Waterhouse, Percy Leslie: The story of architecture throughout the ages: an introduction to the study of the oldest of the arts for students and general readers (London: B. T. Batsford, 1924)

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THE STORY OF ARCHITECTURE

Egypt—were the work, not of a race of primitive
men, but of a nation which had already attained
a knowledge of the art of construction which
later builders have never surpassed.
The waters of the Nile are the head-waters of
architecture. On the banks of this stream—the
cradle of the art—the colossal piles of these early
builders still command the wonder of all who
see them.
Earlier works of the Egyptian builders have
been identified, but their greatest and most
characteristic monuments, the pyramids of the
fourth dynasty, have remained unchallenged for
more than five thousand years as the greatest
of all architectural undertakings. With these
works of the mysterious inhabitants of the Nile
valley begins the history of architecture, so far
as our knowledge of it can at present go.
No other country bears such testimony as
Egypt to the great historical value of architecture.
Other nations of antiquity have, possibly, been
equally powerful, or as highly civilised ; but they
have failed to leave behind them such enduring
monuments to record their greatness-—their
literature in stone or marble—and they have
almost disappeared from the pages of history.
Not so the Egyptians. There is a “voicefulness”
in these old tombs and temples along the banks
of the Nile which gives reality and life to the
history of the men who built them. Hence the
unique interest which attaches to the architec-
ture of Egypt. These temples, these walls, that
have so long been “washed by the passing waves