Some 300 miles south of Cairo is the ruins of one of the famous cities of olden times. This was the city that is now known as Thebes. Here lived the rulers of Egypt for centuries. So powerful was the city that it boasted of 20,000 war chariots it could send forth fully manned. It was built on both banks of the Nile. The early Greeks spoke of it as "the hundred-gated city." Now it is a pile of magnificent ruins. One of its wonderful parts is called Karnak (kär´ nåk). It is a section of the Karnak ruins that is shown in the view. The object in the picture you will first observe is the tall column called an obelisk (b´ - lsk). It is the largest obelisk now standing in Egypt. It is 97 feet high and 8½ feet in diameter. Its top was overlaid with metal which shone like gold. To the left you see a smaller obelisk-76 feet high. One of the obelisks from near Karnak now stands in Central Park in the City of New York, and another in London. Here also is one of the wonders of the ancient world-the Hypostyle Hall. Its ruins are to the left of the smaller obelisk. You can see three of the tiers of pillars holding up a stone floor. It was 338 feet wide and 170 feet deep. There were 134 columns-16 rows-to hold up the roof. Observe the Egyptian writing carved on the stones in the foreground. One of these writings tells of an Egyptian king's defeat of the son of Solomon in battle. Egypt was one of the great nations of the ancient world. Northern Africa and southwestern Asia held the first civilized peoples that history tells about. Name some of the early nations of Asia. The Egyptians were skilled in many arts and sciences. The center of the world's learning was for centuries in Egypt. At present the country is under British control. Keystone ID: 9737 Note: All titles, descriptions, and location coordinates are from the original Keystone Slide documentation as supplied by the Keystone View Company. No text has been edited or changed.