DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4032#0012
THE FESTIVAL-HALL IN THE GBEAT TEMPLE OF BUBASTIS.
we are uncertain as to what happened after-
wards. It is possible that the first Hyksos
invaders destroyed partly or even ruined the
temple of Bubastis, if we are to believe the
tradition preserved by Manetho ; but admitting
that the narrative of the Sebennyte priest is true
as to the first conquerors, the monuments prove
just the reverse concerning their successors and
especially the last foreign kings. Far from
treading in the steps of the invaders, the last
Hyksos left at Bubastis some of their most
beautiful monuments, and Apepi seems to have
raised in the temple important constructions.
There, they worshipped their god, who was
Set after Apepi's reign, but who may have
been another before him.
A. few statues of officials go back to the
eighteenth dynasty, but nothing showing a
construction or even repairs on a large
scale. Probably in the time of Amenophis
III. the temple was standing in good order,
and was dedicated to Amon. But before the
nineteenth dynastyit was again ruined. Though
Seti I. boasts of having renewed the edifices
dedicated to his father Amon, he does not seem
to have done much ; it was his son Rameses
II. who rebuilt the sanctuary, destroyed
probably by the contemporaries of Khuenaten,
the implacable enemy of the worship of Amon.
Rameses II. began with erasing from all the
architraves the inscriptions of his predecessors;
and he did it so thoroughly that, but for a few
omissions and negligences of his workmen, we
should feel inclined to attribute to him the
honour of the foundation of Bubastis. He
lavished embellishments on the hall of the
sanctuary. He collected there a great number
of statues bearing his name ; groups in which
he was associated with one or two gods, and also
what I called the architectural statues, which
have a purely ornamental purpose, and do
not pretend to give us a likeness of the
king, though they have his cartouche.
Later on, the temple had again to suffer
from the wars and the state of anarchy which
the country had to endure. I suppose that it
was during the struggles which preceded the
accession of Rameses III. to the throne that
the temple was overthrown. It remained in a
state more or less of ruin, until the Bubas-
tites, Osorkon I. and Osorkon II., took to
raising it up again. Osorkon I. began with
the entrance ; Osorkon II. reconstructed the
sanctuary, to which he gave the name which
we shall use henceforth, " the festival hall"
^ Ljkj, or more completely " the hall of the
Sed-festival."
It is hardly possible from a heap of stones
to judge of the form of a building, especially
when a considerable number of blocks have
disappeared, having been carried away for
various purposes. Before making a close
study of the sculptures, I thought that they
extended all round the hall, and that they
were divided into two parts, the south
and the north, like Egypt itself, each side
differing: in character and being distin-
guished by the headdress of the king. But
when the blocks were put together, when each
of them was measured and the angles reconsti-
tuted, we obtained for the building on which the
sculptures were engraved the plan of Fig. 1.
This looks exactly like the section of the door
of a pylon dividing two halls, such as we see
at Thebes, in the temple of Khonsu,3 or at
Kurneh,* or at Medinet Haboo.5 The pylon
would then have had the form shown in Fig. 2.
What I think more probable is that it was
an entrance like that which exists at Soleb,6
between the first and second hall, a long door-
way, the two sides of which are broader than
the enclosing wall, and project into one of the
halls, so as to form with the enclosure an angle
where statues or colossi were standing (Fig. 3).
3 Leps., Denkm. i. pi. 83.
6 Id. pi. 92.
4 Id. pi. 86.
6 Id. pi. 117.
we are uncertain as to what happened after-
wards. It is possible that the first Hyksos
invaders destroyed partly or even ruined the
temple of Bubastis, if we are to believe the
tradition preserved by Manetho ; but admitting
that the narrative of the Sebennyte priest is true
as to the first conquerors, the monuments prove
just the reverse concerning their successors and
especially the last foreign kings. Far from
treading in the steps of the invaders, the last
Hyksos left at Bubastis some of their most
beautiful monuments, and Apepi seems to have
raised in the temple important constructions.
There, they worshipped their god, who was
Set after Apepi's reign, but who may have
been another before him.
A. few statues of officials go back to the
eighteenth dynasty, but nothing showing a
construction or even repairs on a large
scale. Probably in the time of Amenophis
III. the temple was standing in good order,
and was dedicated to Amon. But before the
nineteenth dynastyit was again ruined. Though
Seti I. boasts of having renewed the edifices
dedicated to his father Amon, he does not seem
to have done much ; it was his son Rameses
II. who rebuilt the sanctuary, destroyed
probably by the contemporaries of Khuenaten,
the implacable enemy of the worship of Amon.
Rameses II. began with erasing from all the
architraves the inscriptions of his predecessors;
and he did it so thoroughly that, but for a few
omissions and negligences of his workmen, we
should feel inclined to attribute to him the
honour of the foundation of Bubastis. He
lavished embellishments on the hall of the
sanctuary. He collected there a great number
of statues bearing his name ; groups in which
he was associated with one or two gods, and also
what I called the architectural statues, which
have a purely ornamental purpose, and do
not pretend to give us a likeness of the
king, though they have his cartouche.
Later on, the temple had again to suffer
from the wars and the state of anarchy which
the country had to endure. I suppose that it
was during the struggles which preceded the
accession of Rameses III. to the throne that
the temple was overthrown. It remained in a
state more or less of ruin, until the Bubas-
tites, Osorkon I. and Osorkon II., took to
raising it up again. Osorkon I. began with
the entrance ; Osorkon II. reconstructed the
sanctuary, to which he gave the name which
we shall use henceforth, " the festival hall"
^ Ljkj, or more completely " the hall of the
Sed-festival."
It is hardly possible from a heap of stones
to judge of the form of a building, especially
when a considerable number of blocks have
disappeared, having been carried away for
various purposes. Before making a close
study of the sculptures, I thought that they
extended all round the hall, and that they
were divided into two parts, the south
and the north, like Egypt itself, each side
differing: in character and being distin-
guished by the headdress of the king. But
when the blocks were put together, when each
of them was measured and the angles reconsti-
tuted, we obtained for the building on which the
sculptures were engraved the plan of Fig. 1.
This looks exactly like the section of the door
of a pylon dividing two halls, such as we see
at Thebes, in the temple of Khonsu,3 or at
Kurneh,* or at Medinet Haboo.5 The pylon
would then have had the form shown in Fig. 2.
What I think more probable is that it was
an entrance like that which exists at Soleb,6
between the first and second hall, a long door-
way, the two sides of which are broader than
the enclosing wall, and project into one of the
halls, so as to form with the enclosure an angle
where statues or colossi were standing (Fig. 3).
3 Leps., Denkm. i. pi. 83.
6 Id. pi. 92.
4 Id. pi. 86.
6 Id. pi. 117.