DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.51509#0038
16 THE STORY OF ARCHITECTURE
Karnak he erected two obelisks ; one of these,
which now stands before the church of S. John
Lateran in Rome, is the largest and most splen-
did monument of its kind extant. He built, or
added to, temples at Heliopolis, Abydos,
Denderah, Memphis and many other places,
both in Egypt and in Nubia. An obelisk of
this monarch has been re-erected at Constan-
tinople ; another, which stood originally at
Heliopolis and afterwards at Alexandria, is now
to be seen on the Thames Embankment, where
we know it as “ Cleopatra's Needle ” ; its
companion has crossed the Atlantic and has
been erected in New York.
Amenhotep continued the building of the
temple at Karnak, and erected a vast new
temple, of which, however, hardly a trace
remains, for it has suffered from the inunda-
tions of the Nile ; but an enduring memorial
of the king, and of an architect bearing the
same name, survives in the two mutilated
colossi, fifty-six feet high, of which one has
been known, since the days of the Greeks, as
the “ vocal Memnon.”
By far the greatest and most impressive of
all the buildings of this period was the grand
temple of Ammon at Karnak. Like many of our
mediaeval cathedrals, this was the work of
successive kings and generations ; its walls and
columns, covered with inscriptions, furnish
almost a complete history of the Theban kings.
The temple was begun by Usertesen I., the
great king of the twelfth dynasty (Hr. 2400 b.c.).
Karnak he erected two obelisks ; one of these,
which now stands before the church of S. John
Lateran in Rome, is the largest and most splen-
did monument of its kind extant. He built, or
added to, temples at Heliopolis, Abydos,
Denderah, Memphis and many other places,
both in Egypt and in Nubia. An obelisk of
this monarch has been re-erected at Constan-
tinople ; another, which stood originally at
Heliopolis and afterwards at Alexandria, is now
to be seen on the Thames Embankment, where
we know it as “ Cleopatra's Needle ” ; its
companion has crossed the Atlantic and has
been erected in New York.
Amenhotep continued the building of the
temple at Karnak, and erected a vast new
temple, of which, however, hardly a trace
remains, for it has suffered from the inunda-
tions of the Nile ; but an enduring memorial
of the king, and of an architect bearing the
same name, survives in the two mutilated
colossi, fifty-six feet high, of which one has
been known, since the days of the Greeks, as
the “ vocal Memnon.”
By far the greatest and most impressive of
all the buildings of this period was the grand
temple of Ammon at Karnak. Like many of our
mediaeval cathedrals, this was the work of
successive kings and generations ; its walls and
columns, covered with inscriptions, furnish
almost a complete history of the Theban kings.
The temple was begun by Usertesen I., the
great king of the twelfth dynasty (Hr. 2400 b.c.).