VIEW FROM UNDER THE PORTICO OF DAYR-EL-MEDEENEH, THEBES.

 

 

THIS small but very beautiful Temple, which measures only sixty feet by thirty-three feet, is situated in a secluded valley, immediately behind the palace-temple of Medinet-Abou, and, as its name implies, has been used as a Christian church. The portico is supported by two lotus-headed columns, and at the extremities by two square columns attached to the wall: these are surmounted by the heads of Isis, or Athor. The walls are rent, and the stones, in many places, disjointed, in consequence of the ground on which it stands having been disturbed by digging deep pits in front in search of mummies; and it is probably undermined to a great extent: the sculptures, however, everywhere retain as much sharpness and colour as when they were first executed. Here the mode, in use among the ancient Egyptians,  of connecting the stones by wooden dovetails, or cramps, of sycamore, has been extensively adopted. The Temple is inclosed by a wall, of which the bricks are built alternately in concave and convex courses.

    The Temple is Ptolemaic, having been begun by Ptolemy Philopater; it was completed by Physcon, or Euergetes II., who added the sculpture to the interior walls, and part of the architectural details of the portico. The pylon in front bears the name of Dionysius, and at the back of the adytum is found the name of Augustus, “Autocrator Cæsar.”

    On the walls within are several enchorial and Coptic inscriptions. A staircase once led to the roof. The back part of the naos consists of three parallel chambers, of which the adytum is the centre, and upon the walls of these chambers numerous figures are sculptured, emblematical of the mythology with which the founders have sought to identify themselves.

 

             Roberts’s Journal.                           Wilkinson’s Egypt.