As regards fortresses, there are two in the town of Abydos alone, one of which is at least contemporary with the Sixth Dynasty; while the ramparts of El Kab, of Kom el Ahmar, of El Hibeh, and of Dakkeh, as well as part of the fortifications of Thebes, are still standing, and await the architect who shall deign to make them an object of serious study.
* * * * * 1 .-- PRIVATE DWELLINGS.
The soil of Egypt, periodically washed by the inundation, is a black, compact, homogeneous clay, which becomes of stony hardness when dry.

From immemorial time, the fellahin have used it for the construction of their houses.

The hut of the poorest peasant is a mere rudely-shaped mass of this clay.

A rectangular space, some eight or ten feet in width, by perhaps sixteen or eighteen feet in length, is enclosed in a wickerwork of palm- branches, coated on both sides with a layer of mud.

As this coating cracks in the drying the fissures are filled in, and more coats of mud are daubed on until the walls attain a thickness of from four inches to a foot.
Finally, the whole is roofed over with palm-branches and straw, the top being covered in with a thin layer of beaten earth.