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ribands or banners: the name of the person who lived there being occasionally painted within, on

2

Alabastron.

No. 95.

Entrances to houses.

the lintel or imposts of the door* ; and sometimes the portico consisted of a double row of columns, between which stood colossal statues of the king.†

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No. 96. Fig. 1. Doorway, with name upon it. Fig. 2. Porch.

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Thebes and Alabastron.

A line of trees ran parallel with the front of the house; and, to prevent injuries from cattle or from any accident, the stems were surrounded by a low wall ‡, pierced with square holes to

*As in wood-cut, No. 96. fig. 1.

+ Wood-cut, No. 96. fig. 2.

Vide wood-cut, No. 97. fig. 2. at c c. between a and b.

admit the air. Nor were the Egyptians singular in the custom of planting trees about their town houses, as we find the same mentioned by Latin authors at Rome itself. *

The height of the portico was about twelve or fifteen feet, just exceeding that of the cornice of the door, which was only raised by its threshold above the level of the ground.† On either side of the main entrance was a smaller door, which stood at an equal distance between it and the sidewall, and was probably intended for the servants, and those who came on business. On entering ‡ by the porch, you passed into an open court (aula, or hall), containing a mandara §, or receiving room, for visitors. This building, supported by columns, decorated with banners, was closed only at the lower part by inter-columnar panels, over which a stream of cool air was admitted, and protection from the rays of the sun was secured by an awning that covered it. On the opposite side of the court was another door, the approach to the mandara from the interior; and the master of the house, on the announcement of a stranger, came in that way to receive him. Three doors

led from this court to another of larger dimen

* Hor. Epod. i. 10. 22. Tibull. iii. 3. 15.

+ Vide wood-cut, No. 95. fig. 2.; and plate 5. A.

Vide the plan in plate 5. B.

§ I use the Arabic name for the same sort of room used for the With the Romans, it seems to have been the place of the nuptial couch. Hor. Ep. i. 1. 87. Plate 5. C.

same purpose.

In the plans, we cannot, of course, see the awning, but we must give them credit for so simple an invention.

This is the opinion I have formed from the different plans of their houses, the custom of the modern Egyptians, and the habits of the East in general.

sions*, which was ornamented with avenues of trees, and communicated on the right and left with the interior of the house; and this, like most of the large courts, had a back entrance (posticum) through a central † and lateral gateway. The arrangement of the interior was much the same on either side of the court: six or more chambers +, whose doors faced those of the opposite set, opening on a corridor supported by columns on the right and left of an area, which was shaded by a double row of trees.

At the upper end of one of these areas was a sitting-room, which faced the door leading to the great court; and over this and the other chambers were the apartments of the upper story. Here were also two small gateways looking upon the

street.

Another plan consisted of a court, with the usual avenue of trees, on one side of which were several sets of chambers opening on corridors or passages, but without any colonnade before the doors. The receiving room (A)¶ looked upon the court, and from it a row of columns led to the private sitting apartment, which stood isolated in one of the passages, near to a door communicating with the side chambers; and, in its position, with a corridor or porch in front, it bears a striking resemblance to the "summer parlour" of Eglon, king of

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They could not be represented in the elevation plan, which is only intended to refer to the ground-floors.

Vide wood-cut, No. 97. fig. 1.

Vide wood-cut, No. 97. fig. 1.

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a

No. 97.

2 Fig. 2. Shows the relative position of the house, a; and the granary, b. Plans of houses and a granary.

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Moab*, "which he had for himself alone," and where he received Ehud the Israelite stranger. And the flight of Ehud "through the porch," after he had shut and locked the door of the par lour, shows its situation to have been very similar to some of these isolated apartments, in the houses and villas of the ancient Egyptians. The side chambers were frequently arranged on either side of a corridor, others faced towards the court, and others were only separated from the outer wall by a long passage.

In the distribution of the apartments, numerous and different modes were adopted, according to circumstances; in general, however, the large mansions seem to have consisted of a court and corridors, with a set of rooms on either side, not unlike many of those now built in oriental and tropical countries; but, in order to give a better notion of the general arrangement of the houses and streets in an Egyptian town, I shall introduce the plan of an ancient city near Tel el Amarna, which I believe to have been Alabastront: a place erroneously transferred by geographers from the valley of the Nile to the eastern desert. The houses are in many places quite destroyed, leaving few traces of their plans, or even of their sites; and the position of the town itself differs much from that of most Egyptian cities, being of very inconsiderable breadth, and of disproportionate length, extending upwards of two miles and a quarter, though less than two thirds of a mile broad.

*Judges, iii. 20.

+ Vide plate 6.

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