The times., 1901-06-16
a SHRINE CENTURIES OLD.
Progress Toward Restoring the
Temple OF karnnk
(From the Egyptian Standard.

a great deal Of good Psychological work
is being done this season in Egypt, and
a large number OF eminent arChdeologiSts
are busy at work throughout the cOuu-
try in revealing the wonderful treasures
that still lie hidden beneath the soil The
following account OF the latest progress
in EgyptOlogical investigation is limited
to Upper Egypt.
Never since the old worshippors crowd
ed the great hall Of the Temple OF kar-
max has that ancient shrine seen so much
activity Us now prevails. hundreds Of
Arab laborers are now at work there, and
all the accessories Of great modern on
gineering enterprise lie contiguous to the
grtudost memorial Of ancient egypt I'm
dOUbtsdly the most important Egyg,OlDgI-
cal work now in progress is the restOrl-
tiOu Of the HypJstyle Hall The follow
ing description OF the present tate of
the works Is by NJ. LeSralH, the luSpcC-
tor and designer for the Ghizch Museum,
who IS directing the restoration. There
are twenty-scyen columns in all that are
to be restored. Thirteen fell in ancient
times. eleven came down on October >.
1906, and three which were shaken and
threatened 10 fall were taken down last
year. All these twcuty-seycn columns
viii be reconstructed and replaced in their
original position. The first step that had
TO be taken after the fall of the eleven
columns was to take down the three col
uinns whose destruction appeared to be
imminent and would have eutailed fur
theT ruin one column has also an achi-
trave which threatened to come down,
and this enormous piece Of stone had also
10 be remOy ed.
Owing to the mpossibility Of removing
this huge block, which weighs fOrty-two
tons, II was necessary 70 resort TO the
original method whereby the old Egyp-
tianS erected the monuments Wnlcn are
the wonder and admiration of the modern
world. Accordingly NJ. LcgTain made
huge inclined plane which required 10000
cubic metres of earth for its construction.
The architravc was taken down by this
means. and the enormous accumulation Of
soil which its removal necessitated is now
being gradually removed. The following
figures viii give some idea of the immense
labor involved. Each column has an aba
Gus. 12la tons. and l3 Segments II tons or
y pieces altogether. There are, therefore,
72g pieces to be found from out of the
mass of ruin which the Hyp0style Hall
now presents. and to be numbered and
taken away from the depot. and lI2 still
remain to be discovered and removed,
without counting the architraYes, which
weigh 50 tons or - tons each on an
average six of these blocks are removed
every day, and assuming that the rate Of
progress is normal it viii be eighty days
before the hall can be cleared
II is an immense labor. for each block
has to be methOdiCally arranged ana num-
berea and placed in reserved space until
the time comes tor all TO be pieced toge-
ther Many hundreds Of workmen are
emplGved Each man receives 3D. day
and each boy izld. BY April ] ii IS hoped
TO have everything removed from the Hy-
a commission viii come to Luxor TO study
the foundations and arrive at the neces-
sary means Of consolidating the whole.
In the summer the hall will fa left to dry.
and the work will be recommended as
soon as the Nile flood permits. BY May,
I90i it IS hoped that everything will h.
finished As visitors enter the HypOstyIe
Hall they at once notice that the two py-
loues Of the hall are shorcd up. These py-
Iones also threatened 10 fall at the same
time as the columns collapsed and pro-
visioual props have been made To avert
the calamity Nothing has yet been done,
and the work of underpinning the foun-
datious has 10 be commenced and il is
hoped VIII he taken in hand shortly.
The foundations Of this charming tenn
pie Of the God OF the Morning have been
found 10 be bad, and the columns are be
ing underpinned Many blocks have fall
len. and viii be pieced together and re-
placed. :. grand find was made on De
cembcr - last NJ. Legrain. who is in
charge OF all the works at karnak. came
upon a wonderfully beautiful bust OF the
god Khonsu. Three other portions Of the
same statue have also been discovered,
and 1t viii, therefore, be possible to re-
store this beautiful statue in it's entirety
with the exception of the small piece