Manual of Egyptian Archaeology and Guide to the Study of Antiquities in Egypt | Page 9

only the family and intimate friends had access. The number of storeys and the arrangement of the fa?ade varied according to the taste of the owner. The frontage was generally a straight wall. Sometimes it was divided into three parts, with the middle division projecting, in which case the two wings were ornamented with a colonnade to each storey (fig. 18), or surmounted by an open gallery (fig. 19). The central pavilion sometimes presents the appearance of a tower, which dominates the rest of the building (fig. 20). The fa?ade is often decorated with slender colonnettes of painted wood, which bear no weight, and merely serve to lighten the somewhat severe aspect of the exterior. Of the internal arrangements, we know but little. As in the middle-class houses, the sleeping rooms were probably small and dark; but, on the other hand, the reception rooms must have been nearly as large as those still in use in the Arab houses of modern Egypt.
[Illustration: Fig. 17.--Perspective view of the Palace of AT, Eighteenth Dynasty, El Amarna.]
[Illustration: Fig. 18.--Frontage of house, second Theban period.]
[Illustration: Fig. 19.--Frontage of house, second Theban period.]
[Illustration: Fig. 20.--Central pavilion of house, in form of tower, second Theban period.]
The decoration of walls and ceilings in no wise resembled such scenes or designs as we find in the tombs. The panels were whitewashed or colour- washed, and bordered with a polychrome band. The ceilings were usually left white; sometimes, however they were decorated with geometrical patterns, which repeated the leading motives employed in the sepulchral wall- paintings. Thus we find examples of meanders interspersed with rosettes (fig. 21), parti-coloured squares (fig. 22), ox-heads seen frontwise, scrolls, and flights of geese (fig. 23).
[Illustration: Fig. 21.--Ceiling pattern from behind, Medinet Hab?, Twentieth Dynasty.]
[Illustration: Fig. 22.--Ceiling pattern similar to one at El Bersheh, Twelfth Dynasty.]
I have touched chiefly upon houses of the second Theban period,[2] this being in fact the time of which we have most examples. The house-shaped lamps which are found in such large numbers in the Fay?m date only from Roman times; but the Egyptians of that period continued to build according to the rules which were in force under the Pharaohs of the Twelfth, Eighteenth, Nineteenth, and Twentieth Dynasties. As regards the domestic architecture of the ancient kingdom, the evidences are few and obscure. Nevertheless, the stelae, tombs, and coffins of that period often furnish designs which show us the style of the doorways (fig. 24), and one Fourth Dynasty sarcophagus, that of Kh?f? Poskh?, is carved in the likeness of a house (fig. 25).
[1] Many of the rooms at Kahun had vaulted ceilings.
[2] Seventeenth to Twentieth Dynasties.

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 Bedaw?n; 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 Aimad?a, 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.--Fa?ade of a Fourth Dynasty house, from the sarcophagus of Kh?f? Poskh?.]
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," or "the Mound of the King." The interior of this building has been excavated to a point some ten or twelve feet above the ground level, but the walls outside have not yet been cleared from the surrounding sand and rubbish. In its present condition, it forms a parallelogram of crude brickwork measuring 410 feet from north to south, and 223 feet from east to west. The main axis of the structure extends, therefore, from north to south. The principal gateway opens in the western wall, not far from the northwest corner: but there would appear to have been two smaller gates, one in the south front, and one in the east. The walls, which now stand from twenty-four to thirty-six feet high, have lost somewhat of their original height. They are about