two or three storeys high, and many were separated from the street by a
narrow court, beyond which the rooms were ranged on either side of a long
passage (fig. 4). More frequently, the court was surrounded on three sides
by chambers (fig. 5); and yet oftener the house fronted close upon the
street. In the latter case the façade consisted of a high wall, whitewashed
or painted, and surmounted by a cornice. Even in better houses the only
ornamentation of their outer walls consisted in angular grooving, the
grooves being surmounted by representations of two lotus flowers, each pair
with the upper parts of the stalks in contact (see figs. 24, 25). The door
was the only opening, save perhaps a few small windows pierced at irregular
intervals (fig. 6). Even in unpretentious houses, the door was often made
of stone. The doorposts projected slightly beyond the surface of the wall,
and the lintel supported a painted or sculptured cornice. Having crossed
the threshold, one passed successively through two dimly-lighted entrance
chambers, the second of which opened into the central court (fig. 7). The
best rooms in the houses of wealthier citizens were sometimes lighted
through a square opening in the centre of a ceiling supported on wooden
columns. In the Twelfth Dynasty town of Kahûn the shafts of these columns
rested upon round stone bases; they were octagonal, and about ten inches in
diameter (fig. 8). Notwithstanding the prevalence of enteric disease and
ophthalmia, the family crowded together into one or two rooms during the
winter, and slept out on the roof under the shelter of mosquito nets in
summer. On the roof also the women gossiped and cooked. The ground floor
included both store-rooms, barns, and stables. Private granaries were
generally in pairs (see fig. 11), brick-built in the same long conical
shape as the state granaries, and carefully plastered with mud inside and
out. Neither did the people of a house forget to find or to make hiding
places in the walls or floors of their home, where they could secrete their
household treasures--such as nuggets of gold and silver, precious stones,
and jewellery for men and women--from thieves and tax-collectors alike.