enth century, and the Louvre is in possession of some
fragments from it which came from Salt's collection; it was
rediscovered in 1870, and some portions of it were
transferred by Mariette to the Boulaq Museum. The remainder
was destroyed by the fellahin, at the instigation of the
enlightened amateurs of Cairo, and fragments of it have
passed into various private collections. The decoration has
been attributed to Chaldoan influence, but it is a work
purely Egyptian, both in style and in technique.

[Illustration: 321.jpg THE COLOSSAL OSIRIAN FIGURES in THE FIRST COURT
AT MEDINET-HABU]

Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a photograph by Beato.

The difficulties to overcome were so appalling, that when the marvellous
work was once accomplished, no subsequent attempt was made to construct
a second like it: all the remaining structures of Ramses III., whether
at Memphis, in the neighbourhood of Abydos, or at Karnak, were in the
conventional style of the Pharaohs. He determined, nevertheless, to give
to the exterior of the Memnonium, which he built near Medinet-Habu for
the worship of himself, the proportions and appearance of an Asiatic
"Migdol," influenced probably by his remembrance of similar structures
which he had seen during his Syrian campaign. The chapel itself is of
the ordinary type, with its gigantic pylons, its courts surrounded by
columns--each supporting a colossal Osirian statue--its hypostyle
hall, and its mysterious cells for the deposit of spoils taken from the
peoples of the sea and the cities of Asia. His tomb was concealed at a
distant spot in the Biban-el-Moluk, and we see depicted on its walls the
same scenes that we find in the last resting-place of Seti I. or Ramses
II., and in addition to them, in a series of supplementary chambers, the
arms of the sovereign, his standards, his treasure, his kitchen, and the
preparation of offerings which were to be made to him. His sarcophagus,
cut out of an enormous block of granite, was brought for sale to Europe
at the beginning of this century, and Cambridge obtained possession of
its cover, while the Louvre secured the receptacle itself.

These were years of profound tranquillity. The Pharaoh intended that
absolute order should reign throughout his realm, and that justice
should be dispensed impartially within it.

[Illustration: 322.jpg THE FIRST PYLON OF THE TEMPLE]

There were to be no more exactions, no more cr