stand-point of art the period must be pronounced the very apogee of
Egyptian greatness. The architectural works of these two monarchs
transcend most decidedly all those of all other Pharaohs, either earlier
or later. No single work, indeed, of either king equals _in mass_ either
the First or the Second Pyramid; but in number, in variety, in beauty,
in all that constitutes artistic excellence, the constructions of Seti
and Ramesses are unequalled, not only among Egyptian monuments, but
among those of all other nations. Greece is, of course, unapproachable
in the matter of sculpture, whether in the way of statuary, or of high
or low relief; but, apart from this, Egypt in her architectural works
will challenge comparison with any country that ever existed, or any
people that ever gave itself to the embodiment of artistic conceptions
in stone or marble. And Egyptian architecture culminated under Seti and
his son Ramesses. The greatest of all Seti's works was his pillared hall
at Karnak, the most splendid single chamber that has ever been built by
any architect, and, even in its ruins, one of the grandest sights that
the world contains. Seti's hall is three hundred and thirty feet long,
by one hundred and seventy feet broad, having thus an internal area of
fifty-six thousand square feet, and covers, together with its walls and
pylons, an area of eighty-eight thousand such feet, or a larger space
than that covered by the Dom of Cologne, the largest of all the
cathedrals north of the Alps. It was supported by one hundred and
sixty-four massive stone columns, which were divided into three
groups--twelve central ones, each sixty-six feet high and thirty-three
feet in circumference, formed the main avenue down its midst; while on
either side, two groups of sixty-one columns, each forty-two feet high
and twenty-seven round, supported the huge wings of the chamber,
arranged in seven rows of seven each, and two rows of six. The whole was
roofed over with solid blocks of stone, the lighting being, as in the
far smaller hall of Thothmes III., by means of a clerestory. The roof
and pillars and walls were everywhere covered with painted bas-reliefs
and hieroglyphics, giving great richness of effect, and constituting the
whole building the most magnificent on which the eye of man has ever
rested. Fergusson, the best modern authority on architecture, says of
it: "No language can convey an idea of its beauty, and no artist has yet
been able