DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.26747#0290
226
THEBAN ARCHITECTURE.
Book V.
it a pillar of 16 sides, and agairi of 32, as was done afterwards in India,
bnt with tliis difference, that in that conntry all these polygons are
fonnd in the same pillar, while here the same one
is always carried from the hase to the snmmit. All
these variations reqnired a marked and projecting
ahacus, to correspond with the lines of the heams
or entahlature that rested upon tliem, which was not
indispensahly necessary wrhen merely a square pier
was employed.
The last improvement, and that which hrouglit
it nearest the Grecian form, was hollowing out the
faces of the polygon with a reversed curve, so as to
produce what is called fluting. All these kinds of
pillars are found perfected in very early tomhs, and
may have heen used from the most rernote antiquity.
The earliest examples exhihiting all these improve-
ments that have come down to our age are those at
Beni Hassan, excavated during the supremacy of the
12th dynasty. Tliere hoth 8 and 16 sided pillars
i6o. Piiiar atBeni Hassan. are found supporting what may have heen either a
stone or wooden architrave, and sometimes, as in
tliis view (woodcut No. 161), what certainly represents a wooden roof.
Internally, as shown in woodcut No. 160, it looks very much as if a
brick arcli were thrown from range to range of tliese eolumns, hut,
heing cut in the rock, it is difficult to he certain on this point.
These prot,o-I)oric pillars occur in the rock-cut temples of Nubia, of
the age of Bhamses II., and
elsewhere, sometimes with
a flat hand down the cen-
tre,containing an inscription
in hieroglyphics; generally
they have all the character-
istics of the Grecian order,
except the echinus or heau-
tiful carved memher under
the ahacus, which the Egyp-
tians never used.
One of the oldest forms
of pillars in Egypt is repre-
sented in woodcut No. 162.
Lt is evidently derived from a wooden post used to support a roof
internally, and its peculiar shape may he meant, either as a repro-
duction in car'ving of what were originally stripes of colour, or as
stems of lotus, or of some kind of reeds, coupled and handed
together. Its capital is not unlike tlie shape of a hud. It is found
witli the proto-Doric at Beni ITassan, and it continued the favourite
order throughout the whole Pharaonic period, thougli frequently a
plain circular shaft was suhstituted for the complex one.
At Beni Hassan tlie shaft tapers regiilarly from the hase to tho
161. Tomb at Beni Ilassau.
THEBAN ARCHITECTURE.
Book V.
it a pillar of 16 sides, and agairi of 32, as was done afterwards in India,
bnt with tliis difference, that in that conntry all these polygons are
fonnd in the same pillar, while here the same one
is always carried from the hase to the snmmit. All
these variations reqnired a marked and projecting
ahacus, to correspond with the lines of the heams
or entahlature that rested upon tliem, which was not
indispensahly necessary wrhen merely a square pier
was employed.
The last improvement, and that which hrouglit
it nearest the Grecian form, was hollowing out the
faces of the polygon with a reversed curve, so as to
produce what is called fluting. All these kinds of
pillars are found perfected in very early tomhs, and
may have heen used from the most rernote antiquity.
The earliest examples exhihiting all these improve-
ments that have come down to our age are those at
Beni Hassan, excavated during the supremacy of the
12th dynasty. Tliere hoth 8 and 16 sided pillars
i6o. Piiiar atBeni Hassan. are found supporting what may have heen either a
stone or wooden architrave, and sometimes, as in
tliis view (woodcut No. 161), what certainly represents a wooden roof.
Internally, as shown in woodcut No. 160, it looks very much as if a
brick arcli were thrown from range to range of tliese eolumns, hut,
heing cut in the rock, it is difficult to he certain on this point.
These prot,o-I)oric pillars occur in the rock-cut temples of Nubia, of
the age of Bhamses II., and
elsewhere, sometimes with
a flat hand down the cen-
tre,containing an inscription
in hieroglyphics; generally
they have all the character-
istics of the Grecian order,
except the echinus or heau-
tiful carved memher under
the ahacus, which the Egyp-
tians never used.
One of the oldest forms
of pillars in Egypt is repre-
sented in woodcut No. 162.
Lt is evidently derived from a wooden post used to support a roof
internally, and its peculiar shape may he meant, either as a repro-
duction in car'ving of what were originally stripes of colour, or as
stems of lotus, or of some kind of reeds, coupled and handed
together. Its capital is not unlike tlie shape of a hud. It is found
witli the proto-Doric at Beni ITassan, and it continued the favourite
order throughout the whole Pharaonic period, thougli frequently a
plain circular shaft was suhstituted for the complex one.
At Beni Hassan tlie shaft tapers regiilarly from the hase to tho
161. Tomb at Beni Ilassau.