;
and but for a royal caprice which happens to have left us a model Migdol in
that most unlikely place, the necropolis of Thebes, we should now be
constrained to attempt a restoration of their probable appearance from the
representations in certain mural tableaux. When, however, Rameses III.
erected his memorial temple[3] (figs. 40 and 41), he desired, in
remembrance of his Syrian victories, to give it an outwardly military
aspect. Along the eastward front of the enclosure there accordingly runs a
battlemented covering wall of stone, averaging some thirteen feet in
height. The gate, protected by a large quadrangular bastion, opened in the
middle of this wall. It was three feet four inches in width, and was
flanked by two small oblong guard-houses, the flat roofs of which stood
about three feet higher than the ramparts. Passing this gate, we stand face
to face with a real Migdol. Two blocks of building enclose a succession of
court-yards, which narrow as they recede, and are connected at the lower
end by a kind of gate-house, consisting of one massive gateway surmounted
by two storeys of chambers. The eastward faces of the towers rise above an
inclined basement, which slopes to a height of from fifteen to sixteen feet
from the ground. This answered two purposes. It increased the strength of
the wall at the part exposed to sappers; it also caused the rebound of
projectiles thrown from above, and so helped to keep assailants at a
distance. The whole height is about seventy-two feet, and the width of each
tower is thirty-two feet. The buildings situate at the back, to right and
left of the gate, were destroyed in ancient times. The details of the
decoration are partly religious, partly triumphal, as befits the character
of the structure. It is unlikely, however, that actual fortresses were
adorned with brackets and bas-relief sculptures, such as we here see on
either side of the fore-court. Such as it is, the so-called "pavilion" of
Medinet Habu offers an unique example of the high degree of perfection to
which the victorious Pharaohs of this period had carried their military
architecture.

Material evidence fails us almost entirely, after the reign of Rameses III.
Towards the close of the eleventh century B.C., the high-priests of Amen
repaired the walls of Thebes, of Gebeleyn, and of El Hibeh opposite Feshn.
The territorial subdivision of the country, which took place under the
successors of Sheshonk, compelled the provinc