t
despise it, for it is the oldest map in the world.

[Illustration: 170.jpg FRAGMENT OF THE MAP OF THE GOLD-MINES]

Facsimile by Faucher-Gudin of coloured chalk-drawing by Chabas.

The gold extracted from these regions, together with that brought
from Ethiopia, and, better still, the regular payment of taxes and
custom-house duties, went to make up for the lack of foreign spoil all
the more opportunely, for, although the sovereign did not share the
military enthusiasm of Thutmosis III., he had inherited from him the
passion for expensive temple-building.

[Illustration: 171.jpg THE THREE STANDING COLUMNS OF THE TEMPLE OF
SESEBI]

Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph by Insinger.

He did not neglect Nubia in this respect, but repaired several of
the monuments at which the XVIIIth dynasty had worked--among others,
Kalabsheh, Dakkeh, and Amada, besides founding a temple at Sesebi, of
which three columns are still standing.*

* In Lepsius's time there were still four columns standing;
Insinger shows us only three.

The outline of these columns is not graceful, and the decoration of them
is very poor, for art degenerated rapidly in these distant provinces of
the empire, and only succeeded in maintaining its vigour and spirit in
the immediate neighbourhood of the Pharaoh, as at Abydos, Memphis, and
above all at Thebes. Seti's predecessor Ramses, desirous of obliterating
all traces of the misfortunes lately brought about by the changes
effected by the heretic kings, had contemplated building at Karnak,
in front of the pylon of Amenothes III., an enormous hall for the
ceremonies connected with the cult of Amon, where the immense numbers of
priests and worshippers at festival times could be accommodated without
inconvenience. It devolved on Seti to carry out what had been merely an
ambitious dream of his father's.*

* The great hypostyle hall was cleared and the columns were
strengthened in the winter of 1895-6, as far, at least, as
it was possible to carry out the work of restoration without
imperilling the stability of the whole.

We long to know who was the architect possessed of such confidence in
his powers that he ventured to design, and was able to carry out, this
almost superhuman undertaking. His name would be held up to almost
universal admiration beside those of the greatest masters that we are
familiar with, for no one in Greece or Italy has left us any work which