water; long streets lined with high houses,
irregularly shaped open spaces, bazaars, gardens, courtyards, and
shabby-looking palaces which, while presenting a plain and unadorned
exterior, contained within them the refinements of luxury and the
comforts of wealth. The population did not exceed a hundred thousand
souls,* reckoning a large proportion of foreigners attracted hither by
commerce or held as slaves.

* Letronne, after having shown that we have no authentic
ancient document giving us the population, fixes it at
200,000 souls. My estimate, which is, if anything,
exaggerated, is based on the comparison of the area of
ancient Thebes and that of such modern towns as Shit, Girgeh
and Qina, whose populations are known for the last fifty
years from the census.

[Illustration: 334.jpg MAP: THEBES IN THE XXTH DYNASTY]

The court of the Pharaoh drew to the city numerous provincials, who,
coming thither to seek their fortune, took up their abode there,
planting in the capital of Southern Egypt types from the north and
the centre of the country, as well as from Nubia and the Oases; such a
continuous infusion of foreign material into the ancient Theban stock
gave rise to families of a highly mixed character, in which all the
various races of Egypt were blended in the most capricious fashion. In
every twenty officers, and in the same number of ordinary officials,
about half would be either Syrians, or recently naturalised Nubians, or
the descendants of both, and among the citizens such names as Pakhari
the Syrian, Palamnani the native of the Lebanon, Pinahsi the negro,
Palasiai the Alasian, preserved the indications of foreign origin.*
A similar mixture of races was found in other cities, and Memphis,
Bubastis, Tanis, and Siut must have presented as striking an aspect
in this respect as Thebes.** At Memphis there were regular colonies of
Phoenician, Canaanite, and Amorite merchants sufficiently prosperous
to have temples there to their national gods, and influential enough to
gain adherents to their religion from the indigenous inhabitants. They
worshipped Baal, Aniti. Baal-Zaphuna, and Ashtoreth, side by side with
Phtah, Nofirtumu, and Sokhit,*** and this condition of things at Memphis
was possibly paralleled elsewhere--as at Tanis and Bubastis.

* Among the forty-three individuals compromised in the
conspiracy against Ramses III. whose names have been
examined by Dever