Manual of Egyptian archæology and guide to the study of antiquities in EgyptFor the use of students and travellers . leventh or TwelfthDynasty. capable of breaking down massive walls. They hadonly three methods of forcing a stronghold ; byescalade, sapping, or forcing the gates. The planadopted by their engineers in building the secondfort is admirably adapted for protection against thesethree modes of attack (fig. 29). The walls are longand straight, without towers or projections of anykind ; they measure 430 feet in length on the eastand west sides, and 255 feet on the north and fo
Manual of Egyptian archæology and guide to the study of antiquities in EgyptFor the use of students and travellers . leventh or TwelfthDynasty. capable of breaking down massive walls. They hadonly three methods of forcing a stronghold ; byescalade, sapping, or forcing the gates. The planadopted by their engineers in building the secondfort is admirably adapted for protection against thesethree modes of attack (fig. 29). The walls are longand straight, without towers or projections of anykind ; they measure 430 feet in length on the eastand west sides, and 255 feet on the north and foundations rest directly on the sand, and no- THE SECOND FORTRESS OF ABVDOS. 31 where are they more than a foot below the wall (fig. 30) is of crude brick laid in horizontalcourses. It has a slight batter, is solid without loop-holes of any sort, and ispanelled outside with verticalangulatcd grooves similar tothose on buildings of theThinite period and Old King-dom. The present height is36 feet, and when perfect itcannot have exceeded 40 feet,a height which would amply suffice to safeguard the garri-. Fig. 30.—Walls of second fortat Abydos, restored. son against any escalade byportable ladders. The thick-ness of the wall is about 20 feet at the base, andabout 16 feet at the top. The upper part is entirelydestroyed, but figured representations (fig. 31) showthat such walls were sometimes left plain and some-times crownedwith a continuouscornice and a nar-row,low,crenellatedparapet, the mer-lons of which weregenerally rounded,rarely square. Thepath round theramparts, although narrowed by the thickness of theparapet, cannot have been less than 13 or 15 feetwide. It extended without a break round the foursides, and was reached by narrow staircases hidden
Size: 1486px × 1682px
Photo credit: © The Reading Room / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910, bookpublishernew, booksubjectart
