Roberts, David; Croly, George: The Holy Land: Syria, Idumea, Arabia, Egypt, and Nubia (Band 4): = Egypt & Nubia [1] (1846)

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This portico to the catacombs is remarkable, as it probably illustrates the origin of the Doric order of
the Greeks; at all events it shews that its principles existed among the ancient Egyptians at a very
remote period, at least 1500 B.C., and, therefore, earlier than any known Greek temple. The columns
have sixteen sides, and are slightly fluted: they are sixteen and a half feet high, and rather more than
five diameters, with a slight lessening at the top, on which rests a small abacus. The proportions of
the entablature and cornice, too, are remarkable, as being unlike the general architecture of Egypt.

The great interest, however, in the remains at Beni Hassan, lies in the pictorial representations
left by the ancient Egyptians on the walls of these catacombs. Rich as many of the temples are in
the paintings and sculptured representations of the conquests by the Pharaohs, on the walls of the
tombs of Beni Hassan the arts, habits, and pursuits of the Egyptians, in their social state, are painted.
Here they are represented occupied in their various trades, as potters, weavers, glass-blowers, jewellers,
writers, statuaries, and painters; their sports are shewn in dancing, music, wrestling in various attitudes,
posturing and fencing, playing with balls and at chess, and the game of morra as among the Italians
of our own day. The chase of wild animals, fowling and fishing; agricultural pursuits, planting, sowing,
reaping, threshing, rearing cattle, and the management of herds and flocks; buffoons, and dwarfs, and
schools for instruction. The caves of Beni Hassan have, in short, preserved the best, and in many
cases the only information we possess, of the manners, pursuits, and customs of this extraordinary
people.

Roberts's Journal. Wilkinson.