DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.1035#0050
14 TOPOGRAPHY OF THEBES. [Chap. I.
columns, and on either side of the central door, is
a limestone pedestal, which, to judge from the space
left in the sculptures, must have once supported the
sitting figure of a lion, or, perhaps, a statue of the
king. Three entrances thence open into the grand
hall, each strengthened and beautified by a sculp-
tured doorway of black granite, and between the
two first columns of the central avenue, two pedes-
tals supported (one on either side) two other statues*
of the king. Twelve j" massive columns form a
double line along the centre of this hall, and
eighteen of smaller dimensions, to the right and
left, complete the total of the forty-eight, which
supported its solid J roof§ studded with stars on
an azure ground. To the hall, which measures
100 feet by 133, succeeded three central and six
* From the form of these pedestals they were standing statues,
and faced each other.
f Their height from the pavement, without the abacus, is
thirty-two feet six, and circumference twenty-one feet three. The
side columns are seventeen feet eight in circumference. The
swell of the Egyptian column is close to the base, and I find it
projects about four inches in the central columns of this hall.
| Such is the meaning of the word monolithon. Diod. i. 47.
Strabo's description of the Nilometer of Elephantine has been
unjustly found fault with from the use of this word; while some,
expecting to find a monolithic edifice, have doubted the identity
of the one now existing with that which the geographer had in
view.
§ In order to light this hall, the roof over the four centre rows
of columns was raised above that which covered the remaining
part, and had large square windows or apertures on either side,
as at Kamak and old Qoorneh.
columns, and on either side of the central door, is
a limestone pedestal, which, to judge from the space
left in the sculptures, must have once supported the
sitting figure of a lion, or, perhaps, a statue of the
king. Three entrances thence open into the grand
hall, each strengthened and beautified by a sculp-
tured doorway of black granite, and between the
two first columns of the central avenue, two pedes-
tals supported (one on either side) two other statues*
of the king. Twelve j" massive columns form a
double line along the centre of this hall, and
eighteen of smaller dimensions, to the right and
left, complete the total of the forty-eight, which
supported its solid J roof§ studded with stars on
an azure ground. To the hall, which measures
100 feet by 133, succeeded three central and six
* From the form of these pedestals they were standing statues,
and faced each other.
f Their height from the pavement, without the abacus, is
thirty-two feet six, and circumference twenty-one feet three. The
side columns are seventeen feet eight in circumference. The
swell of the Egyptian column is close to the base, and I find it
projects about four inches in the central columns of this hall.
| Such is the meaning of the word monolithon. Diod. i. 47.
Strabo's description of the Nilometer of Elephantine has been
unjustly found fault with from the use of this word; while some,
expecting to find a monolithic edifice, have doubted the identity
of the one now existing with that which the geographer had in
view.
§ In order to light this hall, the roof over the four centre rows
of columns was raised above that which covered the remaining
part, and had large square windows or apertures on either side,
as at Kamak and old Qoorneh.