Wilkinson, John Gardner: The Architecture Of Ancient Egypt: In Which The Columns Are Arranged In Orders, And The Temples Classified; With Remarks On The Early Progress Of Architecture, Etc.; With A Large Volume Of Plates Ilustrative Of The Subject, And Containing The Various Columns And details, From Actual Measurement (Text) (London, 1850)

60 ARCHITECTURE OF EGYPT. PART II.

and it is found in the islands of the Mediterranean
frequented by that people, on monuments, or
figures, attributable to them, or to the influence of
their religion; as in Sardinia, Malta, Gozo, and
Cyprus. It might be supposed that the Phoenicians
had borrowed the volute from the whirls of sea-
shells ; but the fact of the device with two volutes,
and a central projection, at the feet of Astarte,
being exactly the Egyptian water-plant reversed,
indicates its real origin, and shows it to have been
derived from Egypt. There, too, the scroll pat-
tern, and what is called the Greek border, were
first used ; and the very ancient tombs of Osioot,
as well as those of Thebes, suffice to show that
they (with many other devices) were invented in
Egypt, long before decorative art flourished in
Greece.

The full-blown lotus column is among the many
varieties of this order, which is then without the
addition of the Isis-head. The largest example of
it is in the area of Edfoo;* and though the temples
wdiere it is found are of Ptolemaic date, it was not
a late invention, being also in a rock tomb, at
Metahara, of Pharaonic time; and the lotus, as well
as the papyrus, was doubtless one of the original
ornaments of the old square pillar.

It has been supposed that columns of various
kinds, in the same area, or the same portico, was an
innovation, consequent upon the accession of the
Ptolemaic dynasty; but it is well known that

* With the plinth and abacus 25 feet 7 inches high.