Volume II Part 6 (1/2)

357-358: vol ii pp 262, 298-299

Wilkinson was quite right in supposing these eighteenth dynasty vaults to be froyptian architects The scarcity of good timbera void which should be s, and as the supply always follows the demand, they must have been thus led towards the inevitable discovery The latest editor of Wilkinson, Dr Birch, affirms more than once that the arch has been recently discovered a the remains from the Ancient Empire, and in the _Itineraire_ of Mariette we find:[80] ”It is by nothe tombs of the thirteenth and even of the sixth dynasty, vaults which are not only pointed in section as a whole, but which areanxious that no uncertainty upon such a subject should re the last winter but one that he spent in Egypt We received the following answer, dated 29th January, 1880: ”I have just consulted my journal of the Abydos excavations I there find an entry relating to a to 44): _a_ is in limestone, and there can be no doubt that in it we have a keystone in the form of a true voussoir; _b_, _b_, are also of stone The rest is ular in shape, and kept in place by pebbles imbedded in the cement

[80] P 148

”Obviously, we have here the principle of the arch Speaking generally, I believe that the Egyptians were acquainted with that principle from the earliest times They did not make an extensive use of the arch because they knew that it carried within it the seeds of its own death _Une e_, and a bad stone in a vault yptians preferred their indestructible stone beams I often ask myself how much would have been left to us of their tombs and temples if they had used the arch instead”[81]

[81] ”An arch never sleeps” says the Arab proverb

[Illustration: FIG 44--Arch in the necropolis of Abydos; communicated by Mariette]

Mariette adds that the Serapeum contains the oldest known example of a vault of dressed stone, and as it dates from the time of Darius the son of Hystaspes, we suppose that the fine li the cartouche of Pseured at the head of Sir Gardner Wilkinson's tenth chapter, no longer exists

It was in their brick buildings that the Egyptians chiefly employed arches Such structures were looked upon as less sacred, less monuht therefore be admitted which would be excluded froyptian arch and its principal varieties, and it will not surprise our readers to find that they are all taken from the New Empire The remains from earlier periods consist alhteenth dynasty and its successors are of vast direat Theban tes erected for a vast variety of purposes

Groined vaults were unknown to the Egyptians, but almost every variety of arch and of plain vault is to be found in the country

The semicircular arch is more frequently met with than any other That which exists in an old to

44), we shall give twofro 45), represents the gate in the encircling wall of one of the tombs in the valley of El-assassif, at Thebes The wall diht inches at the botto equally inclined This latter feature is a rare one in Egypt, the slope being as a rule confined to the external face In order to show it clearly we have interrupted the wall vertically in our illustration, isolating the part in which the arch occurs (Fig 46), and restoring the summit The arch itself is formed of nine courses of brick

[Illustration: FIG 45--Arch in El-assassif, present condition; frous in ”Campbell's Tomb” is protected by a plain cylindrical vault of four courses (see Fig 200, vol i), which covers a polygonal vault fore slabs Both vaults are pierced by a narrow opening, which may, perhaps, have been intended to allow the scents and sounds of the world above to reach the occupant of the sarcophagus Its arrangement is so careful that it roup of ruins which surrounds the back parts of the Ramesseum (see p 379, vol i) there are vaults of various kinds A few verge slightly towards the pointed for 48) The latter are composed of four courses, and their inner surfaces show a curious arrangement of the bricks; their vertical joints are not parallel to either axis of the vault The ends of the courses are slightly set off fro 48)

[Illustration: FIG 46--Arch in El-assassif, restored from the plans and elevations of Lepsius[82]]

[82] _Denkmaeler_, part i pl 94

A toly49)[83]

[83] RAMeE, _Histoire generale de l'Architecture_, vol i p

262

Finally, the inverted segmental arch is not unknown It is found employed in a fashi+on which, as described by Prisse, reat impression upon Viollet-le-Duc ”The foundations of certain boundary walls,” says the forht of one-and-a-half round

The bricks are thirty-one centi, and the courses are arranged in a long succession of inverted segyptien_, p 174--MARIETTE (_Voyage dans la Haute-egypte_, vol ii pp 59-60) was struck by a sie of Dayr-el-Medineh, that the walls which inclose the courts of this te 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 proble is complicated by the fact that, in the quay at Esneh and in some parts of the tee sandstone blocks

[Illustration: FIG 47--Vaults in the Ramesseum]

[Illustration: FIG 48--Vault in the Raure has been compiled fro the arrange 50); it represents the lower part of one of the walls in question According to M Viollet-le-Duc, the Egyptian architects had recourse to this contrivance in order to guard against the effects of earthquakes He shows clearly that a wall built in such a fashi+on would offer a much more solid resistance to their attacks than one with foundations composed of horizontal courses[85]

[85] VIOLLET-LE-DUC, _Histoire de l'Habitation humaine_, pp