the rooms by which it is usually surrounded are here placed side by side in
a line, two to the right and four to the left; further, they are covered by
"corbelled" vaults, and are lighted only from the doors. Behind the
sanctuary are further novelties. Another hypostyle hall (K) abuts on the
end wall, and its dependencies are unequally distributed to right and left.
As if this were not enough, the architect also constructed, to the left of
the main building, a court, five chambers of columns, various passages and
dark chambers--in short, an entire wing branching off at right angles to
the axis of the temple proper, with no counterbalancing structures on the
other side. These irregularities become intelligible when the site is
examined. The cliff is shallow at this part, and the smaller hypostyle hall
is backed by only a thin partition of rock. If the usual plan had been
followed, it would have been necessary to cut the cliff entirely away, and
the structure would have forfeited its special characteristic--that of a
temple backed by a cliff--as desired by the founder. The architect,
therefore, distributed in width those portions of the edifice which he
could not carry out in length; and he even threw out a wing. Some years
later, when Rameses II. constructed a monument to his own memory, about a
hundred yards to the northward of the older building, he was careful not to
follow in his father's footsteps. Built on the top of an elevation, his
temple had sufficient space for development, and the conventional plan was
followed in all its strictness.

[Illustration: Fig. 94.--Crio-sphinx from Wady Es Sabûah.]

[Illustration: Fig. 95.--Couchant ram, with statuette of royal founder,
restored from the Avenue of Sphinxes at Karnak.]

Most temples, even the smallest, should be surrounded by a square
enclosure or temenos.[20] At Medinet Habu, this enclosure wall is of