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)

218

THE TEMPLE OF MUT.

[part iv

statue in the outer court has a broken cartouche
which seems to be that of Rameses II. (plan no. 3).
This is rendered more likely by the fact that other
such statues in the Louvre, at Gizeh and at Turin
bear his cartouche. The hotel garden at Luxor has
a small broken lion with his name ; this probably
came from our temple, and affords us reason for
thinking that a part of a similar limestone lion
found in 1896 was also of this time. The tame lions
of Rameses appear in reliefs of his campaigns.

Finally we found, most characteristic work of all,
a rose-granite seated statue of the king (plan no. 11,
pi. XVI., p. 43). The face was little injured, the
cartouches quite clear. The inscription on the
back is much destroyed and seems to give only
the usual titles.

Our temple has one other link with this reign, in
the statue of Bak-en-Khonsu, priest of Amen, who
was one of the architects of the Ramesseum and of
the building of Rameses at Karnak. On a statue of
Bak-en-Khonsu in the Munich Museum the architect
describes the main features of the building- :—" I
performed the best I could for the people of Amen
as architect of my lord. I executed the pylon
of Rameses, the friend of Amen. ... I placed
obelisks at the same made of granite. Their height
reached to the vault of heaven. A propylon is
before the same in sight of the city of Thebes, and
ponds and gardens, with flourishing trees. I made
two great double doors of gold. Their height