Building a New Kingdom City

Building a New Kingdom City

From Adolf Erman, Life in Ancient Egypt. London: Macmillan, 1894. An account of the building of Pharaonic cities during the New Kingdom.

It was customary in the East that a mighty monarch should begin at his accession to "build a city;" he generally chose an outlying quarter of the town or a village near the capital as the site of his palace, and transferred to it the seat of his government. Occasionally this new place was permanent, but as a rule it was never finished, and disappeared a few generations later, after a successor had established a new residence for himself. Thus the capital in the course of centuries moved hither and thither, and officially at least changed its name; this was the case with almost every great city of the East. A king might also choose a new plot of ground far from the capital without its becoming on that account more permanent.
   We know for certain that this was customary with the Pharaohs of the New Empire; Thebes was indeed maintained as the capital of the kingdom, on account of her great sanctuaries, but the king resided in some newly-founded city bearing the name of the founder. The new city was built " after the plan of Thebes," with granaries and storehouses, with gardens and tanks that it might be "sweet to live in," and the court poet sung of her glory in his "account of the victory of the lord of Egypt: "

"His Majesty has built for himself a fortress,
'Great in victory' is her name.
She lies between Palestine and Egypt,
And is full of food and nourishment.
Her appearance is as On of the South,
And she shall endure like Memphis.
The sun rises in her horizon
And sets within her boundaries,
All men forsake their towns
And settle in her western territory.
Amon dwells in the southern part, in the temple of Sutech,
But Astarte dwells towards the setting of the sun,
And Ud'oit on the northern side.
The fortress which is within her
Is like the horizon of heaven,
'Ramses beloved of Amon' is god there,
And 'Mentu in the countries' is speaker,
The 'Sun of the ruler' is governor, he is gracious to Egypt,
And 'Favourite of Atum' is prince, to whose dwelling all people go."

(169-70)