and the ruins used by
him in the buildings which he erected at different places in
Egypt. But there is no need for this theory: the beauty of
the limestone which Khuniatonu had used sufficiently
accounts for the rapid disappearance of the deserted
edifices.

Thebes, whose influence and population had meanwhile never lessened,
resumed her supremacy undisturbed. If, out of respect for the past,
Tutankhamon continued the decoration of the temple of Atonu at Karnak,
he placed in every other locality the name and figure of Amon; a little
stucco spread over the parts which had been mutilated, enabled the
outlines to be restored to their original purity, and the alteration was
rendered invisible by a few coats of colour. Tutankhamon was succeeded
by the divine father Ai, whom Khuniatonu had assigned as husband to one
of his relatives named Tii, so called after the widow of Amenothes
III. Ai laboured no less diligently than his predecessor to keep up
the traditions which had been temporarily interrupted. He had been
a faithful worshipper of the Disk, and had given orders for the
construction of two funerary chapels for himself in the mountain-side
above Tel el-Amarna, the paintings in which indicate a complete
adherence to the faith of the reigning king. But on becoming Pharaoh,
he was proportionally zealous in his submission to the gods of Thebes,
and in order to mark more fully his return to the ancient belief, he
chose for his royal burying-place a site close to that in which rested
the body of Amenothes III.*

* The first tomb seems to have been dug before his marriage,
at the time when he had no definite ambitions; the second
was prepared for him and his wife Tii.

His sarcophagus, a large oblong of carved rose granite, still lies open
and broken on the spot.

[Illustration: 111.jpg SARCOPHAGUS OF THE PHARAOH AI]

Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, after the drawing of Prisse d'Avenues.

Figures of goddesses stand at the four angles and extend their winged
arms along its sides, as if to embrace the mummy of the sovereign.
Tutankhamon and Ai were obeyed from one end of Egypt to the other, from
Napata to the shores of the Mediterranean. The peoples of Syria raised
no disturbances during their reigns, and paid their accustomed tribute
regularly;* if their rule was short, it was at least happy. It would
appear, however, that after their deaths, troubles arose in the state.
The lists of