96 



of the present caiuil. The fort or store-city was thus well supplied with 

 ■water. 



"Crossing the valley to the square enclosure, we are able to realise its 

 peculiar character. The enclosing walls are about two hundred metres long 

 on each of the four sides, and are exceedingly massive. Tliey are built of 

 crude brick, made without straw, of an unusually large and solid kind, and 

 the average thickness is no less than seven metres. Within the enclosing walls 

 the whole area is seen to be full of large excavated pits, which on closer 

 examination prove to be solidly-bui.c square chambers of various sizes, but 

 all of the same general appearance. Almost the whole space within the 

 Avails, except the corner devoted to the temple, is honeycombed with these 

 chambers, which are divided from one another by partition walls of from 

 two and a half to three metres thick. There is nothing resembling these 

 curious chambers in Egypt ; they are unique, and I think they are in some 

 respects the most interesting part of M. Naville's discovery. The walls are not 

 only unusually thick, but unusually well built. The bricks are very large, 

 well squared, and laid with mortar with great care and regularity, while the 

 perpendicular of the wall seems faultless. But the strange thing about these 

 strong rooms is that they have no doors. M. Naville has cleared them down 

 to the foundations, but not a door or gate could he find ! The explanation of 

 this is, however, easy and satisfactorj^ About ten or twelve feet from the 

 foundation there is a sort of ledge, of the depth of a brick or two, running 

 all round the walls, as though the floor of an upper story had rested there ; 

 and a little below the ledge there are square holes in the walls, with the 

 remains of wood in them, as though the ends of beams had been inserted in 

 them in connexion with the support of the upper floor. Below the ledge 

 the wall is of plain brick, but above it is often covered with a coating of 

 white plaster. All this seems to point to one conclusion — the doorless 

 chambers below were entered by trap-doors from the upper stories, which 

 were possibly dwelling-rooms ; and the lower chambers, entered by trap- 

 doors from above, must have been storehouses or granaries. When 

 it is remembered that the Pithoni with which M. Naville has identified this 

 site is described in Exodus i. 11 as a "store-city," or treasure-city, the 

 unique importance of these singular doorless chambers will be fully 

 appreciated. No more remarkable confirmation of the accuracy of this 

 particular statement in Exodus could well be demanded. It should be 

 added that the bricks are made both with and without straw, that they are 

 set with mortar as a rule, and that M. Naville has turned over thousands of 

 them without finding a single cartouche like the one in the Berlin Museum, 

 which Lepsius states came from this very site. The chambers near the old 

 canal are in a much less perfect state than those in other parts of the 

 enclosure ; and the reason is seen in the fact that the more ruined parts 

 were nearest to the water, and were, therefore, longest lived in and 

 built over. 



" The Temple of Tum, at the southern side of the enclosure, had its own 

 enclosing wall, of which M. Naville has uncovered a good deal. Within 

 this space Avere found all the monuments, Avith the exception of a l)lack 

 granite statue, which Avas evidently throAvn over into the adjoining store- 

 chamber. The temple was a small one, as might be expected in a place Avhich 

 Avas a fortress rather than a city — a place to take refuge in, not to live in. There 

 Avere two sphinxes, now at Is-maiiia, before the entrance, and also the two 

 groups of Eamses II. between gods already described ; but no traces can 

 be found of an avenue, or, indeed, of any extensive outAvorks. Of the 

 temple itself almost notliing remains. The limestone used in its construction 

 Avas very soft, and its natural decay Avas hastened by the action of later 

 builders. The red baked brick of the Ilomaii camp is seen over part of the 



