[365] The same idea caused M. Brune to place sphinxes upon the steps between the courts; he thought that some small heaps of débris at the ends of the steps indicated their situation; but M. Maspero, who recently investigated the matter, informs us that he found no trace of any such sphinxes.
[366] We must refer those who wish to study the remains of this temple in detail to the work devoted to it by M. Mariette. The plan which forms plate 1 in the said work was drawn, in 1866, by an architect, M. Brune, who is now a professor at the École des Beaux Arts. M. Brune succeeded, by intelligent and conscientious examination of all the remains, in obtaining the materials for a restoration which gave us for the first time some idea of what this interesting monument must have been in the great days of Egypt. Plate 2 contains a restored plan; plate 3 a view in perspective of the three highest terraces and of the hill which forms their support. We have attempted to give an idea of the building as a whole. Our view is taken from a more distant point than that of M. Brune, but except in some of the less important details, it does not greatly differ from his.
[367] Mariette, Dayr-el-Bahari, letterpress, p. 10.
[368] Ebers, Ægypten, p. 285.
[369] Maspero, Histoire Ancienne, pp. 202, 203. The bas-reliefs at Dayr-el-Bahari represent the booty brought back by Hatasu from the expedition into Pount. Among this booty thirty-two perfume shrubs, in baskets, may be distinguished; these shrubs were planted by the orders of Hatasu in the gardens of Thebes. On the subject of Hatasu and her expedition, see Maspero's paper entitled: De quelques Navigations des Égyptiens sur les Côtes de la Mer Érythrée (in the Revue Historique, 1878).
[370] Maspero, Histoire Ancienne, p. 203.
[371] Herodotus, ii. 175.
[372] Herodotus, ii. 153.
[373] Herodotus uses the word αὐλή, of which stable or cattle-shed was one of the primitive meanings.
[374] Égypte, etc. p. 406.