Egypt Through The Stereoscope

A Journey Through The Land Of The Pharaohs

by James Henry Breasted | 1908 | 103,705 words

Examines how stereographs were used as a means of virtual travel. Focuses on James Henry Breasted's "Egypt through the Stereoscope" (1905, 1908). Provides context for resources in the Travelers in the Middle East Archive (TIMEA). Part 3 of a 4 part course called "History through the Stereoscope."...

Position 82 - The Wonderfully Preserved Temple Of Edfu, Seen (north) From The Top Of The First Pylon

What a superb landscape! The broad plain, broken up into fertile fields and sprinkled with graceful palms and fleecy acacias, merges into the ample bosom of the river, with its picturesque sail, behind which the yellow cliffs mingle with the pale skyline beyond. The soft lines of the landscape contrast strongly with the sharp rectangular contours of the houses of the town, some of them looking very modern indeed with glazed windows and hinged shutters.

With the exception of such modern innovations as these, it is not probable that the appearance of the town was very much different, when this temple was built; or when its less pretentious predecessor of far earlier date was erected. As far back as we can trace the Egyptian, he built houses of sun-dried brick, and the remains of such houses still surviving point to structures, like those of the town before us. We need only imagine a few chateaus of the wealthy or of the local nobles, with their surrounding gardens, to complete the picture.

We stand, you remember, on the left or western pylon and look northward (Plan 16). As we are not exactly in the axis of the temple, we look diagonally along its length, and see more of the right than of the left. On our right is the river, which we see lower down, on its long journey to Cairo and the sea; on our left is the western desert; while behind us is the first cataract, now but sixty-eight miles away. Here at our feet is the first court again, which we saw from a point now out of our field of vision, here on the left. You notice on the right the colonnade of the portico which surrounds the court. Behind is the vestibule; for you see that the section of the portico, which in the older temples extended across the back of the court, has now been raised and pushed back out of the court to form a colonnaded vestibule leading to the hypostyle, which lies still further back.

This vestibule contains some beautiful columns, especially the two with palm capitals, in the front row, in the middle of each side. This front row is engaged with a balustrade, which separates the vestibule from the court outside. Several blocks in the roof over the central aisle have fallen in, and another which is cracked across the middle has been supported by an iron rod to prevent its threatened fall. Back of this vestibule as you will see on the plan (No. 16) is the hypostyle. You can dimly see its door if you look down the central aisle, for the vestibule has, behind the front row, but two rows of columns (larger than those in front), and behind these is the door of the hypostyle.

It is not so large as the hypostyle at Karnak; for the Ptolemies, even had they felt inclined to do so, could not have diverted from the treasury such enormous wealth as was required to erect works like those of the great Pharaohs; nor did they command the captive labor necessary. You can see how the roof drops from the vestibule to the hypostyle, back of which are two smaller vestibules, or ante-chambers, which give access to the Holy of Holies. You can locate this last very easily, as two of the blocks in its roof have fallen in, out yonder in the middle, making a hole so symmetrically placed that it looks as if it were an intentional skylight.

But such is not at all the case, as we shall see later on. Under the roof around that hole, and grouped, as you can see on the plan, are the minor chambers of the temple. This entire section of roof is surrounded by a high wall, making of it an open-air court, which was shaded with canvas, and added much to the roominess of the temple. Surrounding the entire temple, behind this first court at our feet, is a massive girdle wall, which greatly increases the security of the building. It is among the latest additions to the temple, while the chambers in the rear, which it surrounds, are the earliest in the whole structure.

Could we here restore the color to these gray stones, could we recall the vanished temple garden with its wealth of tropical verdure in which the temple was embowered, could we reanimate a generation of the priests, who sleep in the neighboring cemetery, and with them the multitude, crowded about the great altar which once stood in this forecourt, could we hear the voices of the priests mingling with the hum of the populace, and smell the fragrant clouds of incense that once rose daily from this court—if we could do all this, then the work of the architect, dropping into its proper place in the life and thought of the people, would assume far higher functions than we are now able to associate with the silent courts and deserted halls, exposed to the prosaic gaze of every wandering tourist, and clothed with none of the sombre mystery and solemn beauty, which it always conveyed to the Egyptian, whose god it sheltered.

And now we shall penetrate where never an ancient Egyptian, save the High Priest or the king, was permitted to stand, into the Holy of Holies, lighted now by that square hole, the further of the two which we see in the roof. See the lines marked 83 on Plan 16.

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