The History of Antiquity (Vol. 1-6). Duncker Max
On the east side of the enlarged temple of Sesurtesen, he built a splendid hall, the roof of which is supported by fifty-six pillars. Besides this he built additions to the temple of Ra at Heliopolis, restored the temple at Dendera, apparently after a plan sketched on a goatskin, which, belonging to the time of Chufu (p. 94) was rediscovered under king Phiops (p. 101),[197] and finally he erected shrines to the sun-god Mentu at Hermonthis, near Thebes, the god Sebek at Ombos, Chnum at Letopolis (Esneh), and on the island of Elephantine. In Nubia he erected temples at Pselchis, Korte, Amada, and Semne. The temple at Semne he consecrated to Chnum and Sesurtesen III., who extended the borders of Egypt to this point (p. 105), in order that "the king might live again in this memorial."[198]
Before the great sphinx, near the second pyramid, Tuthmosis IV. erected the memorial stone already mentioned (p. 94); it represents the king worshipping the sphinx. In the inscription the sphinx addresses the king, and says, "I, thy father Harmachu, give thee the dominion, the world in all its length and breadth, rich tribute from all nations, and a long life of many years."[199]
The buildings of Amenophis III. are not inferior to those of Tuthmosis III. in extent or magnificence. Half an hour southward of the gateways, court, and porticoes of the temple at Karnak, close on the right bank of the Nile, at the modern village of Luxor, Amenophis built a second temple to Ammon, the god of Thebes. In a court surrounded by colonnades, the "court of sacrifice" joined the antechamber of the temple, or outer temple, then came the temple with the Holy of Holies, built in the form invariably used in Egypt after the restoration.[200] Only the spacious antechamber, a hall with a roof supported on pillars and lighted by windows in the wall, or by the spaces between the front pillars, could be entered by laymen. The inner temple, reserved for the priests, to which a second gate led from the antechamber, was a smaller hall of the same kind, which received only a moderate light through openings made high up in the side walls. From this half-darkened room the Holy of Holies was again separated by a court, and the entrance was through a door. Two other doors led by means of a passage running round the Holy of Holies into the chamber surrounding it. The Holy of Holies, together with the chambers abutting upon it, was surrounded by a high wall and formed a separate temple of small dimensions. The masonry is heavy, and narrows toward the top. Here in the gloom dwelt the hidden spirit of the god. The heavy, solemn, mysterious character of the Egyptian temple naturally makes itself most strongly felt in these spaces or rooms. On the inner walls of the temple the sacrifices and worship rendered by the king are represented, on the outer walls we see his achievements in war. What still remains of the building of Amenophis—and it was subsequently enlarged—allows us only to conjecture upon the original plan. Yet about 200 pillars and shafts still rise out of the ruins. The reliefs on the outer walls of the temple, and in the chambers round the Holy of Holies, are in the best state of preservation. On the walls of one of these chambers we see the scribe of heaven, Thoth, announcing to Mutemua, the mother of Amenophis, the birth of her son. Then the ram-god and the goddess Hathor lead the queen into the lying-in chamber; another goddess supports the queen during the birth. Then four heavenly spirits, the two spirits of the south and the two spirits of the north, carry Amenophis, already grown into a youth, to a throne in the presence of Ammon Ra, who anoints him king. Then the gods promise gifts, honour, and power to the new king. They declare that the Retennu, the "nine nations," i.e. the nations bordering on Egypt, and all people, shall be subject to him.[201]
Far fewer—not more than a great heap of ruins with a few pillars and memorial stones—are the remains of a second great work of Amenophis III., which he built opposite the temple of Karnak on the west bank of the Nile not far from the modern village of Medinet Habu. We learn from Pliny that it was a temple of Serapis, i.e. of Osarhapi, Osiris-Apis.[202] We have already mentioned the shrine of the same goddess, which was situated among the tombs near Memphis (p. 67), and we know that in the view of the Egyptians the west belonged to the setting sun, the sun of the under world. The statement of Pliny is also confirmed by two memorial stones among the ruins, from which we gather that Osiris and Ammon Ra were the lords of the temple; and it is not strange that the tutelary god of Thebes should be associated with Osiris. Before the entrance to this sanctuary Amenophis caused two statues to be erected, which still rise like steep cliffs above the flat level of the bank by the side of a palm forest. They are two seated figures, and the inscriptions tell us that both represent Amenophis. The king is in a quiet attitude, the hands rest on the knees. The front parts of the throne are formed by statues of the mother and wife of Amenophis, which reach up to the knees of the king. The statues were chiselled out of a single block, as also the bases. The height of the whole is towards sixty feet.[203]
The power to which Tuthmosis III. and Amenophis III. exalted Egypt appears to have declined under their successors, or at least it did not advance. The monuments prove to us that Amenophis IV. (1488–1476 B.C.) began certain religious innovations. He paid excessive or exclusive reverence to the sun-god, and attempted to found a new capital in the neighbourhood of the modern Amarna, in Central Egypt, which was no doubt intended to be the centre of the new cult. If, at the same time, as the monuments show, he was able, like his predecessor, to build at Soleb, in Dongola, it follows that the supremacy of Egypt was maintained, at any rate in the south.
FOOTNOTES:
[179] Joseph. c. Apion 1, 14; cf. 1, 26; Afric. et Euseb. ap. Sync., p. 61, 62; Schol. Plat. 2, 424, ed. Bekker.
[180] Caussin de Perceval, "Hist. des Arab." 1, 13, 19. That the tradition of the Arabs about the Amalika is worthless has been proved by Nöldeke ("Ueber die Amalekiter").
[181] Brugsch, "Hist. d'Egypte," p. 77.
[182] Ebers, loc. cit. s. 88, 202; Mariette, "Revue archéol." 1861, p. 337 ff.; 1862, p. 300 ff. From a memorial-stone discovered at Tanis we find that 400 years before a certain year, which is not named, in the reign of Ramses II. i.e., about 1750 B.C. (according to Lepsius's data for Ramses II.), the shepherd king Nubti held sway; that he introduced certain regulations in Egypt for the province of Tanis, the special home of the shepherds; and that Ramses II. when erecting his buildings, which in any case were sufficiently durable, at Tanis (see below), referred back to this king. Further conclusions, which have been deduced from the inscription on this stone, have been completely overthrown in my opinion by Mariette.—"Revue archéol." 1865, 11, 169 ff.
[183] De Rougé, "Athén. Franç." 1854, p. 532; Brugsch, in the "Zeitschr. d. d. M. G." 9, 200 ff.; "Hist. d'Eg." p. 78. Brugsch assumes that Ra Apepi was a later Apophis, and not the Apophis who is the fourth shepherd king in Josephus, and sixth in Africanus, for according to the inscription on the tomb of Aahmes, Amosis followed Raskenen. On the inscription Apepi on a colossus of Ramses II., cf. infra.
[184] Brugsch, "Hist. d'Egypte," p. 85.