ir father's work; they also built another pylon
and some of the existing chambers at Karnak, set up the great obelisks
there and carved some colossi. The obelisks are exquisitely cut in red
granite, each sign being sawn in shape by copper tools fed with emery,
and the whole finished with a perfection of proportion and delicacy not
seen on other granite work. One obelisk being overthrown and broken we
can examine the minute treatment of the upper part, which was nearly a
hundred feet from the ground. The principal monument of this period is
the temple of Deir el Bahri, the funeral temple of Hatshepsut, on which
she recorded the principal event of her reign, the expedition to Punt.
The erasures of her name by Tethmosis III., and reinsertions of names
under later kings, the military scenes, and the religious groups showing
the sacred kine of Hathor, all add to the interest of the remarkable
temple. It stands on three successive terraces, rising to the base of
the high limestone cliffs behind it. The rock-cut shrine at Speos
Artemidos, and the temple of Serabit in Sinai are the only other large
monuments of this queen yet remaining. Tethmosis III. was one of the
great builders of Egypt, and much remains of his work, at about forty
different sites. The great temple of Karnak was largely built by him;
most of the remaining chambers are his, including the beautiful
botanical walls showing foreign plants. Of his work at Heliopolis there
remain the obelisks of London and New York; and from Elephantine is the
obelisk at Sion House. On the Nubian sites his work may still be seen at
Amada, Ellesia, Ibrim, Semna and in Sinai at Serabit el Khadem. Of
Amenophis II. and Tethmosis IV. there are no large monuments, they being
mainly known by additions at Karnak. The well known stele of the sphinx
was cut by the latter king, to commemorate his dream there and his
clearing of the sphinx from sand. Amenophis III. has left several large
buildings of his magnificent reign. At Karnak the temple had a new front
added as a great pylon, which was later used as the back of the hall of
columns by Seti I. But three new temples at Karnak, that of Month
(Mentu), of Mut and a smaller one, all are due to this reign, as well as
the long avenue of sphinxes before the temple of Khons; these indicate
that the present Ramesside temple of Khons has superseded an earlier one
of this king. The great temple of Luxor was built to record the divine
origin of the kin