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British Museum Expedition to Middle Egypt The Great Portico at Hermopolis Magna: Present State and Past Prospects Steven Snape and Donald Bailey Department of Egyptian Antiquities 1988
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  • British Museum Expedition to Middle Egypt

    The Great Portico at Hermopolis Magna: Present State and

    Past Prospects

    Steven Snape and Donald Bailey

    Department of Egyptian Antiquities 1988

  • Occasional PaperNo 63

    British Museum Expedition to Middle Egypt

    The Great Portico at Hermopolis Magna: Present State and

    Past Prospects

    Steven Snape and Donald Bailey

    British Museum 1988

  • BRITISH MUSEUM OCCASIONAL PAPERS

    Publishers: British Museum, Great Russell street London WC1B 3DG

    Executive Editor: G.B. Morris, BA

    Production Editor: G. Bayliss, BA ALA

    Distributors: British Museum Publications Ltd 46 Bloomsbury Street, London WC1B 3QQ

    Occasional Paper No. 63, 1988: British Museum Expedition to Middle Egypt The Great Portico at Hermopolis Magna: Present State and Past Prospects Steven Snape and Donald Bailey

    () Trustees of the British Museum ISBN 0 86159 063 5

    ISSN 0142 4815

    Orders should be sent to British Museum Publications Ltd. Cheques and postal orders should be payable to 'British Museum Publications Ltd' and sent to 46 Bloomsbury Street, London WC1B 3QQ. Access, American Express, Barclaycard/Visa cards are accepted.

  • ------

    CONTENTS

    List of Plates

    Abbreviations

    Acknowledgements

    Introduction

    Chapter 1. The Portico of the Temple of Philip Arrhidaeos at Hermopolis Magna by Steven Snape

    Chapter 2. The Great Portico since 1714 by Donald Bailey

    Chapter 3. Why and for what Purpose was the Portico Destroyed? by Donald Bailey

    Notes

    Index

    Plates

    iii

    p. iv

    p. vi

    p. vii

    p. viii

    p. 1

    p. 8

    p. 48

    p. 50

    p. 60

    p. 63

  • iv

    LIST OF PLATES

    l. Plan of the Portico recorded in 1986 2. Plan showing positions of the copied blocks 3. Block 1, left: 5th Upper Egyptian Name 4 . Block 1, centre: 6th Upper Egyptian Name 5 . Block s 1- 2: 7th Upper Egyptian Name 6 . Block 2, centre: 8th Upper Egyptian Name 7 . Bloc k 2, r i g h t : 9th Upper Egyptian Name 8 . Block 3 , le ft: 12th Upper Egyptian Name 9 . Block s 3- 4 : 13th Upper Egyptian Name

    1 0. Block 4, c entre: 14th Upper Egyptian Name l l. Blocks 4- 5 : 1 5th Upper Egyptian Name 12 . Bl ock s 5-6 : 16th Upper Egyptian Name 1 3. Block 6 , centre: 17th Upper Egyptian Name 14 . Block s 6 - 7 : 1 8th Upper Egyptian Na me 15 . Bloc k 7 , centre: 1 9th Upper Egyptian Name 16 . Block 7, r i ght: 20th-21st Upper Egyptian Names 1 7 . Bloc k 8 , l e f t : 4th Lower Egyptian Name 1 8. Bloc k 8 , c e n t r e : 5th Lower Egyptian Name 1 9. Block s 8-9 : 6th Lower Egyptian Name 20 . Block 9, centre: 7th Lower Egyptian Name 2l. Block s 9-10: 8th Lower Egyptian Name 22 . Block 10, centre left: 9th Lower Egyptian Name 23 . Block 10, centre right: 10th Lower Egyptian Name 24 . Blocks 10-11: 11th Lower Egyptian Name 25 . Bloc k 11: 12th Lower Egyptian Name 26. Block 12: part of an architrave? 27. Block 13 2 8. Block 14 29. Block 15, end 3 0 . Bloc k 15, face 3l. Block 16: Thoth 3 2 . The Portico in 1986 33. Blocks 2 and 4 in situ 34. Hermopolis Magna and its neighbourhood 35. Jomard's map of Hermopolis Magna, October 1800 36. BM Expedition's map of Hermopolis Magna, 1980-81, detail 37a. Sicard's view of the Portico, 1714 37b. Pococke's view of the Portico, 1737

  • v

    LIST OF PLATES

    38. De non ' s drawing of the Portico, 1798 39. En g r a v i ng s of Denon's drawing 40. Sevres porcelain plate with Denon's view, 1810-12 41 De s c r i p t i o n ' s view and reconstruction of the Portico 42a. Description frontispiece: the Portico amidst monuments 4 2b . Hayes'view of the Portico, 1801-2 43a . Pasley's plan of the Portico, 1802 43b. Bankes' drawing of a Portico column, 1815 4 4 . Minutoli and Ricci's details of the Portico, 1821-2 45- 8 . Barry's details of the Portico, 1818 49. Wilkinson's details of the Portico's hieroglyphs, 18 2 2 50a. Burton's details of the Portico's hieroglyphs, 1822- 5 5 0b . Hay's sketch of the Portico, 1825 51a. Hay's details of the Portico's cartouches, 1825-6 51b. Rifaud's view of Brine's rum factory, after 1817 52i'l.. Plan of the Ashmunein saltpetre factory, 1931 52b. Photograph of the Ashmunein saltpetre factory, 19 87 53a. Abu-Bakr's excavation of the Portico, 1950-53 53b. Baboon of Amenophis Ill, 1987 54a. Cornice block from the Portico, 1987 54b. The portico in 1980

  • vi

    ABBREVIATIONS

    '* ASAE = Annales du S ervi c e des Antiquites d e l'Egypt e

    Ashmunein (19 80) = D.M. Bailey, W.V. Davies and A.J. Spencer, As hmunein (1980), London, 1982

    Ashmune i n (1981) = A.J. Spencer and D.M. Bailey, Ashmunein (1 981), London, 1982

    Ashmunein ( 1982 ) = A.J. Spencer, D.M. Bailey and A. Burnett, As hmunein (19 82), London, 1983

    Ashmunein (1983 ) = A.J. Spencer, D.M. Bailey and W.V. Davies, As hmun e in (198 3), London, 1984

    Ashmunein ( 19 85 ) = A.J. Spencer and D.M. Bailey, As hmun e in (1 9 85), London, 1986

    Boylan = P . Boylan, Tho t h t h e Hermes of Eg yp t , Oxford, 192 2 Descripti on = Descr i p t i on de l' Egypt e, 2nd edition, Paris,

    1820+

    LA = Lexikon de r Xgyptolog i e, Wiesbaden, various dates

    . ." "" . hMDIK = M~ t tei l ungen des deu t schen Inst ~tuts fur agypt~sc e A l te rtumskunde in Ka i r o

    Roeder = G. Roeder, Herm opo l i s 1 92 9-19 39, Hildesheim, 1959

    von Beckerath = J. von Beckerath, Han dbuc h de r 3g y p t i s c h e n XBnig snamen , Munich, 1984

  • vii

    ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

    The authors are very grateful to many individuals and several institutions for making available the manuscript material and illustrations that have been used in this publication. These include Mrs Leonie de Cos son and Mr A. de Cosson, for extracts from the Bonomi Diaries; Mrs A. Mace for material in the Barry Family Papers in the British Architectural Library, Royal Institute of British Architects, the Manuscripts and Archives Collections; Mrs M. Clapinson and the National Trust in connection with the Calke Gardner Wilkinson journals and sketchbooks in the Bodleian Library, Oxford; the Manuscripts Department of the British Library, for the Burton, Dawson, Hay, Hyde, Lane, Pasley and Westcar journals, papers and drawings; Dr Jaromir Malek and Mrs D. Magee for the Barry scrapbook and sketchbook, and the Prudhoe journals in the Griffith Institute, Oxford; Mr A. Mitchell and Mrs J.O. Revell for the Bankes manuscripts belonging to the National Trust at Kingston Lacy; Mr Lionel Lambourne and Ms Bryony Llewellyn for access to the Rodney Searight Collection at the Victoria and Albert Museum, and the the Ceramics Department of that Museum for the Sevres porcelain plate showing the Portico; Miss Frances Dunkels of the Prints and Drawings Department of the British Museum for the Denon watercolour drawing; Dr Morris L. Bierbrier and the Rev. Selwyn Tillett for advice and information. Thanks are also due to Miss Sue Bird for drawing the map on Plate 34, the key to Plate 49, and other help with the plates; to Mr Philip Weaire for discussing and improving aspects of the reproduction of the plates; To the Egyptian Antiquities Organisation, and especially Mr Mohamed Kamal, for aid at Ashmunein; and to Mr T.G.H. James and Dr Jeffrey Spencer for reading and commenting on our chapters.

  • viii

    INTRODUCTION

    The Grea t Portico of Hermopolis Magna, the only surviving part of the late Temple of Thoth, the Great Hermaion, was almost totally destroyed by order of Mohammed Ali Pasha or his son Ibrahim Pasha in April 1826. The Portico, as described and illustrated by early travellers, consisted of two rows of six columns, the f i r s t row showing traces of an engaged screen wall, with some architraves, cross-architraves and roofing slabs remaining, toge ther with that part of the cornice immediately above the entrance. It seems very likely that this late Thoth Temple was conceived of by Nectanebo I of the Thirtieth Egyptian Dynasty, as mention of it is apparently made on a stele of that king, found at Hermopolis Magna by GUnther Roeder in May 1939 1 and published by him:

    Jahr 8, Monat 3 des Winters: Seine Majest~t grlindete das Haus seines Vaters Thot, des zweimal Grossen, des Herrn von Chmunu, des Grossen Gottes, der aus der Nase des Re kam, des Sch~pfers seiner Sch~nheit, aus s ch~nem weissem Stein , und seinen Fussboden aus kj s - St e i n die l~nge 220 Ellen, di e Breite 110 Ellen, in trefflicher Arbeit der Ewigkeit. Niemals seit der Urzeit war Gleiches getan worden. Seine Majest~t begann an ihm zu arbeiten t~glich und n~chtlich, und er vollendete es in Freude. Als er sah, dass sein Vater Thot sich in ihm niederliess, war Seine Majest~t in Leben, Dauer und Gllick ewiglich Er vermehrte das Gottesopfer hinaus liber das, was vorher gewesen war, Seine Majest~t gab eine Belohnung den Gottesdienern und Reinen (Priestern) bei der Vollendung jeder Arbeit, die er in Hesret ausgeflihrt hatte.2

    The width given, 110 cubits, about 57.75m, agrees more or less with the estimated width of the surviving remains of the Portico. 3 The Thoth Temple itself may have had decoration of the reign of Nectanebo 11, but the Portico was inscribed to Alexander the Great, but principally to his half-brother Philip III Ar r h i d a e o s . Both these dedications were no doubt made by Ptolemy son of Lagos, presumably during the life of Philip, and before he assumed the crown of Egypt as Ptolemy I Soter. In 1957 Roeder noticed two blocks in the Portico area bearing the name of a Ptolemy.4

    Although most of the Portico was removed in 1826, some of the column-bases remained exposed, to be noted by subsequent travellers, and in 1948-9 and again in 1952-3, Abdul-Moneim Abu-Bakr, of the University of Alexandria, excavated the area of the Portico, and found three column-bases and their supporting plinths, and exposed a length of relief-decorated slabs showing the Nomes of Egypt. He also found foundation blocks of various kinds still in situ, and many loose blocks and parts of column-bases, which are now stacked on the site nearby.5 In 1982, an inscribed column-base from elsewhere in the Thoth Temple, but lying loose, was examined by A.J. Spencer, Director of the British Museum excavations, and published.6 The following year, limestone fragments of very fine workmanship, and bearing the name of Nectanebo 11 were found 7, and these might well have come from the late Temple of Thoth. In 1981 and 1985, test-trenches were made both in front of and behind the Portico area but failed to show any signs of the Temple forecourt or structure. Also in1985-6,Steven Snape, on the staff of the Expedition, spent his spare time undertaking a survey

  • ix

    of the existing remains of the Portico and making full-scale copies of the inscribed and decora.te~ blocks. His work forms the first part of this Occasional Paper; the second part consists of transcriptions of the writings of early travellers to the site, and the few illustrations of the Portico that were made before its destruction. As so many of these occur in publications now difficult to obtain, and also in unpublished manuscripts, it was thought that fairly full transcriptions, although often repetitive, would be useful. There are no doubt other accounts and illustrations of the Portico in publications and manuscripts with which I am unacquainted, but I have included all I have traced up to this time. The purpose of the British Museum Expedition is the elucidation of the city site of Hermopolis Magna, both its private and public buildings, and recording the pitifully few remains of what was once the most important structure in the city seems well worth while.

    Donald M. Bailey

  • 1

    CHAPTER 1

    THE PORTICO OF THE TEMPLE OF PHILIP ARRHIDAEOS

    AT HERMOPOLIS MAGNA

    Ashmunein (1980)8 contains a report on the current condition of a much-destroyed Pronaos/Portico ascribed to Philip III Arrhidaeos, which lies in the northern part of the site. 9 This portion of the Temple of Thoth was excavated, but not published 1 0 , by Professor Abd el-Moneim Abu-Bakr as part of his series of excavations at Ashmunein during the late 1940s and early 1950s. Since its excavation the Portico has been subject to material deterioration due to its present situation: it lies in a large trench, the bottom of which is filled with fluctuating levels of sub-soil water. Heavy growths of reeds also constitute a major problem in gaining access to what remains of the monument.

    In 1985-6 the present author carried out a scheme of copying and planning the visible and accessible remains of this monument in order to prepare a published record of the Portico before further deterioration occurred. The problems of accessibility, combined with the primary objective of publishing uncopied epigraphic material, mean that what follows is a record of those parts of the Portico which could be recorded without extensive re-excavation within the trench, which would have involved large-scale pumping operations. This proviso applies as much to the plan of the site (PLATE 1) as it does to the individual copied scenes; on this plan most of the blank area within the trench consists of a large pool of water and/or thick growths of tall reeds (see PLATE 32). When this plan was made (winter 1985-6) the row of uninscribed blocks at the eastern end of the trench was inaccessible and invisible; their position on this plan is taken from their recorded position on the smaller-scale published plan of the site 1 1 , and so should be regarded here as approximate. The spot-heights shown on PLATE 1 are consistent with the system of recording heights at el-Ashmunein adopted by the British Museum expedition 12; the level of the sub-soil water was 2.80m at the time this plan was made.

    The major architectural features revealed by the excavations of Abu-Bakr were the surviving column-bases from what would have been the western half of the Portico, now to be seen in the centre of Abu-Bakr's trench, in a pool caused by the generally high level of sub-soil water. These three inscribed column-bases have already been published in a number of works 13 and have not been recopied and published here; they were, to all intents and purposes, virtually inaccessible during the time when the work of copying was taking place.

    The excavations carried out by Abu-Bakr also uncovered the lower courses of blocks of what was the back wall of the Portico (PLATES 32 and 53a). This structure would have formed the face of a pylon/gateway at the rear of the Portico. The surviving visible courses consist of solid, vertical blocks of

  • 2

    limestone, running down into the mud/water, on which sits a second course of blocks; the latter, of a fine endurated limestone, are angled to slope backwards slightly as they rise, and are inscribed with scenes and hieroglyphic texts in shallow sunk relief; these form the major portion of the present publication of h i t he r t o unpublished scenes and texts from the Portico and are labelled Blocks 1-11 on PLATE 2. Theirrresent condition may be judged from the photographs of one of the better preserved blocks (PLATE 33 upper) and a more badly damaged example (PLATE 33 lower).

    A row of uninscribed blocks, running north-south, lies at the eastern end of Abu-Bakr's sondage, while another section of in s i tu masonry is to be seen at the western end of the trench. To the south of the latter are some inscribed blocks which have also been copied, and are labelled Blocks 13-15 on PLATE 2. A decorated block, No. 12, possibly part of an architrave, lies just east of Block 7.

    There is, at present, no evidence for any substantial survival of i n situ portions of the Late Period Temple of Thoth, apart from the Portico. Excavations in the close proximity 14 of the Portico in 1985 did not reveal any structural remains. Roeder believed that the Portico was fronted by an open court and a pylon 15; excavations in the Al square (which is in this area: see PLATE 36) by the British Museum Expedition in 1981 did not produce any evidence to support this theory.16

    The Constructional History of the Portico 17,On a stela found at Hermopolis Nectanebo I :J:"ecorded his

    foundation of a new temple for the god Thoth, in his eighth year. Nectanebo's building has been accepted by the major excavators of the site of Hermopolis Magna 18 as being the original foundation of a temple, the pronaos of which is referred to in this volume as the Great Portico of Hermopolis Ma gna . The monarch who is best attested on the surviving inscribed portions of the Portico is the second Macedonian King to be acknowledged as Pharaoh, Philip III Arrhidaeos, but the architectural history of this monument 19 encompasses several other reigns, from the Thirtieth Dynasty to the beginning of the Ptolemaic Dynasty.

    The inscription on the stela of Nectanebo I states that the new temple for Thoth was 220 cubits long by 110 cubits wide 20; since a cubit of the period measured some 525mm 21 the total area o f the building must have been about 57.75m wide by 115.50m long. The exact original dimensions of the Portico are not certain, but seem to agree with the width of Nectanebo I's temple, perhaps indicating that the Portico was part of the original design for the Thoth Temple, the basic plan of which was not radically altered before much of it was inscribed under Philip Arrhidaeos half a century later. The building begun by Nectanebo I was largely composed of limestone (int hd nfr 22 ) , as is what remains of the Philip Portico. Nectanebo I's stela also mentions that its floor was made of ~ 0 , a

  • 3

    23 k' . . material translated by Roeder as ~s-stone. Patrlcla Spencer' s 24 translation of this word as b~n-stone seems very plausible but, as the floor of the Phi lip Portico is not now extant, having been either removed in antiquity or by Abu-Bakr's excavations25, there seems to be no way that archaeological evidence from the site can be used to confirm this identificat ion.

    Despite the clear evidence provided by his stela, Nectanebo I is no t actually attested on the monument itself , although t he prenomen of Nectanebo 11 was found on a nlock excavated by the Germa n Expe d i t i on in a trench to the north of the western par t of t he Po r t i c o . 26 However, since this block was not found in situ, but in a wall dated by its excavator to the Roman period27, i t is inadmissible as definite evidence for work on the Portic o by Nectanebo 11, although, in view of this monarch's extremely active building programme, it might be considered surpr i sing if none of the Thoth Temple was constructed during his r e ign (see also p. viii, supra).

    Alexander the Great is certainly attested at Hermopo l is28 , but there is no i rrefutable evidence linking his name with t h e Porti co, unless Wilkinson's copies of texts on the monument c a n be t ake n as reliable. A limestone block found by the German Exped i tion to Hermopolis 29 is inscribed for a king with the Prenomen stp-n-R ' mry-Imn , an appellation which could refer to Alexa nde r the Great, Philip Arrhidaeos (although he is alway s referr ed to on the Portico as stp-k3-n-R' mry-Imn) , and Ptolemy I. The k i ng in question is given the epithets 'Beloved of Thoth ' and 'Be loved of Shepses', making it very likely that the block original l y came from the Temple of Thoth. Exactly which o f these t hree kings is intended is less certain since his Horus Name (the only other of the King's names mentioned on t he b l o c k ),

    ~n, does not fit precisely with any of them on an assessmen t of compa r at i ve material, but may apply to Alexander (hk3-kni) or Ptolemy I (wr-p!Jty neio-kni ) .30

    There is no clear evidence for any part of the Portico being i nscribed for Alexander IV - the inscriptions recorded by Wilkinson as his seem to be those of his father (see infra , p. 34)

    Roeder31believed that Ptolemy I and his dynastic succe s s o r s compl e ted the Temple of Thoth. The car touche of a Ptolemy on a block from the Abu-Bakr excavations mentioned by Roeder is almo s t c e r t a i n l y that now lying close to the Portico , copied and pu~li s hed by the British Museum Expedition.32

    The Inscribed Blocks

    The main series of the inscribed blocks consists of a 'geog r aph i c a l procession' 33, symmetrically arranged (Lowe r Egyp t to the east, Upper Egypt to the west), and orientate d toward s what would have been the central doorway at the rear of t h e Po r t i c o and, by extension, the sanctuary of the t emple. Unlike t he blocks which were removed from Abu-Bakr's s ondage, and are now placed to the north-east of the trench, this geo

  • 4

    graphical series seems to be in s i t u despite some subsidence in the centre of the row (see PLATE 32).

    Each scene (and its accompanying text) follows a set formula. The King wears the royal identifying marks of crown, beard, kilt, and necklace, and is shown kneeling. This posture fills the field with the figure of the King since he is not shown presenting the offerings to a depicted figure of the god. The hieroglyph of the name and epithets of Thoth, which stands at the beginning of each of the texts, must be the equivalent of a depiction of the god since the Ibis-on-a-standard, in contrast to the other hieroglyphic signs, faces away from the centre of the back wall of the Portico (and, by extension, the god's sanctuary) while the King, his offerings, and the main body of the hieroglyphic texts, face towards the sanctuary of the god to whom the offerings are being made. 34

    The King is shown offering a tray of agricultural products. That these goods are meant to represent the offerings of a particular Nome is made apparent both by the text and by the individual nome-standard which projects above the top of the offerings. The type of geographical procession depicted here is a variant of the arrangement used between the reigns of Taharqa and Ptolemy 11 3 5 although, usually, it is the King himself who presents the offerings in the scenes on the phi lip Portico, rather than through an intermedia r y 36 , thus emphasising the ro le of King and his unique relationship with the god.

    The texts (or, rather, the standard formulae 37) which accompany each scene make reference to an explicit contract, with consideration on either side. The god gives the King abstract gi fts such as life, stability and health and, more specifically, dominion over Egypt. In return the King is in the position of being able to give to the god, as concrete offerings, the produce of the Nomes over which he had been granted authority. It is perhaps significant that this kind of interactive divine/royal relationship is made clear in the case of a foreign dynasty seeking to consolidate its fitness to rule in Egypt; it is especially appropriate that the god is Thoth, the deity concerned with the maintenance of m3 't and thus the authori ty of the King, establishing his titles and permitting him jUbilees~8

    Ideally, a temple which is orientated with its axis EastWest should have its geographical procession arranged so that the Lower Egyptian Nomes are to the North, while the Upper Egyptian Nomes are to the South.39 In a case where a building is orientated closer to a nominal North-South axis, some attempts were made to orientate the Lower and Upper Egyptian Nomes to the 'true' North and South respectively - this is the case at the Phi lip Portico and at the near-contemporary Sanctuary of Alexander the Great at Luxor. 40 The ordering of the Nomes in the geographical procession on the Philip Portico seems to follow the conventional order of the period~l Reading from West to East, the first clear scene is the 6th Upper Egyptian Nome, but there is at least one scene to the left of it on the same block, and room for more blocks to the west. The series runs, unbroken, from the 6th Upper Egyptian Nome to the 9th Upper Egyptian Nome, although the Nome fetish of the

  • 5

    8th, Abydene, Upper Egyptian Nome is too damaged to read. There is then a group of missing blocks. The next intact series of blocks clearly shows the 15th Upper Egyptian Nome, with what must be the damaged scenes of the 12th-14th Upper Egyptian Nomes. Therefore the missing blocks must have had scenes de p i c t i ng the 9th-12th Upper Egyptian Nomes. The width o f the gap seems to correspond to this number of scenes. To the right of the 15th Upper Egyptian Nome the 17th and 19th Upper Egyptian Nomes are clear, alternating with what must be the damaged 16th and 18th Upper Egyptian Nomes. The scene to the right of the 19th Upper Egyptian Nome is, presumably, that of the 20 t h Upper Egyptian Nome. Comparative material would lead one to expect the Upper Egyptian series to finish with the 22nd Upper Egyptian Nomeft2

    The Lower Egyptian series begins definitely with the 5th Lower Egyp t i a n Nome, but the remains of a scene to its left must be that of the 4th Lower Egyptian Nome. The series runs, unbroken,from the 6th Lower Egyptian to the 12th Lower Egyptian Nome s . One would expect the original series to have continued t o the 1 7t h Lower Egyptian Nome since the 18th-20th Lower Egyptian Nomes only appear on monuments of this kind in the Ptolemaic period.4~

    The other inscribed blocks (Blocks 12-16) are presently not in their original contexts, to a greater or lesser extent. Block 13 appears to be part of the geographical procession as fragments of two of the Upper Egyptian Nomes. However, the content of the surviving columns of text makes this less likely, since the first column mentions offerings which are, presumably, given by the King to the god. In the other formulae accompanying these scenes there is at least one full column of text preceding the list of these offerings, with the name andepithets of the god and the titulary of the King.

    In the illustrations on the Plates, where a block runs down into the water, or is a small inscribed fragment of a large piece o f masonry, the line designating the edge of the inscribed face of the block halts at the point where further illustration is either impossible or not useful. All the copies (PLATES 3 to 31) have been reduced to one sixth of the actual size of the blocks. Translations of the texts are given on the Plates.

    Petosir is and the Restitution of Pharaonic Monuments by Macedonian Kings

    The building activity at the Temple of Thoth at the beginn ing of the Macedonain/Ptolemaic period can, perhaps, be linked to an individual whose family supplied the highest dignitaries of the cult of Thoth at Hermopolis, Petosiris. The tomb of Petosiris at Tuna el-Gebel, a necropolis of Hermopolis, gives testimony to this connection, both in the specific statements contained in the biographical inscriptions it bears, and inits intrinsic architectural form.

    In his biography, Petosiris states that for seven years he acted as Controller of the Temple (mr &n = 'Lesonis,44) at

  • 6

    Hermopolis, having assumed this position at a time when a state of chaos existed in the cuI tic foundation at Hermopolis in particular, and in Egypt as a whole, due to foreign domination of the country.45 It was Petosiris who reactivated the operation of the temple by causing its officers to function as before, and by restoring the fabric of the temple itself.46

    .Se v e r a l authorities have remarked on the resemblance of the superstructure of Petosiris' tomb, as it appears in its present reconstructed state, to an Egyptian temple of the Graeco-Roman period, consisting as it does of a roughly square chapel fronted by a transverse hall (pronaos) with a colonnaded facade.47 Nakaten 48 cites Dendera and Edfu as two Graeco-Roman temples with architectural features strongly reminiscent of Petosiris' tomb; the illustrations of the Philip Portico made while i t still stood, presented in the second part of this volume, suggest another parallel and one which is closer chronologically and geographically. Indeed, it seems very possible that elements of the architectural design of the Thoth Temple, the building of which he seems to have overseen, were adapted by Petosiris for use in his own tomb, albeit on a smaller scale.

    This suggestion does, however, presuppose the contemporaneity of the career of Petosiris with the reign of Philip Arrhidaeos. Although the close~dating of the life of Petosiris is a subject of some dispute 49, it seems likely that he was active t owa r d s the end of the Second Persian Period and the early Macedonian Period. His tomb shows clear Greek influence, almost certainly indicating that it was built after Alexander's 'liberation' of Egypt, while the foreigners whose rule inEgypt is abhorred in Petosiris' biography can hardly be the ascendant Greek dynasty. This would particularly be the case if, as seems possible, the tenure of the post of 'Lesonis' was directly related to Royal approval. 50

    It is also possible that there was a direct continuity between the Temple of Thoth as it was conceived under Nectanebo I and the obviously extensive building operations carried out at the Temple under Philip Arrhidaeos. This would not be particularly surprising since the building activities of the early Macedonian Pharaohs seem to be typified by a desire to restore and add to existing monuments. This policy doubtless originated as a means of reinforcing their spurious legitimacy to the throne of Egypt by fostering the religious and artistic traditions of their native predecessors. The extensive restoration works started under Alexander the Great51 seem to have been continued under his successor, Philip Arrhidaeos, most notably with the granite sanctuary at Karnak. 52

    At Hermopolis a form of homage to the monuments of the pharaonic past may be seen in the 'Dromos of Hermes', if the paved road partially excavated by the British Museum Expedition can be identified as such. 53 This processional way, which seems to have been constructed in 'early Ptolemaic times54 , was embellished by the integration within it of an alabaster base of Amenhotep III and a stela of Osorkon Ill, with other re-sited dynastic monuments possibly still to be excavated along uncovered portions of its length. 55 Thus the available arch

  • 7

    aeological evidence suggests that this Avenue may indicate a Macedonian restitution of Pharaonic monuments at Hermopolis.

    A further, albeit more tenuous, connection between the building work carried out under Philip Arrhidaeos and earlier architectural models, is a 48-facetted limestone column-base/ drum, inscribed for Philip, which lies in the area to the north of the Portico. Its facetted form can, as Spencer56 points out, be most closely compared to columns of this type dating from the New Kingdom.

    However, it is with the Thirtieth Dynasty that the Macedonians seemed to have tried to establish an association - the 'Alexander Romance' of the Demotic Chronicle 57 (in which, by fictive genealogy, Alexander the Great becomes the bodily heir of Nectanebo 11) is perhaps the best-known example of the propaganda linking the last native Pharaohs to Alexander and his successors on the throne of Egypt.

    In art and architecture too, the dominant theme under the Macedonian Kings was the use of forms prevalent in the Late Period. Baldwin Smith 58 especially cites the use of the 'columnar vestibule, with screen wall, as a pronaos' as a trait of Late Period temples which was to find full expression under the Macedonians. As he points out, the dominant traditionalism of Ptolemaic religious architecture seems to be primarily the result of the 'desire of a new dynasty to strengthen its position before the native population, the architects went back, whenever possible, to prototypes sanctified by a venerated past,.59 This phenomenon is claimed for other branches of art: Stevenson Smith60 refers to the sculpture produced during the Thirtieth Dynasty as being of a 'mannered style' which provided the models for statuary executed after the conquest of Alexander.

    Steven Snape

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    CHAPTER 2

    THE GREAT PORTICO SINCE AD 1714

    As the first most outstanding monument of Egyptian antiquity which early travellers encountered south of the pyramids, The Great Portico of Hermopolis Magna attracted much attention. However, Father Vansleb, one of the earliest western travellers in the area, visited only nearby Antinoe in 1673, mentioning merely that at Ichemunein the Egyptians 'worshipped a Man of

    Stone'6~ and Paul Lucas, although describing Antinoe at some length, had no time in 1714 to visit Che-mou-meine, which he thought might be the site of Lycopolis, preferring Minya as Hermopolis. 62 But also in 1714 the Portico was seen and decribed in detail by Claude Sicard on his first journey to Upper Egypt, who writes:

    J' en partis le 8 Novembre pour aller a Achemounain a deux lieu~s de MellaUi, vers le Nord OUest. Achemounain n'est a present qu'un Bourg; mais l es vastes ruines d'un grand nombre de Palais, dont on voit encore les marbres & les colonnes de granit, marquent assez son ancienne splendeur. Apres avoir parcouru les debris de plusiers de ces Palais, je fus frappe de loin par la majeste d'un Portique a douze colonnes. J'en approchay de plus pres; je trouvay le travail magnifique, delicat & si entier, que quoyque la construction ait ete faite pendant les regnes des Pharaons, & ava n t les conquetes de Cambise Roy des Perses, il semble cependant que les Ouvriers ne viennent que de le finir. Les colonnes ont trois pas ou sept pieds & demi de roy de diametre, sur 7 ou 8 fois autant de hauteur juge a l'oeil. Elles ne sont d'aucun de nos cinq ordres d'Architecture, dont l'invention est posterieure a la construction de ces colonnes. Ce sont proprement douze massifs ronds de pierre, qui soutiennent un plancher quarre long & isole. Chaque massif ou chaque colonne est de trois pieces. La premiere qui pose sur un base a moitie enterree, est couverte de 1eroglyphes gravez. Entre ces 1eroglyphs on distinguepres de la base la figure d'une Piramide avec sa porte ouverte. La deuxieme & la Troisieme piece sont canelees, & peintes de rouge & de bleu. La tete de chaque colonne finit par un simple cordon sans chapiteau: & toutes ensemble portent vingt pierres quarrees longues, dont une moitie occupe le dessus, et l'autre moitie le dessous du platfond. Deux de ces pierres beaucoup plus epaisses, & plus grandes que les autres, forment au milieu du Portique une espece de fronton quarre. D'une colonne a l'autre on compte quatre pas, excepte qu'au milieu depuis la 3e jusqu'a la 4e il y a six pas entre les deux rangs, qui sont de six colonnes chacun . Le Portique a au juste 40 pas de long, ou 100 pieds de roi, et large 10 pas ou 25 pieds de roi. La hauteur des colonnes avec l'entablement est d'environ 55 ou 60 pieds de roi. 11 regne tout autour une frise chargee de riches bas-reliefs, de Mysteres 1eroglyphiques. Ce sont des animaux terrestres, des insectes, des oiseaux du Nil, des obelisques, des piramides, des hommes assis gravement sur des sieges. Devant chacun de ces hommes on voit un personnage debout, qui leur presente je ne s9ais quoy; vous diriez que ce sont des Rois, qui re90ivent les placets de la main de leurs Ministres. 11 y a plus de cinquante de ces figures humaines dans les deux faces de la frise. Le relief y est par tout bien net & bien conserve. La corniche & la frise ne sont point peintes; mais le dessous de l'Architrave tout au long de la colonnade est d'une couleur d'or, qui brille & qui ebloUit. Pour couronner un si beau dessein, on a represente le firmament dans le platfond. Les etoilles

  • 9

    n'y 9cauroient etre mieux gravees, ni l'azur paroitre plus frais & plus vif. ....

    Permettez-moy d'ajouter a cette description, le recit moins s erieux de ce qu i m'arriva a l'occasion de cet ancien monument. L'Arabe qui m' accompagnoit me tira en particulier & me dit a l'oreille, afin que personne ne l'entendit: "N'allumes pas icy ton encensoir, me dit-il, d e p e u r que nous ne soyions surpris sur le fait, & qu'il ne nous arrive malheur." "Que veux-tu dire, luy repondis-je, je n'ay ni encensoir, ni encens, ni feu?" "Tu te mocques de moy, me repliqua-t-il, un Etranger comme toy ne vient point icy par pure curiosite." "Et pourquoy donc, repris-je?" "Je S9ais, m'ajouta-t-il, que tu connois par t a science l'endroit, ou est cache le grand coffre plein d'or, que nos peres nous ont laisse. Si l'on voyoit ton encensoir, l'on croiroit bien-tot, que tu serois venu icy pour ouvrir notre coffre par la vertu de tes paroles, & de t es encensemens." Il entendoit par le coffre les deux pierres d'une g r o s s eu r extraordinaire, qui sont elevees a guise de fronton au d essus de l'entablement. La sottise de mon guide e s t la sottise de tout l e pays. Combien de gens, Turcs et chretiens, me dirent a mon retour a MellaUi: "he bien avez-vous vu le coffre? N'y avez-vous pu rien fair e par vo s charmes, et vos enchantemens?" Ce discours me donna alors l'intelligence de ce qui m'avoit ete dit si souvent sur ma route, & de c e qu e je n'avois pu comprendre jusques a present. "Ne nous enlevez pas, me disoit-on, tantot en riant, tantot fort serieusement, ne nous enleve z pas notre tresor cache dans le portique d'Achemounain."

    ... ,,~ J'appris done a cette occasion que dans l e pals, on e s t persuade que

    l es deux grosses pierres, qui forment un fronton au dessus de l'entablement, renferment un coffre qui contient des sommes immenses en or, & que tous l es habitans voisins sont en garde contre les etrangers capables, disent-ils, de leur enlever leurs tresors par la force de leurs enchantemen s . De-la vient que mon Conducteur craignant pour ma vie, me donna pa r amitie un avis qu'il croyait me devoir ~tre si salutaire.

    Je ne regrettay point la perte de ce pretendu tresor cache; mais je r egrettay fort de n'avoir trouve aucune inscription, qui put m'indiquer l e nom de l'Auteur d'un si rare monument, le temps de sa construction, & l a signification de toutes ces differentes figures gravees.

    Les Arabes appellent grossierement cette Colonnade Melab Elbanat, c'est-~-dire, le lieu des recreations des Princesses; comme si sa destination eut ete pour la promenade des filles du Roy, qui la fit bat1r~3

    A few days later, on 15 November 1714, Sicard again passed by the Portico, which he drew, and saw that it was the perch of innumerable cranes:

    En a l l a n t a l'Eglise de la Croix, je passay par Achemounain, ou j'examinay de nouveau toutes les particularitez du Portique, pour le dessiner sur le papier avec toute la fidelite, & l'exactitude possible. La premiere figure cy-jointe est trait par trait semblable a l'original.

    Je f u s fort etonne de voir ce Portique couvert d'un nombre prodigieux de Gru~s. Les gens du pa1s me dirent qu'elles ne manquoient jamais chaque annee de revenir en ce temps des terres du Nord, qu'elles se reposoient sur ce Portique en arrivant, & qu'elles vont ensuite hyverner sur le s bords du Canal de Joseph, sans penetrer plus avant vers le Midy, trouvant les bords de ce Canal la temperature de l'air, & les paturages qu'elles aiment?4

    Sicard's lost drawing of the Portico would seem to be the earliest, but there is no certainty that the engraving of it,

  • 10

    made in Paris (our PLATE 37a) for Nouiieaux Memoires des Mis sions de la Corrrpagnie de Je sus dane l e Levant ii, which appeared in 1717, is accurate: as M. Martin says, it was 'tres librement ~nterprete par un artiste qui n'aurait jamais vu un monument d'Egypte.'65

    In March 1716 Father Sicard made his second journey to Upper Egypt and went again to Ashmunein. In a letter of 15 March to his friend Guis, resident in Cairo, he mentions again the belief of the Egyptians that the Portico contained a treasure, the search for which later writers (infra) blame the battered appearance of the building:

    ,..,. A" UA deux petites lieues de Bechade, on s'arreta a Achemounaln. Le Bey

    s e rep o s a sous le fameux et magnifique portique ~ 12 colonnes que j'ai d e c rit et dessine..... Le Bey me demanda que je lui expliquasse l'ecrit u re e n relie f qui regnait sur les colonnes, sous les architraves te sur la frise. J e luis repondis que si c'etaient des caracteres a r a b e s , hebreux, romains, copts, grecs, je les lirais et je lui en rerdraisraison.

    L~-dessus je me mis ~ examiner, je ne vis partout que des hieroglyphes, comme j e le savais dej~. Je lui en donnai une explication tiree de l'usage des s acrifices anciens par rapport aux oiseaux, aux monstres ~ vis age de chien, aux globes, aux gobelets, aux couteaux, etc. Une grand e partie de la Thaife qui m'entourait n'etait pas contente de ma r epons e o~ ils ne voyaient nul tresor ~ decouvrir. Je leur fis sentir l'imp ertinence de ces visions ~ tresors. Les plus senses furent pour moi e t le Bey parut content. On servit quelques poules froides roties p ou r l e dejeuner du Bey. Je le quittai et j'allai joindre le cheikh Hamed. Nous continuames la conservation avec plusieurs autres Effendis

    66 s u r l e s pretendus tresors d'Achemounain . As early as the mid-sixteenth century, Pierre Belon remarks

    that foreign travellers and merchants are regarded by local Muslims as 'chercheurs de tresors'. 67

    Two travellers, Richard Pococke and Charles Perry, saw the Por tico in 1737 and Pococke published a plan and elevation (our PLATE 37b ). He descr ibes the Portico thus:

    About three miles north of Meloui, is the village of Archemounain: The r e is a large country here which also goes by that name. This village i s on the ruins of an old city, which I suppose to be the antient Hermopoli s ; or, which is all the same, as Pliny calls it, the city of Mercury. It s eem'd to have been of an irregular form, extending above a mile from eas t t o west, and more than half a mile from north to south, and is near two miles from the river. Little appears but heaps ef rubbish all over the site of the old city, except a grand portico of an antient temple .... c ons i sting of twelve pillars, six in a row, nine feet in diameter; there are hieroglyphics on every part both of the pillars and of the stones laid o n them. I saw on the pillars some remains of paint, and the ceiling is adorn'd with stars; on several parts there are figures of pyramids, a s with a door to them, which Kircher interprets to be (0 ay a~o ~ 6 aL~wv) the good principle; a person sitting, and one offering to him, is cut in s everal parts of the frieze. It appears that the pillars have been built up for about half way between, as in many Egyptian temples. About two hundred paces to the south, I saw some large stones, and a piece of a p i l lar standing upright, which may be the remains of some building belonging to t his temple. I saw also some pieces of granite pillars among the heaps of ruins. 68

    Perry's text is more colourful and his description more full than that of Pococke:

  • 11

    We had been informed, that near MeZoue were the Remains of an antient Egypt i an Temple, consisting of Two Rows of Pillars: We therefore made strict Inquiry after it, all through the Town, and all round about it, but to no Purpose; for we could get no Intelligence of it: But the next Day the Vice-Caimacam coming to the Port, where our Vessel lay, we inquired of him, who told us directly, that it was at a Village call'd I s hmonie, about Seven Miles distant, to the North-west. He promis'd to send us Horses to carry us, and Men to conduct us, e a r l y the next Morning: But these not coming so soon as we wish'd and expected, we set out without them, and in Two Hours and a Quarter got thither. We found Ishmoni e a large , scatter'd Village, situate upon the Tops and Sides of large Hills of Rubbish; the Ruins, doubtless, of some antient City. Ranging all over these Hills of Rubbish, from South to North, amongst which we found several Fragments of large Granite Pillars, we came at last to the Portico, which i s situate to the North of the Village, just beyond the Extent of t he Hills of Rubbish.

    It consists of Twelve Pillars in Two parallel Rows, and a Roof intire. Each Pillar, at its Base, is Seven Feet and an half Diameter, and, compre h ending the Roof , the Fabric is 49 Feet high. Each Pillar is compo s ' d o f several Stones, and they are all alike form'd in a very curious a nd extraordinary Manner, and intirely foreign to any others we had as y e t seen, especially their Capitals and Bases.

    Each Pillar, from its Base above half way up to its Capital, is wrought all over with Hieroglyphics, and Figures in Basso ReZievo , rep r e s e n ting the Egyptian Divinities, and the same all round the Out-side o f the Roof. Their Capitals and Bases are either compos'd of, or incrusted with, Stones of different Colours, somewhat after the manner of Mosai c Work. The Length of the Portico is 96 Feet, and its Breadth 28 Feet. Its Roof is compos'd of Six long Stones, which go from Side to Side , o f which there are Three at each End, because there is an Opening in the Middle.

    Ishmonie is commonly styled the petrify'd City, on account of a great Numb e r o f Statues of Men, Women, and Children, and other Animals, which a re said to be seen there at this Day; all which, as 'tis believ'd and r eported by the Inhabitants, were once animated Beings, but were miraculou s ly , not metamorphos'd, but transubstantiated, or changed into Stone, in all the various Postures and Attitudes (as some talking, others laughi ng, others pissing, &c.) which they affected or acted at the Instant of the i r suppos'd Transubstantiation. We did not fail to inquire after t hese Things, and desir'd to have a Sight of them; but they told us they were in a certain Part, pointing to the Westward, but that they were too s acred to be seen by any except true Believers.

    We had made great Inquiry after Ishmonie, the petrify'd City, in our way from Mi nio to the Place where we lay, and were inform'd it bore to the Westward of us, (but a pretty way within Land) about Four or Five Leagues before we arriv'd there; but the vvind being then fair, we put it o f f til l our Return; And how little Credit soever this Story may meet with amongst Men of Sense, we had been confidently bDldand assured, by a Turk of good Fashion and Credit at Cairo, that he had been to see it, and that it was actually so as reported. 69

    In December 1768 James Bruce passed on his journey to seek the source of the Nile, and writes only that 'we passed Ashmounein, probably the ancient Latopolis, a large town, which gives the name to the province, where there are magnificent ruins of Egyptian architecture. '70

  • 12

    C.E. Savary claimed to have visited Hermopolis in 1779 and to be most impressed by the Portico; he published his description in l7867~ but I quote from the English translation of a year later:

    Four mil e s north of Melaoui is Achmounain, r emarkable for its magnifcent ruins. Among the hills of rubbish that surround i t is a stately por t i c o , little injured by time, a hundred feet long, twenty-five wide, a nd supported by twelve columns, the capital of which is only a small cord. Each is composed of three blocks of granite, forming together s ixty feet i n height, and twenty four in circumference. The block next t h e base is merely rounded, and loaded with hieroglyphics, the line of which begins by a pyramid; the two others are fluted. The columns are t e n fee t distant, except the two in the center, which, forming the e ntrance , have an interval of fifteen f eet. Ten enormous stones cover the portico , in its whole extent, and these are surmounted by a double row; the two in the centre, which rise with a triangular front, surpass the other s in grandeur and thickness. The spectator is astonished at beho l ding stones, or rather rocks, so ponderous, raised sixty feet high by the a r t of man. The surrounding frieze abounds with hieroglyphics, well s c u lptu r ed , containing figures of birds, insects, various animals, and men sea t ed , to whom others seem to present offerings. This, probably, i s the history of the time, place, and god in whose honour this monument wa s e r e c t e d . The portico was painted red and blue, which colours are e f faced in many places, but the bottom of the architrave, round the colonnad e , ha s preserved a gold colour surprizingly bright. The ce i l i ng , a l so , contains stars of gold sparkling in an azure sky, with a dazzling b r i l l i a n c y . This monument, raised before the Persian conquest, has neither the e l e g a nc e nor purity of Grecian architecture; but is indestructible s o l i d i t y , venerable simplicity, and majesty, extort admiration. Wha t must the temple, or the palace, have been to which this was the

    entrance ~ I confess, Sir, surprize is wonderfully excited at beholding, ami d the Turkish and Arab huts, edifices which seem the works of Genii. The ir age i ncreases their value. Escaped the ravages of destructive conqu e r o r s , and bearing the impressionof ages and ages, they inspire the con temp l a t ing traveller with awe. Modern Egyptians view these sublime r emains of a n t i q u i t y with indifference, and suffer them to subsist because to destroy them would be too much trouble. Superstition and ignorance believe they enclose treasures; wherefore, strangers are not permitted to t ake a faithful drawing: this would expose them to the loss of life, as what happened to Father Sicard proves. While he stood admiring the b eauty of this portico, "Do not kindle thy censer, said the Arab, his guide, gravely, to him, lest we should be taken in the fact, and some misfortune should follow. - What dost thou mean? I have neither censer, nor fire, nor incense. - That is a joke: a stranger, like thee, doth not come hither purely out of curiosity. - Why not? - I know thy science inf orms thee i n what place the great coffer is concealed, full of the gold ou r f orefathers have left us, and should thy censer be seen, they would p resen t l y think thou camest hither to open our coffer, by virtue of thy magic words, and carry off our treasure."

    Such, Sir, is the general opinion of modern Egyptians concerning Europeans, whom they think magicians, and imagine that, when taking the d imensions o n l y of their antiquities, they will be enabled to carry off their treasures; nor will they suffer them to write, or draw, peaceably, but impede them all they can. 72

    However, it seems highly unlikely that Savary went very much more south than Sakkara: he used Sicard's description of Hermopolis as the source for his tex~~ Sonnini states with

  • 13

    certainty that Savary did not go into Upper Egypt, despite his 74 descriptions of that area .

    Napoleon Bonaparte ' s invasion of Egypt in 1798 allowed the accompanying band of savants , of his Commission of Sciences and Arts, either singly or together, to see , describe, measure and illustrate the Great Portico at Hermopolis . The first to return to France and publish his immensely popular and well-illustrated account of Egypt was Vivant Denon. Again I give the English translation, brought out in 1803 and describing Denon's visit of December 1798 75 with the cavalry of General Desaix:

    The next morning, at eleven, we were between Antin~e and Hermopolis. I had not much curiosity to visit the former of these places; as I had already seen the monuments of the age of Adrian, and the buildings of this emperor in Egypt could not present to me any thing very new and striking; but I was eager to go to Hermopolis, where I knew there was a celebrated portico; it was therefore with great satisfaction that I heard Desaix inform me, that he should take three hundred cavalry, and make an excursion to Achnusuin, whilst the infantry were marching to Melaiei.

    In approaching the eminence on which is built the portico of Hermopolis, I saw its outline in the horizon, and its gigantic features. We crossed the canal of Abu-Assi, and soon after, passing across mountains and ruins, we reached this beautiful monument , a relic of the highest antiquity.

    I was enchanted with delight at thus seeing the first fruit of my labours; for, excepting the pyramids, this was the first monument which gave me an idea of the ancient Egyptian architecture; the first stones that I had seen which had preserved their original destination, without being altered or deformed by the works of modern times, and had remained untouched for four thousand years, to give me an idea of the immense range and high perfection to which the arts had arrived in this country. A peasant who should be drawn out from his cottage, and placed before such a building as this, would believe that there must exist a wide difference between himself and the beings ~ho were able to construct it; and without having any idea of architecture, he would say, this is the work of a god, a man could not dare to inhabit it. Is it the Egyptians who have invented and brought to perfection such a beautiful art? This is a question which I am unable to answer; but even on a first glimpse of this edifice we may pronounce , that the Greeks have never devised nor executed any thing in a grander style . The only idea which disturbed my enjoyment here was, that I must so soon quit this magnificent object, and that it required the hand of a master, and ample leisure, to do it justice with the pencil; whereas, my powers were humble, and my time measured out. But I could not quit it without attempting the sketch which I have given to my readers , which can but faintly express the sensations which this noble fabric conveys, and which I sincerely hope some future artist will be enabled to finish under more fortunate circumstances.

    If a drawing can sometimes give an air of greatness to little things, it always diminishes the effect of great objects: so in this instance, the capitals, which appear too heavy in proportion to the bases, have, in reality, something in their massiveness which strikes with wonder, and disarms criticism: here one cannot venture either to admit or reject any rules of criticism: but what is truly admirable, is, the beauty of the prinipal outlines, the perfection in the general construction, and in the use of ornaments, which are sufficient to give a rich effect without injuring the noble simplicity of the whole. The immense number of hieroglyphics ~hich cover every part of this edifice, not only have no relief,

  • 14

    but entrench upon no part of the outline, so that they disappear at twenty paces distance, and leave the building all its uniformity. But the drawing will give a better idea of the general effect than any description.

    Among the hillocks, within three or four hundred yards of the portico, enormous blocks of stone may be seen half buried in sand, and regular architecture beneath them, which appear to form an edifice containing columns of granite, just rising above the present level of the soil. Further on, but still connected with the scattered fragments of the great temple of Hermopolis, which I have just described, is built a mosque, in which are a number of columns of cipoline marble of middling size, and retouched by the Arabs; then comes the large village of Achmunin, peopled by about five thousand inhabitants, to whom we were as great an object of curiosity as their temple had been to us.

    We slept at Melaui, half a league from the road from Achmunin. But here I think I hear the reader say to me, "What: do you quit Hermopolis already, after having fatigued me with long descriptions of monuments of little note; and now you pass rapidly over what might interest me? Where is the hurry? are you not with a well-informed general, who loves the arts, and have you not three hundred men with you?" All this is very true, but such are the necessary events of this journey, and such the lot of the traveller: the general, whose intentions are very good, but~hose curiosity is soon satisfied, says to the artist, "I have three hundred men here who have been ten hours on horseback; they must find shelter for the night, and make their soup before they go to rest." The artist feels the force of this, as he is himself perhaps very weary and hungry, and must share with the rest in the fatigues of night encampments, and especially as he is every day twelve or sixteen hours on horseback, as the desert has tired his eyelids, and his eyes, burning and smarting, only see dimly through a veil of blood.7 6

    The original watercolour sketch which Denon made is in the Department of Prints and Drawings of the British Museum (PLATE 38 ) and the French and English editions of his book have slightly different engravings taken from the drawing (PLATE 39 ); there is a further version published in Reybaud's work mentioned below. 77 The French engraving was used by JacquesFran90is-Joseph Swebach-Desfontaines as the source for his painting on a plate in the great Sevres Egyptian dinner service made for Josephine Bonaparte, which is now in the Wellington Museum at Apsley House in London; again there are some differences (PLATE 40). 78 Two drawings in the Rodney Searight Collection, now in the Victoria and Albert Museum, a pen and wash sketch by Robert Ker Porter and a watercolour by David Havell, are both taken from a Denon engraving.

    Denon gives a further description of the Portico in his explanation of his plates, but in one respect he is lead astray by his engraver, describing the winged discs that the latter introduced into his work but which do not appear, either on the monument itself or on Denon's original drawing. He obviously thought that the temple lay under the point from which he sketched, to the south of the Portico and not to the north.

    PLATE XIV: Ruins of the Temple of Hermopolis, or the great City of Mercury, the capital of the thirty-fifth nome, built by Ishmun, son of Misraim, at some distance from the Nile, near a large town called Ashmunein, and not far from Melaui. To give an idea of the colossal proportions of this edifice, it will be sufficient to say, that the diameter

  • 15

    of the columns is eight feet ten inches, placed at equal intermediate distances; that the space between the two middle columns, within which the gate was included, is twelve feet, which gives one hundred and twenty feet for the portico; its height is sixty. The architrave is composed of five stones, twenty-two feet long, and the frieze of as many; the only remaining stone of the cornice is thirty-four feet. These particulars will give an idea both of the power which the Egyptians possessed to raise enormous masses, and of the magnificence of the materials which they employed. These stones are of free-stone, of the fineness of marble, and have no cement, or mode of union, besides the perfect fitting of the respective parts. With regard to the temple, there is no spring of any arch remaining, which can throw light on the dimensions of the whole extent, or of the nave; the second row of columns was engaged as high up as the door, and detached above; it appears probable, that the part immediately behind was still not the nave, or sanctuary of the temple, but a vestibule or kind of court which led to it. What induces me to adopt this opinion is, that the frieze and the cornice have the same projection and the same ornaments as the fa~ade of the portico on this side. The time of day, and this peculiarity, made me choose this front for the drawing which is here given, in which may be remarked the spring of the engagements of the columns, and that of the gate. The shafts of the pillars seem to represent bundles, and the pedestal, the stem of the lotus, just at the top of the root. The capital has nothing in it analogous to any known style of ornament; the gravity of the Egyptian architecture equals that of the doric order of the Greeks, and is richer. All the other parts correspond with those of other orders: on the astragal of both sides of the portico, and under the roof between the two middle columns, are winged globes, which emblems are constantly inserted in the same place in all other Egyptian temples.

    The hieroglyphics which are carved on the plinths that surround the capitals, are all the same, and all the roofs are adorned with a wreath of painted stars, of an aurora colour on a blue ground.

    The plan of the portico is given with the elevation. 7 9

    The most complete description of the site of Hermopolis Magna at the end of the eighteenth century (not until the time of the papyrus grubbers of the first decade of the present century was anything more substantial published80) was that of Edme Jomard, appearing in the monumental Description de l'ltgypte, the most lasting result of Napoleon's ill-starred expedition. Like several other visitors, Jomard thought that there were originally more than the two rows of columns. Jomard says of the Portico:

    Le portique d'Hermopolis, seul reste considerable de cette grande ville, a appartenu a l'un des plus magnifiques temples de l'Egypte ancienne. Les dimensions des colonnes ne le cedent qU'a celles des plus grandes colonnes qu'on trouve dans les grands palais de Thebes, et le diametre excede celui des colonnes de Tentyris de plus d'un quart; la longueur du portique devait exceder celle du pronaos de Denderah, a peu pres dans le meme rapport. Ainsi ce monument est un des plus considerabies de l'architecture egyptienne. Cette grandeur colossale nous a paru plus gigantesque encore, en sortant d'Antinoe, ou nous avions sejourne quelques jours, et ou les proportions, quoique d'ailleurs elegantes, nous paraissaient mesquines aupres des edifices de la Thebalde, qui avaient laisse dans notre esprit de si fortes impressions.

    J'ai dit que le portique est dans l'axe des ruines, a six cent cinquante metres environ de leur extremite septentrionale. Il est peu

  • ------------

    16

    encombre; douze colonnes sont encore debout, couronnees de leurs soffites, des architraves et des plafonds: mais il a beaucoup souffert, et il a meme perdu une ou deux rangees de colonnes entieres; car tout annonce qu'il etait compose de dix-huit ou vingt-quatre colonnes. Ce qui surprend le plus, est de trouver si peu de vestiges du temple proprement dit. Partout ailleurs, par exemple a Esne, o~ le portique seul subsiste, l'on peut supposer aisement ce que sont devenues les parties posterieures; meme a Antaeopolis, le sol est jonche de pierres qui proviennent des murailles de l,edifice. rci, l'on ne voit plus rien, et le sol lui-meme est peu eleve; on doit donc croire que cette partie du monument a ete detruite, a dessein, de fond en comble, et qu'on a cherche a faire disparaitre jusqu'aux debris des ruines. La pierre dont il a ete bati est calcaire, et l'espece en est numismale: telle est sans doute la cause de la destruction de l'edifice. Les chretiens et les Musulmans ont brise les pierres pour les convertir en chaux.

    Les architraves et les plafonds sont encore aujourd'hui en place, comme je viens de le dire. Un quart de la corniche, au milieu de la fa9ade, est egalement conserve; le reste n'existe plus: les antes ont disparu en entier. Les chapiteaux sont mieux conserves que les futs des colonnes; de vives couleurs y brillent encore d'un grand eclat. S'il faut en croire le recit que m'ont fait les habitans, c'est Moustaf~-bey qui a sape six des colonnes et les a mises dans l'etat o~ on les voit, afin de faire ecrouler l'edifice et d'en tirer l'or qui, disent-ils, y est cache. Apres avoir degrade exterieurement quelques assises de pierre, il reconnut l'inutilite de ses efforts, et renon9a a sa folle enterprise. Je ne puis attribuer a un bey, ou du moins a seul homme, la destruction meme superficielle des colonnes, bien que cette degradation, qui s'eleve jusqu'a dix et douze pieds au-dessus du sol, nuise peu a la solidite de ce portique, et n'en ait en aucune maniere ebranle les supports; elle ne peut etre l'ouvrage que d'un tres-long temps, ou d'une suite d'efforts de la part de plusiers hommes puissans.

    Ainsi que dans les autres villes anciennes, les habitans du voisinage ont les idees les plus absurdes sur l'origine du monument. J'abuserais de la patience du lecteur, si je rapportais les contes extravagans des gens du pays; je prefere citer le surnom qu'ils donnent au temple d'Hermopolis. Plusiers d'entre eux se sont accordes a me dire qu'il s'appelait Mahlab el-Benat, c'est-a-dire lieu d'amusement pour les jeunes filles (au les jeunes princesses). Au reste, je crois avoir entendu appliquer ce surnom a d'autres anciens edifices.

    Le temple est exactement oriente selon le nord de la boussole, c'esta-dire que le fayade est tournee vers le sud magnetique; du moins elle l'etait en 1800, le 29 octobre. Cette direction n'est point d'accord avec celle qu'on croyait avoir toujours ete affectee par les Egyptiens, celle du levant; mais l'axe du temple est parallele au cours du Nil, et nous avons vu quelquefois les edifices places dans ce sens. La ville d'Hermopolis avait la meme direction que l'edifice, et meme les axes de l'une et de l'autre se confondent presque en un seul. L'observation que nous avons faite, de la coYncidence de l'aiguille aimantee avec l'axe du temple d'Hermopolis, servira dans tous les temps a connaitre la marche que suit la declinaison magnetique dans ses variations.

    La hauteur totale du portique au-dessus de la base des colonnes est de l6m2/3 a fort peu pres; la base avait environ 7 decimetres de haut: la colonne, compris le de et sans la base, a l3m, 16 de hauteur.

    La circonference du fut de la colonne, mesuree a la hauteur des pre

    miers anneaux ou bandes circulaires qui lient les cotes entre elles

    , ' autrement de la quatrieme assise, est de 8m, 8, d'o~ conclut le diametre

  • 17

    de 2m, 8, ou pres de neuf pieds; tout en bas du fut, la circonference est de 8m, 7.

    Le chapiteau a 3m, 94 de haut avec le de.

    L'entre-colonnement du milieu est plus grand que les autres; sa largeur est de Srn, 20 entre le nu des futs. L'entre-colonnement ordinaire est de 4 metres; parallelement a l'axe, il n'est que de 3m, 66. A defaut de

    ~

    la longueur totale de la fa9ade du portique, qu'on ne peut conna~tre a ,

    cause de la destruction des antes, on a mesure l'intervalle exterieur" ,

    entre la premiere et la sixieme colonne; il est de 38 metres, environ 117 pieds: la fa~ade entiere devait avoir environ 50 metres.

    Le portique d'Achmouneyn est un exemple de la solidite de la construction egyptienne. Aucun edifice peut-etre n'avait ete bati plus solidement; ses proportions sont massives, et la hauteur de la colonne n'a que cinq diametres, tandis que dans d'autres monumens elle en a six. En revanche, l'entablement a des proportions moins elevees qu'ailleurs; elles paraissent meme un peu basses pour la hauteur des colonnes: mais l'appareil etait parfait; et le monument serais intact comme les parties subsistantes, si les constructeurs eussent fait choix du gres pour leurs materiaux, au lieu de la pierre calcaire, dont les barbares ont fabrique de la chaux.

    Ceux-ci ont tellement exploite cette riche carriere, qu'on ne voit derriere le portique ni colonnes, ni fragmens de colonne, de frise ou de corniche, ni reste de muraille, ni meme aucun eclat de pierre; et ce n'est pas une des choses les moins surprenantes pour les voyageurs, jusqu'au moment ou ils en ont decouvert la cause.

    Les assises dont les colonnes sont formees sont egales et regulierement hautes de Om, 56. La partie inferieure de fut a 3 assises; la partie moyenne et la partie superieure en ont 4; les liens inferieurs, 1 et demie; les deux autres liens, chacun 2; le chapiteau, 6; enfin le de 1; et si la base en avait 1 et demie exactement, comme je le pense, le tout faisait 25 hauteurs d'assise.

    Les pierres de l'architrave sont d'une grandeur enorme. 11 n'y en a que cinq dans toute la longueur de la fa9ade. La plus grande, qui est au milieu, est longue de 8 metres (pres de 25 pieds). Les autres sont de 6m, 8. Ce qui reste de la corniche est une grande pierre un peu entamee du cote gauche, et dont la longueur est de lOm, 8 (environ 33 pieds 1/4).

    J'ai dit que la pi~rre avait pu etre tiree de la montagne libyque; cependant Besa, ancienne ville egyptienne, situee de l'autre cote du fleuve, avait de vastes carrieres qu'on admire encore aUjourd'hui. 11 se peut qu'elles aient fourni aussi des materiaux aux edifices d'Hermopolis.

    11 n'est guere possible d'asseoir un jugement sur la disposition que devait avoir ce grand edifice; nous n'avons pas meme tente de la restaurer. 11 est certain que le premier portique etait compose de dix-huit colonnes, peut-etre meme de vingt-quatre, comme a Denderah; et l'on peut supposer avec vraisemblance qu'il etait suivi d'un second peristyle, de plusieurs salles, du sanctuaire et de l'enceinte. Y avait-il un pylone en anant du temple? c'est ce dont on ne peut avoir aucune preuve,du moins par les vestiges subsistans ; car les ruines qui sont au midi du temple sont trop eloignees pour etre le reste de ces portes anterieures.

    On doit d'autant plus regretter la destruction du temple d'Achmouneyn, que sa disposition et toutes ses parties avaient certainement un caractere particulier. comme on peut en juger par les singularites que pre

  • 18

    sente le portique. Tous les temples ont dans leur corniche, au-dessus de l'entr~e, un vaste globe ail~ qui s'~tend d'une des colonnes du milieu a l' autre. rci, i!. y a point de globe ail~; la corniche, dans toute sa longueur, est uniformement d~cor~e de legendes hieroglyphiques, appuyees sur des vases, couronn~es de feuilles, et tres-serrees l'une contre l'autre. Dans le seul espace de l'entre-colonnement du milieu, du centre d'une colonne a celui de l'autre, il y en a vingt-six: c'est l'unique exemple d'un edifice egyptien dont la fayade ne soit pas decoree du disque ail~. Les colonnes n'ont d'hieroglyphes que sur le d~ et sur les fuseaux intermediaires. Enfin, ce temple est le seul qui, dans son premier portique, presente des colonnes du genre de celles-ci.

    Les colonnes d'Hermopolis sont decorees de fuseaux ou cannelures, comme celles de Louqsor, du Memnonium, et aussi d'Elephantine, et le chapiteau est en forme de bouton de lotus tronque. Les fuseaux sont lies par trois anneaux, de c inq bandes chacun; en bas et au milieu, ils sont au nombre de huit; au-dessus, il y a trente-deux fuseaux: le chapiteau est egalement a cotes, et leur nombre est aussi de huit. Le bas de fut est arrondi et un peu plus etroit que le diam~tre du premier tiers: c'est l'imitation de la tige du lotus a sa partie inferieure. La frise ou architrave est composee de tableaux encadres par des hieroglyphes et representant des offrandes aux dieux de l'Egypte. Dans ces tableaux, le dieu principal a tantot la tete de l'ibis, et tantot celle de l'~pervier. Les soffites sont enrichis d'inscriptions hieroglyphiques, et les plafonds sont ornes d'etoiles serrees et tr~s-petites. Sous la plafond du milieu, il y a des figures d'oiseaux ayant les ailes deployees.

    Ce qui etonne le plus apr~s les proportions gigantesques des colonnes, c'est la conservation admirable des couleurs dont le temple etait revetu. Les chapiteaux sont cOlores en jaune, en bleu et en rouge; dans la corniche, les feuilles qui couronnent les legendes sont peintes en bleu, et ce bleu est tr~s-vif. Le plafonds ne sont pas colores, ou du moins les couleurs ne sont plus visibles. 81

    The plates illustratipg the Great Portico at Herrnopolis Magna in the Descr i pt i on de l'Egypte are described 82 as follows:

    PLANCHE 50 (our PLATE 35 ). PLAN topographique des ruines. Ce plan a ete leve exactement, a l'aide de la planchette. On a cher

    che ~ exprimer par la gravure les mouvemens des buttes de decombres: ces buttes sont tr~s-elevees, et recouvertes de vases brises, de briques et de fragmens de constructions. Le monument principal etait un grand temple, dont le portique subsiste encore du cote du nord. Au midi de celui-ci etait un autre edifice, aujourd'hui enseveli sous ses ruines et sous les decombres. De nombreuses colonnes de granit se remarquent dans les ruines, les unes encore debout, les autres couchees, et d'autres en tron90n s epars. Un gros village, etabli a l'extremit~ meridionale des ruines, a succede a l'ancienne ville d'Hermopolis. Les bas-fonds sont occupes par de petites mares, ou l'eau arrive par les canaux du Nil.

    PLANCHE 51 (our PLATE 4la) . VUE du portique, prise du cote du midi. Cette vue pr~sente l'etat actuel des colonnes du portique. Ces col

    onnes, etant d'une dimension colossale, ne sont rUinees qu'a la superficie, et nullement dans le noyau. On attribue cette degradation a l'enterprise d'un be qui voulut saper les colonnes pour chercher de pretendus tresors. Les figures placees sous le portique servent d'echelle pour faire juger de la proportion gigantesque du monument, qui ~tait le plus considerable de la ThebaIde, apres les grands palais de la capitale. Autour de l'edifice sont les buttes de d~combres d'une partie de l'ancienne ville d'Hermopolis. Nota. La gravure a rendu un peu trop sensibles les degradations des colonnes.

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    PLANCHE 52 (our PLATE 41b). PLAN, eZevation et detaiZs du portique du t empZe . Fig . 1. Plan du portique. Les parties teintees en noir fonce in

    diquent les portions de l'edifice qui sont encore debout; les parties plus pales sont de restauration. Ainsi qu'on peut le voir dans la planche precedente, il ne reste plus que douze colonnes du portique; il est probable qu'il y en avait encore douze autres pour completer le nombre de vingt-quatre, q~i se trouvent ordinairement dans la plupart des portiques egyptiens. a. Murs d'entre-colonnement dont il n'existe plus que des arrachemens.

    (Voyez la planche precedente .) b. Murs lateraux du portique. Il n'y a que l'analogie qui nous ait

    determines ales indiquer ici; car nous n'en avons point retrouve positivement de vestiges, probablement parce que leurs debris sont recouverts par les decombres.

    L'axe du portique se trouve dans la direction du meridien magnetique. Fig. 2. Elevation du portique. La comparaison de cette figure

    avec la planche precedente fera suffisamment conna1tre ce que la restauration a ajoute a cette elevation. La porte d'entree, les murs d'entre-colonnement et les antes ont ete ajoutes: mais ici l'analogie est tellement frappante, qu'il n'y a, pour ainsi dire, aucun doute que les choses n'aient existe ainsi lors de la construction premiere du monument. Les colonnes resemblent a celles des palais de Thebes, si ce n'est qu'elles sont construites d'apres des proportions encore plus massives. Les des sont ornes d'hieroglyphes, et la frise est decoree de tableaux encadres par des hieroglyphes, representant des offrandes aux dieux. L'ornement de la corniche est exact. Voyez, pour le detail, la fig. 7.

    Nota. On n'a pu prendre de mesures exactes de l'entablement ni de la base d es colonnes: il est tres-probable que celle-ci avait une hauteur et demie d'assise; et l'entablement, cinq: celue-ci a, dans la gravure, une hauteur trop grande d'une quantite egale a celle du listel, par erreur de construction; on a donne une largeur un peu trop grande au diametre des colonnes et a celui des chapiteaux. Consultez la fig. 8 et la fig. 9 pour les dimensions exactes.

    Faute de dimensions precises pour la mesure des antes, on a donne a la fayade une longueur d'environ 53 metres: ell pourrait etre reduite a 50 metres, ou le triple de la hauteur.

    Fig. 3. Plan de la colonne a la hauteur a b (Voyez fig. 4.) Fig. 4. Detail du cha2iteau des colonnes du portique. Les hiero

    glyphes du de sont exacts.~3 Fig. 5. Plan de la colonne a la hauteur a b (Voyez fig. 6.) Fig. 6. Detail de l'apophyge et de la base des colonnes du portique. Nota. Il doit y avoir cinq anneaux ou liens, et non quatre au-dessus

    de l'apophyge: le cinquieme a ete oublie dans la gravure; il devoit etre place a la hauteur de la ligne a, b, fig. 6. Consultez aussi la fig. 2.

    Fig. 7. Detail de la corniche du portique. Fig. 8. Moitie du profil de la colonne avec son entablement. Fig. 9. Profil du chapiteau de la colonne.

    The frontispiece of the Description de Z'Egypte, a kind of long-focus view of Egypt from the Cataracts to Alexandria, shows the Hermopolis Portico wedged in between the Great Pyramid at Giza and the Temple of Hathor at Dendera; in skewing the view of the Portico, the artist left the roof off (PLATE 42a).

    Also accompanying the French Expedition was the engineer Prosper Jollois and the architect Balzac. The former's account of Ashmunein reads:

    Nous qUittames Syout pour nous rendre a Achmounein. Les buttes de

  • 20

    d~combres de cette ancienne ville sont tr~s consid~rables: elles ne renferment que les restes d'un portique, dont six colonnes sont encore debout. Ces colonnes, ~ boutons de lotus tronqu~s, ne laissent cependant pas de produire beaucoup d'effet, ~ cause de leur ~l~~ation qui est plus

    consid~rable qu'en aucun endroit que nous ayons visite. Le village d'Achmoun~in est bati sur les ruines de l'ancienne ville. 8 4

    Balzac at least got the number of columns correct: Le peristyle du temple d'Hermopolis Magna est compose de douze colonnes

    fuselees, de quarante-cinq pieds de hauteur. Emploi de ces colonnes en premier ordre, elles qui, dans les autres monuments, sont toujours en ordre accessoire. Leur fuselage continu coupe par trois ceintures et le peu d'hieroglyphes tailles seulement sur les fuseaux de la division du milieu, enfin l'absence du globe aile dont tous les temples sont decores dans leur corniche, au-dessus de l'entree, sont des particularites que j'ai cru devoir recueillir.

    Une chose remarquable est qu'autour des douze colonnes, il n'existe aucun debris du temple qui a du etre consid~rable. On a remarque un chapiteau ionique. 8 5

    Citizen Ripaud (presumably L.M. Ripault) in his Report to Napoleon gives a brief description of Hermopolis Magna as he saw it in 1798 or 1799; an English translation appeared in 1800:

    The ruins of the ancient city of Hermes are about a league and an half from the river, on the side of the Libycus. They are situated in a fine plain, and occupy a space of a league and an half in length, and half a league in breadth. The portico of the great temple, consecrated to Hermes, is all that remains. It looks to the south-east, and is composed of ranges of columns resembling the truncated lotus: they are constructed of calcareous stone, like that of Garvel-sharkie. The pictures and hieroglyphics are very well executed; and relate principally to Taut, the Hermes of the Greeks, to whom the temple was dedicated. Those travellers must have been mistaken who have supposed that they saw the colour of gold, which is very rare in the Egyptian monuments. Among the ruins we found a capital of the Ionic order. 86

    L. Reybaud published in 1830 a multi-volumed history of the French Expedition to Egypt, and, using Jomard and the plagiariser Savary to a certain extent (and copying many of Denon's plates, including that of the Hermopolis Portico) he describes the Great Portico as follows:

    Achmouneyn, batie un peu au sud de l'ancienne HermopoZis Magna, est de nos jours un bourg important et peuple; ses habitans sont riches en chevaux et en bestiaux. Mais ~ cote des ruines de la ville egyptienne ce n'est plus qu'un amas informe de huttes villageoises.

    Ce qui frappe le plus vivement quand on arrive au pied de ces ruines, c'est leur entendue, leur couleur sombre et noiratre. Lorsqu'on les a gravies, et que, du plateau qu'elles forment, on jette un coup-d'oeil autour de soi, un autre spectacle vient exalter la pensee. On marche sur des decombres qui furent jadis une ville puissant; on cherche ~ trouver dans ces pierres tombees le souvenir des faits dont elles furent temoins. A droite et ~ gauche gisent des blocs immenses ornes d'oves et de moulures; des entablemens, des futs de granit, des bases attiques; et, au milieu de ces decombres, un portique s'eleve debout avec ses douze colonnes, pour attester ce que furent jadis les debris renverses. Ce portique, dont les dimensions sont colossales, porte le caractere de plus

  • 21

    antiques monumens ~gyptiens. On presume qu'il_se composait de dix-huit ou de vingt-quatre colonnes, qui formaient le peristyle d'un temple dont les traces ont entierement disparu. Les futs qui restent sont en granit: hauts de quarante pieds, ils en ont environ vingt-quatre decirconference. Les architraves et les plafonds sont parfaitement conserves, et les pierres qui les composent presentent une dimension enorme; on n'en compte que cinq dans toute la longueur de la f ayade, et la plus grande a vingtcinq pieds de longueur. On reste stupefait en voyant a quelle hauteur ces blocs ont du etre eleves. La frise qui regne a l'entour est chargee d'hieroglyphes. On y reconnalt des figures d'oiseaux, d'insectes, et des hommes assis recevant des offrandes. Le portique etait peint en rouge e t en bleu; le temps a efface une partie de ces couleurs; mais la corniche et les chapiteaux ont conserve les dorures qui les decoraient. Les etoiles y semblent etinceler encore sur un fond d'azur. Quoique l'ensemble de ces debris soit assez intact, quelques parties ont souffert des outrages du temps et du fanatisme. Les trois quarts de la corniche n'existent plus; les anses ont disparu en entier, ainsi que les dix colonnes de la fa~ade.87

    Wil1iam Hamilton visited Egypt in 1801-2, accompanied by Charles Hayes (1780-1803), whose drawing of the Portico was engraved for Hamilton's book (our PLATE 42b). Hamilton states:

    The site of Hermopolis Magna we found at this season of the year entirely surrounded with water. Very large remains of the antient wall, and high mounds of rubbish, (the accumulation of ages,) on each side of it, formed an effectual barrier against the inundation when at its height. These mounds are increased from year to year by the earthen cottages that are built upon them, and succesively moulder away;- in earlier times they appear to have been ex c av a t e d here and there for the purpose of making cellars and habitations. Many of these apartments hollowed out from such artificial mounds are still to be seen. We could plainly distinguish the two principal streets of the city, which crossed nearly at right angles. Near to one of these streets, in a spot clear of rubbish, we had the pleasure of observing the magnificent remains of an Egyptian temple, described by Pococke and others under the name of the Portico of Ashmounein. It consists of twelve columns, six in a row, all of an equal height and size, and supporting a roof still entire. The two rows are twelve feet asunder, and the roof consists of large slabs of stone placed cross-wise. The largest circumference of the columns, which is five feet from the ground, we found to be twenty-eight feet and a half, from whence it tapers very gradually both towards the ground and towards the capital. The height, including the capital, is forty feet four i nches, and forty-seven feet with the plinth, architrave, frieze, and cornice. The space between the centre columns is seventeen feet, the other intercolumniations thirteen feet. The shape of the columns is singular, and totally unlike any productions of Grecian architecture. The lower part is divided into eight similar segments of circles. At six feet from the ground, five narrow bands or rings are passed round it; and these are alternately repeated quite up to the capital, which is shaped like a barrel, apparently encircled with horizontal, perpendicular and oblique rings: the whole bear some resemblance to a bundle of sticks or poles tied together at equal distances, to form a strong and compact support: and yet this character was not so distinctly marked, as to detract in any way from the grandeur and simplicity of the building. Each column, as well as all the other parts of the portico, have been painted over. Blue, red and yellow appear the predominant colours: but its greatest peculiarity is, that each column consists not, as those of other Egyptian temples, of large cylindrical blocks of stone piled upon

  • 22

    one another, but of rude and irregular fragments of almost all sizes and shapes; the only instance I have ever witnessed, in Egyptian architecture, of columns thus constructed: and this has been done with so much nicety, that it is still very difficult in many places, where the column is uninjured, to distinguish it from a single mass.

    The architraves of each front of the portico consist of five stones, each of them passing from the centre of one pillar to that of the adjacent one: so that that over the centre pillars is twenty-six feet and a half in length. It is also, as well as the frieze and cornice above it, proportionably higher than the rest; which is another exception to the common usages of Egyptian architecture .

    There is very little variety in the sculptures at Ashmounein: the deity with his sceptre and crux ansata , receiving offerings, is characterized in different places, with the human face, that of the ibis, or the hawk. In one compartment within is a prostrate figure lying at full length on its back, somewhat in the form of a mummy, with rays diverging from the head and feet: and on the under surface of the central architrave, the deity and offering priests are represented as birds of different kinds, crowned like the other figures, and with the same emblems. The inhabitants give to this building the name of Mellabel Beladi.

    Among the other monuments of antiquity in Ashmounein are some large granite columns, a massy gateway of hewn stone at the entrance of the present village, and, in the principal mosque, about fifty smaller columns of different kinds. Some are of white marble, others of granite; but few of them can boast of any classical proportions, and none have capitals that can claim an earlier date than the decline of the Roman empire in the East.8 8

    On a visit to Egypt in 1802, Charles Pasley, an English army officer , after examining and describing Antinoe in some detail, decided to go to Ashmunein. In his journal, kept in the British Library, he writes:

    3rd [May) In the evening we cross over to the opposite village of Rodda & apply to the Sheick el Belled for asses to carry us to Ashmanein next morning ...

    4th [May) With a Bedowin Arab as a guide we set out for Ashmanein over fine Cultivated Land passing a canal. It is about 6 miles distant, a few paultrey huts & only the mounds of rubbish to shew that it has formerly been a considerable Town. We passed a Mosque the interior of which we could see was ornamented with ancient columns. thenn by a road at intervals strewn with pieces of granite we came to An Egyptian Portico of an Architecture Massy & of a striking appearance as entirely different from anything we had yet seen.

    [Pasley's plan, our PLATE 43a, is drawn here) 6 Immense pillars of 22 courses of Masonry of about 8~ diameter at

    bottom with Capitals of a singular appearance the whole having been partly fluted convexly & partly cut in rings & painted fantastically with diverse colours compose one front of this wonderful building.

    6 Columns similar in every respect & parallel at the distance of eleven feet completed the Portico each column is crowned with a plinth

    6~ square & about 2-1 in height. above this is a continued entablature of the same width & height but ranging the whole length of the building of stones about 21 feet long. Over these are immense stones that crossing from one side to the other form the roof they are about two feet high 20 in length & 12 broad. There is some variation in that part of the

  • ------------

    23

    roof over the 2 Centre columns which being raised 1 course higher forms a pediment as may be seen from the plan. every part of this Building except the columns is adorned with hieroglyphics in good preservation some of which I copied.

    between the two centre columns at the height of 16 feet appears to have been a kind of door or Gate way formed by a large stone laid across.

    As this is at present it has a most majestic appearance but I question much whether it could be improved by renewing the paintings. it must then have appeared more singular but not so grand. It is astonishing that the stones of the columns which are by no means large should have continued so perfect. it must be attributed to the goodness of the work which probably was cramped together, & has a very thin l


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