EGYPT. In respect to historic development, Egypt and Babylonia—the valleys of the Nile, and of the Tigris and Euphrates—are rivals for seniority in the field. which they seem to have held alone for one or more thousand years, while the rest of the world went without architecture. It is true that the early monuments of Egypt between and 2.500 B.C. are works of mere building rather than of art. The pre-pyramidal tombs; the pyramids themselves; the primitive chapels or temples connected with them (such as the of the Sphinx") ; the early niaMaba tombs and all other works of the Ancient Em pire, have few truly architectural features. The pyramids are a mere mass of material; the teMples and tombs, even when supported by piers, have no molding,s, decorations, or details that indicate style. It is only in the Middle Empire (c.2500) that the type of columnar temple was evolved, which became the glory of Egypt, and that tombs were made—as at P.eni-Hassan (see article on Tomn)—where there were columns and other features with a distinct artis tic character—su•h the type and the clustered-pall type. The destructive invasion of the Shepherd Kings has forever obscured this second stage of Egyptian architecture. and for a knowledge of its possibilities the Golden Age is that of the New Empire. especially between c. 1600 and 1400. supplemented by the much later •onstructionil of the Ptolemaic Age, almost equal ly magnificent. Some of the temples were entirely excavated in the rock, like those at Alm-Simbel (q.v. for illustration) ; others were partly
vated, partly structural, as at Deir-el-Babari; i but the great majority were built entirely in the open and of stone masonry. A few are sepul chral temples, such as the P,amessemn (q.v.) of Rameses 11. at Medinet Halm, hut with these exceptions they are purely temples to the gods. Each temple of tie usual type was approached through a long avenue of sphinxes or statues, was preceded by an immense facade of pylons eonnected with an encircling wall, with an open columnar court, at the opposite end of which was a hall of columns forming the prelude to the dark inner sanctuary. This is undoubtedly the earliest conception of a large columnar interior in architectural history, and though its propor tions may be heavy, the composition was artistic and imposing, and both sculpture and color were used with architectural details to enhance the effect. Karnak. Luxor, Edfu, and Phila• are the masterpieces over a period of some fifteen hundred years (for illustrations of EDELT and Luxon, see those titles). No vaults, arches, or piers were used in any part of this architecture —only the straight lintel and column. The heavy columns, of so many forms as to rebel at any classification by orders, were placed very close together, so that the effect was not one of spaciousness.