Benson, Margaret; Gourlay, Janet: The temple of Mut in Asher: an account of the excavation of the temple and of the religious representations and objects found therein, as illustrating the history of Egypt and the main religious ideas of the Egyptians (London, 1899)

CHAP, i.] THE TEMPLES OF KARNAK.

7

that time have left their record ; which has yielded
between thirty and forty statues of themselves
and their subjects, some high and important officials,
some private persons ; which is unique in its
statues of the goddess to whom it is dedicated ; and
which moreover occupies one of the most charming
temple sites in Egypt, is surely worthy of a little
study.

The temple of Luxor is little more than a mile
from the great temple of Amen at Karnak, and
from the front of the temple at Luxor an avenue
of ram-headed sphinxes extended to the southern-
most gate of the temple precincts at Karnak. The
mouldered bases of these sphinxes can still be seen
as the high road leaves the village of Luxor. This
high road, an uneven dusty track, raised above the
level of the fields so that it may be unaffected by
the inundation, continues its way about a quarter
of a mile from the river bank until it enters the
palm grove which surrounds Karnak.

Just before reaching this grove the road parts
into two ; the left-hand track, traversing the grove
and striking again the avenue of sphinxes, leads up
to the Ptolemaic gateway in front of the temple of
Khonsu, where one first catches sight of the whole
length of the Great Temple of Karnak. It is
a beautiful road, for the palms cast interlacing
shadows on the path, and the sphinxes, here in
better preservation, hold between their paws little
figures of the king who erected them. Before this