DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.29898#0166
130
EGYPTIAN ARCHITECTURE.
Part I.
hancl, all the excavations are temples, and no tombs of importance are
to be found anywhere. This distinction may hereafter lead to im-
portant historical deductions, inasmuch as on the western side of India
there are an infinite number of rock-cut temples, but no tombs of any
sort. Every circumstance seems to point to the fact that, if there
was any connection between Africa and India, it was with the pro-
vinces in the upper part of the Yalley of the hiile, and not with
Egypt Proper. This, however, is a subject that can hardly be entered
on here, though it may be useful to bear in mind the analogy
alluded to.
Like all rock-cut examples all over the world, these Nubian
temples are copies of structural buildings only more or less modified
30. I’Uui and Seeiion of Rock-cut Ternple at AUi Simbel. Scale for plan 100 ft. to 1 in.; section 50 ft. to 1 in.
to suit the exigencies of their situation, which did not admit of any
very great development inside, as light and air could only be intro-
ducecl from the one opening of the doorway.
The two principal examples of this class of monument are the two
at Abu Simbel, the larger 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
representing the king, Rameses II-, who caused the excavation to be
made. It may be because they are more perfect than any others now
EGYPTIAN ARCHITECTURE.
Part I.
hancl, all the excavations are temples, and no tombs of importance are
to be found anywhere. This distinction may hereafter lead to im-
portant historical deductions, inasmuch as on the western side of India
there are an infinite number of rock-cut temples, but no tombs of any
sort. Every circumstance seems to point to the fact that, if there
was any connection between Africa and India, it was with the pro-
vinces in the upper part of the Yalley of the hiile, and not with
Egypt Proper. This, however, is a subject that can hardly be entered
on here, though it may be useful to bear in mind the analogy
alluded to.
Like all rock-cut examples all over the world, these Nubian
temples are copies of structural buildings only more or less modified
30. I’Uui and Seeiion of Rock-cut Ternple at AUi Simbel. Scale for plan 100 ft. to 1 in.; section 50 ft. to 1 in.
to suit the exigencies of their situation, which did not admit of any
very great development inside, as light and air could only be intro-
ducecl from the one opening of the doorway.
The two principal examples of this class of monument are the two
at Abu Simbel, the larger 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
representing the king, Rameses II-, who caused the excavation to be
made. It may be because they are more perfect than any others now