Uarda - 1880 Author:Georg Ebers Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER II. The temple where, in the fore-court, Paaker was waiting, and where the priest had disappeared to call the leech, was called the " House of Set... more »i" and was one of the largest in the City of the Dead. Only that magnificient building of the time of the deposed royal race of the reigning king's grandfather -- that temple which had been founded by Thotmes III., and whose . gateway Amenophis III. had adorned with immense colossal statues -- exceeded it in the extent of its plan; in every other respect it held the pre-eminence among the sanctuaries of the Necropolis. Rameses I. had founded it shortly after his accession, the better to secure his possession of the throne of Egypt; and his yet greater son Seti carried on the erection, in which the service of the dead for the Manes of the members of the new royal family was conducted, and the high festivals held in honor of the Gods of the under-world. Great sums had been expended for its establishment, for the maintenance of the priesthood of its sanctuary, and the support of the institutions connected with it. These were intended to be equal to the great original foundations of priestly learning at Heliopolis and Memphis; they were regulated on the same pattern, and with the object of raising the new royal residence of upper Egypt, namely Thebes, above the capitals of lower Egypt in regard to philosophical distinction. One of the most important of these foundations It is still standing, and known as the temple of Qurnah. The well-known colossal stat. ues, of which that which stands to the north isthe famous musical statue, or PiHar of Memnon. was a very celebrated school of learning. First there was the high school, in which priests, physicians, judges, mathematicians, astronomers, grammarians, and other learn...« less