o that on the
outside it presents a sloping surface, retiring with the height of
the wall.--A.B.E.

[18] "Hatshepsut," more commonly known as "Hatasu;" the new reading is,
however, more correct. Professor Maspero thinks that it was pronounced
"Hatshopsitu."--A.B.E.

[19] For full illustrated account of the complete excavation of this
temple, see the _Deir el Bahari_ publications of the Egypt
Exploration Fund.

[20] Temenos, _i.e._, the enclosure wall of the Temple, within which
all was holy ground.--A.B.E.

3.--DECORATION.

[Illustration: Figs. 96 to 101.--DECORATIVE DESIGNS, FROM DENDERAH.]

[Illustration: Fig. 96.]

[Illustration: Fig. 97.]

[Illustration: Fig. 98.]

[Illustration: Fig. 99.]

[Illustration: Fig. 100.]

[Illustration: Fig. 101.]

[Illustration: Fig. 102.--Two Nile-gods, bearing lotus flowers and libation
vases.]

[Illustration: Fig. 103.--Dado decoration, hall of Thothmes III., Karnak.]

[Illustration: Fig. 104.--Ceiling decoration, from tomb of Bakenrenf
(Bocchoris), Sakkarah, Twenty-sixth Dynasty.]

Ancient tradition affirmed that the earliest Egyptian temples contained
neither sculptured images, inscriptions, nor symbols; and in point of fact,
the Temple of the Sphinx is bare. But this is a unique example. The
fragments of architraves and masonry bearing the name of Khafra, which were
used for building material in the northern pyramid of Lisht, show that this
primitive simplicity had already been abandoned by the time of the Fourth
Dynasty. During the Theban period, all smooth surfaces, all pylons, wall-
faces, and shafts of columns, were covered with figure-groups and
inscriptions. Under the Ptolemies and the Caesars, figures and hieroglyphs
became so crowded that the stone on which they are sculptured seems to be
lost under the masses of ornament with which it is charged. We recognise at
a glance that these scenes are not placed at random. They follow in
sequence, are interlinked, and form as it were a great mystic book in which
the official relations between gods and men, as well as between men and
gods, are clearly set forth for such as are skilled to read them. The
temple was built in the likeness of the world, as the world was known to
the Egyptians. The earth, as they believed, was a flat and shallow plane,
longer than its width. The sky, according to some, extended overhead like
an immense iron ceiling, and according to others, like a h