in due order
all the sacred ceremonies enjoined by usage. His merits increase by virtue
of his prayers; his senses become exalted; he rises to the level of the
divine type. Finally he enters the sanctuary, where the god reveals himself
unwitnessed, and speaks to him face to face. The sculptures faithfully
reproduce the order of this mystic presentation:--the welcoming reception
on the part of the god; the acts and offerings of the king; the vestments
which he puts on and off in succession; the various crowns which he places
on his head. The prayers which he recites and the favours which are
conferred upon him are also recorded upon the walls in order of time and
place. The king, and the few who accompany him, have their backs towards
the entrance and their faces towards the door of the sanctuary. The gods,
on the contrary, or at least such as do not make part of the procession,
face the entrance, and have their backs turned towards the sanctuary. If
during the ceremony the royal memory failed, the king needed but to raise
his eyes to the wall, whereon his duties were mapped out for him.

[Illustration: Fig. 108.--Obelisk of Usertesen I., of Heliopolis.]

Nor was this all. Each part of the temple had its accessory decoration and
its furniture. The outer faces of the pylons were ornamented, not only with
the masts and streamers before mentioned, but with statues and obelisks.
The statues, four or six in number, were of limestone, granite, or
sandstone. They invariably represented the royal founder, and were
sometimes of prodigious size. The two Memnons seated at the entrance of the
temple of Amenhotep III., at Thebes, measured about fifty feet in height.
The colossal Rameses II. of the Ramesseum measured fifty-seven feet, and
that of Tanis at least seventy feet. The greater number, however, did not
exceed twenty feet. They mounted guard before the temple, facing outwards,
as if confronting an approaching enemy. The obelisks of Karnak are mostly
hidden amid the central courts; and those of Queen Hatshepsut were imbedded
for seventeen feet of their height in masses of masonry which concealed
their bases. These are accidental circumstances, and easy of explanation.
Each of the pylons before which they are stationed had in its turn been the
entrance to the temple, and was thrown into the rear by the works of
succeeding Pharaohs. The true place of all obelisks was in front of the
colossi, on each side of the main entrance.[22]