RESULTS OP EXCAVATIONS AT BUBASTIS. 9 



Unfortunately it is now so much ruined, having been so long 

 used as a quarry, that it is difficult to obtain an exact 

 idea of its form. It is nearly certain that the roof was 

 supported by alternate rows of columns and square pillars, 

 ending in a Hathor head. In the centre were four large 

 columns of red granite, with capitals in the form of lotus buds, 

 and with shafts representing a bundle of those plants. The 

 inhabitants of Liverpool had the opportunity, a short time 

 ago, of seeing on the quay two fragments of one of those 

 columns, a perfect capital, and the piece of the shaft fitting 

 immediately underneath, the whole having a length of about 

 20 feet ; and I dare say they will have been struck, not only 

 by the size of the monuments, but also by the vigour of the 

 work and the beautiful polish, which has lasted to the present 

 day. Outside of those columns were square pillars sur- 

 mounted by the head of the goddess Hathor, a woman's face 

 surrounded by great locks and having ears of a heifer. The 

 head was sculptured on two opposite sides of the pillars ; on 

 the two others was seen the plant of Upper and Lower Egypt 

 standing between two crowned asps. One specimen only of 

 these fine pieces of art has been preserved complete; it is 

 now in the Museum at Boston. Next to these pillars came 

 again columns of polished red granite, with graceful capitals 

 representing palm-leaves. One of them is in the British 

 Museum ; it is nearly complete. We read on it the names of 

 Barneses II. and Osorkon II., but the column is much older, 

 for an inscription of Rameses is cut through an ornament of the 

 shaft. These columns bear witness to the changes which took 

 place in the gods to whom the temple was dedicated. Rameses II. 

 had the name of Set sculptured on the top ; Osorkon changed 

 the figure of the god, made him a lion's head, and gave him 

 the appearance of Mahes, the son of the cat goddess Bast. 

 To the palm columns belonged a second set of pillars with 

 Hathor' s head, but neither so large nor so beautiful as the 

 others. One of them has gone to the Museum at Sydney. 



At the end of the Twelfth dynasty the temple consisted of 

 the first two halls and the hall of columns (some of them 

 were gigantic monoliths). I shall only mention that the 

 Thirteenth dynasty, a series of princes very little known, 

 appears also at Bubastis. The first king, Sebekhotep I., has 

 engraved his cartouche on some large architraves. It is the first 

 time that his name is met with in a temple. It is inscribed 

 also on rocks in Nubia, showing that under his rule the 

 power of Egypt was not diminished. In excavating buildings 

 like the temple of Bubastis, it is impossible not to be struck 

 by the facility with which the old Egyptians carried enormous 



