feebler descendants of Ramses III. than it had ever been under the most
famous Pharaohs.

* The mention of a tribute, for instance, in the time of
Ramses IV. from the Lotanu.

Thebes continued to be the favourite royal residence. Here in its temple
the kings were crowned, and in its palaces they passed the greater part
of their lives, and here in its valley of sepulchres they were laid
to rest when their reigns and lives were ended. The small city of the
beginning of the XVIIIth dynasty had long encroached upon the plain, and
was now transformed into an immense town, with magnificent monuments,
and a motley population, having absorbed in its extension the villages
of Ashiru,* and Madit, and even the southern Apit, which we now call
Luxor. But their walls could still be seen, rising up in the middle of
modern constructions, a memorial of the heroic ages, when the power of
the Theban princes was trembling in the balance, and when conflicts with
the neighbouring barons or with the legitimate king were on the point of
breaking out at every moment.**

* The village of Ashiru was situated to the south of the
temple of Karnak, close to the temple of Mut. Its ruins,
containing the statues of Sokhit collected by Amenothes III.,
extend around the remains marked X in Mariette's plan.

* These are the walls which are generally regarded as
marking the sacred enclosure of the temples: an examination
of the ruins of Thebes shows us that, during the XXth and
XXIst dynasties, brick-built houses lay against these walls
both on the inner and outer sides, so that they must have
been half hidden by buildings, as are the ancient walls of
Paris at the present day.

The inhabitants of Apit retained their walls, which coincided almost
exactly with the boundary of Nsittaui, the great sanctuary of Amon;
Ashiru sheltered behind its ramparts the temple of Mut, while Apit-risit
clustered around a building consecrated by Amenothes III. to his divine
father, the lord of Thebes. Within the boundary walls of Thebes extended
whole suburbs, more or less densely populated and prosperous, through
which ran avenues of sphinxes connecting together the three chief
boroughs of which the sovereign city was composed. On every side might
have been seen the same collections of low grey huts, separated from
each other by some muddy pool where the cattle were wont to drink
and the women to draw