DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4644#0019
VIEW LOOKING ACROSS THE HALL OF COLUMNS, KARNAK.
Few drawings have been more successful in conveying an idea of the immensity of this stupendous
Temple; but, crowded as these enormous columns are, any attempt to convey an idea of their
true scale appears to be hopeless. In standing beneath or among them, they are seen under angles
too large for the eye to command or the pencil justly to convey. In the drawing of the central
avenue, given in a former part of this Work, the perspective of the successive columns, of equal
height and size, conveys some idea of their vastness; but this becomes confused in any effort to
obtain a transverse view, like that before us, which is taken at a right angle with the former. The
nearer columns are much smaller than those of the central avenue, being one-fourth less both in
diameter and in height, yet they appear, from their proximity, to be much larger. This view lies
across six rows of these lateral columns that lie on either side of the two central rows, which are
sixty-six feet in height without the pedestal and abacus, and originally bore an architrave and a
roof nearly one hundred feet in height. What mind can receive a clear impression of such magnitude,
except from an actual contemplation of the Temple itself? Yet there is no one object which the
Artist, who has visited Egypt, has been more desirous to succeed in, than, by his art, to convey
to others who have not travelled there an idea of the Hall of Columns in the great Temple of
Karnak.
Nor is it merely the emotion of sublimity that he has wished to excite by giving a just idea
of its scale and proportions, the enrichments of its sculpture and painting make an equally striking
impression of its great beauty, for the hieroglyphics with which every member and every part of
the building is covered are nowhere more sharp and beautiful in design and execution, and in
many places the colours are as vivid as when first laid on, and enable the observer to conceive
what beauty and grandeur were combined in this wonderful structure before the Persian conquest.
Its massiveness seems to have saved it from destruction; yet these columns are not in single pieces,
but built up with large blocks of stone so admirably put together that, though many columns are
displaced and have fallen against others, they rest there unbroken, as may be seen in the leaning
column, with its entablature in the distance. In this case, the foundation seems to have given way.
That the state of the ground has not been to a greater extent a cause of their falling is a matter of
surprise, for it is swampy and strongly impregnated with nitre. The columns of the Great Hall at
Karnak, however, are long likely to remain, to the astonishment and delight of many generations yet
appointed to succeed us.
Few drawings have been more successful in conveying an idea of the immensity of this stupendous
Temple; but, crowded as these enormous columns are, any attempt to convey an idea of their
true scale appears to be hopeless. In standing beneath or among them, they are seen under angles
too large for the eye to command or the pencil justly to convey. In the drawing of the central
avenue, given in a former part of this Work, the perspective of the successive columns, of equal
height and size, conveys some idea of their vastness; but this becomes confused in any effort to
obtain a transverse view, like that before us, which is taken at a right angle with the former. The
nearer columns are much smaller than those of the central avenue, being one-fourth less both in
diameter and in height, yet they appear, from their proximity, to be much larger. This view lies
across six rows of these lateral columns that lie on either side of the two central rows, which are
sixty-six feet in height without the pedestal and abacus, and originally bore an architrave and a
roof nearly one hundred feet in height. What mind can receive a clear impression of such magnitude,
except from an actual contemplation of the Temple itself? Yet there is no one object which the
Artist, who has visited Egypt, has been more desirous to succeed in, than, by his art, to convey
to others who have not travelled there an idea of the Hall of Columns in the great Temple of
Karnak.
Nor is it merely the emotion of sublimity that he has wished to excite by giving a just idea
of its scale and proportions, the enrichments of its sculpture and painting make an equally striking
impression of its great beauty, for the hieroglyphics with which every member and every part of
the building is covered are nowhere more sharp and beautiful in design and execution, and in
many places the colours are as vivid as when first laid on, and enable the observer to conceive
what beauty and grandeur were combined in this wonderful structure before the Persian conquest.
Its massiveness seems to have saved it from destruction; yet these columns are not in single pieces,
but built up with large blocks of stone so admirably put together that, though many columns are
displaced and have fallen against others, they rest there unbroken, as may be seen in the leaning
column, with its entablature in the distance. In this case, the foundation seems to have given way.
That the state of the ground has not been to a greater extent a cause of their falling is a matter of
surprise, for it is swampy and strongly impregnated with nitre. The columns of the Great Hall at
Karnak, however, are long likely to remain, to the astonishment and delight of many generations yet
appointed to succeed us.