erected by Hatshepsu; the right-hand obelisk was put up by
Thothmes III. No general work of restoration is
contemplated, nor would this be in the slightest degree
desirable. Up to the present M. Legrain has certainly
carried out all three branches of his task with great
success. An unforeseen event has, however, considerably
complicated and retarded the work.

In October, 1899, one of the columns of the side aisles of the great
Hypostyle Hall fell, bringing down with it several others. The whole
place was a chaotic ruin, and for a moment it seemed as though the whole
of the Great Hall, one of the wonders of the world, would collapse.
The disaster was due to the gradual infiltration of water from the Nile
beneath the structure, whose foundations, as is usual in Egypt, were of
the flimsiest description. Even the most imposing Egyptian temples
have jerry-built foundations; usually they are built on the top of the
wall-stumps of earlier buildings of different plan, filled in with a
confused mass of earlier slabs and weak rubbish of all kinds. Had the
Egyptian buildings been built on sure foundations, they would have been
preserved to a much greater extent even than they are. In such a climate
as that of Egypt a stone building well built should last for ever.

M. Legrain has for the last five years been busy repairing the damage.
All the fallen columns are now restored to the perpendicular, and the
capitals and architraves are in process of being hoisted into their
original positions. The process by which M. Legrain carries out this
work has been already described. He works in the old Egyptian fashion,
building great inclines or ramps of earth up which the pillar-drums,
the capitals, and the architrave-blocks are hauled by manual labour, and
then swung into position. This is the way in which the Egyptians built