-half at least of ancient Thebes still exists on the east
and south of Karnak. The site of Memphis is covered with mounds, some of
which are from fifty to sixty feet in height, each containing a core of
houses in good preservation. At Kahun, the ruins and remains of a whole
provincial Twelfth Dynasty town have been laid bare; at Tell el Mask-hutah,
the granaries of Pithom are yet standing; at San (Tanis) and Tell Basta
(Bubastis), the Ptolemaic and Saitic cities contain quarters of which plans
might be made (Note 1), and in many localities which escape the traveller's
notice, there may be seen ruins of private dwellings which date back to the
age of the Ramessides, or to a still earlier period. As regards
fortresses, there are two in the town of Abydos alone, one of which is at
least contemporary with the Sixth Dynasty; while the ramparts of El Kab, of
Kom el Ahmar, of El Hibeh, and of Dakkeh, as well as part of the
fortifications of Thebes, are still standing, and await the architect who
shall deign to make them an object of serious study.

* * * * *

1.--PRIVATE DWELLINGS.

The soil of Egypt, periodically washed by the inundation, is a black,
compact, homogeneous clay, which becomes of stony hardness when dry. From
immemorial time, the fellahin have used it for the construction of their
houses. The hut of the poorest peasant is a mere rudely-shaped mass of this
clay. A rectangular space, some eight or ten feet in width, by perhaps
sixteen or eighteen feet in length, is enclosed in a wickerwork of palm-
branches, coated on both sides with a layer of mud. As this coating cracks
in the drying the fissures are filled in, and more coats of mud are daubed
on until the walls attain a thickness of from four inches to a foot.
Finally, the whole is roofed over with palm-branches and straw, the top
being covered in with a thin layer of beaten earth. The height varies. In
most huts, the ceiling is so low that to rise suddenly is dangerous both to
one's head and to the structure, while in others the roof is six or seven
feet from the floor. Windows, of course, there are none. Sometimes a hole
is left in the middle of the roof to let the smoke out; but this is a
refinement undreamed of by many.

[Illustration: Fig. 1.--Brickmaking, from Eighteenth Dynasty tomb-painting,
Tomb of Rekhmara.]

At the first glance, it is not always easy to distinguish between these
huts of wattle and daub and t