Wilkinson, John Gardner: The Architecture Of Ancient Egypt: In Which The Columns Are Arranged In Orders, And The Temples Classified; With Remarks On The Early Progress Of Architecture, Etc.; With A Large Volume Of Plates Ilustrative Of The Subject, And Containing The Various Columns And details, From Actual Measurement (Text) (London, 1850)

PART II. ROOFS—RAIN—MATERIALS. 95

were concealed from view, on the outside of the
building, by the cornice, that terminated them, and
sometimes rose (as a low parapet) above the level
of the roof. It may appear strange that they made
this provision against the effects of rain, in the dry
climate of Thebes, where showers only fall five or
six times in the year; but heavy rain lasts occasion-
ally for some hours; and every twenty, or thirty,
years violent storms occur, which account for the
deep ravines, cut by the water, in the mountains
of Thebes.

The materials, used in building the temples, were
generally sandstone ; but limestone was employed
in the earliest times, except in Nubia, and the sand-
stone districts; and the interior of the sanctuary of
the famous temple of Osiris, at Abydus, was lined
with slabs of oriental alabaster. Granite was princi-
pally confined to obelisks, statues, and sarcophagi;
and though the third pyramid was coated with it,
and though doorways, some few columns, and even
the sanctuary of Karnak, were of that hard stone, it
was rarely used for buildings; and the only temple
of granite is at Bebayt (Iseum) in the Delta.

But it is remarkable that the obelisks were placed
on limestone substructions; from its having been
discovered, that granite did not resist the salts of
the earth, as well as limestone ; and as this is the
case in the oldest monuments, it affords room for
curious speculation, on the antiquity of the Egyp-
tians, and of their civilization; since a long period is
required to give experience on the duration of stone.

The granite was from Syene (now Asouan) at the
first cataract, from which place the name of syenite