A pilgrimage to the temples and tombs of Egypt, Nubia, and ...

EGYPTIAN ARCHITECTURE. 147
moderate dimensions, with no image in it, or,
at least, not one of human shape, but some
representation of a brute animal. On each side
of the pronaos, and in front of it, are what
are called the wings. These are two walls of
equal height, but their width at the base is
somewhat more than the breadth of the tem-
ple, measured along its basement line. This
width of the wings, however, gradually dimi-
nishes from the bottom to the top, owing to
the sides inclining inwards towards one ano-
ther, up to the height of seventy-five or ninety
feet. These w^alls have sculptured forms on
them of a large size, like Tyrrhenian figures,
and the very ancient Greek works of the same
class. There is also a chamber with many
pillars in a barbaric style, for, except that the
pillars are large and numerous, and form many
rows, there is nothing in them agreeable to the
eye, or calculated to produce effect. They are
specimens of much labour ill-bestowed."
Now, can you make something out of this
description of the old Greek geographer ? One
thing, which he has omitted to specify, I must
herewith add : the form of the propylon is in-
variably like that of the wings he has described,
inclining inwards to the summit—a form pecu-
L 2