y portable ladders. The thickness of
the wall is about twenty feet at the base, and sixteen feet above. The top
is destroyed, but the bas-reliefs and mural paintings (fig. 28) show that
it must have been crowned with a continuous cornice, boldly projecting,
furnished with a slight low parapet, and surmounted by battlements, which
were generally rounded, but sometimes, though rarely, squared. The walk
round the top of the ramparts, though diminished by the parapet, was still
twelve or fifteen feet wide. It ran uninterruptedly along the four sides,
and was reached by narrow staircases formed in the thickness of the walls,
but now destroyed. There was no ditch, but in order to protect the base of
the main wall from sappers, they erected, about ten feet in advance of it,
a battlemented covering wall, some sixteen feet in height. These
precautions sufficed against sap and scaling; but the gates remained as
open gaps in the circuit. It was upon these weak points that besiegers and
besieged alike concentrated their efforts. The fortress of Abydos had two
gates, the main one being situate at the east end of the north front (fig.
29). A narrow cutting (A), closed by a massive wooden door, marked the
place in the covering wall. Behind it was a small _place d'armes_ (B), cut
partly in the thickness of the wall, and leading to a second gate (C) as
narrow as the first. When, notwithstanding the showers of missiles poured
upon them from the top of the walls, not only in front, but also from both
sides, the attacking party had succeeded in carrying this second door, they
were not yet in the heart of the place. They would still have to traverse
an oblong court (D), closely hemmed in between the outer walls and the
cross walls, which last stood at right angles to the first. Finally, they
must force a last postern (E), which was purposely placed in the most
awkward corner. The leading principle in the construction of fortress-gates
was always the same, but the details varied according to the taste of the
engineer. At the south-east gate of the fort of Abydos (fig. 30) the _place
d'armes_ between the two walls is abolished, and the court is constructed
entirely in the thickness of the main wall; while at Kom el Ahmar, opposite
El Kab (fig. 31), the block of brickwork in the midst of which the gate is
cut projects boldly in front. The posterns opening at various points
facilitated the movements of the garrison, and enabled them to multiply
th