| When you think about an ancient Egyptian temple like | | | | reed marshes. The columns were introduced in order |
| Karnak...it isn't easy to imagine it without thinking of its | | | | to simulate nature, and to identify man again with the |
| columned halls...is it?? | | | | earth. The first tentative columns are still visible in the |
| One of the most beautiful and impressive aspects of | | | | Step Pyramid of Saqqara, but they are engaged |
| architecture which comes to mind when you think | | | | columns, attached to walls for support and unable to |
| about any Egyptian temple, are the spectacular | | | | stand on their own. Imhotep designed rows of such |
| columns, resembling groves of stone trees.. These | | | | pillars at the entrance to various buildings and |
| columns, especially at Karnak and Luxor, dwarf human | | | | incorporated them into corridors for Djoser's shrine |
| beings and bear inscriptions, carved relieves, and a | | | | (2600 B.C.E.). |
| weighty majesty unequaled anywhere else in the | | | | In the Fourth Dynasty (2575-2465 B.C.E.) masons |
| world. Most people who have some interests in | | | | experimented with columns as a separate architectural |
| ancient Egyptians will identify immediately the shape of | | | | entity. In one royal tomb built in GIZA in the reign of |
| Lotus and Papyrus style columns, but actually no less | | | | Khufu (2551-2465 B.C.E.) limestone columns were used |
| the about 30 different column forms have been | | | | effectively. In the tomb of Sahure (2458-2446 B.C.E.) |
| isolated from temples of the various periods!! | | | | of the Fifth Dynasty, the columns were made of |
| Columns held special significance for the Egyptians, | | | | granite, evincing a more assured style and level of skill. |
| representing as they did the expanses of nature. | | | | Wooden columns graced a site in the reign of Kakai |
| Columns alluded to the times when vast forests | | | | (2446-2426 B.C.E.) in that same dynasty, and another |
| dotted the land, forests that disappeared as the | | | | king of the royal line, Nisuerre (2416-2392 B.C.E.), had |
| climate changed and civilization took its toll upon the | | | | limestone columns installed in his Abusir necropolis |
| Egyptian environment. They also represented the Nile | | | | complex. |