ime of
Ramses II, as remains of overbuilding were found here and there. The
magazines were first investigated in 1896 by Prof. Petrie, who also
found in the neighbourhood the remains of a number of small royal
funerary temples of the XVIIIth Dynasty, all looking in the direction of
the hill, beyond which lay the tombs of the kings.

[Illustration: 372.jpg THE VALLEY OF THE TOMBS OF THE QUEENS AT THEBES.]

In which Prof. Schiaparelli discovered the tomb of Ramses
II's wife (1904).

We may now turn to Luxor, where immediately above the landing-place of
the steamers and dahabiyas rise the stately coloured colonnades of the
Temple of Luxor. Unfortunately, modern excavations have not been
allowed to pursue their course to completion here, as in the first great
colonnaded court, which was added by Ramses II to the original building
of Amenhetep III, Tutankhamen, and Horemheb, there still remains
the Mohammedan Mosque of Abu-'l-Haggag, which may not be removed.
Abu-'l-Haggag, "the Father of Pilgrims" (so called on account of the
number of pilgrims to his shrine), was a very holy shekh, and his memory
is held in the greatest reverence by the Luksuris. It is unlucky that
this mosque was built within the court of the Great Temple, and it
cannot be removed till Moslem religious prejudices become at least
partially ameliorated, and then the work of completely excavating the
Temple of Luxor may be carried out.

Between Luxor and Karnak lay the temple of the goddess Mut, consort of
Amen and protectress of Thebes. It stood in the part of the city known
as Asheru. This building was cleared in 1895 at the expense and under
the supervision of two English ladies, Miss Benson and Miss Gourlay.

[Illustration: 374.jpg THE NILE-BANK AT LUXOR]

With A Dahabiya And A Steamer Of The Anglo-American Nile
Company.

The temple had always been remarkable on account of the prodigious
number of seated figures of the lioness-headed goddess Sekhemet, or
Pakhet, which it contains, dedicated by Amenhetep III and Sheshenk I;
most of those in the British Museum were brought from this temple.
The excavators found many more of them, and also some very interesting
portrait-statues of the late period which had been dedicated there.
The most important of these was the head and shoulders of a statue of
Mentuemhat, governor of Thebes at the time of the sack of the city by
Ashur-bani-pal of Assyria in 668 B.C. In Miss Benson's interestin