From the colonnade a door marked _e_ on the plan (Plate IV) leads into a square courtyard, the north side of which, marked _ad_ in the plan, is formed by the façade of the temple proper. Here some of the hieroglyphs refer to I-em-hotep and his work (Plate VI). In the centre of this façade a door marked _f_ leads into the larger anterior chamber of the temple. From this the door _g_ communicates with the inner sanctuary. The eastern wall of the courtyard has a curious elongated recess, many yards in length but only a foot-and-a-half in depth, marked _ac_ in the plan, a narrow door, _b_, gives access to it. Between _a_ and _b_ a small aperture in the wall marked _x_ communicates with this curious recess, and the remains of a second aperture exist further to the left. It is difficult to understand the purpose of this structure.[26] Plate VII represents the wall _ac_ with the doorway and apertures referred to. A door marked _h_ leads into a larger courtyard which again communicates by three doors on its western side with the colonnade. Whether this further courtyard was a portion of the purlieus of the temple is uncertain, no doubt a considerable space would be required for the medical work of the priest physicians. Plate V represents the west wall of the temple (shewing a mediaeval Coptic doorway broken through into the sanctuary), also a part of the colonnade. To the left is a portion of the great pylon of the temple of Isis. [Illustration: PLATE V Eastern Colonnade, Island of Philae, with entrance (on right) to courtyard of temple of I-em-hotep. The western wall of the temple (with mediaeval Coptic doorway) occupies the centre of the picture.] I am indebted to the courtesy of the Egyptian Public Works Department and to Captain Lyons for the privilege of reproducing these views of the temple of I-em-hotep at Philae.[27] Methods Employed by the Egyptian Physicians I may mention in passing that, although the medical papyri which have come down to us are no doubt only an insignificant fraction of those possessed by the Egyptians, we, nevertheless, find in them abundant reference to medicine and surgery. In the Kahun papyrus obstetrics is dealt with. Gynaecology, also ophthalmology, materia medica, diseases of the ear, tongue, and nerves, also dentistry, are the subjects of others, and even veterinary medicine was treated of in a papyrus, a fragment of which was found by Professor Flinders Petrie.