DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4393#0326
308
A THOUSAND MILES UP THE NILK
As far as the adytum and outer hall are concerned, the
accompanying ground-plan—which is in part founded on
my own measurements, and ill part borrowed from the
ground-plan drawn out by the painter—may be accepted
as tolerably correct. But with regard to the pylon, I can
only say with certainty that the central staircase is three
feet in width, and that the walls on each side of it are
seven feet in thickness. So buried is it in debris and
sand, that even to indicate where the building ends and
the rubbish begins at the end next the Nile, is impossible.
This part is, therefore, left indefinite in the ground-plan.
So far as we could see, there was no stone revetement
upon the inner side of the walls of the pronaos. If any-
1'ATTKIIN OF COltNlCE.
thing of the kind ever existed, some remains of it would
probably be found by thoroughly clearing the area; an in-
teresting enterprise for any who may have leisure to
undertake it.
I have now to speak of the decorations of the adytum,
the walls of which, from immediately under the ceiling to
within three feet of the floor, are covered with religious
subjects elaborately sculptured in bas-relief, coated as
usual with a thin film of stucco and colored with a rich-
ness for which I know no parallel, except in the tomb of
Setil*at Thebes. Above the level of the drifted sand
this color was as brilliant in tone and as fresh in surface as
on the day when it was transferred to those walls from the
palette of the painter. All below that level, however, was
dimmed and deranged.
The ceiling is surrounded by a frieze of cartouches sup-
ported by sacred asps; each cartouche, with its supporters,
* Commonly known as Belmont's tomb.
A THOUSAND MILES UP THE NILK
As far as the adytum and outer hall are concerned, the
accompanying ground-plan—which is in part founded on
my own measurements, and ill part borrowed from the
ground-plan drawn out by the painter—may be accepted
as tolerably correct. But with regard to the pylon, I can
only say with certainty that the central staircase is three
feet in width, and that the walls on each side of it are
seven feet in thickness. So buried is it in debris and
sand, that even to indicate where the building ends and
the rubbish begins at the end next the Nile, is impossible.
This part is, therefore, left indefinite in the ground-plan.
So far as we could see, there was no stone revetement
upon the inner side of the walls of the pronaos. If any-
1'ATTKIIN OF COltNlCE.
thing of the kind ever existed, some remains of it would
probably be found by thoroughly clearing the area; an in-
teresting enterprise for any who may have leisure to
undertake it.
I have now to speak of the decorations of the adytum,
the walls of which, from immediately under the ceiling to
within three feet of the floor, are covered with religious
subjects elaborately sculptured in bas-relief, coated as
usual with a thin film of stucco and colored with a rich-
ness for which I know no parallel, except in the tomb of
Setil*at Thebes. Above the level of the drifted sand
this color was as brilliant in tone and as fresh in surface as
on the day when it was transferred to those walls from the
palette of the painter. All below that level, however, was
dimmed and deranged.
The ceiling is surrounded by a frieze of cartouches sup-
ported by sacred asps; each cartouche, with its supporters,
* Commonly known as Belmont's tomb.