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)

82 ARCHITECTURE OF EGYPT. PART II.

■when the temple contained two areas, one behind
the other, the inner one had a peristyle of colnmns
at the sides, and Osiride pillars at the two ends.*
The upper end of the inner area was then divided
off from the rest, by screens in the intercolumnia-
tions; and that part had also one row of columns
behind the Osiride pillars. On either side of the
entrance of these courts, was usually placed a sit-
ting statue of the King, and the two areas were
separated by large pyramidal towers.

So varied were the plans of Egyptian temples,
that it is difficult to arrange them under distinct
classes. The same edifice, which, at the commence-
ment, consisted merely of a sanctuary, often re-
ceived numerous additions, till it became a large,
and complicated, building; and this accounts for
the disproportionate scale of the parts, as in the
Great Temple of Karnak, at Thebes; where addi-
tions were made by successive kings, each on the
increased scale that resulted from the progress of
art and wealth. Some general distinctions may
however be made; and constructed Egyptian Tem-
ples may be classified under the following five heads.

a. CONSTRUCTED TEMPLES.

1st. Sanctuary Temples, consisting of a single
chamber.f This was the oldest style, and it after-
wards held the rank only of a Delubrum, or chapel.

2nd. Peripteral Temples, already mentioned.^

* Plate i, figs. 28, 33,34. f Rate i, figs. 15,16, 17.

t Page 79. Vide plate i, figs. 30, 31, a, 5.