Note 40 — LETTER XV.

Such designations appear even at an earlier period. Thus, in Thebes, an “Ammon of Tuthmosis (III.)” is mentioned. It thereby appears that one of the kings named was designated for the newly-established worship of these gods. Ramses II. dedicated three great rock-temples in Lower Nubia, at Derr, Gerf Hussên, and Sebûa, to the three greatest gods of Egypt, Ra, Phtha, and Ammon (See my Memoir on the earliest Cycle of the Egyptian Gods, in the papers of the Academy of Berlin, 1851), and named the places founded there simultaneously after the same gods, accordingly in Greek Heliopolis, Hephaistopolis, and Diospolis. The same Ramses founded a fourth powerful and fortified position, Abusimbel, and called it after himself Ramessopolis, or the Fortress of Ramessopolis, as he also founded two towns in the Delta, and called them after his own name. Now it is, undoubtedly, with reference to these new worships, that the gods there adored were named Ammon of Ramses, and Phtha of Ramses. The king himself was worshipped along with those gods, in these particular rock-temples, especially in that of Abusimbel.