[84] Prisse, Histoire de l'Art Égyptien, p. 174.—Mariette (Voyage dans la Haute-Égypte, vol. ii. pp. 59-60) was struck by a similar arrangement. "Murray's Guide," he says, "tells us, in speaking of Dayr-el-Medineh, that the walls which inclose the courts of this temple present a striking peculiarity of construction. Their bricks are laid in concave-convex courses which rise and fall alternately over the whole length of the walls." This curious arrangement deserved to be noticed, but Dayr-el-Medineh is not the only place where it is to be found. The bounding wall of the temple of Osiris at Abydos affords another instance of it. It should also be noticed that the problem offered to us by such a mode of building is complicated by the fact that, in the quay at Esneh and in some parts of the temple of Philæ, it is combined with the use of very large sandstone blocks.
[85] Viollet-le-Duc, Histoire de l'Habitation humaine, pp. 85-88. Alberti and other Renaissance architects recommended this method of construction for building upon a soft surface. (L'Architettura di Leon Batista Alberti, tradotta in lingua fiorentina da Cosimo Bartoli, Venice, 1565, 4to, p. 70.)
[86] See p. [110], Vol. I., and Figs. [74], [75], [76].
[87] See p. [111], Vol. I., et seq.
[88] See also pp. [385]-392, Vol. I. and Fig. [224].—Our perspective has been compiled from the Description de l'Égypte, from Mariette's work and from photographs.
[89] See Chapter II. vol. i.
[90] These slender columns with lotiform capitals are figured in considerable number in the tomb of Ti. Mariette, Voyage dans la Haute-Égypte, vol. i. pl. 10.
[91] Ebers, Ægypten, vol. ii., p. 186. All this passage of Ebers is, however, nothing more than an epitome of a paper by Lepsius, entitled: Ueber einige Ægyptische Kunstformen und ihre Entwickelung (in the Transactions of the Berlin Academy, 1871, 4to). This paper contains many just observations and ingenious notions; but, to our mind it is over systematized, and its theories cannot all be accepted.
[92] See Prisse, Histoire de l'Art Égyptien, pp. 359, 360.
[93] Ibid.