isite height. There is no doubt that this statement also is
correct. We know that the Egyptians did build in this very way, and
the system has been revived by M. Legrain for his work at Karnak, where
still exist the remains of the actual mounds and ramps by which the
great western pylon was erected in Ptolemaic times. Work carried on
in this way is slow and expensive, but it is eminently suited to the
country and understood by the people. If they wish to put a great stone
architrave weighing many tons across the top of two columns, they do not
hoist it up into position; they rear a great ramp or embankment of earth
against the two pillars, half-burying them in the process, then drag
the architrave up the ramp by means of ropes and men, and put it into
position. Then the ramp is cleared away. This is the ancient system
which is now followed at Karnak, and it is the system by which, with the
further aid of the wooden machines, the Great Pyramid and its compeers
were erected in the days of the IVth Dynasty. _Plus cela change, plus
c'est la meme chose_.

The brick pyramids of the XIIth Dynasty were erected in the same way,
for the Egyptians had no knowledge of the modern combination of wooden
scaffolding and ladders. There was originally a small stone pyramid of
the same dynasty at Dashur, half-way between the two brick ones, but
this has now almost disappeared. It belonged to the king Amenemhat II,
while the others belonged, the northern to Usertsen (Sen-usret) III, the
southern to Amenemhat III. Both these latter monarchs had other tombs
elsewhere, Usertsen a great rock-cut gallery and chamber in the cliff at
Abydos, Amenemhat a pyramid not very far to the south, at Hawara, close
to the Fayyum. It is uncertain whether the Hawara pyramid or that of
Dashur was the real burial-place of the king, as at neither place is his
name found alone. At Hawara it is found in conjunction with that of his
daughter, the queen-regnant Se-bekneferura (Skemiophris), at Dashur with
that of a king Auabra Hor, who was buried in a small tomb near that of
the king, and adjoining the tombs of the king's children. Who King Hor
was we do not quite know. His name is not given in the lists, and was
unknown until M. de Morgan's discoveries at Dashur. It is most probable
that he was a prince who was given royal honours during the lifetime of
Amenemhat III, whom he predeceased.* In the beautiful wooden statue
of him found in his tomb, which is now in the