I. Columns with Campaniform Capitals.—­The shaft is generally plain, or merely engraved with inscriptions or bas-reliefs.  Sometimes, however, as at Medamot, it is formed of six large and six small colonnettes in alternation.  In Pharaonic times, it is bulbous, being curved inward at the base, and ornamented with triangles one within another, imitating the large leaves which sheathe the sprouting plant.  The curve is so regulated that the diameter at the base and the top shall be about equal.  In the Ptolemaic period, the bulb often disappears, owing probably to Greek influences.  The columns which surround the first court at Edfu rise straight from their plinths.  The shaft always tapers towards the top.  It is finished by three or five flat bands, one above the other.  At Medamot, where the shaft is clustered, the architect has doubtless thought that one tie at the top appeared insufficient to hold in a dozen colonnettes; he has therefore marked two other rings of bands at regular intervals.  The campaniform capital is decorated from the spring of the curve with a row of leaves, like those which sheathe the base.  Between these are figured shoots of lotus and papyrus in flower and bud.  The height of the capital, and the extent of its projection beyond the line of the shaft, varied with the taste of the architect.  At Luxor, the campaniform capitals are eleven and a half feet in diameter at the neck, eighteen feet in diameter at the top, and eleven and a half feet in height.  At Karnak, in the hypostyle hall, the height of the capital is twelve and a quarter feet, and the greatest diameter twenty-one feet.  A square die surmounts the whole.  This die is almost hidden by the curve of the capital, though occasionally, as at Denderah, it is higher, and bears on each face a figure of the god Bes (fig. 62).

[Illustration:  Fig. 62.—­Column with square die, Contra Esneh.]

[Illustration:  Fig. 63.—­Column with campaniform capital, Ramesseum.]

The column with campaniform capital is mostly employed in the middle avenue of hypostyle halls, as at Karnak, the Ramesseum, and Luxor (fig. 63); but it was not restricted to this position, for we also find it in porticoes, as at Medinet Habu, Edfu, and Philae.  The processional hall[13] of Thothmes III., at Karnak, contains one most curious variety (fig. 64); the flower is inverted like a bell, and the shaft is turned upside down, the smaller end being sunk in the plinth, while the larger is fitted to the wide part of the overturned bell.  This ungraceful innovation achieved no success, and is found nowhere else.  Other novelties were happier, especially those which enabled the artist to introduce decorative elements taken from the flora of the country.  In the earlier examples at Soleb, Sesebeh, Bubastis, and Memphis, we find a crown of palm branches springing from the band, their heads being curved beneath the weight of the abacus (fig. 65).  Later on, as we approach the Ptolemaic period, the date and the half-unfolded lotus were added to the palm-branches (fig. 66).