2.--FORTRESSES.

Most of the towns, and even most of the larger villages, of ancient Egypt
were walled. This was an almost necessary consequence of the geographical
characteristics and the political constitution of the country. The mouths
of the defiles which led into the desert needed to be closed against the
Bedawîn; while the great feudal nobles fortified their houses, their towns,
and the villages upon their domains which commanded either the mountain
passes or the narrow parts of the river, against their king or their
neighbours.

[Illustration: Fig. 23.--Ceiling pattern from tomb of Aimadûa, Twentieth
Dynasty.]

[Illustration: Fig. 24.--Door of a house of the Ancient Empire, from the
wall of a tomb of the Sixth Dynasty.]

[Illustration: Fig. 25.--Façade of a Fourth Dynasty house, from the
sarcophagus of Khûfû Poskhû.]

The oldest fortresses are those of Abydos, El Kab, and Semneh. Abydos
contained a sanctuary dedicated to Osiris, and was situate at the entrance
to one of the roads leading to the Oasis. As the renown of the temple
attracted pilgrims, so the position of the city caused it to be frequented
by merchants; hence the prosperity which it derived from the influx of both
classes of strangers exposed the city to incursions of the Libyan tribes.
At Abydos there yet remain two almost perfect strongholds. The older forms,
as it were, the core of that tumulus called by the Arabs "Kom es Sultan,"