Rameses II., and two his wife, Nefertari.  The peristyle and the crypts are lacking (fig. 91), and the small chambers are placed at either end of the transverse passage, instead of being parallel with the sanctuary.  The hypostyle hall, however, is supported by six Hathor-headed pillars.  Where space permitted, the rock-cut temple was but partly excavated in the cliff, the forepart being constructed outside with blocks cut and dressed, and becoming half grotto, half building.  In the hemi-speos at Derr, the peristyle is external to the cliff; at Beit el Wally, the pylon and court are built; at Gerf Husein and Wady Sabuah, pylon, court, and hypostyle hall are all outside the mountain, The most celebrated and original hemi-speos is that built by Queen Hatshepsut, at Deir el Bahari, in the Theban necropolis (fig. 92),[19] The sanctuary and chapels which, as usual, accompany it, were cut about 100 ft. above the level of the valley.  In order to arrive at that height, slopes were made and terraces laid out according to a plan which was not understood until the site was thoroughly excavated.

Between the hemi-speos and the isolated temple, the Egyptians created yet another variety, namely, the built temple backed by, but not carried into, the cliff.  The temple of the sphinx at Gizeh, and the temple of Seti I. at Abydos, may be cited as two good examples.  I have already described the former; the area of the latter (fig. 93) was cleared in a narrow and shallow belt of sand, which here divides the plain from the desert.  It was sunk up to the roof, the tops of the walls but just showing above the level of the ground.  The staircase which led up to the terraced roof led also to the top of the hill.  The front, which stood completely out, seemed in nowise extraordinary.  It was approached by two pylons, two courts, and a shallow portico supported on square pillars.  The unusual part of the building only began beyond this point.  First, there were two hypostyle halls instead of one.  These are separated by a wall with seven doorways.  There is no nave, and the sanctuary opens direct from the second hall.  This, as usual, consists of an oblong chamber with a door at each end; but the rooms by which it is usually surrounded are here placed side by side in a line, two to the right and four to the left; further, they are covered by “corbelled” vaults, and are lighted only from the doors.  Behind the sanctuary are further novelties.  Another hypostyle hall (K) abuts on the end wall, and its dependencies are unequally distributed to right and left.  As if this were not enough, the architect also constructed, to the left of the main building, a court, five chambers of columns, various passages and dark chambers—­in short, an entire wing branching off at right angles to the axis of the temple proper, with no counterbalancing structures on the other side.  These irregularities become intelligible when the site is examined.  The cliff is shallow at this part, and the smaller