To the north-west of this stupendous and overpowering hall is an hypæthral court 100 ft. longer, and of the same width of 329 ft. A double row of columns traverses its central avenue. It has corridors on each side. It was left incomplete. This is plain from the enormous pyramidal propylons, by which it is entered, never having been sculptured. None who came after the Great Rameses were able to rise to the height of his conceptions. In the unsculptured walls of these propylons are the sockets, drilled, horizontally, through their whole thickness, for holding the beams which supported the lofty staffs for the flags which were used on great occasions. These lofty towers and these far-seen flags connected the temples of Karnak with the temples on the western bank of the river, and with the funeral processions to the catacombs of the kings in the opposite valley of the Libyan range, just as the south-western propylons, and the dromos of sphinxes, connected them with Luxor. Though the name of Sesortosen, or Ositarsen I., is the first that appears on this series of temples, it would be a mistake to suppose that the date of the greatness of the city must be taken from his reign. This is impossible, for he was the founder of the dynasty which came from Thebes. Thebes, therefore, in his time—4,500 years ago—had become sufficiently powerful to give a dynasty to Egypt. And when we look at its site, the island in the river, the great extent of fertile land on the east bank, with no inconsiderable extent also on the west, and the convenient approach of the Libyan Hills to the river side, we see that this was a spot designed by nature for one of the great cities of old Egypt. It was great under the old monarchy, and gave to the country the two last dynasties of that first monumentally-known period of its history. During the succeeding 400 years of the Hyksos domination, a cloud of almost impenetrable darkness settled down upon it, as upon everything else Egyptian. It rose under, and with the new monarchy. The disadvantages of the site of Memphis, and the conveniences of that of Thebes, had been discovered. It, therefore, now became unreservedly the repository of all the glories, and the chief shrine of the religion of the country. The spoils of war, the tribute of subject nations, the rent of the royal demesne, which comprised one-third of the land of Egypt, were spent here. Next to the court came the numerous and wealthy body of the priests; and they, too, were chiefly—though they had also other sources of income—supported by the rents of their estates. Besides these there was the official class, which again we know was numerous and wealthy. Trade also must have largely contributed to the wealth of Thebes; for it was the _emporium_ for the camel-borne produce of the interior of the continent, and for the water-borne commerce with Egypt of the East Coast of Africa, of Arabia, and of India. We may form an estimate of the extent