hothmes further erected
chambers and corridors, partly open, partly supported by pillars, which
might form convenient store-chambers for the vestments of the priests
and the offerings of the people.

Thothmes also added propylaea to the temple on the south, and erected in
front of the grand entrance which was (as usual) between the pylons of
the propylaea, two or perhaps four great obelisks, one of which exists
to the present day, and is the largest and most magnificent of all such
monuments now extant. It stands in front of the Church of St. John
Lateran at Rome, and has a height of a hundred and five feet, exclusive
of the base, with a width diminishing from nine feet six inches to eight
feet seven inches. It is estimated to weigh above four hundred and fifty
tons, and is covered with well-cut hieroglyphics. No other obelisk
approaches within twelve feet of its elevation, or within fifty tons of
its weight. Yet, if we may believe an inscription of Thothmes, found on
the spot, the pair of obelisks whereof this was one shrank into
insignificance in comparison with another pair, also placed by him
before his propylaea, the height of which was one hundred and eight
cubits, or one hundred and sixty-two feet, and their weight consequently
from seven hundred to eight hundred tons! As no trace has been found of
these monsters, and as it seems almost impossible that they should have
been removed, and highly improbable that they could have been broken up
without leaving some indication of their existence, perhaps we may
conclude that they were designed rather than executed, and that the
inscription was set up in anticipation of an achievement contemplated
but never effected.

[Illustration: SECTION OF PILLARED HALL OF THOTHMES III. AT KARNAK.]

Other erections of the Great Thothmes are the enclosure of the famous
Temple of the Sun at Heliopolis, the temple of Phthah at Thebes, the
small temple at Medinet-Abou, a temple to Kneph adorned with obelisks at
Elephantine, and a series of temples and monuments erected at Ombos,
Esneh, Abydos, Coptos, Denderah, Eileithyia, Hermonthis, and Memphis in
Egypt, and at Amada, Corte, Talmis, Pselcis, Semneh, Koummeh, and Napata
in Nubia. Extensive ruins of many of these buildings still remain,
particularly at Koummeh, Semneh, Napata, Denderah, and Ombos.
Altogether, Thothmes III. is pronounced to have left behind him more
monuments than any other Pharaoh excepting Rameses II., and though
oc