of the rooms at Kahun had vaulted ceilings.

[2] Seventeenth to Twentieth Dynasties.

2.--FORTRESSES.

Most of the towns, and even most of the larger villages, of ancient Egypt
were walled. This was an almost necessary consequence of the geographical
characteristics and the political constitution of the country. The mouths
of the defiles which led into the desert needed to be closed against the
Bedawin; while the great feudal nobles fortified their houses, their towns,
and the villages upon their domains which commanded either the mountain
passes or the narrow parts of the river, against their king or their
neighbours.

[Illustration: Fig. 23.--Ceiling pattern from tomb of Aimadua, Twentieth
Dynasty.]

[Illustration: Fig. 24.--Door of a house of the Ancient Empire, from the
wall of a tomb of the Sixth Dynasty.]

[Illustration: Fig. 25.--Facade of a Fourth Dynasty house, from the
sarcophagus of Khufu Poskhu.]

The oldest fortresses are those of Abydos, El Kab, and Semneh. Abydos
contained a sanctuary dedicated to Osiris, and was situate at the entrance
to one of the roads leading to the Oasis. As the renown of the temple
attracted pilgrims, so the position of the city caused it to be frequented
by merchants; hence the prosperity which it derived from the influx of both
classes of strangers exposed the city to incursions of the Libyan tribes.
At Abydos there yet remain two almost perfect strongholds. The older forms,
as it were, the core of that tumulus called by the Arabs "Kom es Sultan,"
or "the Mound of the King." The interior of this building has been
excavated to a point some ten or twelve feet above the ground level, but
the walls outside have not yet been cleared from the surrounding sand and
rubbish. In its present condition, it forms a parallelogram of crude
brickwork measuring 410 feet from north to south, and 223 feet from east to
west. The main axis of the structure extends, therefore, from north to
south. The principal gateway opens in the western wall, not far from the
northwest corner: but there would appear to have been two smaller gates,
one in the south front, and one in the east. The walls, which now stand
from twenty-four to thirty-six feet high, have lost somewhat of their
original height. They are about six feet thick at the top. They were not
built all together in uniform layers, but in huge vertical panels, easily
distinguished by the arrangement of the brickwork. In one division the