Wilkinson, John Gardner: Topographie of Thebes, and general view of Egypt: being a short account of the principal objects worthy of notice in the valley of the Nile, to the second cataracte and Wadi Samneh, with the Fyoom, Oases and eastern desert, from Sooez to Bertenice (London, 1835)

174 THE GRAND HALL. [Chap. IV.

pyla* terminate this area with a small vestibule before
the pylon, and form the front of the grand hall, one
hundred and seventy feet by three hundred and
twenty-nine, supported by a central avenue of
twelve f massive columns, sixty-six feet high (with-
out the pedestal and abacus), and twelve in dia-
meter ; besides one hundred and twenty-two of
smaller, or rather less gigantic dimensions, forty-one
feet nine inches in height, and twenty-seven feet
six inches in circumference, distributed in seven
lines on either side of the former. Other propyla
close the inner extremity of this hall, beyond which
are two obelisks, one still standing on its original
site, the other having been thrown down and
broken by human violence. A small propylon
succeeds to this court, of which it forms the inner
side; the next contains two obelisks J of larger
dimensions, being ninety-two feet high and eight
square, surrounded by a peristyle, if I may be
allowed the expression, of Osiride figures. Passing
between two dilapidated propyla you enter another

situation, since their chronological order must necessarily be rather
retrograde and complex, and commence in the centre, not at the
entrance of the building.

* The lintel-stones covering the doorway between these propyla
were forty feet ten inches long.

t Originally fourteen, one having been afterwards inclosed
within the masonry of each of the front propyla, (at Number 7.)
This was apparently an alteration made by Osirei himself, the
founder of the hall.

| Dedicated to Amunre by Amunneitgori, in honour of Thoth-
mes I.