. A history of art in ancient Egypt . all over it; but could an edifice thus open to theoutward air and to every prying eye be a temple ? Ebers isdisposed to look upon it as a waiting-room.^ Close to it theremains of a wide staircase are to be traced, against which boatswere moored, and upon which they discharged their loads. Thusthe faithful who came to be present at the rites of I sis wouldassemble in the waiting-hall, whence they would be conducted bythe priests to that sanctuary which became the object of somany pilgrimages In the later years of the Egyptian monarchy. Certain peculiarities
. A history of art in ancient Egypt . all over it; but could an edifice thus open to theoutward air and to every prying eye be a temple ? Ebers isdisposed to look upon it as a waiting-room.^ Close to it theremains of a wide staircase are to be traced, against which boatswere moored, and upon which they discharged their loads. Thusthe faithful who came to be present at the rites of I sis wouldassemble in the waiting-hall, whence they would be conducted bythe priests to that sanctuary which became the object of somany pilgrimages In the later years of the Egyptian monarchy. Certain peculiarities in the management of the column, whichgrew Into frequent use in the Ptolemaic epoch, are here encoun-tered for the first time. This is not the place for Its detailedconsideration, but one must point it out as a second result of thedesire shown by the architects of the period to achieve newdevelopments without breaking the continuity of the nationaltraditions. Here, as in the monumental cattle-shed at Memphis, ^ Egypic. etc. ]i. X 3O co a, g3 u<u -N The Temple under the New Empire. 433 there is no invention of new forms ; all the architectural elementsintroduced are to be found in earlier buildings. It is the generalaspect and physiognomy of the building that is new. Whateverwe may call it, the edifice erected by Nectanebo at the southernpoint of the island is certainly novel in form ; we have foundnothing like it either in Egypt or in Nubia, but the repetition of itsforms in a much later generation proves that it answered to areal change in the national taste and to new aspirations in thenational genius. Painting, engraving, and photography havegiven us countless reproductions of the picturesque buildingwhich rises on the eastern shore of the island, amid a bouquetof palm-trees. It has been variously called the bed of Pharaoh,the eastern temple, the great hypcsthra, the stimmer-ho2tse ofTiberms, &c. It is nothing more than a replica of Nectaneboscreation ; it is large
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1880, bookpublisherlondo, bookyear1883
