s under the pyramid were examined, and the
inscriptions discovered of King Ahmenemhait III. prove that this was
without doubt the pyramid of the monarch of that name. It was discovered
that the Romans had broken into the recesses of these secret chambers,
and many broken Roman _amphorae_ were unearthed. Later Professor Petrie
examined the pyramid of Illahun, which stands at the gate of the Fayum.
It is probable that this was on the site of the ancient locks which
regulated the flow of the Nile into Lake Moris. Many of the antiquities
here discovered bore inscriptions of King Usirtasen II., and, in the same
locality, was discovered the site of an early Christian cemetery dating
from the fifth or sixth centuries. A few miles from Illahun, the same
indefatigable explorer discovered the remains of another town belonging
to the eighteenth or nineteenth dynasties. A wall once surrounded the
town, and beyond the wall was a necropolis. The place is now called
Tell Gurah, and the relics give inscriptions of Thutmosis III. or
Tutankhamon and of Horemheb.

In the same season of 1888--89, Miss Amelia B. Edwards, who had been
sent out by the Egypt Exploration Fund, brought to a conclusion the
excavations which had been carried on for several seasons at Bubastis.
It was discovered that the temple itself dated back to the reign of
the famous Khufui (Kheops), the builder of the great Pyramid, since
an inscription with his name on it was discovered, together with one
inscribed to King Khafri (Chephren). The monuments discovered on this
site were, for the most part, shipped to Europe and America.

The city of Boston, Mass., received a colossal Hathor-head capital of
red granite, part of a colossal figure of a king, an immense lotus-bud
capital from the Hypo-style Hall of the temple, a bas-relief in red
granite from the Hall of Osorken II., and two bas-reliefs of limestone
from the temple of Hathor, taken from the ancient Termuther.

[Illustration: 347.jpg THE LOTUS FLOWER NYMPHAEA LOTUS]

Specimens recovered from here date from the fourth to the twenty-second
dynasties, and the relics from Termuther are from the last period of the
Ptolemies.

Early in 1891, Professor Petrie made his exhaustive examination of the
pyramid of Me-dum, which he declared to be the earliest of all dated
Egyptian pyramids, and probably the oldest dated building in the world.
Its builder was Snofrui of the third dynasty; and, joined with it, and
in a perfect