Explorations in Bible lands during the 19th century - H. V. Hilprecht

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684 EXPLORATIONS IN BIBLE LANDS
times, there were a number of other Theban temples which,
with the exception of unimportant remains, have vanished
from the face of the earth. These are the greater and
smaller memorial temples erected on the west bank between
Medinet Habu and Qurna, the centre of which was formed
by the comparatively well preserved Rameseum. There
lay in the neighborhood of Medinet Habu, the sanctuary
of Amenophis III., the
mighty doorkeepers of which, the
so-called colossi of Memnon, are still standing, while all
other portions of the building have fallen into ruins. Then
we have, going from south to north, the sanctuaries of
Menephtah, in which the famous Israel stele was discovered
; of Queen Tewosret (the wife of the ephemerical
king Si-Ptah) ; of Thothmes IV.; of Prince Wezmose
of Amenophis II.;
of King Si-Ptah, and of Thothmes III.
All these were thoroughly examined, and some for the
first time discovered by Petrie during his excavations in
1896. Spiegelberg also recognized here, though existing
only in unimportant remains, a sepulchral temple of Amenophis
I.
The royal tombs ot the Eleventh, Thirteenth, and Seventeenth
Dynasties, which consisted of massive brick pyramids,
and which stood on the desert to the north of Qurna,
are quite destroyed, and with few exceptions have disappeared
without even leaving a trace. Most of these pyramids
had already in ancient time been broken into and
robbed of their valuable contents, as, e.g., the tombs of kings
Kemose and Amosis as well as that of Queen Ahhotep.
Yet their treasures were curiouslv preserved for us by accident.
In the year i860 some fellaheen discovered the coffin
of Ahhotep hidden in the sand, in which lay not only the
mummy of the queen but a great quantity of valuable weapons
and ornaments, which, according to the inscriptions
on them, belonged to the Pharaoh mentioned and to Queen
Ahhotep, and doubtless came from their tombs. How this