DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.3720#0166
ORIGIN OF THEIR ARCHITECTURE.
149
(W. 113.)
The form and mouldings of the primitive temple and house
were derived from the nature of their construction. The walls
were of mud—afterwards suc-
ceeded by crude brick—with
a framework of reeds bound
together, extending up the
ends and over the top; which
was the origin of the torus in
the stone temples. This held
the same position there, and even the old binding of the reeds
was imitated; which was so like that of the Eoman fasces (see
woodcut 111). Above the upper line of the framework was the
roof, composed of rafters with rushes, reeds, or branches of the
date-tree laid over them (and coated over with a layer of mud),
which, overhanging the rafters, gave rise to the projecting
summit, or regula, of the cornice. Though at first very
simple, this was soon varied into that overhanging curve which
was so graceful a feature of Egyptian buildings, and was imitated
by the Greeks; but the lowness of the early cornice still con-
tinued to be a marked feature of the oldest temples, and it
only attained great height in those built after the accession of
the Ptolemies. This curve, which is the same as in the bell-
shaped capital, appears to
have been taken from the
flower-head of that favourite
plant of the Egyptians, the
papyrus.
No member intervened be-
tween the torus-framework
and the cornice, except over
columns; and the architrave
i\»uunnTm'in,ili ntniimli.T
(\V. 114.)
was there "the mainbeam" from one column to another.
149
(W. 113.)
The form and mouldings of the primitive temple and house
were derived from the nature of their construction. The walls
were of mud—afterwards suc-
ceeded by crude brick—with
a framework of reeds bound
together, extending up the
ends and over the top; which
was the origin of the torus in
the stone temples. This held
the same position there, and even the old binding of the reeds
was imitated; which was so like that of the Eoman fasces (see
woodcut 111). Above the upper line of the framework was the
roof, composed of rafters with rushes, reeds, or branches of the
date-tree laid over them (and coated over with a layer of mud),
which, overhanging the rafters, gave rise to the projecting
summit, or regula, of the cornice. Though at first very
simple, this was soon varied into that overhanging curve which
was so graceful a feature of Egyptian buildings, and was imitated
by the Greeks; but the lowness of the early cornice still con-
tinued to be a marked feature of the oldest temples, and it
only attained great height in those built after the accession of
the Ptolemies. This curve, which is the same as in the bell-
shaped capital, appears to
have been taken from the
flower-head of that favourite
plant of the Egyptians, the
papyrus.
No member intervened be-
tween the torus-framework
and the cornice, except over
columns; and the architrave
i\»uunnTm'in,ili ntniimli.T
(\V. 114.)
was there "the mainbeam" from one column to another.