The most important of these was the head and shoulders of a statue of
Mentuemhat, governor of Thebes at the time of the sack of the city by
Ashur-bani-pal of Assyria in 668 B.C. In Miss Benson's interesting book,
_The Temple of Mut in Asher_, it is suggested, on the authority of Prof.
Petrie, that his facial type is Cypriote, but this speculation is a
dangerous one, as is also the similar speculation that the wonderful
portrait-head of an old man found by Miss Benson [* Plate vii of her
book.] is of Philistine type. We have only to look at the faces of
elderly Egyptians to-day to see that the types presented by Mentuemhat
and Miss Benson's "Philistine" need be nothing but pure Egyptian. The
whole work of the clearing was most efficiently carried out, and the
Cairo Museum obtained from it some valuable specimens of Egyptian
sculpture.

The Great Temple of Karnak is one of the chief cares of the Egyptian
Department of Antiquities. Its paramount importance, so to speak, as the
cathedral temple of Egypt, renders its preservation and exploration a
work of constant necessity, and its great extent makes this work one
which is always going on and which probably will be going on for many
years to come. The Temple of Karnak has cost the Egyptian government
much money, yet not a piastre of this can be grudged. For several years
past the works have been under the charge of M. Georges Legrain, the
well-known engineer and draughtsman who was associated with M. de
Morgan in the work at Dashûr. His task is to clear out the whole temple
thoroughly, to discover in it what previous investigators have left
undiscovered, and to restore to its original position what has fallen.

[Illustration: 376.jpg THE GREAT TEMPLE OP KAKNAK.]

The left-hand obelisk is the highest in Egypt, and was