dwellings, which in turn rest on others still older. The slightness of the
foundations did not prevent the builders from boldly running up quite lofty
structures. In the ruins of Memphis, I have observed walls still standing
from thirty to forty feet in height. The builders took no precaution beyond
enlarging the base of the wall, and vaulting the floors (fig. 2).[1] The
thickness of an ordinary wall was about sixteen inches for a low house; but
for one of several storeys, it was increased to three or four feet. Large
beams, embedded here and there in the brickwork or masonry, bound the whole
together, and strengthened the structure. The ground floor was also
frequently built with dressed stones, while the upper parts were of brick.
The limestone of the neighbouring hills was the stone commonly used for
such purposes. The fragments of sandstone, granite, and alabaster, which
are often found mixed in with it, are generally from some ruined temple;
the ancient Egyptians having pulled their neglected monuments to pieces
quite as unscrupulously as do their modern successors. The houses of an
ancient Egyptian town were clustered round its temple, and the temple stood
in a rectangular enclosure to which access was obtained through monumental
gateways in the surrounding brick wall. The gods dwelt in fortified
mansions, or at any rate in redoubts to which the people of the place might
fly for safety in the event of any sudden attack upon their town. Such
towns as were built all at once by prince or king were fairly regular in
plan, having wide paved streets at right angles to each other, and the
buildings in line. The older cities, whose growth had been determined by
the chances and changes of centuries, were characterised by no such
regularity. Their houses stood in a maze of blind alleys, and narrow, dark,
and straggling streets, with here and there the branch of a canal, almost
dried up during the greater part of the year, and a muddy pond where the
cattle drank and women came for water. Somewhere in each town was an open
space shaded by sycamores or acacias, and hither on market days came the
peas-ants of the district two or three times in the month. There were also