DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.14563#0182
148
EGYPT, PAST AND PRESENT.
At the northern extremity of this avenue, after passing a
series of lofty and massive gates, you arrive at the temple
of Karnac. To form some conception of this structure, ive
■will take as a basis the Croton Eeservoir in New York.
Drain this, and suppose its walls to stand four hundred and
twenty feet by three hundred and sixty, and nearly one
hundred feet high by forty in thickness, all- of solid stone, in
blocks of huge dimensions. In one side of this structure
make a central doorway, seventy feet in height by thirty-
five inches in width; plant in front of this a long double
row of sphinxes and statues, each a single block of stone
weighing several hundred tons ; within the vacant reservoir
all around the walls, build a corridor supported by thirty
massive columns on each side, and down the centre a double
row of columns of red granite, each a single shaft fifty feet
high, and terminating in an expanded leaf, and you have
the outer court of Karnac.
In the wall opposite the entrance, make another gateway,
higher, broader, deeper, its lintels forty-one feet long, and
before this plant statues thirty feet high. Upon the oppo-
site side of the wall build another court or portico of the
same exterior breadth as the first, and three hundred and
twenty-nine by one hundred and seventy feet in the clear ;
and to sustain its roof of stone erect one hundred and
thirty-four columns, varying from forty-two to sixty-six feet
in height, and from twenty-seven to thirty-six in circumfer-
ence ; this forms the grand hall of Karnac; * beyond this
build an avenue of obelisks each seventy feet high, and other
massive gates and colossal figures, together with a sanctuary
of red granite forty feet square — the whole of this part
occupying an area of six hundred feet by four hundred:
at the further end of this erect another building, four hun-
* See frontispiece.
EGYPT, PAST AND PRESENT.
At the northern extremity of this avenue, after passing a
series of lofty and massive gates, you arrive at the temple
of Karnac. To form some conception of this structure, ive
■will take as a basis the Croton Eeservoir in New York.
Drain this, and suppose its walls to stand four hundred and
twenty feet by three hundred and sixty, and nearly one
hundred feet high by forty in thickness, all- of solid stone, in
blocks of huge dimensions. In one side of this structure
make a central doorway, seventy feet in height by thirty-
five inches in width; plant in front of this a long double
row of sphinxes and statues, each a single block of stone
weighing several hundred tons ; within the vacant reservoir
all around the walls, build a corridor supported by thirty
massive columns on each side, and down the centre a double
row of columns of red granite, each a single shaft fifty feet
high, and terminating in an expanded leaf, and you have
the outer court of Karnac.
In the wall opposite the entrance, make another gateway,
higher, broader, deeper, its lintels forty-one feet long, and
before this plant statues thirty feet high. Upon the oppo-
site side of the wall build another court or portico of the
same exterior breadth as the first, and three hundred and
twenty-nine by one hundred and seventy feet in the clear ;
and to sustain its roof of stone erect one hundred and
thirty-four columns, varying from forty-two to sixty-six feet
in height, and from twenty-seven to thirty-six in circumfer-
ence ; this forms the grand hall of Karnac; * beyond this
build an avenue of obelisks each seventy feet high, and other
massive gates and colossal figures, together with a sanctuary
of red granite forty feet square — the whole of this part
occupying an area of six hundred feet by four hundred:
at the further end of this erect another building, four hun-
* See frontispiece.