The city of Thebes was magnificent with temples and palaces, and was built on both sides of the Nile, the flat plain stretched away to the mountains, and against the blue of the cloudless sky rose its towers and pylons, its colossal columns and statues. Clusters or avenues of palms lent a light but grateful shade from the sun’s unveiled brightness, and added a touch of living green to the azure of the firmament and creamy whiteness of some of the buildings. Others were of different colors, giving a jewel-like effect at a distance in the rays of the brilliant sun. In some instances the trade or profession of the owner was pictured on the front walls. The streets were crowded with people; beasts of burden, heavily laden, made their way slowly along. Vendors of all sorts lined the sides of the street, and a hubbub of voices rose constantly. In the grander objects Nature had furnished the model, the mountain summits suggested the form of the pyramid and the caves of the Nile valley the temples.
The temple of Luxor, or El Uksor, was near the river, but faced from it toward that of Karnak, and a long avenue of sphinxes, a mile in extent, connected the two. What one king began, another added to, and a third, perhaps, finished; thus Seti I, and his, in some respects, greater son, are, in their architectural works, constantly associated, together. The sculpture of Siti, however, is considered the finer. The interiors of the temples were often gloomy and dim, but at the summer solstice the sun penetrated to the inner sanctuary of Karnak.
The grandeur of Karnak dwarfs that of Luxor, and the Hypostyle Hall, built by Seti I for the celebration of religious festivals, in which Queen Tuaa may have taken part, is, even in its ruined state, one of the wonders of the world. In recent times some of the columns have fallen. The temple was one hundred and seventy feet in length, three hundred and twenty-nine in width, and supported by one hundred and thirty-four columns, as large in circumference, though not so high, as the Vendome column in Paris. The central lines are seventy feet in height and twelve in diameter, while those on either side are forty in height and nine in diameter. The effect of the great hall with its forest of columns is awe-inspiring; one writer after another describes himself as empty of words and dumb before it. No matter how familiar one may be with the place from descriptions of it, previously read, this remains true, just as the Taj Mahal, in India, is to the eye of each new gazer a dream of beauty. Says one writer: “Karnak is to Egyptian architecture what the Parthenon is to Greek, the Pantheon to Roman, and Notre Dame in Paris to Medieval; but it is far grander than them all.”
Seti’s battles and Seti’s victories have passed away, but Seti’s temple stands, eternal almost as the mountains. Walls and columns were decorated with sculptures, begun by the father, finished by the son, those of Seti on the north, of Rameses on the south wall. Those of Seti are the finer, and represent the king in his chariot doing battle with his enemies, while on the columns both monarchs are presenting offerings to the gods. The statues and the sacred lakes, which formed part of the temple adjuncts, correspond in size. At the present time this great temple is spoken of as the greatest ruin in the world, the crowning triumph of Egyptian art.
The winged disk, symbolizing the victory of Horus over Typhon, was, by command of the god Thoth, placed over all entrances. At the gate of the temple of Karnak was a representation of the coronation of Rameses I, father of a celebrated son and more celebrated grandson. The winter of 1897-8 saw the discovery of the tomb of Osiris, and the god kings Horus and Set, remains from the time of Seti I.
The name of the architect of the magnificent Hypostile Hall is preserved, and the Glyptohek in Munich possesses a statute of this Michael Angelo of his time, as Miss Edwards calls him. An old man with a beard, in a loose robe, sitting upon the ground, lost in meditation. High priest and first prophet of Amon under Seti, he became, under Rameses, the chief architect of the Thebaid, and royally commissioned to embellish the temples. He was called Bak-en-Khonsu.
The oldest map in existence is said to be that of a gold mine worked by Seti I, which furnished perhaps some of the means for his great architectural undertakings, but which was worked to still better advantage by his son.
Seti I reigned about twenty-seven years, was buried with great honors, and his memory was kept fresh by the devotion of his son; but Queen Ti, or Tuaa, though described on the monuments as “royal wife, royal mother, and heiress and sharer of the throne,” seems to fade out of sight, perhaps dying before him, and the profile on the wall remains to us the strongest image of her.
Seven hundred ushebti were said to have been buried with Seti, images of slaves who were to accompany and wait upon him in the land of Amenti. A curious little dialogue between master and servants is preserved. The deceased says, “O ye figures, be ye ever watchful to work, to plough, to sow the fields, to water the canals and to carry sand from the east and from the west.” The figures reply, “Here am I when thou callest.”
Seti’s name is given as “Ra-user-Kheperu-meri-Amen Seb-Ra-Seti-Mer-en-ptah,” His tomb was discovered by Belzoni in 1817, and is one of the most beautiful ever found, the sarcophagus, in which the body was originally placed, being of the finest alabaster, delicately sculptured both outside and within. This was eventually purchased by an Englishman and rests in the Sloan Museum. Seti is spoken of as the “justified,” and hence had successfully passed the great tribunal to which all the departed were subjected.