ly never completely lost the technical knowledge
of their calling, and the ancient buildings furnished them with various
types of models, which they had but to copy faithfully in order to
revive their old traditions. A few years after this revival a new school
sprang up, whose originality became daily more patent, and whose leaders
soon showed themselves to be in no way inferior to the masters of the
older schools. Ahmosis could not be accused of ingratitude to the gods;
as soon as his wars allowed him the necessary leisure, he began his work
of temple-building. The accession to power of the great Theban families
had been of little advantage to Thebes itself. Its Pharaohs, on assuming
the sovereignty of the whole valley, had not hesitated to abandon their
native city, and had made Heracleopolis, the Fayum or even Memphis,
their seat of government, only returning to Thebes in the time of the
XIIIth dynasty, when the decadence of their power had set in. The honour
of furnishing rulers for its country had often devolved on Thebes,
but the city had reaped but little benefit from the fact; this time,
however, the tide of fortune was to be turned.

[Illustration: 130.jpg PAINTING IN TOMB OF THE KINGS THEBES]

The other cities of Egypt had come to regard Thebes as their metropolis
from the time when they had learned to rally round its princes to wage
war against the Hyksos. It had been the last town to lay down arms at
the time of the invasion, and the first to take them up again in the
struggle for liberty. Thus the Egypt which vindicated her position among
the nations of the world was not the Egypt of the Memphite dynasties. It
was the great Egypt of the Amenemhaits and the Usirtasens, still further
aggrandised by recent victories. Thebes was her natural capital, and
its kings could not have chosen a more suitable position from whence to
command effectually the whole empire. Situated at an equal distance from
both frontiers, the Pharaoh residing there, on the outbreak of a war
either in the north or south, had but half the length of the country to
traverse in order to reach the scene of action. Ahmosis spared no pains
to improve the city, but his resources did not allow of his embarking on
any very extensive schemes; he did not touch the temple of Amon, and
if he undertook any buildings in its neighbourhood, they must have been
minor edifices. He could, indeed, have had but little leisure to attempt
much else, for it was not