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)

Chap. IV.] THE OLDEST PART. 175

smaller area, ornamented in a similar manner,
and succeeded by a vestibule, in front of the
granite gateway of the pyramidal towers, which
form the facade of the court of the sanctuary.
This last is also of red granite, divided into two
apartments, and surrounded by numerous chambers
of small dimensions, varying from twenty-nine feet
by sixteen, to sixteen feet by eight. A few poly-
gonal columns of the early date of Osirtesen I., the
contemporary of Joseph, appear behind these in
the midst of fallen architraves of the same era, and
two pedestals of red granite * crossing the line of
direction in the centre of the open space to the
south-east, are the only objects worthy of notice,
until you reach the columnar edifice of the third
Thothmes. The exterior wall of this building is
entirely destroyed, except on the north-east side ;
to it succeeds a circuit of thirty-two pillars, and
within this square are twenty columns, disposed in
two lines, parallel to the outer walls, and to the
back and front row of pillars. Independent of the
irregular position of the latter, with regard to the
columns of the centre, an unusual caprice has
changed the established order of the architectural
details, and capitals and cornicesf are reversed, with-

* They may have supported obelisks, but they are not square,
like the basements of those monuments, and rather resemble, for
this reason, the pedestals of statues. Their substructions are of
limestone.

f For this innovation of the cornices there is some excuse, as