their future bas-reliefs,
and statues hardly blocked out, or awaiting the final touch of the
polisher.*

* This is the description which Ramses gave of the condition
in which he found the Memnonium of Abydos. An examination of
the inscriptions existing in the Theban temples which Seti
I. had constructed, shows that it must have applied also to
the appearance of certain portions of Qurneh, Luxor, and
Karnak in the time of Ramses II.

Ramses took up the work where his father had relinquished it. At Luxor
there was not enough space to give to the hypostyle hall the extension
which the original plans proposed, and the great colonnade has an
unfinished appearance.

[Illustration: 230.jpg COLUMNS OF TEMPLE AT LUXOR]

The Nile, in one of its capricious floods, had carried away the land
upon which the architects had intended to erect the side aisles; and if
they wished to add to the existing structure a great court and a pylon,
without which no temple was considered complete, it was necessary to
turn the axis of the building towards the east.

[Illustration: 233.jpg THE CHAPEL OF THUTMOSIS III. AND ONE OF THE
PYLONS OF RAMSES II. AT LUXOR]

Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a photograph by Beato.

In their operations the architects came upon a beautiful little edifice
of rose granite, which had been either erected or restored by Thutmosis
III. at a time when the town was an independent municipality and was
only beginning to extend its suburban dwellings to meet those of Karnak.
They took care to make no change in this structure, but set to work to
incorporate it into their final plans. It still stands at the north-west
corner of the court, and the elegance of its somewhat slender little
columns contrasts happily with the heaviness of the structure to which
it is attached. A portion of its portico is hidden by the brickwork of
the mosque of Abu'l Haggag: the part brought to light in the course of
the excavations contains between each row of columns a colossal statue
of Ramses II. We are accustomed to hear on all sides of the degeneracy
of the sculptor's art at this time, and of its having fallen into
irreparable neglect. Nothing can be further from the truth than this
sweeping statement. There are doubtless many statues and bas-reliefs of
this epoch which shock us by their crudity and ugliness, but these owed
their origin for the most part to provincial workshops which had been
at all times