ition
just below the cataract attracted to it the attention of the military
engineers, was carefully fortified and a temple built upon it, the
materials of which were used later on in the masonry of the sanctuary of
Ptolemaic times. Thebes exhibited a certain outburst of vitality under
the impulse given by Ankhnasnofiribri and by Shashonqu, the governor of
her palace;*** two small chapels, built in the centre of the town, still
witness to the queen's devotion to Amon, of whom she was the priestess.
Wealthy private individuals did their best to emulate their sovereign's
example, and made for themselves at Shekh Abd-el-Gurnah and at Assassif
those rock-hewn tombs which rival those of the best periods in their
extent and the beauty of their bas-reliefs.****

* A stele of his forty-fourth year still exists in the
quarries of the Mokattam.

** According to Herodotus, it was from the quarries of
Elephantine that Amasis caused to be brought the largest
blocks which he used in the building of Sais.

*** Her tomb still exists at Deir el-Medineh, and the
sarcophagus, taken from the tomb in 1833, is now in the
British Museum.

**** The most important of these tombs is that of Petenit,
the father of Shashonqu, who was associated with
Ankhnasnofiribri in the government of Thebes.

Most of the cities of the Said were in such a state of decadence that it
was no longer possible to restore to them their former prosperity, but
Abydos occupied too important a place in the beliefs connected with the
future world, and attracted too many pilgrims, to permit of its being
neglected. The whole of its ancient necropolis had been rifled by
thieves during the preceding centuries, and the monuments were nearly as
much buried by sand as in our own times.

[Illustration: 111.jpg AN OSIRIS STRETCHED FULL LENGTH ON THE GROUND]

Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, after Mariette. The monument is a
statuette measuring only 15 centimetres in length; it has
been reproduced to give an idea of the probable form of the
statue seen by Herodotus.

The dismantled fortress now known as the Shunet ez-Zebib served as the
cemetery for the ibises of Thoth, and for the stillborn children of the
sacred singing-women, while the two Memnonia of Seti and Ramses, now
abandoned by their priests, had become mere objects of respectful
curiosity, on which devout Egyptians or passing travellers--Phoenician