Thirty yards or so north of the temple, the Sacred Lake lies in a corner
of the enclosure . It was constructed of masonry, and was about 60 feet square,
with two flights of steps, one at each of its southern angles .
A short
distance west of it is a ruined shrine ( brick ) dating from the time of
Pinûtem I .
And a little farther west again is a nilometer, whose doorway bears the
name of Nectanebis I . The doorway leads to a chamber, beyond which is a
corridor, from which the staircase of the nilometer goes down to a depth of 65
feet .
South of the nilometer, and between it and the smaller temple, is a
gateway reconstructed in modern times of blocks with inscriptions of Domitian (
81-96 A.D. ) .
Leaving the temples, and passing southwards for a short distance, we
come to the remains of a small Ptolemaic ( Euergetes II ) temple to Thoth . It
consists of a vestibule and three chambers, one behind the other ; but it was
never completely finished, and its reliefs are only outlined in some instances
. It is now known as Qasr el-Agoûz .
Proceeding still farther southwards, we reach the ruins of what,
historically, is one of the most interesting sites about Thebes, The palace of
Amenhotep III ( Malkata Palace ).
The tourist will long ago have noticed that, while temples have abounded
in the land, even though most of them are in ruins, palaces have been
conspicuous by their absence . The reason for this fact is one creditable to the
good sense of the Ancient Egyptians, however disappointing its result may be to
the student of ancient life . The temples, in a word, were built for eternity ;
the palaces of the kings, and the houses of the people were built to last for a
single generation, and no more . The Egyptian did not see why he should tax
himself, and burden his successors, by building a house which would last as
long as a temple, and which the succeeding generations, who had to live in it,
might quite possibly detest . So he built his house, palace, mansion, or
cottage, of mud-brick, which could be covered with whitewash or plaster, and
made as beautiful as you liked with paint ; but which would only last his time,
and leave his son to build according to his own taste in his turn .
Consequently palaces, mansions and common houses have long since gone back to
the soil out of which they were made . Thus the palace of even so great a
Pharaoh as Amenhotep III has nothing to show that can interest anybody but an
enthusiast for the history and the historical sites of the great Empire period
. All that is left is a few crude-brick outlines of walls, which enable
portions of its ground-plan to be traced . We know that the palace was
beautifully decorated, for fragments of its frescoes have survived, showing
once more the Egyptian's natural love for the open air, and for nature ; but
only enough has remained to show us how much we must have lost . The site has
been successively excavated by various explorers, Eugène Grébaut, Georges Émile
Jules Daressy, Robb de Peyster Tytus, and finally by the Metropolitan Museum of
New York ; but nothing remains that can interest the visitor, though the plan
of the living-rooms, the reception-hall, and the apartments of Queen Tiy ( or
Tiye ) can be traced .
The great ornamental lake which was dug on the east of the palace is
still traceable by the mounds of earth which were thrown up during its creation
. It was made for the diversion of Queen Tiy by her devoted husband and lover Amenhotep,
and is now called Birket Habu . On its completion, which
occupied only fifteen days, it was the scene of the famous water-festival in
which the Pharaoh and his wife sailed on the lake in their gilded barge " Aten-Gleams ", one of the first fore-shadowings
of the coming religious revolution under their son Akhenaten, when Amûn of
Thebes was dethroned in favour of the Aten .
Good Bye
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