8 EDOUABD NAVILLE. 



The Twelfth dynasty is certainly one of the most powerful 

 in Egyptian history. Let us consider its political action its 

 conquests carried far on the Upper Nile and we shall 

 form a high opinion of the character of its kings ; but our 

 admiration will be increased if we look at the immense con- 

 structions raised by them all over the country. Manetho calls 

 them Diospolites, giving them Thebes as birth-place. They 

 were the founders of the great temple of Amon, and they 

 worked most actively in the province called the Fayoom. I 

 need only mention the Labyrinth and Lake Moeris. The recent 

 excavations made by Mr. Flinders Petrie and myself have 

 shown that they gave a great importance to the Delta, espe- 

 cially to its eastern part. Tanis was already known as a 

 locality where their monuments were abundant ; but we have 

 added three more : Amem, a dependency of the nome of Tanis 

 excavated by Mr. Flinders Petrie, and some monuments of which 

 are at the British Museum ; Khataanah, of which we do not 

 know the old name ; and lastly, Bubastis. It is probable 

 that further explorations will reveal more monuments of the 

 Twelfth dynasty in the Delta, either by actual discoveries or 

 by showing that usurpation has been practised on their work 

 by later sovereigns, who attributed to themselves the work of 

 their glorious predecessors. 



Amenemha I. is the first king of the Twelfth dynasty whose 

 name occurs at Bubastis. It is engraved on a stone removed 

 from its original place, and employed by Nectanebo I. in the 

 construction of the western part of the temple. The name is 

 not complete ; we have only the standard and the beginning 

 of an inscription saying that " he erected a statue to his 

 mother Bast ; he made the hall. . . ." Evidently he 

 enlarged in some way the sanctuary of the Old Empire. 

 After him Usertesen I., well known by the obelisk of Helio- 

 polis, did not go on building ; his name occurs on what was 

 very likely part of the temple of Cheops and Pepi. 



The most important transformation of the temple seems to 

 have been made by Usertesen III., whose cartouche occurs 

 several times and in very large proportions. Not only did he 

 enlarge the two halls, of which this temple consisted, but he 

 added to it what must have given to the whole building that 

 character of beauty which struck Herodotus so vividly, for 

 the Greek traveller says that ' ' though other temples may be 

 grander, and may have cost more in the building, there is none 

 so pleasant to the eye as this of Bubastis" (Rawlinson, 

 Herod., ii. ch. 137). In my opinion, Usertesen III. added to 

 the temple the hypostyle hall, the magnificent building of which 

 remains are now in the British Museum and at Boston. 



