| Southport : Original Sources in Exploration | | |
Voyage in Lower and Upper Egypt, during the Campaigns of General Bonaparte. Vivant Denon | | | | |
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Chapter 52: Return to Thebes. (p.256)
We
arrived around noon on the soil of Thebes: we saw three-quarters of a
league from the Nile the ruins of a large temple, of which no traveler
has spoken, and which can give the measure of the immensity of this
city, since 'Supposing that this was the last building in its eastern
part, it is more than two and a half leagues from Medinet-Abou, where
the westernmost temple is. This was the third time that I crossed
Thebes; (p. 257) but, as if fate had decided that it was always in
haste that I saw what should interest me so much, I again limited
myself this time to trying to realize what I saw, and to note what I
would have to take it upon my return, if I were happier.
I
was trying to unravel whether in Thebes the arts had had periods and a
chronology: if there had been a palace in Egypt, it must have been in
Thebes that the remains had to be sought, since Thebes had been the
capital; if there were eras in the arts, the results of his first
attempts must also be in the capital, luxury and magnificence only
moving away gradually from this first point, since they only work with
the opulence and the superfluous.
Finally we arrived at Karnak (1,2), a
village built in a small part of the site of a single temple, which, as
has been said, is actually a half-hour's walk away: Herodotus, who
had not seen it, gave a fair idea of its grandeur and
magnificence; Diodorus and Strabo, who saw only the ruins, seem to have
given a description of its present state; all travelers, who naturally
must have appeared to copy them, took the extent of the masses as the
measure of beauty, and, allowing themselves to be surprised rather than
charmed, in seeing the greatest of all ruins, did not dared to prefer
to them the temple of Apollinopolis at Etfu, that of Tintyra, and the
only portico of Esne; we must perhaps refer the temples of Karnak and
Luxor to the time of Sesostris, when fortune had just given birth to
the arts in Egypt, and perhaps showed them to the world for the first
time.
"No.
2.—View of the great temple of Karnak taken from the south gate, the
best preserved and the least buried; we can still see some sphinxes of
the immense avenue which preceded it, and which reached the door of a
particular temple, of which we see the door flanked by two pylons; in
the background is the side part of the great temple..." (Comments by Vivant Denon in vol.2, Explanations of Plates.)
The
pride of raising colossi was the first thought of opulence: we did not
yet know that perfection in the arts gives to their productions a
grandeur independent of proportion; that the little rotunda of Vicenza
is a more beautiful building than S. Peter of Rome; that the Paris
School of Surgery is as grandiose as the Pantheon of the same city;
(p.258) that a cameo may be preferable to a colossal statue. It is
therefore the sumptuousness of the Egyptians that we must see at
Karnak, where are piled up, not only quarries, but mountains shaped
with massive proportions, a soft execution in the line, and crude in
the device, of the barbaric bas-reliefs, hieroglyphs without taste and
color in the way in which the sculpture is carved.
The
only thing sublime for the size and perfection of the work are the
obelisks, and some of the facings of the exterior doors, which are of a
truly admirable purity; If the Egyptians in the rest of this building
appear to us to be giants, in this latest production they are geniuses:
I am also convinced that these sublime embellishments were subsequently
added to these colossal monuments. It cannot be denied that the plan of
the temple of Karnak is noble and grand; but the art of beautiful plans
has always “outstripped in architecture that of the beautiful execution
of details, and has always survived several centuries after its
corruption, as attested both by the monuments of Thebes compared to
those of Esne and of Tintyra, and the buildings of the reign of
Diocletian compared to those of the time of Augustus.
It must be
added to the known descriptions of this great building of Karnak that
it was still only a temple, and that it could not be anything else;
that everything that exists there relates to a very small sanctuary,
and had been thus arranged to inspire the. veneration of which it was
the object, and make it a kind of tabernacle. At the sight of all this
ruin the imagination is tired of the mere thought of describing it:
being unable to make a plan of it, I only traced an image to ensure one
day that what I had seen existed; The reader must look at this sketch
and say to himself that of the hundred columns of the only portico of
this temple, the smallest have seven feet in diameter, and (p.259) the
largest have eleven; that the enclosure of its circumvallatlon
contains lakes and mountains; that avenues of sphinxes annihilated at
the gates of this circumvallation; finally that, to get a true idea of
such magnificence, one must believe one is dreaming while reading,
because one believes one is dreaming while seeing: but at the same time
one must say in relation to the present state of this building that its
destruction disfigures a large part of its whole; all the sphinxes are
wickedly truncated: tired of destroying, barbarism has nevertheless
neglected some of them; which could show that there were some with the
heads of women, others with the heads of lions, rams, and bulls: the
avenue which went from Karnak to Luxor was of the latter type; this
space, which is approximately half a league, offers a continuous series
of these figures dotted to the right and left, with fragments of stone
walls, small columns, and fragments of statues. This point being the
center of the city, the most advantageously located district, we must
believe that this was where the palace of the great or the kings was;
but if a few vestiges can lead one to assume this, no magnificence
proves it.
"1.
Remains of a colossus placed at the entrance to the hypostyle room.
With the exception of the arms and the head which were truncated, and a
few other parts of the body which were mutilated, this colossus is well
preserved. The legs, although a little strong, are beautifully curved.
The pedestal, the front side of which is covered with hieroglyphics, is
of the same block as the figure."
"2. Section of wall of a sort of vestibule in front of the pylon of the hypostyle room."
"3.
Portion of the southern colonnade in the palace courtyard. We see,
through a door under this colonnade, one of the huts of the village of
Karnak and some palm trees."
"4. Portion of the pylon forming the
entrance to the temple dependent on the palace. The front of the
drawing is littered with granite and sandstone debris from the statue
and the constructions which precede the hypostyle room." (Comments by Jollois and Devilliers in DE 1812.)
The
hope of seeing Thebes while walking in this direction again made me
joyfully turn my back on Cairo; my destiny was to walk with those who
went the highest; I therefore followed General Belliard; I must join
Desaix soon; The day before we had made a thousand plans for the
future: our farewells were, however, melancholy; this time, our
separation seemed more painful to me: should I think that, so young, it
would be him who would leave me in the career, that it would be me who
would regret it? we separated, and I never saw him again. I was already
a league away when I was joined at a gallop by the brave Latournerie;
he had come back to say goodbye to me; we loved each other very much;
touched by this testimony of tenderness, I was nevertheless struck by
his emotion: we shed a few tears while kissing. The profession of war
can harden cold beings, but its horrors do not wither the sensitivity
of tender souls; the connections formed amid the pains and dangers of
an expedition of the nature of that to Egypt become unalterable; it is
a kind of brotherhood; and when relationships of character further
strengthen these bonds, fate cannot break them without disturbing the
rest of life.
Luxor,
the most beautiful village in the surrounding area, is also built on
the site, and through the ruins of a temple smaller than that of
Karnak, but more preserved, time having not crushed the masses with
their own weight . What is most colossal are fourteen columns ten feet
in diameter, and, at its first door, two granite figures buried up to
half the arms, in front of which are the two largest obelisks known and
the better preserved. It is undoubtedly glorious for the splendor of
Thebes that the largest and richest of the republics did not consider
itself to have enough superfluity, not to have it carved, but only to
try to transport these two monuments, which are only one fragment of
just one of the many buildings of this astonishing city. (p.260)
Fig.2: View from the south of the Palace at Luxor (Description de l'Egypt vol.3, 1812, plate 4; drawing by Cecile).
"The mounds on the front are largely composed of sand piled up by the winds.
"1. Mosque and minaret.
"2. Modern houses topped with dovecotes. Some of these homes are abandoned.
"3. Mountains of the Libyan Range.
"4. (See below, n. 9.)
"5. The Nile.
"6, 7. Small santon tombs.
"8. Obelisks on the facade. We can almost only see the pyramid of the highest one.
" 9 and 4. The two parts of the pylon,
"10 Remains of the second pylon.
"11. Great colonnade,
"12. Second peristyle,
"13. Bottom gallery of the second peristyle.
"14. Terraces of some rooms which depend on the southernmost part of the palace."
(Comments by Jollais and Devilliers in vol.3, Description de l'Egypte, 1812).
"The
temple of Thebes at Luxor, seen from east to west; this monument, the
best preserved of all those of Thebes, is also one of the most
considerable in Egypt; it still contains a large population, housed in
cabins, built either on the roof of the monument, or in the embrasures
of the columns, like the summer houses and winter houses of the
inhabitants of Kamchatka; for the rest it is the ruin of Thebes from
which we have taken the most advantage without damaging it, and which
offers the most singular aspect in its interior, by the mixture and
opposition of everything that architecture has more sumptuous, and all
that human industry has at its most miserable. We can see the details
of this monument by taking a look at the plan, Plate 23: this beautiful
development of the same ruin, the richest, the most imposing, the most
preserved, that the centuries have left us the most remote, stands out
against the background of the landscape with the most brilliant effect
and the most favorable to painting; the front is arid, of a calm
yellow, against which the groups of figures stand out in a powerful
manner; the golden color of this noble architecture, its beautiful
shapes, its broad shadows, its broad lines interrupted by these
picturesque Arab constructions, this beautiful river reflecting the
azure of the most beautiful sky, animated by the movement of boats with
large sails, circulating across cultivated or sandy islands, beyond a
green and abundant plain, dotted with groups of trees and the most
imposing monuments, finally the horizon on which a chain of mountains
of the most beautiful shape stands out: such is the sublime picture
which I could not render by an engraving, but to which the color of a
learned brush would join all the charm of nature and art to the riches
of the memories of the imagination." (Comments by Vivant Denon in vol.2, Explanations of Plates.)
2) below: Plate 23: Plan of temple at Luxor.
"We
are first surprised to see the central line of this building distorted
on several occasions: we can find three causes for this effect; the
first is that, built at various times, like almost all the temples of
Egypt, we first built the part of the sanctuary, which is to the south,
letter T, enlarged by the parts R, X, Y ; we will have made the quay
covered, to prevent the current, which was pushing to the right, from
damaging the monument; we have even increased this construction several
times; because the shoulder, built of brick, is posterior to the paved
quay; and, despite these various precautions, the river still threatens
to turn these operations around, and to destroy them by taking them in
the reverse; the courtyard M, the galleries NN, and the avenue of
colossal columns L, built subsequently, changed direction, because we
were obliged to follow the high plateau, and the limestone rock, which
alone could serve as a foundation for such heavy masses; it is also
possible that these parts L, M, N, were only made to connect and unite
the two buildings C, E, G, to O, R, T, and Y: which would support this
last opinion, c is that these two parts appear older, either by the
style or by the color of the stones; the third opinion, which is
undoubtedly the most hypothetical, is that the Egyptians, having always
seemed to sacrifice geometric straightness to regular symmetry, may
have preferred the effects of perspective: what is certain is that the
extent of these buildings prevents us from first distinguishing the
irregularities of the plan, and that the falseness of the central line
produces richer and more striking effects than the sole geometric point
of view; that, not paying attention to small considerations, the
Egyptians tended only to great effects. As an example, we can cite the
main door of this monument, plate XXV; there is no more beautiful
architectural design, composed of fewer lines, and which produces a
greater effect; and yet the two AA obelisks are not absolutely equal;
the two BB statues are not quite the same; the sculptures which cover
the DD pylon are not symmetrical: but all this is too big, too
magnificent for us to dare to try to quarrel over rules; we are
astonished, and we admire."
"What must still be surprising, upon
reflection, is that we were able to add, in such a grandiose manner,
embellishments to already ancient buildings. Comparing the work and the
style of the sculpture it is obvious that the obelisks and statues were
added later in front of the already ancient door; there is every
probability that an avenue of sphynxes came from the temple of Karnak
to this door; I followed this path in this direction, more than half
the space between these two monunians, which is at least a mile of
path. Such constructions seem like dreams or tales of giants. Part E,
the closest to the moles, still serves today as a mosque for the
village of Luxor, and makes it the most beautiful mosque in Upper
Egypt. Part F, parallel to part E, was undoubtedly symmetrical; it is
destroyed, and covered with dwellings G, H, I, was a particular
sanctuary, dedicated, to all appearances, to some particular divinity,
as with us we see the chapel of S. Thomas in the church of S. John .
Part P was used by a Catholic church; All that remains are arched
niches, cut into the old construction. The corridors Q, seem to me to
have been preserved only to establish stairs to go up to the attic,
where I believe there were tents and shelters which became pleasant to
live in because of the view and the air ; the current inhabitants have
felt the advantage, and have built houses there. It is believed that
parts XZZ were the first entrances to this temple, that Y and X were
the peristyles and porticos; corridor V, which runs around the
sanctuary, and which isolates it, gives it the irritating and sacred
feeling of a tabernacle; the ornaments are very careful; it is the part
most enriched with sculpture, the one where the architecture is richest
in details; it is the smallest room, the most magnificent, and the one
with the most character; it is the holy of holies. The Egyptian artists
understood this part of the plans perfectly, this magic of art acting
on the soul through the senses, this development of magnificence, this
increase of interest by the mystery of a dull and almost extinguished
light, this progression for so to speak dramatic, made to produce the
deepest sensations, the most analogous to religion, to the government
of the Egyptians, to finally support the empire of mystery. And let us
still dare to say that this was the childhood of art, when it is the
ultimate of its movements!"
(Comments by Vivant Denon in vol.2, Explanations of Plates.)Fig.3: Elevation of the Palace Facade at Luxor (Decription de l'Egypte vol. 3, 1812, plate 6; drawing by Jollois and Devilliers).
"a. Eastern obelisk, or large obelisk."
"b. Western obelisk, or small obelisk. These obelisks are buried four to five meters."
"c c. Granite colossi: excavations were carried out around the one on the left, to know its proportions. "
"d d. Colossi which we could not approach: the one on the right was seen from the top of the pylon."
"e. Main door which leads into the interior of the palace, and whose upper part is destroyed." (Comments by Jollais and Devilliers in vol.3, Description de l'Egypte, 1812).
Plates 25 and 51: Obelisks at Luxor, (1. Denon 1802 vol. 3, pl. 25; 2+3. Denon 1802 vol. 3, pl. 51.)
1)
"The entrance to the village of Luxor: what a mixture of pettiness and
magnificence; what a scale of centuries for Egypt! what grandeur and
simplicity in this single detail! it seemed to me both the most
picturesque picture and the most convincing comparative piece in the
history of time; my imagination and my eyes have never been more
vividly struck than by the sight of this monument. I have come several
times to dream of this place, to enjoy the past, the present, to
compare the factories there in order to be able to compare the
inhabitants, and to pile up volumes of memories and reflections: the
sheikh of the village, once approaching me in this concern, asked me if
it was the French or the English who had raised all this; and this note
completed my memoirs. The two obelisks, made of pink granite, are still
70 feet above the ground: judging by the burial of the figures, there
must be 30 feet covered, which would give these monuments 100 feet;
their conservation is perfect; the edge and the tapered shape are of
incredible purity; the hieroglyphs, deep and in relief in the
background, have a frank touch and a precious finish: what quality for
the tools for such a sculpture on such a material! what time for work!
what machines to pull such enormous blocks from the quarry, to
transport them, to erect them! all told, they would cost millions to
move them. The two colossi of the same granite are degraded, but the
preserved parts indicate that they were finished in the most careful
manner: we can see that the custom of piercing ears was known to the
Egyptians; those of these figures have the imprint of it. The two large
pylons that formed the gate are covered with sculptures, representing
battles with chariots in lines, mounted by two horses and a single
driver." (Comments by Vivant Denon in vol.2, Explanations of Plates.)
2,3)
"—The eastern face of the obelisks which are in front of the temple of
Luxor. (See Plate 25.) I would have liked to have had the time to draw
the four faces, which differ from each other, except for the first
figures at the top, which are undoubtedly a kind of protocol for the
dedication of the monument; I thought it would be advantageous to have
this inscription to add to the series of obelisks that are in Rome and
elsewhere. The work of these is of such frankness that we must believe
that the Egyptians had a particular temper for the tools for cutting
granite; all this sculpture is in hollow and relief, two inches deep,
and of marvelous preservation. " (Comments by Vivant Denon in vol.2, Explanations of Plates.)
A
particularity of the temple of Luxor is that a quay, covered with a
shoulder, protects the eastern part which borders the river, from the
damage that could have been caused by overflows: this shoulder,
repaired and increased in bricks in a later time, proves that the bed
of the river has never changed, and the conservation of this building,
that the Nile has never been bordered by other quays, since in all
other parts of the city we do not find any other remains of this type
of construction. I read, despite the excessive heat of a midday sun, a
drawing of the temple door, which became that of the village of Luxor;
nothing larger and simpler than the few objects that make up this
entrance; no known city is announced as sumptuously as this miserable
village, made up of two to three thousand inhabitants, nestled in the
attics or carpeted under the platforms of this temple, without however
giving it the appearance of being inhabited.
While
I was drawing, our cavalry was engaged with some lost Mamluks, two of
whom they killed, and took the weapons and horses of those who found
safety by swimming to the other bank.
Some
merchants who had had the good fortune to save their junk from the
Mamluks were not very reassured about us. Denounced by the sheikhs of
Nagadi, they brought us presents: we refused them; they were even more
frightened: accustomed to seeing people covered in gold who put them to
work, and seeing us made almost like bandits, they believed that we
were going to rob them; there was no way of hiding their wealth. Our
coat racks had been taken from the boats; we needed linen, so we had
them open their bundles: all hope ended for them; we chose what suited
us, we asked them what what we needed would cost; they told us that it
would be what we wanted; we asked the right price, and we paid; they
were so surprised that they touched their money to find out if it was
really true; people armed and in force who paid! they had traveled all
over Asia and all Africa, and had seen nothing so extraordinary. From
then on we had all their esteem and all their confidence; they came to
make our lunches, (p.251) brought us jams from India and Arabia,
coconuts, and made us the best coffee it was possible to drink: this
mixture of deprivation and research had something spicy; there is no
situation in the world which does not have its enjoyments, I appeal
from this truth to the tombs of Nagadi.
We left at two o'clock, and arrived at Salamiéh after
thirteen hours' journey, as if this number of hours of walking had been
a settlement for all the days we had Thebes to cross. The next day we
returned to the desert, and arrived quite early in front of Esné. The
next day, when we set out, we found a small temple, very crude, but
nevertheless very picturesque, and remarkable for its plan, and for
some of its details: it is composed of a portico of four columns of
face, two pilasters, and two columns deep; the sanctuary in the middle,
and two side rooms, of which the one on the right is destroyed; in the
portico there is a door taken from the thickness (p.261) of the right
side wall, the use of which could only be that of a small sanctuary for
placing offerings.
Another
singularity in the elevation of the building is that the capitals of
the two middle columns of the portico have heads in relief, and that
the other two have flared capitals: this building is one of the crudest
that I have seen in Egypt: this great degradation is undoubtedly due to
the nature of the sandstone of which it is built; the accessories are
better preserved than in the other temples, which must undoubtedly be
attributed to the use of a better type of brick; we can quite
distinctly recognize the circumvallation of the temple, in which the
priests' lodgings were contained; this entire enclosure was a little
elevated above the very small town of Contra-Latopolis, which was built
around this monument. It seems that it was customary for all the large
towns built on the banks of the Nile to have another small town or port
on the other bank, and perhaps this other town was thus located for the
convenience of trade. As soon as it was daylight, the troop paraded; I
only had time to make the drawing that I have just described very
quickly; I regretted not having the opportunity to better study the
details of the plan and the factories accessory to the temple.
We
continued to follow the mountain: at this height the right part of
Egypt is so narrow that on two occasions the range approaches the Nile;
our artillery had difficulty passing, which caused us to lose a
considerable part of the day: beyond these passages the rocks changed
their nature; we found the sandstone quarries from which the town and
temples of Chenubis undoubtedly emerged, where we arrived an hour
later. A quarter of a league in front of this town are two tombs cut
into the rock, and a small sanctuary, surrounded by a gallery, with a
portico: this monument was isolated, and placed there like the chapels
that Catholicity has in the campaigns; I hastily made a little drawing,
and galloped off to make another of the temple or temples of (p.262)
Chenubis: because the ruins that we find in this city are so
fragmented, and in proportions so different between them, that it is
very difficult to realize what the plan can be.
What is most
considerable and highest are six columns, three of which have capitals
that I will call bulging, parallel to three others with flared
capitals, united by an entablature, as I was able to distinguish in
passing. on the boat: I could see more closely that they were not built
at the same time; that those with flared capitals had never been
finished, and had been added in a gallery to the first. In front of
this fragment, to the south, we see the bases of a portico, which we
also recognize as not having been completed; always to the south is a
piece of granite which appears to be the remains of a colossal statue:
in the eastern part was a pond, covered and decorated around its
perimeter with a gallery in columns: in the western part of the city,
we can still see the door of a sanctuary, and two fragments, of very
small proportion, which are difficult to realize; in front of the whole
was a covering in the form of a quay, on the Nile.
Among these
architectural ruins we also find some of sculpture, among others those
of a group of two coupled figures, three feet in proportion, whose
heads have been broken. What Chenubis has most in particular is a wall
enclosure, built of unfired brick; this wall, conical in shape, is more
than twenty-five feet thick at its base: this extraordinary work still
exists largely in its entirety. Is this an Arabic work? history makes
no mention of it; moreover there is no debris or rubble of Arab
factories in the enclosure of Chenubis: if it were a work of great
antiquity, it would teach us that there is no need to ever make a
fortification of 'another species in Egypt, except for the doorframes
and embrasures, and all the parts where there is fatigue of movement.
Here
all the large masses have completely withstood time, and could still
serve as a defense, (p.263) After having made a drawing of Chenubis at
full sail while going down the river in a boat, I had to make a drawing
at full speed. another by getting back on the ground, cursing the war,
the warriors, and the importance of their operations, which always made
me leave everything to run in vain after people who covered more ground
in one day than we did in three, and to whom we We left the passages
open. It was to go to bed in broad daylight three-quarters of a league
from Chenubis that this vain haste had been ordered so imperiously. The
next day, after walking for an hour, we found on the ground the
fragments of two temples, of which it is impossible to take either a
plan or a view; they seem to have remained there only to mark the
location of the town of Junon-Lucine, which the infallible d'Anville
placed at this height.
We finally arrived through the desert at
the Redisi gorge, which is a fourth outlet of the Kittah, but which is
not used for commerce, and whose route had been fatal to the Mamluks,
because they had almost all lost their horses, part of their camels,
number of servants, and twenty-six women, of twenty-eight that the beys
had taken: their march was traced by the disasters that they left
behind them, the tents, the weapons, the clothes , the corpses of
exhausted horses, camels left under the weight of their load, servants,
abandoned women. Let us imagine the fate of an unfortunate man, panting
from fatigue and thirst, with a parched throat, breathing with
difficulty in a fiery air which devours him; he hopes that a moment of
rest will restore some strength to him; he stops, he sees those who
were his companions passing by, and whose help he solicits in vain;
personal misfortune has closed all hearts; without looking away, with
fixed eyes, each one silently follows the trail of the one who precedes
him; everything passes, everything flees; and his numb limbs, already
too burdened with their painful existence, sag, and can be revived
neither by danger nor by terror: (p.264) the caravan has passed, it is
already for him only an undulating line in space, soon it becomes
nothing more than a point, and this point vanishes; it is the last
glimmer of the light which goes out: its lost gazes seek and no longer
find anything; he brings them back upon himself, and soon closes his
eyes to escape the aspect of the frightful void which surrounds him; he
only hears her sighs; what remains of his existence belongs to death;
alone, all alone in the world, he will die without hope coming for a
moment to sit beside his deathbed; and his corpse, devoured by the
aridity of the ground, will soon leave only whitened bones, which will
serve as a guide to the uncertain march of the traveler who has dared
to brave the same sort.
This is the picture offered to us by the
trace of the passage of the Mamluks; It was by these frightening signs
that we recognized the direction of their march: they had passed three
days ago; they had gone up towards the cataracts, and had gone to cool
off on an island between Baban and Ombos. I have already spoken of the
abundance of this island on my way to Syene: their state of distress
reassuring us about their intentions, we limited our pursuit there, in
a country where we could not hope to find any resources, the Mamluks
who preceded us having to finish consuming them.
We came to
camp, or, to put it better, to rest near the river; we settled among
tombs, and near two barren mimosa trees, which alone could tell us that
people had lived there, and that nature still vegetated there.
Everything we could do without was sent back to Etfu; and I accompanied
this surplus, in the hope of seeing at my ease the sublime temple of
Apollinopolis, the most beautiful in Egypt, and the largest after those
of Thebes: built at a time when the arts and sciences had acquired all
their splendor, all the parts are equally beautiful in their execution;
the work of the hieroglyphs equally careful, (p.265) the figures more
varied, the architecture more perfected than in the buildings of
Thebes, which must be relegated to much earlier times.
My first
task was to take a general plan of the building. Nothing is simpler
than the beautiful lines of this plan, nothing more picturesque than
the effect produced in the elevation by the variety of dimensions of
each member of this beautiful ensemble: this entire superb building is
placed on a high ground which dominates not only the country, but the
whole valley: on a much lower plane and very close to this great temple
is a small one, almost buried to its height; what still remains visible
is in a hollow surrounded by rubble, which reveals a small portico of
two columns and two pilasters, a peristyle and the sanctuary of the
temple, around a gallery of pilasters.
"No.1.—The view of the great temple of Karnak and part of the enclosure
site; the saline quality of the ground in this part of the site of
Thebes has decomposed the sandstone, and produced landslides, piles,
and combustion which disturb the understanding of the plans of this
immense ruin, which, in many aspects, does not offers more than the
image of a construction site of materials, in the middle of which the
building that they must complete begins to rise. By repeatedly going
through all the points of view presented by the parts of this great
whole, the one which seemed to me to reveal the most forms which could
be used to understand its plan, is the one which I took the east gate:
we first see on the front its surrounding wall covered with
hieroglyphs, the two galleries, the large courtyard, the sanctuary
flanked by two porticos, the obelisks, the large avenues of columns,
the doors, and beyond the courtyard the two large piers which serve as
entrance to the opposite part; on the left what remains of the bodies
of water, mounds, ruins of other buildings contained in the same
circumvallation, and at the very bottom, on the other side of the
river, the Libyque chain, and the mountain where the tombs of kings". (Comments by Vivant Denon in vol.2, Explanations of Plates.)
Bottom (2): Plate 27-1: Plan of Karnak (Denon 1802 vol 3, plate 18).:
"No.1.—Plan of the temple of Karnak, the greatest monument in Egypt. Having
never been in a position to be able to measure the details, I made an
image of it on the spot to be able to see it, keep the memory of it and
help the description, which still seems fantastic to even those who
have been there. found within reach of ascertaining the existence of
such a vast design: located three to four hundred toises from the banks
of the Nile, its main entrance is directed from west to east; two large
colossi, of which only the pedestals remain, were placed in front of
the door, flanked by two enormous moles; the latter were never
finished: the Egyptians began by raising masses, in which they erected
their architectural lines; They then worked their hieroglyphs by the
process that we use to rough up and finish a colossal statue composed
of several sections of stone or marble."
"Behind these two piers
is a vast courtyard, an avenue of columns B,. split into two parts;
there is only one of these columns left standing: in the courtyard on
the left a covered gallery, C, with small dwellings or cells; on the
right, D, a particular building, which would resemble a palace more
than all the other parts of the building, having a separate door, an
interior courtyard decorated with a gallery, behind which are a series
of rooms, and a side gallery leading to the large portico; at the end
of gallery 13, two other EE pylons, smaller than the first, also
preceded by two granite colossi; we can still see their overturned
torsos: these second pylons, which were completed, were crushed under
their masses; it is behind this second entrance that is the largest
portico, the most extraordinary monument of Egyptian magnificence: an
avenue of twenty columns, F, 11 feet in diameter, two quincunxes, GG,
of forty columns each, 7 feet in diameter, carrying architrave, flower
bed and ceiling. We are more than surprised by such enormous
magnificence, we are humiliated by the comparison of our buildings with
these: this entire portico is still standing; the ground gave way in
some parts, and caused the plumbness of some columns to warp, which
opened the ceiling in several places; the roof of these covered spaces
was to serve as a terrace and promenade when the sun was no longer on
the horizon."
"The avenue, with larger columns, also had its
platform; the drum produced by its elevation was laterally decorated
with a pilaster attic, surmounted by stone skylights, which gave air
and a mysterious light to this forest of columns; this avenue was
terminated by a third gate, which is absolutely in ruins; on the right
and left are rooms very encumbered with rubble, and whose confusing
distribution required difficult research. Opposite, K, are four
perfectly worked granite obelisks; two large ones first, two smaller
ones later, and all four less covered with hieroglyphics than those of
Luxor: there are still three standing; the fourth, overturned, was
broken up to make millstones."
"These monuments so simple, so
pure, so precious in their execution, the most perfect and the most
elegant production of Egyptian architecture, the one whose execution
speaks both on the solidity of their taste and on the boldness of their
enterprise, that which all the perfected arts could alone execute,
transport and erect, were here lavished on decorating the entrance to
the little sanctuary, for which it seems that the whole rest of this
immense edifice was built; which produces - a contrast which is perhaps
still a magic of art, that of striking the soul with respect for the
holiness of the tabernacle which occupies the center of all these
buildings: this holy of holies is built entirely of granite , covered
with small hieroglyphs always representing offerings to the same god,
which is that of abundance and regeneration, a divinity whose image is
found repeated in all parts of the temple with the same attributes
always as pronounced."
"The ceiling is painted blue strewn with
yellow stars; the door of this sanctuary, I, is preceded by another
door whose jambs are formed of three lotus stems ending in their
flowers, which have been taken for columns coupled with their capitals.
On each side of the sanctuary there are small apartments, LL, and
behind are other rooms, MM, in front of which are columned porticos,
NN, which overlook an immense courtyard, O, lined with galleries, PP,
and ending with another which is open, Q, supported by columns and
pilasters with capitals and without capitals."
"The cornice,
very projecting from this gallery, forms a kind of canopy: another
which is parallel to it leaves an open space between that Q. and a
series of cells R: around all this is a circumvallation wall, covered
with hieroglyphs inside and outside: beyond and in a straight line is
the eastern door, S, still very well preserved; all architectural lines
are stopped; but the ornaments and hieroglyphs are only sculpted in its
upper part, which shows the progress of these works: the northern gate,
U, was undoubtedly preceded by sphinxes, of which we can only see the
substructions bases which supported them; the path which led there was
paved with large stones; in the interior part, there were columns which
formed either a covered gallery or a portico: to the south-east of the
great temple we find scattered ruins, cippi, broken or overturned
statues, tearings of walls announcing constructions of smaller
proportion: was this part of the dwellings of kings, nobles, priests?
Returning to the west, we find large fallen mole, between which are
ruined gates; inside and outside there are still torsos of colossal
figures in white marble and red sandstone; destroyed galleries formed a
courtyard ending in other similarly decorated moles; the gate which
united these has fallen; the jambs which remained in place are in
granite covered with hieroglyphics of extraordinary execution for the
frankness of the size and the precious finish of the figures."
"The
Egyptians undoubtedly had some particular quality for the tools with
which they worked granite. Another courtyard, Z, led to a sanctuary;
this part is so destroyed that the plan is erased: the exterior of this
monument was preceded by one of these famous avenues of sphinxes; these
were with bull's heads, they arrived at a branch of another avenue b,
of sphinxes with human heads: this second avenue came to cut the great
avenue, d, which, from the temple of Luxor, a mile from there, came to
the south gate, d; these were ram-headed, holding between their front
legs small sanctuaries containing figures of Isis; the truncated bodies
of these sphinxes, on their buried pedestals, mixed with palm trees,
still offer an august and imposing appearance; the space between the
gate and these moles was still furnished with sphinxes; only a few
remain: these two piers precede an open portico of twenty-eight
columns, which formed an interior courtyard in a style even more
serious than anything we have described, a peristyle and a sanctuary
more mysterious than anything what we encountered, an enclosure within
an enclosure; right next to it, L, another temple; vi vi m, a general
enclosure, the ruin of which forms a small mountain range enclosing two
lakes XX, and other shapeless ruins. We are tired of describing, we are
tired of reading, we are appalled by the thought of such a conception;
we cannot believe, even after having seen it, in the reality of the
existence of so many constructions gathered on the same point, in their
dimension, in the obstinate constancy that their manufacture required,
in the incalculable expenses of so much sumptuousness." (Comments by Vivant Denon in vol.2, Explanations of Plates.)Fig.4: Colonnade at Hypotstyle Hall (3) at Karnak (Description de l'Egypte vol.3, 1812, plate 23; drawing by the architect La Pere.)
"Second
Part of the Longitudinal Section of the Palace. This portion of the
longitudinal section extends from the colossi placed at the entrance to
the hypostyle room to the back of this same room
"a. Part of the southern colonnade.
"b. Granite colossus placed at the entrance to the hypostyle room.
"c.
Wall of the vestibule of the hypostyle room. The tables that we see on
the front are not accurate; they have been substituted for the effect
of the architecture: but the real paintings offer the same arrangement.
"d. Door to the pylon of the hypostyle room. The decorations are not exact.
"e.
Small door made into the big one. The great elevation of the monuments
did not allow the pylon to be restored to its full height.
"f. Columns forming the large inter-column of the hypostyle room.
The
decoration of one of them is accurate and has been carried over to all
the others. We recognized, on site, that the system of decoration is
the same for all the columns, and that there is variety only in the
details. The architrave which covers the dice is decorated with
hieroglyphs. Those that we see in the engraving are not exact; but they
replace the real hieroglyphs for the architectural effect. It is
necessary to consult the view boards, to recognize the size of the
different parts of the building,
"g. Columns of the side aisles of
the hypostyle room. The decoration of only one of them was copied
exactly. The frieze of the architrave which they carry is decorated
with large hieroglyphs, which have been replaced by those presented on
the board, for the architectural effect. The decoration of the cornice
is exact.
"h. Stone skylights through which daylight enters the
hypostyle room. The designation of hypostyle room which we have adopted
is the translation of the name oikos hyposulos, which Diodorus of
Sicily uses to designate, in the tomb of Osymandyas, a room similar to
the one which occupies us. (See what we said on this subject in the
Description of this monument.) Hyposulos is a word composed of the
preposition hypo, which means under, and sulos which means column. Thus
oikos hyposulos means room under columns, or room whose ceilings are
supported by columns. We see, from this, how much the name of hypostyle
room, which we have adopted, suits the part of the Karnak palace in
question here." (Comments by Jollais and Devilliers in vol.3, Description de l'Egypte, 1812).
A column with a capital,
which emerges from the rubble forty feet in front of the portico, and a
corner of the wall, a hundred feet beyond, attest that there was still
a courtyard in front of this temple: a singularity of this monument,
This is because in a building of such exquisite execution the doors are
not regularly in the center. We must believe that it was dedicated to
the evil genius, because the figure of Typhon is in relief on the four
sides of the slab which surmounts each of the capitals; the entire
frieze and all the interior paintings are analogous to Isis defending
herself from the attacks of this monster. I made a view of the
rapprochement of this small temple with the large one; I made another
of the large temple in the opposite direction, which can give the idea
of its position in the valley; I made a third from the interior of this
same temple taken at the corner of the portico, which offers the aspect
of the courtyard, its galleries, and the exterior door, and I
considerably increased my collection of hieroglyphics, particularly by
the design of the frieze of the interior of the portico: I designed
several capitals.
The second day, General Belliard arrived, and
we left the next day. (p.266) hand. At some distance from Etfu, I found
on the bank of the Nile the remains of a quay near the mouth of a large
canal; no other ruin accompanies this fragment: two staircases which
meet one another, however, announce that it was not simply to resist
the river that this quay had been built; the stairs which were used to
descend there were of daily use which supposes the ancient presence of
a city, or at least of dwellings whose name and memory have been lost:
I made the drawing. We returned to the ruins of Hieracopolis, of which
I have already spoken, and we came to sleep four leagues from Etfu: we
set off again at one o'clock in the morning, and arrived at Esné on
April 13, exhausted.
I lull myself with the hope of getting a
few days of rest; but we learned on our arrival that the rest of the
Mekkains, united with some Mamluks, had marched on Girgé; that, warned
and beaten at Bardis, they had not taken it into account, and had come
to Girgé to pillage the bazaar, where a part had been surrounded and
beaten again, and that however the few who remained were still to be
feared , because they were gathering fanatics: we therefore set off
again to return to occupy the mouths of the desert. We spent a whole
night crossing the river: when we set out, the sun was high and already
burning; we stopped under the ardor of its rays, and then came to sleep
at Salamié. The next day, after a few hours of walking, I saw for the
fourth time the remains of Thebes: I made a view of them in a situation
from which one could discover at the same time all the ruins of one and
the other side of the river, from Karnak to Medinet-a-Bou, that is to
say, the space of six miles.
However, out of this view there
still remains a ruin to the north-east, at the village of Guedime,
three-quarters of a league behind, which gives Thebes more than two and
a half leagues of crossing, occupied by monuments: we ( p.267) stopped
this time at Karnak; which was a first piece of good fortune for me.
Unable to single-handedly lift the map or take large views of this mass
of ruins, which at first glance resembles a quarry site, or rather
piled-up mountains, my plan was to spend the two hours we had to spend
there move on to drawing the historical bas-reliefs, take and give an
idea of this primitive sculpture, of the style and composition of the
paintings of this time, and of the state of this art, at such a remote
time, that it is possible that these are the oldest productions.
I
drew the most preserved fragments, a Pharaoh, Memnon, Ossimandue,
perhaps Sesostris fighting alone on a chariot; he pursues distant
nations wearing beards and long tunics; he overturns them in a swamp;
he forces them to take refuge in a fortress. In one fragment, he
overthrows the leader, already struck by an arrow: in a second, he
brings back the captives: in a third, he presents them chained to the
three divinities from whose protection he undoubtedly holds the
victory; for it is to be noted that, in all the above actions, his
weapons were always accompanied, and protected by one or two emblematic
hawks. The deities to whom he makes his offerings are those of
abundance, in the figure of a Priapus, holding a flail in his right
hand; It was to this god that the temple of Karnak was dedicated, the
largest in Thebes, one of the oldest and largest that had ever been
built. Taken from the sanctuary to the circumvallation walls, this god
is presented in the least equivocal manner by the feature which
characterizes him.
I would also have liked to draw the
bas-relief, representing a ship driven by sailors; but it is too
ruined, and lacks everything that could clarify the meaning it
contains. The day progressed, and we had not yet eaten anything:
travelers are not like the heroes of novels, (p.268) they sometimes
feel the need to eat: the sun reached us; it was resolved that we would
sleep at Karnak. I quickly got back to work, I explored the ruins; I
convinced myself that it would take eight days to draw up a somewhat
satisfactory plan of these groups of buildings enclosed in the same
circumvallation. I therefore still stuck to the small immeasurable
image that I had made of it on the other trip, thinking that with the
help of a few lines I would be able to better understand the shape of
this building, that giving a long description
I was not able to
measure by the toise what the surface area of this group of buildings
could be, but, on several occasions, following the traces of its
enclosure on horseback, I always took twenty-five minutes, going at a
trot , to go around it. This circumvallation was opened by six doors
which still exist, three of which were preceded by avenues of sphinxes:
it contained not only the great temple, but three others absolutely
distinct, all having their doors, their porticoes, their courtyards,
their avenues, and their particular enclosure.
Were they
temples? Were they palaces? did the sovereigns lounge under the
porticos of the temples? or were their palaces similar to these
buildings? or finally did they only occupy houses of a construction
that could not withstand time? what is certain is that, if they
inhabited what we must consider from their distribution as sacred
buildings, they were not conveniently housed: large courtyards with
open galleries, porticos formed of between narrow columns could only be
unpleasant to live in; the few rooms that exist, small, without air or
light, covered with pious allegories, do not recreate their eyes or
their imagination: I was moreover in the case of observing that a part
of these rooms obscure contents of small tabernacles, doubtless
containing either the figure of the divinity, or the animal which was
its emblem, or the treasure of the temple; which made it (p.269) quite
naturally a sacred place, and closed to anyone other than. for priests.
It is therefore to be believed that it was numerous colleges of these
priests who occupied the vast enclosures of these buildings, and that,
depositaries of light, they were also the depositaries of power and its
means.
What monotony! what sad wisdom! what seriousness of
morals! I still admire with fear the organization of such a government;
the traces he left still chill and frighten me. The divinity, priestly
dressed, in one hand holds a hook, in the other a flail, one
undoubtedly to arrest, and the other to punish: the law carries
everywhere the chain, and the measure; I see the arts dragging
themselves under the weight of this chain, and its genius seems
overwhelmed to me: this sign of generation traced without shame to the
sanctuary of the temples announces to me that to destroy voluptuousness
they had again made one duty: not a circus, not an arena, not a
theater! temples, mysteries, initiations, priests, victims! for
pleasures, ceremonies! for luxury, tombs! The evil genius of France
undoubtedly evoked the soul of an Egyptian priest, when he animated the
monster who imagined, to make us happy, to make us sad and sad like him.
After
having covered the space which had to be observed to have the details
of the building, I found myself in the south-west part of this
enclosure, where other particular temples are included: I saw one of
these temples. The interior of the monument made me experience a new
sensation: behind the two piers that we see in the print is an open
portico of twenty-eight columns; this portico, heavy in its
proportions, has a character whose austerity gives nobility; It is so
true that in architecture when the lines are long, there are few of
them, and nothing interrupts them, the effect is always great and
imposing! At the back of this first portico, a large door reveals a
second one supported by eight columns in two (p.270) rows, of even more
serious proportions and of a character that the darkness makes even
more terrible; it is the temple of the Eumenides: a long and narrow
room followed by two other more obscure ones precedes a sanctuary,
absolutely buried; a circumvallation wall isolates this monument, which
seems to be the asylum of terror.
I had made a drawing of the
exterior view of this building; I wanted to do one from within with the
feeling that it inspired me, but at that moment I experienced such a
degree of physical and moral weariness that I no longer found the
ability to carry it out; I was exhausted, I was incapable of rendering
what I conceived: I had drawn bas-reliefs, hieroglyphs; I had become
acquainted with all the localities; I had made a general view of the
temple, taken from the eastern door, which is the point from which we
discover some forms at this quarry site, which were left by the
collapses of these gigantic buildings, and of which each debris is only
distinguishable by reflection and in the distance; and finally I had
made yet another view of the southern part of these buildings.
It
had been so hot that the ground had burned my feet through my shoe; I
was only able to settle down to draw by making my servant walk between
the sun and me, to break the rays and give me a little shadow of his
body; the stones had acquired such a degree of heat that, having wanted
to collect carnelian agates, which are found in large numbers within
the city walls, they burned me to the point that, in order to take some
away, I had to I was obliged to throw them on my handkerchief, as one
would touch burning coals. Exhausted, I went to throw myself into a
small Arab tomb, which had been prepared for us for the night, and
which seemed to me a delicious boudoir, until the moment when I was
told that, during our last visit, we one of ours who had remained
behind the column had his throat slit: the marks of this assassination,
still imprinted against the walls, horrified me; but I was lying down,
I fell asleep; I was (p.271) I was so tired, that I believe I would not
have gotten up from the very corpse of this unfortunate victim.
We
left before daylight the next day: this time I took more drawings and
fewer regrets; However, I sighed at the thought that I was perhaps
leaving Thebes forever: its location far from any establishment, the
ferocity of its inhabitants, the miri paid, everything showed me that I
had to give up the hope of returning there: I had not seen the tombs of
the kings; but soldiers were needed to fetch them, and the troops were
beyond measure tired by the forced and repeated marches they had just
made; I recommended myself to events, and subsequently they seconded my
desires.
At daybreak, I approached close enough to Guédime to
see the ruin that exists there: four columns still carry three stones
from their entablature, and in front we see the base of two moles,
absolutely ruined and without form; these are the only fragments that
remain of a monument, which today at least has the great advantage of
serving as milestones to monumentally measure the extension of Thebes.
At
noon, we arrived at Kous, where we learned that the Meccans had passed
through the hands of all our detachments, and in fleeing had passed to
Tata under the saber of our cavalry, who, for the tranquility of the
country, had exterminated all those who was left; their needs had made
them a real scourge, and the owners pursued them like wild beasts.
The
inhabitants of Kous, always well-intentioned, and who had welcomed us
even when they believed that we were heading towards certain
destruction, came to meet us, and received us as triumphants. The
Sharif of Mecca had sent General Desaix to protest against (p.272) the
expedition of his compatriots, and to propose alliance and friendship;
the cities of Gidda and Tor also asked for peace, and Cosséir offered
to submit. We knew that Soliman and another bey had gone with their
wives to the Oases; we were able to judge the distress of others by the
submission of the inhabitants, the voluntary payment of the miri, the
rapprochement of the Arab leaders, and a hilarity spread throughout the
country, which I had not yet seen, and which made me hope that in the
future we could bring happiness to the natives of the country and
fortune to the colonists at the same time.
Desaix had it
announced that the sown lands which had been eaten up by the Mamluks
and the French would not pay the miri; this first regulation of equity
charmed the inhabitants as much as it surprised them; but they were
completely won over when they were told that they could dress without
distinction, as their means would allow, without this compromising
their properties. Merchants from Cosséir, who had remained hidden, left
their village and came to buy wheat from Kéné; those from Gidda arrived
on their ships loaded with coffee, and came with those from Cosséir to
offer to pay a duty which was no longer arbitrary. Finally we began to
see money arriving without bayonets, straw, barley, and oxen, filling
our stores and our parks; and the village chiefs promised us in the
name of the farmers that the countryside, then wrinkled and dry, would
next year be green, and covered with harvests, the miri alone of which
would surpass the entire harvest of this year.
The caravans also
deported towards us and asked us for passports; the Mamluks abandoned
by their masters came to bring us their weapons, asking us to serve in
the army: we therefore had (p.273) the satisfying spectacle of the
collapse of a government odious to all, helpless in its distress , and
not retaining a single basis on which he could base his recovery.
Footnotes:
1.
[Editor's note:] Karnak contained a vast (1.5 by 0.8 km)
complex of temples begun in the Middle Kingdom and built up during the
18th Dynasty (1550-1307 BC), when Thebes became the center of dynastic
administration. The site was then rebuilt over more than 2000 years through the Graeco-Roman era.
There
were three temple complexes established at Karnak in the 18th Dynasty
and expanded in the 19th Dynasty, dedicated to the sun god Amun-Re, his
female consort Mut, and their son Montu. The largest temple complex is
the precinct of Amun in the northern part of Karnak, begun by Amhenotop
III (also known as Akhenaten (1353-1335 BC).
2. [Editor's note:] The Court of Amhenotop III in the Temple Complex of Amun at Karnak is dominated by the papyrus motif on its columns, which have the characteristic shape of papyrus plants with unopened flower clusters (umbrels).
The colonnade was the starting point for ceremonial processions
in Karnak on major festival days. Later in the 18th Dynasty, a relief
was carved on the temple walls during the reign of Tutankhamen
(1333-1323 BC) portraying the yearly celebration of the festival of
Opet.
3. [Editor's note:] The
massive Hypostyle Hall at Karnak, built during the 19th Dynasty by Seti
I (1306-1290 BC) and Ramesses II (1290-1223 BC), is located between the
2nd and 3rd pylons of the temple precinct of Amun. The Hyptostyle
Hall, once roofed, had a total of 134 papyrus columns, and 12 central
columns covered with painted reliefs. The central columns are 22 meters
high, with lotus capitals. There are painted reliefs on the central
columns, and hieroglyphic inscriptions on the lintels or bars they
support.
.
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