84 A History of Art in Ancient Egypt. slabs In each horizontal coarse. The stone forminof the crown of the vault is especially large. Brick vaults and arches must have been far more numerous in Egypt than might be supposed from the few examples that remain. They must have suggested the use of off-set vaults in the case of stone, which, it must not be forgotten, would seem to the Egyptians to offer all the advantages of a vault without Its drawbacks. In other countries the stages of progression were dif- ferent, and the true arch came very late Into use ; but In Egypt it certainly seems to have preceded the off-set arch. In the valley of '7. 'IV
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Fig. 53. — Vaulted chapel at Abydos. the Nile the latter is an Imitative form. The form of elliptic arch which we find In certain funerary chambers at Abydos seems to show this. When the architect of a tomb or temple wished to substitute a concave surface for a flat ceiling he made use of this hollowed-out vault. He thus saved himself from any anxiety as to the stability of his structure, he avoided the necessity of intro- ducing what would seem to him a cause of eventual destruction, while he gave variety of line and, perhaps, additional symbolic meanino- to his work.
