The Nile Level Texts (or Nile Quay Texts) are inscribed on the cult terrace (the so-called "quay") at the temple of

Karnak The Karnak Temple Complex, commonly known as Karnak (), comprises a vast mix of temples, pylons, chapels, and other buildings near Luxor, Egypt. Construction at the complex began during the reign of Senusret I (reigned 1971–1926 BC) in the ...

, in Thebes,

Egypt Egypt ( , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country spanning the Northeast Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to northe ...

. This cult terrace itself was constructed during the time of

Ramesses II Ramesses II (sometimes written Ramses or Rameses) (; , , ; ), commonly known as Ramesses the Great, was an Pharaoh, Egyptian pharaoh. He was the third ruler of the Nineteenth Dynasty of Egypt, Nineteenth Dynasty. Along with Thutmose III of th ...

, but the kings of the 22nd to the

26th 26 (twenty-six) is the natural number following 25 and preceding 27. In mathematics *26 is the seventh discrete semiprime (2 \times 13) and the fifth with 2 as the lowest non-unitary factor thus of the form (2.q), where q is a higher prime. ...

Dynasties recorded the height of the

Nile The Nile (also known as the Nile River or River Nile) is a major north-flowing river in northeastern Africa. It flows into the Mediterranean Sea. The Nile is the longest river in Africa. It has historically been considered the List of river sy ...

on its western side. The inscriptions are invaluable records since they are dated to specific years of a certain king's reign. The cult terrace does not bear any inscriptions from the early years of reign of

Taharqa Taharqa, also spelled Taharka or Taharqo, Akkadian: ''Tar-qu-ú'', , Manetho's ''Tarakos'', Strabo's ''Tearco''), was a pharaoh of the Twenty-fifth Dynasty of Egypt and qore (king) of the Kingdom of Kush (present day Sudan) from 690 to 664 BC. ...

, a period that is known from other sources to have been a time of drought. The texts were first examined and recorded by

Georges Legrain Georges Albert Legrain (4 October 1865, in Paris – 22 August 1917, in Luxor) was a French Egyptologist. Life and work From 1883 to 1890 Legrain was a student at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris, but he also studied Egyptology at that time, ...

in 1896, and later recollated by

Jürgen von Beckerath Jürgen von Beckerath (19 February 1920 – 26 June 2016) was a German Egyptology, Egyptologist. He was a prolific writer who published countless articles in journals such as '':fr:Orientalia, Orientalia'', ''Göttinger Miszellen'' (GM), ''Journa ...

in 1953. Many are now damaged or lost through erosion.

References

* * * *{{cite journal , author=Broekman, Gerardus P. F. , title=The Nile Level Records of the Twenty-second and Twenty-third Dynasties in Karnak: A Reconsideration of Their Chronological Order , journal=

Journal of Egyptian Archaeology The ''Journal of Egyptian Archaeology (JEA)'' is a bi-annual Peer review, peer-reviewed international academic journal published by the Egypt Exploration Society. Covering Egyptology, Egyptological research, the JEA publishes scholarly articles, f ...

, year=2002 , volume=88, pages=163–178 , doi=10.2307/3822342 , jstor=3822342 Ancient Egyptian texts