ded by
a breast-high parapet. A portico ran round the building, having seven
square pillars on each of its two sides, while at each end stood two
columns having lotus-shaped capitals; a flight of ten or twelve steps
between two walls of the same height as the basement, projected in
front, and afforded access to the cella. The two columns of the facade
were further apart than those at the opposite end of the building, and
showed a glimpse of a richly decorated door, while a second door opened
under the peristyle at the further extremity. The walls were covered
with the half-brutish profile of the good Khnumu, and those of his
two companions, Anukit and Satit, the spirits of stormy waters. The
treatment of these figures was broad and simple, the style free, light,
and graceful, the colouring soft; and the harmonious beauty of the whole
is unsurpassed by anything at Thebes itself. It was, in fact, a kind of
oratory, built on a scale to suit the capacities of a decaying town, but
the design was so delicately conceived in its miniature proportions that
nothing more graceful can be imagined.*

* Amenothes II. erected some small obelisks at Elephantine,
one of which is at present in England. The two buildings of
Amenothes III. at Elephantine were still in existence at the
beginning of the present century. They have been described
and drawn by French scholars; between 1822 and 1825 they
were destroyed, and the materials used for building barracks
and magazines at Syene.

Ancient Egypt and its feudal cities, Ombos, Edfu,* Nekhabit, Esneh,**
Medamot,*** Coptos,**** Denderah, Abydos, Memphis,^ and Heliopolis,
profited largely by the generosity of the Pharaohs.

* The works undertaken by Thutmosis III. in the temple of
Edfu are mentioned in an inscription of the Ptolemaic
period; some portions are still to be seen among the ruins
of the town.

** An inscription of the Roman period attributes the
rebuilding of the great temple of Esneh to Thutmosis III.
Grebaut discovered some fragments of it in the quay of the
modern town.

*** Amenothes II. appears to have built the existing temple.

**** The temple of Hathor was built by Thutmosis III. Some
fragments found in the Ptolemaic masonry bear the cartouche
of Thutmosis IV.

^ Amenothes II. certainly carried on works at Memphis, for
he opened a new quarry at Turah, in the ye