Page 396 - Four Thousand Years Ago by Geoffrey Bibby

The Sack of Troy 333

Aegean, whom the Egyptians so appropriately called the people
of the sea, raided far and wide, and no merchantman dared any
longer venture out of sight of land. To protect their merchant
fleets, every city of the coast had by now established a navy,

long heavy galleys with bronze-clad rams projecting below the
prows which could hole and sink the swifter but more flimsy
raiders. And they also turned the raiders against each other, by
recruiting mercenary fleets from among the people of the sea.
It was in this honorable service that Menelaus spent the
next seven years, with his squadron of ships chartered by the
Egyptian navy and himself under contract as admiral. He had

THE RELIEFS ON THE MEDINAT HABU TEMPLE OF RAMESES HI GIVE,
UNFORTUNATELY, VERY LITTLE IDEA OF THE APPEARANCE OF THE
SHIPS OF THE PEOPLE OF THE SEA. SUCH REPRESENTATIONS AS THERE
ARE SHOW THEM TO HAVE BEEN COMPLETELY DIFFERENT FROM
EGYPTIAN VESSELS. THE RESEMBLANCE OF THE SHIP ON THE RIGHT
TO THE SHIPS OF THE SWEDISH ROCK CARVINGS ( PAGE 20/ ) MAY NOT
NECESSARILY BE ENTIRELY FORTUITOUS.

his shore base at Tanis, the greatest city of the delta, now called
the city of Rameses since pharaoh had taken up residence there.
And most of his service consisted of convoying merchant fleets
up to Gaza and Ascalon, Tyre and Sidon, Byblos and Beirut

and Ugarit. But on occasion he had the opportunity to take the
river route, south to Memphis and even to Thebes, where Rameses
still had a royal residence and where he was building his grave
and mortuary temple in the traditional manner in the Valley of
the Kings. And there, like any other tourists, he and Helen
visited the great new temple at Medinat Habu, to see the carvings
recording the victories of Rameses over the people of the sea.

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