DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4669#0319
ABOUSIMBEL 287
recesses, from each of which a colossal figure, erect
and life-like, seems to be walking straight out from
the heart of the mountain. These statues, three to
the right and three to the left of the doorway, stand
thirty feet high, and represent Rameses 11. and his
queen Nefert-ari. Mutilated as they are, the male
figures are full of spirit and the female figures full of
grace. The queen wears on her head the plumes
and disk of Hathor. The king is crowned with the
pschent, and with a fantastic helmet adorned with
plumes and horns. They have their children with
them ; the queen her daughters, the king his sons.
The walls of these six recesses, as they follow the
slight inclination of the mountain, form massive but-
tresses, the effect of which is wonderfully bold in light
and shadow. The doorway gives the only instance
of a porch that we saw either in Egypt or in Nubia.
The superb hieroglyphics that cover the faces of these
buttresses and of the porch are cut six inches deep
into the rock, and are so large that the}' cm be read
from the island in the middle of the river."' The
temple extends about ninety feet into the rock. The
first hall has six large square pillars, three on each side.
These columns are adorned with the head of Hathor,
crow ned with the Sistrum.4 Upon one of them is a
beautiful painting of the Princess Nefert-ari which
has an especial interest, as it represents her in youth,
and probably much as she appeared when her sym-
pathy was called forth by the cry of the little Hebrew-
boy, who developed into one of the most wonderful
and celebrated of men and saints of the Old Testa-
ment, the God-sent ruler and deliverer of his people.
* " Oik- Thousand Miles up the Nile" p. 431.
1 Maspero, " Egyptian Architecture," p. 5°i •'«■ 34-
recesses, from each of which a colossal figure, erect
and life-like, seems to be walking straight out from
the heart of the mountain. These statues, three to
the right and three to the left of the doorway, stand
thirty feet high, and represent Rameses 11. and his
queen Nefert-ari. Mutilated as they are, the male
figures are full of spirit and the female figures full of
grace. The queen wears on her head the plumes
and disk of Hathor. The king is crowned with the
pschent, and with a fantastic helmet adorned with
plumes and horns. They have their children with
them ; the queen her daughters, the king his sons.
The walls of these six recesses, as they follow the
slight inclination of the mountain, form massive but-
tresses, the effect of which is wonderfully bold in light
and shadow. The doorway gives the only instance
of a porch that we saw either in Egypt or in Nubia.
The superb hieroglyphics that cover the faces of these
buttresses and of the porch are cut six inches deep
into the rock, and are so large that the}' cm be read
from the island in the middle of the river."' The
temple extends about ninety feet into the rock. The
first hall has six large square pillars, three on each side.
These columns are adorned with the head of Hathor,
crow ned with the Sistrum.4 Upon one of them is a
beautiful painting of the Princess Nefert-ari which
has an especial interest, as it represents her in youth,
and probably much as she appeared when her sym-
pathy was called forth by the cry of the little Hebrew-
boy, who developed into one of the most wonderful
and celebrated of men and saints of the Old Testa-
ment, the God-sent ruler and deliverer of his people.
* " Oik- Thousand Miles up the Nile" p. 431.
1 Maspero, " Egyptian Architecture," p. 5°i •'«■ 34-