Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a water-colour by Boussac, Le Tombeau d’Anna in the Memoires de la Mission Francaise.  The house was situated at Thebes, and belonged to the XVIIIth dynasty.  The remains of the houses brought to light by Mariette at Abydos belong to the same type, and date back to the XIIth dynasty.  By means of these, Mariette was enabled to reconstruct an ancient Egyptian house at the Paris Exhibition of 1877.  The picture of the tomb of Anna reproduces in most respects, we may therefore assume, the appearance of a nobleman’s dwelling at all periods.  At the side of the main building we see two corn granaries with conical roofs, and a great storehouse for provisions.

They were grouped around one or more temples, each of which was surrounded by its own brick enclosing wall, with its enormous gateways:  the gods dwelt there in real castles, or, if this word appears too ambitious, redouts, in which the population could take refuge in cases of sudden attack, and where they could be in safety.

[Illustration:  104.jpg PLAN OF A PART OF THE ANCIENT TOWN OF KAHUN]

     From a plan made and published by Professor Flinders Petrie,
     Illahun, Kahun and Gurob, pl. xiv.

The towns, which had all been built at one period by some king or prince, were on a tolerably regular ground plan; the streets were paved and fairly wide; they crossed each other at right angles, and were bordered with buildings on the same line of frontage.  The cities of ancient origin, which had increased with the chance growth of centuries, presented a totally different aspect.

[Illustration:  105.jpg STELE OF SITU, REPRESENTING THE FRONT OF A HOUSE]

     Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph by Emil Brugsch-Bey.  The
     monument is the stele of Situ (IVth dynasty), in the Gizeh
     Museum.

A network of lanes and blind alleys, narrow, dark, damp, and badly built, spread itself out between the houses, apparently at random:  here and there was an arm of a canal, all but dried up, or a muddy pool where the cattle came to drink, and from which the women fetched the water for their households; then followed an open space of irregular shape, shaded by acacias or sycamores, where the country-folk of the suburbs held their market on certain days, twice or thrice a month; then came waste ground covered with filth and refuse, over which the dogs of the neighbourhood fought with hawks and vultures.  The residence of the prince or royal governor, and the houses of rich private persons, covered a considerable area, and generally presented to the street a long extent of bare walls, crenellated like those of a fortress:  the only ornament admitted on them consisted of angular grooves, each surmounted by two open lotus flowers having their stems intertwined.

[Illustration:  106.jpg A STREET IN THE HIGHER QUARTER OF MODERN SIUT]

     Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph, taken in 1884, by Emil
     Brugsch-Bey.