The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1894-03-11
The Great Temple of Thcbes Would
Hold FOur NOtre Danes.

II. ID. Trail. in London Telegraph.
In any case the ordinary tourist is likely
enough 10 emerge from the Temple OF
karnak stupetsed by that mere vastness OF
scale. those Titanic proportions OF archI-
lecture which ranked ii ages ago. when II
was intact or nearly so, and which rank
ders OF the world. IL is not the mere area
Of the mighty building which Expresses
would go. 1t is said. into the Hypostyle
Hall. Nor is IL merely the altitude to
which the towering columns mount. or
array. You think of those huge pillars
that lose themselves in the upper gloom at
seville ana 9 She endlessiy c intersectinS
you feel that in these two points. at any
rate, Karnak, If ii be not exactly rivaled.
is not SO very far ahead. Ii is the aston
ishing successful combination OF all the
widely differing architectural effects which
are sever lily Produced by number, by size,
py .propol ton, by disposition, by the I'M
perious influence of mass. and the winning
appeal OF perspectiveS-it is the combina-
tlon or these into a phalanx OF forces TO
be launched irresistibly against the senses
and the soul OF the beholder that makes
the great temple what it is. Those At
lantean columns, which We're built, surely,
10 uphold the heavens themselves, and
which seem TO bear up their enormous sur
mounting monoliths as a giant would lift
a child, have no suggestion Of unwieldineSS
In their colossal size, leave no sense or
excess in their multitudinous number. The
calyx-capital into which each column bios
SONS would take ten men TO span its mon
strous girth; yet il opens out against the
blue Egy ptian sky above its roofess head
as lightly as If IL were the finest Gothic
tracery above an English cathedral nave.
Everywhere the feeling of absolute fitness,
of perfect proportion redeems this majestic
hall OF the ofense of mere gerie;
and whether the eyes dwell upon the parts
or sweeps the whole-whether IL travels
through the endless alleys Of this forest OF
stone, and rests by turns upon base and
shaft and fiower-like capital Of it's compo-
nent columns, or pauses TO peruse walls
deep-graven with colossal gods and kings,
and still glowing here and there with the un-
dying colors of 1900 years, the artistic taste
is alike satisfied. So admirable, indeed, are
the proportions of the whole that the stu
pendous bulk of its constituent parts Is
hardly realized. Derangement OF their SYM
metry seems necessary 10 enable one 10
measure IL In all it's full awfulness. as We
do there, where one of these gigantic pillars
has fallen and BOWS its hundreds OF tons
of weight and the superintendent burden
of it's huge plinth, Glslocated and askew.
toward one of its fellows. The cause OF this
portentous displacement no man knows; but
the vague tradition that aScribes IL TO the
conqueror CambySes may be safely dis
missed. No mortal hands. relying solely on
the strength of human muscles and the only
known force of an age that knew not Of
gunpowder, could ever have done the work
of inchoate destruction which is above our
heads. Nothing short of an earthquake
could have thrust one OF those tremendous
plinths into the position of that ov~erhanS-
ing horror.