THE GREAT ATEN

p. 61

and the payments made by grateful travellers for the watering of their beasts, together with other offerings, made them rich and powerful.

The waters of the well were believed to spring from the celestial waters of Nenu, or Nu, and the Nubian King Piankhi tells us that when he went to Anu he bathed his face in the water in which Ra
was wont to bathe his face.

1 We may note, in passing, that the Virgin Mary drew water from this well when the Holy Family
halted at Anu.

Under the IVth dynasty the priests of Anu obtained very considerable power, and they succeeded
in acquiring pre-eminence for their god Ra among the other gods of Lower Egypt. Whether or not
they chose the kings cannot be said, but it is certain that they caused the name of Ra to form a
part of the Nesu bat names of the builders of the second and third pyramids at Gizah.

Thus we have KHAF-RA (Khephren) and MENKAU-RA (Mycerinus).

Not satisfied with this, they rejected the descendants of the great pyramid builders, and set upon
the throne a number of kings whom they declared to be the sons of their god Ra by the wife of one
of his priests.

The first of these adopted as his fifth, or personal name, the title of "Sa Ra," i.e., son of Ra. This
title, which was certainly adopted by the kings of the Vth dynasty, was borne by every king of
Egypt afterwards, and the Nubian, Persian, Macedonian, or Roman who became king of Egypt saw
no absurdity in styling himself

"son of Ra."

Thanks to the excavations made by Borchardt and Schäfer, under the direction of F. von Bissing, several important facts dealing with the worship of Ra have been brought to light.

The sun temples built by the later kings of the Vth dynasty were usually buildings