W. & A.K. Johnston. Edinburgh & London.
THE NILE JOURNEY.
Invalids and families wishing to pass the whole winter
on the Nile will doubtless prefer to make the Nile
trip
in one of those
dahabeahs, so generally associated with
Egyptian
travel, and about which so much has been
written. Indeed,
in many books describing the Nile tour,
quite as much
is said about the
dahabeah, and what
happened
on board it, as about the mighty river and
its
renowned shores. T
HOS. C
OOK
& S
ON have a large choice
of new and improved
dahabeahs of various sizes.
The majority of tourists will, undoubtedly, prefer to
make the trip in one of C
OOK'S new steamers (see pp. 13 to
15). The saving in expense is very great. As regards
time, the duration of the voyage by
dahabeah is uncertain,
but by the weekly first-class
tourist steamer from
Cairo to
the
First Cataract
and back occupies twenty days, or the
voyage can be made
by C
OOK'S mail steamer in eleven
days,
including the stays of seven days at
Luxor and
Assouan,
which are usually
included in the fare. Other advantages
connected with
making the trip by steam are, that you go
on at a uniform
rate, independently of wind or stream; you
are never
becalmed, it is a public conveyance, and every
passenger
can be as independent as he pleases, or the vessel
can be
chartered for a private party by paying fifteen first-class
fares; all charges are strictly inclusive, and no bargaining
is necessary; but little travelling is done by night, so
that
practically every inch of the route can be
examined; punctuality
is observed in all departures and
arrivals, and there
is no previous delay for selection,
contract, etc.; most of
the attractions of the Nile are
visited on the up journey,
while the interest is fresh;
arrangements are made for the
receipt of letters and
telegrams.
After leaving the place of embarkation at the
Kasr-en-
Nil, the steamer soon
glides past
Old Cairo, and
Roda and the Nilometer (p. 154). Not
far from
Old Cairo,
the fine Mosque of Attar-en-Nebbee, which is said to perpetuate
the name of Athor, the Egyptian Venus, is seen on
a projecting rock. The Pyramids of
Ghizeh, Sakkárah, and
Dashoór are
successively passed on the western shore. On
the east,
Toora Másara is passed, with the immense
quarries
from which were taken the stone casings for
the Pyramids.
Looking back, the lofty citadel of
Cairo, and its white
mosque, remain conspicuous objects for a considerable
distance.
Bedreshayn (15 miles from
Cairo) is a Railway
Station.
Memphis (p. 159), the
Serapeum (p. 162), the
Pyramids of
Sakkárah (p. 162), can now be visited whilst
the steamer
halts, if not previously seen by excursion from
Cairo (pp. 159—164). The steamers
arrive about noon,
and donkeys are sent from
Cairo to be in readiness for the
passengers. The site of ancient
Memphis is reached after
about
half-an-hour's ride, then will be taken about an hour's
ride to the
step pyramid of Sakkárah,
Mariette Bey's
house, etc. The necessary time will be
allowed for visiting
the
Serapeum, and the tomb of Tih, one of the most interesting
tombs on the Nile, whence the donkeys are again
taken to the Pyramid of Oonas (this pyramid having
been
opened and cleared at the expense of T
HOS. C
OOK & S
ON),
and then the donkeys are remounted for the
ride of about
an hour to the steamer (p. 163).
Helouan (E.) marks the site of a
Nilometer of older
date (say some) than that at
Roda; some of its columns
still remain. Here also are some sulphur springs,
around
which a watering-place, frequented both by
Europeans
and Egyptians, has sprung up. These springs
were of great
repute in ancient times. To them it is
supposed King
Amenophis sent “the leprous and other
cureless persons,
in order to separate them from the rest
of the Egyptians.”
For a long period these springs had
fallen into disuse, but
it has recently become the fashion
for visitors and residents
of
Cairo to resort there. The springs have been
found
especially
beneficial in various forms of disease to which
residents
in so hot a climate are subject.
The late Khedive
Tewfik
built himself a small palace, to
which he made frequent
visits. Two hotels and an annually
increasing number of
detached villas have been built, some
of which may be
hired furnished or unfurnished. The
Bath-houses are in
good order, and special arrangements
are made for ladies.
A short railway connects
Cairo
with
Helouan, the station in
Cairo being near the Bab-el-Louk.
Trains run hourly, and the time occupied on the journey
is
from thirty to fifty minutes (p. 109).
Rigga (W.) is about four miles from the
curious object
conspicuous for some time from the steamer,
and called by
the Arabs
Karem-el-Kedab, or
False
Pyramid, from the idea
that the base was a rock,
instead of the whole being built
up, as is really the
case. It is probably an unfinished
Pyramid, commenced by
Senefroo, the monarch who preceded
Cheops, and shows great regularity
and even beauty
of construction, so far as the work has
gone. Adjacent to
this Pyramid is a Necropolis of the same
high antiquity.
In one of the tombs were discovered, in
1872, the two
beautiful statues exhibited in the Salle des
Bijoux at the
Ghizeh Museum.
The scenery through which the steamer is now passing
is very pleasing—an agreeable mingling of verdant
crops
and palm groves. Water-fowl are abundant on the
sand-banks.
“The scenery is simple and grand,” says the author of
Under Egyptian Palms. “Each day unrolls
to you a
panorama of wide, waving fields, green with corn
and
maize, and sugar-cane, rich and golden with the
yellow-blossoming
cotton, tobacco, and lupin, and
wooded with
mimosa and
date—a broad belt of verdure, where, like to
islands in a
sunny sea, little clustering villages uprise, clear
of the
summer inundations, and mosques sheltered with
thickets of
palm; a pastoral country where the sound of
murmuring
water comes to you at every turn, and creaking,
oxen-turned sakies are hidden under ever-spreading sycamores;
where, in open meadow or thick wood shade by
the water's edge, half-naked men and women halt in
their
lazy working, and stare at you; and, lastly,
where, on either
bank of this calm-flowing river, colossal
ruins and silent
cities of the dead confront you with
memories of a lost
empire, and solemn temples here and
there are mirrored in
the stream.”
Atfeeyah (E.) is near the site of
ancient
Aphroditopolis,
or city of Athor, the Venus of Egypt. There are no
remains; only mounds tell of the long-perished city.
Zowyeh (E., 55 miles from
Cairo) is near the site of
ancient Iseum.
Wasta
(W.) is a Railway Station, and is the junction
for
the branch line through the Copt-peopled Fyoóm to
Medeenet-el-Fyoóm, a town built with the remains of
ancient Arsinoë—fine columns grotesquely mixed with
rough
brickwork. Near Medeeneh are the site of
Arsinoë (ancient
Crocodilopolis), the site of the
artificial
Lake Maeris, and the remains of the
celebrated
Labyrinth,
described by Herodotus as surpassing the Pyramids
(p.
260).
Benisooef (W., 73 miles from
Cairo). Railway
Station. This is the capital
of the province of the same
name, one of the most
productive provinces of Egypt. The
town has a population
of about 10,000. There is a post-office
and
telegraph-office, some factories of woollen and
linen, and
a bazaar. The latter is a wretched little affair,
with shops
like cupboards. The scene on the shore is
animated and
picturesque, boats of various kinds cluster at
the margin
of the stream; people of all ages are clamouring
or
bargaining, children playing, picturesque old men in
white
dresses lean on their staves and watch the crowd;
girls
come down and fill their water-jars, and gracefully
poise
them on their heads as they walk away; dogs, goats,
poultry, cows, horses, camels, and buffaloes add to the noise
and excitement of the scene. Passing on from
Benisooéf,
numerous chimneys of the Khedive's sugar
factories become
conspicuous from time to time.
Isment (W.) Here are the quarries from which the
beautiful veined marble for the mosque of Mohamed Ali
was obtained.
Bibbeh (W.) Railway Station. Here is a Coptic
convent, where St. George has procured favour for the
inmates in past times by being described as a Muslim
saint
under the name of El Bibbáwee; the two creeds seem
to have
got on comfortably together by this arrangement,
and
Mohamedans still visit the convent and recite prayers
before the picture, which has thus had to do double duty.
Feshun (W., 92 miles from
Cairo). Railway Station.
Malateeah (W.), and other villages are passed. The
Gebel Sheykh Embárak is seen for some time
before
reaching it, and has been compared to a giant
blocking the
path. It is a large table-mountain, with
broken surface—
one of the cliffs closely resembles a
ruined castle.
Maghágha (W., 106 miles from
Cairo). Railway
Station. Here are some sugar factories belonging to the
Government, and a branch railway for bringing the sugarcane
into the town. Aquatic birds in swarms abound on
the
sandbanks south of the town. The Hágar-es-Salám, or
Rock
of Welfare, is passed; it derives its name from the
current belief
of the boatmen that they cannot call a Nile
voyage
prosperous until they have passed this stone on their
way
back.
On both banks, though somewhat monotonous in general
appearance, are various remains of ancient towns. Near
Aboo Girgeh, on the west bank, is Béhnesa,
representing
the ancient Oxyrinchus, City of Fish
Worshippers. Béhnesa
was a notable place in Arab and
Memlook times, and
had a wonderful legendary
warrior-saint, one et-Takroory.
Mounds and grottoes, in
various directions from Aboo
Girgeh, mark the sites of
ancient
Cynopolis, “City of Dogs,”
and other old-world places. Near Sheykh Fodl, on the
E.
shore, are remains of temples, and tombs with
dog-mummies,
etc.
Golósaneh, or Kalouseneh (W., 134 miles
from
Cairo), is threatened with
destruction by the action of the
Nile waters. It is, as
usual, a mud-built village with a
beautiful palm grove.
Semaloot, with its minaret conspicuously
rising from
its palm grove, is seen on the west shore.
The lofty precipices of Gebel-el-Tayr soon present
themselves on the
eastern shore. This mountain, towering
some hundred feet
in height, consists of a long range of
cliffs, singularly
broken, and full of rifts and chasms, rising
perpendicularly from the east side of the river for four
miles. It is said to derive its name, which means Mountain
of the Birds, from the circumstance of the birds meeting
there annually and imprisoning one of their number till
their next visit. Why they do this is not explained.
The mountain is better known from its
Coptic Convent of Sitteh Mariam-el-Adra (our Lady Mary
the Virgin),
often called the Convent of the Pulley. It
is, in reality,
like many of the Coptic Dayrs, a village
of priests and wives,
and families
and connections, surrounding a church, and all
walled in
for protection from the Bedouins. There is a
well-hole in
the rocks, up which the Convent on the summit
can be
reached from the water's edge. Down this perpendicular
tunnel the monks used to come swarming as the
steamer was
seen approaching, swim to the vessel's side,
climb on
deck, and solicit alms on the grounds of a common
Christianity, but the custom is now prohibited by order of
the Patriarch.
Mr. Curzon, in his
Monasteries of
the Levant
, gives an
amusing account of his ascent up the
tunnel, or funnel, to
the Convent. Following the abbot,
“whom I saw striding
and sprawling in the attitude of a
spread eagle above my
head, my slippers soon fell off upon
the head of a man
under me, whom, on looking down, I
saw to be the reis,
or captain of my boat, whose immense turban formed the
whole of his costume. At least twenty men were scrambling
and puffing underneath him—arms and legs stretched out
in
all manner of attitudes—the procession being led by the
unrobed ecclesiastics. Having climbed up about 120 feet,
we emerged, in a fine perspiration, upon a narrow ledge of
the rock in front of the precipice, which had an unpleasant
slope towards the Nile.” Hence, after some more climbing
and scrambling, the summit was gained.
The Convent is of great antiquity, originally of Roman
workmanship in the time of the Empress Helena, to whom
the erection of the church is ascribed. The church,
says
Curzon, “is half a catacomb or cave, and one of
the
earliest Christian buildings which has preserved
its originality.”
It is in the form of a Latin Basilica.
From the
terrace on the roof there are extensive views of
a very
striking character.
Continuing the Nile journey, some remains of the
Gisr-el-Agoos
are seen a few
miles beyond the Convent. This
wall was probably a similar
construction to the Picts' Wall
between England and
Scotland, built to prevent the incursions
of wild tribes
into the cultivated region. Diodorus
says that Sesostris
built such a wall from
Pelusium to
Heliopolis. Several portions of the
Gisr-el-Agoos are seen
at different points of the journey;
at one place the Arab
tradition runs that it was built by
an Egyptian Queen to
guard her son from the crocodiles.
Téhneh (E.), and
Táha (W.), and numerous mounds,
grottoes, and other remains of ancient towns, etc., are passed
rapidly by, and then
Minieh is reached, 156 miles from
Cairo. This is the capital of an
extensive province; there
are post and telegraph offices,
and a Sunday market. “It
is considered decidedly the
prettiest-looking town on the
Nile,” says Bartlett; “there
is an old white tomb under a
sycamore at one end of the
place, and the range of buildings
along the water,
interspersed with date-groves, has a very
pleasing effect;
many of the edifices are large, respectable,
and very
clean, and the interior of the town is somewhat
better
than usual, boasting even of a bath. The view from
Minieh is also very beautiful.”
Minieh contains several mosques, in
one of which are
columns of Roman workmanship; there are
also numerous
baths. At a little distance various handsome
buildings
are seen, apparently intermingled with the
surrounding
groves of date-palm; there is also a fine
palace belonging to
the Khedive, built on a beautiful
site. The sugar factories
at this town, five in number,
are unrivalled in the world for
their substantial
character and perfection of appliances; the
chimneys tower
to a height of 200 feet. Here, also, in
spite of Mohamedan
law, is annually produced several
thousand gallons of rum.
Passing
Sooádee (E.), with
its sugar plantations and a few
grottoes and mounds, the
steamer next reaches
Zowyet-el-Myiteén
(E.), where is the cemetery of
Minieh, to which
the dead are
ferried with funeral rites, strongly reminding
the
eye-witness of scenes pictured on the ancient tombs.
The
custom of burying the dead on the opposite side of
the
river to the city in which they dwelt, is of very high
antiquity in Egypt.
Kom Ahmar (E.),
Metáhara (E.), and
Sharára (W.) are next passed, each with
interesting caves
or grottoes, etc., for the inspection of
the leisurely traveller.
Beni-Hassan is 171 miles from
Cairo. From hence
to
Manfaloot, especial care must be taken to guard against
the thieving propensities of the inhabitants. Some years ago
Ibrahim Pasha destroyed the villages of Beni-Hassan to
cure the inhabitants of stealing, but it seems they are still
incorrigible.
The
Rock Tombs of Beni-Hassan,
about half-an hour's
ride from the river, are justly
celebrated for the light they
shed on the manners and
customs of ancient Egypt. They
are excavated in the rocks
above the Nile Valley, are exceedingly
ancient, and from
the resemblance in the style of their
porticoes to the
Grecian Doric, are unique in Egypt. The
Northern tombs are the most
interesting. The interior is
marked by elegant simplicity
of architecture, a low wood
ceiling is supported by a
central avenue of Doric columns.
Sir Gardner Wilkinson
suggests that they were copied from
the stone arches of
yet earlier constructions. This, however,
is reversing the
general idea of the cavern suggesting the
arched roof.
The inside walls of these tombs are covered with
coloured pictures in inexhaustible variety, representing the
daily life of Egypt nearly five thousand years ago.
The
most northern tomb is that of Améni-Amenemha,
the
next is that
of Noom-hotep, both governors of the province
of Sah. In
the latter tomb is a picture that was thought
might
represent the arrival of Joseph's brethren, and
attempts
have been made to identify Noom-hotep with the
patriarch
Joseph. But there is evidence that the tombs
were
excavated long before his time, under the Usertsens of
the
twelfth dynasty.
The tombs, numbering in all thirty-nine, are placed in a
line, extending along the face of the cliff. The
principal
tombs are entered by large doorways hewn in
the rock, and
form spacious rooms supported by columns.
Much of the
wall surface is covered with paintings and
inscriptions which
are yearly becoming dilapidated and
faded, so that many of
the scenes are scarcely to be
distinguished. The Committee
of the Egypt Exploration
Fund, anxious to preserve
a record of what remains, sent
out, in 1890-91, Mr. Naville,
Mr. Newberry, Mr. Fraser,
and Mr. Blackden, an artist, to
make plans, tracings of
paintings, and coloured copies of
the most interesting
scenes. This has been done in six out
of the eight painted
tombs, and Mr. Naville has published
a volume with full
explanations of the scenes, translations
of hieroglyphic
texts, drawings, photographs, etc.
“The famous grottoes of Beni-Hassan,” says Hopley,
“are a terrace of tombs high on the shelving Arabian
ridge,
overlooking a two miles' breadth of fertile
land between
mountain and river. In these, as in some vast
gallery—
hall after hall painted in graphic wall
picturings, and glowing
in yet unfaded tints—you may
wander at will and study
the familiar every-day life of
men who walked the land
before the days of Joseph. In
these mansions of the dead—
eternal abodes, àiwvlovs
oïkovs as the ancients called them
—mimic men and women
are wrestling, fishing, ploughing,
and reaping, trapping
birds, giving dinner-parties, being
flogged,
cutting their toe-nails, treading the wine-press,
dancing,
playing the harp, weaving linen, playing at catch
ball,
being shaved by the barber, playing at draughts.
Verily,
there is nothing new under the sun. What say you
to an
elderly lady robed in a dress having three flounces.
And
then there are stranger things than that! Yes, the old,
old story of human life is there, told as in a picture book.
Though seen through a gap of four thousand years, the eye
moistens over it still. Here are life's festive scenes and
revels—the wine cup and the garland; and here its
scenes
of sorrow—mourners are weeping over their dead.
Nothing
is lacking. And so, by the mystic
sympathy—that touch of
nature which links man with man—you
reach out a hand
across the ages, and feel the throbbings
of a humanity kindred
with your own.” All persons of true
taste and feeling will
be disgusted by finding these
precious memorials disfigured
by the carving of the
ignoble names of modern visitors.
In the
Southern tombs the
architecture more closely
resembles that of the temples,
where the lotus and papyrus
have suggested shapes for
column and capital.
The
Speos Artemidos
lies in a valley towards the
east. It is an
excavation in the rock dedicated to Pasht,
the Egyptian
Diana, commenced by Thothmes III., and
carried on by
Sethi, father of Rameses the Great, but never
completed.
There are some interesting sculptures and
hieroglyphics.
Sheykh Timay (E.) has catacombs and
quarries, and
some slight remains of the Girs-el-Agoos (p.
176) are seen
on the hills. A considerable change in the
situation of the
bed of the Nile is evident here.
On the low wooded shore to the east, close under the
mountain, at the southern end of the former channel of
the
Nile, are the ruins of Antinoë, or Antinopolis.
Some
fragments of a
Roman theatre and hippodrome are amongst
the chief
remains. It was a Roman rather than Egyptian
city, owing
its foundation to the Emperor Hadrian, who,
when visiting
Egypt, was accompanied by his beautiful
favourite,
Antinoüs, whose effigy in marble is so familiar an
object
in museums of antiquities. The Egyptian oracles
had
declared that only by sacrificing what was most dear
to
him, could the Emperor ensure his prosperity and the
welfare of his empire. To secure this boon for his master,
Antinoüs drowned himself in the Nile near Beza. In
memory
of his devoted friend, Hadrian built Antinopolis,
according to some, on the site of Ansina, the city of
Pharaoh's magicians.
In the persecution of Diocletian many Christian
martyrs perished here, and the ancient tombs in the adjacent
rocks are full of signs of Christian use as places of
worship and sepulture. Antinoë was the metropolis of
Upper Egypt previous to the Saracenic
invasion. There
are no monuments, only a few ruins, the
limestone having
been carried away and utilized elsewhere.
At
Roda
(W.), a Railway Station, 182 miles from
Cairo,
is a palace of the
Khedive's, and a large sugar factory,
employing several
hundred persons. The Coptic village of
Byadeeyah (W.),
Medeeneh (E.), with numerous Christian
tombs and painted chapels of very ancient date, are
next
passed. In one Egyptian grotto, near
Ed Dayr en Nakhl
(E.), is a picture showing the
Transport
of a Colossus on a sledge, dragged with ropes, illustrating the
ancient
method of dealing with these huge monuments.
Probably
many tourists will call to mind one of the
many copies of
this picture in books on Egypt, the two
hundred men
toiling at the ropes, the huge statue on the
sledge, the
man on the pedestal easing the passage of the
sledge with
oil, and the
man on the statue beating time that all may
pull together;
doubtless, all is quite familiar, and the tourist,
as he
steams past
Ed Dayr, may be interested in
remembering that the original is underground behind that village.
Raramoon (W.) is near the site of the
ancient Shmoun,
called by the Greeks
Hermopolis Magna, as being dedicated
to Thoth, the Egyptian Hermes. The remains cover four
miles of ground. Ibeum, where the ibis mummies from
Hermopolis
were buried, was at the foot of the Libyan hills.
After passing
Daroot Oshmoon
(W.),
Mellarvee (W.),
Isbuyda (E.), the next place of interest
is
Hadji Kandeel,
on the
east bank of the river, about five miles from
the ruins of
the city built by Chut-en-aten, now called
Tel-el-Amarna. Chut-en-aten, or Amenophis
IV.; of the
eighteenth dynasty (1500 B.C.), was the son of
Amenophis
III., by a Mesopotamian princess, called
Thi, who came from
the land of Mitanni. When the young
prince, Amenophis IV.
grew up, it was found that he had
conceived a rooted dislike
to the worship of Amen-Ra̅, the
king of the gods, and great
lord of
Thebes, and that he preferred the worship of the
disk
of the sun to that of Amen-Ra̅; as a sign of his
opinions he
called himself “beloved of the sun's disk,”
instead of the
usual and time-honoured “beloved of Amen.”
The native
Egyptian priesthood disliked the foreign queen,
and the
sight of her son with his protruding chin, thick
lips, and
other characteristic features of the negro race,
found no
favour in their sight; that such a man should
openly
despise the worship of Amen-Ra̅ was a thing
intolerable to
the priesthood, and angry words and acts
were, on their
part, the result. In answer to their
objections, the king
ordered the name of Amen-Ra̅ to be
chiselled out of all
the monuments, even from his father's
names. Rebellion
then broke out, and Chut-en-aten thought
it best to leave
Thebes, and to found a new city for
himself at a place
between
Memphis and
Thebes, now
called
Tel-el-Amarna. In 1887 a number of
important cuneiform tablets, which
confirmed in a
remarkable manner many facts connected
with this period of
Egyptian history, were found at
Tel-el-Amarna.
The correspondence and despatches
from kings
of Babylon, Mesopotamia, and Phoenicia were
found, and
large portions of them are now preserved in the
museums
of London and Berlin.
The tombs in the rocks near
Tel-el-Amarna are of considerable
interest.
About 1 1/2 miles from the landing-place,
on the road to
the
northern tombs, are the painted
pavements,
now enclosed in a modern building (key
with
guardian). They belonged to three halls in the
palace of
Chut-en-aten (1400 B.C.) which extended far to
the south and
west of them. One floor is in almost perfect
condition of
colouring. The highly natural style of the
drawing of plants
and animals was due to the new art
introduced by the
idealist king, Khuenaten; but it soon
perished, and the
same level was not again reached until
modern art. Notice
particularly the sedges, etc., in the
long line of plants in the
inner room. These remarkable
paintings were discovered
in Mr. Flinders Petrie's
excavations of 1892.
Leaving
Hadji Kandeel, the
next places passed are
Howarte (E.),
Daróot esh Sheréef (W.), near which the
Bahr
Yoosef, or Canal
Joseph, leaves the Nile and runs along at
the foot of the
Libyan hills past
Behnesa to the
Fyoóm, and
the Christian town of
Ed Dayr-el-Kossayr (E.). During this
portion of the journey the first wild specimens of the Theban
Palm, or dôm-tree, will be seen. The whole district
teems
with Egyptian grottoes and ruins; all the hills
along the
eastern shore are full of square holes, marking
deserted tombs.
Passing
Jephsean on the west,
the tremendous: ocks of
Djebel, or Gebel Aboufaydah, are reached.
These
extend ten or twelve miles along the eastern
shore of the
Nile. Far up among the clefts of these grand
cliffs are
seen the caverns where dwelt the celebrated
ascetics of
Upper Egypt, and where Athanasius for
a time sought
shelter. Innumerable tombs line the terraces
of these
rocks. Strong winds are often experienced here.
Passing El Hareib (E.), with
its ancient repositories of
dog and cat mummies, Koosayah, site of ancient Chusis,
the City of the Sacred Cow, symbolizing the Egyptian
Venus, the Dayr-el-Bukkara (E.), and various ruins, the
cool
green reaches of Manfaloot are entered.
The first
sight of the town is very pleasing. A sudden
bend of the
river brings into full view its fretted domes
and crested-minarets,
palm trees and mingled mass of
buildings. Picturesque
terraces and gardens line the
water-side. Part of
the town has been washed away by the
Nile, but measures
have been recently taken to prevent
further damage. It is
the capital of a province and
residence of a governor, and
contains a public bath and
bazaar, and numerous mosques.
On Sundays a market is held
here.
On the eastern side of the Nile, at the top of the rocks
of the Gebel Aboufaydah, are the celebrated Crocodile
Mummy Pits of
Maabdeh. These reptiles were here
in thousands.
Much difficulty and some danger has been
experienced in
visiting these caverns. Caution is requisite
in visiting
them, as some lives have been lost by suffocation in these caverns, and
there is not now anything to be
seen to repay for a long
and toilsome journey.
Beni Ali
(W.) is the starting-point of the desert tract to
the oasis of Dákhleh. Near
Wady Booa
(E.) are some
painted grottoes, a Roman fortress, and a
Convent of Maria
Boktee, dating from the time of
Diocletian. Steaming along
the now
winding river,
Mungabat, or Mankabát,
“place of
post,” is passed, and
Assiout is reached, 250 miles from
Cairo.
Assiout
, the Coptic Siôout, is the successor of the
ancient
Lycopolis, City of Wolves, a
place devoted to the
worship of those animals, of which
only a few mounds and
buried foundations remain.
Assiout (pop. 31,000) is the
capital of
Upper
Egypt, and residence of the governor,
249 1/2 miles
from
Cairo by water, 229 miles by
rail. It is a
considerable town, with some fine mosques,
bazaars, baths,
post and telegraph offices, etc. The city
lies more than a
mile from the river, near the foot of the
mountain, and is
really on an island formed by a branch of
the river. The
latter is crossed by an arched stone
bridge, beyond which
commences the ascent of the mountain
filled with tombs
and grottoes. On approaching the town,
fifteen minarets
can be counted rising from amongst the
groves of palm and
acacia. A government college and
schools, belonging to
the American Mission, are well worth
visiting.
El Hamra
, on the Nile bank, is the port of
Assiout.
From hence to the city there is a
beautiful curving road
raised a few feet above the plain,
as the latter is under
water at the time of the annual
inundation. The bazaars
of this city are very good; the
private houses better than
in most Egyptian towns. There
is a considerable trade in
linen, cloth, earthenware,
woollens, and opium. The pipe
bowls of
Assiout are the best in the East, and large
numbers
are sent to the bazaars at
Cairo and elsewhere.
The mountain behind the city should be visited. The
view is very fine, comprising “about a hundred miles of
the
valley of the Nile — a vast level panorama,
bounded by the
chains of the Arabian and Libyan hills,
diversified by every
shade of green, and watered by the
Nile.” The innumerable
tombs, of which the
Stabl Autar is the principal, are
interesting
from their Egyptian remains, and also from their
Christian
associations, as being tenanted by monks and
hermits at a
time when society seemed so hopelessly rotten
that almost
all “the salt of the earth” was in voluntary
exile in the
deserts and caves of Africa and
Syria.
“From the top of the ridge,” says the Rev. W. Dale,
“the view is indeed very striking. The height is about
four
hundred feet, perhaps a little more. About two
miles
further north the ridge ends, and from that
point we could
see, as far as the eye could reach, the
yellow brown sand of
the
Libyan desert, following the thin strip of green on the
edge of the Nile. Just here the cultivated land for a
considerable
distance northward did not look more than
a
mile and a half or two miles in breadth, and it was
like a
long green ribbon following the course of the
river, with
the yellow desert beyond. On the eastern bank
the line of
green is much thinner, up to this point the
fertile strip
between the Nile and the
Arabian desert has scarcely ever
been more than a mile broad, and for many miles the limestone
rocks of the desert have come right down to the river.
It was impossible not to remember the famous passage
in
Ezekiel, ‘These waters issue out towards the East
country,
and go down into the desert.… and
everything shall
live
whither the river cometh.'”
At
Assiout a large canal
leads the water during the inundation
into the
Bahr Yusuf, and supplies the Fyoom
with
water.
Amongst the places next passed in journeying up the
Nile, are the following:—
El Wasta
(E.)—on site of Contra
Lycopolis;
Guttéea (W.), with acacia trees in plenty;
El
Mudmur, with more
acacias, “a whole realm of trees, a
billowy bank of golden
green on which the sunbeams sleep
at noon, … and populous
with doves, hoopoes, and birds
of every
bright plumage.” These trees are considered to
represent
one of the classic groves of Acanthus.
Sherg
Selin (E.),
Abooteg (W.),
Sidfeh (W.),
Kooskam (W.),
El Bedareh (E.),
Rainneh (E.),
Gow
(E.),
Gow-el-Gharbeeyah (W.), where, in
1865, an insurrection was put down
summarily by a good
deal of shooting and hanging, and the
destruction of
several neighbouring villages.
Near
Gow (E.) are the ruins
of
Antaeopolis. In the
early part of last century, columns, etc., of great
interest
were standing. Now there is little more than
a confused
heap of stones. The whole village of Gow was
carried
away in 1823 by the waters of the Nile.
The western mountains take a wide sweep from Gow to
Tahtah, enclosing a rich and well-cultivated plain.
Passing Mishte (W.), Shabeka (W.), and other unimportant
places, Tahtah (pop.
3000) is seen at some distance
inland, with mounds of
ancient Hesopis. Corn and cattle
are important products of
this neighbourhood.
Opposite
Tahtah projects the
Gebel Sheykh Hereédee,
traditionally said to be inhabited by a serpent gifted
with
the power of healing all kinds of diseases; there
are some
interesting caves.
Benoweet (W.),
Itfoo (W.),
(ancient
Aphroditopolis), and
Souhág (W.), are next passed.
Souhág, the capital of the province of
Girgeh. A
large canal at this place conducts the Nile
water to the
interior. Souhág is the place from which to
visit the White
and Red Monasteries.
The White Monastery has been placed, from prudential
motives, under the protection of the Muslim Saint Abou
Shenoodeh. It has been ruined and sacked several
times,
lastly in 1812, by the Memlooks, who, however,
could not
injure the immense walls. The interior was once
a grand
basilica. The exterior was built in the Egyptian
style, by
the
Empress Helena, at the edge of the
Libyan desert,
where
it stands desolate and alone amongst the sand. The
Red
Monastery is, perhaps, the more ancient of the two.
Ekhmeem (E.) is a tolerably well-built
town of wide
streets, and has a considerable corn and
poultry trade.
Coarse cottons, especially the fringed
shawls of the Nile
boatmen, are manufactured here; also
earthenware. The
town contains several mosques, a Coptic
monastery, and a
Franciscan hospice of refuge for
persecuted Christians. The
remains of two temples in the
vicinity and some other ruins
were part of ancient
Panopolis. Of this city, some have
asserted
it to be the oldest in Egypt, assigning its
foundation
to “Ekhmeem, son of Misraim, the offspring
of Cush, the
son of Ham.” Nestorius died at Ekhmeem in the
fifth century.
In 1884, Maspero discovered some thousands
of mummies
at Ekhmeem, but not any of very great historic
value.
Mensheeyah (W.), 318 miles from
Cairo, has an ancient
stone quay. There is an excellent market. Here is produced
the celebrated sweetmeat “Mensheeyeh-el-Neideh.”
The
cemetery is extensive and curious, and the dead are
brought to it from a considerable distance round, as it is
above the level of the inundation. Ptolemaïs Hermii was
the ancient Egyptian city once existing in this neighbourhood.
The Nile is now skirted for some distance on the east
bank by the hills called the Gebel Tookh. Ayserat, noted
for
turkeys, is passed on the west bank.
Girgeh (E.), named from its monastery of
St. George,
is a dirty, uninteresting place. The church is
half-buried
underground, formed of stone from the old
ruins. It contains
a handsome screen of fretted woodwork,
a wooden
communion-table (stone altars being forbidden by
the
Alexandrian Church), and some early MS. Liturgies,
Coptic
Scriptures, etc.
Bellianeh (W.) This is the point from
which to visit
the magnificent ruins of
Abydos.
Abydos
is reached by a journey of six miles across
the
plains, on donkeys, to the edge of the desert. Its most
ancient name was Thinis, or This, famous as the birthplace
of Menes, and reputed burial-place of Osiris, and second
only to
Thebes amongst the cities of
Upper Egypt.
The visitor to
Abydos
finds four principal objects of
attraction—the Temple of
Sethi, the New Tablet of
Abydos,
the Temple of Rameses, and the Necropolis.
The Temple of Sethi, called by
Strabo the Memnonium,
and so celebrated for its
magnificent decoration,
was built by Sethi I., father of Rameses II. As in all the
work undertaken by
order of Sethi, the art displayed wins
universal
admiration, unlike the sculptures of the reign of
Rameses,
which are not first rate, and, indeed, are often
negligently executed.
“The bas reliefs are the most beautiful in Egypt,” says
Viscountess Strangford; “indeed, there is nothing equal
to
them in Egyptian art, except the paintings in the
tomb of
this same King Sethi at
Thebes. In earlier periods art was
far more
naturalistic; but what we may
call Egyptian art
proper was, in the reign of Sethi, the
most perfect of all. It is
beautiful, vivid, and highly
picturesque, although completely
subject to the arbitrary
rules imposed by the priests on the
artists, in accordance
with the elaborate theocratic system of
government that
extended through all the minutiae of life.”
This temple was dedicated to seven gods, and has seven
vaulted naves lying east and west, ending in seven
sanctuaries,
and communicating with two immense halls
running
north and south. There are also some other
smaller
chambers. Everywhere are highly-finished
sculptures and
hieroglyphics.
The roof of this temple is the only one of its kind in
Egypt. Immense stones were laid, not on their faces,
but
on their sides, across from one architrave to the
other; then
an arch was cut through this mass of stone,
and adorned
with hieroglyphics and sculptures.
M. Mariette, by whose excavations these
wonderful
buildings have been largely brought to light
from the
sand which enveloped them, points out that from
the presence
everywhere of Sethi and Rameses together in
the
various pictures, the temple was built while the
one as king
and the other as prince, were associated
together. In the
long passage-like chamber to the south of
the Great Hall,
are scenes representing the Dedication of
the Temple. The
presentation of offerings to Ammon, Horus,
and Osiris is
represented in the first, second, and fourth
tablets on the
east wall, and to a grand galaxy of 130
deities on the third.
On the west wall are also four
tablets, the third of which is
the important
New Tablet of Abydos. Sethi, the king,
and Rameses,
the prince, are here shown, one making the
offering of
fire, and the other reading the sacred hymn,
before the
cartouches
* of seventy-six kings from Menes,
the founder of the kingdom, to Sethi, then reigning. These
seventy-six monarchs were doubtless those more particularly
connected with
Abydos. The value
to Egyptologists of this
monumental record is beyond
question.
In the seven vaulted naves, the pictures represent the
successive ceremonies performed by the king in
worshipping
there—unveiling the statue of the god,
offering incense,
recovering the statue, etc., etc.
Of the Temple of Rameses II. (sometimes
called
* The cartouches, sometimes called
ovals or shields, are the elliptical
frames enclosing
groups of signs symbolical of royal names.
the Temple of
Osiris), built by that monarch when himself
on the throne,
little remains but a portion of the outer
walls. Hence was
taken the mutilated Tablet of
Abydos,
now in the British Museum, considered
to be a copy of the
new tablet above described.
Continuing still in a north direction,” says M. Mariette,
in his Itinéraire, “we reach a large, crude brick
enclosure.
Here stood Thinis, the cradle of Egyptian
monarchy,
and the place where was situated the tomb of
Osiris — a
sanctuary as venerated by the ancient Egyptians
as the
Holy Sepulchre by Christians. In this enclosure is
a
mound called the Kom-es-Sultan, formed of the débris
of
myriads of tombs through successive ages. M.
Mariette
hopes to find, through the excavations now in
progress, the
tomb of Osiris beneath this mound. “The rich
and
powerful of the Egyptians,” says Plutarch, “are
desirous
of being buried at
Abydos, in order to be, as it were, in the
same grave with Osiris himself.” It is conjectured that
it
is the graves of these worthies that have gradually
formed
the mound just described.
The
Necropolis, from which a
large proportion of the
stelae in the
Ghizeh Museum, and many other objects were
derived, is so completely altered and overturned as to
present little of interest to the general visitor. The
tombs
are chiefly of the sixth dynasty (3700 B.C.),
the twelfth
dynasty (3000 B.C.), and the thirteenth
dynasty (2800 B.C.).
Those of the latter epoch are mostly
in the form of a
pyramid of crude brick, the interior
being
hollowed out into
a cupola. But amongst the earliest tombs (sixth dynasty)
in this Necropolis, a vaulted roof with a true arch, with
bricks specially formed for its construction, is not unfrequent.
Farshoot (368 miles from
Cairo) contains another of the
Khedive's
sugar factories. This district is inhabited by
descendants
of the once powerful Howára Arabs.
From Girgeh to
Keneh the
scenery is in many parts
very fine. Theban palms, dates,
and acacias are abundant;
Indian corn, sugar-cane, and
various leguminous herbs, are
flourishing luxuriantly over
the fertile land that delights the
eye with its perpetual
greenness. Numerous small places
are passed—amongst them
Bajoora (W.),
How (W.),
anciently
Diospolis Parva),
Kasr es Syád, the ancient
Chenoboscion, formerly celebrated for its geese, and now
the largest
depôt of turkeys on the
Nile,
Dishneh (W.), and
Fow (E.).
Keneh
(405 1/2 miles from
Cairo) is
an important place
on the east bank of the Nile; ancient
Coenopolis occupied
the site. It has long been noted for
its dates and its
dancing girls, also for its manufacture
of porous jugs and
filtering bottles. It is interesting to
watch the process of
making these articles by hand with
extreme rapidity.
There is a three days' desert route from
Keneh to
Kosseir on the shore of
the
Red Sea, which was formerly
the highway of commerce between Egypt and Arabia.
Within recent years it was proposed to make a railway
between
Keneh and
Kosseir. Mr. Nicour, who completed
the survey of the
country, found no serious difficulty for the
construction
of the line, and reported that with a small
expense
Kosseir might be made available for vessels of any
tonnage. He also states that an abundant water supply
could be provided for 40,000 inhabitants at Kosseir by the
erection of a
barrage on the
neighbouring hills, which would
enable a reservoir to be
formed capable of containing about
3,000,000 cubic mètres
of rain water.
The Government, the Public Debt Commission, and
the Railway Board sent delegates to examine on the spot
the
advisability of making the projected line, and to report
on the financial prospects of the scheme.
It is estimated that the expenditure that it would be
necessary to incur in the construction of the line, in
the
harbour works at Kosseir, and in making
arrangements for
the storage of water in the neighbourhood
of the town,
would amount to about £600,000.
Nearly opposite
Keneh, on
the west bank of the Nile,
stands the celebrated
Temple of Denderah.
This beautiful, well-preserved ruin dates from the period
when Egyptian architecture, under the Ptolemies and
Caesars,
had greatly declined from its ancient
grandeur, and shows
a considerable admixture of Greek and
Roman with
Egyptian ideas. Like all the Egyptian temples,
it stands in
the midst of a vast enclosure formed of crude
bricks, and
completely shutting out the sights and sounds
of the outer
world.
This temple was commenced under Ptolemy XII., its
construction was completed under Tiberius, and its
decoration under Nero; so that this edifice was being
constructed whilst our Saviour was dwelling in Jerusalem.
The immense profusion of inscriptions, bas-reliefs, etc.,
with which the walls are covered, will forcibly strike
the
attention—ceilings, walls, portals, basements are
all ornamented
in this way. In many of these pictures the
subject
is the same—the royal founder adoring the
divinities of the
temple—others show the ceremonies
observed by the king
in connection with this adoration.
“Nothing can be more
rich,” says Warburton, “than the
carvings and hieroglyphics
that adorn the massive pillars
crowned with heads of Isis.
The ceilings are covered with
the celebrated astronomical
paintings; and the next most
popular representation
throughout
this edifice seems to be that of serpents; these
appear in
every variety of form and attitude—some are
walking on
human legs, and some spinning erect upon their
tails like
corkscrews, while they present strange offerings
to
deities equally preposterous.”
The great hall, or portico, with its twenty-four columns,
is first entered. The two side entrances were for priests
and
attendants. The main entrances are used by the
king
alone. At this portal the monarch presented
himself, in long
robe, sceptre in hand, and with sandalled
feet; on entering
he is recognized by the gods as King of
High and Low
Egypt—first receiving purification from Thoth
and Horus,
and then the two crowns from Wat'i and Suvan.
Then
Maut of
Thebes and Toom of
Heliopolis
take the king by
the hand and lead him into the presence
of the goddess
Athor. Such is the story, as shown in the
surrounding
pictures, symbolising the preparatory
ceremonies performed
by the king in this great hall before
passing into the temple
proper. The ceiling has a
representation of the zodiac,
once imagined to be ancient
Egyptian, but now proved to
date from Ptolemaic times.
The learned author of the Itinéraire gives details of the
uses of the numerous chambers of the temple. To one
group of rooms he assigns the assembling of the priests
and
preparation for the festivals; these latter, of
which a sort of
calendar is given on the walls of the
second hall, consisted
chiefly of grand processions which
circulated through the
temple, mounted to the terraces,
and redescended to perform
certain rites in the exterior
enclosure. In this group
also were chambers for the
preparation or consecration of
the offerings, the
guardianship of the sacred emblems, and
the preparation of
the sacred oils and essences, also the
treasury and depôt for vestments.
Another group consists of the chapel court, two halls
and a staircase on the north side, and two halls and a
stair
case on the south side, and the little temple on
the terraced
roof; this assemblage of rooms was especially
dedicated to
the feast of the New Year, regulated by the
appearance of
Sirius. The details of this grand ceremonial
are pictured
on the walls of the two staircases.
The remaining chambers, those farthest to the west,
formed the most sacred portion of the edifice. Into
the
small chamber at the extreme west of the axis of
the building
the king alone could enter; there, in
profound secrecy,
was preserved the mysterious emblem of
the worship of
Athor the Life-giver, the golden sistrum. The adjacent
chambers were consecrated to the worship of Isis, Osiris,
Pasht, Horus, etc. In the walls of the temple are concealed
crypts, wherein the most valuable gold statues and
other sacred treasures were stored. On the terrace, or roof
of the building, is a small temple dedicated to Osiris.
“The temple,” accordingly, “was not, like our churches,
a place of assembly for the faithful. One finds in it
neither
habitations for priests nor places of
initiation, and no traces
of divination or the
consultation of oracles, and there is no
reason to imagine
that beyond the king and priests anything
like a public
congregation was admitted. The temple
is a place of
depôt, preparation, and consecration. In
the
interior certain festivals are celebrated,
processions organized,
and the objects of worship stored.
And, if all was sombre,
if in these halls and chambers,
where there is no indication
of torches having been used,
almost darkness must have
prevailed, the mystery of the
ceremonies was thereby only
enhanced.……As to the principal
festivals, of which
the temple was the centre, they
consisted chiefly of processions,
which expanded outside
in the full light of the sun to
the very
limits of the grand enclosure, whose crude brick
walls
were indeed the true limits of the temple. In the
temple
(taken in its more limited sense) were lodged the
gods;
there the sacred vestments were put on and all preparations
made. It was a sort of sacristy where the king
and
priests alone penetrated. In the enclosure, on the
contrary, the long processions developed, and even, if the
public were not admitted, there is reason to believe that
certain initiates were present.”
The Temple of
Denderah,
though dating from comparatively
later times, serves from
its completeness to give a
good idea of the general
arrangements of the older Pharaonic
temples. But in the
decorations of the edifice an
amount of symbolism is
evident, which was doubtless due
to the influence of the
Platonists of
Alexandria, who were
seeking to combine Greek philosophy with the old
Egyptian
mythology.
The view from the roof of the temple is very fine; the
cultivated land, the desert, the glistening Nile, and
the
chain of hills that stretch away towards the
shores of the
Red Sea. Numerous Coptic and Arabic
habitations now
cluster round the temple and enclosure. To
realize
Denderah
as it was, the visitor must imagine all these swept
away and the sacred edifice standing in isolated majesty
in
the midst of the vast area, compassed about with
the high
sombre walls of brick that ensured the silence
and solitude
required for the mystic ceremonies of the old
Egyptian faith.
“On the ceiling of the great portico,” observes Mr.
Sharpe, “is the well-known zodiac which our
antiquaries
once thought was of great antiquity, but
the sign of the
scales in the zodiac might alone have
taught them that it
could not be older than the reign of
Augustus, who gave
that name to the group of stars which
before formed the
spreading
claws of the scorpion. We cannot but admire
the zeal of
the Egyptians by whom this work was then
finished. They
were treated as slaves by their Greek
fellow-countrymen;
they, the fallen descendants of the
conquering kings of
Thebes, had every third year
their
houses ransacked in search of arms; the Romans
only
drained the province of its wealth, and the
temple had,
perhaps, never been heard of by the Emperor,
who could
have been little aware that the most lasting
monument of
his reign was being raised in the distant
province of Egypt.”
There are a few other remains of temples, etc., in the
vicinity appertaining to the ancient town of Tentyris,
or
Tentyra (modern
Denderah). The Tentyrites nursed a
standing enmity to crocodiles, and were accordingly often
engaged in savage and bloodthirsty feuds with the inhabitants
of
Ombos, by whom
those animals were worshipped.
Leaving
Keneh, the steamer
next passes
Benoot (E.),
and
Ballás (W.), where the Ballásee
jars are made, which
the women pose so gracefully on their
heads when fetching
water from the Nile. The tourist may,
perhaps, encounter
a large raft or two formed of these
jars fastened together, in
transit to the markets of the
large cities.
Ten miles from
Keneh,
Kobt, or
Koft, the ancient
Coptos is reached. It has some
Egyptian remains, but is
now associated with Roman times,
from which most of its
ruined walls and towers date. It
was long the headquarters
of Egyptian Christianity, and
probably gave its name to
the modern Copts. Until
Diocletian wreaked his fury on
the city, for the rebellion
of its inhabitants against his
authority,
Coptos was the great emporium of
Egypt's trade
with the East. From
Berenice, on the
Red
Sea, the merchants
came by a well-beaten tract
to
Coptos, from whence
the riches of the far East were floated down the Nile
to
Alexandria. Near the town is a narrow
pass leading
to the chain of ravines through which this
ancient pathway
of commerce was kept up. This route was
also used for
soldiers travelling from the
Red Sea to the Nile and the
Soudan in connection with the military operations of
1896.
The vegetation in this district is very
luxuriant. Fine crops
of sugar-cane and Indian corn cover
the fertile plain by the
river side.
Esh Shúrafa
(E.),
Koos (E.), anciently
Apollinopolis
Parva, and, in the fourteenth century,
second only to Fostát
amongst Egyptian cities;
Nagádeh (W., 428 miles from
Cairo), with its ancient convents
dating from the days of the
Empress Helena, is a quaint
and picturesque old town,
situated at one of the finest
points of view on the Nile;
Medamôt
(E.), with ruins of a Ptolemaic temple, and fragments
of far older edifices are all passed, and then the ruins
of
Karnak begin to appear in
sight.
THE THEBAN MONUMENTS.
The principal monuments of
Thebes are, on the western
bank of the Nile, the
Temple of Koorneh, the Temple of
the Dayr-el-Bahari, the
Rameseum (commonly called the
Memnonium), the Temple of
the Dayr-el-Medeeneh, the
Temple of Medeenet-Haboo, the
Necropolises of Drah
Abo'lnegga and El Assasseef, and
farther in the desert the
Tombs of the Kings, in the desolate
valley of Bab-el-Molook.
On the eastern
bank are situated the Temples of
Luxor and
Karnak.
The Temple of Koorneh is situated at the entrance
of the gorge leading to Bab-el-Molook. It was reared to
the memory of Rameses I. by his son Sethi, and is indeed
a
cenotaph; it belongs to the same era as the temple at
Abydos (p. 188), and is similar in
the style and finish of its
artistic decorations. Entering
by the central portal into the
Hall of the Six Columns and
penetrating to the third
chamber on the right, there is an
admirable head of Sethi,
scarcely yielding the palm to the
finest of those on the walls
of
Abydos. When Sethi died the temple was
incomplete,
and it was finished by his son Rameses
II., who consecrated
it to the memory of his father as
well as to Rameses I., to
whom it was originally
dedicated.
The
Tombs of the Kings are
in the desolate valley
of Bab-el-Molook, which has been
called the St. Denis of
the nineteenth and twentieth
dynasties. In an adjacent
valley, not generally visited,
lie the monarchs of the eighteenth
dynasty.
All the tombs in this valley are excavated in the solid
rock, and were originally so built up and covered over as
to
afford no trace of the spot where the royal mummy
was
deposited. Twenty-five tombs have been opened—not
all
kings, however, princes and public functionaries
are amongst
them, three of these tombs should be visited.
The Tomb of Sethi I. (No. 17, commonly called
Belzoni's tomb) is the most magnificent, grand, and profusely
adorned with sculptures. Belzoni found it had been
already opened when he discovered it half a century
ago;
but every bas-relief was then perfect, and every
painting as
fresh as on the day of its production. Now,
through the
ravages of antiquity-vendors and unscrupulous
travellers,
an immense
amount of disgraceful mutilation has been
effected, and an
irreparable wrong done to science.
As soon as the visitor steps into this tomb he finds
himself, as it were, in a new world; no longer does he
behold the scenes of domestic and rural life, so
pleasingly
pourtrayed at Sakkárah and Beni-hassan: all
is fantastic
and chimerical; the gods are present in
strange forms,
long serpents glide here and there, the
judgment of the
soul and its admission to happiness are
pictured forth,
and inscriptions run along the walls which
are hymns to the
divinity supposed to be uttered by the
spirit of the dead.
A beautiful alabaster sarcophagus was found by Belzoni
in this tomb; it is now in Sir John Soane's museum in
London.
The visitor to this tomb descends by a staircase to a
passage, then by a second staircase to an oblong
chamber
twelve feet by fourteen, where Belzoni found a
deep pit
apparently placed to mislead explorers—this pit
has been
filled up. Breaking through the walls of this
chamber, where
the pit was discovered, a hall was reached
about twenty-five
feet square, with its walls and four
supporting columns
covered with beautiful sculptures.
Through a second hall,
two more passages, and a small
chamber, the grand hall,
twenty-seven feet square, and
supported by six columns, is
reached; beyond this is a
vaulted chamber from which the
sarcophagus, above alluded
to, was taken. There is an
enclosed passage extending 150
feet further into the solid
rock, on arriving at the end
of which the visitor is 470 feet
from the entrance
horizontally, and 180 feet lower perpendicularly.
The Tomb of Rameses III. (No. II), commonly
called Bruce's Tomb, is much inferior in its artistic work to
that of Sethi.
Towards the middle of the tomb are the chambers which
chiefly merit attention. Very varied scenes are
represented,
amongst others, the famous harpists may
be noticed, of
which so many copies have been made.
This tomb received its common name from the traveller
Bruce, who was the first to make it known to
Europeans.
There was once a sarcophagus of red granite
in the principal
chamber of this tomb, of which the lid is
now at Cambridge
and the other portion at the Louvre.
Greek graffiti are found in the tomb we are describing,
as in many others; these show that they were visited
by
strangers in the Ptolemaic era, and were probably
those
from which the royal mummies had been taken and
dispersed
by Cambyses.
The Tomb of Sethi II. (No. 15) is distinguished by
figures in high relief at the entrance.
The Tomb of Rameses IV. (No. 2) is distinguished
by its high ceiling and slight inclination, so that it could be
easily visited on horseback; at the end of the tomb
the
granite sarcophagus of colossal proportions is
still in its place.
Tomb of Rameses VI. (No. 9) is 243 feet in length,
and is remarkable for the astronomical representations
on
its ceiling. In Ptolemaic times, for some unknown
reason,
this tomb, as is shown by the Greek
inscriptions, was called
the Tomb of Memnon.
Tomb of Rameses IX. (No. 6) contains very striking
pictures representing the idea of resurrection after
death.
From Bab-el-Molook tourists can return by either of
two or three routes. There is one interesting route
over
the mountain chain which should be taken if
possible. The
finest view in Egypt will be seen, and a
better idea of the
general plan of
Thebes will be obtained than is procurable
from any other point.
The Rameseum or Memnonium. The proper
appellation of this wonderful edifice, without a rival in Egypt
for elegant sculpture and symmetrical architecture, is
the
Rameseum. It was built by Rameses II., whose
cartouche
appears on each of the walls, to perpetuate
his own memory,
in fact, to serve as his own cenotaph, and
be the lasting
memorial of his greatness' and glory.
In front of the first court are two pylons, more or less
demolished. One of these structures (the West) looks
as
if it only remained standing by a miracle of
equilibrium,
but as it is described in the same way by
the French savant
four score years ago, its immediate fall
need not perhaps
be expected. Both the towers are adorned
with sculptures
representing battle scenes, etc., from the
campaign of
Rameses, otherwise known as Sesostris. The
king is
represented in these scenes as fighting in the
thick of the
combat and changing expected defeat to
victory by deeds
of personal valour.
Entering the large court, against the columns surrounding
it are seen large figures of Rameses, with the
attributes
of Osiris. In this court once sat, with
hands reposing on
the knees in Egyptian fashion, the most
gigantic statue ever
carved in Egypt from a solid block of
granite. It measured
17 met. 50 cent. in height, and is
calculated to have weighed
887 tons.
“By some extraordinary catastrophe this granite statue
of Rameses has been thrown down, and the Arabs have
scooped their millstones out of his face; but you can
see
what he was, the largest statue in the world. Far
and wide
his enormous head must have been seen—eyes, nose,
and
ears. Far and wide you must have seen his hands
resting
on his elephantine knees. You sit on his
breast and look
at the Osiride statues which support the
portico of the
temple, and
they seem pigmies before him. Nothing that
now exists in
the world can give any notion of what the
effect must have
been when he was erect. Nero towering
above the Colosseum
may have been something like it; but
he was of brass, and
Rameses of solid granite. Rameses
also was resting in
awful majesty after the conquest of the
whole known world.
No one who entered the temple could
have thought of
anything else but that stupendous being
who had thus
raised himself up above the whole world of
gods and
men.”—
Dr. Stanley (Sinai and
Palestine).
Numerous scenes from the history of the wars of Sesostris
are sculptured on the walls of this court—chiefly
battles
with the Khetas on the banks of the Orontes.
In other
parts of the temple there are religious scenes
representing
Rameses worshipping the Theban gods; long
lists of princes
and princesses of the royal family, and
an astronomical
picture of some note which reveals the
date of the building
1322 B.C. The hall conducting to the
ceremonial chambers
of the edifice has graceful columns,
with capitals of opening
flowers.
The Colossi, both representing Amunoph III., once
stood before the pylon of the temple of that monarch—a
temple which has disappeared to the very foundations.
They
once with their pedestals stood sixty feet above the
sand,
but the deposition of vegetable soil round their base
has
taken a few feet from their apparent altitude.
The northernmost of these statues was long known as
the vocal Memnon, and was celebrated for the musical
sounds said to issue from it when the first rays of
morning
fell on the statue. Strange to say, this only
happened after
the statue had been partially destroyed by
an earthquake,
and ceased after it had been roughly
repaired by rebuilding
the upper portion with sandstone,
as seen to this day. Some
philosophers
assign these sounds to expansion of fissured
portions
under the influence of the sun's rays. Others say
that a
priest hid himself in the interior and struck the bell-sounding
stone still existing in the lap of the statue. In
his
Nile Notes of a
Howadjii, Curtis thus refers to the
legend:—
“Looking into the morning mists of history and poetry,
we find that Homer mentions Memnon as a son of Aurora
and Titho, King of Ethiopia, and brother of Priam, the
most
beautiful of warriors, who hastened with myriads
of men to
assist uncle Priam against the Greeks. Achilles
slew Memnon
under the walls of Troy, and the morning after
his
death, as Aurora put aside the darkness and looked
vaguely
and wan along the world, the first level look
that touched
the lips of the hitherto silent statue on the
plain, evoked
mysterious music. There were birds too,
Memnonides, who
arose from out the funeral pyre of Memnon,
and as he
burned, fought fiercely in the air, so that more
than half
fell offerings to his manes. Every year they
return to renew
the combat, and every year with low
wailings they dip their
wings in the river water and
carefully cleanse the statue.
Dew-diamonded cobwebs,
fascinating fable, O! history!”
The mysterious music was heard, or heard of, by poets,
historians, and emperors. Strabo says he heard it, but
the
statue was then broken, and the historian was
doubtful as to
whether the sound came from the statue or
from some one
in the crowd. This is the first mention of
the phenomenon.
For two hundred years the music was heard
by many.
Hadrian heard it. Severus repaired the statue
and
the mysterious melody ceased.
There are remains of other colossi and somewhat
smaller statues not far from the principal ones just described.
The so-called Temple of Medeenet-Haboo consists
of the ruins of two temples, one of Thothmes III., and
another of Rameses III. In these ruins, under the Empire,
a Coptic cathedral was found, and around it clustered a
Coptic village, called Medeenet-Haboo. Hence the name
generally given to the ruins.
The Temple of Thothmes III. is the smaller of
the two. The court (80 ft. by 125 ft.), by the flowered
capitals of its columns and the style of its sculptures and
hieroglyphics, belongs to the Roman epoch. It also bears
the names of Titus, Adrian, Antoninus, etc.
Beyond this court, which is a Ptolemaic addition, is
another smaller court, with cartouches of Tirhakeh
(twenty-fifth
dynasty), and Nectanebo (thirtieth
dynasty). The
Temple itself is more ancient still, being
erected and
adorned by Thothmes II. and Thothmes III.
The Temple of Rameses III. was erected by him
in the immediate vicinity of the smaller edifice just described.
This grand building is of great historical importance,
and by its style and general effect and variety of
decoration, makes a profound and lasting impression on
all
visitors.
The edifice consists of a Palace and a Temple,
separated by a court, forming together a structure second
only to
Karnak in grandeur of
architecture and gorgeousness
of decoration—a
labyrinth of immense courts,
innumerable
pillars, and superb colonnades. Many parts
are
still perfect, but all around, columns bright and
vivid with
every colour of the rainbow lie scattered in
countless
profusion.
The Palace, though probably intended as a grand
monument of military architecture rather than as an actual
habitation, has all the characteristics of a royal residence.
The main part of the edifice consists of two immense
pyramidal towers. The exterior architecture merits
careful
study, but it is in the interior decoration
that the chief
interest of the palace centres. Here
Rameses III. is seen
at home in the bosom of his family.
One lady offers him
flowers; in another picture he is
caressing a favourite; in
a third he is invited by a lady
to a game at draughts.
In a building of such importance, Rameses was not
likely to omit to display himself as the great conqueror.
At the entry gate, he is shown presenting his prisoners
to the gods, and in these prisoners are very cleverly portrayed
specimens of all the races inhabiting Western Asia,
Libya, and Soudan, in the thirteenth century before
the
Christian era. Similar pictures, with the
ethnological
characteristics of the various races most
carefully rendered,
are met with on various portions of
the walls, and in the
inner courts of this palatial pile.
The Temple to the north of the Palace is approached
by a doorway, or pylon, between the two towers. Over
this
doorway are sculptures commemorating the
victorious
enterprises of Rameses against the Libyans
and their allies.
On the northern facade of this pylon is
a sculpture representing
the king receiving the falchion
of vengeance from
Ammon-Armachis, who thus addresses the
monarch, “I
turn my face toward the north, and I will that
Phoenicia be
under thy feet; I will that the nations that
acknowledge
not Egypt, bring thee their gold, their
silver, and their
precious stones.… I turn my face toward
the east
and I will that Arabia provide thee perfumes and
essences,
rare woods, and all its products,” etc.
The court now entered, measuring 110 ft. by 135 ft., is
remarkable for the enormous Osiride columns, seven in
number, adorning one of its sides, and revealing the
funereal
character of this monumental pile; for these
statues are
those of the king himself, with the attributes of
Osiris.
On the other side of the court are eight elegant
columns,
with papyrus capitals. After examining, from this
point of
view, the various tableaux on the surrounding
walls,
commemorating the warlike achievements of the king,
the
visitor passes through the granite portals of the second
pylon, which is surrounded by a row of apes, emblems of
Thoth, into the finest inner court found in any of the
Egyptian temples.
This splendid area measures 123 ft. by 133 ft., and its
height to the cornice is nearly 40 ft. Corridors
covered
with sculptures brilliantly coloured surround
the four sides,
in front of which is an inner peristyle,
supported on the
north and south by Osiride pillars, and
on the east and
west by massive columns with capitals
representing the
flower of the lotus closed. In the centre
of the court are
remains of columns once forming part of
the Christian
cathedral erected here when Medeenet-Haboo
was a Coptic
settlement.
The tableaux covering the corridors of this court are
of great interest. The lower register chiefly consists
of
battle scenes—the upper register are chiefly a
series of
representations of the ceremonies attendant on
the dedication
of this palace-temple of Rameses.
The western portion of the building was till recently
completely buried in Coptic ruins. Considerable labour
has been expended, with but little result beyond the
discovery
of broken columns, empty chambers, religious
inscriptions
of no special interest, and about a
thousand
mutilated statuettes of Osiris.
Before leaving the glorious pile of Medeenet-Haboo,
there remains to notice the remarkable series of
historical
tableaux on
the exterior north wall of the temple. These
are ten in
number, as follows, representing the expedition
of Rameses
against the Libyans, in the ninth year of his
reign:—
-
1. Departure of the King and his army.
-
2. Grand victory with fearful carnage; the King
fighting
in person.
-
3. Prisoners brought to the King by the generals.
-
4. The King haranguing his generals.
-
5. Troops defiling to renew the war. Encomiums on
the
King, and thanksgiving to the gods, in
hieroglyphics.
-
6. Victory. Heaps of slain. The camp surprised.
Women and children in flight.
-
7. March through a country infested by lions. One
slain
and another wounded by the King.
-
8. The only known Egyptian representation of a
naval
combat.
-
9. Halt on the march towards Egypt. Hands of the
slain
counted. Prisoners defile. The King
harangues
his generals.
-
10. Return to
Thebes, and thanksgiving to the gods.
To sum up this brief description of the palace-temple of
Medeenet-Haboo, the whole edifice was evidently
designed
as a lasting monument of the life and
achievements of
Rameses III. It is his autobiography in
stone. All available
genius and skill were enlisted for
the perpetuation of
one idea—and that idea was Rameses
III.
In the vicinity of Medeenet-Haboo, are a small Ptolemaic
temple, the site of the lake called Birket Aboo, and
a small Roman temple with the names of Adrian and
Antoninus
Pius.
The Dayr-el-Medeenet, so called from its having
been utilized by the early Christians, is a small temple built
by Ptolemy
Philopater, and situate between the Colossi and
Medeenet-Haboo. From the sculptures it is conjectured
that
the edifice was of a funereal character. The western
chamber, especially, would appear to be specially dedicated
to Osiris as the judge of departed souls.
The façade of this temple is very elegant, and constructed
in a style of which there is no better preserved
example in Egypt. There is a curious open window in
the
south (paroi) of one of the interior chambers
which merits
careful study.
Dayr-el-Bahari. This temple was built by Queen
Hatasoo, the sister and wife of Thothmes II., B.C. 1600.
The finest marble limestone was used in its construction,
and its architect seems to have been an able man called
Senmut, who was honoured with the friendship of the queen,
and promoted by her to be chief clerk of the works. Before
the temple was an avenue of sandstone sphinxes and two
obelisks. It was built in stages on the side of a hill, and
its courts were connected by means of flights of steps.
As early as the XXIInd dynasty the temple had fallen into
disuse, and soon after this time its chambers appear to have
been used for sepulchres. The wall sculptures are beautiful
specimens of art, and depict the return of Egyptian
soldiers
from some military expedition, and the scenes
which took
place during the expedition which the queen
organized and
sent off to Punt. This latter expedition was
most successful,
and returned to Egypt laden with things
the “like of which
had never before been seen in that
land.” The prince of
Punt came to Egypt with a large
following, and became a
vassal of Ha̅tshepset.
A remarkable discovery of royal mummies was made in
1881, the following account of which will be found
deeply
interesting:—
THE DISCOVERY OF THE ROYAL MUMMIES
AT DAYR-EL-BAHARI.
*
In the summer of the year 1871 an Arab, a native of
Kûrnah, discovered a large tomb filled with coffins
heaped
one upon the other. On the greater number of
them were
visible the cartouche and other signs which
indicated that
the inhabitants of the coffins were royal
personages. The
native who was so fortunate as to have
chanced upon this
remarkable “find,” was sufficiently
skilled in his trade of
antiquity hunter to know what a
valuable discovery he had
made; his joy must, however,
have been turned into mourning,
when it became evident
that he would need the help of
many men even to move some
of the large royal coffins
which he saw before him, and
that he could not keep
the knowledge of such treasures
locked up in his own
breast. He revealed his secret to his
two brothers and
to one of his sons, and they proceeded to
spoil the
coffins of
ushabti
† figures, papyri, scarabs and other
antiquities
which could be taken away easily and concealed
in their
abbas (ample outer garments) as they
returned
to their houses. These precious objects were
for
several winters sold to chance tourists on the
Nile, and the
lucky possessors of this mine of wealth
replenished their
stores from time to time by visits made
at night to the tomb.
As soon as the objects thus sold
reached Europe, it was at
* A minute and detailed account of this
discovery is given by
Maspero in “Les Momies Royales
de Déïr-el-Bahari” (Fasc. I.,
t. IV., of the Mémoires of the French
Archaeological Mission at Cairo).
†
Ushabti figures made of stone, green
or blue glazed Egyptian
porcelain, wood, &c.,
were deposited in the tombs with the dead, and
were
supposed to perform for them any field labours which might be
decreed for them by Osiris, the king of the
under-world, and judge of
the dead.
once suspected
that a “find” of more than ordinary
importance had been
made. An English officer, called
Campbell, showed M.
Maspero a hieratic Book of the Dead
written for Pi-net'em;
M. de Saulcy sent him photographs
of the hieroglyphic
papyrus of Net'emet; M. Mariette
bought at
Suez a papyrus written for the Queen
Hent-taiu,
and Rogers Bey exhibited at Paris a wooden
tablet
upon which was written a hieratic text relating
to the
ushabti figures which were to be buried
with the Princess
Nesi-Chensu. All these interesting and
most valuable
objects proved that the natives of
Thebes had succeeded
in unearthing a veritable “Cave of Treasures,” and
M.
Maspero, the Director of the
Bulak
Museum, straightway
determined to visit
Upper Egypt with a view of
discovering whence came all these antiquities. Three men
were implicated, whose names were learnt by M. Maspero
from the inquiries which he made of tourists who purchased
antiquities.
In 1881 he proceeded to
Thebes, and began his investigations
by causing
one of the dealers, 'Abd-er-Rasûl Ahmad,
to be arrested by
the police, and an official inquiry into the
matter was
ordered by the Mudîr of
Keneh. In
spite of
threats and persuasion, and many odd tortures,
the accused
denied any knowledge of the place whence the
antiquities
came. The evidence of the witnesses who
were called to
testify to the character of the accused,
tended to show that
he was a man of amiable disposition,
who would never
dream of pillaging a tomb, much less do
it. Finally, after
two months' imprisonment, he was
provisionally set at
liberty. The accused then began to
discuss with his partners
in the secret what plans they
should adopt, and how they
should act in the future. Some
of them thought that all
trouble was over when
'Abd-er-Rasûl Ahmad was set at
liberty, but
others thought, and they were right, that the
trial would
be recommenced in the winter. Fortunately for
students of
Egyptology, differences of opinion broke out
between the
parties soon after, and 'Abd-er-Rasûl Ahmad
soon perceived
that his brothers were determined to turn
King's evidence
at a favourable opportunity. To prevent
their saving
themselves at his expense, he quietly travelled
to
Keneh, and there confessed to the Mudîr
that he was
able to reveal the place where the coffins and
papyri were
found. Telegrams were sent to
Cairo announcing the
confession of 'Abd-er-Rasûl Ahmad, and when his statements
had been verified, despatches containing fuller
particulars were sent to
Cairo from
Keneh. It was decided
that a small expedition to
Thebes should at once be made
to
take possession of and bring to
Cairo
the antiquities
which were to be revealed to the world by
'Abd-er-Rasûl
Ahmad, and the charge of bringing this
work to a successful
issue was placed in the hands of M.
Emil Brugsch.
Although the season was summer, and the heat
very great,
the start for
Thebes was made on July 1. At
Keneh M.
Brugsch found a number of papyri and
other valuable
antiquities which 'Abd-er-Rasûl had sent
there as an earnest
of the truth of his promise to reveal
the hidden treasures.
A week later M. Brugsch and his
companions were shown
the shaft of the tomb, which was
most carefully hidden in
the north-west part of the
natural circle which opens to the
south of the valley of
Dayr-el-Bahari, in the little row of
hills which separates
the Bibân-el-Mulûk from the Theban
plain. According to M.
Maspero,
* the royal mummies
were removed
here from their tombs in the Bibân-el-Mulûk
by Aauputh,
the son of Shashanq, about B.C. 966, to prevent
*
Histoire Ancienne des Peuples de
L'Orient, 4feme ed., p. 360.
them being
destroyed by the thieves, who were sufficiently
numerous
and powerful to defy the government of the day.
The pit
which led to the tomb was about forty feet deep,
and the
passage, of irregular level, which led to the tomb
was
about 220 feet long; at the end of this passage was a
nearly rectangular chamber about twenty-five feet long,
which was found to be literally filled with coffins, mummies,
funereal furniture, boxes,
ushabti figures, Canopic jars,
*
bronze vases, etc., etc. A large number of men were
at once employed to exhume these objects, and for
eight
and forty hours M. Brugsch and Ahmad Effendi
Kamal
stood at the mouth of the pit watching the
things brought
up. The heavy coffins were carried on the
shoulders of
men to the river, and in less than two weeks
everything had
been sent over the river to
Luxor. A few days after this
the whole collection of mummies of kings and royal
personages
was placed upon an Egyptian Government
steamer
and taken to the Museum at
Bulak.
When the mummies of the ancient kings of Egypt
arrived at
Cairo, it was found that
the
Bulak Museum was
too small to contain them, and before they could be exposed
to the inspection of the world, it was necessary for
additional rooms to be built. Finally, however, M.
Maspero
had glass cases made, and, with the help of
some cabinets
borrowed from his private residence,
attached to the
* The principal intestines of a
deceased person were placed in four
jars, which were
placed in his tomb under the bier; the jars were
dedicated to the four children of Horus, who were called Amset, Hapi,
Tuamautef and Qebhsenuf. The name “Canopic” is given
to them
by those who follow the opinion of some
ancient writers that Canopus,
the pilot of Menelaus, who is said to have been
buried at Canopus,
in Egypt, was worshipped there under the form of a
jar with small
feet, a thin neck, a swollen body, and
a round back.
Museum, he
succeeded in exhibiting, in a comparatively
suitable way,
the mummies in which such world-wide
interest had been
taken. Soon after the arrival of the
mummies at
Bulak, M. Brugsch opened the mummy
of
Thothmes III., when it was found that the Arabs
had
attacked it and plundered whatever was valuable
upon it.
In 1883 the mummy of Queen Mes-Hent-Themehu,
emitted
unpleasant odours, and by M. Maspero's orders
it was unrolled.
In 1885 the mummy of Queen Ahmes
Nefertári
was unrolled by him, and as it putrified
rapidly and stank,
it had to be buried. Finally, when M.
Maspero found that
the mummy of Seqenen-Ra was also
decaying, he decided
to unroll the whole collection, and
Rameses II, was the
first of the great kings whose
features were shown again to
the world after a lapse of
3,200 years.
Such are the outlines of the history of one of the
greatest discoveries ever made in Egypt. It will ever
be
regretted by the Egyptologist that this remarkable
collection
of mummies was not discovered by some
person who could
have used for the benefit of scholars the
precious information
which this “find” would have yielded,
before so
many of its objects were scattered; as it is,
however, it
would be difficult to over-estimate its
historical value.
The following is a list of the names of the principal kings
and royal personages which were found on coffins at
Dayr-el-Bahari
and of their mummies:—
XVIIth Dynasty, B.C. 1700.
-
King Seqenen-Ra, coffin and mummy.
-
Nurse of Queen Nefertári Raa, coffin only. This coffin
contained the mummy of a queen whose name is
read
An-Hapi.
XVIIIth Dynasty, B.C. 1700-1400.
-
King Ahmes (Amasis I.), coffin and mummy.
Queen Ahmes Nefertári, coffin.
King Amenhetep
I., coffin and mummy.
The Prince Se-Amen, coffin
and mummy.
The Princess Set-Amen, coffin and
mummy.
The Scribe Senu, chief of the house of
Nefertári,
mummy.
-
Royal wife Set ka-mes, mummy.
-
Royal daughter Meshentthemhu, coffin and mummy.
-
Royal mother Aah-hetep, coffin.
-
King Thothmes I., coffin usurped by Pi-net'em.
-
King Thothmes II., coffin and mummy.
-
King Thothmes III., coffin and mummy.
-
Coffin and mummy of an unknown person.
XIXth Dynasty, B.C. 1400—1200.
-
King Rameses I., part of coffin.
-
King Seti I., coffin and mummy.
-
King Rameses II., coffin and mummy.
XXth Dynasty, B.C. 1200 — 1100.
XXIst Dynasty, B C. 1100—1000.
-
Royal mother Net'emet.
-
High-priest of Amen, Masahertha, coffin and mummy.
-
High-priest of Amen, Pai-net'em III., coffin and
mummy.
-
Priest of Amen, T'et-Ptah-auf-anch, coffin and mummy.
-
Scribe Nebseni, coffin and mummy.
Queen Mat-ka-Ra, coffin and mummy.
-
Princess Uast-em-chebit, coffin and mummy.
-
Princess Nesi-Chensu.
The
Tombs of the Kings,
called in Arabic
Bibân-el-Mulûk, are hewn out of the
living rock in a valley,
which is reached by passing the
temple at Kûrnah; it
is situated about three or four miles
from the river.
This valley contains the
tombs of the kings of the XIXth
and XXth dynasties, and is generally known as the
Eastern
Valley; a smaller valley, the Western,
contains the tombs
of the last kings of the XVIIIth
dynasty. These tombs
consist of long inclined planes with
a number of chambers
or halls receding into the mountain
sometimes to a
distance of 500 feet. Strabo gives the
number of these
royal tombs as forty, seventeen of which
were open in the
time of Ptolemy Lagus; in 1835 twenty-one
were known,
but the labours of M. Mariette were successful
in bringing
four more to light. The most important of
these tombs
are:—
No. 17. Tomb of Seti I., B.C. 1366, commonly called
“Belzoni's Tomb,” because it was discovered by that
brave
traveller in the early part of this century; it
had already
been rifled, but the beautiful alabaster
sarcophagus, which
is now preserved in the Soane Museum in
London, was
still lying in its chamber at the bottom of
the tomb. The
inscriptions and scenes sculptured on the
walls form parts of
the Dayr-el-Bahari.
In February, 1891, another large rock-tomb was discovered
eastward of the temple of Dayr-el-Bahari, containing
one hundred and sixty mummies of priests and
dignitaries of the XIXth, XXth, and XXIst dynasties,
also,
a great number of statuettes, papyri, funeral
offerings,
baskets of
flowers, and several sarcophagi adorned with
religious
scenes. It is probable that all these were hastily
removed
from their original tombs to preserve them from
spoliation. The contents of the tomb were carefully
packed
and sent to
Cairo, and are now safely
housed in the
Museum at
Ghizeh.
The
Necropolis of Thebes,
in coming from
Luxor,
lies beyond the Temple of Koorneh, to the left of the road
leading to the Bab-el-Molook.
The first portion of the cemetery reached—that of
Drah Aboo'l Negga—contains little to attract the
tourist's attention. It is undoubtedly the most ancient
necropolis in
Thebes, containing
tombs of the XIth,
XVIIth, and early XVIIIth dynasties.
Hence was taken
the coffin of Queen Aah-Hotep, now in the
Boulak Museum.
The Necropolis of Assasseef, farther south, contains
tombs of the XIXth, XXIInd, and XXVIth dynasties.
One immense excavated tomb in this cemetery occupies
over an acre of ground.
The Tombs of Sheykh Abd-el-Koorneh are still
farther south from Assasseef. Here the tombs are cut into
the mountain side. No. 35 is the most interesting, as its
sculptures have yielded an immense amount of information
as to the manners and customs of the ancient Egyptians.
Other adjacent tombs can be explored under the advice and
direction of the guides, if time allows. The tombs of
Koornet Murraee, and other collections of sepulchres,
lie
farther in the same direction, whilst more to the west is
the Valley of the Queens, where, in strict propriety, those
royal ladies are buried by themselves. This valley is of
little interest, except to the student of hieroglyphics.
The remains of
Thebes, on
the eastern bank of the Nile,
will next be
described. These consist almost exclusively of
the temples
and avenues of
Luxor
and
Karnak.
Luxor
is a capital approach to
Karnak. Courts, and
columns, and statues, and
ruins are mingled up in splendid
confusion. The Temple of
Luxor is every year becoming
more interesting. Until very recently a large portion
of
the buildings connected in ancient days with the
temple
were quite buried by the accumulated rubbish
and earth
upon which a large number of houses stood.
During the
last ten years excavations have been made by
the Egyptian
Government, and some interesting results have
been
obtained. Among the antiquities thus brought to
light
may be mentioned a fine granite statue of
Rameses II.,
the existence of which was never imagined.
The temple
of
Luxor
was built on an irregular plan caused by following
the
course of the river, out of the waters of which its
walls,
on one side, rose; it was founded by Amenophis III.,
about
B.C. 1500. About forty years after, Heru-em-heb
added the
great colonnade, and as the name of Seti I.,
B.C. 1366,
occurs in places, it is probable that he executed
some
repairs to the temple. His son, Rameses II.,
B.C. 1333,
set up two obelisks, together with the colossi and
the
large pylon; the large court, nearly 200 feet square,
behind the pylon, was surrounded by a double row of
columns. The Obelisk now standing there records the
names,
titles, etc., of Rameses II., and stands about 82 feet
high; it is one of the finest specimens of sculpture known.
Its fellow obelisk stands in the Place de la Concorde,
Paris.
After the burning and sacking of this temple by the
Persians, some slight repairs, and rebuilding of
certain
chambers, were carried out by some of the
Ptolemies, the
name of one of whom (Philopator) is found
inscribed on
the temple.
Certain parts of the temple appear to have
been used by
the Copts as a church, for the ancient sculptures
have
been plastered over and painted with figures of
saints,
etc.
Luxor
(450 miles from
Cairo) is a
market-town of
about 2000 inhabitants, deriving its name
from the Arabic
name of the place, El-Kusur, which means,
“the palaces.”
On market days the town presents an
animated sight,
being crowded with people from the
surrounding villages,
there being no market dues. There
are two excellent
hotels at
Luxor, called the
Karnak Hotel and the
Luxor,
both under the able management of Mr.
Pagnon, a former
representative of T
HOS. C
OOK
& S
ON in
Cairo. These
hotels are not only
frequented by Nile travellers in C
OOK'S steamers, but by visitors and invalids, who remain during
the winter season in the unequalled climate of
Luxor, some
for
scientific purposes, others in search of health. The
Luxor Hotel grounds are spacious and
shaded, adjoining
a farm cultivated to supply visitors
with dairy produce,
poultry, sheep, and bullocks. A
qualified medical gentleman,
a clergyman of the Church of
England, and an English
lady housekeeper reside in the
hotel during winter.
Through the Egyptian Postal Department, letters are
delivered at the
Luxor Hotels regularly three times a week,
and
letters can be posted for
Cairo,
Europe, America, etc.,
with equal frequency.
Telegrams are received and forwarded regularly by
English-speaking telegraph clerks, thus insuring communication
between
Luxor and
any part of the globe, the post
and telegraph office being
in the Hotel grounds.
A great trade is carried on in
Luxor in antiquities, more
or less genuine,
and extreme caution is necessary in purchasing
these, even
from vendors of official position and
undoubted
respectability.
The road from
Luxor to
Karnak lies over a cultivated
plain, sprinkled with scanty remnants of the ancient
city.
“We rode,” says the author of
The Crescent and the Cross,
“along
a wide plain covered with coarse grass, and varied
by some
gloomy little lakes and acacia shrubs, when, at the
end of
an hour, our guide reigned in his horse, and pointed
with
his spear towards the south. There lay
Karnak—
darkening a whole horizon with
portals, and pyramids, and
palaces. We passed under a
noble archway, and entered a
long avenue of sphinxes; all
their heads were broken off,
but their pedestals remained
unmoved since the time of
Joseph. It must have been a
noble sight in the palmy days
of
Thebes—that avenue of two hundred enormous
statues,
terminated by that temple. Yet this was only
one of many;
at least seven others, with similar porticoes
and archways,
led from this stupendous edifice. We rode
through half-a-mile
of sphinxes, and then arrived at the
temple, the splendour
of which no words can describe.
*
“A glorious portal opened into a vast court, crowded
with a perfect forest of the most magnificent columns,
thirty-six feet in circumference, covered with
hieroglyphics,
and surmounted by capitals—all of
different patterns and
richly painted. No two persons
agree on the number of
these apparently countless
columns—some make it amount
to 134, others to 160; the
central ones measure 66 feet in
height, exclusive of the
pedestals and abacus. Endless it
would be to enter into
details of this marvellous pile; suffice
it to say that
the temple is about one mile and three quarters
* The writer must be mistaken in his
time and distance. Karnak
is only half-an-hour's walk from Luxor.
in
circumference, the walls eighty feet high and twenty-five
feet thick at the base.”
The visitor enters the temple by the enormous propylon,
370 feet in breadth, and with one tower standing 140
feet
in height; this tower can be ascended, and a good
view of
the plan of the ruins obtained. Through a court
surrounded
by corridors, and with a small temple built
by
Rameses III., another immense propylon is reached
with
statues of Rameses III. in red granite, and the
Grand Hall
is then entered, whose columns are alluded to
in the extract
given above. The most ancient cartouches in
this hall are
those of Sethi I. (1450 B.C.), but there is
reason to infer
that Sethi was not the constructor of this
hall, but that to
Amunoph III. is due the honour of its
erection. Originally,
the hall was completely roofed
in—daylight only came in by
the grilled windows, of which
traces are still visible; th
hall would therefore be
pervaded, as M. Mariette points out,
by a sort of “dim
religious light,” very favourable to the
general effect by
softening the crudity of the paintings on
the columns and
ceilings.
Through another propylon, much dilapidated, a narrow
court running across the building is entered; here
once
stood two obelisks of red granite, only one is
now standing.
The names of Thothmes I. and Rameses II. are
inscribed.
A smaller propylon conducts to a court surrounded by
Osiride pillars,
* in which is standing the
largest obelisk
known, being ninety-two feet in height and
eight feet square,
a fellow obelisk is no longer standing;
the one seen
in situ is the obelisk of
the celebrated Queen Regent Hatasoo, who
played an
important part in the history of the eighteenth
* By this term is described the columns
frequent in Egyptian
architecture, in which a figure
of Osiris is “adossé” (as the French
say) to the
column.
dynasty. From
an inscription on the obelisk we learn that
it was
surmounted by a small pyramid of pure gold, that the
whole
column was gilded from top to bottom, and that the
time
spent in erecting the column in this place, including
its
transportation from the quarries of
Assouan, was only
seven months.
Beyond this court the ruined sanctuary, and various
other chambers, the columns of Osirtasen I. (3064
B.C.),
marking the oldest portion of the edifice, the
columnar hall
of Thothmes III., the Hall of Ancestors, and
some other
chambers, etc., can be visited.
The bas-reliefs on the exterior wall of the Great Hall
demand notice.
On the North Wall are the most valuable records of the
reign of Sethi in existence; they represent the wars of
that
monarch against the Assyrians, Armenians of the
desert,
etc. In one extraordinary symbolical scene the
king, with
numerous arms, seizes his enemies by the hair
and proceeds
to immolate them before the God of
Thebes.
On the South Wall, commencing near the gateway at the
western end, are sculptures commemorating the victories
of
Shishak. On a projecting wall farther east is
written in
hieroglyphics the famous poem of “Pen-ta-our,”
in which
the story of a feat of arms of Rameses II. in his
wars against
the Khetas is handed down to posterity. Near
this is a
copy of a treaty of peace concluded by the same
great
monarch, also some battle pieces commemorating
his
victories.
Of course it would be impossible to pretend really to
catalogue the curiosities and marvels of
Karnak. All that
can
be done by the rapid tourist is to get correct general
impressions and fill in the details at leisure. The author
last quoted says, “From the desert or the river, from within
or from
without, by sunshine or by moonlight—however
you
contemplate
Karnak—appears the very
aspect in which
it shows to most advantage. And when this
was all perfect,
when its avenues opened in vistas upon
the noble temples
and palaces of Sesostris, upon Gournou,
Medeenet-Haboo,
and
Luxor; when its courts were paced by gorgeous priestly
pageants, and busy life swarmed on a river flowing
between
banks of palaces, like those of Venice
magnified a hundred-fold—when
all this was in its prime,
no wonder that its
fame spread even over the barbarian
world, and found immortality
in Homer's song.
“For many a day after I had seen it, and even to
this hour, glimpses of
Thebes
mingle with my reveries
and blend them with my dreams, as
if that vision had
daguerreotyped itself upon the brain
and left its impress
there for ever.”
The first place to notice, after leaving
Luxor, is
Erment
(W.), where more sugar making is going forward on a very
extensive scale; here are some ruins of the town of
Hermonthis,
consisting chiefly of
a small Ptolemaic temple
containing what is considered the
authentic portrait of
Cleopatra.
Tuot (E.), the
Gebelayen Ridge (W.),
Mutaneh
(W.), another sugar factory, and
Tofnées
(W.), site of
ancient
Aphroditopolis, offer nothing specially worthy of
notice.
Esneh
(35 miles from
Luxor, pop.
9,000) is a place of
considerable trade, with bazaars and
a well stocked market;
it is considered the most healthy
town in Egypt, and has
been called “the most picturesque
and amusing city on the
Upper Nile.” It stands on mounds,
the accumulated heaps
of the ancient city of
Latopolis. Any person wishing to
purchase an
Egyptian donkey should remember that
Esneh
is the best place on the river at which to do so.
Near
Esneh is the palace
built by Mohamed Ali, standing
in beautiful grounds. That
prince, when staying here,
in 1842, had the portico of the
Temple of Esneh
in the
middle of the town cleared from the rubbish,
etc., which
enveloped it. It is supposed that the
remainder of the
temple is under the adjacent houses. The
portico, or
entrance-hall, which is the only portion
visible, contains
twenty-four columns, nineteen feet in
circumference and
sixty-five feet high, the capitals being
imitations of the
doom palm, vine, papyrus, etc. There is
some reason for
believing that the inner temple, not yet
explored, dates from
the time of Thothmes III., but the
façade and columns of
this portico are of the Roman epoch.
Several cartouches
of the Caesars are seen—Claudius,
Domitian, Commodus,
Caracalla, etc. The sculptures in
relief representing princes
making offerings to the
deities, and the hieroglyphics, are
very poorly
executed—in these arts Egypt rapidly declined
under Greek
and Roman influence. The columns and
capitals are very
graceful—for in architecture, which was
less trammelled by
traditional conventionalities and
priestly rules, Greek
grace and freedom asserted its
supremacy.
Above
Esneh, game on the
river becomes increasingly
plentiful—pelicans abound. The
sandstone region is soon
entered, and the appearance of
the hills totally changes.
They slope away from the banks,
leaving the sides and
banks covered with immense boulders.
The strip of habitable
country becomes narrower, and
cultivation becomes
more arduous and precarious.
Passing
El Helleh (E.) and
the mounds of
Kom Ayr (W.), the last
Pyramid within the limits of Egypt is seen,
that of
El Koôla (W.); it is a limestone
structure about
sixty feet square, and is now in a very
ruinous condition—
what remains is under forty feet in
height.
El Kom-el-Ahmar (W.) is the site
of Hieraconopolis, the City of the
Hawks, dating from the
time of Osirtasen I.
El Kab (E., 52 miles from
Luxor) is celebrated for its
grottoes and other remains of the ancient City of
Eileithyias,
the City of Lucina; these grottoes are
covered with paintings
in colours still vivid—there are
excellent delineations of
scenes of domestic life,
agricultural labour and sports,
banquets, fishing,
fowling, and funeral processions. The
domestic life and
rural economy of the ancient Egyptians
can be well studied
here. There are also two or three
temples; one built by
Rameses II., another of Ptolemaic
origin, consecrated to
Lucinia by Euergates II., with some
additions by
Cleopatra; and a third dedicated to the same
goddess by
Amunoph III., the decorative pictures in the
latter temple
are good. Natron (sub-carbonate of soda),
an Egyptian
article of commerce, is found in the vicinity.
Eileithyias was a fortress guarding the entrance of a
gorge from which wild Arab tribes used to descend upon
the Nile Valley. Remains of ramparts, dating from the
Ancient Empire, are still visible
Edfou (W.) is a short
distance from the river side.
In the middle of the village
of
Edfou stands its noted
Temple.
In general plan and arrangement this temple is very
similar to that at
Denderah, and the uses to which the
various
portions of the building were applied would seem
to have
been the same. But the temple at
Edfou is the
most perfect specimen of an Egyptian
temple extant—more
complete even than that at
Denderah. The magnificent
pylon and wall of enclosure are quite unique.
Not many years ago the modern village of
Edfou
covered the whole of the temple except the propylon;
even
the terraces of the roof were concealed by
houses, and the
interior was choked with rubbish to the
very ceilings. Now,
thanks to the energetic labours
carried on by Mariette Bey,
under the authority of the
Khedive, the temple, in all its
completeness, is
accessible to the visitor.
The entire length of this magnificent temple is 450
feet; the propylon is nearly 250 feet in breadth; the
Towers are 115 feet in height, and can be
ascended by
250 steps; from the summit there is a fine
view of the
Nile Valley. It is best to make this ascent
before entering
the temple, as in that way a good general
idea is obtained
of the arrangement of the building before
examining its
details more minutely. These lofty towers,
forming a
monumental entry to the temple, seen at a great
distance,
used to be adorned with immense flags. In
the façade may
be noticed the apertures in which the masts
supporting
these banners were inserted.
The Temple of
Edfou was
founded by Ptolemy IV.
(Philopator), the sanctuary and
adjoining chambers being
the work of that prince; the
decoration of the central halls
is due to Ptolemy VI.
(Philometer); succeeding princes of
the same house
continued the work of construction and
decoration till the
reign of Ptolemy XIII. (Dionysius), who
constructed, or,
at least, decorated the pylon. The temple
was dedicated to
Hor-Hat and his mother Athor, the
Egyptian Venus. In the
inscriptions Hor-Hat is described
as “lord of the heavens,
son of Osiris, king of the kings of
Lower and
Upper Egypt, master of gods and
goddesses.”
Very interesting sculptures and inscriptions abound in
this temple: some display the warlike achievements of
the
Ptolemies; many are of the usual religious
character. From
some have been
derived valuable geographical facts as to
Ancient Egypt.
There are some curious inscriptions on
the basement of the
exterior of great importance; they
describe in detail the
various chambers of this temple
giving the dimensions, so
that a means for accurately comparing
ancient and modern
measures is thus afforded. The
name of the architect is
given as Ei-em-hotep Oer-si-Phtah
(Imouthes, grandson of
Phtah). Another inscription states
that, with
interruptions from war, the building took ninety-five
years to complete; this must refer to the actual construction
of the building—as, from the names of kings
mentioned above, the buildings and decorations were
not
finished in less than 170 years.
The
Great Court is first
entered, about 140 feet by
150 feet, and surrounded on
three sides by thirty-two
dissimilar columns. The
Pronaos, next entered, stretches
across the building, and contains immense pillars
covered
with hieroglyphics. The
Adytum contains twelve peculiar
columns bulging excessively at the centre; on each side
are four small rooms—one has a staircase leading to the
terrace. Several other courts and chambers are visited,
and at the extreme end of the building is the Naos, or
sanctuary. The place of deposit of the sacred emblem was
not, as at
Denderah, a niche in the
wall, but the grey
granite monolith now lying in one
corner of the apartment;
this was the repository of the
sacred hawk, emblem of Hor-Hat;
the monolith was made by
Nectanebo I., of the
thirtieth dynasty, for an older
temple to which the present
edifice succeeded. There is an
exquisite little chapel,
covered with very perfect
bas-reliefs on the north side of
the building; this
sanctuary was connected with the New
Year Ceremonies.
There is a small and very dilapidated temple, built by
Ptolemy
Physcon, close at hand. West of
Edfou
are marshes
where wild geese congregate.
Leaving
Edfou, we pass the
ruins of the fortified Arabian
town of
Booáyb (on the E.), also the village of
Silweh on
the same
side. On the west bank the ravine of Shut-el-Rágel
is
passed, in which some discoveries of value to
Egyptologists have been made. On the same side, farther
on, are the hills Gebel Aboo Ghabah, in passing which gusty
weather is often encountered.
Hágar-Silsileh, or Gebel Silsileh, the Mountain
of the Chain, is 92 miles from
Luxor.
Arab tradition
affirms that, at this point, the navigation
of the river was
stopped by a jealous king, who stretched
a chain across the
narrow channel, which is little more
than a thousand feet
broad at this point. On both sides of
the river are quarries
from which the ancient kings
procured the materials for
many of the Nile valley cities
and monuments. The ancient
Silsilis stood on the east
bank. The quarries and grottoes
on the west bank are the
most interesting; the principal
grotto contains a
much-admired tableau of a goddess suckling
the infant
Horus; the Triumph of Horus, the last king
of the
eighteenth dynasty, is represented in another striking
bas-relief.
Speaking of the quarries of Hágar-Silsileh, Dr. Olin
says, “The mountain, for an extent of several miles, is
cut
into yawning chasms and high threatening
precipices, that,
in their dimensions and variety of
forms, mimic the sublime
workmanship of nature. As the
stone immediately on this
bank of the river was porous,
and less adapted to architectural
purposes, passages were
cut through these useless
masses into the heart of the
mountain. I did not measure
these avenues, but am sure
that several of them are nearly
half a mile in length, by
fifty or sixty feet wide, and eighty
deep. Many
large masses remain as they were left by the
workmen, and
all the processes of quarrying are plainly
exhibited.”
Kom-Omboo (E.) presents an interesting
relic
doomed to destruction, for the Nile is gradually
undermining
all that is left of the double temple
where the
principle of light, under the form of Horus, and
the principle
of darkness, under the form of the Crocodile
God
Sebek, were worshipped by the Ombites. Here was
the
tank where the sacred crocodile bathed, and the
brick
terrace where he took his daily
“constitutional.” This
edifice, reared by Greek princes,
successors of Alexander,
bears the names of various
Ptolemies.
The distance from Omboo to
Assouan is only 26 miles;
after a few hours'
journey, hills rise towards the south
crowned with forts;
a
green island is seen dividing the
river
into two parts; to the left several white houses
glitter in the
midst of an oasis of date-palms.
Assouan seems to stand
at the end of the Nile, as the eye, looking forward, vainly
seeks an opening for the river's course.
“
Assouan astonishes the
traveller,” says M. Mariette;
“one is tempted to think
oneself in a new world; Egyptians,
Turks, Barabras,
half-naked Bicharis, and Negroes of every
kind mingle
here; the inhabitants of Khartoom are especially
striking
by their grand mien, black faces, and their
fine heads,
reminding one of the best types of northern
races; to
complete the picture, the merchandise consists of
exotic
gums, elephants' teeth, and the skins of beasts; in
the
midst of the crowd circulate the hawkers, no longer
dealing in antiquities, but in clubs of ebony, pikes, lances,
and arrows, whose iron points are said to be poisoned.”
Assouan contains about 9,000
inhabitants. It is 583
miles from
Cairo, and 730 from the coast of the
Mediterranean.
It is a
well-built town, and a walk through the
bazaar is very
interesting, and the scene on the quay is
usually very
lively.
At
Assouan will be found a
most comfortable hotel
also under the management of M.
Pagnon, in whose hands
are the hotels at
Luxor. This hotel has only been
opened
for a few years, but the experiment of building
it has
proved to be amply justified as an ever-increasing
number
of tourists make more or less prolonged stays
there. The
desert air is most clear and bracing, there
being practically
no cultivation in the district. Horse or
donkey riding
across the desert to
Shellal, opposite the island of Philæ,
or boating on the Nile, provide healthful and pleasant
relaxation. An English medical gentleman resides in
the
hotel during the tourist season.
Assouan was formerly known as
Syene. Few traces of
its early Egyptian history are recognizable. From the granite
quarries of the neighbourhood, the obelisks and other
monoliths
of the cities of
Upper Egypt were procured. In one
quarry there is a monolith eighty feet long with one side
still adhering to its native rocks. A Ptolemaic temple has
been recently discovered. But though
Syene was a notable
garrison town in Greek and
Roman times, even of that
epoch scarcely anything remains.
The ruins of
Assouan,
and also in the adjacent island of Elephantine, are mostly
Saracenic.
Syene was celebrated amongst Greek
and Roman geographers
and philosophers as being a place
where, at the
summer solstice, the sun shone
perpendicularly, and some
of the measurements of the
earth, by Eratosthenes and
others, were based on this
supposed fact Modern observation
proves either that these
philosophers were wrong in
their facts, or else that the
position of the earth, and consequently,
the boundary
of the tropics, has altered since
their time. Juvenal
lived at
Syene for a time, being
banished hither by the Emperor Domitian.
In the prophecies of the downfall of Egypt the Prophet
speaks of the “tower of
Syene” as marking the southern
limit of the
kingdom—thus, “from Migdol to
Syene”
was
a similar expression to the customary Hebrew
phrase, “from
Dan to Beersheba.” (See Ezek. xxix. 10 and
xxx. 6, taking
the marginal reading in both cases.)
In the vicinity of
Assouan
may be seen several remains
of Saracenic walls, and
numerous tombs of sheikhs and
saints.
Nearly opposite
Assouan,
and a little below Elephantine,
General Sir Francis
Grenfell has recently discovered, and
caused to be
excavated, three tombs. One was built for a
hereditary
Prince Mechu, a member of the highest council
of Egypt,
probably during the fourth dynasty. Another is
the tomb of
a Prince Bent, or Ben, hereditary prince chancellor,
chief
councillor to King Ra Neger Ka, of the sixth
dynasty. The
third is the tomb of Serenpu, one of the
great rulers of
Elephantine during the twelfth dynasty.
The Island of Elephantine faces
Assouan. One
of its Arabic names signifies
“Island of Flowers.” Whilst
at
Assouan the Egyptian element predominates in the
population,
at Elephantine the traveller finds himself
surrounded
by Nubians.
“The Nubians,” says Bartlett, “are tall and slender in
person—far less massive in build than the Theban
Arabs.
There is something of elegance in their general
appearance,
and the cast of their features is rather
intellectual. They
are of a soft dusky black or bronze
tint, with a very fine
skin, and they delight to oil their
bodies, and to load their
sable ringlets with unguents
anything but odoriferous to the
European nose.
Their women have often elicited the rapturous
remarks of
travellers, in whose eyes they move about
like so many
sable Venuses, realizing the description of our
Mother
Eve, as being, when ' unadorned, adorned the most,'
their
sole costume, in this serene and glowing climate, being
an
apron round the middle, and somewhat of the slenderest,
too, composed of loose thongs of leather, decorated with
small shells.” (This refers to young girls only.)
Elephantine is now a picturesque island of mingled palm
groves and mounds of ruins, with very few remains of
its
former importance and grandeur. Pharaohnic,
Persian,
Greek, Roman splendour—all is gone. About
eighty years
ago, when the Egyptian Commission visited the
island, there
was a half-demolished edifice, called the
Temple of the
North, and another admirably proportioned
building called
the Temple of the South, built by Amunoph
III. The
stone of these two temples was used by the
Governor of
Assouan, in 1822, to build a palace,
and all that remains
now is a badly-executed statue of
Osiris, bearing the name
of Menephthah (son of Rameses
II.), of the nineteenth
dynasty. This forms a part of the
façade of Amunoph's
temple. A nilometer that once stood
here has almost
totally gone. A quay of Roman origin,
built up with remains
of numberless more ancient edifices,
and a granite
portal with cartouches of Alexander III.
still remain; and
this is about all there is to show for
the hundreds and
hundreds of years during which in
Elephantine “men
reigned and women loved, and kings and
priests and princes
lived and died, till the change came,
and time trod on them
and crushed the palaces, and the
avenging angel swept his
wing over them, and their very
dust went away on the wind
Elephantine lay in the Nile,
and other nations took the
place of Egypt in the roll of
time. There is, perhaps, no
place in Egypt
that, could it have a voice, would utter more
strange and
splendid histories of men and kings than this
island.”
“Elephantine lies in the river,” says W. C. Prime,
“from the foot of the cataract stretching down in front
of
Assouan about a mile, and is nearly
half-a-mile in breadth.
Its surface is a mass of ruins,
shapeless and hideous. Ruin
sits triumphant here. Not even
the ploughshare of ancient
history, which has run over so
many ruins, could prevail
here to penetrate the mass. A
small part of the island is
cultivated, but a large
portion still remains in the condition
I have described,
and so will remain so long as the world
stands. Fragments
of statues, a gateway of the time of the
mighty son of
Philip, an altar whose fire was long ago
extinguished in
the blood of its worshippers: these and
similar relics
remain; but nothing to indicate the shape,
extent, or date
of any of the buildings that formerly covered
the island.”
The
First Cataract of the
Nile is about six miles
above
Assouan. Ancient travellers and geographers speak
of the noise as being so prodigious as to deafen those
within
ear-shot. If this was ever the case it is very
different now.
The cataracts are simply rapids produced by
the waters of
the river dashing through a wild profusion
of scattered
rocks. In fact, the two chains of primitive
mountains, between
which the Nile flows, cross the bed of
the river at
this point, and impede its course by forming
innumerable
rocky points or islands. These rocks, in
grotesque shapes
and wild disorder, with the absence of
cultivation beside
the scene, and the rush of the
struggling waters, combine to
make up a scene of savage
desolation, about four miles in
length.
The Ascent or Descent of the Cataract in a
dahabeah can
be effected by those who think the excitement
rather than
the pleasure of the undertaking worth the
expense. It is
an interesting process to watch from the
adjacent rocks,
and it is also very amusing to see the Nubian
boys
threading the rapids on logs of wood. (For Descent
of
Cataract, see p. 243.)
From
Assouan to Philæ the
scenery is of a wildness
almost unearthly; Miss Martineau
calls it “fantastic and
impish.” The land route is
viâ the granite quarries to what
used to be the convent of the Austrian Mission, or by
railway to
Shellal, where boat is taken for the island. At
other times, when the Nile is less high and less rapid, the
road skirting the river is taken to the village of
Shellal.
This is the most
picturesque route when practicable. It is
better to take
the quarry route going and the river side in
returning.
In going from
Assouan to
Philæ, abundant examples
are seen of the ancient Egyptian
custom of leaving monumental
inscriptions and tableaux to
mark their progress
through certain places. In several of
these a simple name
is carved in hieroglyphics on the
rocks, in other places the
individual who wished to
commemorate his journey is represented
in sculpture
adoring the gods of the cataract.
Some of these are
memorials of generals or princes commemorating their expeditions. The little
island of Seháyl
in the cataract is covered with these
souvenirs, and from
them many historical facts, now
universally accepted, have
been discovered.
A few words will suffice for the history of Philæ. Its
most ancient monuments only date from a little prior to
the
foundation of
Alexandria, as no name earlier than that of
Nectanebo II. has been found on the island. The dozen or
so of columns appertaining to a small temple at the southern
extremity of
the island, are a memorial of the king just
named, and in
the great Ptolemaic temple, to be presently
described, the
great gate of the propylon also bears the
name of
Nectanebo, and is probably a relic of some earlier
pile.
Under the Ptolemies and Emperors the island became
covered
with religious edifices From inscriptions on these
it is
evident that Philæ was the last stronghold of the ancient
faith. Sixty years after Theodosius had by edict abolished
the Egyptian religion, Isis and Osiris were worshipped here,
and families of Egyptian priests had their dwelling place in
the island. Even under the reign of the Emperor
Marcian,
this state of things continued, and to Philæ,
as to a Sacred
Island, the scattered votaries of the
ancient gods of Egypt
turned with loving eyes.
The Egyptian deities were mostly worshipped in Triads.
The three to whom Philæ was dedicated were Osiris,
Isis,
and Horus. Osiris was the first of Egyptian
gods, and the
future judge of the dead, chiefly revered
for his manifestation
as incarnate god, his being
sacrificed to Typhon, the
evil principle, and his
resurrection. All these themes are
set forth in the
sculptures of the sacred isle. In the name
of Osiris, the
dead who passed the judgment were absolved
from sin and
obtained eternal felicity. Isis, consort of
Osiris, was
the first and loveliest of Egyptian goddesses,
and
symbolized the earth, or matter; whilst Osiris, her
spouse, represented the creative principle. Horus, the
child of these two, was the avenger of his father and the
conqueror of the serpentine Typhon. Bearing these myths
in
his mind, the visitor will understand many of the sculptures
at Philæ.
The principal ruins on the island are those of the great
Temple of Isis, founded by Ptolemy II., or
Philadelphus,
and comprising various additions made by
later
monarchs,
especially Ptolemy III. and Euergates. On the
exterior
walls are many sculptures dating from the reigns
of the
Roman Emperors, Augustus, Tiberius, Domitian,
Trajan, etc.
The temple, and other buildings in connection with
it, must once have covered the greater part of the
island,
around which ran a smooth stone quay. Only
portions of
the quay now remain, and desolate gaps, with
piles of broken
stones intervene between the portions of
the temple still
remaining. There is a great want of
uniformity in the plan
of the temple, which appears to
disgust some visitors and
enchant others. Some have
complained that “the effect
is sadly spoiled by the
perverse irregularity and unsymmetrical
arrangement of all
Egyptian architecture, which is
nowhere shown more broadly
than at Philæ.” Fergusson,
taking an opposite view, says,
“No Gothic architect in his
wildest moments ever played so
freely with his lines and
dimensions, and none, it must be
added, ever produced
anything so beautifully picturesque
as this. It contains all
the play of light and shade, all
the variety of Gothic art,
with the massiveness and
grandeur of the Egyptian style, and
as it is still
tolerably entire, and retains much of its colour,
there is
no building out of
Thebes that gives
so favourable
an impression of Egyptian art as this. It is
true it is far
less sublime than many, but hardly one can
be quoted as
more beautiful.”
The temple is approached by a colonnade commencing
at the southern end of the island, and principally
erected by
Tiberius; the line of columns following the
curves of the
shore. Many of the columns were never
completed, the
capitals being still uncarved. Passing
mounds of ruins and
fragments of an enormous lion, the
massive propylon is
reached (60 feet high and 120 broad).
Figures of the God
Nilus, and emblems of various
Egyptian towns are sculptured
on the walls. Under the
principal entrance is an
inscription recording the advance
of the French General
Dessaix and his troops to this
point, when in pursuit of the
Memlooks.
Beyond the propylon, the court is reached, with a chapel
to the left, dedicated to Horus, on the outer wall of
which
is a copy of the inscription on the famous
Rosetta stone,
but
without the Greek version. The corridor on the
opposite
side of the court is richly ornamented. Another
pylon is
passed, on which are sculptures representing the
king
slaying hostile nations. The portico, which is next
reached, sometimes called the “ten-columned court,” is by
some considered the gem of Philæ. It is of great beauty.
The colours in this hall, and some of the adjacent rooms,
are of marvellous freshness. The capitals are of vivid blue
and green, picked out with red, crimson, and orange. The
roof is bright blue, with golden stars, and there is an orb
with wings, elaborately delineated, representing the
sun.
Several other chambers, and an adytum, with its
monolithic
shrine and walls, covered with mythological
hieroglyphics,
are next visited. On the western side
is a small temple of
the god of the Nile. The decorations
comprise lotus,
papyrus, and other water plants, neatly
executed. Near the
top of the staircase leading to the
terrace, is a small room
containing interesting sculptures
describing the death and
resurrection of Osiris. These
inner portions of the temple
beyond the portico are in
thick darkness, and of course
artificial lights must be
carried to explore them. Near the
adytum, or sanctuary,
are some small dark rooms, to which
a staircase leads from
the front of that chamber. “They have
the appearance,”
says Wilkinson, “of being intended either
for concealing
the sacred treasures of the temple, or for
some artifice
connected with superstition, and, perhaps, for
the
punishment of those who offended the majesty of the
priesthood.”
The whole area of the ancient temple was 435 feet long
by 135 broad, according to some measurements, but it
is
difficult to say how much of the surrounding ruins
were
adjuncts of the temple or separate structures.
In after times, when the Christians were in the ascendant
in
Nubia, the
sculptures were defaced with hammers and
the paintings
daubed with mud. In 577 A.D. the interior of
the temple
became, under Bishop Theodorus, the church of
St. Stephen,
and at a yet later period a Coptic church was
built up out
of the ruins.
Taken as a whole the ruined Temple of Isis at
Philae is
an elegant example of
the lighter architecture of the Ptolemaic
era, and does
not present the aspect of colossal
grandeur seen in the
Theban ruins.
There is a staircase leading to the top of the propylon.
The view is very fine, and has been thus described:—
“Beneath lies the verdant and flowery islet, strewn
with
marble wrought into every beautiful form known to
ancient
art; over that pile of prostrate pillars, a
grove of palms is
waving; from between the columns of yon
small temple,
the acacia's foliage seems to gush and its
blossoms stream.
Round all the island flows the clear,
bright river, and opposite
lies the old Temple of Osiris,
now called Pharaoh's
Bed. Beyond the river are gleams of
green, shooting across
drifts of desert sands, palms,
rocks, villages, and wastes; and
over all, darkly
encircling this paradise, rises the rugged
chain of the
Hemaceuta, or golden mountains.”
Of other ruins on the island of
Philae, the principal are
as follows:—
Temple of Esculapius, in front of the
Temple of
Isis, near the beginning of the eastern
corridor.
Temple of Athor, the Egyptian Venus, built
by
Euergates.
A small Temple of Athor, built
by Nectanebo I.,
near the southern end of the corridor.
The so-called Pharaoh's Bed, on
the east of the
island, a Ptolemaic edifice.
An arched gate and staircase, connected with the
landing-place, fragments of a Roman wall, and portions of
the quay that once surrounded the island, with various
isolated portions of ancient edifices, are also to be seen.
In addition there are some brick ruins of the Christian
epoch.
A small Christian Temple has recently been discovered
and cleared out, to the north of the Great Temple.
The adjacent island of
Biggeh
affords fine views of
Philae, especially from the rocks at
the southern extremity.
On the island are portions of
ruins of small Egyptian temples,
Christian churches, and
Mohammedan mosques.
Mahatta is a village on the east bank of
the Nile,
between
Philae and the Cataract, where those wishing to
make the
Descent of the Cataract can
arrange to do
so, but, like the ascent, it is, to most,
more interesting to
watch from the shore than to
experience. At Mahatta, also,
dahabeahs for the journey to
the Second Cataract can be
procured by those who prefer
that mode of travel. For the
arrangements made for
proceeding by steamer to the Second
Cataract at Wády-Halfa
(see p. 23).
