division being nearly
vertical, and the upper one inclined at an angle of about seventy degrees,
which made scaling very difficult, if not impossible. The whole of the
ground enclosed by the wall of circuit was filled in to nearly the level of
the ramparts (fig. 36). Externally, the covering wall of stone was
separated from the body of the fortress by a dry ditch, some 100 to 130
feet in width. This wall closely followed the main outline, and rose to a
height which varied according to the situation from six to ten feet above
the level of the plain. On the northward side it was cut by the winding
road, which led down into the plain. These arrangements, skilful as they
were, did not prevent the fall of the place. A large breach in the
southward face, between the two salients nearest to the river, marks the
point of attack selected by the enemy.

[Illustration: Fig. 37.--Syrian fort.]

[Illustration: Fig. 38.--The town-walls of Dapuer.]

[Illustration: Fig. 39.--City of Kadesh, Ramesseum.]

[Illustration: Fig. 40.--Plan of the pavilion of Medinet Habu.]

[Illustration: Fig. 41.--Elevation of pavilion, Medinet Habu.]

New methods of fortification were revealed to the Egyptians in the course
of the great Asiatic wars undertaken by the Pharaohs of the Eighteenth
Dynasty. The nomadic tribes of Syria erected small forts in which they took
refuge when threatened with invasion (fig. 37). The Canaanite and Hittite
cities, as Ascalon, Dapur, and Merom, were surrounded by strong walls,
generally built of stone and flanked with towers (fig. 38). Those which
stood in the open country, as, for instance, Qodshu (Kadesh), were enclosed
by a double moat (fig. 39). Having proved the efficacy of these new types
of defensive architecture in the course of their campaigns, the Pharaohs
reproduced them in the valley of the Nile. From the beginning of the
Nineteenth Dynasty, the eastern frontier of the Delta (always the weakest)
was protected by a line of forts constructed after the Canaanite model. The
Egyptians, moreover, not content with appropriating the thing, appropriated
also the name, and called these frontier towers by the Semitic name of
_Magdilu_ or Migdols. For these purposes, or at all events for cities which
were exposed to the incursions of the Asiatic tribes, brick was not deemed
to be sufficiently strong; hence the walls of Heliopolis, and even those of
Memphis, were faced with stone. Of these new fortresses no ruins remain