LUXOR   (eL-UKSUR)   AND   THEBES.                     371

would have been impossible for the Egyptians to over¬
look it. The mountains on the east and west side of
the river sweep away from it, and leave a broad plain on
each bank of several square miles in extent. It has been
calculated that modern Paris could stand on this space of
ground. We have, unfortunately, no Egyptian description
of Thebes, or any statement as to its size; it may, how¬
ever, be assumed from the remains of its buildings which
still exist, that the descriptions of the city as given by Strabo
and Diodorus are on the whole trustworthy. The fame of
the greatness of Thebes had reached the Greeks of Homer's
age, and its "hundred gates" and 20,000 war chariots are
referred to in Iliad IX, 381. The city must have reached its
highest point of splendour during the rule of the XVIIIth
and XlXth dynasties over Egypt, and as little by little
the local god Amen-Ra became the great god of all Egypt,
his dwelling-place Thebes also gained in importance and
splendour. The city suffered severely at the hands of
Cambyses, who left nothing in it unburnt that fire would
consume. Herodotus appears never to have visited Thebes,
and the account he gives of it is not satisfactory; the account
of Diodorus, who saw it about B.C. 57, is as follows: "After¬
wards reigned Busiris, and eight of his posterity after him;
the last of which (of the same name with the first) built that
great city which the Egyptians call Diospolis, the Greeks
Thebes; it was in circuit 140 stades (about twelve
miles), adorned with stately public buildings, magnificent
temples, and rich donations and revenues to admiration;
and he built all the private houses, some four, some
five stories high. iVnd to sum up all in a word, made it
not only the most beautiful and stateliest city of Egypt,
but of all others in the world. The fame therefore of the
riches and grandeur of this city was so noised abroad in

every place, that the poet Homer takes notice of it......

Although there are some that say it had not a hundred

2 B 2