CHAPTER I.
_ARCHITECTURE--CIVIL AND MILITARY_.
Archaeologists, when visiting Egypt, have so concentrated their attention upon temples and tombs, that not one has devoted himself to a careful examination of the existing remains of private dwellings and military buildings.

Few countries, nevertheless, have preserved so many relics of their ancient civil architecture.

Setting aside towns of Roman or Byzantine date, such as are found almost intact at Koft (Coptos), at Kom Ombo, and at El Agandiyeh, one-half at least of ancient Thebes still exists on the east and south of Karnak.

The site of Memphis is covered with mounds, some of which are from fifty to sixty feet in height, each containing a core of houses in good preservation.

At Kahun, the ruins and remains of a whole provincial Twelfth Dynasty town have been laid bare; at Tell el Mask-hutah, the granaries of Pithom are yet standing; at San (Tanis) and Tell Basta (Bubastis), the Ptolemaic and Saitic cities contain quarters of which plans might be made (Note 1), and in many localities which escape the traveller's notice, there may be seen ruins of private dwellings which date back to the age of the Ramessides, or to a still earlier period.