DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4640#0057
VIEW FROM UNDER THE PORTICO OF THE TEMPLE OF EDFOU, UPPER EGYPT.
This view, taken from beneath the entrance of the portico, and looking across the grand peristyle
court of the Temple to the back of the great propylon, is one of striking magnificence: it embraces
the whole court; and the propylon, in noble proportion, seems to shut out the very sky towards
the entrance. The cloistered corridor within the court, covered with painted hieroglyphics, offered
its shelter from an Egyptian sun to the priests and those permitted to enter the sacred precincts.
The propylon wants only its coved cornice to complete it. A bold torus forms an outline to these
towers: between them, the entrance, with its beautiful cornice and enrichments of sculpture, offers
one of the finest examples in Egypt of this peculiar architectural character. The vast faces of the
towers are covered with gigantic figures, cut in bold intaglio - relievo, and represent the offerings
made by the Pharaohs to the gods. The holes, which admitted light through the walls of these
towers, served also to attach the staffs of the standards, from which, in days of ceremony, the flags
waved over the groups in procession.
The accumulations of sand within and about the Temple of Edfou, together with the vast
heaps of corn kept here by the Government, in magazines divided by earthen walls, conceal the
bases of the columns round the court; and, within the pronaos, the sand has choked up all access
to the sanctuary. Owing to the covering of the roof by the huts of the modern inhabitants,
a small part only of the interior is accessible through a narrow aperture, and can only be examined
with the aid of a light.
In the foreground, the large coved cornices of the jambs, without a lintel, of the entrance,
are here seen in all their magnitude; the figures, which rest or move upon them, are proportionate,
and have ample space, and the sand, rising to the level of the cornice, makes their summits accessible.
In comparison with these figures, how enormous are these capitals! and yet how beautiful their
structure! this well deserves attention. Each reed which rises above the bands is surmounted
with the lotus - flower, and each two supports one larger, which springs up between them; on each
two, again, of these, rests another flower, double the size of the former; above and between
each two of these rises a still larger lotus, until one more between each pair, still increasing in
magnitude, completes this noble member of the column. Each, as it rises, spreads out, till
the whole, in exquisitely proportioned composition, becomes the lotus capital of the Egyptian
Temple, on which a small square abacus rests, and props the entablature. Still nearer, in this
view, another variety of this capital appears: the pointed leaves of the plant spring from the
reeds, and are surmounted by light flower-stalks, which alternate around the capital, in their
terminations of a bud and a flower. The enormous stones, which rest upon and stretch from
column to column, are among the wonders of Egyptian structure. On the front and back, and on
the soffit of these masses, the winged globe and asps shed their influence over those who pass,
and everywhere appear to guard or to warn the visitor.
Perhaps no point in this vast edifice is made more striking by contrast, than the grand
propylon, with a few mud huts which rest against it on the cornices of the colonnade that
surrounds the court; they have scarcely more importance in the scene than swallows' nests under
the gable of a modern dwelling.
This view, taken from beneath the entrance of the portico, and looking across the grand peristyle
court of the Temple to the back of the great propylon, is one of striking magnificence: it embraces
the whole court; and the propylon, in noble proportion, seems to shut out the very sky towards
the entrance. The cloistered corridor within the court, covered with painted hieroglyphics, offered
its shelter from an Egyptian sun to the priests and those permitted to enter the sacred precincts.
The propylon wants only its coved cornice to complete it. A bold torus forms an outline to these
towers: between them, the entrance, with its beautiful cornice and enrichments of sculpture, offers
one of the finest examples in Egypt of this peculiar architectural character. The vast faces of the
towers are covered with gigantic figures, cut in bold intaglio - relievo, and represent the offerings
made by the Pharaohs to the gods. The holes, which admitted light through the walls of these
towers, served also to attach the staffs of the standards, from which, in days of ceremony, the flags
waved over the groups in procession.
The accumulations of sand within and about the Temple of Edfou, together with the vast
heaps of corn kept here by the Government, in magazines divided by earthen walls, conceal the
bases of the columns round the court; and, within the pronaos, the sand has choked up all access
to the sanctuary. Owing to the covering of the roof by the huts of the modern inhabitants,
a small part only of the interior is accessible through a narrow aperture, and can only be examined
with the aid of a light.
In the foreground, the large coved cornices of the jambs, without a lintel, of the entrance,
are here seen in all their magnitude; the figures, which rest or move upon them, are proportionate,
and have ample space, and the sand, rising to the level of the cornice, makes their summits accessible.
In comparison with these figures, how enormous are these capitals! and yet how beautiful their
structure! this well deserves attention. Each reed which rises above the bands is surmounted
with the lotus - flower, and each two supports one larger, which springs up between them; on each
two, again, of these, rests another flower, double the size of the former; above and between
each two of these rises a still larger lotus, until one more between each pair, still increasing in
magnitude, completes this noble member of the column. Each, as it rises, spreads out, till
the whole, in exquisitely proportioned composition, becomes the lotus capital of the Egyptian
Temple, on which a small square abacus rests, and props the entablature. Still nearer, in this
view, another variety of this capital appears: the pointed leaves of the plant spring from the
reeds, and are surmounted by light flower-stalks, which alternate around the capital, in their
terminations of a bud and a flower. The enormous stones, which rest upon and stretch from
column to column, are among the wonders of Egyptian structure. On the front and back, and on
the soffit of these masses, the winged globe and asps shed their influence over those who pass,
and everywhere appear to guard or to warn the visitor.
Perhaps no point in this vast edifice is made more striking by contrast, than the grand
propylon, with a few mud huts which rest against it on the cornices of the colonnade that
surrounds the court; they have scarcely more importance in the scene than swallows' nests under
the gable of a modern dwelling.