of the outer world to the obscurity of their retreats. At the entrance we
find large open spaces, where air and light stream freely in. The hypostyle
hall is pervaded by a sober twilight; the sanctuary is more than half lost
in a vague darkness; and at the end of the building, in the farthest of the
chambers, night all but reigns completely. The effect of distance which was
produced by this gradual diminution of light, was still further heightened
by various structural artifices. The parts, for instance, are not on the
same level. The ground rises from the entrance (fig. 80), and there are
always a few steps to mount in passing from one part to another. In the
temple of Khonsû the difference of level is not more than 5-1/4 feet, but
it is combined with a lowering of the roof, which in most cases is very
strongly marked. From the pylon to the wall at the farther end, the height
decreases continuously. The peristyle is loftier than the hypostyle hall,
and the hypostyle hall is loftier than the sanctuary. The last hall of
columns and the farthest chamber are lower and lower still. The architects
of Ptolemaic times changed certain details of arrangement. They erected
chapels and oratories on the terraced roofs, and reserved space for the
construction of secret passages and crypts in the thickness of the walls,
wherein to hide the treasure of the god (fig. 81). They, however,
introduced only two important modifications of the original plan. The
sanctuary was formerly entered by two opposite doors; they left but one.
Also the colonnade, which was originally continued round the upper end of
the court, or, where there was no court, along the façade of the temple,
became now the pronaos, so forming an additional chamber. The columns of
the outer row are retained, but built into a wall reaching to about half
their height. This connecting wall is surmounted by a cornice, which thus
forms a screen, and so prevented the outer throng from seeing what took
place within (fig. 82). The pronaos is supported by two, three, or even
four rows of columns, according to the size of the edifice. For the rest,
it is useful to compare the plan of the temple of Edfû (fig. 83) with that