The white limestone walls and the shining portals of "Parian
marble," described by Strabo as characteristic of the Egyptian
labyrinth, have been compared with the shining white selenite or gypsum
used at Knossos, and certain general resemblances between the Greek
architecture of the Minoan age and the almost contemporary Egyptian
architecture of the XIIth Dynasty have been pointed out.* Such
resemblances may go to swell the amount of evidence already known, which
tells us that there was a close connection between Egyptian and Minoan
art and civilization, established at least as early as 2500 B.C.
* See H. R. Hall, Journal of Hellenic Studies, 1905 (Pt.
ii). The Temple of the Sphinx at Giza may also be compared
with those of Hawara and Knossos. It seems most probable
that the Temple of the Sphinx is a XIIth Dynasty building.
For it must be remembered that within the last few years we have learned
from the excavations in Crete a new chapter of ancient history, which,
it might almost seem, shows us Greece and Egypt in regular communication
from nearly the beginnings of Egyptian history. As the excavations which
have told us this were carried on in Crete, not in Egypt, to describe
them does not lie within the scope of this book, though a short sketch
of their results, so far as they affect Egyptian history in later days,
is given in Chapter VII.
Pages:
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131
132
133
134
135
136
137
138
139
140
141
142
143
144
145
146
147