enclosed within her circuit the neighbouring villages of Ashîrû, the
fief of Maiit, and Apît-rîsîfc, the southern Thebes, which lay at the
confluence of the Nile with one of the largest of the canals which
watered the plain. The monuments in these two new quarters of the town
were unworthy of the city of which they now formed part, and Amenôthes
III. consequently bestowed much pains on improving them. He entirely
rebuilt the sanctuary of Maût, enlarged the sacred lake, and collected
within one of the courts of the temple several hundred statues in black
granite of the Memphite divinity, the lioness-headed Sokhît, whom he
identified with his Theban goddess. The statues were crowded together so
closely that they were in actual contact with each other in places, and
must have presented something of the appearance of a regiment drawn up
in battle array. The succeeding Pharaohs soon came to look upon this
temple as a kind of storehouse, whence they might provide themselves
with ready-made figures to decorate their buildings either at Thebes or
in other royal cities. About a hundred of them, however, still remain,
most of them without feet, arms, or head; some over-turned on the
ground, others considerably out of the perpendicular, from the earth
having given way beneath them, and a small number only still perfect and
in situ.

[Illustration: 065.jpg THE TEMPLE AT ELEPHANTINE, AS IT WAS IN 1799]

Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from the _Description de l'Egypte,
Ant_., vol. i p. 35. A good restoration of it, made from
the statements in the _Description_, is to be found in
Pekrot-Cuipiez, _Histoire de l'Art dans l'Antiquité_, vol.
i. pp. 402, 403.

[Illustration: 066.jpg THE GREAT COURT OF THE TEMPLE OF LUXOR DURING THE