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)

384 THE SUPPOSED ALABASTRON. [Chap. VI.

relief of very peculiar form. The style of the
figures above the tablet is of the same general cha-
racter, and, what is still more remarkable, they are
represented as worshipping the sun, which pours
forth rays terminating in human hands, one of them
presenting to the monarch the sign of life. The
name of this Pharaoh has been purposely erased by
the Egyptians at an early period, but it may still be
satisfactorily ascertained by a comparison of the
parts of the different ovals.

At Mellawee are the mounds of an ancient town,
probably of the Hermopolitana Phy'lace; and on the
opposite bank are a few sculptured grottoes, and
the ruined town of Sbayda.

Another ancient town lies beyond Shekh Said;
and at Tel* el Amarna are the extensive remains of
a city, which, from various circumstances, I suppose
to be the Alabastron of the ancients. The temples
were of sandstone, each surrounded by a crude
brick inclosure; but fragments of the masonry only
now remain, having been purposely destroyed, and
so completely as not to leave a vestige of their ori-
ginal plans. Several of the houses are in a better
state of preservation, and from their substructions
the form and distribution of many of the chambers
are easily traced. Indeed they are calculated to
give a more correct idea of the plans of Egyptian

* Many towns in the Delta have this prefix, which in Coptic
signifies " mound."