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)

288

THE TEMPLE OF MUT.

[part iv.

ended in a circle ; in each angle made by the arms a
small circle was traced.

From this time we lose every evidence of the
history of the temple up to nearly the middle of
this century. But Mr. Newberry drew our atten-
tion to an extract among some manuscript notes by
James Burton, in 1840,* and to two manuscript
maps, in the British Museum, the one by Burton,y
and the other by Hay.\

The extract runs as follows :—

" A letter from M. Prisse at Thebes to Sir G. W[ilkinson]
which he showed me on 23rd July, 1840, mentions the demolition
of the ancient remains that had taken place at Thebes by per-
mission of the Pasha's" (probably Mohammed Ali) "government
. . . . A few small temples about the horse-shoe lake temple had
been taken away to build a saltpetre manufactory. The first
pylon S. of the great temple had been destroyed and Prisse was
present at the demolition of the third."

Thus the temple which Sen-mut designed for
Hatshepsut, which has held the records of the
Pharaohs and the statues of their subjects, from the
"great ones of the great" to the unknown and
untitled, was carried off, by the orders of a barbaric
pasha, to build a saltpetre manufactory. Doubtless
the Arabs shared in the spoils, carrying off "the
good white stone of Anu," and the marble of the
Greek, polished stela and finely-sculptured statue, to
burn for the enrichment of their fields.

The two maps are of great interest. Burton's

* Additional MS. 25,639, f. 43 (The Burton Papers).

f Ibid. 25,645, ff. 162, 163.

% Ibid. 29,825 B. (The Hay Papers.)