildings are neither so massive, 
 so heavy, nor so solemn as those of the earlier Egyptian kings. 
 Greek taste had already made some change in Egyptian archi¬ 
 tecture. 
 
 In the south-west corner of the Egyptian buildings is a colonnade of nine 
 columns, copied from this beautiful temple on the island of Philse. The names 
 of Ptolemy Philadelphus and his queen Arsinoe, on the columns, mark their 
 age. The king and queen are represented as presenting their offerings to the 
 hawk-headed god Horus. The inferior taste of the artist, at this later time, 
 is shown in the exaggerated attempts to pourtray female beauty in the figure 
 of the queen. But the columns are all graceful and in good taste. The name 
 of Ptolemy Neiis Dionysus, or the Young Osiris, on the cornice, marks that these 
 capitals belong also to his later age. 
 
 Fie:. 46. 
 
 Fig.47. 
 
 Fig. 46 is copied from a full-blown papyrus flower, surrounded by half-opened 
 buds and leaves. 
 
 Fig. 47 is of four such flowers with the same half-opened buds and leaves. 
 Fig. 48 is also of four flowers with half-opened buds and leaves, and with a 
 
ROSETTA STONE. • 65 
 
 row of young closed buds round tbe bottom. Nearly the same as this are two 
 of the columns in front of the Outer Court. 
 
 Fig. 49 is like this last, with the addition of a second row of small full¬ 
 blown flowers. Two more of these columns stand on the outside of the 
 Egyptian Court to the south, and two form part of the colonnade in front of the 
 Outer Court. 
 
 Fig. 50 is yet more complicated : it is formed of several rows of flowers, all 
 full-blown, each flower smaller as it approaches the bottom of the capital. 
 The drops hanging from the edge of the flowers are not easily explained. 
 
 The other four capitals in this graceful colonnade are 
 further varieties of the same forms. Their origin 
 may be shown by the Egyptian paintings. Fig. 51 is 
 from a picture of a field of tall reeds, in which the 
 king is catching water-fowl under the guidance of 
 two gods. Here we see the plants and flowers in 
 three stages of their growth : the full-blown, the half- 
 blown, and the unopened bud. The capital in fig. 
 
 49 is a direct copy of this rather stiff view of a field 
 of reeds. 
 
 Fig. 52 is a part of another view of a papyrus 
 field, in which all the flowers are full-blown and 
 have drops from the edges. From this the capital 
 fig. 50 is taken. This is the natural plant, as 
 drawn by the Egyptian artist. It may perhaps be 
 a different plant from that in fig. 51. 
 
 In tlie reign of Ptolemy V., named 
 Ptolemy Epiphanes, was carved a stone 
 which was perhaps thought little of at the 
 time, but which is now one of the most valuable that the priests 
 have left to us. It is named from the city in which it was found, 
 “the Rosetta Stone.” The king had come to the throne when 
 a child, and in the ninth year of his reign, b.c. 196, when 
 he was declared of age to govern the kingdom, the priests made a 
 
 F 
 
 Fig. 51. 
 
THE EGYPTIAN COURT. 
 
 decree recounting his titles, his virtues, and his piety towards 
 the temples, and declaring that his statue was to be worshipped 
 like those of the national gods, and that it was to be carried with 
 them in all the sacred processions on the Nile. The enactment 
 ends with the important words that “ the decree is to be carved 
 at the foot of the king’s statue in three kinds of writing, namely, 
 in sacred letters or hieroglyphics, in the common Egyptian or 
 Enchorial writing, and in Greek.” Here, then, we have an 
 hieroglyphical inscription with a Greek translation ; and by the 
 help of this, Dr. Young and Champollion were enabled to read this 
 most ancient kind of writing, which had been a dark page for so 
 many centuries. 
 
 The knowledge gained even from our present slender power of 
 reading hieroglyphics is most important. It has taught us the 
 origin of the art of writing (as already explained in page 40), and 
 has shown us that the Hebrew, Greek, and Roman alphabets came 
 from Egypt; it has cleared up many difficulties in the way of our 
 understanding the Egyptian religion and customs ; and lastly, it 
 has opened to our view a new portion of history, which had been 
 hidden from us by the shade which time throws over man’s doings, 
 and which to our delight can now be read by the help of modern 
 ingenuity. By this addition to the beginning of history, we have 
 gained a longer life to look back to. We can thus more justly 
 judge of the progress in art and science and morals with which 
 God has already rewarded man’s industry, and we can more safely 
 look forward to further improvement as a reward to our continued 
 industry. 
 
 Two copies of this valuable Rosetta Stone (T 2) stand in the Egyptian 
 Museum, and the following is a translation of what now remains of the hiero¬ 
 glyphical portion of the inscription. The reader must begin at the right-hand 
 side, as is usual with Eastern writing:— 
 
 [Line 1.] . . . . He paid the soldiers as was just. 
 
 [2] . . . . likewise owing to the treasure of the palace .... 
 
 and bore patiently and then remitted the debts. 
 
 [3] .numerous shrines ; regulating the splendid rites. 
 
 the temple-services with their other sacrifices and costly ceremonies, .... 
 he ga v e to the funerals of the sacred .... 
 
 [4] . . . . libations, treasures, other similar fittings for the temple at Sais 
 for Apis, with gold, silver, jewels, and abundance of money, giving to Apis . . 
 
 [5] . . . . splendid manner. For this the immortal gods gave him victory, 
 
 health, power and the other blessings of a kingdom remaining to himself and 
 his children for ever ; and may it be with good fortune. It hath pleased the 
 priests of Upper and Lower Egypt. 
 
 [6] .to the gods Soteres immortal; and in addition to the religious 
 
 honours also to set up a statue to king Ptolemy immortal beloved by Pthah, 
 
TEMPLE OF EDFOU. 
 
 67 
 
 god Epiphanes most gracious, in a conspicuous manner, and that he should he 
 named Ptolemy the Defender of Egypt.of Ptolemy Euergetes .... 
 
 [7] .... of Egypt should worship the statue of the god of Sais thrice a 
 day ; and at the temple services and rites they should clothe the statue for the 
 ceremonies like to the gods of the country on solemn occasions. And on his 
 accession-day and name-day they should make offerings to king Ptolemy . . . 
 
 [8] .a portable statue of silver in every temple in Egypt for his 
 
 honours, like the shrines of the gods of the country. And upon the grand 
 festival-days, at the carrying out of the statue of the god Ra, in the water 
 processions, they should also carry out the statue and portable shrine of the 
 god Epiphanes most gracious with the others. By this it shall be seen that 
 his shrine is the same in. 
 
 [9] . . . . the crown upon the shrine, in manner similar to the two grand 
 asps placed upon the shrines ; with the holy crown of this splendid sovereign, 
 which he wore when going by barge to the palace of Memphis, when he was 
 invested in the temple with the sovereignty of the country. 
 
 [10] . . . . celebrate the festival of the monarch, the illustrious king of 
 Upper and Lower Egypt during tne last day of the month of Mesori, the 
 appointed birthday of the priest living for ever, which is established in the 
 festival to the giver of blessings. And also on the seventeenth day of the 
 month of Paophi, when his majesty received the country of the kingdom from 
 his father .... 
 
 [11] . . . . the holy days of the going forth, from the seventeenth until the 
 
 last of the month in the assemblies in the temples of Egypt, holy rites ; and 
 also make libations and perform sacrifices and other sacred rites in the assem¬ 
 blies. During the monthly and other rites in the assemblies and during the 
 holy ceremonies in the temple. 
 
 [12] . . . . Ptolemy, living for ever, beloved by Pthah, god Epiphanes 
 most gracious, annually in the first season from the new moon of Thoth during 
 five days in every part of the country at the assemblies and numerous offerings 
 and sacrifices, and other sacred rites, the priests of the temples of Egypt shall 
 wear crowns during the proclamations of the god Epiphanes most gracious, 
 when the splendid holy liturgies [are read 
 
 [13] and there shall be established] a priesthood to the god Epiphanes most 
 
 gracious.It shall be lawful for proper persons to sacrifice and set 
 
 up a similar shrine to god Epiphanes most gracious according to these addi¬ 
 tional decrees.monthly and yearly. And by this it shall be known 
 
 that it is lawful for the Egyptians to honour. 
 
 [14] . . . . it is decreed to set up a tablet of stone with letters for the 
 priests, letters for writing, and letters for the Greeks. Which proclamations 
 are to be set up in the temples of Egypt on the first, second, and third sides of 
 the pedestal of the statue of King Ptolemy living for ever, beloved by Pthah, 
 god Epiphanes most gracious. 
 
 This king’s name and titles, “ Ptolemy, beloved by Pthah, god 
 Epiphanes most gracious,” has been added in an horizontal line of 
 hieroglyphics within the doorways in front of the Outer Court. 
 
 One of the largest and least ruined of the temples is that of 
 Edfou or Apollinopolis Magna, chiefly built in the reign of Ptolemy 
 Philometor. Its front is formed of two huge square towers, with 
 sloping sides, between which is the narrow doorway, the only 
 
68 
 
 THE EGYPTIAN COURT. 
 
 Fig. 53. 
 
 opening in its massive walls. Through, this the worhippers entered 
 a spacious courtyard or cloister, where he found shade from the 
 sun under a covered walk on either side. In front is the lofty 
 portico with six large columns, the entrance to the body of the 
 building. This last is flat-roofed, and far lower than the grand 
 portico, which hid it from the eyes of the 
 crowd in the court-yard. The sacred rooms 
 within were small and dark, with only a glim¬ 
 mering flame here and there before an altar, 
 except when lighted up with a blaze of lamps 
 on a feast day. 
 
 From this temple is copied the capital formed of six 
 palm-leaves, four of which columns are used in the 
 colonnade of the outer court. But the palm-leaf capital 
 is also found in several of the temples built while 
 Egypt was governed by the Ptolemies. 
 
 The temples built under these kings are far 
 too numerous to mention. That ofDenderawas 
 begun under the latter Ptolemies, though not 
 finished and dedicated to the god of the place till 
 the reign of the Roman Emperor Tiberius. This temple has the same 
 grand simplicity and massive strength that 
 we admire in the older temples of Egypt, but 
 the sculptures are crowded and graceless, 
 and by no means free from false ornament. 
 Many of the columns have the Isis-headed 
 capital. They are a bundle of lotus stalks 
 tied together by bands. The capital is made 
 by a number of lotus flowers, or rather is an 
 artificial flower formed of a number of lotus- 
 petals. Out of this rises the head of the god¬ 
 dess ; upon the head stands a small temple, 
 aDd upon that rests the massive weight that 
 is to be supported. The bad taste of such 
 a capital need not be pointed out, 
 but it is agreeable to see how a 
 better artist can wisely borrow a 
 thought from it. The well-known 
 bust of The Lady in the Lotus, 
 in the Roman Court, is copied 
 from this capital. It seems to 
 be a portrait of a Roman lady by a Greek artist. The lotus- 
 
 Fig. 55. 
 
PTOLEMiEAN STATUES. 
 
 69 
 
 flower makes a most agreeable stand, out of which the beautiful 
 bust rises. Fig. 55 represents the head of a lotus-flower from 
 nature, and may explain the use which the sculptor has made of 
 its form. 
 
 The doorway from the Inner Egyptian Court to the Greek Court is between 
 two columns, with these Isis-headed capitals. They bear the name of king 
 Ptolemy. 
 
 When Antony and Cleopatra were conquered by Augustus 
 Csesar in the year b.c. 38, Egypt became a Roman province. But 
 even then the building of Egyptian temples did not cease. As 
 had been the case under the Ptolemies, the style of building again 
 became less simple, more ornamented, and the parts are in worse 
 taste. But still they are all grand and massive, and as they 
 remain less injured, it is by their help that we are able to under¬ 
 stand the ruins of the older and more noble temples that had been 
 made under the native sovereigns. 
 
 S 15. Is the statue of a priest belonging to this late age. It was made by 
 a Greek artist under the Roman sway. His head-dress and the cloth round 
 his loins are Egyptian, so is the square block behind, which supports it; in 
 every other respect it is a Greek figure. 
 
 S 16. A priestess of the same late age, and also supported by a square 
 pillar. Her head-dress and thin robe are Egyptian, but the second garment 
 formed of birds’ feathers is unusual. 
 
 The numerous statues which were made in Egypt under the 
 Ptolemies have been for the most part destroyed. Strange to say, 
 we do not possess a single statue representing any king or queen 
 of that family. If any other statues made during their reigns 
 remain to us, we class them among Greek statues. 
 
 S 17. The fine Greek statue of Antinous, the favourite of the Emperor 
 Hadrian, was probably made in Egypt, where that handsome young man 
 drowned himself in the Nile, in the year a.d. 132. The Greek artist copied 
 the head-dress from that of the early Egyptian kings. The quiet attitude of the 
 figure seems also borrowed from the Egyptian statues, while the execution is in 
 the best style of Greek art of the time. 
 
 On the wall in the Inner Court on either side of the temple of Abou-Simbel is 
 a list of the hieroglyphical names of the Egyptian kings, placed chronologically, 
 with the English name, and the date under each. The names of most of 
 them were occasionally written in various ways, but that way of spelling which 
 is most common on the monuments is here used. The first half of the 
 list contains the names from the builders of the pyramids to the rise 
 of the kings who reigned at Sais, and includes all of the great kings who 
 built the Theban temples. Antiquaries are not agreed about the date to be 
 given to these early kings. The second half of the list includes the Persian 
 conquerors, the Greek kings who reigned at Alexandria, and the Roman 
 
70 
 
 THE EGYPTIAN COURT. 
 
 emperors down to the Emperor Commodus, the last whose name is found 
 written in hieroglyphics. They are as follows— 
 
 TABLET OF KINGS.—PART THE FIRST. 
 
 Chofo. 
 
 1200. Oimeneptha I. 
 
 Nef-Chofo. 
 
 Rameses II. 
 
 1600. Amunmai Thor I. 
 
 Pthahmenmiothph. 
 
 Osirtesen I. 
 
 1100. Oimenepthah II. 
 
 Amunmai Thor II. 
 
 Osirita- Ramerer. 
 
 Osirtesen II. 
 
 Rameses III. 
 
 1500. Osirtesen III. 
 
 1000. Rameses IY. 
 
 Amunmai Thor III. 
 
 Rameses Y. 
 
 Queen Scemiophra. 
 
 990. Shishak. 
 
 Chebros. 
 
 Osorkon. 
 
 Chebros-Amasis. 
 
 (Civil War.) 
 
 Amunothph I. 
 
 900. Takelothe. 
 
 1400. Thothmosis I. 
 
 (Civil War.) 
 
 Thothmosis II. 
 
 Osorkon II. 
 
 Queen Nitocris. 
 
 Shishak JI. 
 
 Thothmosis III. 
 
 (Civil War.) 
 
 1300. Amunothph II. 
 
 743. Bocchoris. 
 
 Thothmosis IV. 
 
 737. Sabakothph. 
 
 Queen Mautmes. 
 
 729. Sevek. 
 
 Amunothph III. 
 
 715. Tihrak. 
 
 Anemneb. 
 
 658. Psammetichus I. 
 
 Rameses I. 
 
 
 TABLET OF KINGS.—PART THE SECOND. 
 
 614. Necho. 
 
 204. Ptolemy Epiphanes. 
 
 608. Psammetichus II. 
 
 180. Ptolemy Philometor. 
 
 591. Hofra. 
 
 145. Ptolemy Euergetes II. 
 
 566. Amasis. 
 
 116. Ptolemy Soter II. 
 
 523. Cambyses. 
 
 106. Cleopatra and Alexander. 
 
 521. Darius. 
 
 81. Berenice. 
 
 487. Mandothph. 
 
 80. Ptolemy Nexis Dionysus. 
 
 484. Xerxes. 
 
 57. Cleopatra Tryphaena. 
 
 464. Artaxerxes. 
 
 51. Cleopatra and Caesarion. 
 
 460. Amyrteus. 
 
 b.c. 30. Augustus Caesar. 
 
 460. Atenra. 
 
 a.d. 14. Tiberius. 
 
 Persian Kings. 
 
 37. Caius. 
 
 400. Nepherites. 
 
 41. Claudius. 
 
 394. Achoris. 
 
 55. Nero. 
 
 381. Psammuthes. 
 
 69. Yespasian. 
 
 379. Nectanebo. 
 
 79. Titus. 
 
 Persian Kings. 
 
 82. Domitian. 
 
 322. Philip Arridosus. 
 
 98. Trajan. 
 
 Alexander iEgus. 
 
 117. Hadrian. 
 
 Ptolemy Soter. 
 
 138. Antoninus. 
 
 284. Ptolemy Philadelphus. 
 
 162. Aurelius. 
 
 246. Ptolemy Euergetes. 
 
 181. Commodus. 
 
 221. Ptolemy Philopator. 
 
 
INSCRIPTION ON PORTICO. 
 
 71 
 
 Above the hieroglyplrical inscription on the portico of the Outer Court, is 
 one in the Greek language, as is common on the temples built under the 
 Ptolemies. It is the dedication of the building, and a prayer for Her Most 
 Gracious Majesty, in whose reign it has been erected : 
 
 T<jj Gea> [lovw Ao£a. Yirep rrjs crurriptas kcli rr]s ayadris rvxys tt) s fieyaAris 
 fia(ri\L<T<TT]s ri/xuv OvtKTapias Kai rov avanros AAfiepr Kai tuv tgkvuv avrwv 
 TttVTTju emypa(pr)v oi apxiTSKTOvzs oikov aveOrjKav. 
 
 “Glory to God alone : on behalf of the safety and welfare of our great 
 Queen, Victoria, and of Prince Albert, and their children, the architects of the 
 building have set up this votive inscription.” 
 
 LONDON J 
 
 BRADBURY AND EVANS, PRINTERS, WHITE FRIARS* 
 
FINE ART DEPARTMENT 
 
 WESTERN DIVISION. 
 
 THE EGYPTIAN, GREEK, ROMAN, AND ALHAMBRA COURTS, 
 AND COURTS OF MODERN SCULPTURE. 
 
 Director— OWEN JONES. 
 
 Sculptors— JOSEPH BONOMI, RAFFAELE MONTI. 
 Constructive Draughtsman— G. L. PURCHASE. 
 
 Ornamental Draughtsmen— HENRY WARREN, CHARLES AUBERT. 
 Superintendent of the Ornamental Plastering— HENRY A. SMITH. 
 Superintendent of the Painters— JAMES SHEATE. 
 
 Clerk of the Works— W. EAREE. 
 
 Financial Officer— H. A. KINLOCH. 
 
 Registrar of Collection— G. REDFORD. Clerk— D. VINE. 
 General Foreman of the Workmen— THOMAS BOLTON. 
 Timekeeper—T. HALL. 
 
 Chief Carvers (Egyptian Court). 
 
 C. MAPLESON. J. FRANKLIN, H. McDONALD. 
 
 C. FARREN. A. COSOMINI. 
 
 Chief Carvers (Alhambra Court). 
 
 THOMAS SMITH. JAMES SMITH. 
 
 J. BLANCHARD. E. BLANCHARD. J. WITTON. W. FABER. 
 
 C. DICKENS. R. JACKSON. J. MALCOLM. 
 
 C. YATES. J. SMITH. 
 
 FOREIGN! COLLECTION. 
 
 General Superintendent — A. DESACHY, of Paris. 
 Foremen— EUGENE ARRONDELLE, A. GONNET. 
 
 Carvers and Moulders. 
 
 SEIGNEURET. GONON. 
 
 C. DUBOIS. PUTEAUX. POTHIER. LOISEL. GERRARD. 
 LOGET. A. ARRONDELLE. L. ANTONINI.