The quadrangular pillar, with parallel or slightly inclined sides, and
generally without either base or capital, frequently occurs in tombs of the
ancient empire. It reappears later at Medinet Habû, in the temple of
Thothmes III., and again at Karnak, in what is known as the processional
hall. The sides of these square pillars are often covered with painted
scenes, while the front faces were more decoratively treated, being
sculptured with lotus or papyrus stems in high relief, as on the pillar-
stelae of Karnak, or adorned with a head of Hathor crowned with the
sistrum, as in the small speos of Abû Simbel (fig. 57), or sculptured with
a full-length standing figure of Osiris, as in the second court of Medinet
Habû; or, as at Denderah and Gebel Barkal, with the figure of the god Bes.
At Karnak, in an edifice which was probably erected by Horemheb with
building material taken from the ruins of a sanctuary of Amenhotep II. and
III., the pillar is capped by a cornice, separated from the architrave by a
thin abacus (fig. 58). By cutting away its four edges, the square pillar
becomes an octagonal prism, and further, by cutting off the eight new
edges, it becomes a sixteen-sided prism. Some pillars in the tombs of Asûan
and Beni Hasan, and in the processional hall at Karnak (fig. 59), as well
as in the chapels of Deir el Baharî, are of this type. Besides the forms
thus regularly evolved, there are others of irregular derivation, with
six, twelve, fifteen, or twenty sides, or verging almost upon a perfect
circle. The portico pillars of the temple of Osiris at Abydos come last in
the series; the drum is curved, but not round, the curve being interrupted
at both extremities of the same diameter by a flat stripe. More frequently
the sides are slightly channelled; and sometimes, as at Kalabsheh, the
flutings are divided into four groups of five each by four vertical flat
stripes (fig. 60). The polygonal pillar has always a large, shallow plinth,
in the form of a rounded disc. At El Kab it bears the head of Hathor,
sculptured in relief upon the front (fig. 61); but almost everywhere else
it is crowned with a simple square abacus, which joins it to the