Besides the kings named above, numbers of others contributed in greater or less measure to the building or decoration of the colossal temple. Alexander the Great restored a chamber in the festival hall of Thothmes III., and Ptolemy Soter built the central shrine of granite in the name of Philip Arrhidaeus. The walls throughout, as usually in Egyptian temples, are covered with scenes and inscriptions. Many of these, such as those which record the annals of Thothmes III., the campaign of Seti I. in Syria, the exploit of Rameses II. at the battle of Kadesh and his treaty with the Hittites, and the dedication of Shishak's victories to Amen, are of great historical importance. Several large stelae with inter esting inscriptions have been found in the ruins, and statues of many ages of workmanship. In December 1903 M. Legrain, who had been engaged for several years in clearing the temple area systematically, first tapped an immense deposit of colossal statues, stelae and other votive objects large and small in the space be tween pylon No. VII. and the great hypostyle hall. They were found lying in the utmost confusion ; in date they range from the XIIth Dynasty to the Ptolemaic period.
The inundation annually reaches the floor of the temple, and the saltpetre produced from the organic matter about the ruins, annually melting and crystallizing, has disintegrated the soft sand stone in the lower courses of the walls and the lower drums and bases of the columns. There is moreover no solid foundation in
any part of the temple. Slight falls of masonry have taken place from time to time, and the accumulation of rubbish was the only thing that prevented a great disaster. Repairs have gone on side by side with the clearance, especially since the fall of many columns in the great hall in 1899. All the columns which fell in that year were re-erected by 1908 and systematic restoration, both of the Hypostyle Hall and generally, has been continuously carried on. The whole temple area is now enclosed by a restoration of the old walls of the temenos.
The temple of Khansu, in the south-west corner of the great enclosure, is approached by an avenue of rams, and entered through a fine pylon erected by Euergetes II. It was built by Rameses III. and his successors of the XXth Dynasty. Excava tions in the opposite south-east corner have revealed flint weapons and other sepulchral remains of the earliest periods, proving that the history of Thebes goes back to a remote antiquity.