universal admiration beside those of the greatest masters that we are familiar with, for no one in Greece or Italy has left us any work which surpasses it, or which with such simple means could produce a similar impression of boldness and immensity.  It is almost impossible to convey by words to those who have not seen it, the impression which it makes on the spectator.  Failing description, the dimensions speak for themselves.  The hall measures one hundred and sixty-two feet in length, by three hundred and twenty-five in breadth.  A row of twelve columns, the largest ever placed inside a building, runs up the centre, having capitals in the form of inverted bells.

[Illustration:  173 AN AVENUE OF ONE OF THE AISLES OF THE HYPOSTYLE HALL AT KARNAK]

     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a photograph by Beato.

One hundred and twenty-two columns with lotiform capitals fill the aisles, in rows of nine each.  The roof of the central bay is seventy-four feet above the ground, and the cornice of the two towers rises sixty-three feet higher.  The building was dimly lighted from the roof of the central colonnade by means of stone gratings, through which the air and the sun’s rays entered sparingly.  The daylight, as it penetrated into the hall, was rendered more and more obscure by the rows of columns; indeed, at the further end a perpetual twilight must have reigned, pierced by narrow shafts of light falling from the ventilation holes which were placed at intervals in the roof.

[Illustration:  174.jpg THE GRATINGS OF THE CENTRAL COLONNADE IN THE HYPOSTYLE HALL AT KARNAK]

Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a photograph by Beato.  In the background, on the right, may be seen a column which for several centuries has been retained in a half-fallen position by the weight of its architrave.

The whole building now lies open to the sky, and the sunshine which floods it, pitilessly reveals the mutilations which it has suffered in the course of ages; but the general effect, though less mysterious, is none the less overwhelming.  It is the only monument in which the first coup d’oil surpasses the expectations of the spectator instead of disappointing him.  The size is immense, and we realise its immensity the more fully as we search our memory in vain to find anything with which to compare it.  Seti may have entertained the project of building a replica of this hall in Southern Thebes.  Amenothes III. had left his temple at Luxor unfinished.  The sanctuary and its surrounding buildings were used for purposes of worship, but the court of the customary pylon was wanting, and merely a thin wall concealed the mysteries from the sight of the vulgar.  Seti resolved to extend the building in a northerly direction, without interfering with the thin screen which had satisfied his predecessors.  Starting from the entrance in this wall, he planned an avenue of giant columns rivalling those of Karnak, which he destined