TEMPLE OF SULB (SOLEB) sculptor intended each man to be a typical representative of a tribe, and that he tried to reproduce likenesses easily recognizable. Many were portraits of men who belonged to tribes of the Northern Sudan, that is to say, men of the districts now called Dlir Sukkot and Dar Mahass ; on the other hand, many reproduced the wide nostrils, high cheek-bones, and thick lips of Negroes. The turreted ovals give the names of places in Palestine, Northern Syria, and Western Mesopotamia, as well as of districts in the Sudan, but as the natives of the last-named country can never have heard of most of the Asiatic names, Amen-hetep must have had them placed on the bases of the capitals solely with the view of magnifying his exploits generally.

Be this as it may, the figures are well cut, and one can only regret that more of them are not preserved.

On the following morning we began to excavate the bases of the pillars that formed the portico before the second propylon, for it was likely that altars, and votive and commemorative statues of priests and officials would be found there. Several of the bases were laid bare, and much clearing was done, but nothing was found. We next dug through the ground at the foot of the flight of steps which led to the above-mentioned portico, and here three granite altars and a hawk were brought to light. How these monuments came to be here it is difficult to say, but they were no doubt votive offerings, which having been overthrown became buried and forgotten. The enclosure of the temple of Sulb was large, and traces of its boundary walls are still to be seen. The ancient city must have covered a considerable tract of land, for its ruins extend both to the north and south of the temple. About a furlong to the north of the temple there is on the river-bank the lower portion of a well-built pier ; its age is uncertain, but the stones of which it is formed are large, and they may date from Egyptian times. A little further to the north of this pier are the remains of a stone wall, which is built out from the bank, and which was intended either " to train " the river, or to form a shelter for boats behind it. There is nothing on the stones which would help us to assign a date to it. These constructions suggest that Sulb must have been, at one period of her history, the centre of the trade of the district, and a town or city of considerable VOL. I. 449 G g