* The foundation of this fortress is indicated in an emphatic manner in the Tombos inscription:  “The masters of the Great Castle (the gods of Heliopolis) have made a fortress for the soldiers of the king, which the nine peoples of Nubia combined could not carry by storm, for, like a young panther before a bull which lowers its head, the souls of his Majesty have blinded them with fear.”  Quarries of considerable size, where Cailliaud imagined he could distinguish an overturned colossus, show the importance which the establishment had attained in ancient times; the ruins of the town cover a fairly large area near the modern village of Kerman.

Henceforward the garrison at Tombos was able to defend the mighty curve described by the river through the desert of Mahas, together with the island of Argo, and the confines of Dongola.  The distance between Thebes and this southern frontier was a long one, and communication was slow during the winter months, when the subsidence of the waters had rendered the task of navigation difficult for the Egyptian ships.  The king was obliged, besides, to concentrate his attention mainly on Asiatic affairs, and was no longer able to watch the movements of the African races with the same vigilance as his predecessors had exercised before Egyptian armies had made their way as far as the banks of the Euphrates.  Thutmosis placed the control of the countries south of Assuan in the hands of a viceroy, who, invested with the august title of “Royal Son of Kush,” must have been regarded as having the blood of Ra himself running in his veins.*

* The meaning of this title was at first misunderstood.  Champollion and Rosellini took it literally, and thought it referred to Ethiopian princes, who were vassals or enemies of Egypt.  Birch persists in regarding them as Ethiopians driven out by their subjects, restored by the Pharaohs as viceroys, while admitting that they may have belonged to the solar family.

Sura, the first of these viceroys whose name has reached us, was in office at the beginning of the campaign of the year III.* He belonged, it would seem, to a Theban family, and for several centuries afterwards his successors are mentioned among the nobles who were in the habit of attending the court.  Their powers were considerable:  they commanded armies, built or restored temples, administered justice, and received the homage of loyal sheikhs or the submission of rebellious ones.** The period for which they were appointed was not fixed by law, and they held office simply at the king’s pleasure.  During the XIXth dynasty it was usual to confer this office, the highest in the state, on a son of the sovereign, preferably the heir-apparent.  Occasionally his appointment was purely formal, and he continued in attendance on his father, while a trusty substitute ruled in his place:  often, however, he took the government on himself, and in the regions of the Upper Nile served an apprenticeship to the art of ruling.