enicians who received the sovereign with
great enthusiasm, and presented him with valuables to the amount of ten
talents.

In spite of this, the pharaoh remained barely one day there, since they
informed him from Thebes that the revered body of Ramses XII was
already in the palace of Luxor awaiting its burial.

At that epoch Thebes was an immense city occupying about twelve square
kilometers of area. It possessed the greatest temple in Egypt: that of
Amon, also a multitude of edifices, private and public. The main
streets were broad, straight, and paved with stone slabs, the banks of
the Nile had their boulevards, the houses were four or five stories
high.

Since every temple and palace had a great gateway with pylons Thebes
was called "the city of a hundred gates." It was a city on the one hand
greatly given to commerce and trade, and on the other, the threshold,
as it were, of eternity. On the western bank of the Nile, in the hills
and among them, was an incalculable number of tombs of pharaohs,
priests, and magnates.

Thebes was indebted for its splendor to two pharaohs: Amenophis III or
Memnon, who found it a "city of mud and left it a city of stone," and
Ramses II, who finished and perfected the edifices begun by Amenophis.

On the eastern bank of the Nile, in the southern part of the city, was
an entire quarter of immense regal edifices: palaces, villas, temples,
on the ruins of which the small town of Luxor stands at present. In
that quarter the remains of Ramses XII were placed for the last
ceremonies.

When Ramses XIII arrived all Thebes went forth to greet him, only old
men and cripples remained in the houses, and thieves in the alleys.
Here, for the first time, the people took the horses from the pharaoh's
chariot and drew it themselves. Here for the first time the pharaoh
heard shouts against the abuses of priests. This comforted him; also
cries that every seventh day should be for rest. He desired to make
that gift to toiling Egypt, but he knew not that his plans had become
known, and that the people were waiting to see them accomplished.

His journey of five miles lasted a couple of hours amid dense crowds of
people. The pharaoh's chariot was stopped very often in the midst of a
throng, and did not move till the guard of his holiness had raised
those who lay prostrate before it.

When at last he reached the palace gardens where he was to occupy one
of the smaller villas, the pharaoh was so wearie