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101 | d 223 feet from east to
west. The main axis of the structure extends, therefore, from north to
south. The principal gateway opens in the western wall, not far from the
northwest corner: but there would appear to have been two smaller gates,
one in the south front, and one in the east. The walls, which now stand
from twenty-four to thirty-six feet high, have lost somewhat of their
original height. They are about six feet thick at the top. They were not
built all together in uniform lay |
102 | ers, but in huge vertical panels, easily
distinguished by the arrangement of the brickwork. In one division the
bedding of the bricks is strictly horizontal; in the next it is slightly
concave, and forms a very flat reversed arch, of which the extrados rests
upon the ground. The alternation of these two methods is regularly
repeated. The object of this arrangement is obscure; but it is said that
buildings thus constructed are especially fitted to resist earthquake
shocks. However this |
103 | may be, the fortress is extremely ancient, for in the
Fifth Dynasty, the nobles of Abydos took possession of the interior, and,
ultimately, so piled it up with their graves as to deprive it of all
strategic value. A second stronghold, erected a few hundred yards further
to the south-east, replaced that of Kom es Sultan about the time of the
Twelfth Dynasty, and narrowly escaped the fate of the first, under the rule
of the Ramessides. Nothing, in fact, but the sudden decline of the cit |
104 | y,
saved the second from being similarly choked and buried.
[Illustration: Fig. 26.--Plan of second fortress at Abydos, Eleventh or
Twelfth Dynasty.]
[Illustration: Fig. 27.--Walls of second fort at Abydos, restored.]
[Illustration: Fig. 28.--Façade of fort, from wall-scene, Beni Hasan,
Twelfth Dynasty.]
[Illustration: Fig. 29.--Plan of main gate, second fortress of Abydos.]
[Illustration: Fig. 30.--Plan of south-east gate, second fortress of
Abydos.]
[Illustration: Fig |
105 | . 31.--Plan of gate, fortress of Kom el Ahmar.]
The early Egyptians possessed no engines calculated to make an impression
on very massive walls. They knew of but three ways of forcing a stronghold;
namely, scaling the walls, sapping them, or bursting open the gates. The
plan adopted by their engineers in building the second fort is admirably
well calculated to resist each of these modes of attack (fig. 26). The
outer walls are long and straight, without towers or projections of any
|
106 | kind; they measure 430 feet in length from north to south, by 255 feet in
width. The foundations rest on the sand, and do not go down more than a
foot. The wall (fig. 27) is of crude brick, in horizontal courses. It has a
slight batter; is solid, without slits or loopholes; and is decorated
outside with long vertical grooves or panels, like those depicted on the
stelae of the ancient empire. In its present state, it rises to a height of
some thirty-six feet above the plain; when perfec |
107 | t, it would scarcely have
exceeded forty feet, which height would amply suffice to protect the
garrison from all danger of scaling by portable ladders. The thickness of
the wall is about twenty feet at the base, and sixteen feet above. The top
is destroyed, but the bas-reliefs and mural paintings (fig. 28) show that
it must have been crowned with a continuous cornice, boldly projecting,
furnished with a slight low parapet, and surmounted by battlements, which
were generally rounded, b |
108 | ut sometimes, though rarely, squared. The walk
round the top of the ramparts, though diminished by the parapet, was still
twelve or fifteen feet wide. It ran uninterruptedly along the four sides,
and was reached by narrow staircases formed in the thickness of the walls,
but now destroyed. There was no ditch, but in order to protect the base of
the main wall from sappers, they erected, about ten feet in advance of it,
a battlemented covering wall, some sixteen feet in height. These
pre |
109 | cautions sufficed against sap and scaling; but the gates remained as
open gaps in the circuit. It was upon these weak points that besiegers and
besieged alike concentrated their efforts. The fortress of Abydos had two
gates, the main one being situate at the east end of the north front (fig.
29). A narrow cutting (A), closed by a massive wooden door, marked the
place in the covering wall. Behind it was a small _place d'armes_ (B), cut
partly in the thickness of the wall, and leading to |
110 | a second gate (C) as
narrow as the first. When, notwithstanding the showers of missiles poured
upon them from the top of the walls, not only in front, but also from both
sides, the attacking party had succeeded in carrying this second door, they
were not yet in the heart of the place. They would still have to traverse
an oblong court (D), closely hemmed in between the outer walls and the
cross walls, which last stood at right angles to the first. Finally, they
must force a last poste |
111 | rn (E), which was purposely placed in the most
awkward corner. The leading principle in the construction of fortress-gates
was always the same, but the details varied according to the taste of the
engineer. At the south-east gate of the fort of Abydos (fig. 30) the _place
d'armes_ between the two walls is abolished, and the court is constructed
entirely in the thickness of the main wall; while at Kom el Ahmar, opposite
El Kab (fig. 31), the block of brickwork in the midst of which the |
112 | gate is
cut projects boldly in front. The posterns opening at various points
facilitated the movements of the garrison, and enabled them to multiply
their sorties.
[Illustration: Fig. 32.--Plan of the walled city at El Kab.]
The same system of fortification which was in use for isolated fortresses
was also employed for the protection of towns. At Heliopollis, at Sãn, at
Sais, at Thebes, everywhere in short, we find long straight walls forming
plain squares or parallelograms, with |
113 | out towers or bastions, ditches or
outworks. The thickness of the walls, which varied from thirty to eighty
feet, made such precautions needless. The gates, or at all events the
principal ones, had jambs and lintels of stone, decorated with scenes and
inscriptions; as, for instance, that of Ombos, which Champollion beheld yet
_in situ_, and which dated from the reign of Thothmes III. The oldest and
best preserved walled city in Egypt, namely, El Kab, belongs probably to
the ancient em |
114 | pire (fig. 32). The Nile washed part of it away some years
ago; but at the beginning of the present century it formed an irregular
quadrilateral enclosure, measuring some 2,100 feet in length, by about a
quarter less in breadth. The south front is constructed on the same
principles as the wall at Kom es Sultan, the bricks being bedded in
alternate horizontal and concave sections. Along the north and west fronts
they are laid in undulating layers from end to end. The thickness is
thirt |
115 | y-eight feet, and the average height thirty feet; and spacious ramps
lead up to the walk upon the walls. The gates are placed irregularly, one
in each side to north, east, and west, but none in the south face; they
are, however, in too ruinous a state to admit of any plan being taken of
them. The enclosure contained a considerable population, whose dwellings
were unequally distributed, the greater part being concentrated towards the
north and west, where excavations have disclosed the |
116 | remains of a large
number of houses. The temples were grouped together in a square enclosure,
concentric with the outer wall; and this second enclosure served for a
keep, where the garrison could hold out long after the rest of the town had
fallen into the hands of the enemy.
[Illustration: Fig. 33.--Plan of walled city at Kom Ombo.]
[Illustration: Fig. 34.--Plan of fortress of Kùmmeh.]
[Illustration: Fig. 35.--Plan of fortress of Semneh.]
[Illustration: Fig. 36.--Section of |
117 | the platform at A B, of the preceding
plan.]
The rectangular plan, though excellent in a plain, was not always
available in a hilly country. When the spot to be fortified was situate
upon a height, the Egyptian engineers knew perfectly well how to adapt
their lines of defence to the nature of the site. At Kom Ombo (fig. 33) the
walls exactly followed the outline of the isolated mound on which the town
was perched, and presented towards the east a front bristling with
irregular proj |
118 | ections, the style of which roughly resembles our modern
bastions. At Kûmmeh and Semneh, in Nubia, where the Nile rushes over the
rocks of the second cataract, the engineering arrangements are very
ingenious, and display much real skill. Ûsertesen III. had fixed on this
pass as the frontier of Egypt, and the fortresses which he there
constructed were intended to bar the water-way against the vessels of the
neighbouring negro tribes. At Kûmmeh, on the right bank, the position was
natur |
119 | ally strong (fig. 34). Upon a rocky height surrounded by precipices
was planned an irregular square measuring about 200 feet each way. Two
elongated bastions, one on the north-east and the other on the south-east,
guarded respectively the path leading to the gate, and the course of the
river. The covering wall stood thirteen feet high, and closely followed the
line of the main wall, except at the north and south corners, where it
formed two bastion-like projections. At Semneh, on the o |
120 | pposite bank, the
site was less favourable. The east side was protected by a belt of cliffs
going sheer down to the water's edge; but the three other sides were well-
nigh open (fig. 35). A straight wall, about fifty feet in height, carried
along the cliffs on the side next the river; but the walls looking towards
the plain rose to eighty feet, and bristled with bastion-like projections
(A.B.) jutting out for a distance of fifty feet from the curtain wall,
measuring thirty feet thick |
121 | at the base and thirteen feet at the top, and
irregularly spaced, according to the requirements of the defence. These
spurs, which are not battlemented, served in place of towers. They added to
the strength of the walls, protected the walk round the top, and enabled
the besieged to direct a flank attack against the enemy if any attempt were
made upon the wall of circuit. The intervals between these spurs are
accurately calculated as to distance, in order that the archers should be
abl |
122 | e to sweep the intervening ground with their arrows. Curtains and
salients are alike built of crude brick, with beams bedded horizontally in
the mass. The outer face is in two parts, the lower division being nearly
vertical, and the upper one inclined at an angle of about seventy degrees,
which made scaling very difficult, if not impossible. The whole of the
ground enclosed by the wall of circuit was filled in to nearly the level of
the ramparts (fig. 36). Externally, the covering wall |
123 | of stone was
separated from the body of the fortress by a dry ditch, some 100 to 130
feet in width. This wall closely followed the main outline, and rose to a
height which varied according to the situation from six to ten feet above
the level of the plain. On the northward side it was cut by the winding
road, which led down into the plain. These arrangements, skilful as they
were, did not prevent the fall of the place. A large breach in the
southward face, between the two salients ne |
124 | arest to the river, marks the
point of attack selected by the enemy.
[Illustration: Fig. 37.--Syrian fort.]
[Illustration: Fig. 38.--The town-walls of Dapür.]
[Illustration: Fig. 39.--City of Kadesh, Ramesseum.]
[Illustration: Fig. 40.--Plan of the pavilion of Medinet Habu.]
[Illustration: Fig. 41.--Elevation of pavilion, Medinet Habû.]
New methods of fortification were revealed to the Egyptians in the course
of the great Asiatic wars undertaken by the Pharaohs of the Eig |
125 | hteenth
Dynasty. The nomadic tribes of Syria erected small forts in which they took
refuge when threatened with invasion (fig. 37). The Canaanite and Hittite
cities, as Ascalon, Dapur, and Merom, were surrounded by strong walls,
generally built of stone and flanked with towers (fig. 38). Those which
stood in the open country, as, for instance, Qodshû (Kadesh), were enclosed
by a double moat (fig. 39). Having proved the efficacy of these new types
of defensive architecture in the cours |
126 | e of their campaigns, the Pharaohs
reproduced them in the valley of the Nile. From the beginning of the
Nineteenth Dynasty, the eastern frontier of the Delta (always the weakest)
was protected by a line of forts constructed after the Canaanite model. The
Egyptians, moreover, not content with appropriating the thing, appropriated
also the name, and called these frontier towers by the Semitic name of
_Magdilû_ or Migdols. For these purposes, or at all events for cities which
were expose |
127 | d to the incursions of the Asiatic tribes, brick was not deemed
to be sufficiently strong; hence the walls of Heliopolis, and even those of
Memphis, were faced with stone. Of these new fortresses no ruins remain;
and but for a royal caprice which happens to have left us a model Migdol in
that most unlikely place, the necropolis of Thebes, we should now be
constrained to attempt a restoration of their probable appearance from the
representations in certain mural tableaux. When, however, |
128 | Rameses III.
erected his memorial temple[3] (figs. 40 and 41), he desired, in
remembrance of his Syrian victories, to give it an outwardly military
aspect. Along the eastward front of the enclosure there accordingly runs a
battlemented covering wall of stone, averaging some thirteen feet in
height. The gate, protected by a large quadrangular bastion, opened in the
middle of this wall. It was three feet four inches in width, and was
flanked by two small oblong guard-houses, the flat r |
129 | oofs of which stood
about three feet higher than the ramparts. Passing this gate, we stand face
to face with a real Migdol. Two blocks of building enclose a succession of
court-yards, which narrow as they recede, and are connected at the lower
end by a kind of gate-house, consisting of one massive gateway surmounted
by two storeys of chambers. The eastward faces of the towers rise above an
inclined basement, which slopes to a height of from fifteen to sixteen feet
from the ground. Thi |
130 | s answered two purposes. It increased the strength of
the wall at the part exposed to sappers; it also caused the rebound of
projectiles thrown from above, and so helped to keep assailants at a
distance. The whole height is about seventy-two feet, and the width of each
tower is thirty-two feet. The buildings situate at the back, to right and
left of the gate, were destroyed in ancient times. The details of the
decoration are partly religious, partly triumphal, as befits the character
|
131 | of the structure. It is unlikely, however, that actual fortresses were
adorned with brackets and bas-relief sculptures, such as we here see on
either side of the fore-court. Such as it is, the so-called "pavilion" of
Medinet Habu offers an unique example of the high degree of perfection to
which the victorious Pharaohs of this period had carried their military
architecture.
Material evidence fails us almost entirely, after the reign of Rameses III.
Towards the close of the eleventh |
132 | century B.C., the high-priests of Amen
repaired the walls of Thebes, of Gebeleyn, and of El Hibeh opposite Feshn.
The territorial subdivision of the country, which took place under the
successors of Sheshonk, compelled the provincial princes to multiply their
strongholds. The campaign of Piankhi on the banks of the Nile is a series
of successful sieges. Nothing, however, leads us to suppose that the art of
fortification had at that time made any distinct progress; and when the
Greek r |
133 | ulers succeeded the native Pharaohs, they most probably found it at
much the same stage as it was left by the engineers of the Nineteenth and
Twentieth Dynasties.
[3] At Medinet Habû.
3.--PUBLIC WORKS.
A permanent network of roads would be useless in a country like Egypt. The
Nile here is the natural highway for purposes of commerce, and the pathways
which intersect the fields suffice for foot-passengers, for cattle, and for
the transport of goods from village to vill |
134 | age. Ferry-boats for crossing
the river, fords wherever the canals were shallow enough, and embanked dams
thrown up here and there where the water was too deep for fordings,
completed the system of internal communication. Bridges were rare. Up to
the present time, we know of but one in the whole territory of ancient
Egypt; and whether that one was long or short, built of stone or of wood,
supported on arches or boldly flung across the stream from bank to bank, we
cannot even conjectur |
135 | e. This bridge, close under the very walls of Zarû,[4]
crossed the canal which separated the eastern frontier of Egypt from the
desert regions of Arabia Petraea. A fortified enclosure protected this
canal on the Asiatic side, as shown in the accompanying illustration (fig.
42). The maintenance of public highways, which figures as so costly an item
in the expenses of modern nations, played, therefore, but a very small part
in the annual disbursements of the Pharaohs, who had only to pro |
136 | vide for
the due execution of three great branches of government works,--namely,
storage, irrigation, mining and quarrying.
[Illustration: Fig. 42.--Canal and bridge, Zarû, Karnak.]
[Illustration: Fig. 43.--Cellar, with amphorae.]
[Illustration: Fig. 44.--Granary.]
The taxation of ancient Egypt was levied in kind, and government servants
were paid after the same system. To workmen, there were monthly
distributions of corn, oil, and wine, wherewith to support their families;
|
137 | while from end to end of the social scale, each functionary, in exchange
for his labour, received cattle, stuffs, manufactured goods, and certain
quantities of copper or precious metals. Thus it became necessary that the
treasury officials should have the command of vast storehouses for the safe
keeping of the various goods collected under the head of taxation. These
were classified and stored in separate quarters, each storehouse being
surrounded by walls and guarded by vigilant keepe |
138 | rs. There was enormous
stabling for cattle; there were cellars where the amphorae were piled in
regular layers (fig. 43), or hung in rows upon the walls, each with the
date written on the side of the jar; there were oven-shaped granaries where
the corn was poured in through a trap at the top (fig. 44), and taken out
through a trap at the bottom. At Thûkû, identified with Pithom by M.
Naville,[5] the store-chambers (A) are rectangular and of different
dimensions (fig. 45), originally d |
139 | ivided by floors, and having no
communication with each other. Here the corn had to be not only put in but
taken out through the aperture at the top. At the Ramesseum, Thebes,
thousands of ostraka and jar-stoppers found upon the spot prove that the
brick-built remains at the back of the temple were the cellars of the local
deity. The ruins consist of a series of vaulted chambers, originally
surmounted by a platform or terrace (fig. 46). At Philae, Ombos,
Daphnae,[6] and most of the fr |
140 | ontier towns of the Delta, there were
magazines of this description, and many more will doubtless be discovered
when made the object of serious exploration.
[Illustration: Fig. 45.--Plan of Pithom.]
[Illustration: Fig. 46.--Store-chambers of the Ramesseum.]
[Illustration: Fig. 47.--Dike at Wady Gerraweh.]
The irrigation system of Egypt is but little changed since the olden time.
Some new canals have been cut, and yet more have been silted up through the
negligence of those in |
141 | power; but the general scheme, and the methods
employed, continue much the same, and demand but little engineering skill.
Wherever I have investigated the remains of ancient canals, I have been
unable to detect any traces of masonry at the weak points, or at the
mouths, of these cuttings. They are mere excavated ditches, from twenty to
sixty or seventy feet in width. The earth flung out during the work was
thrown to right and left, forming irregular embankments from seven to
fourteen |
142 | feet in height. The course of the ancient canals was generally
straight: but that rule was not strictly observed, and enormous curves
were often described in order to avoid even slight irregularities of
surface. Dikes thrown up from the foot of the cliffs to the banks of the
Nile divided the plain at intervals into a series of artificial basins,
where the overflow formed back-waters at the time of inundation. These
dikes are generally earth-works, though they are sometimes constructed |
143 | of
baked brick, as in the province of Girgeh. Very rarely are they built of
hewn stone, like that great dike of Kosheish which was constructed by Mena
in primaeval times, in order to divert the course of the Nile from the spot
on which he founded Memphis.[7] The network of canals began near Silsilis
and extended to the sea-board, without ever losing touch of the river, save
at one spot near Beni Sûef, where it throws out a branch in the direction
of the Fayûm. Here, through a narrow |
144 | and sinuous gorge, deepened probably
by the hand of man, it passes the rocky barrier which divides that low-
lying province from the valley of the Nile, and thence expands into a
fanlike ramification of innumerable channels. Having thus irrigated the
district, the waters flow out again; those nearest the Nile returning by
the same way that they flowed in, while the rest form a series of lakes,
the largest of which is known as the Birket el Kûrûn. If we are to believe
Herodotus, the wo |
145 | rk was not so simply done. A king, named Moeris, desired
to create a reservoir in the Fayûm which should neutralise the evil effects
of insufficient or superabundant inundations. This reservoir was named,
after him, Lake Moeris. If the supply fell below the average, then the
stored waters were let loose, and Lower Egypt and the Western Delta were
flooded to the needful height. If next year the inundation came down in too
great force, Lake Moeris received and stored the surplus till suc |
146 | h time as
the waters began to subside. Two pyramids, each surmounted by a sitting
colossus, one representing the king and the other his queen, were erected
in the midst of the lake. Such is the tale told by Herodotus, and it is a
tale which has considerably embarrassed our modern engineers and
topographers. How, in fact, was it possible to find in the Fayûm a site
which could have contained a basin measuring at least ninety miles in
circumference? Linant supposed "Lake Moeris" to have |
147 | extended over the
whole of the low-lying land which skirts the Libyan cliffs between Illahûn
and Medinet el Fayûm; but recent explorations have proved that the dikes by
which this pretended reservoir was bounded are modern works, erected
probably within the last two hundred years. Major Brown has lately shown
that the nucleus of "Lake Moeris" was the Birket el Kûrûn.[8] This was
known to the Egyptians as _Miri, Mi-ûri,_ the Great Lake, whence the Greeks
derived their _Moiris_ a name |
148 | extended also to the inundation of the Fayûm.
If Herodotus did actually visit this province, it was probably in summer,
at the time of the high Nile, when the whole district presents the
appearance of an inland sea. What he took for the shores of this lake were
the embankments which divided it into basins and acted as highways between
the various towns. His narrative, repeated by the classic authors, has
been accepted by the moderns; and Egypt, neither accepting nor rejecting
it, was |
149 | gratified long after date with the reputation of a gigantic work
which would in truth have been the glory of her civil engineers, if it had
ever existed. I do not believe that "Lake Moeris" ever did exist. The only
works of the kind which the Egyptians undertook were much less pretentious.
These consist of stone-built dams erected at the mouths of many of those
lateral ravines, or wadys, which lead down from the mountain ranges into
the valley of the Nile. One of the most important amo |
150 | ng them was pointed
out, in 1885, by Dr. Schweinfurth, at a distance of about six miles and a
half from the Baths of Helwan, at the mouth of the Wady Gerraweh (fig. 47).
It answered two purposes, firstly, as a means of storing the water of the
inundation for the use of the workmen in the neighbouring quarries; and,
secondly, as a barrier to break the force of the torrents which rush down
from the desert after the heavy rains of springtime and winter. The ravine
measures about 240 feet |
151 | in width, the sides being on an average from 40 to
50 feet in height. The dam, which is 143 feet in thickness, consists of
three layers of material; at the bottom, a bed of clay and rubble; next, a
piled mass of limestone blocks (A); lastly, a wall of cut stone built in
retreating stages, like an enormous flight of steps (B). Thirty-two of the
original thirty-five stages are yet _in situ_, and about one-fourth part of
the dam remains piled up against the sides of the ravine to right a |
152 | nd left;
but the middle part has been swept away by the force of the torrent (fig.
48). A similar dike transformed the end of Wady Genneh into a little lake
which supplied the Sinaitic miners with water.
Most of the localities from which the Egyptians derived their metals and
choicest materials in hard stone, were difficult of access, and would have
been useless had roads not been made, and works of this kind carried out,
so as to make life somewhat less insupportable there.
[Ill |
153 | ustration: Fig. 48.--Section of dike at Wady Gerraweh.]
In order to reach the diorite and grey granite quarries of the Hammamat
Valley, the Pharaohs caused a series of rock-cut cisterns to be constructed
along the line of route. Some few insignificant springs, skilfully
conducted into these reservoirs, made it possible to plant workmen's
villages in the neighbourhood of the quarries, and also near the emerald
mines on the borders of the Red Sea. Hundreds of hired labourers, slaves,
|
154 | and condemned criminals here led a wretched existence under the rule of
some eight or ten overseers, and the brutal surveillance of a company of
Libyan or negro mercenary troops. The least political disturbance in Egypt,
an unsuccessful campaign, or any untoward incident of a troubled reign,
sufficed to break up the precarious stability of these remote
establishments. The Bedawîn at once attacked the colony; the workmen
deserted; the guards, weary of exile, hastened back to the valley |
155 | of the
Nile, and all was at a standstill.
The choicest materials, as diorite, basalt, black granite, porphyry, and
red and yellow breccia, which are only found in the desert, were rarely
used for architectural purposes. In order to procure them, it was necessary
to organise regular expeditions of soldiers and workmen; therefore they
were reserved for sarcophagi and important works of art. Those quarries
which supplied building materials for temples and funerary monuments, such
as l |
156 | imestone, sandstone, alabaster, and red granite, were all found in the
Nile valley, and were, therefore, easy of access. When the vein which it
was intended to work traversed the lower strata of the rock, the miners
excavated chambers and passages, which were often prolonged to a
considerable distance. Square pillars, left standing at intervals,
supported the superincumbent mass, while tablets sculptured in the most
conspicuous places commemorated the kings and engineers who began or
|
157 | continued the work. Several exhausted or abandoned quarries have been
transformed into votive chapels; as, for instance, the Speos Artemidos,
which was consecrated by Hatshepsut, Thothmes III. and Seti I. to the local
goddess Pakhet.[9]
[Illustration: Fig. 49.--Quarries of Silsilis.]
[Illustration: Fig. 50.--Draught of Hathor capital in quarry of Gebel
Abûfeydeh.]
The most important limestone quarries are at Tûrah and Massarah, nearly
opposite Memphis. This stone lends itself a |
158 | dmirably to the most delicate
touches of the chisel, hardens when exposed to the air, and acquires a
creamy tone most restful to the eye. Hence it was much in request by
architects and sculptors. The most extensive sandstone formations are at
Silsilis (fig. 49). Here the cliffs were quarried from above, and under the
open sky. Clean cut and absolutely vertical, they rise to a height of from
forty to fifty feet, sometimes presenting a smooth surface from top to
bottom, and sometimes cu |
159 | t in stages accessible by means of steps scarcely
large enough for one man at a time. The walls of these cuttings are covered
with parallel striae, sometimes horizontal, sometimes slanting to the left,
and sometimes to the right, so forming lines of serried chevrons framed, as
it were, between grooves an inch, or an inch and a half, in width, by nine
or ten feet in length. These are the scars left upon the surface by the
tools of the ancient workmen, and they show the method employed i |
160 | n
detaching the blocks. The size was outlined in red ink, and this outline
sometimes indicated the form which the stone was to take in the projected
building. The members of the French Commission, when they visited the
quarries of Gebel Abûfeydeh, copied the diagrams and squared designs of
several capitals, one being of the campaniform pattern, and others prepared
for the Hathor-head pattern (fig. 50).[10] The outline made, the vertical
faces of the block were divided by means of a lo |
161 | ng iron chisel, which was
driven in perpendicularly or obliquely by heavy blows of the mallet. In
order to detach the horizontal faces, they made use of wooden or bronze
wedges, inserted the way of the natural strata of the stone. Very
frequently the stone was roughly blocked out before being actually
extracted from the bed. Thus at Syene (Asûan) we see a couchant obelisk of
granite, the under side of which is one with the rock itself; and at Tehneh
there are drums of columns but half |
162 | disengaged. The transport of quarried
stone was effected in various ways. At Syene, at Silsilis, at Gebel Sheikh
Herideh, and at Gebel Abûfeydeh, the quarries are literally washed by the
waters of the Nile, so that the stone was lowered at once into the barges.
At Kasr es Saîd,[11] at Tûrah, and other localities situate at some
distance from the river, canals dug expressly for the purpose conveyed the
transport boats to the foot of the cliffs. When water transit was out of
the questi |
163 | on, the stone was placed on sledges drawn by oxen (fig. 51), or
dragged to its destination by gangs of labourers, and by the help of
rollers.
[Illustration: Fig. 51.--Bas-relief from one of the stelae of Ahmes, at
Tûrrah, Eighteenth Dynasty.]
[4] The bas-relief sculpture from which the illustration, fig. 42, is taken
(outer wall of Hypostyle Hall, Karnak, north end) represents Seti I.
returning in triumph from one of his Syrian campaigns. He is met at
Zarû by the gr |
164 | eat officers of his court, who bring bouquets of lotus-
blossoms in their hands. Pithom and other frontier forts are depicted
in this tableau, and Pithom is apparently not very far from Zarû.
Zarû, Zalu, is the Selle of the Roman Itineraries.--A.B.E.
[5] See _The Store City of Pithom and the Route of the Exodus,_ by Ed.
Naville, with 13 Plates and 2 Maps; published by the Egypt Exploration
Fund. First edition 1885, second edition 1885. Trübner & Co., London.
|
165 | --A.B.E.
[6] For an account of the explorations at Daphnae (the "Tahpanhes" of the
Bible, the _Tell Defenneh_ of the present day) see Mr. Petrie's
memoir, entitled _Tanis, Part II, (including Nebesheh, Gemayemi,
Defenneh, etc.)_, published by the Egypt Exploration Fund.--A.B.E.
[7] The remains of this gigantic work may yet be seen about two hours'
distance to the southward of Medûm. See Herodotus, book II.; chap.
99.--A.B.E.
[8] See _The Fayûm and Lake Moeri |
166 | s_. Major R.H. Brown, R.E.
[9] Officially, this temple is attributed to Thothmes III., and the
dedicatory inscription dates from the first year of his reign; but the
work was really that of his aunt and predecessor, Queen Hatshepsût.
[10] See also an exact reduction of this design, to scale, in Mr. Petrie's
work _A Season in Egypt_, 1887, Plate XXV.
[11] Chenoboscion.--A.B.E.
CHAPTER II.
_RELIGIOUS ARCHITECTURE_.
In the civil and military architecture o |
167 | f Ancient Egypt brick played the
principal part; but in the religious architecture of the nation it occupied
a very secondary position. The Pharaohs were ambitious of building eternal
dwellings for their deities, and stone was the only material which seemed
sufficiently durable to withstand the ravages of time and man.
I.--MATERIALS AND PRINCIPLES OF CONSTRUCTION.
It is an error to suppose that the Egyptians employed only large blocks for
building purposes. The size of their m |
168 | aterials varied very considerably
according to the uses for which they were destined. Architraves, drums of
columns, lintel-stones, and door-jambs were sometimes of great size. The
longest architraves known--those, namely, which bridge the nave of the
hypostyle hall of Karnak--have a mean length of 30 feet. They each contain
40 cubic yards, and weigh about 65 tons. Ordinarily, however, the blocks
are not much larger than those now used in Europe. They measure, that is to
say, about 2- |
169 | 1/2 to 4 feet in height, from 3 to 8 feet in length, and from
2 to 6 feet in thickness.
Some temples are built of only one kind of stone; but more frequently
materials of different kinds are put together in unequal proportions. Thus
the main part of the temples of Abydos consists of very fine limestone; but
in the temple of Seti I., the columns, architraves, jambs, and lintels,--
all parts, in short, where it might be feared that the limestone would not
offer sufficient resistance,- |
170 | -the architect has had recourse to sandstone;
while in that of Rameses II., sandstone, granite, and alabaster were used.
At Karnak, Luxor, Tanis, and Memphis, similar combinations may be seen. At
the Ramesseum, and in some of the Nubian temples, the columns stand on
massive supports of crude brick. The stones were dressed more or less
carefully, according to the positions they were to occupy. When the walls
were of medium thickness, as in most partition walls, they are well wrought
on |
171 | all sides. When the wall was thick, the core blocks were roughed out as
nearly cubic as might be, and piled together without much care, the hollows
being filled up with smaller flakes, pebbles, or mortar. Casing stones were
carefully wrought on the faces, and the joints dressed for two-thirds or
three-quarters of the length, the rest being merely picked with a point
(Note 6). The largest blocks were reserved for the lower parts of the
building; and this precaution was the more necessa |
172 | ry because the architects
of Pharaonic times sank the foundations of their temples no deeper than
those of their houses. At Karnak, they are not carried lower than from 7 to
10 feet; at Luxor, on the side anciently washed by the river, three courses
of masonry, each measuring about 2-1/2 feet in depth, form a great platform
on which the walls rest; while at the Ramesseum, the brickwork bed on
which the colonnade stands does not seem to be more than 10 feet deep.
These are but slight d |
173 | epths for the foundations of such great buildings,
but the experience of ages proves that they are sufficient. The hard and
compact humus of which the soil of the Nile valley is composed, contracts
every year after the subsidence of the inundation, and thus becomes almost
incompressible. As the building progressed, the weight of the
superincumbent masonry gradually became greater, till the maximum of
pressure was attained, and a solid basis secured. Wherever I have bared the
foundatio |
174 | ns of the walls, I can testify that they have not shifted.
[Illustration: Fig. 52.--Masonry in temple of Seti I. at Abydos.]
The system of construction in force among the ancient Egyptians resembles
in many respects that of the Greeks. The stones are often placed together
with dry joints, and without the employment of any binding contrivance, the
masons relying on the mere weight of the materials to keep them in place.
Sometimes they are held together by metal cramps, or sometimes- |
175 | -as in the
temple of Seti I., at Abydos--by dovetails of sycamore wood bearing the
cartouche of the founder. Most commonly, they are united by a mortar-joint,
more or less thick. All the mortars of which I have collected samples are
thus far of three kinds: the first is white, and easily reduced to an
impalpable powder, being of lime only; the others are grey, and rough to
the touch, being mixtures of lime and sand; while some are of a reddish
colour, owing to the pounded brick powder |
176 | with which they are mixed. A
judicious use of these various methods enabled the Egyptians to rival the
Greeks in their treatment of regular courses, equal blocks, and upright
joints in alternate bond. If they did not always work equally well, their
shortcomings must be charged to the imperfect mechanical means at their
disposal. The enclosure walls, partitions, and secondary façades were
upright; and they raised the materials by means of a rude kind of crane
planted on the top. The p |
177 | ylon walls and the principal façades (and
sometimes even the secondary façades) were sloped at an angle which varied
according to the taste of the architect. In order to build these, they
formed inclined planes, the slopes of which were lengthened as the
structure rose in height. These two methods were equally perilous; for,
however carefully the blocks might be protected while being raised, they
were constantly in danger of losing their edges or corners, or of being
fractured before |
178 | they reached the top (Note 7). Thus it was almost always
necessary to re-work them; and the object being to sacrifice as little as
possible of the stone, the workmen often left them of most abnormal shapes
(fig. 52). They would level off one of the side faces, and then the joint,
instead of being vertical, leaned askew. If the block had neither height
nor length to spare, they made up the loss by means of a supplementary
slip. Sometimes even they left a projection which fitted into a
|
179 | corresponding hollow in the next upper or lower course. Being first of all
expedients designed to remedy accidents, these methods degenerated into
habitually careless ways of working. The masons who had inadvertently
hoisted too large a block, no longer troubled themselves to lower it back
again, but worked it into the building in one or other of the ways before
mentioned. The architect neglected to duly supervise the dressing and
placing of the blocks. He allowed the courses to vary, |
180 | and the vertical
joints, two or three deep, to come one over the other. The rough work done,
the masons dressed down the stone, reworked the joints, and overlaid the
whole with a coat of cement or stucco, coloured to match the material,
which concealed the faults of the real work. The walls rarely end with a
sharp edge. Bordered with a torus, around which a sculptured riband is
entwined, they are crowned by the _cavetto_ cornice surmounted by a flat
band (fig. 53); or, as at Semneh, b |
181 | y a square cornice; or, as at Medinet
Habu, by a line of battlements. Thus framed in, the walls looked like
enormous panels, each panel complete in itself, without projections and
almost without openings. Windows, always rare in Egyptian architecture, are
mere ventilators when introduced into the walls of temples, being intended
to light the staircases, as in the second pylon of Horemheb at Karnak, or
else to support decorative woodwork on festival days. The doorways project
but sligh |
182 | tly from the body of the buildings (fig. 54), except where the
lintel is over-shadowed by a projecting cornice. Real windows occur only in
the pavilion of Medinet Habu; but that building was constructed on the
model of a fortress, and must rank as an exception among religious
monuments.
[Illustration: Fig. 53.--Temple wall with cornice.]
[Illustration: Fig. 54.--Niche and doorway in temple of Seti I. at Abydos.]
[Illustration: Fig. 55.--Pavement of the portico of Osiris in the t |
183 | emple of
Seti I. at Abydos.]
The ground-level of the courts and halls was flagged with rectangular
paving stones, well enough fitted, except in the intercolumniations, where
the architects, hopeless of harmonising the lines of the pavement with the
curved bases of the columns, have filled in the space with small pieces,
set without order or method (fig. 55). Contrary to their practice when
house building, they have scarcely ever employed the vault or arch in
temple architecture. We |
184 | nowhere meet with it, except at Deir el Baharî, and
in the seven parallel sanctuaries of Abydos. Even in these instances, the
arch is produced by "corbelling"; that is to say, the curve is formed by
three or four superimposed horizontal courses of stone, chiselled out to
the form required (fig. 56). The ordinary roofing consists of flat paving
slabs. When the space between the walls was not too wide, these slabs
bridged it over at a single stretch; otherwise the roof had to be support |
185 | ed
at intervals, and the wider the space the more these supports needed to be
multiplied. The supports were connected by immense stone architraves, on
which the roofing slabs rested.
[Illustration: Fig. 56.--"Corbelled" arch, temple of Seti I. at Abydos.]
The supports are of two types,--the pillar and the column. Some are cut
from single blocks. Thus, the monolithic pillars of the temple of the
sphinx (Note 8), the oldest hitherto found, measure 16 feet in height by 4-
1/2 feet i |
186 | n width. Monolithic columns of red granite are also found among
the ruins of Alexandria, Bubastis,[12] and Memphis, which date from the
reigns of Horemheb and Rameses II., and measure some 20 to 26 feet in
height. But columns and pillars are commonly built in courses, which are
often unequal and irregular, like those of the walls which surround them.
The great columns of Luxor are not even solid, two-thirds of the diameter
being filled up with yellow cement, which has lost its strength |
187 | , and
crumbles between the fingers. The capital of the column of Taharka at
Karnak contains three courses, each about 48 inches high. The last and most
projecting course is made up of twenty-six convergent stones, which are
held in place by merely the weight of the abacus. The same carelessness
which we have already noted in the workmanship of the walls is found in
the workmanship of the columns.
[Illustration: Fig. 57.--Hathor pillar, Abû Simbel.]
[Illustration: Fig. 58.--Pillar |
188 | of Amenhotep III., Karnak.]
The quadrangular pillar, with parallel or slightly inclined sides, and
generally without either base or capital, frequently occurs in tombs of the
ancient empire. It reappears later at Medinet Habû, in the temple of
Thothmes III., and again at Karnak, in what is known as the processional
hall. The sides of these square pillars are often covered with painted
scenes, while the front faces were more decoratively treated, being
sculptured with lotus or papyr |
189 | us stems in high relief, as on the pillar-
stelae of Karnak, or adorned with a head of Hathor crowned with the
sistrum, as in the small speos of Abû Simbel (fig. 57), or sculptured with
a full-length standing figure of Osiris, as in the second court of Medinet
Habû; or, as at Denderah and Gebel Barkal, with the figure of the god Bes.
At Karnak, in an edifice which was probably erected by Horemheb with
building material taken from the ruins of a sanctuary of Amenhotep II. and
III., the |
190 | pillar is capped by a cornice, separated from the architrave by a
thin abacus (fig. 58). By cutting away its four edges, the square pillar
becomes an octagonal prism, and further, by cutting off the eight new
edges, it becomes a sixteen-sided prism. Some pillars in the tombs of Asûan
and Beni Hasan, and in the processional hall at Karnak (fig. 59), as well
as in the chapels of Deir el Baharî, are of this type. Besides the forms
thus regularly evolved, there are others of irregular der |
191 | ivation, with
six, twelve, fifteen, or twenty sides, or verging almost upon a perfect
circle. The portico pillars of the temple of Osiris at Abydos come last in
the series; the drum is curved, but not round, the curve being interrupted
at both extremities of the same diameter by a flat stripe. More frequently
the sides are slightly channelled; and sometimes, as at Kalabsheh, the
flutings are divided into four groups of five each by four vertical flat
stripes (fig. 60). The polygonal p |
192 | illar has always a large, shallow plinth,
in the form of a rounded disc. At El Kab it bears the head of Hathor,
sculptured in relief upon the front (fig. 61); but almost everywhere else
it is crowned with a simple square abacus, which joins it to the
architrave. Thus treated, it bears a certain family likeness to the Doric
column; and one understands how Jomard and Champollion, in the first ardour
of discovery, were tempted to give it the scarcely justifiable name of
"proto-Doric."
|
193 |
[Illustration: Fig. 59.--Sixteen-sided pillars, Karnak.]
The column does not rest immediately upon the soil. It is always furnished
with a base like that of the polygonal pillar, sometimes square with the
ground, and sometimes slightly rounded. This base is either plain, or
ornamented only with a line of hieroglyphs. The principal forms fall into
three types: (1) the column with campaniform, or lotus-flower capital; (2)
the column with lotus-bud capital; (3) the column with Hathor-h |
194 | ead capital.
[Illustration: Fig. 60.--Fluted pillar, Kalabsheh.]
[Illustration: Fig. 61.--Polygonal Hathor-headed pillar, El Kab.]
I. _Columns with Campaniform Capitals_.--The shaft is generally plain, or
merely engraved with inscriptions or bas-reliefs. Sometimes, however, as at
Medamot, it is formed of six large and six small colonnettes in
alternation. In Pharaonic times, it is bulbous, being curved inward at the
base, and ornamented with triangles one within another, imitati |
195 | ng the large
leaves which sheathe the sprouting plant. The curve is so regulated that
the diameter at the base and the top shall be about equal. In the Ptolemaic
period, the bulb often disappears, owing probably to Greek influences. The
columns which surround the first court at Edfû rise straight from their
plinths. The shaft always tapers towards the top. It is finished by three
or five flat bands, one above the other. At Medamot, where the shaft is
clustered, the architect has doubt |
196 | less thought that one tie at the top
appeared insufficient to hold in a dozen colonnettes; he has therefore
marked two other rings of bands at regular intervals. The campaniform
capital is decorated from the spring of the curve with a row of leaves,
like those which sheathe the base. Between these are figured shoots of
lotus and papyrus in flower and bud. The height of the capital, and the
extent of its projection beyond the line of the shaft, varied with the
taste of the architect. A |
197 | t Luxor, the campaniform capitals are eleven and a
half feet in diameter at the neck, eighteen feet in diameter at the top,
and eleven and a half feet in height. At Karnak, in the hypostyle hall, the
height of the capital is twelve and a quarter feet, and the greatest
diameter twenty-one feet. A square die surmounts the whole. This die is
almost hidden by the curve of the capital, though occasionally, as at
Denderah, it is higher, and bears on each face a figure of the god Bes
(fig. 6 |
198 | 2).
[Illustration: Fig. 62.--Column with square die, Contra Esneh.]
[Illustration: Fig. 63.--Column with campaniform capital, Ramesseum.]
The column with campaniform capital is mostly employed in the middle avenue
of hypostyle halls, as at Karnak, the Ramesseum, and Luxor (fig. 63); but
it was not restricted to this position, for we also find it in porticoes,
as at Medinet Habû, Edfû, and Philae. The processional hall[13] of
Thothmes III., at Karnak, contains one most curious va |
199 | riety (fig. 64); the
flower is inverted like a bell, and the shaft is turned upside down, the
smaller end being sunk in the plinth, while the larger is fitted to the
wide part of the overturned bell. This ungraceful innovation achieved no
success, and is found nowhere else. Other novelties were happier,
especially those which enabled the artist to introduce decorative elements
taken from the flora of the country. In the earlier examples at Soleb,
Sesebeh, Bubastis, and Memphis, we fin |
200 | d a crown of palm branches springing
from the band, their heads being curved beneath the weight of the abacus
(fig. 65). Later on, as we approach the Ptolemaic period, the date and the
half-unfolded lotus were added to the palm-branches (fig. 66).
[Illustration: Fig. 64.--Inverted campaniform capital, Karnak.]
[Illustration: Fig. 65.--Palm capital, Bubastis.]
[Illustration: Fig. 66.--Compound capital.]
Under the Ptolemies and the Caesars the capital became a complete basket of |
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