. A history of art in ancient Egypt . ypostylehall which is smaller than the first and has its roof supported ^ Translated by Maspero, Histoire Ancienue, p. 385. The wliole inscription hasbeen tfcinslated into English by the Rev. T. C. Cook, and published in vol. ii. ofJiecords of the Past.—Ed. The Temple under the New Empire. 155 by only four columns instead of eight. Upon this hall openfour small and separate chambers which fill up the wholespace between it and the main walls. Similar general arrangements to those of the Temple of Khonsare to be found in even the largest temples. The second
. A history of art in ancient Egypt . ypostylehall which is smaller than the first and has its roof supported ^ Translated by Maspero, Histoire Ancienue, p. 385. The wliole inscription hasbeen tfcinslated into English by the Rev. T. C. Cook, and published in vol. ii. ofJiecords of the Past.—Ed. The Temple under the New Empire. 155 by only four columns instead of eight. Upon this hall openfour small and separate chambers which fill up the wholespace between it and the main walls. Similar general arrangements to those of the Temple of Khonsare to be found in even the largest temples. The second hypostylehall is however much larger and the chambers to which it givesaccess much more numerous. It is not easy to determine theobject of each of these small apartments ; in the Pharaonic templesthey are usually in very bad condition, but in some of thePtolemaic buildings, such as the temples of Edfou and Denderah,they are comparatively well preserved. In the last named thequestion is complicated by the existence of numerous blind. Fig. 211.—Granite tabernacle : in the Louvre. passages contrived in the thickness of the walls. The stonewhich stopped the opening into these passages seems to havebeen manipulated by some secret mechanism.^ Some of thesacred images and such emblems as were made of preciousmaterials were kept in these hiding places. Their absolutedarkness and the coolness which accompanied it, were both 1 As M. Maspero has remarked (Aii/n/aire dc FAssociation dis Etudes Grecqiies,1877, p. 135), these secret passages remind usof ihe movable stone -which, accordingto Herodotus (ii. 121), the architect of Rhampsinit contrived in the wall of theroyal treasure-house which he was commissioned to build. Herodotuss story wasat least founded upon fact, as the arrangement in question was a flwourite one withEgyptian constructors. JD^ A History of Art in Ancient Egypt. conducive to the preservation of delicately ornamented objectsin such a climate as that of Egypt. It was
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