In order to arrive at that height, slopes were made and terraces laid out according to a plan which was not understood until the site was thoroughly excavated.
Between the hemi-speos and the isolated temple, the Egyptians created yet another variety, namely, the built temple backed by, but not carried into, the cliff.

The temple of the sphinx at Gizeh, and the temple of Seti I.at Abydos, may be cited as two good examples.

I have already described the former; the area of the latter (fig.

93) was cleared in a narrow and shallow belt of sand, which here divides the plain from the desert.

It was sunk up to the roof, the tops of the walls but just showing above the level of the ground.