DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.55201#0062
SEASON OF I92I-I922
49
built along the southern side. Then the plan was changed; the eastern
part of the court was filled a meter deeper over the original grading,
and a field-stone wall was erected, starting out in a curve from the
temple. Up to this point the court had been oriented directly toward
Karnak, but as the avenue thus projected ran into hills near the
cultivation, a complete change was made, pointing the court and the
avenue in a more southeasterly direction on the lines which we now
see. The curved wall was thereupon demolished—it may have been
built only a few courses high—and the existing stone walls were
built with brick outer walls beyond.
In the front part of the courtyard we dug parallel trenches to bed
rock and began to strike the mouths of enormous circular, funnel-
shaped pits ten meters deep. The men were wild with excitement
because one of the local workmen said that these pits were just like
the Bab el Gusus in which Daressy had found hundreds of untouched
burials years ago. We thought they were a double row of tree holes
leading to the temple ramp. The only difficulty was that they were
filled with rocks instead of earth in which a tree could grow.
Eventually, one pair of holes turned out to be filled with soil, and
in it we could see tree roots. The avenue had been laid out across the
court, parallel to the existing stone walls which belonged to the third
plan. But the front wall of the court remains to this day something
like the line of the second plan. This point was not taken into con-
sideration when the rows of trees were planned, and ten holes in each
row were filled with rock, covered over, and only the four nearest the
temple in each row were planted with sycamore fig trees.8 These were
so far from the gateway that no one would notice that they were out
of alignment. As a semi-poetic touch, in each tree hole they placed a
sandstone statue of the king. We found the broken statues lying
beside each, and the holes in the mud where they had stood—and in
one case some pious person had made a little altar of earth by the
tree trunk (pl. 5).
Just at this time we began to find circular tree plots in front of
the southern colonnade of the temple, and as time went on we had
cleared three rows of seven plots each, filled with soil and planted
with tamarisks, and when we excavated the other side of the court
we found a corresponding grove opposite the northern colonnade.3 4
3 The identification of all of the botanical specimens from the excavations of 1921-22
was very generously made by T. W. Brown, of the Horticultural Section, Egyptian
Ministry of Agriculture.
4 See below, page 84 and pl. 2.
49
built along the southern side. Then the plan was changed; the eastern
part of the court was filled a meter deeper over the original grading,
and a field-stone wall was erected, starting out in a curve from the
temple. Up to this point the court had been oriented directly toward
Karnak, but as the avenue thus projected ran into hills near the
cultivation, a complete change was made, pointing the court and the
avenue in a more southeasterly direction on the lines which we now
see. The curved wall was thereupon demolished—it may have been
built only a few courses high—and the existing stone walls were
built with brick outer walls beyond.
In the front part of the courtyard we dug parallel trenches to bed
rock and began to strike the mouths of enormous circular, funnel-
shaped pits ten meters deep. The men were wild with excitement
because one of the local workmen said that these pits were just like
the Bab el Gusus in which Daressy had found hundreds of untouched
burials years ago. We thought they were a double row of tree holes
leading to the temple ramp. The only difficulty was that they were
filled with rocks instead of earth in which a tree could grow.
Eventually, one pair of holes turned out to be filled with soil, and
in it we could see tree roots. The avenue had been laid out across the
court, parallel to the existing stone walls which belonged to the third
plan. But the front wall of the court remains to this day something
like the line of the second plan. This point was not taken into con-
sideration when the rows of trees were planned, and ten holes in each
row were filled with rock, covered over, and only the four nearest the
temple in each row were planted with sycamore fig trees.8 These were
so far from the gateway that no one would notice that they were out
of alignment. As a semi-poetic touch, in each tree hole they placed a
sandstone statue of the king. We found the broken statues lying
beside each, and the holes in the mud where they had stood—and in
one case some pious person had made a little altar of earth by the
tree trunk (pl. 5).
Just at this time we began to find circular tree plots in front of
the southern colonnade of the temple, and as time went on we had
cleared three rows of seven plots each, filled with soil and planted
with tamarisks, and when we excavated the other side of the court
we found a corresponding grove opposite the northern colonnade.3 4
3 The identification of all of the botanical specimens from the excavations of 1921-22
was very generously made by T. W. Brown, of the Horticultural Section, Egyptian
Ministry of Agriculture.
4 See below, page 84 and pl. 2.