ABSTRACT
THOSE parts of Thebes which extend over the banks of the Nile between Luxor and Karnak present the dull, sordid aspect which, as a rule, belongs to the suburbs of a great city. They are not regularly formed dist.ricts, so much as a collection of grey huts, joined, together at every imaginable angle. Narrow, crooked paths wind amongst them, as though left there by chance, broken at intervals, by a muddy pool, from which the cattle drink and the women draw water (Fig. 1); by an irregular square shaded by acacias or sycamores; by a piece of waste land encumbered by filth, for which the dogs of the neighbourhood dispute with hawks and vultures. Most of the houses are miserably built of earth or unbaked bricks, covered with a layer of mud. The poorest of them consist of a
simple square cell, sometimes of two little rooms opening directly into each other, or separated by a small court. They are covered by a thin roof of palm-leaves placed side by side, which is so low that a man of medium height, rising incautiously, would pierce it with a blow from his head. The richer inhabitants have a solidly built ground-floor, surmounted by a terrace and two or three rooms, reached by a staircase placed against the wall of the court. The small, dark rooms below are used as stables for the cattle, sleeping-rooms for the slaves, and storerooms for the clothes and
Fig. I.-The Pool of Luxor.
