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The Monuments of Rameses The: Egypt

None of Mei-Amoun's successors attained the distant boundaries that he had set to his dominion, and none of them impressed upon the soil of Egypt itself such deeply marked or such multiplied traces of their passage. 66 In reference to this subject, Diodorus relates that on returning from his conquests, Sesostris re-entered the regions subject to his sway with unaccustomed pomp, bringing in his train a numberless throng of captives, along with immense booty of priceless value, a share of which he pressed upon all the temples of Egypt. That country was also indebted to him for the importation of many useful inventions. "Having given up war, he furloughed his army, compensating its services the while, with donations of land; but his passion for renown allowing him no rest, he devoted himself to numerous and magnificent undertakings, intended at once to glorify his own name, and to defend, embellish and fertilize the soil of his country. First, he caused to be built in each city a temple in honor of the patron deity of the place. In many a locality he had causeways and embankments constructed to shield the dwellings from the annual inundation; and, in many others, he dug canals, one of which was intended to open communication between Memphis and the Red Sea. "In order to check the incursions of the predatory Arabs, he moreover enclosed the Isthmus from Pelusium to On (or Heliopolis) with a wall of one thousand five hundred stadii in extent.