Read Ebook: Predecessors of Cleopatra by North Leigh Davis G A Georgina A Illustrator

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At this time there were at least several grandchildren of Queen Tyi, as special houses were prepared for them in connection with the palace. We can therefore imagine the impatience with which the dowager queen awaited the time for her journey to the new city and rejoining her loved ones, and couriers were doubtless busy, passing back and forth, with orders and directions from the king, as well as messages of affection to his mother, which were returned in full measure. It seems almost as if it might be at his special desire that she remained in Thebes, to lend him, as before said, all the aid in her power towards the completion of his work and that he might have the satisfaction of welcoming her to his new capital in a nearly completed state. She may also have acted to some extent as regent in his absence.

The king and his wife met the dowager queen after their long separation with all honor and affection, and themselves conducted her into the new temple. A picture of this scene, which remains, is thus inscribed, "Introduction of the queen mother to behold her sun shadow," and very happy she must have felt in thus viewing the visible tokens of the realization of the dreams, hopes and prayers of many years. She must inspect the temple, the palaces of the king, queen and the various princesses, as well as the dwelling prepared for herself, and no doubt be made acquainted with the chief overseers and artists whom "the king delighted to honor," and under whose charge the work had so prospered. The private houses were probably varied in color and frequently decorated on the outside with pictures of the occupations or professions of the owners. Beyond, some such scene as this, an immense meadow cut through with a blue stream, north and south, white walls of towns, on the horizons rim the reddish sands of the desert. The myth they believed in was this, "Osiris fell in love with this strip of land in the midst of deserts. He covered it with plants and living creatures, so as to have from them profit. Then the kindly god took a human form and became the first pharaoh. When he felt that his body was withering he left it and entered into his son and later into his son's son. The lord has extended like a mighty tree. All the pharaohs are his roots, the nomarks and priests his larger branches, the nobles the smaller branches. The visible god sits on the throne of the earth and receives the income which belongs to him from Egypt; the invisible god receives offerings in his temples and declares his will through the lips of the priesthood."

It was a joyful reunion, this of the elder queen with her son and his family, an occasion never to be forgotten in their domestic annals, and we may imagine how the story was handed down from generation to generation. The day when grandmother, or great-grandmother came and saw the new temple and new city. Loved and honored Queen Tyi probably settled down with or near her son and his wife, enjoying to the full the kindly family life and seeing as had her mother-in-law before her the grandchildren gather around. Perhaps she regretted that no son was born to succeed his father, for King Khu-n-aten had daughters only, but her life had been a full and happy one and she had enjoyed the blessing, accorded to but few, of seeing her heart's dearest wishes fulfilled. What more could she ask?

Whether she passed away in Khu-aten, or Tel-el-Amarna, we do not know, but if the former was the case a long mourning procession, attended with every honor, must have borne her inanimate form preserved in the highest style of the embalmer's art, back to Thebes, for there in the Tombs of the Queens her last resting place has been found. These tombs are at the end of a valley, which extends for nearly a mile to the west of the temple of Medinet Habu, that of Tyi is said to be among the most perfect. The valley which leads to the tombs has bare and lofty limestone cliffs on either side, which are covered with inscriptions; it is not so familiar as some other places in Egypt, not being very easy of access. More than twenty tombs in various stages of completion have been discovered, some of them mere caves with their records often made not in the solid stone, but in plaster. Queen Tyi's tomb consists of an ante-chamber, passages, a chapel, and small chambers, all more or less decorated with paintings. At the entrance, on either side, is Maat, the goddess of Truth, with extended wings, to protect those who come in. There are various pictures of the gods and of Queen Tyi, in one of which she prays to them, seated at a banquet table.

Of these tombs Curtis says, "The sculpture and paintings are gracious and simple. They are not graceful, but suggest the grace and repose which the ideal of female life requires. In the graceful largeness and simplicity of the character of the decoration it seems as if the secret or reverence for womanly character and influence, which was to be later revealed was instinctively suggested by those who knew them not. The cheerful yellow hues of the walls and their exposure to the day, the warm silence of the hills, seclusion, and the rich luminous landscape in the vista of the steep valley, make these tombs pleasant pavilions of memory."

It is believed that the accession of Khu-n-aten took place in the thirty-first year of his father's reign, in the month Pakhons, or February, and that his marriage occurred in the month Epiphi, or May, four years later. In his sixth year he abandoned the god Amon, or Amen, and adopted the Aten worship. In his sixth year also, after the birth of his second daughter, came the change of name and facial type at Thebes, Maat only of the old divinities seems to have been retained. The pictures of this period show rays of sunbeams terminating in tiny hands which support the bodies, crowns, etc., of the royal pair.

From first to last the queen is closely associated with her husband, constantly pictured with him, a true companion and helpmate, a faithful guardian of his children, and a devoted daughter to his mother, possibly her aunt, whose name, in part, she seems to have taken. As Kidijah upheld and supported Mahomet in the promulgation of his newly received revelation, so did Nefertiti accept and lend her wifely aid to the faith of her husband and his mother.

A prayer or address to the rising sun is attributed to her and shows the religious fervor with which she was penetrated.

"Thou disk of the sun, thou living god! there is none other beside thee! Thou givest health to the eyes through thy beams, creator of all beings. Thou goest up on the eastern horizon of the heavens to dispense life to all whom thou hast created; to man, to four-footed beasts, birds and all manner of creeping things on the earth, when they live. Thus they behold thee and they go to sleep when thou settest.

"Grant to thy son who loves thee life in truth to the Lord of the land that he may live united with thee in eternity.

"Behold his wife the queen Nefert-i-Thi, may she live forevermore and eternally by his side, well pleasing to thee she admires what thou hast created day by day. He rejoices at the sight of thy benefits. Grant him a long existence as king of the land."

At Heliopolis the sun-god Ra had been specially worshipped. He was pictured hawk-headed, surmounted by disk and uraeus, hence with priests at Heliopolis the king may have been in greater sympathy than with those at other points, where the various gods were worshipped. It is possible, too, that they were less antagonistic to him than the others, or may even have supported him. Be that as it may, at Heliopolis Khu-n-aten built a temple. The shrine received gifts from Pharaoh after Pharaoh and was very wealthy. It also had at one time an immense library. "The city," says Strabo, who came to it shortly after the Christian Era, "is situated upon a large mound. It contains the Temple of the Sun," probably a later one than that of Amenophis IV, "and the Ox Mnevis, which is kept in a sanctuary, and is regarded by the inhabitants as a god." Says Pollard, "The temple had three courts, each one probably adorned with obelisks, which were so numerous that one was called 'The City of Obelisks.' Pharaohs of different dynasties erected a pair of obelisks in the temple of the Sun as an offering and a memorial. After the third court came the Naos, with its outer chamber or holy place and its inner or holy of holies, in which was the shrine with the symbol of the deity. Strabo tells us that the ox Mnevis was kept in the sanctuary."

Six daughters, one after another, enlarged the family circle of the palace "a garland of princesses," as they have been poetically called. They constantly appear in the pictures with their parents and even attended their father in his expeditions in his chariot. Their names are given as Mi-aten or Mut-aten, Mak-aten, Anknes-aten, Nofru-aten, or Nofrura, Ta-shera, Satem-en-ra and Bek-aten, some doubt seems to exist as to whether the last was daughter or grand-daughter of Queen Tyi. A standing figure of this princess, at which the artists are still seen chiselling from life, under the eye of the queen's overseer, Putha, by name, is among the various wall paintings. Perhaps she was an especial darling, this youngest child, or she may have had a particularly beautiful face and form; but the temple walls were said to have been nearly covered with the pictures of the king, queen and princess. Aten-en-aten or Khu-n-aten's feelings towards his family were tinged with all a lover's enthusiasm. His words have a poetic cast.

"The beams of the sun's disk shone over him with a pure light so as to make young his body daily.

"Therefore King Khu-n-aten swore an oath to his father thus: Sweet love fills my heart for the queen, for her young children. Grant a great age to the queen Nofrit-Thi in long years; may she keep the hand of Pharaoh. Grant a great age to the royal daughter Meri-aten and to the royal daughter Mak-aten and to their children, may they keep the hand of the queen their mother eternally and forever.

"What I swear is a true avowal of what my heart says to me. Never is there falsehood in what I say," and he ends a long inscription, relative to the setting up of various memorial tablets with, "These memorial tablets which were placed in the midst had fallen down. I will have them raised up afresh and have them placed again in the situation in which they were . This I swear to do in the 8th year, in the month Tybi, on the 9th day the king was in Khuaten and Pharaoh mounted on his court chariot of polished copper to behold the memorial tablets of the disk of the sun which are on the hills of the territory to the south-east of Khu-aten." And perhaps the queen and the eldest daughters followed him to make this investigation. Brugsch says the inscriptions on these tablets were first found and published by Prisse d'Avennes.

The series of tablets discovered at Tel-el-Amarna in 1888 are chiefly in the museums of London, Berlin, Paris and St. Petersburgh, with a few at Gizeh. One letter is from a lady who styles herself "the handmaid" of the king and others relate to the exchange of presents and slaves, men and girls.

Another beloved member of this amiable family was the princess Notem-Mut, younger sister of the queen, who seems quite to have been counted in. She, too, had a special palace built for her, and married Horem-heb or Ho-rem-hib, not of royal birth, but who eventually became the last king of this, the Eighteenth Dynasty. He may have had two wives, or else Notem-mut changed her name, as we read also of a queen Ese as his spouse.

"The tombstone of the artist, Bek," says Brugsch, "was put up for sale some years ago in the open market place in Cairo. My respected friend, Mr. L. Vassali, bought it, and was good enough to give me an exact drawing of the carving upon it and a paper impression of the inscription."

The wall pictures that were found in the tombs present the king and queen seated on a balcony with their eldest children, the baby in the mother's lap, enduring certain officials with the necklace of honor and casting down presents to the crowd. A pleasant sport, enjoyed in common by the whole family party. Queen Tyi, the chief of the women's department, named Hai, the steward, the treasurer and other members of the court, also shared in the fun.

Another picture gives the king and queen worshipping the sun, accompanied by two of their daughters, showing clearly that all the duties and pleasures of life were shared in this amiable family. A touch of Nature makes us all kin, and this recalls the picture one often sees of domestic life among the Germans, where father, mother and children go off for a picnic or a frolic together, while the Frenchman perhaps is in the caf? alone.

Less warlike than the majority of his predecessors, we still read of some fighting during Aten-aten's or Khu-n-aten's reign and victories over the Syrians and other nations, which the king, though probably not taking the field himself, celebrated with the customary festival. He appears in "the full Pharaonic attire, adorned with the insignia of his rank, on his lion throne, carried on the shoulders of his warriors. At his side walk servants, who, with long fans, wave the cool air upon their heated lord." This was in the twelfth year of his reign, on the 18th day of the month Mekhir, December. The crook, whip, and sickle-shaped sword were emblems of royalty, while of the New Empire was a canopy raised on wooden pillars, colored and ornamented, with a thick carpet on seat, footstool and floor. On ordinary occasions the king was probably carried in a sort of Sedan chair of splendid appearance.

Later occurred the marriages of some of the daughters, and as no son was born, two at least of the sons-in-law seem to have ruled in succession, and it is pleasant to be able to believe that this was peacefully accomplished, without the family jars and broils so often coincident with the dividing of a heritage. In modern parlance the ladies do not seem to have made very brilliant matches. No foreign prince or monarch is recorded as being an accepted suitor. "Home talent" was strictly patronized, and the sons of high officials were deemed suitable parties, who by right of their wives it would seem, succeeded each other as king. Their reigns were short enough for each to have a turn as the pleasant task of ruling.

Statues of him, his wife and Queen Tyi have been found, a beautiful and perfect one of the king is in the Louvre, and there is a death mask, which, among his various names, speaks of him as the "lord of the sweet wind." Fragments of the stele with which his palace was decorated are to be seen in some of the museums in Europe, also in the museum of the University of Pennsylvania, and perhaps at other points in this country.

It seems to have been the sons-in-law who took chief authority, after Khu-n-aten's death, and not the queen. She survived her husband for years. Her palace had a court, or harim, with glazed tiles, the walls painted with scenes, and the floor with pools, birds, cattle and wild plants. In the court was a fine well with a canopy on carved columns, and round coping, and an inscription with the queen's titles. In the temple offerings of flowers were made and hymns sung to the accompaniment of harps, it was perhaps a return to the practice of the earliest times, and one writer suggests that its simplicity points to the Vedism of India. The queen and her daughters are shown waiting on the king in his illness. There is a fine fragment of a statue of the queen at Amherst college, and a gold ring and some other personal belongings at other places. With the death mask of the king in the University of Pennsylvania are some fragments from Tel-el-Amarna giving the names and title of Queen Nefertiti. Khu-n-aten is thought by late discoveries to have reigned seventeen or eighteen years.

The second daughter, Mak-aten, died before her father, between her ninth and eleventh years; her tomb is in a side chapel of her father's and the family are shown mourning for her, but she appears in the picture of the six princesses. Anknes-aten or Ankh s'en'pa'aten was born in the eighth year of her father's reign and was ten years of age at his death. In her sister's reign she was married to Tut-ankh'aten and changed her name to Ankh's'en'amen, "her life is from Amen," showing that already the changes her father had made were discarded. A few rings belonging to her remain, but with the exception of these relics nothing more is known of the other daughters, also nothing is known beyond figures and names on general monuments. Of Ras' Ra'smenka or Ra'smenkh'ka'ser'kheperu, husband of the eldest daughter of Queen Nefertiti it is believed that he abandoned the palace in his third year of sovereignty and perhaps went to Thebes; there are few remains of him, but the dates are estimated as 1368-1358 B. C.

King Ai was probably husband of one of the daughters, though his wife is elsewhere spoken of as the foster-mother of King Khu-n-aten, which seems rather hopelessly to mix up the chronology. In this case she is spoken of as Thi, the beloved name of that king's own mother. They are also called respectively "the dressers of the king," and "the high nurse, the nourishing mother of the godlike one." Ai's fine tomb at Tel-el-Amarna gives an account of his marriage. The tomb was never entirely finished; it is described by one traveller as having a sepulchral hall, beautifully painted, with colors still fresh and brilliant, with the sarcophagus standing in the middle, among the pictures, the king painted red and the queen of a pale yellow, are shown gathering lotus flowers; also the king being presented by the goddesses Mat and Hathor to Osiris. Perhaps two wives shared the honor of sovereignty with King Ai, or the second may have been espoused after the death of the first, and it seems likely the latter was much her husband's junior.

Maspero gives a description of the palace of King Ai, also pictured on the walls of the Tel-el-Amarna tombs. He calls him the son-in-law of Khu-en-aten. "An oblong tank with sloping sides and two descending flights of steps, faces the entrance. The building is rectangular, the width being somewhat greater than the depth. A large doorway opens in the front, and gives access to a court planted with trees, and flanked by storehouses, fully stocked with provisions. Two small courts, placed symmetrically in the two further corners, contain the staircases, which lead up to the terrace. This first building, however, is but the frame which surrounds the owner's dwelling. The two frontages are much adorned with a pillared portico and a pylon. Passing the outer door, one enters a sort of central passage, divided by two walls, pierced with doorways, so as to form three successive courts. The inside court is bordered by chambers, the two others open to right and left upon two smaller courts, whence flights of steps lead up to the terraced roof. This central building is called the 'Akhonuti,' or private dwelling of kings and nobles, to which only the family or intimate friends had access."

All this, of course, varied in different cases with the taste of the owner, and the long, straight wall in front was sometimes divided and ornamented with colonnades and towers.

The old religion was resuming its sway, and the priests of Amon regaining their lost influence. They accepted the rule of Tut'ankh-Amon, whose monuments are said to extend only from Memphis to Thebes, and still more that of Ay, who was a true worshipper of the old gods. His reign, however, is spoken of as "feeble," and the principal monument of the time is a shrine, high up in the face of cliffs, behind Ekhmin. King Ay seemed to have a special passion for tomb building, as there are no less than three attributed to him. The first at Tel-el-Amarna, the last at Thebes, coincident probably with his complete change of religious views and associations.

King Horem-heb seems first to have been a renowned general in the army, and though not of royal birth, his horoscope foretold for him great success. The earlier histories of him say that he was a special favorite of King Khu-n-aten, who made him guardian of the kingdom, which position, so near the throne, suggests opportunities to win the heart of the princess. The god Amon, it is said, brought her to him, "the crown prince Horem-hib," and the inscription adds, "she bowed herself and embraced his pleasant form, and placed herself before him." Was it perchance on account of this kind service of the god that they both espoused his religion so fervently, or did the priests tamper with the princess and she inspire her lover with enthusiasm for the old beliefs?

The pictures of this king and his mother Sonit, at a banquet, where some of the company were of the living, some of the dead, has been described in an earlier chapter, as also the statues of himself and his wife, he with a handsome, melancholy face, she also handsome, but with a touch of sarcasm in her smile. Her likeness has been ascribed to other queens.

The group of Horem-hib and the god Amon, in the Turin Museum, is pronounced to be "dry in treatment," while the colossi in red granite, against his pylon at Karnak, the bas-reliefs at Silsilis, and the portrait statue just referred to are deemed by the same critic "faultless." Other wall decorations show the king conferring the insignia of the Golden Collar upon a certain Nefer-hotep of Thebes. He is sometimes improperly called Horus, while Manetho by this name refers to Khu-n-aten.

Of Queen Nezem-mut there are not many remains, and these may be briefly enumerated. She figures in the tomb of Ay in a family group; there is the statue of her with the King at Turin; she appears as a female sphinx as given by Rosellini, there is a scarab at Berlin, and a frog with her name at Abydos. Since, with the reign of Horem-hib the eighteenth dynasty concludes, and so little is to be found as regards his wife, we have included her brief history with that of her sister, Queen Nefertiti, in the present chapter. A new dynasty, the nineteenth, succeeded, while some authorities maintain that the early members of the Ramesside family were contemporary with Horem-hib.

TUAA.

Queen Ti, Thy, Tyi, Tui, or Tuaa, as her name is variously spelled, did not have so romantic a love story as did her great ancestress, but neither would it be quite fair to set down her marriage with Set I as purely one of convenience, no matter how much each might have gained by the union. Their opportunities of meeting, since Egyptian women are not so cloistered as other Eastern nations, may have been frequent, and it is possible the connection may have been one of feeling, as well as of state policy. Of her early life, however, we know nothing, nor are we assured of the name of her parents. In marrying her Seti I conformed to the usual but not invariable custom of these monarchs, in uniting themselves with a princess of Egyptian lineage.

The priests acknowledged the new queen as of the blood royal, the true Theban line, hence there could be no dispute as to the rights of her children. Her experiences were different from those of her great predecessor of the name; she did not journey from a far country to meet her husband, in all probability, as did her great-grandmother, nor did she share with him as did her grandmother, in the effort to promulgate a new religion, constantly pictured beside him in all his occupations. She was both the wife and mother of a warrior, and life must of necessity have passed much a part from them.

To us Queen Tuaa is but a shadowy form, chiefly known as the mother of perhaps the greatest king in the long Egyptian line. Some of her traits of character, some of her features, may have descended to this haughty scion of the race, but they are now beyond our power of specification. He did not show her, apparently, the devotion the first Tyi received from her son, and in his attention to his father's tomb there is no record of any special care of his mother's, though doubtless it was not neglected. "On the walls of one of the temples," says one traveler, "the youthful Rameses is being suckled by the goddesses; on the one side by Anek 'his divine mother, Lady of Elephantine'; on the other by Hathor, with a similar inscription, the features are so much alike that they probably represent those of his own mother." As a child even Rameses must have been freed, in great measure, from his mother's guidance, since, to establish himself more firmly on the throne, Seti made his son co-ruler with himself, and, to some extent, a sharer in the cares of state and knowledge of warfare.

It is said that Queen Tuaa acted as regent for husband or son during a Syrian campaign. She must have been proud of her talented and precious child, but state etiquette doubtless separated her much from him, and there may have been more outlet for motherly care and tenderness among her other children; of these we do not find much record, save one brother, to whom Rameses was greatly attached. This brother was called Khamus. Tuaa is not recorded as having shared her queenly honors or her husband's affection with other wives, at any rate, she was the legal consort.

Lady Duff Gordon speaks of Egypt as "the palimpsest in which the Bible is written over Herodotus, and the Koran over that." At this period it was in the middle stage of this classification. The modern Copt most resembles the ancient Egyptian; the nose and eyes are the same as in the profiles in the tombs and temples. The fellah woman of the present, it is said, walks around the ancient statues in order to have children, and the customs at birth and burial are the same as in ancient times. Of marriage customs of the past less is known, as we have to bear in mind, than of their funeral ceremonies. The genuine Egyptian had a bronze colored skin, recognizing a brother countryman at a glance and despising black, yellow and even white skins; the queen herself, being of ancient race, may have indulged this feeling; certainly it was most apparent in her haughty son.

Was Queen Tuaa beautiful, good looks being usually thought an important part of the claims of a royal bride to her position, a picture, often flattered, being the only means a royal suitor had to judge of his future wife? Curtis thus describes a beautiful Egyptian: "The Greek Venus was sea born, but our Egyptian is sun born. The brown blood of the sun burns along her veins--the soul of the sun streams shaded from her eyes." Fascinating are the almond-eyes of Egyptian women, bordered black with the kohl, whose intensity accords with the sumptuous passion that mingles moist and languid with their light; Eastern eyes are full of moonlight. Eastern beauty is a dream of passionate possibility. Was the queen perchance of this temperament: "I am of a silent disposition. I never tell what I see. I spoil not the sweetness of my fruits by vain tattling." For posterity, at least, she has proved so, for we know little of her.

"In Egypt every man," especially if he were of royal birth, "received, after death, by courtesy, the title of Osiris, because it was hoped he had attained blessedness in the bosom of the god."

Queen Tuaa stands behind her husband, and Miss Edwards finds in her delicate but slightly angular profile a resemblance to some of the portraits of Queen Elizabeth. In Rameses II she says "the beauty of the race culminates. The artists of the Egyptian Renaissance, always great in profile portraits, are nowhere seen to better advantage than in this series."

A statue of the Lady Nai, in the Louvre, may give some idea of the dress of this period, the nineteenth dynasty. She wears a long wig, with a band round her head, a tight garment of linen, not unlike the modern chemise, only narrower, and a strip of linen hanging down in front.

This temple of El Kurneh is at the entrance of the valley of the Tombs of the Kings, and the cutting is called by the Arabs Bab-el-Molook, "gate of the Sultan." The road is narrow and stony, its desert sands dazzling in the brilliant sunshine, leading to a lonely and sepulchral glen, honeycombed with the tombs of past dignitaries, nobles, priests and monarchs.

Thebes was probably Queen Tuaa's principal residence, and the palace saw many partings, since with warriors for husband, sons and grandsons, if the queen survived so long, they must have been frequently absent, and she must needs have passed some anxious hours. But so essentially was war the trade of the monarchs of ancient times, and in the lives of their female relatives so much a matter of course, that it would seem as if the feminine heart must have become somewhat hardened. Doubtless the royal lady looked forward to receiving a victor laden with spoils. We almost seem to hear the burden of the refrain, "Have they not sped, have they not divided the prey, to every man a damsel or two, to Sisera a prey of diverse colors of needlework on both sides, meet for the necks of them that take the spoil?" What matter to the conqueror, or even to his consort, if thousands of lives paid the price?

Seti I was "a man of blood," and is spoken of as "a jackal which rushes leaping through the land, a grim lion that frequents the more hidden paths of all regions, a powerful bull with a sharpened pair of horns." His chariot horses were called "Amon gives him strength." But if, in Scripture language, he chastised the people "with whips," Rameses II, his son, "chastised them with scorpions."

Little, perhaps, did Queen Tuaa then imagine that one of her daughters-in-law, a princess of Khita, would be from among the conquered people. But so it proved, when Rameses II formed an alliance with the King of Khita and took his daughter to wife; but Queen Tuaa may not have lived to see the union, since Rameses II in earlier times had probably already provided himself with a wife.

Queen Tuaa must have viewed with interest, as did Queen Mertytefs of the fourth dynasty, the magnificent architectural works of her husband. In one case a temple of the gods, which yet recorded the king's own power, and in the other the tomb or monument which should keep before the eyes of all future generations the name of its builder. The temple lies largely in ruins, but the older structure has withstood to a much greater degree the ravages of time and the wanton destruction of man.

The city of Thebes was magnificent with temples and palaces, and was built on both sides of the Nile, the flat plain stretched away to the mountains, and against the blue of the cloudless sky rose its towers and pylons, its colossal columns and statues. Clusters or avenues of palms lent a light but grateful shade from the sun's unveiled brightness, and added a touch of living green to the azure of the firmament and creamy whiteness of some of the buildings. Others were of different colors, giving a jewel-like effect at a distance in the rays of the brilliant sun. In some instances the trade or profession of the owner was pictured on the front walls. The streets were crowded with people; beasts of burden, heavily laden, made their way slowly along. Vendors of all sorts lined the sides of the street, and a hubbub of voices rose constantly. In the grander objects Nature had furnished the model, the mountain summits suggested the form of the pyramid and the caves of the Nile valley the temples.

The temple of Luxor, or El Uksor, was near the river, but faced from it toward that of Karnak, and a long avenue of sphinxes, a mile in extent, connected the two. What one king began, another added to, and a third, perhaps, finished; thus Seti I, and his, in some respects, greater son, are, in their architectural works, constantly associated, together. The sculpture of Siti, however, is considered the finer. The interiors of the temples were often gloomy and dim, but at the summer solstice the sun penetrated to the inner sanctuary of Karnak.

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