TEMPLE OF TIRHAKAH DISCOVERED stone we saw that it rested on a sort of square pillar, and when the mud was removed down to its base we saw that the object was an altar, similar in shape to those represented in the reliefs on the walls of the pyramid chapels at Meroe. This altar is about 4 feet high, 2 feet yh inches square at the top, and its sides are slightly concave; the upper slab is 3 inches thick. The altar has, during the centuries which have passed since it was set up, tilted a little forwards. An examination of the sides brought to light traces of hieroglyphics, and when we had scrubbed the front with water the following inscription appeared : This inscription reads :—" Taharq (Tirhakah), King of the South and North, the ever-living, hath made his monument to his father, the good-doing god Kha-kau-Ra, [by whom he is] beloved." In other words, Tirhakah records the fact that he made the temple, the sanctuary of which we were then excavating, and that he dedicated it to Usertsen III., whom he places among the gods, and regards as his father by whom he is beloved. This " find " is an important one, for it tells us not only that Tirhakah built a temple at Semna, but that he regarded Usertsen III., the first Egyptian king who occupied the Sudan effectively, as a divine ancestor. He passes over Thothmes III. and the other great kings of the XVIIIth Dynasty, who built temples at many places in the Sudan, and chooses to honour the first great Egyptian conqueror of his native land. The form of the inscription of Tirhakah given above is evidently copied from the inscriptions of Thothmes III., wherein this king brackets himself with Usertsen 4«3 h