Luxor, Qurneh, and Bamesseum, or Medinet-Uabu—­were constructed on similar lines.  Even in their half-ruined condition there is something oppressive and uncanny in their appearance.  The gods loved to shroud themselves in mystery, and, therefore, the plan of the building was so arranged as to render the transition almost imperceptible from the blinding sunlight outside to the darkness of their retreat within.  In the courtyard, we are still surrounded by vast spaces to which air and light have free access.  The hypostyle hall, however, is pervaded by an appropriate twilight, the sanctuary is veiled in still deeper darkness, while in the chambers beyond reigns an almost perpetual night.  The effect produced by this gradation of obscurity was intensified by constructional artifices.  The different parts of the building are not all on the same ground-level, the pavement rising as the sanctuary is approached, and the rise is concealed by a few steps placed at intervals.  The difference of level in the temple of Khonsu is not more than five feet three inches, but it is combined with a still more considerable lowering of the height of the roof.  From the pylon to the wall at the further end the height decreases as we go on; the peristyle is more lofty than the hypostyle hall, this again is higher than the sanctuary and the hall of columns, and the chamber beyond it drops still further in altitude.*

     * This is “the law of progressive diminution of heights” of
     Perrot-Chipiez.

Karnak is an exception to this rule; this temple had in the course of centuries undergone so many restorations and additions, that it formed a collection of buildings rather than a single edifice.  It might have been regarded, as early as the close of the Theban empire, as a kind of museum, in which every century and every period of art, from the XIIth dynasty downwards, had left its distinctive mark.*

     * A on the plan denotes the XIIth dynasty temple; B is the
     great hypostyle hall of Seti I. and Ramses II.; C the temple
     of Ramses III.

[Illustration:  081.jpg THE TEMPLE OF AMON AT KARNAK]

All the resources of architecture had been brought into requisition during this period to vary, at the will of each sovereign, the arrangement and the general effect of the component parts.  Columns with sixteen sides stand in the vicinity of square pillars, and lotiform capitals alternate with those of the bell-shape; attempts were even made to introduce new types altogether.  The architect who built at the back of the sanctuary what is now known as the colonnade of Thutmosis III., attempted to invert the bell-shaped capital; the bell was turned downwards, and the neck attached to the plinth, while the mouth rested on the top of the shaft.  This awkward arrangement did not meet with favour, for we find it nowhere repeated; other artists, however, with better taste, sought at this time to apply the flowers symbolical of Upper and Lower Egypt to the