OTHER REMAINS There are, of course, several minor relics of the past which have not been recorded here. Of these perhaps the only site which will be of interest to the visitor is that of a little temple of King Seankhkara, of Dynasty XI., situated on the highest point of the great hill to the north-east of the entrance to the Valley of the Tombs of the Kings. It can be seen with the naked eye from the plain. Only a few bricks now remain. In a valley at the foot of this hill there are several watchmen's houses and some graffiti on the rocks, suggesting that there are tombs here. The surface of the upper desert has upon it many palæolithic flints. CHAPTER XII FROM THEBES TO ESNEH ON THE WEST BANK: DABABIYEH-THE TEMPLE AND CEMETERIES AFTER ARMENT AFTER leaving the most southern of the antiquities of Thebes, there is no ancient site to be met with until the town of Arment is reached, which lies some nine miles up stream from Luxor. From the hills above the Tombs of the Queens one may look southwards over the wide, flat desert which sweeps round towards the south-east; and in the distance the trees of Arment can often be clearly seen. For visiting Arment the ordinary Methods steamers do not allow the necessary time; but persons travelling of visiting the ruins by dahabiyeh will find the excursion to the ruins worth making, of Arment. more for the sake of the beauty of the country at this point than of the interest of the antiquities. The dahabiyeh should be moored a mile or so below Arment, as the ruins lie in the village of Old Arment, which is about that distance north of the modern town, and rather less than a mile back from the river. The excursion may be made by train from Luxor, and in this case it will be found most comfortable to take donkeys with one from Luxor. At the station of Arment very miserable local donkeys may be hired, but these cannot be used except by active males. The train leaving Luxor at 10 A.M. or thereabouts reaches Arment in some forty minutes; and a ride of less than a mile brings one to the river. Here a native ferry will be found, which will convey oneself and one's donkey to the other side. A farther ride of half-an-hour then brings one to the ruins, which should thus be reached before noon. The return may be made in time to catch the train which brings The The history of Arment. Arment the birth-place of Moses. one back to Luxor in time for five o'clock tea. Although the tourist very seldom visits these ruins, the excursion may be recommended to all those who have a desire to see Egypt thoroughly; and lovers of the picturesque will certainly appreciate the scenery. The appearance of the country here is very different from that usually associated with Egypt. Along the bank of the river there is a splendid row of lebbek trees, and amidst these are the ruins of the ancient quay of Roman date, into which are built various blocks from a Ptolemaic temple. The main ruins are reached by a charming road running along the river's edge at first, and later passing a few yards farther inland. The path is deeply shaded by trees, through which the sun penetrates in broken patches of yellow light. On the west side there are wide fields of sugar-cane edged by European-looking bushes; and one catches a glimpse here and there of a running stream of water. In the autumn, when the cane is green, the fields present an extremely beautiful scene; but the winter visitor is likely to find them bare after the harvest. In early times the name of Arment was An or On, sometimes called Southern On to distinguish it from Heliopolis, which was the Northern On. The hawk-headed war-god Menthu was here worshipped, and thus the town came to be known as An-Menthu, or Per-Menthu, "the Temple of Menthu," from which the Greek Hermonthis and the modern Arment seem to be derived. If the cemetery at Rizakât, six or eight miles to the south-west, is the ancient burial-place of this town, then there must have been a flourishing city here in the Middle Kingdom, of which date many graves have been found. In the XVIIIth dynasty temples of some size were erected here, but these are now all destroyed. The heretic Akhnaton built here; and of course the name of Rameses IInd is to be seen. The cartouche of Menkheperra, probably the second king of that name, the son of Painezem Ist, was observed here; but after that date no other records are found until the time of the famous Cleopatra, under whom a temple was built for herself and her son Cæsarion, whose father was Julius Cæsar. During this period Arment became an important city, and was the capital of the Hermonthite nome or province. In early Christian times it was still flourishing, and a large church was erected here. After this, however, it fell into insignificance, and remained an unimportant village until the modern sugar factories brought it again some degree of fame. Amongst the modern inhabitants of Arment there is a firm belief that Moses was born at this spot. In the absence of any definite knowledge regarding this event, one may say that it is quite within the bounds of probability that the law-giver really was born here. Hidden amongst the rushes to the north of the town, his cradle would have been within a mile or so of the ordinary bathing-place of the princes and princesses living in the palaces near Medinet Habu. Indeed, one may go so far as to say that there is no more likely spot for a royal bathing-place than the west bank of the river, half-way between Luxor and Arment; and if the details of the Biblical account are to be accepted, one would naturally look in this direction for the place at which the baby was found by the princess. at Arment. During the days of the early modern travellers in Egypt, the The ruins temple of Cleopatra and Cæsarion was still to be seen, and appears to have been an elaborate construction, nearly 200 feet in length. Now, however, only a few fragments remain, for the temple was destroyed in order to provide stone for building the sugar factory. In different parts of the village, as one rides through it, masonry walls will be seen dating from Roman times, and several inscribed blocks of earlier date will be observed. In one place there is a chamber having a doorway upon which are reliefs representing one of the Roman Pharaohs worshipping the deities Min, Thoth, Horus-Menthu, Isis, and others. In the middle of the village there are the ruins of a Roman bath built of burnt bricks. The main chamber, in the corners of which are limestone pillars, seems to have contained the large plunge-bath, but this is now filled with rubbish. A small domed chamber stands at one corner, and other more ruined rooms near by were perhaps intended for the hot-air baths. At this part of the village there are extensive mounds of accumulated ruins and rubbish, and one obtains a good idea of the process of stratification. At the west end of the village there are a few remains of a Ptolemaic temple, and here in a wide and open space are the scanty remains of a Coptic church. Several granite pillars lie about, and one sees that the building was originally imposing. In the desert at the back of Arment there is a cemetery of the Roman period, from which a few antiquities have been obtained. Amongst these antiquities there were a few tablets on which The sacred there was a representation of a sacred bull. Early writers speak bull of at some length of this bull, which in Græco-Roman times was the chief glory of Arment. "In the city of Hermonthis," writes Macrobius, "they adore the bull Bacchis, which is consecrated to the sun, in the magnificent temple of Apollo. It is remarkable for certain extraordinary appearances, according with the nature of Arment. the sun. The road The cemetery of Rizakât. RIZAKÂT To reach the cemetery of Rizakât, which is the next ancient site, to Rizakât. one should follow the sugar railway, which runs at the back of the town towards the south. Just before reaching the village of Rizakât one must leave the line and bear off towards the west, crossing the canal, and finally reaching the edge of the desert near a group of small hamlets. The ride takes about two hours from Arment, and during the sugar harvests the fields through which one passes are extremely beautiful. The ride can be recommended to travellers who find themselves in this part of Egypt, for instance, those who are moored here on dahabiyehs; but the cemetery, of course, has nothing of interest to show. It stretches for some considerable distance along the desert's edge. The tombs at the south end have been plundered several years ago, and those at the north end have been robbed until quite recently; so that now there remains little for the scientific excavator to do there. The tombs, of which there must have been several hundred, seem to have dated from the XIIth to XVIIIth dynasties, and mainly consist of mud-brick structures in the form of deep rectangular shafts, from the bottom of which a vaulted burial-chamber leads; wide rectangular pits lined with bricks, and entered by a sloping passage or stairway at one end; and other well-known forms. There is nothing interesting, either to the antiquarian or to the ordinary traveller, in wandering over a cemetery so wrecked and devastated by thieves, now stumbling into a half-filled grave, now treading underfoot the bleached bones of |