Note 64 — LETTER XV.
Reading edition
Similar designations occur at an earlier period; thus, in Thebes, an “Ammon of Tuthmosis (III.)” is mentioned; it would seem to infer a newly-instituted worship of those gods brought about by these kings. Ramses II. dedicated to the three highest gods of Egypt (see my essay “On the Primeval Circle of Egyptian Gods,” in the papers of the Berlin Academy, 1851), Ra, Phtha, and Ammon, three great rock temples, in Lower Nubia, at Derr, Gerf Hussén, and Sebuâ, and called the contemporaneously-founded places after these gods, this in Greek Heliopolis, Hephaistopolis, and Diospolis. A fourth mighty and fortified residence was founded by the same king in Abusimbel, and was named after himself, Ramessopolis, or “The Fortification of Ramessopolis,” as he also founded two cities in the Delta, and called them after himself. No doubt it is this new worship, in reference to which the gods honoured there were named Ammon of Ramses, and Phtha of Ramses. The king was himself adored in those rock temples, particularly in that of Abusimbel, in common with those deities.