[Illustration:  300.jpg PART OF THE WALLS OF EL-KAB ON THE NORTHERN SIDE]

Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph by Grebaut.  The illustration shows a breach where the gate stood, and the curves of the brickwork courses can clearly be traced both to the right and the left of the opening.

The history of this period, as far as we can discern it through the mists of the past, appears to be one confused struggle:  from north to south war raged without intermission; the Pharaohs fought against their rebel vassals, the nobles fought among themselves, and—­what scarcely amounted to warfare—­there were the raids on all sides of pillaging bands, who, although too feeble to constitute any serious danger to large cities, were strong enough either in numbers or discipline to render the country districts uninhabitable, and to destroy national prosperity.  The banks of the Nile already bristled with citadels, where the monarchs lived and kept watch over the lands subject to their authority:  other fortresses were established wherever any commanding site—­such as a narrow part of the river, or the mouth of a defile leading into the desert—­presented itself.  All were constructed on the same plan, varied only by the sizes of the areas enclosed, and the different thickness of the outer walls.  The outline of their ground-plan formed a parallelogram, whose enclosure wall was often divided into vertical panels easily distinguished by the different arrangements of the building material.  At El-Kab and other places the courses of crude brick are slightly concave, somewhat resembling a wide inverted arch whose outer curve rests on the ground.  In other places there was a regular alternation of lengths of curved courses, with those in which the courses were strictly horizontal.  The object of this method of structure is still unknown, but it is thought that such building offers better resistance to shocks of earthquake.  The most ancient fortress at Abydos, whose ruins now lie beneath the mound of Kom-es-Sultan, was built in this way.  Tombs having encroached upon it by the time of the VIth dynasty, it was shortly afterwards replaced by another and similar fort, situate rather more than a hundred yards to the south-east; the latter is still one of the best-preserved specimens of military architecture dating from the times immediately preceding the first Theban empire.*

* My first opinion was that the second fortress had been built towards the time of the XVIIIth dynasty at the earliest, perhaps even under the XXth.  Further consideration of the details of its construction and decoration now leads me to attribute it to the period between the VIth and XIIth dynasties.

[Illustration:  302.jpg THE SECOND FORTRESS OF ABYDOS—­THE SHUNET-EZ-ZEBIB—­AS SEEN FROM THE EAST]

     Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph by Emil Brugsch-Bey. 
     Modern Arabs call it Shunet-ez-Zebib, the storehouse of
     raisins.