[66] MARIETTE, _Abydos_, vol. i. p. 8.--_Catalogue général des Monuments d'Abydos_, p. 585. Similar tenons were found by the members of the _Institut d'Égypte_ in the walls of the great hall at Karnak (_Description de l'Égypte, Antiquités_, vol. ii. p. 442.--See also _Plates_, vol. ii. pl. 57, figs. 1 and 2). We took this illustration for our guide in compiling our diagram of Egyptian bonding in Fig. 69. We see, then, that in many buildings the Egyptians employed methods which demanded no little patience, skill, and attention from the workman, but as a rule they preferred to work in a more expeditious and less careful fashion. They used a cement made of sand and lime; traces of it are everywhere found, both in the ruins of Thebes and in the pyramids, between the blocks of limestone and sandstone.[67] Still more did bricks require the use of mortar, which in their case was often little more than mud. [67] _Description de l'Égypte, Ant._, vol. v. p. 153. JOMARD, _Recueil d'Observations et de Mémoires sur l'Égypte Ancienne et Moderne_, vol. iv. p. 41. Among the processes made use of for the construction of the great temple at Thebes there was one which bore marks of the same tendency. Mariette tells us that traces exist in the front of the great temple of a huge inclined plane made of large crude bricks. This incline was used for the construction of the pylon. The great stones were dragged up its slopes, and as the pylon grew, so did the mass of crude brick. When the work was finished the bricks were cleared away, but the internal face of the pylon still bears traces of their position against it. This work was carried out, according to Mariette, under the Ptolemies,[68] but the primitive method of raising the stones must have come down from times much more remote.[69] [68] MARIETTE, _Karnak_, p. 18. [69] This is clearly indicated by DIODORUS (i. 63, 66): τὴν κατασκευὴν διὰ χωμάτων γενέσθαι.