More frequently, however, they are exposed for only a few hours to the heat of the sun, and the building is begun while they are yet damp.

The mud, however, is so tenacious that, notwithstanding this carelessness, they are not readily put out of shape.
The outer faces of the bricks become disintegrated by the action of the weather, but those in the inner part of the wall remain intact, and are still separable.

A good modern workman will easily mould a thousand bricks a day, and after a week's practice he may turn out 1,200, 1,500, or even 1,800.

The ancient workmen, whose appliances in no wise differed from those of the present day, produced equally satisfactory results.

The dimensions they generally adopted were 8.7 x 4.3 x 5.5 inches for ordinary bricks, or 15.0 x 7.1 x 5.5 for a larger size (Note 3), though both larger and smaller are often met with in the ruins.