DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.26747#0306
242
MODERN ARCHITECTURE
Book v.
the exigencies of their situation, which did not admit of any very great
development inside, as light and air could only be introduced from the
one opening of the doorway.
The two principal examples of this class of monument are the two
at Ipsambou], the largest of which is the finest of its class known to
exist anywhere. Its total depth from the face of the rock is 150 ft.,
divided into 2 large halls and 3 cells, with passages connecting them.
Externally the fagade is about 100 ft. in height, and adorned by 4
of the most magnificent colossi in Egypt, each 70 ft. in height, and re-
presenting the King Rhamses II., who caused tlie excavation to be made.
It may be because they are more perfect than any others now found in
that country, but certainly nothing can exceed their calm majesty and
beauty, or be more entirely free from the vulgarity and exaggeration
which is generally a characteristic of colossal works of this sort.
The smaller temple at the same place has 6 standing figures of
deities countersunk in the rock, and is carved with exceeding richness.
It is of the same age witli the large temple, but not to be compared
with it owing to the inferiority of the design.
Besides these, there is a very beautiful though small example at
Kalabsche, likewise belonging to the age of Rhamses II., and remark-
able for the beauty of its sculptural bas-reliefs, as 'well as for the bold
proto-Doric columns which adorn its vestibule. There are also smaller
ones at Derri and Balagne, at the upper end of the valley. At Essabua,
Girsheh, and Dandour, the cells of the temple have been excavated from
the rock, but their courts and propylons are structural buildings added
in front—a combination never found in Egypt, and very rare anywbere
else, although meeting the difficulties of the case better than any other
arrangement, inasmuch as the sanctuary has thus all the imperishability
and mystery of a cave, and the temple at the same time has the space
and external appearance of a building standing in the open air.
This last arrangement is found also as a characteristic of the temples
of Gibel Barkal, in the kingdom of Meroe, showing how far the rock-
cutting practice prevailed in the upper Valley of the Kile.
As ali these temples are contemporary with the great structures in
Egypt, it seems strange that tlie eternity of a rock-cut example did not
recommend this form of temple to the attention of the Egyptians them-
selves. But with the exception of a small grotto, called the Speos
Artemidos, near Beni Hassan, and two small caves at Silsilis, near the
cataract, the Egyptians seem never to have attempted it, trusting appa-
rently to the solidity of their masonic structures for that eternity of
duration they aspired to.
Tombs.
Of the first 10 dynasties of Egyptian kings nothing now remains but
their tombs—the everlasting pyramids—and little or nothing of the
people they governed but the stxuctures and rock-cut excavations whicli
they prepared for their final resting-places.
The Theban kings and their subjects built no pyramids, and none
of their tombs are built—all are excavated from the living rock ; and
from Beni Hassan to the cataract, the plain of the Nile is everywhere
MODERN ARCHITECTURE
Book v.
the exigencies of their situation, which did not admit of any very great
development inside, as light and air could only be introduced from the
one opening of the doorway.
The two principal examples of this class of monument are the two
at Ipsambou], the largest of which is the finest of its class known to
exist anywhere. Its total depth from the face of the rock is 150 ft.,
divided into 2 large halls and 3 cells, with passages connecting them.
Externally the fagade is about 100 ft. in height, and adorned by 4
of the most magnificent colossi in Egypt, each 70 ft. in height, and re-
presenting the King Rhamses II., who caused tlie excavation to be made.
It may be because they are more perfect than any others now found in
that country, but certainly nothing can exceed their calm majesty and
beauty, or be more entirely free from the vulgarity and exaggeration
which is generally a characteristic of colossal works of this sort.
The smaller temple at the same place has 6 standing figures of
deities countersunk in the rock, and is carved with exceeding richness.
It is of the same age witli the large temple, but not to be compared
with it owing to the inferiority of the design.
Besides these, there is a very beautiful though small example at
Kalabsche, likewise belonging to the age of Rhamses II., and remark-
able for the beauty of its sculptural bas-reliefs, as 'well as for the bold
proto-Doric columns which adorn its vestibule. There are also smaller
ones at Derri and Balagne, at the upper end of the valley. At Essabua,
Girsheh, and Dandour, the cells of the temple have been excavated from
the rock, but their courts and propylons are structural buildings added
in front—a combination never found in Egypt, and very rare anywbere
else, although meeting the difficulties of the case better than any other
arrangement, inasmuch as the sanctuary has thus all the imperishability
and mystery of a cave, and the temple at the same time has the space
and external appearance of a building standing in the open air.
This last arrangement is found also as a characteristic of the temples
of Gibel Barkal, in the kingdom of Meroe, showing how far the rock-
cutting practice prevailed in the upper Valley of the Kile.
As ali these temples are contemporary with the great structures in
Egypt, it seems strange that tlie eternity of a rock-cut example did not
recommend this form of temple to the attention of the Egyptians them-
selves. But with the exception of a small grotto, called the Speos
Artemidos, near Beni Hassan, and two small caves at Silsilis, near the
cataract, the Egyptians seem never to have attempted it, trusting appa-
rently to the solidity of their masonic structures for that eternity of
duration they aspired to.
Tombs.
Of the first 10 dynasties of Egyptian kings nothing now remains but
their tombs—the everlasting pyramids—and little or nothing of the
people they governed but the stxuctures and rock-cut excavations whicli
they prepared for their final resting-places.
The Theban kings and their subjects built no pyramids, and none
of their tombs are built—all are excavated from the living rock ; and
from Beni Hassan to the cataract, the plain of the Nile is everywhere