Page:A History of Art in Ancient Egypt Vol 2.djvu/93

 Construction, 7 1 tenons which would prevent any slipping or settlement in the interior of the masonry. The dangers attending such methods of fixing would thus be reduced to a minimum. "In consequence of a dislocation in the walls caused by the insufficiency of the foundations, it is possible, at several points of the temple walls at Abydos, to introduce the arm between the stones and feel the sycamore dovetails still in place and in an extraordinary state of preservation. A few of these dovetails have been extracted, and, although walled in for eternity so far as the intentions of the Egyptians were concerned, they bear the royal ovals of Seti I., the founder of the temple, the hieroglyphs being very finely engraved.'"^ We see, then, that in many buildings the Egyptians employed methods which demanded no little patience, skill, and attention from the workman, but as a rule they preferred to work in a more expeditious and less careful fashion. They used a cement made of sand and lime ; traces of it are everywhere found, both in the ruins of Thebes and in the pyramids, between the blocks of limestone and sandstone.- Still more did bricks require the use of mortar, which in their case was often little more than mud. Among the processes made use of for the construction of the great temple at Thebes there was one which bore marks of the same tendency. Mariette tells us that traces exist in the front of the great temple of a huge inclined plane made of large crude bricks. This incline was used for the construction of the pylon. The great stones were dragged up ils slopes, and as the pylon grew, so did the mass of crude brick. When the work was finished the bricks were cleared away, but the internal face of the pylon still bears traces of their position against it. This work was carried out, according to Mariette, under the Ptolemies,^ but the primitive method of raising the stones must have come down from times much more remote.^ ' Mariette, Abydos, vol. i. j). S.— Catalogue general des Monuments d' Abydos, p. 585. Similar tenons were found by the members of the Institut (TEgxpte in the walls of the great hall at Karnak {Description de fEgy.pte, Antiquites, vol. ii. p. 442. — See also Plates, vol. ii. pi. 57, figs, i and 2). We took this illustration for our guide in compiling our diagram of Egyptian bonding in Fig. 69. - Description de V Egypte, Ant., vol. v. p. 153. Jomard, Recueil d' Obsenations et de Menwires sur V Egypte Ancienne et Modern e, vol. iv. p. 41. 3 Mariette, Karnak, p. 18. yeviarOax.
 * This is clearly indicated by Diodorus (i. 63, 66) : t^v KaraaKevrji- 8id xw/.iarwv