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| 106. The
Nile voyage — arrival at Thebes 107. Karnak
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The monuments along the river banks have thus far
told us the story of two of the three periods1
into which the career of this great Nile people falls. After we have left
the tombs of the Feudal Age and have continued our journey over four hundred
miles southward from Cairo, all at once we catch glimpses of vast
masses of stone masonry and lines of tall columns rising among the palms
on the east side of the river. They are the ruins of the once great city
of Thebes, which will tell us the story of the third period, the Empire.
Here we shall find not only a vast cemetery, but also great temples (see plan, p. 81). A walk around the Temple of Karnak at Thebes (Fig. 64) is as instructive to us in studying the Empire as we have found the Gizeh cemetery to be in studying the Pyramid Age. We find the walls of this immense temple covered with enormous sculptures in relief, depicting the wars of the Egyptians in Asia. We see the giant figure of the Pharaoh as he stands in his war chariot, scattering the enemy before his plunging horses (Fig. 60). The Pharaohs of the Pyramid Age had never seen a horse (§ 80), and this is the first time we
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1These three ages are:
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80
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