[229] De Rougé, "Revue Archéolog." 1867, 16, 38 ff., 81 ff; Lauth, "Sitzungsberichte" of the Academy at Munich, 1867, 2, 528 ff. The explanation of the Tuirscha as Tyrsenians, of the Sakalascha as Sikels, of the Schardaina as Sardinians, and the Akaiwascha as Achæans, appears to me very doubtful. The locality points to Libyan tribes. Brugsch ("Hist. d'Egypte," p. 172) reads Qairdina for Schardaina, Qawascha for Akaiwascha. On the weapons and features of the Schardaina, see Rougé, loc. cit. pp. 90,91.
[230] Brugsch, "Hist. d'Egypte." p. 191.
[231] Brugsch, "Hist. d'Egypte," p. 183 ff.
[232] Brugsch, loc. cit. p. 203; Mariette, "Ath. Franç." 1855, Oct. p. 86.
[233] Brugsch, "Hist. d'Egypte," p. 206.
CHAPTER VII.
THE MONUMENTS OF THE HOUSE OF RAMSES.
More than ten centuries seem to have elapsed from the founding of the kingdom of Memphis before Egypt ventured beyond her natural borders. The peninsula of Sinai, the shores of the Red Sea opposite Thebes, and Semne in Nubia were the extreme limits in the times of the kings who built the pyramids, of the Sesurtesen and Amenemha. The impulse given by the successful war of liberation carried Egypt beyond these boundaries. When Amosis and Tuthmosis III. had restored the kingdom, it reached the summit of its greatness and splendour under the latter and Amenophis III., Sethos I., and Ramses II., while Ramses III. strengthened anew and maintained the position which his great forefathers had obtained for Egypt. Four centuries of glory and victory had now passed over Egypt (1650-1250), the victorious arms of the Pharaohs had been carried to Nubia and Dongola, to the Negroes, to Libya and Syria in repeated campaigns; more than once the Euphrates had seen the Egyptian armies. In these centuries Egypt was the first kingdom in the ancient world, not in civilisation merely, or in art, but in military power, though her lasting acquisitions were limited to the Upper Nile. For yet another century and a half the successors of Ramses III. could enjoy undisturbed the fruits of the exertions of their ancestors.
As the new kingdom surpassed the old in power, so did the new capital Thebes eclipse the older Memphis. None of these princes neglected to offer his booty to Ammon of Thebes; from the time of Tuthmosis I. to Ramses III. no king omitted to adorn Thebes with new buildings. The city must have presented a most marvellous appearance when the works of the Tuthmosis and Amenophis, of Sethos, of Ramses II. and III. stood erect and rose up from the earth solid and massive as rocks on either bank of the Nile, while the multitude of obelisks and colossi towered up like a forest of stone. Fancy might imagine that she looked upon a city built by giants. The houses of the people also, though built of brick only, as Diodorus tells us, were three or four stories high. Diodorus fixes the circuit of the city at more than fifteen miles; for us it is still marked by the remains of the temples of Karnak, Luxor, Gurnah, and Medinet Habu.[234]