Item 06: Letters sent by Robert Christian Wilson to his family, 1918-April 1919 - Page 385
Primary tabs
Transcription
[Page 385]
into the foothills of the desert on the opposite side.
It is a wonderful sight to see it all; well worth the climb up the hill, and you do appreciate the beauty and freshness of it after the deadness of the tombs down below. After lunch, which had been carried here, all the way from the hotel by a nigger boy, (and nothing extra charged for it) (and very nice too) we rode up on the donks to the Temple of Der-el-Bahari, [also spelt Deir el-Bahari] which was built by Queen Hatasu in under a sort of a cliff, like an amphitheatre in the side of the hill.
One thing of interest there is the marks on the wall where the pictures of the queen were once carved but were afterwards knocked off. It is said by her successor Thothines III who is supposed to have had a grudge against her.
After this temple we rode on down to a great pile of ruins called the Ramasseum. It was built by Rameses II and in it is a tremendous great black granite statue of that king, which has been knocked over and very much smashed about. Said to be done by Cambyses. He must have been in a pretty big