ON USEFUL AND ORNAMENTAL STONES OF ANCIENT EGYPT. 277 



mid now in the square of Ismailia, forms a good illustration. 

 I have already described this relic,* and may here merely 

 remark that it is a rectangular, monolithic chamber, (i feet 

 long and 4 feet high, with a sphinx, left in hollowing the 

 rock, in the centre. It is formed of the red variety of the 

 stone, with the bedding in a vertical position, and appears to 

 be of the age of Rameses IT. A similar shrine is noticed by 

 Petrie, as found in the ruins of Tain's, but I have not seen 

 specimens of the stone of which it is made. 



One of the six monolithic statues, each about 20 feet high, 

 sitting in front of the southern propylon of Karnac, is of a 

 hard, light-brown variety of this rock with rows of agate 

 pebbles, and though the npper part of the figure is gone, 

 what remains impresses one very strongly with the audacity 

 and perseverance of the Egyptian artist, who could attempt 

 such a work in a material as hard as agate. Petrie informs 

 us that the remains of the two colossal statues described by 

 Herodotus as standing on pyramidal pedestals in Lake 

 Moeris, show that they were of this stone. That such 

 statues should have been broken up seems strange ; but it is 

 accounted for by the demand for millstones and pestles, &c, 

 of this material, so that a statue of quartzite was more likely 

 to be destroyed than one of limestone. 



Among smaller works of this material the most perfect I 

 have seen are two square slabs or tables of offerings, about 

 4 feet wide, with bowls elaborately worked on their upper 

 sides, and hieroglyphic inscriptions round their margins. They 

 a re in the Gizeh Museum. They are wonderful trophies of 

 skill and patient work, apparently belonging to a very ancient 

 period. 



Some travellers have stated that the two great Colossi of 

 the plain of Thebes are of this stone, but this is an error. 

 They are of a much softer rock, the Nubian Sandstone. 

 The quarrying of this material may have been done by 

 wedging out blocks, taking advantage in this of the joints 

 and bedding of the stone. It could then be roughly shaped 

 by chipping and hammering, but the finishing, especially 

 in shrines and statues and in cutting inscriptions, must 

 have been effected with the hollow drill, armed, perhaps, with 

 diamond, as in the modern diamond-drill. Finally, the sur- 

 face was probably polished by rubbing with sand of emery 

 or other hard stones. Petrie has shown that the use of the 

 hollow metallic drill, armed with gems, was well known in 



* Modem Science in Bible Lands, p. 279. 



