THE EGYPTIAN SUDAN in Nubia, for his father's temples must have been in a tolerably good state of preservation.

Mer-en-Ptah was, it seems, succeeded by Seti II, Mer-en-Ptah II., whose reign was uneventful ; he neither waged wars nor built temples in Nubia. His cartouches are found cut on the second colossal statue of Rameses II., on the north side of the entrance to the temple at Abu Simbel.'

Sa-Ptah Mer-en-Ptah was one pf the immediate successors of Seti 11, Mer-en-Ptah. On a rock near Aswan a seated figure of the king is sculptured ; before him stands the Prince of Kash and governor of the south, Seti, and behind him the chancellor Bai,* his name is also commemorated on a rock on the Island of Sahal, where Seti, Prince of Kash, is adoring cartouches containing his name.* This sculpture was made in the third year of the king's reign, and in the inscription the official says, " Praised be thy ka (i.e., double), O mighty king ! Grant thou grace to the ka of the fan-bearer on the right hand of the king, the Prince of Kash and governor of the south, Seti," Like his predecessors Mer-en-Ptah I. and II., Sa-Ptah neither waged wars nor built temples in Nubia. It was supposed that, owing to the shortness of his reign, Sa-Ptah did not build a tomb in the Valley of the Tombs of the Kings at Thebes, but this was a mistake, for it was discovered there in the winter of 1905-6 by Mr. Theodore N.

Davis, assisted by Mr. E. R, A. Ayrton.

With the death of Sa-Ptah the XlXth Dynasty came to an end, and for several years no man was able to make himself master of the country, which fell into a state of lawlessness and anarchy. According to the great papyrus of Rameses III,, *' every man did that which it seemed to him right to do, and " for very many years the people had no chief governor who was " able to maintain dominion over the other rulers," In Syria a certain man called Arsu succeeded in seizing the supreme ' See Lepsius, Denkmdler, Abth. iii., 204. -Ibid., Bl. 202 c.

'" Lepsius, Denkmdler, Abth. iii., Bl. 202, b.

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