sandstone--low, and embattled. The innovation is due to a whim of Rameses
III., who, in giving to his monument the outward appearance of a fortress,
sought to commemorate his Syrian victories. Elsewhere, the doorways are of
stone, and the walls are built in irregular courses of crude bricks. The
great enclosure wall was not, as frequently stated, intended to isolate the
temple and screen the priestly ceremonies from eyes profane. It marked the
limits of the divine dwelling, and served, when needful, to resist the
attacks of enemies whose cupidity might be excited by the accumulated
riches of the sanctuary. As at Karnak, avenues of sphinxes and series of
pylons led up to the various gates, and formed triumphal approaches. The
rest of the ground was in part occupied by stables, cellarage, granaries,
and private houses. Just as in Europe during the Middle Ages the population
crowded most densely round about the churches and abbeys, so in Egypt they
swarmed around the temples, profiting by that security which the terror of
his name and the solidity of his ramparts ensured to the local deity. A
clear space was at first reserved round the pylons and the walls; but in
course of time the houses encroached upon this ground, and were even built
up against the boundary wall. Destroyed and rebuilt century after century
upon the self-same spot, the _débris_ of these surrounding dwellings so
raised the level of the soil, that the temples ended for the most part by
being gradually buried in a hollow formed by the artificial elevation of
the surrounding city. Herodotus noticed this at Bubastis, and on
examination it is seen to have been the same in many other localities. At
Ombos, at Edfû, at Denderah, the whole city nestled inside the precincts of
the divine dwelling. At El Kab, where the temple temenos formed a separate
enclosure within the boundary of the city walls, it served as a sort of
donjon, or keep, in which the garrison could seek a last refuge. At Memphis
and at Thebes, there were as many keeps as there were great temples, and
these sacred fortresses, each at first standing alone in the midst of
houses, were, from the time of the Eighteenth Dynasty, connected each with