Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a photograph by M. de Mortens:
the original is in the Berlin Museum, whither Lepsius
brought it. Sanmût is squatting and holding between his
arras and knees the young king Thût-mosis III,, whose head
with the youthful side lock appears from under his chin.
The tops of the pyramids were gilt, so that “they could be seen from both banks of the river,” and “their brilliancy lit up the two lands of Egypt:” needless to say these metal apices have long disappeared.
Later on, in the the queen’s reign, Amon enjoined a work which was more difficult to carry out. On a day when Hâtshopsîtû had gone to the temple to offer prayers, “her supplications arose up before the throne of the Lord of Karnak, and a command was heard in the sanctuary, a behest of the god himself, that the ways which lead to Pûanît should be explored, and that the roads to the ‘Ladders of Incense’ should be trodden.” *
* The word “Ladders” is the translation of the Egyptian word
“Khâtiû,” employed in the text to designate the country laid
out in terraces where the incense trees grew; cf. with a
different meaning, the “ladders” of the eastern
Mediterranean.