jestic. On analysis, it resolves
itself into two parts separated by a thick wall (A, A). In the centre of
the lesser division is the Holy of Holies (B), open at both ends and
isolated from the rest of the building by a surrounding passage (C) 10
feet in width. To the right and left of this sanctuary are small dark
chambers (D, D), and behind it is a hall of four columns (E), from which
open seven other chambers (F, F). Such was the house of the god, having no
communication with the adjoining parts, except by two doors (G) in the
southern wall (A, A). These opened into a wide and shallow hypostyle hall
(H), divided into nave and aisles. The nave is supported by four lotus-
flower columns, 23 feet in height; the aisles each contain two lotus-bud
columns 18 feet high. The roof of the nave is, therefore, 5 feet higher
than that of the sides. This elevation was made use of for lighting
purposes, the clerestory being fitted with stone gratings, which admitted
the daylight. The court (I) was square, and surrounded by a double
colonnade entered by way of four side-gates and a great central gateway
flanked by two quadrangular towers with sloping fronts. This pylon (K)
measures 105 feet in length, 33 feet in width, and 60 feet in height. It
contains no chambers, but only a narrow staircase, which leads to the top
of the gate, and thence up to the towers. Four long grooves in the facade,
reaching to a third of its height, correspond to four quadrangular openings
cut through. the whole thickness of the masonry. Here were fixed four
great wooden masts, formed of joined beams and held in place by a wooden
framework fixed in the four openings above mentioned. From these masts
floated long streamers of various colours (fig. 79). Such was the temple of
Khonsu, and such, in their main features, were the majority of the greater
temples of Theban and Ptolemaic times, as Luxor, the Ramesseum, Medinet
Habu, Edfu, and Denderah. Though for the most part half in ruins, they
affect one with a strange and disquieting sense of oppression. As mystery
was a favourite attribute of the Egyptian gods, even so the plan of their
temples is in such wise devised as to lead gradually from the full sunshine
of the outer world to the obscurity of their retreats. At the entrance we
find large open spaces, where air and light stream freely in. The hypostyle
hall is pervaded by a sober twilight; the sanctuary is more than half lost
in a vague darkness; and at the e