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 48 - Magnificent Desolation—the Deserted Temple At Luxor, Southwest From The Top Of The First Pylon

Silent and forsaken, this noble sanctuary of the Pharaohs lies before us. What would have been the thought of the proud conquerors of the 18th Dynasty, could they have foreseen the tower of this Moslem sanctuary rising in the midst of the temple court, marking a shrine of that faith which grew up among those desert barbarians, whom the Pharaohs despised! The bright Egyptian sun streams through the colonnades and throws their shadows in long, black rows upon the pavement; but no worshiper now moves down the silent aisles, the voice of the chanting priest, the cry of the singing women, are heard no more, and the great god who once sat in mysterious power in yonder secret chamber is forgotten.

Of all the natives in the town about us, whose forefathers once worshiped in this place, not one now knows the name of the divinity who presided here, and the language in which his praise was sung, is forever forgotten among them.

We are standing at the front of the temple, on the top of the left-hand tower of the “pylon,” as the two towers are called, which form the front of an Egyptian temple (Plan 10). We look down the long axis which extends from the front to the rear, dividing the structure into two equal parts. We are, however, on the left or east of that central axis, which is in a northeast and southwest line.

We are looking southwest-ward, parallel, or nearly so, with the course of the river, which we see on the right, flowing toward us from the southwest, its shore distant hardly a stone's throw. Karnak and its great temple are behind us, beyond which the Nile winds on to Cairo, while before us over the palms, we see the next reach of the river along which we shall pass to the cataracts.

We face so squarely up the Nile canñon, that we can see neither of its walls, and thus the cliffs on the west side where we stood looking across to this spot, the southern extension of which might be visible if we were to turn slightly to the right, are not to be seen; they lie out of range exactly in a line with your right shoulder. Among the palm groves out yonder on the shore are the towers of a villa built by a European consumptive, who lives here, to escape the vigor of the northern winter, which drives so many similar sufferers to this land of genial winters.

Back yonder where now stand those beautiful colonnades (in the rear of the temple) there was once a small sanctuary of the Theban Amon. It was built by the Pharaohs of the 12th Dynasty in all probability; but in the height of the power of the 18th Dynasty, Amenophis III replaced it by a more pretentious temple than any which his ancestors had anywhere planned, in so far as we know.

On the very spot where the modest chapel of his forefathers stood, he raised yonder colonnaded hall, the columns of which you see massed so thickly in the extreme rear of the temple. Before it he laid out a court, the pavement of which you observe as a bare space directly before the columns of the hall. This court he then surrounded by a colonnade on three sides, right, left and front, the hall forming the rear side.

You can plainly see the columns on the left side of the court in two rows, falling almost into our line of vision. This was the usual arrangement of an Egyptian temple, viz.: First a court like that out yonder, followed by a colonnaded hall or hypostyle. But Amenophis was not satisfied with this. He planned still greater things. He began another hall in front, or this side, of the court, the great columns you see to our right, doubtless intending to place another court here in front of the new hall.

Had Amenophis finished his great project, we should, in order to enter the temple, have had to pass through a vast court, enclosing the place where we now stand, and then an enormous hall, which would have brought us to the present court yonder. But death overtook him when he had erected no more than those mighty columns, which were to form the centre aisle or nave of his vast hall, the columns you see just here on our right, divided into two groups by the white muezzin tower of the mosque.

Amenophis' son, being a hater of Amon, made no attempt to continue his father's temple to that god, and when his anti-Amon movement had passed, the restorers of the old Amon worship had not the means to complete the proposed great hall, the largest colonnade ever planned by a Pharaoh up to that time. (We shall find a larger one at Karnak.) They therefore enclosed this central nave with side walls, which have now fallen down entirely, with the exception of three or four bottom courses, thus exposing Amenophis III's giant columns to view.

The roof which once rested upon them has also fallen in, but the huge architraves are still in position. Thus at the close of the 18th Dynasty, about 1400 B. C., this temple presented a peculiar appearance indeed, with this long, narrow aisle standing in isolation as a vestibule leading to the court beyond. But with the accession of the 19th Dynasty, Ramses II built a court in front of the great aisle, the court immediately at our feet, in which this modern mosque now stands.

Before this court he erected a pylon, or pair of towers, on the left one of which we now stand; while in front of the pylon he placed a pair of obelisks, one of which is just behind us. In order to build this court, Ramses was obliged to destroy a beautiful little chapel of the 18th Dynasty which stood in the way, and the bank of the river was so near, that he was forced to give his building a distinct twist, diverting its axis eastward, to avoid the river (see upper part of Plan 10). This court of his was, as usual, surrounded by a colonnade, of which you observe several columns down there by the headless statue of the king. There are rows of these statues all around the rear of the court, between the columns.

Now if you will look at the plan (Plan 10) of the temple, you will find that rear hall of Amenophis III marked D, his court C, his unfinished hall B; while the court of Ramses II, at our feet, is A. Holding this plan before you, turn it round till the apex of the red V (Position 48), which demarks our field of vision here, points toward you, and compare all that we have pointed out, carefully with its location on the ground.

Do you see where the ruin-strewn ground extends to the river beyond the first column on the extreme right? That is our next point of view. We shall stand there (Position 49) and look directly toward our present standpoint and see the copestones, which we now have beneath our feet, with the outer edges just extending into view, and likewise the obelisk now behind us.

On our Plan 10 we find this next position given by the number 49 in the left-hand margin. The lines showing the direction and limits of our vision extend toward the northeast.

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