ON.

It is an error to suppose that the Egyptians employed only large blocks for
building purposes. The size of their materials varied very considerably
according to the uses for which they were destined. Architraves, drums of
columns, lintel-stones, and door-jambs were sometimes of great size. The
longest architraves known--those, namely, which bridge the nave of the
hypostyle hall of Karnak--have a mean length of 30 feet. They each contain
40 cubic yards, and weigh about 65 tons. Ordinarily, however, the blocks
are not much larger than those now used in Europe. They measure, that is to
say, about 2-1/2 to 4 feet in height, from 3 to 8 feet in length, and from
2 to 6 feet in thickness.

Some temples are built of only one kind of stone; but more frequently
materials of different kinds are put together in unequal proportions. Thus
the main part of the temples of Abydos consists of very fine limestone; but
in the temple of Seti I., the columns, architraves, jambs, and lintels,--
all parts, in short, where it might be feared that the limestone would not
offer sufficient resistance,--the architect has had recourse to sandstone;
while in that of Rameses II., sandstone, granite, and alabaster were used.
At Karnak, Luxor, Tanis, and Memphis, similar combinations may be seen. At
the Ramesseum, and in some of the Nubian temples, the columns stand on
massive supports of crude brick. The stones were dressed more or less
carefully, according to the positions they were to occupy. When the walls
were of medium thickness, as in most partition walls, they are well wrought
on all sides. When the wall was thick, the core blocks were roughed out as
nearly cubic as might be, and piled together without much care, the hollows
being filled up with smaller flakes, pebbles, or mortar. Casing stones were
carefully wrought on the faces, and the joints dressed for two-thirds or
three-quarters of the length, the rest being merely picked with a point
(Note 6). The largest blocks were reserved for the lower parts of the
building; and this precaution was the more necessary because the architects
of Pharaonic times sank the foundations of their temples no deeper than
those of their houses. At Karnak, they are not carried lower than from 7 to
10 feet; at Luxor, on the side anciently washed by the river, three courses
of masonry, each measuring about 2-1/2 feet in depth, form a great platform
on which the walls rest; while at the Ramesseum, the brickwor