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nearly finished when Seti I. died, and that his son Rameses II. only added the pillars in front and the decoration. Its exterior consists of two courts, A and B, the wall which divides them, and the façade; all these parts were built by Rameses II. The pillars are inscribed with religious scenes and figures of the king and the god Osiris. On the large wall to the south of the central door is an inscription in which Rameses II. relates all that he has done for the honour of his father's memory, how he erected statues of him at Thebes and Memphis, and how he built up the sacred doors. At the end of it he gives a brief sketch of his childhood, and the various grades of rank and dignities which he held.

In the interior the first hall, C, is of the time of Rameses II., but it is possible to see under the rough hieroglyphics of this king the finer ones of Seti I.; this hall contains twenty-four pillars arranged in two rows. The scenes on the walls represent figures of the gods and of the king offering to them, the names of the nomes, etc., etc. The second hall, D, is larger than the first, the style and finish of the sculptures are very fine, the hieroglyphics are in relief, and it contains 36 columns, arranged in three rows. From this hall seven short naves dedicated to Horus, Isis, Osiris, Amen, Harmachis, Ptaḥ, and Seti I. respectively, lead into seven vaulted chambers, E, F, G, H, I, J, K, beautifully shaped and decorated, which are dedicated to the same beings. The scenes on the walls of six of these chambers represent the ceremonies which the king was supposed to perform in them daily; those in the seventh refer to the apotheosis of the king. At the end of chamber G is a door which leads into the sanctuary of Osiris, L, and in the corridor M is the famous Tablet of Abydos (see pp. 6, 7), which gives the names of seventy-six kings of Egypt, beginning with Menes and ending with Seti I. The value of this most interesting monument has been pointed out on p. 5. The Temple of Rameses II. was dedicated by this king

to the god Osiris; it lies a little to the north of the temple of Seti I. Many distinguished scholars thought that this was

the famous

shrine which

all Egypt adored, but

the excava

tions made

there by M. Mariette proved that

it was not.

It would seem that

during the

French occupation of

Egypt in the early part of

this century

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SO

much damage has been

wrought upon it, that

the portions of wall which now remain

ETTE

Plan of the Temple of Rameses II. at Abydos.

are only about eight or nine feet high. The fragment of the second Tablet of Abydos, now in the British Museum,

came from this temple. The few scenes and fragments of inscriptions which remain are interesting but not important.

A little to the north of the temple of Rameses II. is a Coptic monastery, the church of which is dedicated to Aiba Musas.

In recent years a number of excavations which have been productive of important results have been carried on near Abydos. In 1896 M. de Morgan discovered a number of remarkable tombs of the Neolithic Period at Al-'Amrah, about three miles to the east of Abydos, and in 1895, 1896, and 1897 M. Amélineau excavated the tombs of a number of kings of the first three dynasties at Umm al-Ka'ab, which lies to the west of the necropolis of the Middle Empire; and in the course of his work at Abydos he also discovered a shrine which the ancient Egyptians placed on a spot where they seem to have believed that the god Osiris was buried, or, at any rate, where some traditions declared he was laid. In the winter of 1899-1900 Professor Petrie also carried on excavations on M. Amélineau's old sites at Abydos, and recovered a number of objects of the same class as those found by M. Amélineau. The true value and general historical position of the antiquities which were found at Abydos by M. Amélineau and M. de Morgan, as well as of those which were found by M. de Morgan at Nakâda and Abydos, and by Professor Petrie at Ballas and Tukh, were first indicated by M. de Morgan himself in his volumes of Recherches sur les Origines de l'Égypte, Paris, 1896 and 1897. The royal names TEN, ATCHAB, and SMERKHAT, discovered by M. de Morgan, were tentatively identified with the kings of the 1st dynasty who are usually called Hesepti, Merbapen, and Semen-Ptaḥ, by Herr Sethe in the Aegyptische Zeitschrift, Bd. 35, p. 1, ff. 1897. M. Jéquier identified PERABSEN with Neter-baiu, a king of the 2nd dynasty, and Professor Petrie

identified QA with the king of the 1st dynasty who is usually called Qebḥ. The identifications of ĀḤĀ with Menes, and NARMER with Tetȧ, and TCHA with Ateth, and MER-NIT with Ata, kings of the 1st dynasty, at present need further evidence. Some of these are more probably pre-dynastic kings.

Farshût, 368 miles from Cairo, on the west bank of the river, called in Coptic RepooTT, contains a sugar

factory.

At Nag' Hamâdî, 373 miles from Cairo, is the iron. railway bridge across the Nile. It is 1,362 feet long.

Kasr es-Sayyâd, or "the hunter's castle," 376 miles from Cairo, on the east bank of the river, marks the site of the ancient Chenoboscion, i.e., the "Goose-pen," or place where geese were kept in large numbers and fattened for market. The Copts call the town ceпECHT, which is probably a corruption of some old Egyptian name, meaning the place where geese were fattened. The town is famous in Coptic annals as the place where Pachomius (he died about A.D. 349, aged 57 years) embraced Christianity, and a few miles to the south of it stood the great monastery of Tabenna, which he founded. In the neighbourhood are a number of interesting tombs of the Early Empire.

ĶANÂ (ĶENEH) AND THE TEMPLE OF
DENDERAH.*

Kanâ, 405 miles from Cairo, on the east bank of the river, is the capital of the province of the same name. This city is famous for its dates, and for the trade which it

The Greek Tentyra, or Tentyris, is derived from the Egyptian
Ta-en-ta-rert; the name is

www

also written

carries on with the Arabian peninsula, and for its manufactories of the drinking bottle called "Ķullah," commonly pronounced "gullah."

A short distance from the river, on the west bank, a little to the north of the village of Denderah, stands the Temple of Denderah, which marks the site of the classical Tentyra or Tentyris, called Tenтwpe by the Copts, where the goddess Hathor was worshipped. During the Middle Empire quantities of flax and linen fabrics were produced at Tentyra, and it gained some reputation thereby. In very ancient times Khufu, or Cheops, a king of the IVth dynasty, founded a temple here, but it seems never to have become of much importance,* probably because it lay so close to the famous shrines of Abydos and Thebes. The wonderfully preserved Temple now standing there is probably not older than the beginning of our era; indeed, it cannot, in any case, be older than the time of the later Ptolemies: hence it must be considered as the architectural product of a time when the ancient Egyptian traditions of sculpture were already dead and nearly forgotten. It is, however, a majestic monument, and worthy of careful examination.† Strabo says (Bk. xvii., ch. i. 44) of this town and its inhabitants: "Next to Abydos is ..... the city Tentyra, where the crocodile is held in peculiar abhorrence, and is regarded as the most odious of all animals. For the other Egyptians, although acquainted with its mischievous disposition, and

* M. Mariette thought that a temple to Hathor existed at Denderah during the XIIth, XVIIIth and XIXth dynasties.

"Accessible comme il l'est aujourd'hui jusque dans la dernière de ses chambres, il semble se présenter au visiteur comme un livre qu'il n'a qu'à ouvrir et à consulter. Mais le temple de Dendérah est, en somme, un monument terriblement complexe. . . . Il faudrait plusieurs années pour copier tout ce vaste ensemble, et il faudrait vingt volumes du format (folio!) de nos quatre volumes de planches pour le publier." -Mariette, Dendérah, Description Générale, p. 10.

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