. The story of architecture: an outline of the styles in all countries. PLATE II.—Ruins at Karnak. THE SPEA. IP SAMBO UL. 21 tion. They were built by Rhameses the Great, setlike jewels in a matrix of rock, and dedicated to Raand Athor, the Phoebus and Aphrodite of Egypt. The Great Temple is the more important of thetwo. When first discovered by Belzoni it was sochoked up by the debris and sand of centuries, thatonly the head and shoulders of one colossal figurecould be seen. Patient excavation, however, revealeda facade of one hundred feet in length (subdivided. Fig. 12.—Temple of Ipsamboul. v
. The story of architecture: an outline of the styles in all countries. PLATE II.—Ruins at Karnak. THE SPEA. IP SAMBO UL. 21 tion. They were built by Rhameses the Great, setlike jewels in a matrix of rock, and dedicated to Raand Athor, the Phoebus and Aphrodite of Egypt. The Great Temple is the more important of thetwo. When first discovered by Belzoni it was sochoked up by the debris and sand of centuries, thatonly the head and shoulders of one colossal figurecould be seen. Patient excavation, however, revealeda facade of one hundred feet in length (subdivided. Fig. 12.—Temple of Ipsamboul. vertically by four colossi of the king, each sixty-onefeet in height, seated on thrones) and surmounted bya cornice crested with sitting monkeys—the symbolsof Thoth, god of the intellect. In the great hall of assembly (Fig. 12) are piersembossed with great statues of Osiris, each figure 22 EGYPT AXD NUBIA. fashioned in the form and features of Rhameses theGreat, while all the walls are graven with bas-reliefsand hieroglyphics recounting the conquests of thatking. The only light in the apartment comes throughthe doorway, from which results a most fantastic dis-cord of light and shade—a tour de force in colour—anocturne in purple and gold. Several smaller chambers, linked by passages, con-nect with the main hall, the most important being thesanctuary. Here deep in the bowels of the earth four greatstatues of Ammon, Phre, Ptah, and Rhameses II areenthroned in a rock-cut chamber, which when lit hythe fitful flare of flambeaux still reveal the faint go
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