structure is a modern one compared with Karnak;
for Karnak was an ancient temple more than one thousand years old when
King Ptolemy began the erection of this building just before the
Christian Era. An inscription on the walls states that the time required
for its construction was one hundred and eight years, six months, and
fourteen days. When Egypt became a Roman province after the death of
Cleopatra, the Roman emperors continued the construction of the
unfinished temple. Augustus, Tiberius, Caligula, Claudius, and Nero are
represented in reliefs on the walls. The temple was dedicated to the
worship of the Goddess Hathor, the Egyptian Venus, or goddess of love
and beauty."

"Why was the temple built here two miles away from the river, instead of
near the banks of the Nile?" inquired a tourist.

"It was because this terrace is higher than the valley," answered
Mahmoud. "Remember that these green fields through which we rode are
made fertile by the overflow of the Nile; then I think that the reason
for building on this plateau will be plain to you."

[Illustration: DONKEY BOYS WERE WAITING FOR US.]

"But why was it built in a depression?"

"It was not originally in a hole," explained the guide, "but was built
on level ground. Some sixteen hundred years ago the Christian Roman
Emperor Theodosius forbade the worship of idols. After that time, the
worship of the goddess Hathor being discontinued, the temple was
neglected and a village of mud huts sprang up around it. These huts,
built of sun-dried bricks, crumbled to dust in the passage of years and
were trampled under foot. Again and again new huts supplanted the old
until in the course of centuries the debris accumulated many feet in
depth. When the government, fifty years ago, undertook to restore the
temple, the workmen had to begin by shoveling mud huts off the roof."

We descended a long flight of steps to reach the level of the floor of
the excavated temple, and passing the blue-uniformed guards entered the
grand hall of columns. The hall, as the guide had told us, was richly
decorated. Master sculptors had carved every available space on the
walls and columns with hieroglyphic inscriptions and beautiful reliefs;
master artists in color had heightened the effect with tint and shade.
Looking up we saw, pictured on the ceiling, the Egyptian deity, Nut, the
goddess of the sky, controlling the movements of sun and stars; the rays
of the sun shining in blessing on