Page:A History of Art in Ancient Egypt Vol 1.djvu/503

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The Temple under the New Empire. 40; wm^ M ^M p S <^pSi5^0|| is known to us, namely, that which is cut in the flanks of the Gebel-Barkal at Napata.^ It is called the Typhonium, on account of the erimacinor fio-ures which stand before the piers. It dates from the time of Tahrak , and was one of the works with which the famous Ethiopian decorated his capital in the hope that it might become a formidable rival to those great Egyptian cities which he had taken and occupied.- All the other rock- cut temples were the work of Rameses II. ; they are, as we ascend the Nile, Beit-el-Wali, near Kalabcheh (Figs. 236 and 237); Gherf- Hossein, or Gircheh, Wadi-Seboua, Dayr, and Ipsamboul, We may give Gherf-H ossein as a good example of the hemlspeos (Figs. 238 and 239). It was approached from the river by a broad flight of steps, decorated with statues and sphinxes, of which but a m fm ^~^^^^s^ Fig. 235. — Plan of speos at Beit-el-Wali ; from Prisse. -I — I — i- -I 1 1 1 - FiG. 237. — Longituciinal section of the speos at Beit-el-Wali ; from Prisse. few fragments now remain. A pylon gave access to a rect- angular court, on the right and left sides of which stood five piers faced with colossal statues of Rameses II. These statues ^ Lepsius, Denkviceler, part i. pi. 127. ^ There are also ahemispeos or two of the Ptolemaic period. That, for instance, of which the plans are given in plate loi of Lepsius's first part, was begun by Ptolemy Eiiergetes II,