The Sketcher was equally zealous for the honour of his sketches, and for a moment the entente cordiale between Damon and Pythias was imperilled. But the first sight of Karnac burst on their view at the critical instant. Within the sight of those "temples, palaces, and piles stupendous," which even Horace Smith's doggerel cannot make ridiculous, all wrangle was hushed. Impatiently they listened to Crichton, who, conscientiously anxious that they should miss nothing, was laboriously explaining that Medamot, which they were passing,

was Maximianopolis. Hardly a glance could they spare for the ruins of Ptolemy Euergetes, against a column of which a buffalo was lazily scratching its back, nor for the fields blooming in all the glory of an Egyptian spring. Who has eyes for anything else when Karnac is in sight? or who can think of the pigmy Ptolemies in the presence of Ramses? And Karnac is the great Ramses personified an epic in stone. Description of it is almost an insult. We may gaze on it with awe, and perhaps carry away some feeble impression of its majesty, but the writer or artist who can reproduce it is yet unborn.

CHAPTER XIV.

History-Thebes comparatively modern-Retrospect, sixth to seventeenth dynastyEighteenth dynasty-Foreign wars necessary-Populous No-Aahmes, Amenhoteb, and Tutmes-Expansion of Egypt-Queen Hatasou-Colonial policy— Tutmes III. -Foreign conquests—The land of Canaan in the hieroglyphs—Amenhoteb III.— The Colossi-The first European reformer in Egypt-A religious reformationChange of dynasty.

OMPARED with either Thinis or Memphis, Thebes is an upstart city, for it is only in the eleventh dynasty that she makes her first appearance. We have seen 1 how Egypt, during the seventh, eighth, ninth, and tenth dynasties, fell into comparative obscurity, under kings reigning both at Memphis and Elephantine. It is tolerably certain that at this time there existed internal dissension, aggravated by foreign aggression. We may perhaps assume that the Pharaohs at Memphis were occupied in repelling the already commencing invasion of the Shepherd tribes, and so, losing control over their southern provinces, allowed the Ethiopian invader to come down the river and establish himself at Elephantine. The attacking Hyksos and the defending Memphite monarch would both be weakened, and become eventually the easy conquest of the Elephantine Pharaoh, who established the eleventh dynasty at Thebes. Such at least is a probable explanation of the otherwise singular fact, that we find the eleventh dynasty established at Thebes, a powerful and prosperous state, immediately after a period when the fortunes of Lower Egypt were at a low ebb. During the eleventh dynasty, however, it is probable that Thebes extended little beyond the temple of Karnac. At the Necropolis of Drah Abou 'l nezzah were found the mummies, now in London, of the kings Entep of this dynasty, the sarcophagus of Aah Hoteb, with its collection of jewels at Boolak; but much of the luxury of the period was expended on the mummies, and the tombs themselves show nothing of interest. We have seen, also, how the brief glory of the eleventh dynasty was overthrown by the Hyksos, and how, after 1200 years, Sekenen Ra had lost his life in expelling them.

1 Chapter ix.

With this amount of necessary recapitulation, we resume the thread of Egyptian history where we left it, at the establishment of the eighteenth dynasty under Aahmes I., independent sovereign of all Egypt, ruling from Thebes.

With this dynasty begins the glorious period of Egyptian history, and Thebes rises to its unrivalled grandeur, warranting the description of the Prophet,

66

Populous No, that was situate among the rivers, that had the waters round about it, whose rampart was the sea, and her wall was from the sea: Ethiopia and Egypt were her strength, and it was infinite" (Nahum iii. 8, 9). For the long war of independence had turned the kingdom into a huge camp, and the B.C. 1703-1653. first of the restored Pharaohs, Aahmes, Amenhoteb I., and Tutmes I., probably regarded war not only as a source of profit, but as a necessary measure of policy;