A most interesting thing is the finding of the brickwork or pavement spoken of in Jeremiah xliii. 8. “Then came the word of the Lord unto Jeremiah in Tahpanhes, saying, Take great stones in thine hand, and hide them in mortar in the brickwork which is at the entry of Pharaoh’s house in Tahpanhes, in the sight of the men of Judah; and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord of Hosts, the God of Israel: Behold I will send and take Nebuchadnezzar the King of Babylon, my servant, and will set his throne upon these stones that I have hid; and he shall spread his royal pavilion over them, &c.” This brickwork or pavement at the entry of Pharaoh’s house has always been misunderstood, and served as a puzzle to translators. “But” (says Mr Petrie) “as soon as the plan of the palace began to be recovered, the exactness of the description was manifest. On the north-west of the fort was a great open air platform of brickwork, such as is now seen outside all great houses, and most small ones, in Egypt. A space is reserved outside the door, generally along the side of the house, covered with hard beaten mud, edged with a ridge of bricks if not much raised from the ground, and kept swept clean. On this platform the inhabitants sit when they wish to converse with their neighbours or the passers-by. A great man will settle himself to receive his friends and drink coffee, and public business is generally transacted there. Such seems to have been the object of this large platform--a place to meet persons who would not be admitted to the palace or fort, to assemble guards, to hold large _levées_, to receive tribute and stores, to unlade goods, and to transact the multifarious business which in such a climate is best done in the open air. At the same time the actual way into the palace was along a raised causeway which rose at the back of this platform. “This platform” (continues Mr Petrie) “is therefore unmistakably ‘the brickwork or pavement which is at the entry of Pharaoh’s house in Tahpanhes.’ Here the ceremony described by Jeremiah took place before the chiefs of the fugitives assembled on the platform, and here Nebuchadnezzar ‘spread his royal pavilion.’ The very nature of the site is precisely applicable to all the events. Unhappily, the great denudation which has gone on has swept away most of this platform, and we could not expect to find the stones whose hiding is described by Jeremiah.” Another discovery, made some years ago, looks like evidence that Nebuchadnezzar actually came to Tahpanhes. A native sold to the Boulak Museum three cylinders of terra cotta, such as would be used for foundation memorials, the text on them being an inscription of Nebuchadnezzar’s referring to his constructions in Babylon. These cylinders were said to come from the Isthmus of Suez, but it is strongly suspected that they were found at Defenneh, after the platform had become denuded.