* Amenôthes II. erected some small obelisks at Elephantine, one of which is at present in England. The two buildings of Amenôthes III. at Elephantine were still in existence at the beginning of the present century. They have been described and drawn by French scholars; between 1822 and 1825 they were destroyed, and the materials used for building barracks and magazines at Syene.
Ancient Egypt and its feudal cities, Ombos, Edfû,* Nekhabît, Esneh,** Medamôt,*** Coptos,**** Denderah, Abydos, Memphis,^ and Heliopolis, profited largely by the generosity of the Pharaohs.
* The works undertaken by Thûtmosis III. in the temple of Edfû are mentioned in an inscription of the Ptolemaic period; some portions are still to be seen among the ruins of the town.
** An inscription of the Roman period attributes the rebuilding of the great temple of Esneh to Thûtmosis III. Grébaut discovered some fragments of it in the quay of the modern town.
*** Amenôthes II. appears to have built the existing temple.
**** The temple of Hâthor was built by Thûtmosis III. Some fragments found in the Ptolemaic masonry bear the cartouche of Thûtmosis IV.
^ Amenôthes II. certainly carried on works at Memphis, for he opened a new quarry at Tûrah, in the year IV. Amenôthes III. also worked limestone quarries, and built at Saqqârah the earliest chapels of the Serapeum which are at present known to us.
Since the close of the XIIth dynasty these cities had depended entirely on their own resources, and their public buildings were either in ruins, or quite inadequate to the needs of the population, but now gold from Syria and Kûsh furnished them with the means of restoration. The Delta itself shared in this architectural revival, but it had suffered too severely under the struggle between the Theban kings and the Shepherds to recover itself as quickly as the remainder of the country. All effort was concentrated on those of its nomes which lay on the Eastern frontier, or which were crossed by the Pharaohs in their journeys into Asia, such as the Bubastite and Athribite nomes; the rest remained sunk in their ancient torpor.
** Mariette and E. de Rougé, attribute this torpor, at least as far as Tanis is concerned, to the aversion felt by the Pharaohs of Egyptian blood for the Hyksôs capital, and for the provinces where the invaders had formerly established themselves in large numbers.