Neither are they attached to the pylon with a due regard to symmetry.

This arises neither from negligence nor wilfulness, as is popularly supposed.

The first plan was as regular as the most symmetrically-minded designer could wish; but it became necessary to adapt it to the requirements of the site, and the architects were thenceforth chiefly concerned to make the best of the irregularities to which they were condemned by the configuration of the ground.

Such difficulties were, in fact, a frequent source of inspiration; and Philae shows with what skill the Egyptians extracted every element of beauty and picturesqueness from enforced disorder.
[Illustration: Fig.

88 .-- Plan of Speos, Kalaat Addah, Nubia.] [Illustration: Fig, 89 .-- Plan of Speos, Gebel Silsileh.] [Illustration: Fig.