| Back
to Phoenician Architecture Phoenician temples |
Some other ruined shrines have been found in the more distant of the Phoenician settlements, and representations of them are common upon the /stelæ/, set up in temples as votive offerings. On these last the uræus cornice is frequently repeated, and the figure of a goddess sometimes appears, standing between the pillars which support the front of the shrine. There is a decided resemblance between the Phoenician shrines and the small Egyptian temples, which have been called /mammeisi/, the chief difference being that the latter are for the most part peristylar. M. Renan says of the /Maabed/, or main shrine at Amrith:--"L'aspect général de l'édifice est Egyptian, mais avec une certaine part d'originalité. Le bandeau et la corniche sur les quatre côtés de la stalle supériere en sont le seul ornement. Cette simplicité, cette sévérité de style, jointes à l'idée de force et de puissance qu'éveillent les dimensions énormes des matériaux employés, sont des caractères que nous avons déjà signalés dans les monumens funéraires d'Amrith." From the shrines of the Phoenicians we may now pass to their temples, of which, however, the remains are, unfortunately, exceedingly scanty. Of real temples, as distinct from shrines, Phoenicia Proper does not present to us so much as a single specimen. To obtain any idea of them, we must quit the mother country, and betake ourselves to the colonies, especially to those island colonies which have been less subjected than the mainland to the destructive ravages of barbarous conquerors, and the iconoclasm of fanatical populations. It is especially in Cyprus that we meet with extensive remains, which, if not so instructive as might have been wished, yet give us some important and interesting information. |
| Information supplied by: "http://phoenicia.org |