So also iron, like many other things in Egypt, was pure or impure according to circumstances.

If some traditions held it up to odium as an evil thing, and stigmatised it as the "bones of Typhon," other traditions equally venerable affirmed that it was the very substance of the canopy of heaven.

So authoritative was this view, that iron was currently known as "_Ba-en-pet_," or the celestial metal.[35] The only fragment of metal found in the great pyramid is a piece of plate- iron;[36] and if ancient iron objects are nowadays of exceptional rarity as compared with ancient bronze objects, it is because iron differs from bronze, inasmuch as it is not protected from destruction by its oxide.

Rust speedily devours it, and it needs a rare combination of favourable circumstances to preserve it intact.

If, however, it is quite certain that the Egyptians were acquainted with, and made use of, iron, it is no less certain that they were wholly unacquainted with steel.