Wilkinson, John Gardner: Topographie of Thebes, and general view of Egypt: being a short account of the principal objects worthy of notice in the valley of the Nile, to the second cataracte and Wadi Samneh, with the Fyoom, Oases and eastern desert, from Sooez to Bertenice (London, 1835)

74 TOPOGRAPHT OF THEBES. [Chap. I.

rewards to his victorious troops, and then proceeding
to Egypt, he conducts in triumph the captive Rhibii
(Rebo) and Tochari (Tokkari ?), whom he offers to
the Theban Triad, Amun, Maut, and Khonso.

In the compartments above these historical scenes,
the king makes suitable offerings to the gods of
Egypt; and on the remaining part of the east wall,
to the south of the second propylon, another war is
represented.

In the first picture, the king alighted from his
chariot, armed with his spear and shield, and
trampling on the prostrate bodies of the slain, be-
sieges the fort of an Asiatic enemy, whom he forces
to sue for peace. In the next he attacks a larger
town surrounded by water. The Egyptians fell
the trees in the woody country which surrounds it,
probably to form testudos* and ladders for the
assault. Some are already applied by their com-
rades to the walls, and while they reach their sum-
mit, the gates are broken open, and the enemy are
driven from the ramparts or precipitated over the
parapet by the victorious assailants, who announce
by sound of trumpet the capture of the place. In the
third compartment, on the north face of the first
propylon, Remeses attacks two large towns, the
upper one of which is taken with but little resist-
ance, the Egyptian troops having entered it and
gained possession of the citadel. In the lower one

* They were also acquainted with the use of the battering ram.
Did not the Jews borrow from Egypt the idea of that engirfe ?