[Illustration:  169.jpg THE TEMPLE OF SETI I. AT REDESIEH]

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

One of these plans has come down to us, in which the districts are coloured bright red, the mountains dull ochre, the roads dotted over with footmarks to show the direction to be taken, while the superscriptions give the local names, and inform us that the map represents the Bukhni mountain and a fortress and stele of Seti.  The whole thing is executed in a rough and naive manner, with an almost childish minuteness which provokes a smile; we should, however, not despise it, for it is the oldest map in the world.

[Illustration:  170.jpg FRAGMENT OF THE MAP OF THE GOLD-MINES]

     Facsimile by Faucher-Gudin of coloured chalk-drawing by Chabas.

The gold extracted from these regions, together with that brought from Ethiopia, and, better still, the regular payment of taxes and custom-house duties, went to make up for the lack of foreign spoil all the more opportunely, for, although the sovereign did not share the military enthusiasm of Thutmosis III., he had inherited from him the passion for expensive temple-building.

[Illustration:  171.jpg THE THREE STANDING COLUMNS OF THE TEMPLE OF SESEBI]

     Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph by Insinger.

He did not neglect Nubia in this respect, but repaired several of the monuments at which the XVIIIth dynasty had worked—­among others, Kalabsheh, Dakkeh, and Amada, besides founding a temple at Sesebi, of which three columns are still standing.*

     * In Lepsius’s time there were still four columns standing;
     Insinger shows us only three.

The outline of these columns is not graceful, and the decoration of them is very poor, for art degenerated rapidly in these distant provinces of the empire, and only succeeded in maintaining its vigour and spirit in the immediate neighbourhood of the Pharaoh, as at Abydos, Memphis, and above all at Thebes.  Seti’s predecessor Ramses, desirous of obliterating all traces of the misfortunes lately brought about by the changes effected by the heretic kings, had contemplated building at Karnak, in front of the pylon of Amenothes III., an enormous hall for the ceremonies connected with the cult of Amon, where the immense numbers of priests and worshippers at festival times could be accommodated without inconvenience.  It devolved on Seti to carry out what had been merely an ambitious dream of his father’s.*

* The great hypostyle hall was cleared and the columns were strengthened in the winter of 1895-6, as far, at least, as it was possible to carry out the work of restoration without imperilling the stability of the whole.

We long to know who was the architect possessed of such confidence in his powers that he ventured to design, and was able to carry out, this almost superhuman undertaking.  His name would be held up to almost