wall is a stele on which is set forth a copy of the offensive and defensive treaty between this king and the prince of the Kheta.

The inscriptions on the magnificent ruins at Karnak show that from the time of Usertsen I., B.C. 2433, to that of Alexander IV., B.C. 312 (?), the religious centre* of Upper Egypt was at Thebes, and that the most powerful of the kings of Egypt who reigned during this period spared neither pains nor expense in adding to and beautifying the temples there. In fact, it was as much a pleasure as a duty for a king to repair the old buildings of the famous shrine of Karnak, or to build new ones, for the walls and pylons of that ancient sanctuary constituted a book of fame in the best and greatest sense in the opinion of the Egyptians. The fury of the elements, the attacks of Egypt's enemies, and the yearly rise of the Nile have all contributed powerfully towards the destruction of these splendid buildings; but what has helped most of all to injure them is the weakness of the foundations of their walls and columns, and the insufficiency of their bases. As long as the columns were partly buried in earth and rubbish, very little strain was put upon them, and they appeared sound enough; but when the masses of earth which surrounded their bases were removed, experts declared that a number of them would fall. In 1899 eleven of the columns in the Great Hall at Karnak did fall, and an examination of their foundations showed the reasons, viz., insufficiency of base, poor foundations, and to these may be added, as Sir W. Garstin said unstable equilibrium of the soil caused by alteration of the levels of the Nile. Much injury has, of course, also been caused to the stones of the columns by the salts which were

* The short-lived heresy of the worship of the disk of the Sun instead of that of Amen-Ra would not interfere with the general popularity of Theban temples.

present in the masses of earth which formerly surrounded them. If funds could be found, and M. Grand Bey were enabled to increase the scale of the good work upon which he has been engaged at Karnak for so many years, the damage could probably be repaired in two or three years. Many parts of the building have, no doubt, suffered through the shock of the fall of these columns, and exhaustive repairs ought to be taken in hand at once. The work is, naturally, too great and costly for private enterprise, and we must therefore hope that Lord Cromer will find a means of restoring Karnak as effectually as he has revivified Egypt.

On the west bank of the river the following are the most interesting antiquities:

I. The Temple of Kûrnah. This temple was built by Seti I. in memory of his father Rameses I.; it was completed by Rameses II., by whom it was re-dedicated to the memory of his father Seti I. Two pylons stood before it, and joining them was an Avenue of Sphinxes. This temple was to all intents and purposes a cenotaph, and as such its position on the edge of the desert, at the entrance to a necropolis, is explained. In the temple were six columns, and on each side were several small chambers. The sculptures on the walls represent Rameses II. making offerings to the gods, among whom are Rameses I. and Seti I. According to an inscription there, it is said that Seti I. went to heaven and was united with the Sun-god before this temple was finished, and that Rameses II. made and fixed the doors, finished the building of the walls, and decorated the interior. The workmanship in certain parts of this temple recalls that of certain parts of Abydos; it is probable that the same artists were employed.

II. The Ramesseum. This temple, called also the MEMNONIUM and the tomb of Osymandyas (Diodorus I., iv), was built by Rameses II., in honour of Amen-Ra. As at Ķûrnah, two pylons stood in front of it.

The

first court had a single row of pillars on each side of it; passing up a flight of steps, and through the second pylon, is a second court, having a double row of round columns on the east and west sides, and a row of pilasters, to which large figures of Rameses II. under the form of

Osiris are attached, on the north and south sides. Before the second pylon stood a colossal statue of Rameses II., at least sixty feet high, which has been thrown down (by Cambyses?), turned over on its back, and mutilated. In

the hall are twelve huge columns, arranged in two rows, and thirty-six smaller ones arranged in six rows. On the interior face of the second pylon are sculptured scenes in the war of Rameses II. against the Kheta, which took place in the fifth year of his reign; in them he is represented slaying the personal attendants of the prince of the Kheta. Elsewhere is the famous scene in which Rameses, having been forsaken by his army, is seen cutting his way through the enemy, and hurling them one after the other into the Orontes near Kadesh. The walls of the temple are ornamented with small battle scenes and reliefs representing the king making offerings to the gods of Thebes. On the ceiling of one of the chambers is an interesting astronomical piece on which the twelve Egyptian months are mentioned.

III. The Colossi.—These two interesting statues were set up in honour of Amenophis III., whom they represent; they stood in front of the pylon of a calcareous stone temple which was built by this king; this has now entirely disappeared. They were hewn out of a hard grit-stone, and the top of each was about sixty feet above the ground; originally each was monolithic, The statue on the north is the famous Colossus of Memnon, from which a sound was said to issue every morning when the sun rose. The upper part of it was thrown down by an earthquake, it is said, about B.C. 27; the damage was partially repaired during the reign of Septimius Severus, who restored the head and shoulders of the figure by adding to it five layers of stone. When Strabo was at Thebes with Ælius Gallus he heard "a noise at the first hour of the day, but whether proceeding from the base or from the colossus, or produced on purpose by some of those standing round the base, I cannot confidently assert." It is said that after the colossus was repaired no sound issued from it. Some think that the noise was caused by the sun's rays striking upon the stone, while others believe that a priest hidden in

the colossus produced it by striking a stone. The inscriptions show that many distinguished Romans visited the "vocal Memnon" and heard the sound; one Petronianus, of a poetical turn of mind, stated that it made a sighing sound in complaining to its mother, the dawn, of the injuries inflicted upon it by Cambyses. The inscriptions on the back of the colossi give the names of Amenophis III.

IV. Medinet Habû.-This village lies to the south of the colossi, and its foundation dates from Coptic times. The early Christians established themselves around the ancient Egyptian temple there, and having carefully plastered over the wall sculptures in one of its chambers, they used it as a chapel. Round and about this temple many Greek and Coptic inscriptions have been found, which prove that the Coptic community here was one of the largest and most important in Upper Egypt.

The Egyptian name of the site was Aat-tcha-Mutet

Δ

which the Copts turned into

The principal buildings at Medînet Habû are:The Little Temple, the chapels built by royal personages in the XXVIth dynasty, the "Pavilion of Rameses III.," and the Great Temple. The collection of buildings which forms the Little Temple belongs to various periods, the oldest dating from the reigns of the early kings of the XVIIIth dynasty (Thothmes II. and III.), and the most recent from the time of the Roman rule over Egypt. The paved courtyard (a) is the work of the Roman period, and in it are inscriptions which record the addresses made to various gods by the Emperor Antoninus. The pylon (c), which was built by Ptolemy X. and Ptolemy XIII., is reached by crossing a smaller court (B), also of the Roman period; the reliefs upon it represent these kings making offerings to the great gods of Egypt, and below them is the text of a hymn to the Sun. This pylon leads to the court