red by fire. A terrible
pest is a kind of termite which is locally abundant and has probably
visited most parts of Egypt at one time or another, destroying all dead
vegetable or animal material in the soil that was not specially
protected.

In Lower Egypt the cities built of crude brick were very numerous,
especially after the 7th century B.C., but owing to the value of stone
very few of their monuments have escaped destruction: even the mounds of
rubbish which marked their sites furnish a valuable manure for the
fields and in consequence are rapidly disappearing. Granite and other
hard stones, having but a limited use (for millstones and the like),
have the best chance of survival. At Bubastis, Tanis, Behbeit (Iseum)
and Heliopolis considerable stone remains have been discovered. In the
north of the Delta wherever salt marshes have prevented cultivation in
modern times, the mounds, such as those of Pelusium, still stand to
their full height, and the more important are covered with ruins of
brick structures of Byzantine and Arab date.

Middle and Upper Egypt were less busy and prosperous in the later ages
than Lower Egypt. There was consequently somewhat less consumption of
the old stone-work. Moreover, in many places equally good material could
be obtained without much difficulty from the cliffs on both sides of the
Nile. Yet even the buried portions of limestone buildings have seldom
been permitted to survive on the cultivated land; the Nubian sandstone
of Upper Egypt was of comparatively little value, and, generally
speaking, buildings in that material have fallen into decay rather than
been destroyed by quarrying.

Starting from Cairo and going southward we have first the great
pyramid-field, with the necropolis of Memphis as its centre; stretching
from Abu Roash on the north to Lisht on the south, it is followed by the
pyramid group of Dahshur, the more isolated pyramids of Medum and
Illahun, and that of Hawara in the Fayum. On the east bank are the
limestone quarries of Turra and Masara opposite Memphis. South of the
Fayum on the western border of the desert are the tombs of Deshasha,
Meir and Assiut, and on the east bank those of Beni Hasan, the rock-cut
temple of Speos Artemidos, the tombs of El Bersha and Sheikh Said, the
tombs and stelae of El Amarna with the alabaster quarries of Hanub in
the desert behind them, and the tombs of Deir el Gebrawi. Beyond Assiut
are the tombs of Dronka and Rifa, the temples o