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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 courtyard built by Nectanebus II. (D), and to the pylon built at the end of it by royal Ethiopian personages (E). The scenes on the walls of the court of Nectanebus represent the king slaughtering prisoners, processions of the personifications of nomes, the king making offerings, etc. The pylon was built by Shabaka, and additions were made by Tirhâkâh, Nectanebus II., and Ptolemy X. Beyond this pylon is another courtyard, of uncertain date, containing 16 pillars, eight on each side (F). The oldest part of the building is the XVIIIth dynasty temple (G), which consists of a shrine chamber (H), open at each end, and surrounded by an open gallery, and a group of six small chambers beyond (I). The royal name most frequently found on the temple is that of Rameses III., who added several reliefs, in which he is represented making offerings to the gods. In the open gallery are the names of Thothmes III., Heru-em-ḥeb, Seti I. and Ptolemy Physkon; on one of the pillars is a text showing that Thothmes III. dedicated the temple to Menthu, the lord of Thebes. Repairs were carried out on some of the pillars in this gallery by Queen Amenȧrțâs and Achoris. On the walls of the shrine chamber Thothmes III. and Ptolemy Physkon are depicted making offerings to the

gods of Thebes, and the inscriptions show that the chamber was rebuilt by the latter king. In one of the chambers beyond is an unfinished red granite shrine in which the boat or emblem of the god Amen-Ra was kept. The Little Temple was, like all other temples, enclosed within a wall of unbaked bricks, but its extent and outline were modified at different periods to suit the rearrangements made by the various kings who restored old buildings or added new ones to the site.

To the left of the Little Temple and the Pavilion of Rameses III. lie the Temple of Queen Amenarțâs, the daughter of Kashta, and three small chapels dedicated by Shep-en-áp, daughter of Piankhi, Meḥt-en-usekht, wife of Psammetichus I., and Nit-åqert (Nitocris), daughter of Psammetichus I. The scenes on the walls of the chapels are of the same class as those on the Temple of Amenărțâs, and, though interesting, are of no great importance.

The Pavilion of Rameses III. is a most interesting and instructive building, for it represents an attempt to reproduce in Egypt a small fort or strong city of the class with which the Egyptians must have become familiar in their campaigns against the Kheta and other allied peoples in Northern Syria. It seems to have been designed to take the place of a pylon, and to have been intended to add to the dignity and grandeur of the Great Temple of Rameses III., which lay beyond it. It was approached through an opening in the eastern side of the great unbaked mud brick wall, some 30 feet high and 30 feet thick, with which this king surrounded the temple buildings at Madinat Habú. In front of the building was a stone crenelated wall, nearly ten feet thick and eleven feet high, with a doorway nearly five feet wide, and in each side of this was a small room which served as a guard chamber. On the outside of these chambers are scenes representing Rameses III. and Rameses IV. making offerings to the

gods. The Pavilion consists of two large rectangular towers, about 26 feet wide, and, when complete, their height must have been about 72 feet; the distance between them is about 22 ft. 6 in. The walls behind them open out and form a small court, but they soon contract, and becoming still narrower, at length the two wings of the building unite; in the portion where they unite is a door, above which are two windows. On each side of the stone walls which remain are a number of chambers built of brick, and it appears that these filled the whole of the thickness of the great mud brick wall which enclosed all the temple buildings. The wall of the front of the pavilion slopes backwards, and its lower part rests upon a low foundation wall which slopes rapidly. On the south tower are reliefs representing Rameses III. clubbing his enemies in the presence of Harmachis, who hands him a sword. The peoples depicted here are the Ethiopians and the tribes that lived in the deserts to the west of the Nile; and those on the north tower are the Kheta, the Ameru, the Tchakari, the Shardana of the sea, the Shakalasha, the Tursha of the sea, and the Pulasta, i.e., the sea-coast dwellers of Phoenicia and the neighbouring coasts and islands (?). The scenes on the towers represent the king bringing his prisoners before Àmen-Rã, and the texts give the words spoken by the god and the king and the chiefs of the vanquished peoples. In the widest part of the space between the towers are scenes depicting Rameses III. making offerings to the gods Anḥer-Shu, Tefnut, Temu, Iusääset, Ptaḥ, Sekhet, Thoth, etc. On the walls further in the king is being led to Amen by Menthu and Temu, and he receives a crown from Åmen, whilst Thoth inscribes his name upon a palm-branch for long years of life. The entrance to the upper rooms was by a staircase in the south tower. The walls of the rooms are decorated with scenes in which the king is seen sur

rounded by naked women, who play tambourines, and bring him fruit and flowers, and play draughts with him.

The Great Temple of Rameses III. is one of the most interesting of the funerary chapels on the western bank of the Nile at Thebes, and was built by this king to his own memory; its length is nearly 500 feet, and its width about 160 feet. The upper parts of the towers of the first pylon have neither texts nor sculptures, but the lower parts have both. The reliefs on both sides of the doorways are, substantially, the same. Here we see Rameses III. clubbing a number of representatives of vanquished peoples, and near these are 86 captives with their names enclosed within ovals upon their bodies. It is clear from some of the names that the peoples here represented lived in Syria, Phoenicia, Cyprus, and parts of Africa. Here also is the god Thoth, who inscribes the king's name upon the leaves of a tree, probably a kind of celestial acacia, for the cult of which the neighbourhood was famous; and close by are Åmen, Mut, and Khonsu, before whom the king kneels. The text on the north side is a poetical description of the king's conquest of the Libyans. To the right of one of the flag-pole channels, on the south side, is a stele, dated in the 12th year of the king, in which his benefactions to the temples are extolled, and a speech of the god Ptah is reported.

The door leading to the First Court is decorated with reliefs in which Rameses III. is seen adoring various gods. The first court (A), which measures 111 feet by 136 feet, contains two porticoes; that on the right has seven rectangular pillars, in the front of each of which is a statue of the king, nearly 20 feet high, in the form of Osiris, and that on the left has eight columns. On the back of the pylon leading into this courtyard the defeat of the Libyans and the triumph of the Egyptians are depicted; in one portion of the relief on the right side the

hands of the dead are being cut off, and the numbers of men killed and mutilated, as well as lists of the spoil, are set forth with evident care. The accompanying text of course describes the battle, and the great valour of Rameses III. The seven rectangular pillars of the north portico are ornamented with battle scenes and representations of the king making offerings to the gods, etc.; in the statues the king has all the attributes of Osiris, and by the side of the legs are small

[graphic]

Court at Madînat Habû.

(From a photograph by A. Beato, of Luxor.)

statues of the sons and daughters of Rameses III. The eight columns with cup-shaped capitals of the south portico have each a double relief representing the king slaying prisoners in the presence of Amen-Ra or Menthu. On the north side of the face of the second pylon is a long inscription recording the triumph of the king over some tribes of Western Asia, and on the south side is a representation of Rameses III. reviewing his army and battle scenes, etc.

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