are not all on the same ground-level, the pavement rising as
the sanctuary is approached, and the rise is concealed by a few steps
placed at intervals. The difference of level in the temple of Khonsu is
not more than five feet three inches, but it is combined with a still
more considerable lowering of the height of the roof. From the pylon
to the wall at the further end the height decreases as we go on; the
peristyle is more lofty than the hypostyle hall, this again is higher
than the sanctuary and the hall of columns, and the chamber beyond it
drops still further in altitude.*

* This is "the law of progressive diminution of heights" of
Perrot-Chipiez.

Karnak is an exception to this rule; this temple had in the course of
centuries undergone so many restorations and additions, that it formed a
collection of buildings rather than a single edifice. It might have
been regarded, as early as the close of the Theban empire, as a kind of
museum, in which every century and every period of art, from the XIIth
dynasty downwards, had left its distinctive mark.*

* A on the plan denotes the XIIth dynasty temple; B is the
great hypostyle hall of Seti I. and Ramses II.; C the temple
of Ramses III.

[Illustration: 081.jpg THE TEMPLE OF AMON AT KARNAK]

All the resources of architecture had been brought into requisition
during this period to vary, at the will of each sovereign, the
arrangement and the general effect of the component parts. Columns with
sixteen sides stand in the vicinity of square pillars, and lotiform
capitals alternate with those of the bell-shape; attempts were even made
to introduce new types altogether. The architect who built at the back
of the sanctuary what is now known as the colonnade of Thutmosis
III., attempted to invert the bell-shaped capital; the bell was turned
downwards, and the neck attached to the plinth, while the mouth rested
on the top of the shaft. This awkward arrangement did not meet with
favour, for we find it nowhere repeated; other artists, however, with
better taste, sought at this time to apply the flowers symbolical of
Upper and Lower Egypt to the decorations of the shafts. In front of the
sanctuary of Karnak two pillars are still standing which have on them
in relief representations respectively of the fullblown lotus and the
papyrus. A building composed of so many incongruous elements required
frequent restoration--a wall which had been undermined by wate