History of Egypt, Chaldæa, Syria, Babylonia, and Assyria, Volume 6 (of 12)

_THE CLOSE OF THE THEBAN EMPIRE--(continued)_

_RAMSES III.: MANNERS AND CUSTOMS--POPULATION--THE PREDOMINANCE OF AMON
AND HIS HIGH PRIESTS._

_The Theban necropolis: mummies--The funeral of a rich Theban: the
procession of the offerings and the funerary furniture, the crossing
of the Nile, the tomb, the farewell to the dead, the sacrifice, the
coffins, the repast of the dead, the song of the Harper--The common
ditch--The living inhabitants of the necropolis: draughtsmen, sculptors,
painters--The bas-reliefs of the temples and the tombs, wooden
statuettes, the smelting of metals, bronze--The religions of the
necropolis: the immorality and want of discipline among the people:
workmen s strikes._

_Amon and the beliefs concerning him: his kingdom over the living and
the dead, the soul's destiny according to the teaching of Amon--Khonsû
and his temple; the temple of Amon at Karnak, its revenue, its
priesthood--The growing influence of the high priests of Amon under
the sons of Ramses III.: Hamsesnaklûti, Amenôthes; the violation of the
royal burying-places--Hrihor and the last of the Ramses, Smendês and the
accession to power of the XXIst dynasty: the division of Egypt into two
States--The priest-kings of Amon masters of Thebes under the suzerainty
of the Tanite Pharaohs--The close of the Theban empire._

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CHAPTER I--THE CLOSE OF THE THEBAN EMPIRE--(continued)


_Ramses III.: Manners and Customs--Population--The predominance of Amon
and his high priests._


Opposite the Thebes of the living, Khafîtnîbûs, the Thebes of the dead,
had gone on increasing in a remarkably rapid manner. It continued to
extend in the south-western direction from the heroic period of
the XVIIIth dynasty onwards, and all the eminence and valleys were
gradually appropriated one after the other for burying-places. At the
time of which I am speaking, this region formed an actual town, or
rather a chain of villages, each of which was grouped round some
building constructed by one or other of the Pharaohs as a funerary
chapel. Towards the north, opposite Karnak, they clustered at
Drah-abu'l-Neggah around pyramids of the first Theban monarchs, at
Qurneh around the mausolæ of Ramses I. and Seti I., and at Sheikh
Abd el-Qurneh they lay near the Amenopheum and the Pamonkaniqîmît,
or Ramesseum built by Ramses II. Towards the south they diminished
in number, tombs and monuments becoming fewer and appearing at wider
intervals; the Migdol of Ramses III. formed an isolated suburb, that of
Azamît, at Medinet-Habu; the chapel of Isis, constructed by Amenôthes,
son of Hapû, formed a rallying-point for the huts of the hamlet of
Karka;* and in the far distance, in a wild gorge at the extreme limit
of human habitations, the queens of the Ramesside line slept their last
sleep.

* The village of Karka or Kaka was identified by Brugsch
with the hamlet of Deîr el-Medineh: the founder of the
temple was none other than Amenôthes, who was minister under
Amenôthes III.