of but a single chamber of sandstone, 14 feet high, 31 feet wide, and 39
feet long. The walls, which were straight, and crowned with the usual
cornice, rested on a platform of masonry some 8 feet above the ground. This
platform was surrounded by a parapet wall, breast high. All around the
temple ran a colonnade, the sides each consisting of seven square pillars,
without capital or base, and the two façades, front and back, being
supported by two columns with the lotus-bud capital. Both pillars and
columns rose direct from the parapet; except on the east front, where a
flight of ten or twelve steps, enclosed between two walls of the same
height as the platform, led up to the _cella_. The two columns at the head
of the steps were wider apart than those of the opposite face, and through
the space thus opened was seen a richly-decorated door. A second door
opened at the other end, beneath the portico. Later, in Roman times, this
feature was utilised in altering the building. The inter-columnar space at
the end was filled up, and thus was obtained a second hall, rough and bare,
but useful for the purposes of the temple service. These Elephantine
sanctuaries bring to mind the peripteral temples of the Greeks, and this
resemblance to one of the most familiar forms of classical architecture
explains perhaps the boundless admiration with which they were regarded by
the French savants. Those of Mesheikh, of El Kab, and of Sharonah are
somewhat more elaborate. The building at El Kab is in three divisions (fig.
76); first, a hall of four columns (A); next, a chamber (B) supported by
four Hathor-headed pillars; and in the end wall, opposite the door, a niche
(C), approached by four steps. Of these small oratories the most complete
model now remaining belongs to the Ptolemaic period; namely, the temple of
Hathor at Deir el Medineh (fig. 77). Its length is just double its breadth.
The walls are built with a batter inclining inwards,[17] and are externally
bare, save at the door, which is framed in a projecting border covered with
finely-sculptured scenes. The interior is in three parts: A portico (B),
supported by two lotus flower columns; a pronaos (C), reached by a flight