Page:The Pharaohs and their people; scenes of old Egyptian life and history (IA pharaohstheirpeo00berkiala).pdf/203

 allowed his claims to supremacy in Mesopotamia to lapse; and the Phœnicians were not a warlike race, but, as a rule, were ready to acknowledge the supremacy of a stronger nation so long as they could pursue their commerce and gain wealth at their ease.

It is possible, then, that thirty or forty years of peace may have remained for King Rameses, and his time and energies were devoted to architectural, instead of warlike, achievements. He lived to be at least eighty years of age, and survived twelve of his sons, being succeeded by the thirteenth, Menephtah.

Behind the Libyan hills, which encircle the plain of Western Thebes, is a wild and desolate valley. At its entrance stood a beautiful temple, begun by Seti in memory of his father, and completed by Rameses. In the hills surrounding this lonely valley (called by the Arabs Biban el Moluk, Tombs of the Kings) were the burial-places of the nineteenth and twentieth dynasties. In another and an equally dreary valley were the tombs of the queens and princesses of the royal house. Their fate has been a sad one, for the graves