At that epoch Thebes was an immense city occupying about twelve square kilometers of area. It possessed the greatest temple in Egypt: that of Amon, also a multitude of edifices, private and public. The main streets were broad, straight, and paved with stone slabs, the banks of the Nile had their boulevards, the houses were four or five stories high.
Since every temple and palace had a great gateway with pylons Thebes was called "the city of a hundred gates." It was a city on the one hand greatly given to commerce and trade, and on the other, the threshold, as it were, of eternity. On the western bank of the Nile, in the hills and among them, was an incalculable number of tombs of pharaohs, priests, and magnates.
Thebes was indebted for its splendor to two pharaohs: Amenophis III or
Memnon, who found it a "city of mud and left it a city of stone," and
Ramses II, who finished and perfected the edifices begun by Amenophis.
On the eastern bank of the Nile, in the southern part of the city, was an entire quarter of immense regal edifices: palaces, villas, temples, on the ruins of which the small town of Luxor stands at present. In that quarter the remains of Ramses XII were placed for the last ceremonies.
When Ramses XIII arrived all Thebes went forth to greet him, only old men and cripples remained in the houses, and thieves in the alleys. Here, for the first time, the people took the horses from the pharaoh's chariot and drew it themselves. Here for the first time the pharaoh heard shouts against the abuses of priests. This comforted him; also cries that every seventh day should be for rest. He desired to make that gift to toiling Egypt, but he knew not that his plans had become known, and that the people were waiting to see them accomplished.
His journey of five miles lasted a couple of hours amid dense crowds of people. The pharaoh's chariot was stopped very often in the midst of a throng, and did not move till the guard of his holiness had raised those who lay prostrate before it.
When at last he reached the palace gardens where he was to occupy one of the smaller villas, the pharaoh was so wearied that he did not occupy himself with affairs of state on his arrival. Next day, however, he burnt incense before the mummy of his father, which was in the main royal chamber, and informed Herhor that they might conduct the remains to the tomb prepared for them.
But this ceremony was not performed immediately.
They conveyed the late pharaoh to the temple of Ramses, where it remained a clay and a night. Then they bore the mummy with boundless magnificence to the temple of Amon-Ra.
The details of the funeral ceremony were the same as in Memphis, though incomparably grander.