his dwelling-place Thebes also gained in importance and splendour. The city suffered severely at the hands of Cambyses, who left nothing in it unburnt that fire would.

consume.

Herodotus appears never to have visited Thebes, and the account he gives of it is not satisfactory; the account of Diodorus, who saw it about B.C. 57, is as follows: "Afterwards reigned Busiris, and eight of his posterity after him; the last of which (of the same name with the first) built that great city which the Egyptians call Diospolis, the Greeks Thebes; it was in circuit 140 stades (about twelve miles), adorned with stately public buildings, magnificent temples, and rich donations and revenues to admiration; and he built all the private houses, some four, some five stories high. And to sum up all in a word, he made it not only the most beautiful and stateliest city of Egypt, but of all others in the world. The fame therefore of the riches and grandeur of this city was so noised abroad in every place, that the poet Homer takes notice of it. . . . . Although there are some that say it had not a hundred gates; but that there were many large porches to the temples, whence the city was called Hecatompylus, a hundred gates, for many gates: yet that it was certain they had in it 20,000 chariots of war; for there were a hundred stables all along the river from Memphis to Thebes towards Lybia, each of which was capable to hold two hundred horses, the marks and signs of which are visible at this day. And we have it related, that not only this king, but the succeeding princes from time to time, made it their business to beautify this city; for that there was no city under the sun so adorned with so many and stately monuments of gold, silver, and ivory, and multitudes of colossi and obelisks, cut out of one entire stone. For there were there four temples built, for beauty and greatness to be admired, the most ancient of which was in circuit thirteen furlongs (about one and a half

miles), and five and forty cubits high, and had a wall twentyfour feet broad. The ornaments of this temple were suitable to its magnificence, both for cost and workmanship. The fabric hath continued to our time, but the silver and the gold, and ornaments of ivory and precious stones were carried away by the Persians when Cambyses burnt the temples of Egypt. . . . There, they say, are the wonderful sepulchres of the ancient kings, which for state and grandeur far exceed all that posterity can attain unto at this day. The Egyptian priests say that in their sacred registers there are 47 of these sepulchres; but in the reign of Ptolemy Lagus there remained only 17, many of which were ruined and destroyed when I myself came into those parts." (Bk. I., chaps. 45, 46, Booth's translation, pp. 23, 24.)

Strabo, who visited Thebes about B.C. 24, says :- -"Next to the city of Apollo is Thebes, now called Diospolis, 'with her hundred gates, through each of which issue 200 men, with horses and chariots,' according to Homer, who mentions also its wealth; 'not all the wealth the palaces of Egyptian Thebes contain.' Other writers use the same language, and consider Thebes as the metropolis of Egypt. Vestiges of its magnitude still exist, which extend 80 stadia (about nine miles) in length. There are a great number of temples, many of which Cambyses mutilated. The spot is at present occupied by villages. One part of it, in which is the city, lies in Arabia; another is in the country on the other side of the river, where is the Memnonium. Here are two colossal figures near one another, each consisting of a single stone. One is entire; the upper parts of the other, from the chair, are fallen down, the effect, it is said, of an earthquake. It is believed that once a day a noise as of a slight blow issues from the part of the statue which remains in the seat and on its base. When I was at those places with Ælius Gallus, and numerous friends and soldiers about him, I heard a noise at the first

stones disposed in that Above the Memnonium hewn out of the stone, executed with singular Among the tombs are

hour (of the day), but whether proceeding from the base or from the colossus, or produced on purpose by some of those standing around the base, I cannot confidently assert. For from the uncertainty of the cause, I am disposed to believe anything rather than that manner could send forth sound. are tombs of kings in caves, and about forty in number; they are skill, and are worthy of notice. obelisks with inscriptions, denoting the wealth of the kings of that time, and the extent of their empire, as reaching to the Scythians, Bactrians, Indians, and the present Ionia ; the amount of tribute also, and the number of soldiers, which composed an army of about a million of men. The priests there are said to be, for the most part, astronomers and philosophers. The former compute the days, not by the moon, but by the sun, introducing into the twelve months, of thirty days each, five days every year. But in order to complete the whole year, because there is (annually) an excess of a part of a day, they form a period from out of whole days and whole years, the supernumerary portions of which in that period, when collected together, amount to a day. They ascribe to Mercury (Thoth) all knowledge of this kind. To Jupiter, whom they worship above all other deities, a virgin of the greatest beauty and of the most illustrious family (such persons the Greeks call pallades) is dedicated " (Bk. XVII, chap. 1,

sec. 46, translated by Falconer.)

The principal objects of interest on the East or right Bank of the river are:

I. The Temple of Luxor. Compared with Karnak the temple of Luxor is not of the greatest importance, and until recent years the greater part of its courts and chambers was buried by the accumulated rubbish and mud upon which a large number of houses stood. The excavation of

and stands, probably, upon the site of an earlier religious edifice; it formed an important part of the sacred buildings of Thebes, which were dedicated to the Theban

triad of Amen-Ra m 7 D D

and was called "The House of Åmen in the

Southern Apt," to distinguish it from "The House of Åmen in the Northern Apt," ie., Karnak. It was built by Amenophis III. about B.C. 1500, and was at that time the most beautiful temple in Egypt; it was nearly 500 feet long and about 180 feet wide, and was connected with Karnak by means of a paved way, on each side of which was arranged a row of rams with their faces turned towards its main axis.

Soon after the death of Amenophis III. his son, the heretic king Amenophis IV., ordered the name and figure of the god Amen to be erased throughout the temple, and built a small shrine or chapel near his father's great work in honour of the god Åten. The building was not popular among the Egyptians, for on the death of Amenophis IV. it was pulled down, and the stones were employed in other parts of the main edifice. Heru-em-heb and Seti I. added a number of bas-reliefs, and Rameses II. built the large colonnade, a large courtyard with porticoes, a pylon, two obelisks, and some colossal statues. This last king, in building the courtyard and pylon, made their axes be in continuation of that of the paved way which led to Karnak, instead of that of the colonnade and other parts of the temple. During the rule of the Persians over Egypt the temple was sacked and burnt, but under the Ptolemies the damage was partially made good; in B.C. 27 the temple was greatly damaged by the earthquake which wrecked many a noble temple and tomb in Egypt, and a little later the stones which had been thrown down from