Of course we cannot attribute to Cretan influence
the style of the Egyptian building in this respect. For hundreds
of years the Egyptians had been past masters in the art of great
construction with huge blocks of stone, so that, if there is to
be any derivation on this point, it may rather have been Crete
which followed the example of Egypt. But it may not be altogether
a mere coincidence that, in a period of Egyptian history which
we know to have been linked with an important epoch of Cretan
development, there should have been erected in Egypt a building
absolutely unparalleled, so far as we know, among the architectural
triumphs of that nation, but bearing no distant resemblance, if
the descriptions are to be trusted, to the great palace which the
Minoan Sovereigns had newly reared, or were, perhaps, still rearing,
for themselves at Knossos. Is it permissible to fancy that the
envoys of Amenemhat III. may have brought back to Egypt reports and
descriptions of the great Cretan palace which may have fired that
King with the desire to leave behind him a memorial, unique among
Egyptian buildings, but inspired by the actual achievements of his
brother monarchs in Crete? Whether the idea of this relation between
the two buildings be merely fanciful or not, their resemblances add
another illustration to the proofs of the close connection between
the Minoan and the Egyptian cultures in the third millennium B.
Pages:
153
154
155
156
157
158
159
160
161
162
163
164
165
166
167
168
169
170
171
172
173
174
175
176
177