Up to the present time no trace of these restorations has been found on the sites.  The expedition to Puanit being mentioned in lines 13, 14, they must be of later date than the year IX. of Hatshopsitu and Thutmosis III.

She also turned her attention to the mines of Sinai, which had not been worked by the Egyptian kings since the end of the XIIth dynasty.  In the year XVI. an officer of the queen’s household was despatched to the Wady Magharah, the site of the ancient works, with orders to inspect the valleys, examine the veins, and restore there the temple of the goddess Hathor; having accomplished his mission, he returned, bringing with him a consignment of those blue and green stones which were so highly esteemed by the Egyptians.

Meanwhile, Thutmosis III. was approaching manhood, and his aunt, the queen, instead of abdicating in his favour, associated him with herself more frequently in the external acts of government.*

* The account of the youth of Thutmosis III., such as Brugsch made it out to be from an inscription of this king, the exile of the royal child at Buto, his long sojourn in the marshes, his triumphal return, must all be rejected.  Brugsch accepted as actual history a poetical passage where the king identifies himself with Horus son of Isis, and goes so far as to attribute to himself the adventures of the god.

She was forced to yield him precedence in those religious ceremonies which could be performed by a man only, such as the dedication of one of the city gates of Ombos, and the foundation and marking out of a temple at Medinet-Habu; but for the most part she obliged him to remain in the background and take a secondary place beside her.  We are unable to determine the precise moment when this dual sovereignty came to an end.  It was still existent in the XVIth year of the reign, but it had ceased before the XXIInd year.  Death alone could take the sceptre from the hands that held it, and Thutmosis had to curb his impatience for many a long day before becoming the real master of Egypt.  He was about twenty-five years of age when this event took place, and he immediately revenged himself for the long repression he had undergone, by endeavouring to destroy the very remembrance of her whom he regarded as a usurper.  Every portrait of her that he could deface without exposing himself to being accused of sacrilege was cut away, and he substituted for her name either that of Thutmosis I. or of Thutmosis II.

[Illustration:  372.jpg THUTMOSIS III., FROM HIS STATUE IN THE TURIN MUSEUM]

     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a photograph by Petrie.