At Karnak, they are not carried lower than from 7 to 10 feet; at Luxor, on the side anciently washed by the river, three courses of masonry, each measuring about 2-1/2 feet in depth, form a great platform on which the walls rest; while at the Ramesseum, the brickwork bed on which the colonnade stands does not seem to be more than 10 feet deep.
These are but slight depths for the foundations of such great buildings, but the experience of ages proves that they are sufficient.

The hard and compact humus of which the soil of the Nile valley is composed, contracts every year after the subsidence of the inundation, and thus becomes almost incompressible.

As the building progressed, the weight of the superincumbent masonry gradually became greater, till the maximum of pressure was attained, and a solid basis secured.

Wherever I have bared the foundations of the walls, I can testify that they have not shifted.
[Illustration: Fig.

52 .-- Masonry in temple of Seti I.at Abydos.] The system of construction in force among the ancient Egyptians resembles in many respects that of the Greeks.