to become the central colonnade of a hypostyle hall as vast as that of the sister temple.  Either money or time was lacking to carry out his intention.  He died before the aisles on either side were even begun.  At Abydos, however, he was more successful.  We do not know the reason of Seti’s particular affection for this town; it is possible that his family held some fief there, or it may be that he desired to show the peculiar estimation in which he held its local god, and intended, by the homage that he lavished on him, to cause the fact to be forgotten that he bore the name of Sit the accursed.

[Illustration:  176.jpg ONE OF THE COLONNADES OF THE HYPOSTYLE HALL IN THE TEMPLE OF SETI I. AT ABYDOS]

     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a photograph by Beato.

The king selected a favourable site for his temple to the south of the town, on the slope of a sandhill bordering the canal, and he marked out in the hardened soil a ground plan of considerable originality.  The building was approached through two pylons, the remains of which are now hidden under the houses of Aarabat el-Madfuneh.

[Illustration:  176b.jpg THE FACADE OF THE TEMPLE OF SETI]

A fairly large courtyard, bordered by two crumbling walls, lies between the second pylon and the temple facade, which was composed of a portico resting on square pillars.  Passing between these, we reach two halls supported by-columns of graceful outline, beyond which are eight chapels arranged in a line, side by side, in front of two chambers built in to the hillside, and destined for the reception of Osiris.  The holy of holies in ordinary temples is surrounded by chambers of lesser importance, but here it is concealed behind them.  The building-material mainly employed here was the white limestone of Turah, but of a most beautiful quality, which lent itself to the execution of bas-reliefs of great delicacy, perhaps the finest in ancient Egypt.  The artists who carved and painted them belonged to the Theban school, and while their subjects betray a remarkable similarity to those of the monuments dedicated by Amenothes III., the execution surpasses them in freedom and perfection of modelling; we can, in fact, trace in them the influence of the artists who furnished the drawings for the scenes at Tel el-Amarna.  They have represented the gods and goddesses with the same type of profile as that of the king—­a type of face of much purity and gentleness, with its aquiline nose, its decided mouth, almond-shaped eyes, and melancholy smile.  When the decoration of the temple was completed, Seti regarded the building as too small for its divine inmate, and accordingly added to it a new wing, which he built along the whole length of the southern wall; but he was unable to finish it completely.  Several parts of it are lined with religious representations, but in others the subjects have been merely sketched out in black ink with corrections in red, while elsewhere the walls are bare, except