CORNELL UNIVERSITY LIBRARY 924 074 488 051 The original of this book is in the Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924074488051 THE MONUMENTS OF UPPER EGYPT. MAP SHOWING PRINCIPAL EXCAVATIONS BY MARIETTE. THE MONUMENTS UPPER EGYPT A TRANSLATION OF THB " ITINERAIRE DE LA HAUTE EGYPTE " OF , AUGUSTE MARIETTE^BEY - A BV ALPHONSE MARIETTE REVISED WITH NOTES AND ADDITIONS BY LYSANDER DICKERMAN Metnder a/ the Briiisk Society of Biblical A rckaology^ American Orientai Society, etc.^etC', etc* Nonjovis ira, nee ignes. Nee potcrii/errum, nee edax aboUre vetustas OviD BOSTON J. H. MANSFIELD & J. W. DEARBORN 38 Bromfield Street 1890 (S UNfvr \ COPYRIGHTHD, 189O, Py J. H. Mansfikld and J. W. Dbarbokn. MOOONUD, GILL & CO. pneas of the christian witness BOSTON. aA THE TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE, An unpretending little volume was published in 1869 under the title of ItinSraire de« InvitSs de S. A. le lOiSdive aux Fites de V Inauguration du Canal de Suez. The very title of the work is a record of the great historical event which gath- ered together many distinguished personages in Egypt. The Itiniraire met with all the favor it de- served, and a first edition having been rapidly exhausted, a second one, with some slight altera- tions, appeared in 1872. It soon became evident, however, that as the majority of regular tourists on the Nile belong to the two great English-speaking nations, an English edition of the Itiniraire would not prove otherwise than acceptable. At Mariette-Bey's request, being myself no stranger to Egypt, I readily undertook the required translation into English — a somewhat difficult task, in which I 6 THE TRANSI>fTOE's PREFACE. was encouraged, however, by my brother's kindly expressed opinion that I would be all the better qualified for it by my genuine sympathy with the whole subject. I have endeavored to be faithful to the original text, keeping in view the author's idio- syncrasy, and I have but seldom thought fit to • avail myself of the discretionary power that had been given me. My task, I need scarcely say, has been a pleasant one, and I shall feel amply repaid for the trouble incurred if I can but think that I have in the very remotest degree con- tributed to popularize Egypt's wonders, and to bring them and their English and American visitora into closer intercourse. As stated in the second French edition, this little work does not pretend to replace Murray's Handbook for Travellers in Egypt, especially now that that excellent guide has been revised by a most competent writer. The aim of this volume is altogether different; it deals exclu- sively with the antiquities, and its sole object is to introduce the visitor to the Monuments of Upper Egypt, and to supply him with sucli information as will best enable him to under- stand their meaning. THE translator's PREFACE. 7 In conclusion, I would take this opportunity of appealing earnestly to all travellers in Upper Egypt. For the sake of science, for the sake of those who will come after us — and I will add, in sheer justice to him whose persevering labors and truly heroic exertions have bro.ught to light so many hidden treasures, I would entreat all visitors to Sakk&rah, Abydos, Denderah, Thebes, etc., to watch with a jealous care over the integ- rity of monuments which no educated man can gaze upon without the keenest interest, and to prevent, as far as in their power lies, any further desecration of those relics of a glorious past. ALPH. MARIETTE. King's College, London, ' May, 187'?. CONTENTS. THE TRANSLATOK'S TRErACK ....... 5 LIST OF BOOKS FOR REFERENCE .... 15 FRANCOIS AUGUSTE FERDINAND MARI- ETTE 19 INTRODUCTION. I. SonncBS 27 A Monuments 28 The Temples 29 The Tombs 82 B Manetho 87 C Classical Historians 38 II. History 40 1 Ancient Empire 41 2 Middle Empire 42 3 New Empire 43 4 Lower Period 43 III. CiinoNOLOOY 45 The Dynasties 49 IV. Religion 50 V. Language and Whitinq 64 Rosetta Stone 50 Hieroglyphs 58 VI. Generalities 62 A The Decoration of the Temples .... 02 B Their Signification 05 C TheMammisi 09 D Tiie Royal Cartouches 70 E Epitome of the Best-known Epochs in Egyptian History 72 C8] CONTENTS. y I" Entreaty to Travellers to spare the Monu- ments 79 G Papyrus to be carefully preserved ... 82 DESCRIPTION OF THE MONUMENTS 85 EXCURSIONS IN THE ENVIRONS OF CAIRO. 87 I. Heliopolis 88 II. Pykamids 92 The Three Great Pyramids 93 Their Especial Purpose 94 'The Sphinx 97 The Great Pyramid 99 III. MlTRAHENNTP 106 Memphis 106 Colossus of Rameses II 112 IV. Sakkarah . . . . 113 Necropolis 113 Step-shaped Pyramid 114 A Serapeum 115 Its Discovery ............ 115 Tomb of Apis . 118 B Tomb of Tih 121 The Mastabah, the Serdab ...... 122 Scenes relating to the Personage while still living 124 Scenes relating to the Death of the Per- sonage 126 Scenes relating to the bringing in of Funereal Gifts .......... 127 Tomb of Phtah-IIotep 128 JOURNEY INTO UPPER EGYPT. 131 Beni-Hassan 132 , Pyramid of Meydoum 133 Grotto Tombs 135 Tomb of Ameni-Amenemha 137 Tomb of Noum-Hotep 138 10 CONTENTS. II. Abtdos 141 Tel-Amama 142 Crocodile Caves of Maabdeh 143 Temple of Sethll 146 Temple of Barneses II 148 Tablet of Abydos 148 Kom-es-Sultan 149 III. Denderah 161 The Temple ., 152 Divided into Four Groups 153 1 HypostylHall 153 2 Chambers of Assembly 155 Sacred Barks 156 Treasury, Vestments, Offerings, 157 8 Hypethral Temple 157 4 Sanctuary 158 The Crypts 162 The Osiris of Denderah 104 Hathor and her Different Attributes . . . 166 IV. Thebes 171 Its History 173 Its Hieroglyphic Name 180 Its Special Divinity 182 Luxon 183 Temple . 183 Sham Antiquities 184 KARNAK 184 i. Temple of Khons 186 Usurpation of Authority by the Priests, 187 ii. The Great Temple 188 Hypostyl Hall 189 Bas-reliefs of Shishak 190 Poem of Peu-ta-our 192 Bas-reliefs of Sethi 1 192 The Pylons 195 The Obelisks 196 The Granite Chambers 199 CONTENTS. 11 Geographical Lists of Tliothmes III. . . 201 Etlinological Lists 201 Synoptical Table of the Promised Land, 202 Large Court to the East 204 The Sanctuary 205 Hall of Ancestors 206 iil. The lluins to the North 208 iv. The Euins to the South 209 The Lake . 210 The Four Pylons . . . 210 The Temple of Mout 212 TUB TBMFI.E OF OOORKAH 214 THB BAMESEUM 216 Episode in the Life of Barneses II. ... 218 Gigantic Statue of Rameses II 221 THE COLOSSI 223 The Colossus of Meranon 224 Laudatory Inscriptions . 226 DBIR-EI/-MEDINEH 228 MEDINET-ABOU 228 Temple of Thothmes III 229 Temple of Kameses III. • ■ i 231 A The Palace 231 Ethnological Inscriptions .... 233 B The Temple 237 Battle Scenes . 237 Valuable Inscription on Pylon 240 More Battle Scenes 242 Coronation and Procession of Rameses III 243 Naval Battle : 249 TUB KEOROPOLIS 200 Drah-abou'1-neggah 250 El-Assassif 251 Scheikh-abd-el-Goornah and Goomat- Hou-rai 252 12 CONTEKTS. Tomb of Houi 253 Tomb of Fetamenophis . . . , 25S DBIB-EL-BAHABI 256 Triumphal Entry of Troops ....... 258 BAB-EL-MOLOUK 261 TorabofSethll 264 Tomb of Kameses III. . : 267 Tomb of Sethi II. . . ; 269 Tomb of Barneses IV. 270 V. ESNBH . 271 Decadence of Hieroglyphs 272 Development of Architecture ...... 273 VI. Edfou 274 El Kab 274 Temple of Edfou. . 275 Name of Architect ........... 277 The Sanctuary 277 Dimensions 278 Masts for Pennants ........... 279 VII. Gebel-Silsileh 279 Stone Quarries 280 Speos 281 Triumph of Horus ........... 282 Vin. Assouan 282 Orabos 282 Mountains— Change of Scenery 284 Small Temple 285 Island of Elephantine ■ ■ ■ 285 IX. Phil^ 286 Inscriptions on Bocks 287 Laat Besort of the Priests 289 CONTENTS. 13 APPENDIX. vibooviiriics hinoll maribttd, Ptkamids beobntly openjed . 291 Pyramid of King Pepi I. . . 202 Pyramid of Ounas 206 Tomb Robbers 295 The Abbot Papyrus 296 Pyramid of King Tela . 297 The Rotai/ Mumuies of Deir-el-Bahabi . . 299 Story of the Discovery 299 List of Mummies found 301 Unwinding of Rameses II. ... 302 PiTHOM 304 The " Store Cities " . 306 Route of the Exodus 306 San-Tanis 307 Temple of Rameses II. 300 Tahi-anes 300 IIouBO of riiaraoli Uophra 012 BUDASTIS ". . 31.3 Great Hypostyle Hall 314 The FAYonM 316 The Great Labyrinth ............. 319 Tomb of Amenembat III 321 Portraits of the Dead 323 Papyrus of Homer's " Iliad " .'. .' 324 Alphabetic Writing 324 Tel-el-Amarna . 326 Letters and Despatches 326 Tomb and Mummy of Amenophls IV 329 Othee Explobations 329 Table of the Egyptian Dynasties 330 How to Ascend the Nile 331 14 MAPS AND ILLUSTRATIONS. MAPS' AND ILLUSTRATIONS. Those with an * are new with the American edition. PAGE Map showing Principal Excavations by Mariette, Frontispiece. I •Obelislt; at Heliopolis 88 •Approach to the Pyramids 92 *The Grand Gallery of the Great Pyramid 96 *The Great Pyramid, Sphinx, and Buried Temple . 98 Section of the Great Pyramid 101 *Map-of Sakkrirah 113 *Step-'Pyramid of Sakkilrah 115 * Wall 'Decorations of Temple at Donderah 121 •Temple of Denderah ICl Plan of Temple of Denderah ' 16.3 •Temple of Luxor Restored 183 Plan of Great Temple of Karnak 188 •HypOstyle Hall, Karnak 180 •Osiride Columns — the Rameseum 21U •Rameseum — ^General View 221 •Temple of Edfou 274 •Interior Colonnade of Edfou 277 »Phil» — Artist's Choice 286 •Abu-Simbel 290 •Section and Plan of Pyramid of King Ounas .... 295 •Pyramids of Hawara 321 LIST OF BOOKS FOR REFERENCE. Barnard. Metrological System of the Great Pyramid of Gizeh. New York, 1881. Bell, C. D. A Winter on the Nile. London, 1888. BuNSEN. Egypt's Place in History. 5 vols. Hamburg, 1844-1856. Bruqbch. Egypt under the Pharaohs. 2 vols. Second edi- tion, London, 1881. Religion . und Mythologie. Leipzig. 2 Vols. 1885- 1888. BoNwioK. Pyramids : Facts and Fancies. London, 1877. Egyptian Belief and Modern Thought. London, 1878. BuDOE, E. A. W, Dwellers on the Nile. London, 1885. BoNOMi. Description of the Egyptian Court erected in the Crystal Palace. London, 1854. Cory's Ancient Fragments. New enlarged edition. Lon- don, 1876. Cooper's Archaic Dictionary. London, 1876. . Dawson, J. W. Egypt and Syria. London, 1885i Ebeks. Durch Gosen zum Sinai. Leipzig, 1881. Cicerone durch das alte und neue ^gypten, Stutgart, 1886. Edwards, A. B. A Thousand Miles on the Nile. IJondon, 1889. Gordon, Lady Dufi. Letters from Egypt. Third edition. London, 1866. Goodyear. The Egyptian Origin of the Ionic Column. "American Journal of Archseology," 1887. 16 LIST OF BOOKS I'OK KEFERENOE. Hebodotus. Vol. 2 of Rawlinson's edition. New Yorlc, 1870. JosKPHus. Against Apion. In the Worlcs of Joseplius. Kinglakg's Eothen. Edinboro', 1878. Kiepeiit's Ubersicbtekarte der Nillander. Berlin, 1886. Lane, E. W. An Account of the Manners and Customs of the Modern Egyptians. London, 1871. Lefsius. Letters from Egypt. Translated by Horner. London, 1863. Maspero. Guide au Musde de Boulaq. Cairo, 1883. Egyptian Archseology. Translated by Miss Edwards. Putnam, New York, 1888. Histolre Ancienne des Peuples de I'Orient. . Fourth edition. Paris, 1886. Maktineau, H. Eastern Life. New edition. Illustrated. London, 1875. Mabiette. Choix de Monuments, etc; Paris, 1850. Dd'ir ol Baliori, Ldpisig, 1877. Karnak. Leipzig, 1876. Abydos. Paris, 1880. Denderah. 4 vols, and supplement. Paris, 1869- 1880. Meyeb, Edouabd. Set-Typhon. Leipzig, 1875. Meyeb. Geschichte des alten JEgyptens. Berlin, 1887, OxLEY, William. Wonders of the Land of Egypt. Lon- don. Trubner, 1884. Petrib, William M. Flinders. The Pyramids and Temples of Gizeh. Second edition. Scribner & Welford, New York, 1885. Historical Scarabs. London, 1889. A Season in Egypt. London, 1888. Flutabou's Isis and Osiris. English translation. Lon- don, 1601. Febkot and Chipiez. History of Art in Ancient Egypt. 2 vols. London, 1883. FiEKKET. Dictionaire d'Archjeologie Egyptienne. Paris, 1875. LIST OF BOOKS FOE EEFBEENCE. 17 PiERRET. Catalogue au Musge de Louvre. Paris, 1883. PooLB, R. S. The Cities of Egypt. London, 1882. Article, " Clironology," in Smith's Bible Dictionary. I'ooLB, SoniiA, Mrs. English Women In Egypt. In " Smith's Weekly Volume " for 1846, pp. 46-80. Phila- delphia, 1846. Also, 8vo, 247 pp. Lieber & Co., Philadelphia, 1844. Procter. The Great Pyramid. London, 1883. Myths and Marvels of Astronomy. London, 1878. Renouf. Origin and Growth of the Egyptian Religion. London, 1880. RiEL. Cronologie : Sonnen und Sirius Pahr. Leipzig, 1875. Records of the Past. Bagster. RosETTA Stone. Translation published by a committee of the Philological Society of the University of Penn- sylvania. Philadelphia, 1868. Birch. Facsimile and Translation. London, 1884. Satce, a. H. The Ancient Empires of the East. London, 1884. Fresh Light from the Ancient Monuments. Second edition, London, 1884. Smith, Phillip. Students' History of the East. New York, 1871. . Seiss. Miracle in Stone. Sixth edition. Philadelphia, 1878. Shyth, C. Piazzi. Life and Work at the Great Pyramid. Fourth edition. Edinboro', 1874. Our Inheritance in the Great Pyramid. Fourth edi- tion. London, 1880. Fifth edition in press. Stuart, H. V. Nile Gleanings. London, 1870. The Funeral Tent of an Egyptian Queen. London, 1882. Archseological Discoveries in Egypt after the War. London, 1883. ToMKiNS, H. E. Studies on the Times of Abraham. Lon- don, n.d. 18 LIST OF BOOKS FOE REFERENCE. VioouKOUx. La bible et les decouverts modems, fourth edition. Paris, 1884. ViKEY, Phillipe. Etudes sur le papyrus Prisse. (The oldest book in the world.) Paris, 1887. Professor Howard Osgood gives a translation of the above, with copious and valuable notes, in Bibliotheca Sacra, October, 1888. Wilkinson, J. Gaudnbr, Sir. The Manners and Customs of the Ancient Egyptians. 3 vols. London, 1878. Topography of Thebes. London, 1835. WiEDEMAN. iBgyptiscbe Geschichte. 2 vols. Gotba, 1884. [Ed.] FRANCOIS AUGUSTE FERDINAND MARIETTE. This biographical sketch of Mariette Paflha is not exhaustive, but contaias only a reference to the valuable work he accomplished for Egyptology. Born on the 11th of February, 1821, at Boulogne on the sea, at twenty years of age he was graduated from, and was professor in the college of his native town. He seemed to have developed no predilec- tion for any one science, but first tried painting, then journalism, became the chief editor of a local journal, wrote of current events, then composed romances, humorous feuilletons, and between times turned his attention to some questions of provin- cial archaeology. The only literary production of that early time is a pamphlet on the position of Portius Itius, which bears the marks of those very qualities which afterwards made him celebrated: viz., skill in discussion, great clearness and vigor of style, and keen penetration. After the death, in 1848, of the celebrated en- graver, M. Vivant Denon, who had done some excellent work in Egypt from the beginning of the French occupation, his modest collection of antiq- uities was sent to Boulogne, and was exposed in the office of the mayor of the city. Mariette's C193 20 FRANgOIS AUGUSTE FERDINAND MABIETTE. father was the mayor. In this collection was a mummy-case, which attracted the attention of young Mariette. He published an extended notice of it in his local journal, and urged his fellow- citizens to aid him in securing it for their Museum. His advice was accepted, and Mariette sent to Paris for Egyptian books, that he might devote himself to the study of the hieroglyphics which covered the sarcophagus. What was at first an 'amusement became for him a serious passion. He soon attacked other inscriptions, and wrote a paper on the interpretation and classification of the car- touches in the "Tablet of Karnak," a copy of which Prisse d'Avennes had sent to the National Library at Paris. This paper was submitted to Charles Lenormant, Alfred Maury, Ferdinand de Sauley, and others, and excited their astonishment and admiration. By their advice he resolved to seek his fortune in Paris. Having obtained humble quarters near the Louvre, he announced himself a professor of Egyptian archaeology. This was in the beginning of 1848. At the end of a few months it became apparent that this position, honorable as it was, afforded slender support for Mariette and his growing family. Above him, was Emanuel de Eoug6, who did not offer to retire in behalf of his younger aspirant. His next scheme was to solicit from the French Crovernment the necessary resources for a voyage of exploration in Egypt. He offered to PBANCOIS^AUGtJSTiE FERBlNAifD MABIETTE. 21 visit the Coptic and Sytiac cloistets there, in pursuit of any manuscripts thd,t itiight be fouhd. His request was granted, and on the l2th (jf October, 1850, he embarkjBd for Alexandria. An enforced delay of several weeks in the com- mencement of his work, caused by circumstances which he could not control) gav6 him to bpportUhity to make frequent visits to Gizeh, Da&hour, £ind especially to Sakkarah. It was at this time that the thought occurred to Mm that the famous tombd of Apis and Serapis lay under the glitterihg sands of the last named place. The reader will find his own graphic description of his discovery of the Serapeum, on p. 155 of this work. Taken in connection with the chronological information obtained there, it is impossible to overestimate the importance of this excavation. He wad strenu- ously opposed by the dealers in antiquities ; namely, the consular agents of divers European nations, but the national assembly of France voted him 30,000 francs to enable him to continue his Work, and during the night of Nov. 12, 1861, he found the entrance to the Serapeum. T6*prepare his report of this work, Mariette returned to Paris ; but strangely enough, after almost forty years, the publication of his Memoir of this gteat discovery remains incomplete. M. Maspero is now making the fourth attempt to give it to the world, and it is appearing as a serial in numbetS of the Beiiiie Egyptologique. 22 FRANCOIS AUaUSTE FEllDINAND MAMIETTK. Scarcely had- his feet touched hia native soil, when he began to long for his life of adventure on the banks of the Nile. Circumstances favored his aspirations. Abbas Pacha, who had opposed his excavations at Sakkarah, died in 1863, and his uncle, Said Pacha, a friend of France, became the viceroy. Encouraged by M. De Lesseps, the new prince requested the French Government to send Mariette to Egypt. On his arrival the Museum of Boulaq was founded. Its organization, increase, and maintenance were assigned to Mariette. At the same time excavations were begun on a large scale. Men were digging, under hia direction, at thirty-seven points, all the way ^f rem the Delta to the first cataract. At San, the ancient Zoan Tanis, were found most important monuments of the XIII"' and XIV"' dyn- asties, which Mariette did not hesitate to ascribe to the Hyksos. From 1858 to 1863 he was living in the neighborhood of the Pyramids. At Gizeh, Sakkdrah, and Meidoum he opened more than three hundred private tombs. The result of this work is recorded in his Memoirs : " Sur les tombes de I'ancien Empire qu'on trouve h, Sakkdrah" (Bevue Archeologique, 1867). Abydos, Denderah, Edfou, and Thebes profited the most by his activity. Before he went to Egypt, Abydos was unknown. He brought to the light the temple of Seti I., two temples of Eameses II., tjie remains of the great temple of Osiris, more FRAN9OIS AUGUSTE PEKDINAND MARIETTB. 23 than two hundred tombs and fifteen thousand monuments of different kinds, the most of which are in the Boulaq Museum. At Denderah, he exhumed the great temple of Hathor and a part of the surrounding buildings. At Thebes he brought up from beneath the sand the great temple of Ammon at Karnak, Medinet-Abou, Deir el-Bahari, and almost all the ruins which cover the site of the great Egyptian metropolis. At Edfou a village of considerable dimensions had been built on the roofs of the temples, and the study, of the ancient edifice was impossible. The entire village, as if by magic, was transported into the plain, and the beautiful temple came out of its winding- sheet of debris, perfect and entire. Said Pacha died in January, 1863; and Ismail Pacha, who succeeded him, was so much occupied with his political and financial schemes that he could give to archaeology only a limited support. In 1867 Marie tte was appointed the Egyptian com- missaiy to the Paris Exposition, and it was his organizing power which gave to that exhibition of Egyptian antiquities previously unknown that richness and beauty, which was a marvel to all Europe. The Franco-German War in 1870, joined to the embarrassments of the great Egyptian financier, suspended all excavations except at Abydos and Sakkdrah. At the same time Mariette's domestic griefs multiplied. He was made a widower in 24 FBANgOI3 AlTGUSTE S'KEDINAND MABIETTE. 1864. 'Five of his eleven children were no more. Physical infirmities came to keep company with his bereavements. In the ardor of scientific research he had sometimes abused his prodigious physical force and stalwart constitution. In 1861 a medical analysis revealed the germs of diabetes, which caused his death twenty years later. The winter of 1870 he spent in Paris, and the for- mer athlete was changed into a confirmed invalid. Yet not the less did he continue his labors. Be- tween 1870 and 1876 his "Denderah" appeared in six volumes. This was followed by his " Karnak," "Ddir el-Bahari" and "Monuments Divers." ' In June, 1877, his disease became so violent that the physicians said that his life could not last many days. He rallied, however, and redoubled his energy. The second volume of " Abydos " and his " Catalogue Gr^ne'ral des Monuments " belong to this epoch. He even dreamed of completing his " Mastabas ; " and, in a lecture which he gave before the Institute in 1879, enumerated a long series of works he had projected, apparently not suspecting that his days were numbered. Increasing exhaus- tion warned him of approaching death, and he embarked for Egypt, contrary to the advice of his physicians, reached Alexandria, and then Cairo, but in great suffering. For a brief season his malady seemed to have been appeased, but the favorable symptoms lasted only a few hours. After a terrible agony of eight days he died, Jan. 17j PUAlfCOla AUGUSTS! FERDINAND MABIETTE. 26 1881, and was buried in the garden of Boulaq, between his home and the Museum. He was eminently logical and systematic. Before he com- menced any enterprise he formed a minute plan. He inade ho discoveries by chance. As at Sak- k&rah, he knew in advance where the treasures lay concealed. His great work at Denderah was undertaken only after protracted study. This method mdy have its disadvantages. He lived thirty years at the foot of the Pyramids with- out opeiiing them, because he had embraced the theory that they contained no inscriptions. The logic whicb served him So well elsewhere deserted him here. A letter written by his brother after his death will be particularly interesting. He says, — " My dear brother was a striking-looking man, tall, broad-chested, and about six feet in height. His disposition was somewhat imperious, and his manner commanding ; yet a more kind-hearted man never breathed, or one more beloved by his friends and family. He was singularly modest and unosten- tatious ; and though h6 tad a breast full of decora- tions, he never wore one of them, except when officially compelled to wear the Legion of Honor. Even then, he only wore the miniature decoration, and contrived to hide that microscopic cross under his coat. He was a marvel of industry. As a rule he was in his library at six a.m. all the year round, now writing at a table covered with heaps of papers 26 FRANCOIS AUGUSTB FERDINAND MARIETTE. most neatly and systematically arranged ; now pacing to and fro across the room, his wide brow furrowed by thought. At eleven, when he sat down to his dSjeHner, he would unbend and give free scope to his Gallic wit. The savant .then became the most charming of conversationists. He kept table ouverte all his life, entertaining with lavish hospitality all the friends who chanced to drop in at those unceremonious meals. ... My sister writes me from Boulaq, that our poor brother has been embalmed, and still lies in the Museum, in his coffin, which is covered with flowers, every moment renewed by the friends who are continually bring- ing fresh wreaths and bouquets. The khedive has sent to Thebes for a certain ancient Egyptian sarcophagus which the Pacha Mariette had once pointed out to M. Vassali as the receptacle in which he should wish his ashes to repose. He was a commander of the Legion of Honor, of the Med- jidie, of the Italian order of SS. Maurice and Laza- rus, of the order of Francis Joseph, and I do not know how many more. He was also an officer of the first class of the Red Eagle of Prussia." THE MONUMENTS OF UPPER EGYPT. INTRODUCTION. Before embarking on the Nile the visitor should have mastered certain data which will afford a kind of preparation for the journey he is about to undertake. We will endeavor to supply, in as concise a form as possible, some of the requisite knowledge. We shall first treat of the sources from whence Egyptology, generally speaking, springs ; we shall then refer succes- sively to History, Chronology, and Religion, and after noticing Language and Writing, we will conclude by presenting together, in one chap- ter, under the head of Generalities, a few notes which oould not well find a suitable place else- where. I. -SOURCES. All the monuments we are going to meet with belong to that civilization which formerly C27) 28 THE MONUMENTS OF UPPER EGYPT. flourished on the banks of the Nile, and which, from beginning to end, used hieroglyphs as its form of writing. For the interpretation and understanding of those monuments Science avails herself of three different sources. As a matter of course, the first and principal source is afforded by the monuments them- selves, the undeniable witnesses, and often the contemporaries, of the events they relate. After them comes Manetho, an Egyptian priest, who wrote a history of Egypt in Greek ; the third and last place being assigned to the Greek and Roman authors who travelled in Egypt, or who wrote about it from hearsay. A. — MONTJMENTS, The monuments are at once many and vari- ous. Some are still in Egypt, some have found their way into the museums of various countries. As we have no intention of drawing up an inventory, be it ever so brief, of the monuments preserved in the Museums, we shall not go out of Egypt and will rest satisfied with supplying here a few data upon the temples and tombs. SOURCES OF HISTOKIOAL DATA. 29 the only monuments the visitor to Upper Egypt will meet with on his way.* 1 . The Temples. — This is not the right time to describe fully the temples one meets with while travelling in Upper Egypt, as such a descrip- tion will be found presently in its appointed place. We may, however, put at once into the reader's hand the thread destined to guide him in the interior of those monuments. A complete temple consists of the edifice prop- erly so called, and an enceinte or surrounding wall. The temple is of stone, the outer wall is of large crude bricks, and is very high and very thick. When the entrance-gate is closed, nothing whatever can be heard or seen of what is taking place inside. It would be a mistake to look at an Egyptian temple in the light of a church, or even of a Greek temple. Here no public worship is per- formed; the faithful do not congregate for public prayer ; indeed, no one is admitted inside except the priests. The temple is a royal proscynem, or ex voto, that is, a token of piety from the king who erected it in order to deserve •The ruins of cities are not included herein. The cities, properly so called, have completely disappeared, and their site is only here and there indicated by a few shapeless mounds. 30 THE MONUMENTS OF UPPER EGYPT. the favor of the gods. It is a kind of royal oratory, and nothing more. In fact, this cir- cumstance can alone explain the profuse decora- tion that covers the temples. Let the reader bear in mind that the principle of the decoration is the picture ; that several pictures are ranged symmetrically side by side, and that several series of pictures, disposed in tiers one above the other, cover the walls of the chambers from top to bottom. Such is the invariable arrange- ment. As to the meaning of the pictures, it is everywhere the same. The king on one side and one or more divinities on the other — such is the sole subject of the composition. The king presents an offering (a table laden with victuals flowers, fruit, and emblems) and solicits a favor from the god. In his answer, the god grants the gift that is prayed for. The decoration of the temple, therefore, consists of nothing more than an act of adoration from the king, repeated under every possible form. Thus a temple is the exclusively personal monument of the king by whom it was founded or decorated. Indeed, this accounts for the presence of those most invaluable battle-scenes with which the external walls of certain temples are adorned. It is to the god and to his protection that the king SOURCES OF HISTORICAL DATA. 31 chiefly ascribes his victories. In fighting the enemies of Egypt, and in bringing them in chains into the temples, the king has done an act grateful to the gods, just as he has done an act grateful to the gods in offering to them incense, flowers, and the limbs of sacrificed ani- mals. He therein gives proof of his piety and is all the more deserving of the favors which the construction of the temple is intended to secure. The Egyptian temples are always dedicated to three gods. It is what Champollion calls the Triad. The first is the male principle, the sec- ond the female principle, and the third the off- spring of the other two. But these three deities are blended into tne. The father engenders himself in the womb of the mother and thus becomes at once his own father and his own son. Thereby are expressed the uncreatedness and the eternity of the Being who has had no begin- ning and who shall have no end. The worship consists of prayers, recited within the temple in the name of the king, and above all, of processions. In these processions, which the king is supposed to head, are carried the insignia of the gods, the coffers in which their statues are epclqsed, a,nd also the sacred barks, 32 THE MONUMENTS OIT UPPER EQyPT. which latter are generally deposited in the tem- ple, to be brought out on fete days. In the middle, concealed under a veil, stands the coffer within which lies the emblem that none must see. The processions are commonly held within the temple ; they genei-ally ascend the terraces and sometimes spread themselves inside the enclosure away from the profane gaze, as we have already said. On rare occasions, the pro- cessions may be seen leaving the city and wend- ing their way, either along the Nile or along a canal called the Sacred Canal, toward some other city more or less distant. Close to every temple is a lake. In all probability the lake played an important part in the processions, and the sacred barks were deposited there, at least while the fetes lasted. 2. The Tombs. — The tombs are situated in the desert or in the side of a mountain more or less distant from the river. This accounts for their being relatively so well preserved. Less conspicuous than the houses of cities and the temples, they have been less exposed to dev- astations. When complete a tomb consists of three parts.* *We do not include in this description the tombs of the Icings at Bab-el-Molouk, trhich are constructed on a different plan. SOURCES OP HISTORICAL DATA. 33 It is indicated from a distance by a small build- ing rising in the necropolis — this is the first part. A rectangular and vertical well opens in some comer of the building and leads down into a vault — this is the second part. The third is the subterranean mausoleum, where the mum- mies repose. The exterior building is not always solid. It sometimes contains one or several chambers, open at all times and to all comers, where the relatives of the defunct assemble with the offer- ings they have brought. There is also the serdab, that is, a kind of narrow passage left within the brickwork and walled in as soon as statues re- presenting the defunct have been deposited inside. Of course this inysterious and inac- cessible place remains forever closed. * The well presents no feature worthy of special attention. Its depth varies, as also its dimen- sions, according to the localities. Generally speaking, when once the mummy has been de- posited in its place, the well is stopped up either * When the tomb is hollowed out of the mountain, as at Beni-Hassan, it always consists of those three parts. The first chamber by which the tomb is entei-ed takes the place of the exterior building. The well is in a cor- ner of this chamber. 34 thA monuments of upper egypt. by a stone which hides its aperture, or by mate- rials of all kinds heaped up there. Ropes are necessary for the descent. The vault is cut into the rock, and so disposed that the sarcophagus is placed right under the principal chamber of the building, the one where the survivors assemble. The traveller who visits the tombs of Sakk&rah, of Beni-Hassan, of Goornah, and of El-Kab, must therefore undei'stand that the chamber into which he will first enter, whether built of stone or whether hollowed in the rock, is the accessible chamber reserved for the relatives. The mummies are in a vault under ground, to which access is obtained by a narrow passage, which we call a "well. The decoration of the tombs is in accordance with certain laws, which vary according to the period or according to that part of the tomb which is to be ornamented. The well, the vault, and the serdab, are always without inscription. The stone sarcophagi and the wooden coffins of the mummies are often adorned with a .vast amount of texts, interspersed with illustrations. All splendor of ornamentation was reserved for the chamber of the outer building. SOURCES OF HISTORICAI, DATA. 35 It is not easy to point out the precise meaning of the decoration of the tombs of the Ancient Empire. The defunct is evidently at home. He fishes, he hunts; his servants bring him the products of his lands; dancing is held before him ; his wife and children are by his side. But was it intended, to represent the deceased as still of this world? And was it the object of the representations on the wall to preserve to us the remembrance of what he was during his life- time ? Or is he already in the other world, and, according to the somewhat naive promises made to the Egyptians, will he continue in that other world to lead the same sort of life as he led here ? We cannot discuss this question now. All we can say is that the promises of which we haVe just spoken are real: the defunct will some day live again in the plenitude of his faculties; he will have need of the same objects, he will occupy himself with the same interests; again will his family and servants be by his side. But never again will he suffer pain, nor be in appre- hension of death. This seems to be the main! idea which has presided at the decoration of the tombs under the Ancient Empire. But a little later the decoration changes in its 36 THE MONUMENT'S OF UPPEK EGYPT. character : the defunct must prove that he had gained this immortality which is promised him, and that by his merits he had deserved it. The journey of the soul in the subterranean regions, the ordeals which it has to undergo, and its judgment, are the subjects which adorn the waUs of the chambers in the exterior building. No more do we behold the varied scenes of hunt- ing and fishing and of labor in the field. In their place appears the mournful procession of infernal deities. At Sakkdrah and at Beni-Hassan are found per- fect examples of these chambers, where the de- funct is repi'esented as leading in the other world that domesticated and pastoral life which Egyp- tians regarded as the highest state of felicity. It is at Bab-el-Molouk, in the tomb of Sethi I., that the type of the second sort of tomb is found. * "For further details on this subject see the Avant- propos of the " Kotice Sommaire dea Monuments exposes dans les Graleries du Mus^e de Boulaq," which may be obtained at the museum at Booldk. We have also treated of the tombs of the Ancient Em- pire, and the general idea on which their decoration rested, in a special article in the " Revue Aroh^ologique " for January and February 1869. (Paris : Librairie Didier, Quai des Augustins.) See also S. Birch, "Unrolling of a Mummy." , Note. — To the royal tombs at Thebes a more elaborate SOUBCES OF HISTORICAL DATA. 37 B. — MANBTHO. Manetho was an Egyptian priest, who lived in the time of Ptolemy Philadelphus,* and who wrote a history of Egypt in Greek, in which he introduced a list of all the kings who ever reigned on the banks of the Nile, from the most remote period to the conquest of Alexander. This history is lost, but the lists are preserved in the work of Georgius Syncellus, a Byzantine historian of the eighth century, who had bor- rowed them from the Chronicle of Eusebius and from the Ohronography of Julius Africanus. f After what we have already said, we need scarcely again refer to the lists of Manetho to point out of what importance they are for us. • About the year 263 of the Christian era. tThe most accessible report ofManetho's lists may be found in Josephus against Apion, book i., chaps. 14, seq. The other authorities referred to in the text are all massed in Bunsen's " Egypt'? Place in History," vol. i., p. 001, seq. — [Ed.] study has boon given during tho past ton yoars tlian to any other branch of Egyptology. The results have been remunerative. Among the works to which refei'ence might be made, the following are of especial import- ance : E. Lef^bure, " Les Hypog^es royaux de Thebes," Paris: Leroux, 1886. Maspero's review of Lef^bure, in " Revue de I'Histoire des Religions," tome xvii., p. 253, 188t; tome xviii., p. 1, 1888. — [Ed.] 38 THE MONUMENTS OF UPPER EGTPT. . It may be that we cannot, strictly speaking, rely implicitly on the accuracy of the figures which mark the duration of the different reigns and dynasties, those figures having been rearranged by the Christian authors who copied them from the , original work ; and, moreover, it may be surmised that the names of some kings have been changed or inverted. Be that as it may, if for one moment we suppose the lists of Manetho had been entirely lost, through whom should we have become acquainted with that previous di- vision into dynasties, and liow should we even know that it ever existed ? The royal names revealed by the hieroglyphic inscriptions become every day more and more numerous. How should we know in what manner to classify them at all satisfactorily without the lists of Manetho ? Have not these lists the advantage — an advantage never sufficiently appreciated -^ of showing us at least a road which we may follow ? Among the sources of the history of Egypt, the Royal Papyrus of Turin, if it were com- plete, could alone rival Manetho in importance. 0. — CLASSICAL HISTORIANS. ■Such persons as may not care to go deeply into th6 study of Egyptology may be content to SOURCES OP HigTOKICAL DATA. 39 read the Second Book of Herodotus, tlie First Book of Diodorus, the Seventeenth Book of Strabo, and the Treatise de leide et Osiride, attributed to Plutarch. ■Had we nothing but the writings of Herodotus and of Diodorus to guide us in the study of Ancient Egypt, we could certainly form but a very imperfect idea of that country. Every notion of chronology is there completely upset.* They contain stories as ridiculous as they are impossible. One must read the histories of Egypt written before the discovery of Cham- poUion to see into what fatal errors these two writers would involve science, were no other sources of information at hand. Strabo is more trustworthy. His Geography contains excellent information, with no other fault than that of being rather curtailed. Whoever may have been the author of the Treatise on Tsis and Osiris, no one can enter upon the study of the Egyptian religion without an intimate acquaintance with this book. The author has borrowed with discernment from true Egyptian sources. In this world of ours, •.Herodotus, for instance, places the Pyramids after Barneses, which is very much like placing Charlemagne 'after Louis XIV. 46 THE MONUMENTS OP UPPER EGYPT. 4 good is incessantly struggling with evil, truth with falsehood, light with darkness, life with death. Osiris is one of the personifications of the eternal antagonism of these two opposing principles. At one moment overthrown by Typhon, the genius of evil, Osiris dies; he revives only to fall again. Out of this antago- nism and the numerous explanations and illus- trations drawn from the myth the pseudo- Plutarch has woven the thread of his admirable Treatise. Il.-HISTORY. The history of Egypt commences with Menes, the founder of the monarchy, and it terminates with the Emperor Theodosius, who abolished by a decree the ancient religion of the land (A.D. 381). During this long period Egypt was not always mistress of her destinies. She had been con- quered by the Shepherds, a horde of barbarians from Asia ; by the Ethiopians, by the Greeks, and by the Romans, to say nothing of partial incursions of Libyan and Arabian tribes. But all these conquerors, not even excepting the Shepherds, adopted wMle in Egypt the religion, the arts, language, and customs of the conquered HISTOKT. 41 people ; and their names figure in the official register of the kings of the country. To establish some order in the endless list of kings who reigned from the time of Menes to that of Theodosius, one generally divides them, after Manetho's method, into royal families, or Dynasties, and these dynasties are in their turn distinguished from each other either by the name of the foreign nation which furnished the kings, or by the name of the city which served as capital in the time of such dynasty. Thus there is the Greek dynasty, the Memphite, the Theban, etc. From Menes to Theodosius there are as many as thirty-four different dynasties^ Another and a wider division has been made. Taking into consideration certain important events and certain modifications introduced into the general economy of the kingdom, the entire history of Egypt has been divided into four main stems : — - 1. The first comprises the first ten dynasties, and is called the Ancient Empire. The Ancient Empire belongs to a period so prodigiously remote that it is literally lost in the obscurity of ages, its existence actually ceases before Abra- ham is born. The Ancient Empire spreads entirely over the fourth, the fifth, and part of 42 THE MONUMENTS OF Ul'l'Klt ISGYPT. the sixth dynasties. Before and after that, all is confusion, or rather darkness. This is the age of the Pyramids. It is a remarkable fact that the art of the statuary and of the sculptor reached a degree of perfection under the Ancient Empire which it was never again to attain. 2. The second extends over those centuries that elapsed between the eleventh dynasty and the eighteenth. This is the Middle Umpire. The Middle Empire has already been some time in existence when Abraham appears. Joseph is governor under the last king of the Middle Empire. Of the whole of this period, however, the twelfth dynasty and the Shepherd kings alone need be remembered. The twelfth dynasty is made famous by the tombs of Beni-Hassan. As to the Shepherds, or Hyksos, they give their name to the most lamentable period in Egyptian history, a period of 511 years, during which the national homogeneity is utterly broken, and Asiatic invaders lord it over the most flourish- ing provinces in the kingdom.* * The prevailing tlieory'now is, tliait Joseph was made governor of Egypt utider Apoplii Of tile XVIth dynasty, which had its capital at Tanis (the biblical Zoan), and was contemporaneous with the XVIIth, which reigned at Thebes.- See Brugsch's " Egypt under the Pharoahs," second edition, vol. i., p; 800, seq. — [Ed.] . . . ■ • , HISTORY. . 43 3. The third stem is that which is called the New Empire. It commences with the eighteenth dynasty and terminates with Alexander. The most brilliant epoch of the New Empire, that of which the most frequent and glorious traces are met with during a voyage on the Nile, cor- responds to the eighteenth, nineteenth, , and twentieth dynasties. It is the age of the Thothmes', the Amenophises, and the Raraeses'. It is also the time of Moses (nineteenth dyn- asty). But this brilliancy was not to last, and when Shishak (twenty-second dynasty) took Jerusalem, the decline of Egypt had already begun. 4. The fourth stem, to which the general name of • Lower Period is given, includes the Greek dynasty founded by Alexander and that of the Roman emperors, who were kings of Egypt by the same right as Gambyses and Darius. The history of this epoch, entirely taken up as it is with a fruitless competition for the throne, possesses but a feeble interest* The traveller in Upper, Egypt, however, should not pass it by because the temples of Philse, of' Edfou, of Ombos, of Denderah, and of Esneh, that is to say, the most complete monuments which we 44 THE MONUMENTS OF UPPER EGYPT, possess of Egyptian worship, belong to the Lower Period. A primary division of the kings of Egypt into Dynasties, according to the type furnished by Manetho, and a further division of the dynasties into Ancient Empire, Middle Umpire, New Em- pire, and Lower Period, such, then, is the start- ing-point of all study of Egyptian history, and consequently the starting-point of the classifi- cation of all the temples the tourist will meet with in his journey on the Nile. It is evident that a history of Egypt would here be well placed, and would be the very best preparation for the voyage. But we could not possibly, without exceeding our limits, place under the eyes of the reader, were it ever so briefly, an account of those events which pro- cured for Egypt so wide an influence over the destinies of the ancient world. A few years since we prepared for the use of the Egyptian schools a small "Apergu de I'Histoire d'Egypte." Those who do not care to go very deeply into the subject, or who would be satisfied with general views, may make them- selves acquainted with its pages. If more details be desired, penned by a competent hand, let the History of M. Brugsch be consulted. CHRONOLOGT. 45 III.- CHRONOLOGY. Egypt is surpassed by no other nation in point of antiquity. Pre-historio remains, it is true, carry us back to a much more remote period, but if we seek monuments that bear the stamp of an already refined civilization, the most ancient are certainly to be found in Egypt. But easy as it may be to believe in the tra- dition which assigns to Egypt so prodigious an antiquity, it is equally difficult to bring forward scientific proofs of that antiquity. Records of eclipses and other astronomical phenomena, which are still wanting, could alone furnish the required testimony. In the meantime, we have no other source but the lists of Maiietho and the dates inscribed in these lists. Unfortunately, disorder reigns supreme here. Not only the dates taken from Manetho are not in accordance with extracts taken from Julius Africanus and Eusebius, but we possess two versions of the Chronicle of Eusebius, the dates of which do not agree with each other. On the other hand, it too often happens that the hieroglyphs themselves furnish us with dates which contradict the duration assigned to certain reigns by the national 46 THE MONUMENTS OP UPPER EGYPT. historian. It will be easily understood, there- fore, to how much error we are exposed when we wish, for example, to fix the date of the foundation of the Egyptian monarchy. Arid yet, for all that, it must be admitted that the authority of Manetho, an Egyptian priest, writing the history of his own country from the archives of the temples, should always carry great weight. In vain is it alleged that several of the dynasties which he cites as successive were contemporaneous. If the fact were proved, we must evidently deduct from the total amount the entire duration of those dynasties which have thus grafted themselves, like so many branches, upon the main stem. But the system of contemporaneous dynasties is as yet sup- ported by no really trustworthy proof ; on the contrary, it seems certain that Manetho was well aware that at various epochs Egypt was governed simultaneously by several dynasties, and he availed himself of the means of control at his disposal to strike out of his work all such dynasties as did not belong to the genuine series of royal houses who succeeded each other on the throne, so that the latter were alone officially enrolled in due order on the register of kings. • • CHKONOLOGY. 47 It is true, Manetho's figures have undoubtedly suffered serious alterations. But if we consider that they have come down to us through Chris- tian writers, who had an evident interest iii curtailing theffi, we shall see that, as a. matter of fact, far from ascribing too wide a range to those figures, we are bound, as fair critics, to accept them as having been systematically reduced in their total amount. The authority, then, of Manetho as a chronol- ogist remains unshaken, but on condition that we only take the dates which he gives us as approximate. Certain as it is that those dates are not absolutely exact, yet it is difficult to believe that they have been so radically altered as not in any degree to come near to the truth. Anyhow, the nearer we approach the source of those alterations, the more we shaU. feel com- pelled to admit that if the lists could have reached us intact from the hand of Manetho, we would find them extending over a still wider range of time. From these remarks it will be understood that the following table of Egyptian dynasties is presented to the reader under all reserve ; and it is almost superfluous to add that the simulta- 48 THE M0I7UMENi;S OF UPPER EGYPT. neous dynasties are not included here ; that the dynasties are presented in the same order as in Manetho; and, moreover, thai; the dates are, with one or two exceptions, the same as those given by the national historian : — CHRONOLOGY. 49 Number ol Dynasty. Name of Dynasty. Duration. Date B.C. fi- Thinite 253 years 5004 1 ll. Thinlte 302 " 4751 III. Mempliite 214 " 4449 IV. Memphite 284 " 4235 f^ J V. Memphito 248 " 3951 B VI. Elephantine 203 " 3703 VII. Memphite 70 days 3500 VIII. Memphite 142 years 3500 1 IX. Heracleopolite 109 " 3358 [x. Heracleopolite 185 " 3249 H g rxi. XII. Theban . 1 Theban ) 213 " .3064 S H XIII. Thoban 453 " 2851 XIV. Xoite 184 " 2398 S XV. Shepherds 1 XVI. XVII. Shepherds Shepherds 511 " 2214 XVIII. Theban 241 " 1703 XIX. Theban 174 " 1462 XX. Theban 178 " 1288 . XXI. Tanite 130 " 1110 P>4 XXII. Bubastite 170 " 980 XXIII. Tanite 89 '• 810 XXIV. Saite 6 " 721 W XXV. Ethiopian 50 " 715 ^ XXVI. Saite 138 " 665 ^ XXVII. Persian 121 " 527 XXVIII. Salto 7 " 400 XXIX. Mendesian 21 " 390 XXX. Sebennyte 38 " 378 XXXT. Persian 8 " 340 r XXXII. Macedonian 27 " 332 XXXIII. Greek 275 " 305 XXXIV. Koman 411 " 30 50 MONUMENTS OF UPrEB EGYPT. IV. -RELIGION. Jamblichus, a writer who lived at the end of the third century, represents the Egyptians as believing in one God, unique, universal, un- created — the Author of his own being, having no beginning, existing from eternity. Jambli- chus goes on to say that under this supreme deity are a number of other gods who personify his divine attributes. Thus Ammon is that hidden force in nature which brings all things into life. The supreme intellect, in which all other in- tellects are summed up, is Imothis. Phtah is the creative essence, which accomplishes all things with perfection and with truth. Osiris is the good and beneficent deity. If Jamblichus is a faithful recorder of Egyptian traditions, his statements would imply that, though degen- erated by a belief in inferior gods personifying the qualities of the Supreme Being, a peculiar monotheism was once the foundation of the Egyptian religion. The monuments, themselves give us some glimpses of this belief. At Tell-Amarna, Aten is often styled the One God. At Thebes and at Memphis, Ammon and Phtiih are clothed with the attributes of the Supreme Deity. Ammon BELIOIOM'. 61 is father to himself; he is the generating spirit from the very commencement, the twofold Be- ing, at once father and mother, and existing from all eternity. On this foundation rests the whole edifice of the Egyptian religion. To the initiated of the sanctuary, no doubt, was reserved the knowl- edge of the god in the abstract, the god con- cealed in the unfathomable depths of his divine essence. But for the less refined adoration, of the people who required, so to speak, a pal- pable and a tangible god, were presented the images of the divinities sculptured on the walls of the temples. Such are the ideas which thus far have been accepted by the scientific world, and the only classical authority on which the whole tradition rests is the passage in Jam- blichus. Unfortunately, the more one studies the Egyptian religion, the greater becomes the doubt as to the character which must defini- tively be ascribed to it. A most fertile source of materials has recently been placed at our disposal by the excavations of the temples of Denderah and of Edfou. From one end to another, these temples are covered with legends, 52 THE MONUMENTS OF UPPER EGYPT. and present every appearance of being two books which treat, ex professo, of religion gen- erally and more particularly of the gods to whom these temples are dedicated. But neither in these temples nor in those which were previ- ously known to us does the one god of Jambli- chus appear. If Ammon at Thebes is the " first of the first," if Phtah at Memphis is the father of all creation, without beginning and without end, it is because all the Egyptian gods are in turn clothed with the attributes of the Eternal. In other terms, we find everywhere deities who are immortal and uncreated ; but nowhere do we find the One and invisible God, without name and without form, who presides from on high over the Egyptian Pantheon. Thus no indication to that effect is given by the temple of Denderah, the most hidden inscriptions of which have now been thoroughly examined. What we may rather gather from the study of this temple is that, with the Egyptians, the universe itself was God, and that Pantheism formed the basis of their religion. We should, therefore, feel disposed to modify, in favor of this view, the general ideas which we have expressed in the "Notice du Musde" (fourth RELIGION. 53 edition, p. 20). " The theology of the Egjrp- tians, from whom Orpheus borrowed his ideas," says Eusebius in his Evangelical Preparation, " acknowledged that the universe is God, com- posed of several divinites which constitute his different parts." The passage in Jamblichus, must, then, give way, as a classical authority, to the passage in Eusebius. However this may be, and in whatever light we are to consider the Egyptian divinities, an equal amount of worship was not paid to these divinities in all parts of Egypt. Ammon was adored at Thebes, Phtah at Memphis, Cnouphis at Elephantine, Horus at Edfou, Hathor at Denderah, Neith at Sais, Soutekh at Tanis. Thus Egypt was divided, religiouslv as well as geographically, into districts each of which possessed its local worship, and the gods thus shared among themselves the religious govern- ment of the country. An exception, however, was made in favor of Osiris. The presiding deity of the abode of departed spirits, Osiris, was the god universally worshipped, and was equally venerated in all parts of Egypt. * *The Egyptian religion was also different at different periods. See " Andover Review " for 1885, p. 386. — [Ed.] 54 THE MONUMENTS OF UPPEB EGYPT, v.- LANGUAGE AND WRITING. The Egyptian language is neither Semitic nor Indo-European. It is one of the principal types of that group of languages which may be called Chamitic. The Coptic language is this same Egyptian language as it was spoken in the sec- ond or third century of our era, when it was used to express Christian ideas. * There are still many persons who firmly be- lieve that hieroglyphs are nothing but a series of riddles which, when taken collectively, form a sort of enigma to be guessed at, and it must be confessed that this error is encouraged by the most serious classical writers : " The right hand open, with extended fingers," says Diodorus Siculus, "represents the desire of acquisition; the left hand closed, the grasping and keeping of property." "To express hatred," says Plutarch, "they depict a fish. At Sais, in the vestibule of the temple of Minerva, there were engraved a child, an old man, a hawk, a fish, and a hippopota- *One should bear in mind that when the Egyptian language became merged into Coptic it had already greatly degenerated, so that the Coptic language repre- sents the language of the demotic, character rather than that of the hieroglyphs. LAKGUAGE AND WRITING. 55 mus. Evidently these were so many symbols which meant : ' Oh, ye who are entering upon life, and ye who are ready to quit it, God hates impudence, arrogance, pride of heart, and self- sufficiency.' Thus the entrance into life is ex- pressed by a child, death by an old man, divinity by a hawk, hatred by a fish, because of the sea, and impudence by the hippopotamus." — "A vul- ture signifies nature," says Ammianus Marcel- linus. " Why ? Because it is said that amongst those creatures no males are to be found. A king is symbolized by a bee making honey. Why ? Because the king is the director of his people, whom he ought to be able to check by his gentleness, at the same time that he incites them." * The discovery of ChampoUion, however, has * These traditions are not entirely without foundation. A ftsh is pronounced betu, and betu means evil, sin, abomination. The bee is pronounced sekhet, and desig- nates the sovereignty over Lower Egypt. If the temple of Minerva at Sais belonged to the Lower Period, it may well be that, in accordance with the maniir6 spirit of the times, and regardless of all grammatical connection, thoy wrote a child, an old man, a hawk, a, fish, a hippopotamus, for what would thus be rendered, " Oh, child, oh, old man, the divinity holds all evil in abomination" (the hippo- potamus being considered as a typhonian animal ). Strictly speaking, therefore, Diodorus, Plutarch and Ammianus 56 THE MONUMENTS OP UPPEB EGYPT. dispelled these errors. Hieroglyphic writing is not enigmatical ; it is read and pronounced just as Hebrew or Syriac is pronounced, and pos- sesses an alphabet of its own. The chief instrument of the success of Cham- pollion's discovery is the monument known throughout the world as the Rosetta Stone. The Rosetta Stone is a fragment of a stela * discovered in the year 1799 by M. Boussard, a Marcellinus do not lead us into absolute error. But what is false is at once the point from whence they start and the conclusion at which they arrive. Because the Egyptians once made a play upon words with chUd, old man, etc., it does not follow that this sort of riddle should be the universal rule of all hieroglyphic writing. The authors we have been quoting seem to have had no idea that hieroglyphic writing could be alphabetic, and they have helped to keep up this error until the present time. * This is one of the words most frequently used in Egyptian archeeology, because it designates a monument which is found in hundreds. The stela is a rectangular flat stone generally rounded at the summit, and it was made use of by the Egyptians for all sorts of iiiscriptions. These steles were, generally speaking, used for epitaphs ; they also served, however, to transcribe texts which were to be preserved or exhibited to the public, and in this latter case the stela became a sort of monumental plor card. In addition to the Kosetta Stone, which is in the British Museum, the following are reckoned among the most celebrated stelaj, viz. the Stone of Sdn, the Stone of Cheops, the tablet of Alexander II., the five Tablets of Gebel-Barkal, and the Stela of Thothmes III., all of which belong to the Museum at Booldk. LANGUAGE AND WRITING. '67 French artillery officer, while digging entrench- ments round the town of that name. It contains a copy of a decree made by the priests of Egypt, assembled at Memphis, in honor of Ptolemy Epiphanes. This decree is engraved on the stone in three languages, or rather in three different writings. The first is the hieroglyphic, the grand old writing of the monuments; the second is the demotic character as used by the people; and the third is the Greek. But the text in Greek character is the translation of the two former. Up to this time, hieroglyphs had remained an impenetrable mystery even for science. But a corner of the veil was about to be lifted : in proceeding from the known to the unknown, the sense at all events was at length to be arrived at of that mysterious writing which had so long defied all the efforts of science. Many erudite scholars tried to solve the mystery, and Young, among others, very nearly brought his researches to a satisfactory issue. But it was ChampoUion's happy lot to succeed in entirely tearing away the veil. , Such is the Rosetta Stone, which thus became the instrument of one of the greatest discoveries which do honor to the nineteenth century. 68 THE MONUMEKTS OP UPPEK EGYPT. Thanks to this discovery, we are now in a position to affirm that hieroglyphic writing is not an idle play upon words. It is scarcely more complex or more difficult to read than any other writing. When once one can accustom one's self to see an a in an eagle, 'K , a J in a human leg, j, an s in a bolt, Z^.and so forth, the difficulties are soon overcome. What has for so many centuries distracted attention from the true meaning of the hieroglyphics is the somewhat singular selection of the forms adopted to represent the letters of the alpha- bet. A priori, it was natural to imagine that this singular medley of representations of ani- mals and of ordinary objects could only be taken figuratively; and as a certain halo of mystery had always enshrouded all things pertaining to Ancient Egypt, it was quite natural to believe that under these symbols the priests concealed their religious mysteries. But now the veil has been rent asunder, and hieroglyphic writing has become not much more difficult to decipher than any other Eastern character. In consequence of the nature of tlie signs of which hieroglyphic writing is composed, it can HIER0GI.TPH8. 69 be wiitten either in vertical or in horizontal lines. In examining a hieroglyphic text, it will be easily observed that all the heada of animals (or of men are turned in the same direction. It is from that side towards which the heads are turned that the inscription begins. Conse- quently, according to the desire of the scribe, the hieroglyphs could be disposed in such a manner as to be read either from left to right, or from right to left. * In a hieroglyphic inscription there are some signs which should be pronounced and some which should not be pronounced. The former are much the most numerous. They include in the first place such signs as are purely alpha- betical. The alphabet itself contains twenty- four letters ; but there are several different forms for the a, several for the h, etc., .etc. In the second place they include syllabic signs:, thus a chessboard, (•""^ , has a pronunciation of * The hieratic and demotic characters are more rapid writings derived in different degrees from the lileroglyplis themselves. Tliey are scarcely ever employed except for the papyri. One finds, however, at Gebel-Silsileh some excellent specimens of the former of these characters; and at Philse are to be found engraved on the walls of the temple a considerable number of proscynems, or ex votos, in the demotic character. 60 THE MONUMENTS OF UPPER EOYPT. its own, men; an upright vase, , is pro- nounced hes: the plant, Ml, has the sound of Tnes, etc. In the third place, they include the ideal sounds: a lion is represented by a lion, a horse by a horse, etc. And in the fourth place they include symbolic signs, that is to say, such as are diverted from their true meaning in order to symbolize an idea ; thus the vulture, ^\ , sig- nifies mother, the cubit, ^=i» represents justice, etc. The signs not to be pronounced are the exple- tives, which are used to call the attention of the reader to the text or to the meaning of the word they accompany. Nor are the very numerous signs which ChampoUion has called determinor tives, to be pronounced either. Thus, after all names of quadrupeds, the scribe draws the sign ^ , which represents the tail of a quadruped; all such words as refer to speech, to thought, to affection, or anything expressing an emotion of the soul, are sometimes followed by the figure of a man putting his hand to his mouth, Sh ; a man in a crouching position raising one arm, ^, deter- mines proper nouns, etc., etc. The crouching H1EK0GLTPH8. 61 man, the man placing his hand on his mouth, and the tail of the quadruped are signs which are not pronounced ; but the presence of these signs points out that the word which precedes them is either a proper noun or a word express- ing a sentiment, or the name of a quadruped, etc., etc. Such, then, is the construction of hieroglyphic writing in its principal features. At first sight it seems complicated ; but in reality the use of the determinatives affords great help, and, -how- ever obscure or mysterious a hieroglyphic text may appear, it is certainly by no means more difficult to decipher than a Hebrew text, nor does its translation require so great an effort of mind as that of a passage of Chinese. We must not forget to add that the task of interpreting hieroglyphic texts is facilitated by the fact that the Coptic tongue is derived from the language which lies hidden under the ancient Egyptian writing. And this Coptic tongue, whose connection with the old language can easily be traced, has a vocabulary and a grammar well known to scholars, and, although justly reckoned among the dead languages, it continues to live in its literature. 62 THE MONUMENTS OF UPPEB EGYPT. VI. -GENERALITIES. A. — The decoration of the temples demands some explanations. The reader knows already that that decoration consists of sculptured pic- tures, and that these pictures are arranged side by side and in several rows one above the other, in such a manner as to cover symmetrically from top to bottom the walls of the chambers. The reader is also aware that all the pictures are composed on a uniform plan. The king is on one side, the divinity on tlie other, and the texts accompanying these pictures are also drawn up on one and the same plan: on the side of the king, his names and a few titles in accordance with the offerings made, and then the words which the king is supposed to pro- nounce; on the side of the divinity, his name and titles, and an answer wherein gifts are conceded proportionate with the offering. To give a general idea of these pictures as to dis- position and style, we will select for descrip- tion the whole lower row of one of the walls of the corridor R, in the temple of Denderah. * Is* picture. — The king offers to the goddess * On the north side of the corridor, the lower register to the left on entering. DECORATION OF TEMPLES. 63 Hathor the vase which serves in hieroglyphics to designate the word heart. In token of her satisfaction, the goddess promises to the king all kinds of happiness and joy. 2nd picture. — Hathor and Horus of Edfou are standing up at one end of the picture. At the other end, the king makes an offering of the two sistra, emblems which in this temple repre- sent more particularly evil overcome, and con- sequently happiness. "Mayest thou be loved by women," replies Hathor, alluding to that sistrum which signifies happiness ; " mayest thou find favor with their lords." Horus, on his side, responds to the offering of the other sistrum : "May Egypt conduct herself as thou wouldst have her; miiyest thou tread under foot all foreign countries." Srd picture. — The king offers incense and a libation to Osiris-Onnophris and to Isis, " to fill their divine nostrils with the perfumes of in- cense, and to refresh their hearts with the waters of the renovated Nile." In return, Osiris promises the king a favorable inundation, while Isis vouchsafes to him a long dominion over Arabia and the other countries which pro- duce incense. 64 THE MONUMENTS OF UPPEB EGYPT.. Ath picture. — The king offers two vases full of Avine to Hathor and to a god who seeios to be Horus. Hathor promises him those regions which produce the best grapes, namely, Kene- men, T'esVes, and Neham. Horus promises him wine to satiety. 5th picture. — At the same time that he offers her flowers, the king addresses himself in the following terms to Hathor: "I bring thee bouquets of flowers of all kinds, that thou mayest adorn thy head with their colors." In her answer, the goddess promises the king that under his reign the land shall be made merry with the most brilliant verdure. 6th picture. — An offering of the hieroglyph which expresses fields is made to Hathor and to her son Hor-sam-ta-ui. The god Ahi, a dupli- cate of the person of the king, considered as the third person of the triad, stands before Hathor. The gifts bestowed on the king consist of corn in immense quantities, and of cereals of all kinds. 7th picture. — The king and the, queen offer the two sistra to Isis and to Ahi, to solicit the favor of these divinities. Isis grants to the king the love of his subjects. DECOEATION OF TEMPLES. 66 8th picture. — The king is in the presence of Isis and of Hor-sam-ta-ui. He makes a general offering of food, of flowers, of fruit, and of bread. Isis replies : " I give thee everything in the heavens, all that the earth produces, and everything that the Nile can bring." Hor-sam- ta-ui replies: "I give thee all that emanates from the rays of the sun, to fill thy dwelling with victuals." The above is a fair specimen of the pictures that form the decoration of an Egyptian temple, and which the visitor may invariably expect to meet with on entering. These pictures always consist of an offering on the one side, and a gift bestowed on the other, the whole beihg ex- pressed by a sort of dialogue between the per- sonages represented. B. — In visiting an Egyptian temple one soon becomes accustomed to see in the various chambers, and in the sculptures that adorn them, the chapters and pages of a single book, conceived with a unity of idea which develops itself on the walls of the temple from the en- trance gate to the depths of the sanctuary. The king is in adoration, and throughout this 66 THE M0NUMBNT3 OF UPPER EGYPT. act of adoration he develops an idea common to the entire temple : such is the basis of the dec- oration of the monftment. In the temples of Pharaonic origin (Karnak, Luxor, Medinet-Abou, Abydos, etc.) this rule does not generally hold good. The decoration is vague. The king adores the divinity of the place, but there is no reason why the picture should be in one part rather than in another ; indeed, one finds, at the entrance of the temple, pictures vrhich might just as well have been placed at the far end, without their meaning being in the least affected. * But temples of Ptolemaic origin are more pre- cise. Their composition is more scientific. The decoration of each chamber is in accordance with its purpose. The two chambers which at Edfou •The six vaulted chambers of the grand temple of Abydos are an exception to this rule. All the pictures relate to ceremonies which the king ought successively to perform. The king, presenting himself on the right side of tlio door, proceeded all round the hall, and departed at the left side. Statues were disposed around the chamber. The king opened the door of the naoa, or shrine, in which they were enclosed, and as soon as he perceived the statue he offered it incense, and, lifting the vestment which covered it, he laid his hands upon it, and perfumed it, and then replaced the draperies, etc. DECORATION OF TEMPLES. 67 and at Denderah are called the treasury of the temple* can be studied in reference to this subject. The king presents himself at the entrance of the chamber, holding in his hand a coffer in which are enclosed ingots of gold and silver, and precious stones. In the interior he is represented as offering to the divinity neck- laces, sistra, head-dresses enriched with precious stones, mirrors, and sceptres. In the other chambers,! which are the laboratories of the temple, the king offers the sacred oils, essences, and aromatics which are there prepared, and which serve either to perfume the temple or to anoint the statues of the gods. Now and then, though unfortunately but seldom, we even find, divided into several sections, the various succes- sive scenes of a common action. On entering the temple of Denderah by the magnificent hall of twenty-four columns, we find immediately on the right four pictures which are worthy of attention. Before penetrating into the most holy place the king must submit to a certain initiation. In the first picture, he has his san- *See hall J in the subjoined plan of the temple of Denderah. t See hall F in the plan of the temple of Denderah. 68 THE MONUMENTS OF UPPEK EGYPT. dais on his feet and his staff in his hand. He entei-s the temple preceded by five banners, which probably accompany him along the whole route. The next picture shows us the scene of purification. The king is purified by the fiood of water which Thoth and Horus are supposed to pour over him under the form of a double jet of the emblems of life. In the third picture, the king receives the two crowns which denote his sovereignty over Egypt, from the hands of the goddess of the South and the goddess of the North. Thus crowned, the king is admitted into the presence of Hathor, conducted on one side by Mout of Thebes, and on the other by Toum of Heliopolis. He advances to enjoy the felicity of contemplating the divine majesty. In return, the goddess promises him "annals written for eternity," i.e., an everlasting glory.* This forms the subject of the fourth picture. Episodes no less interesting are represented at Edfou in the two first halls. The king leaves * On entering tlie first hall of the temple of Edfou one ' perceives on the right hand and on the left two small cdincos let into the wall botwoon the columns of the facade. That on the right is tlie library; the one on the left is tlie little chamber where the king underwent the ceremonies of purification. MAMMISI. 69 his palace and comes to lay the first stone of the temple. He fashions ^ brick with his own hands ; he traces on the ground the furrow which sliall mark the area of the temple. He lays a foundation-stone. He performs the cere- mony of the presentation of the temple to the god in whose honor it has been erected. On this occasion he decapitates a bird, etc.* But, apart from these episodes, it is difficult at first sight to discover the idea which has presided at the decoration of a chamber. This idea can eventually be realized in temples of Ptolemaic origin (Denderah, Edfou, Thebes, etc.), but we would look for it in vain elsewhere. . C. — By the side of many temples of Ptolemaic epoch may bo seen smaller edifices, remarkable for the monstrous forms which decorate the capitals of the columns, and which are also used as ornaments in various parts of the interior. The authors of the great work of the " Commission d'Egypte " gave to these tem- ples the name of Typhonium. ChampoUion called them Mammiai. According to ChampoUion, * For similar scenes see tlie lower register on the right-hand side on entering the hall B of the temples of Denderah. 70 THE MONUMENTS OP UPPEE EGYPT. "these Mammisi were always constructed by the side of the largec temples where a triad was worshipped, and they represented the celestial abode where the goddess had given birth to the . third person of the triad." * It must be observed that the monstrous forms of which we have just been speaking have noth- ing to do with Typhon, the god of evil, and the eternal enemy of Osiris. The god thus represented is called Bes in the Egyptian lan- guage. Far from presiding over evil, he is the god who symbolizes mirth and dancing, and it is on that account that he so often appears on articles of the toilette-table. As such also his image is sculptured on the walls of the Mammisi. One sees by this how unsuitable is the appella- tion of Typhonium. ' The Typhonia spoken of by Strabo in reference to Denderah were more likely to be the various parts' of the desert appropriated to the necropolis. D- — It is impossible to travel in Upper Egypt without knowing what is meant by a cartouche. A cartouche is that elongated oval terminated by a straight line which is to be seen on every wall of the Egyptian temples, and of which •This "third person of the triad" was no other than the king who had erected the building. — [Ed.] CARTOUCHES. 71 other monuments also afford us numerous examples. The cartouche always contains the name of a king or of a queen, or in some cases the names of royal princesses. * To designate a king there are most frequently two cartouches side by side. The first is called the prenomen, the second the nomen. The prenomen-cartouche is usually preceded by the titles of King of Upper and Lower Egypt, and the nomen-cartouche by the title of Son of the Sun, represented thus : — DQ They are sometimes replaced by other titles, in this way : — 9 -III u • It is sometimes found, as for instance at Denderah, applied to the names of gods, in which case the gods are considered as dynastic. 72 THE MONUMENTS OP UPPEK EGYPT. which when interpreted mean : Lord over the two worlds. Lord of crowns. Most frequently the cartouches rest on their bas.e in an upright position ; there is nothing, however, in the structure of the Egyptian writ- . ing thatprevcnts their being placed horizontally, as in this example : — In visiting a temple the cartouches should always be carefully studied, as they fix the date of the monument. E. — The cartouches known up to the present time are very numerous, but for a journey into Upper Egypt it is not necessary to be acquainted with all of them. At the risk of some repetition, we will enumerate the epochs and names which will be rtiost frequently met with by the traveller in those reigons. . During an excursion into Upper Egypt w:e find no traces of the three first dynasties, unless, EGYPTIAN DYNASTIES. 73 perhaps, it be the step-shaped Pyramid of Sak- kdrah. The Great Pyramids (those of Cheops, Chephren and Mycerinus) belong to the IV"", dynasty. The tombs of Tih and Phtah-hotep, and all the tombs which are visited at Sakkdrah belong to the V*. To find records of the VI*", the traveller must visit some less frequented spots, such as Zawyet-el-Ma'itin, Qasr-esHsayad, and the El-Kab rocks. The necropolis of Abydos has supplied the Museum at Boold.k with some valuable stelae of the VI"' dynasty. The Vir*, VII^^ IX"* and X"" dynasties are a complete blank. There is no monument known which can be assigned to this period with any degree of certainty. * The XI* dynasty is a revival. Thebes then becomes a capital for the first time ; and the tombs of this XI* dynasty are found in that part of the necropolis of Thebes which is called Drah-abou'1-neggah. The XII"' dynasty is represented by the tombs of Beni-Hassan, and the names of its kings often occur in the necropolis of Abydos. During the excavations made at Karnak, we have discovered See Brugsoh's "Egypt," second edition, vol. i, p. ISO- ISO.— [Ed.] 74 TUB MONUMENTS OF UPPKB KGYl'T. many fragments of statues and of tables of offer- ings belonging to this period. The XIII'" and XIV"' dynasties have left but few traces. Scarcely any cartouches of the Icings of this period figure on the scarabsei and statues found in the necropolis of Abydos. Near As- souan, and in the isle of Sehel (first Cataract) the names of some kings of the XIII'" dynasty are sculptured on the rocks. The next three dynasties are taken up by the Shepherd Kings. Another great blank occurs here in the monumental history. The national life is extinguished. We only find traces of tlie Shepherds in Lower Egypt, and more particu- larly at SS,n (the Tanis of the Bible). In Thebes alone are concentrated the XVIII*" XIX'" and XX"" dynasties. Egypt revives after the expulsion of the Shepherds, and civilization takes a considerable start. Karnak is enlarged ; Deir-el-Bahari is built, together with Luxor, the temple of Goornah, the Rameseum and Medinet- -Abou. In the Valley of the West, and at Bab- el-Molouk, vaults are excavated which are destined to serve as tombs to the kings of these three dynasties. The XX P' dynasty was twofold. At Thebes EGYPTIAN DYNASTIES. 75 the high priests of Animon usurped the power, and had themselves proclaimed kings. They finished the temple of Khons. During this time the legitimate dynasty reigned at Tanis, and under its sway some additions were made to the temple of that city. Of the XXIP* and the three following dynas- ties we find but few monumental traces. This period is marked by severe struggles in the north and in the south. The wall called the Wall of the Bubastites at Karnak dates fiom the XXII"" dynasty. A part of the southernmost wall of Karnak and a small temple built on the north side, at the very foot of the enclosing wall, bear the names of Sabacon and Tahraka, Ethiopian kings of the XXV" dynasty. The XXVI"* dynasty (the third renaissance) occupied itself but little with Upper Egypt. Its seat of government was Sais. Names of some of its kings, however, are to be found on the leaning column of the great hall at Karnak and on the large columns at Luxor. The XXVII'" dynasty belongs to the Persians. The XXVIII'^ XXIX*" and XXX*" correspond to an anxious period, during which Egypt, naturally kept uneasy by the presence of the 76 THE MONUMENTS OF UPPER EGYPT, Persians, had other things to think of than the erection of monuments. The Persians have left some souvenirs on the rocks of the valley of Hamani&t, near Keneli. One finds here and tliere traces of Achoris and of Nepherites on the walls of Medinet-Abou, and in the subterranean tombs of Abd-el- Goornah; and to Nectanebo II. we owe the most ancient constructions in the isle of Philse, The XXXP' dynasty again belongs to the Persians. Darius was then king; he was over- thrown by Alexander, who commenced the XXXIP* dynasty. His son, Alexander II., constructed the portal the uprights of which are still standing at Elephantine. The granite sanctuary at Karnak was restored by Philip. Next come the Ptolemies. Philadelphus (Ptolemy II.) builds an important portion of Philae, and he appropriates to his own car- touches some spaces left unoccupied by his predecessors on the vast monumental walls of Karnak. Euergetes I. (Ptolemy III.) raised in front of the temple of Khons at Thebes the magnificent gateway which corresponds to the other portal situated to the north, and which was also erected by this prince. Philopator EGYPTIAN DYNASTIES. 77 (Ptolemy IV.) founded on the left bank of the Nile the pretty little temple of Deir-el-Medineh, and he also commenced the admirable edifice of Edfou. At Philae are found the cartouches of Epiphanes (Ptolemy V.), as well as those of Philometor (Ptolemy VI.) who again appears at Karnak, and whose name is also found at the end of the liypostyle hall at Esneh. Euergetes II. (Ptolemy IX.) built the little temple which stands on the western side of the temple of Khons at Karnak, and here and there engraved his cartouche on unoccupied corners at Medinet^ Abou, at Deir-el-Bahari and at Karnak.; Under him the temples of Philie and of Edfou were enlarged, and that of Ombds and the speos were commonced. Soter II. (Ptolemy X.) and Alexander (Ptolemy XI.) followed the steps of their pre- decessors and paid especial a;ttention to Edfou. The latter ' prince founded Denderah. At Ombos, at Edfou, at Denderah and at Philse, numerous traces are found of Dionysius (Ptolemy XIII.), while Csesarion, the son of Cleopatra, figures at Denderah and at Erment. When Egypt ha,d become Roman, the em- perors reigned there with the title of successors 78 THE MONUMENTS OF UPI'ER EGYPT. of the Pharaohs, and founded the XXXIV" and last dynasty. The emperors followed the traditions of the Ptolemies. Augustus, Tiberius, Caligula, Claudius and Nero continued the deco- rations of Denderah, and Tiberius founded its magnificent pronaos. The names of the same princes are found at Philse and at Esneh. Nero's name also appears at Ombos. Nerva figures at Esneh, Trajan on the mammisi of Denderah, Adrian at Philse, and Marcus Aurelius at Esneh. Decius (a.d. 250) is the last emperor whose name is recofdod on the monuments. He abruptly closes the list which is never to open again. To sum up, those who do not wish to go any deeper into the subject may content themselves with remembering the names of the following dynasties and localities : — IV" dynasty. — The Pyramids. IV" and V"» dynasties. — Sakkd,rah. VII"" and VIII'" dynasty. — Memphis. — [Ed.] IX'" and X*" dynasty. — Heracleopalis. — [Ed.] XII*'' dynasty. — Beni-Hassan. Necropolis of Abydos. XIIP" dynasty. — Necropolis of Abydos. XVIII'^ XIX«\ and XX'" dynasties. — Thebes on both banks of the Nile. THE KESPECT DUE TO HISTOKICAL MONUMENTS. 79 JCXIP^dynasty. — The wall of the Bubastites at Karnak. XXV**" dynasty. — The small temple of Sabacou on the north side of Karnak. XXVI"* dynasty. — The columns at Karnak and at Luxor. XXVII"" dynasty. — The HaraamS,t rocks. XXXII°* dynasty. — The gateway at Elephan- tine. The granite sanctuary at Karnak. XXXIIF* dynasty. — The Ptolemies at Den- derah, at Erment, at Esneh, at Ombos, and at Philae. XXXIV"* dynasty. — The Roman Emperors at Denderah and at Esneh. - Of all those royal families, the IV*, the XII'^ the XVIII^ the XIX'", and the Ptolemies have undoubtedly left the most numerous marks of their presence on the Egyptian soil. F. — There is no need to enlarge upon the importance of the monuments that cover the banks of the Nile. They are the witnesses of Egypt's former greatness, and, so to spefik, the pa,tents of her ancient nobility. They represent in the eyes of strangers the tattered pages of the archives 6i one of the most glorious nations in the world. 80 TIIK MONUMENTS OF Ul'PEK EGYPT. But the higher the esteem in which we hold Egypt's monuments, the more it behooves us to preserve them with care. On their preservation partly depends the progress of those interesting studies which have for their object the history of ancient Egypt. Moreover, they are worthy of being preserved, not only for the sake of all such among us as appfficiate them, but also for the sake of future Egyptologists. Five hundred years hence Egypt should still be able to show to the scholars who shall visit her the same monuments that we are now describing. The amount of information already obtained from the deciphering of hieroglyphs, though this science us still in its infancy, is already immense. What will it be when several generations of savants shall have studied those admirable ruins, of i wljjch one may truly say that the more they ..are known, the more they repay the labor bestowed upon them ? We therefore earnestly beg again and again all travellers in Upper Egypt to abstain from the childish practice of writing their names on the monuments, Let any one, for instance, visit Tih's tomb, at Sakk^rah, and he will rest satis- fied that this tomb has actually suffered more THE VANDALISM OF TOURISTS. 81 damage by the hand of tourists, during the last ten years, than it had during the whole of the previous six thousand years of its existence. Sethi I.'s beautiful tomb at Bab-el-Molouk is almost entirely disfigured, and it is all we can do to prevent the evil from increasing. , M. Ampere, who visited Egypt in 1844, has, per- haps, overstepped the mark in the following lines extracted from his journal; yet we will transcribe them to show to what opprobrium those travellers expose themselves who thought- lessly engrave their names on the monuments : " The first thing that strikes one on approach- ing tlio monument (Pompoy's Pillar) is the number of names traced in gigantic characters by travellers, who have thus impertinently en- graved a record of. their obscurity on the time- honored column. Nothing can be more silly than this mania, borrowed from the Greeks, which disfigures the monuments when it does not altogether destroy them. In many places, hours of patient toil have been expended in carving on the granite the large letters which dishonor it. How can any one give himself so much trouble to let the world know that an individual, perfectly unknown, has visited a 82 THE MONUMENTS OF Ul'l'EU EGYPT. monument, and that this unknown individual has mutilated it ? " We recommend the perusal of the above lines to the young American travel- ler who, in 1870, visited all the ruins in Upper Egypt with a pot of tar in one hand and a brush in the other, leaving on all the temples the indelible and truly disgraceful record of his passage.* G, — We have no advice to give to those travellers who wish to purchase antiquities and to take them home as souvenirs of their visit to Egypt. They will iind more than one excellent factoiy at Luxor. But to travellers who wish really to turn their journey to some account, we would recom- mend the search after papyri. In fact, there is nothing in the way of monuments more precious than a papyrus. One knows fairly well what • As to the two Dutch oiBcials, the one an admiral, the other a consul-general, who have thought it right to apprise unborn generations of their visit to the temples in 1868, by writing their names and full titles in huge letters over the entrance gate of Denderah and in other conspicuous places, the translator must beg leave to say that men parading such titles ought to seek a more honorable way of transmitting their names to posterity. THE VALUE OF PAPTBI. 83 may be expected from a temple or from a tomb ; but with the papyrus one is in the dark. In fact, such a papyrus might be discovered as would prove of more importance than an entire temple ; and certain it is that if ever one of those discoveries that bring about a revolution in science should be made in Egyptology, the world will be indebted for it to a, papyrus. As all excavations are interdicted in Egypt and no permissive firman has ever been given, one might imagine that opportunities of purchase ing papyri can never present themselves. Such, however, is not the case. All travellers in Upper Egypt must have seen fellahs working iii those parts of the ruins where the crude brick- walls are crumbling into powder. What they are seeking is the dust which comes from the crumbling bricks, and which they use for manure. . Now and then, however, a piece of good luck awaits them, and it is not an un- common occurrence for a papyrus to be found in this manure. Nor must it be forgotten that, in spite of all prohibitions, clandestine searches are made, particularly at Thebes, and in this way aliso, among many other monuments, papyri may be discovered. It is for the traveller to 84 THE MONUMENTS OF UPPEK EGYPT. make inquiries and to examine into the matter, not at Thebes only, but at all the stations where the dahabeah stops. The fine collection of Mr. Harris, at Alexandria, was formed in no other manner; and it was by mere accident that Madame d'Orbiney purchased the papyrus, now in the British Museum, which has rendered her name famous. In the present state of Egypt- ology, no greater service can be rendered to science than in securing any papyrus which accidentally falls into the hands of the fellahs, and which, sooner or later, must be entirely lost, if not thus preserved from destruction. DESCRIPTION OE THE MONUMENTS. The railway which connects Cairo with Alex- andria has reduced the latter city to a mere station on the route to Egypt from Marseilles, from Brindisi, from Trieste, or from Southamp- ton. Travellers seldom stop now at Alex- andria, and the real Egyptian journey com- mences at Cairo. People visit Egypt because Egj^t is the East, because Egypt is one of those illustrious countries which every man of refined culture feels it incumbent upon him to visit; but trav- ellers would certainly be far less numerous if beyond Cairo there were not the still greater attraction of the glorious ruins of Upper Egypt. Some travellers pass the first Cataract and proceed as far as WMy-Halfa. But the greater number stop at Assou&n, and we also shall make [SS] 86 THE MONUMENTS OF UPPER EGYPT. the lovely island of Philae the extreme limit of our journey on the Nile, in this Handbook. The Upper Egypt railway at present extends to Siout, but that is practically of little avail ; for at the end of the railway journey, even if the roadways were not to fail him, the traveller would find neither carriages, nor horses, nor any animals for riding, capable of sustaining a long and continuous journey. There remains then but one other mode of journeying, and that is along the Nile itself, which, in fact, is the one high road of Egypt. Therefore, immediately on his arrival at Cairo, the traveller would do .r well to take steps to secure either the dahabeah or the steamer which is to convey liim through- out his journey. But while the necessary preparations are going on, there is plenty to be seen in Cairo itself, and many an antiquity to be studied in the immediate vicinity, which will well repay a visit. It is with these antiquities that we will begin our description. EXCURSIONS IN THE ENVIRONS OF CAIRO. In the immediate vicinity of Cairo are found the ruins of two equally famous cities, Heliopolis and Memphis. The former is situated to the north-east of Cairo, on the right bank of the Nile, and the latter to the south-west, on the left bank. " The ruins of Heliopolis consist only of an immense enclosure, in the centre of which stands an obelisk. The ruins of Memphis com- prise, besides the town properly so called, of which the remains are seen at Mitrahyneh, two vast cemeteries, namely the Pyramids and Sakkdrah. Heliopolis, the Pyramids, Mitrahyneh, and Sakkirah, these then are the four localities of which we will give the description in this first chapter. [871 88 THE MONUMENTS OF UPPER EGYPT. I.-HELIOPOLIS. A carriage-road leads from Cairo to Heliopolis, passing by the palace of the Abbassieh, one of the residences of the Khedive, and by Matarieh, a village rendered famous by a miraculous well and a sycamore, known by the name of the Virgin's tree. Matarieh is distant eight kilometres, or five English miles, from Cairo, and about half a mile further on are the ruins of Heliopolis. Heliopolis was called An in Egyptian, or On in Hebrew. It was pre-eminently the city of Ba, or the city of the Sun ; hence its Greek appellation. In ancient classical times Heli- opolis enjoyed the reputation of being a sacer- dotal city, celebrated for its college of priests. Solon, Plato, and Eudoxus studied there. Not . that Heliopolis was either an extensive or a populous city, although a census taken under Rameses III. ascribes to one only of its temples a popula.tion of twelve thousand inhabitants. The history of Heliopolis may be written in a fe\y lines. The edifice " of barbarous con- struction,": of which Strabo speaks, must have resembled in its architecture the temple of Har- machis at the Pyramids of Geezeh, which proves From Ilnrper'a Mngazlno.— Copyright, 18S4, by Harppr & Brothers. OBELISK AT HELIOPOLIS. HELIOPOLIS. 89 that this city was already in existence under the Ancient Empire. Usertasen's obelisk, which is still standing, connects Heliopolis with the XII"" dynasty, and some blocks of stone, dis- covered during our excavations in 1858, further show that Thothmes III. enlarged one of its temples. When then did the decline of Heli- opolis begin ? Was it through the fury of Cam- byses, as Strabo asserts, that its edifices were laid low? We cannot tell. Anyhow, Strabo, who visited Egypt only a few years before our era, describes it as almost a wilderness, and nothing now remains of it but the enclosing wall of the principal temple and the obelisk which stands in the centre. We speak advis- edly when we say " the enclosing wall of the principal temple," for the high and exten- ' sive walls which form the enceinte of Heliopolis must not be mistaken for the walls of the city itself. It is true one may still see round the obelisk, and even at some distance from it, remains of demolished walls and vestiges of dwellings, which one is quite prepared to im- agine are the remains of the houses of the city. But what occurred at Medinet-Abou, at Den- derah, at Abydos and in many other places, took 90 THE MONUMENTS OF UPPER EGYPT. place also at Heliopolis. When their religion was abolished, the Egyptians, having become Christians, that is to say Copts, made use of the sacred edifices as habitations, and the precincts of the temples, untiL then considered as invio- lable and holy, were covered with the dwellings of the people. The ruins, then, that surround the obelisk at Heliopolis are not the ruins of the ancient city, but those of the Coptic town which, at the downfall of the ancient gods of Egypt, replaced the pagan constructions,* and the large encircling wall, which marks their limit, extensive though it be,f is but the enceinte of the temple. As for the obelisk itself, it should be regarded with interest, for it is the oldest in Egypt. It bears, in fact, the cartouches of Usertasen I., the second king of the XII"* dynasty. It is a • Of the town, properly so called, nothing now remains. One may generally recognize the site of ancient cities by the gray or red heaps of rubbish formed by the crumbling of the brick-built houses one over the other, and these mounds are grouped in regular order round the vast encircling walls, in the centre of which stood the temples. But there is nothing of the sort here. Like Memphis, Heliopolis has paid the penalty of its proximity to Cairo, and the city has entirely disappeared. tit measures about four thousand English feet by three thousand. Pharaoh's kbedles. 91 little more that sixty-six English feet high. For- merly a casing of copper, of pyramidal form, covered its point, which still existed in the time of Abd-el-Latyf.* A second obelisk completed with this one the decoration of the principal frontage of the temple, for which these two monoliths had been erected; but it was already fallen down and broken in two in the days of the Arabian historian we have just named,! ^^^ ^ow it has entirely dis- appeared, f * An Arab doctor of Sagdad who visited Egypt about A.D. 1190. t This is tlie passage from Abd-el-Latyf : " It is in this city that are found the two famous obelisks called Pharaoh's two needles. These obelisks consist of a square base, six cubits long aild six cubits wide, and of about the same height, resting firmly on its foundation. Above this base rises a square column of pyramidal form, . . . Its summit is covered with a sort of funnel-shaped casing of copper, which descends about three cubits from the top. This copper, from the effects of rain and the lapse of years, has rusted and turned green, and this green rust has discolored the shaft of the obelisk. Its entire surface is covered with the sort of writing of which we have been speaking. I noticed that one of these obelisks had fallen down, and by the enormity of its own weight was broken in two ; the copper which covered its sum- mit had been removed." } Two other obelisks were set up in Heliopolis about 1650 B.C. by Thothmes III., and were removed to Alex- 92 THE MONUMENTS OP UPPER EGYPT. II. -THE PYRAMIDS. The excursion to the Pyramids, like the ex- cursion to Heliopolis, is usually made by car- riage. The route lies through the new quarter of Cairo, called after its founder, Ismailia. The Nile is crossed by the Kasr-el-Nil bridge, and one soon enters the charming road con- structed by his highness the Khedive, which leads from Geezeh to the foot of the Pyramids. From the Esbekyeh to the Pyramids the dis- tance in a straight line is twelve kilometres, or about seven miles and a half. There are 8,300 metres, or 5 miles 280 yards from the banks of the Nile to the tableland on which stand the monuments we are about to describe. andria by Augustus Ceesar In the eighth year of his reign, 23 B.C. Here they were called "Cleopatra's Needles," though it is certain that Cleopatra had nothing to do with their removal from Heliopolis. The gradual encroachments of the sea caused one of these obelislcs to fall, as nearly as can be ascertained, about three hundred years ago. This obelisk was given to George lY. on his accession to the throne of England, in 1820, by Mehemet All, and with surprising promptness was removed in 1877 to the Thames embankment. The other obelisk was presented in May, 1879, to the United States, by Mohammed Tewflk, the present viceroy, and, through the munificence of the late William H. Yanderbilt, was set up in Central Park, New York, with appropriate ceremonies, Jan. 22, 1881. — [Ed.] o > o X o H W a) THE PTKAMIDS. 93 The admiration in which the Pyramids have been held for so many centuries, and which has gained for them a place among the seven wonders of the world, is indeed well deserved. It must be confessed, however, that this admira- tion is not generally felt when the visitor first reaches the foot of these far-famed monuments. The fact is, the immensity of the surrounding desert and the want of some point of comparison effectively diminish the apparent size of the Pyramids, and prevent their being at first sight thoroughly appreciated. But they soon grow upon one, and assume their true proportions. And theii one experiences a feeling of amaze- ment at the immensity of these constructions. One sees in them the most lofty, the most durable, the most stupendous monuments under heaven that have ever been erected by the hand of man. The Pyramids are already six or seven thousand years old, but there is no reason why one hundred thousand. years hence they should not be in the same state as we see them at the present day, provided no ignorant or profane hand be laid against them. The three great Pyramids are the tombs of Cheops, of Chephren, and of Mycerinus ; the 94 THE MOKUMENTS Or UPrEB EGYPT. smaller ones are the tombs of members of the families of those kings. The Great Pyramid was formerly 146 metres high (479 English feet), but in its present state it measures only 138 metres (about 453 English feet); its cube is of no less than 2,562,576 metres, and it covers an area of more than eleven English acres. All the stories which in accordance with Herodotus, have been told about the hatred those kings had brought upon themselves, in consequence of the drudgery inflicted upon the Egyptians who worked in the construction of the Pyramids, may now be considered mere idle tales. The contemporaneous monuments — witnesses far more worthy of belief than Herodotus — tell us, in fact, that during their lifetime and after their death, Cheops and Chephren, equally with all other kings, were honored with a special worship. As for Mycerinus, he was so pious a king that he is quoted in the Ritual as the author of one of the most renowned works in the religious lit- erature of Egypt. As to the especial purpose for which the Pyr- amids were intended, it is doing violence to all that we know of Egypt, to all that ai-chsBology has taught us on the subject of the monumental THE PYRAMIDS. 95 habits of this country, to imagine for a moment that they could ever have been intended for aught else but tombs. The Pyramids are tombs, massive, entire, everywhere hermetically sealed, even in their most carefully constructed pas- sages ; without windows, without doors, without external openings of any kind. They, are the gigantic and ever impenetrable sepulchre of a mummy, and even had one of them exhibited in its interior an accesible passage from whence, as from the bottom of a well, astronomical observations could have been made, that Pyra- mid would not have been in accordance with its purpose. In vain shall it be said that the four sides turned to the different points of the com- pass denote an astronomical intention ; the four sides are thus set because they are dedicated for mythological reasons to the four cardinal points, and in a monument so carefully constructed as a Pyrainid, a side dedicated to the north, for example, could not by any possibility be turned to any other point but the north. The Pyramids, then, are nothing but tombs, and their enormous bulk could not be held as an argument against this theory, since there are some which are scarcely eighteen feet high. Moreover, there 96 THK MONUMENTS OF UPPER EGYPT. does not exist in Egypt a single pyramid that is not the centre of a necropolis, a fact which con- firms in the most emphatic manner the character of these monuments. What remains now of the Pyramids is only the nucleus. Originally they were covered with a smooth casing which has entirely disappeared, and they terminated in a sharp point. Being tombs hermetically sealed, each one of the Pyramids, or at least each of those that served as the sepulchre of a king, possessed an exterior temple which was built within a few yards of the eastern fa§ade. The king, deified as a sort of incarnation of the divinity, was here wor- shipped. The three great Pyramids of Geezeh possess, like all other Pyramids, an exterior temple. What proves that Pyramids were monuments hermetically sealed is that, when Amrou wanted to penetrate into the Great Pyramid, he was only able to succeed by perforating the northern side by force, very nearly in the axis, which caused him accidentally to come upon the as- cending passage of the interior. As at that time the outer covering was still perfect, and consequently there was no accumulation of THE GRAND GALLERY OF THE GREAT PYRAMID. p u K o H en W K df O P J t, O 2 PL. 2 w H THE SPHINX. 97 rubbish at its base, it may safely be inferred that the entrance itself was not visible from the outside. About six hundred yards to the S.E. of the Great Pyramid is the Sphinx. The Sphinx is a natural rock, to which has been given, more or less accurately, the external appearance of that mystic animal. The head alone has been sculptured. The body is formed of the rock itself, supplemented, where defective, by a somewhat clumsy masonry of limestone. The total height of the monument is 19 metres, 80 centimetres, equal to 65 English feet. The ear measures 6 feet 6 inches; the nose 6 feet 10 inches; and the mouth 7 feet 8 inches. The face, in its widest part, across the cheek, is 4 metres 15 centimetres, that is, 13 feet 7 inches. Its origin is still a matter of doubt. At one time it was supposed to be a monument of the reign of Thothmes IV. (XVIir" dynasty). But we know now, thanks to a stone in the Bqol&k Museum, that the Sphinx was already in existence when Cheops (who preceded Cheph- reu) gave orders for the repairs which this stone commemorates. It must also be reinembereld that the Sphinx is the colossal image of sin Egyptian god called HarmacMs. 98 THE MONUMENTS OF UPPEK EGYPT. Near the Sphinx is a singular construction which, even to a greater degree than the Sphinx itself, is an enigma to Egyptologists. It is cer- tain that this construction is as ancient as the Pyramids. But is it a temple, or is it a tomb ? Its external appearance, it must be confessed, is rather that of a tomb. From a distance it must have presented the - appearance of a mastabah, scarcely exceeding in size those which , are actually found, for example, at Aboiisir and Sakkdrah, In one of the chambers of the interior there are six compartments, placed one above the other, which certainly seem to have been constructed, like those of the third Pyramid and of the Mastabatrcl-Paraoun, for the reception of mummies. Moreover, the place does not differ essentially from that of certain other tombs which are found in the vicinity. It may therefore be fairly argued that the monu- ment in question was a tomb, without violating any rules of criticism ; can the contrary opinion, which calls it a temple, be equally well sup- ported ? It is true, the Ancient Empire having left us no other temple with which to compare this one, it is not unnatural to suppose that at this remote period Egyptian temples might have X w a ;o m > a) > s z > z D til C 2 S d m % •0 r THE PYRAMIDS. 99 been constructed on the extraordinary plan of the one we are now considering. Nor is it un- natural either to assume that, since the Sphinx is a god, the adjoining monument may be the temple of that god. But. are these arguments sufficient? And, after all, to put the case plainly, is the moniiment an annex of the Sphinx, or is not rather the Sphinx an annex of the monument ? Does not the whole of this represent a very ancient, tomb, adorned, for the sake of greater dignity, with a colossal statue of a god ? The question is pending. We need hardly remind the reader that the spot we are now visiting is one of the cemeteries of Memphis, just as P^re Lachaise is one of the cemeteries of Paris. The tombs therein date from almost every period ; those of the Ancient Empire, however, predominate. The latter most frequently -take the form of the mastaha, a sort of truncated pyramid built of enormous stones and covering, as with a massive lid, the well at the bottom of which reposed the mummy. Tlie visitor may observe two or < three good specimens near the eastern side of the Great Pyramid ; but a better opportunity of studying this sort of monument will be afforded us. at Sakk&rah. 100 THE MONUMENTS OP UPPER EGYPT. To this description of the Pyramids we here add a plan which will serve as a guide to the traveller who, being anxious to escape from the deafening cries of the guides and their tiresome demands for baksheesh, may feel induced to make a somewhat serious study of the interior of the most important of these monuments. As we have already stated, the outer casing for- merly concealed the entrance to the Pyramid, and it is evident that in the original design this entrance was to remain forever closed. At the present time the Pyramid is entered by a square hole on the thirteenth layer of stone, at about sixty feet from the ground. This description being intended for the trav- eller who visits the interior of the Pyramid with the plan in his hand, it is not necessary to give many details. A is a subterranean chamiber, at present inaccessible. B is called the Queen's Chamber, a title justified by no tradition what- ever. C is called the King's Chamber. D is a sort of landing intersected by two grooves, into which glided, once upon a time, that is to say when the royal mummy had just been deposited in the sarcophagus, the two massive blocks wliich were to close to all eternity the entrance of the tlOI] THE PYBAMIDS. 103 chamber. E, F, G and H are the communicating passages. I is a landing-place into which the forced passage of the Caliph Amrou leads. J is the mysterious well which has so long put th6 sagacity of discoverers to so severe a test. Such is the interior of the Pyramid. But now, what was the purpose of all these apparently inextricable passages and rooms? Evidently everything was done to deceive the future violaters of the Pyramid, and to throw them off the scent as to the actual position of the mummy. For let us suppose that the entrance hidden under the outer casing has been discovered. A first obstacle will present itself, namely, the blocks with which corridor II is fitted up. If these blocks be broken and a pas- sage successfully forced, chamber A will be reached. If it is now discovered that chamber A is not the true chamber of the Pyramid, cor- ridor H must next be sounded at all points to discover the unknown spot from whence the passage, supposed to be the correct one, branches off. But this time one has to do with blocks of granite, since two of these blocks are still in their place (landing-place I). This obstacle, which is not to be broken, must then be turned, ,104 THE MONUMENTS OF UPPEE EGYPT. and one comes upon the ascending corridor G at the ^nd of which the landing-place K would not have been disposed as we find it at the present day. It would be completely blocked, as also would be the aperture of the well. If the pas- sage is forced, it is quite natural to follow the flagstones, and the explorer will find himself in corridor F without suspecting that a second ascending corridor runs over his head. Chamber B is thus reached. Here fresh doubts wiH arise as to the real character of this chamber, and fresh efforts will be made to ascertain where the next bifurcation takes place. The point of connection is hit upon after a while, and the eorhellated corridor E is gone through, when at length the true chamber is reached, the two grooves presenting no serious obstacle. There is nothing, even to the well, which is ' not . explained in this manner of accounting for the internal distribution of the monument. During the construction of the Pyramid, blocks of gran- ite of the same dimensions as corridor G were deposited in the corbellated corridor E. The Pyramid being finished, and the mummy laid in its place, these blocks would.be allowed to slide by their own weight down corridor G; the MITRAHENNY. 106 landing-place K would then be blocked up, and the workmen would descend by the well and return to the open air by the corridor H, which in its turn would be obstructed by blocks intro- duced through the external entrance of the monument. Let us add that experience in excavations authorizes this explanation to a certain extent. Indeed, it is no uncommon thing to find tombs where a false scent has inten- tionally diverted the attention of the would-be violaters of the pit in which the mummy is reposing. * HI. -MITRAHENNY. Mitrahenny lies on the road from Cairo to Sakkfi,rah. Both villages therefore are visited in the same excursion ; the first is passed just before reaching the second. The traveller who wishes to visit Mitrahenny and Sakkd.rah can wait until his dahabeah is ready, axid then make Bedreshayn his first halting-place on his journey up the Nile. If, however, he should prefer making the ex- cursion from Cairo, there are two routes from 'Examine with this view the two great Pyramids of Dashoor. Here again every endeavor has been made to deceive those who might seek to rifle the monument. 106 THE MONUMENTS OP UPPER EGYPT. which he can choose. He can either hire don- keys at Cairo and ride the whole way to the colossus of Mitrahenny (the donkey boys know the way and would serve as guides), or he can send forward the donkeys to Bedreshayn which is the nearest station to Mitrahenny on the Upper Egypt railway, in which case he would take a carriage from Cairo to Geezeh, and would continue his journey by train from Geezeh. This is the favorite route, especially with those who have not much time to spare or who dread the fatigue of a long journey, to and fro, on donkey- back. Memphis was in all probability the largest city in Egypt, and if, as we believe, the stepHshaped Pjrramid at Sakkdrah belongs to the P' dynasty, Memphis may assuredly boast of an antiquity that Thinis alone can rival. A palace " of bar- barous construction" was to be found here as well as at Heliopolis. Explorations have not confirmed the assertion of Strabo, who describes Memphis as reaching to the foot of the Libyan chain. Mempliis, on tlie contrary, seems to have been shut in between the Bahr-Jousef on the one side and the Nile on the other, and thus to have been a city of an ex- MITBAHENNY. 107 tremely elongated form, stretching to the north nearly ag far as Geezeh and to the south to Schinbab, an extent which accounts for its ceme- teries being scattered widely apart. Throughout the whole length of the space contained within the above boundaries are mounds, more or less arid, strewn here and there with blocks of granite and foundations of walls which emerge from the surface of the soil. On the mostcon*- siderable of these mounds is situated the village of Mitraheiiny, where once stood the famous temple of Phtah, the Vulcan of Greek tradition. The history of Memphis is, on the whole, Very much the same as that of Heliopolis. We have here, however, materials that Heliopolis could not yield. The still extant burial-grounds of Memphis (the Pyramids, Abousir, Sakkdirah and Dashoor) furnish us with abundant information on the history of that city during the different periods of its existence. Founded under the most ancient kings, the successors of Menes — flourishing under the IV" dynasty, that grand epoch which witnessed the rise of the Pyramids ; equally prosperous under the V**" and the begin- ning of the VI*'' ; neglected and abandoned under the XI'^ XII"* and XIII"" dynasties, Memphis 108 THE MONUMENTS OF UPPEB EGYPT. revived, like Egypt herself, as soon as the kings of the XVIII'" dynasty had succeeded in purging the national soil of its invaders. T^ken and retaken by turns under tlie subsequent dynasties by the Assyrians, the Ethiopians and the Per- sians, Memphis recovered under the Greeks a portion of her ancient splendor^ even though Strabo describes her at the time of his visit as being already deserted. The time, however, was approaching when nothing would be left of Mem- phis but ruins, and when the gloomy threatenings of Jeremiah should be literally fulfilled : " O daughter of Egypt, prepare thyself for captivity ; for Memphis shall be laid waste; she shall be abandoned and shall become uninhabitable." And now nothing remains of the once proud city which through so many centuries exercised so profound an influence over the destinies of man- kind — notiiing. but interminable mounds where only the date-palm can grow, besides here and there the dSbria of a wall, the shaft of a broken column, and mutilated statues half hidden in the ground or buried in the mud. Yet it must not be imagined that Memphis disappeared all at once, and as it were at one stroke, at the very same moment when the an- MlTRAHENNy — AJBD-Et-LATYF. 109 cient Egyptian civilization received its death-- blow. It is even curioua to see in Abd^l-Latyf in what state were the ruins of Memphis eight hundred years ago : " Let us pass now," says the Arab traveller, " to other vestiges of Egypt's greatness ; I mean to the ruins of the ancient capital of that country. This capital was Mem- phis, the residence of the Pharaohs and the seat of government of the Kings of Egypt. Not- withstanding the enormous size of this city, and her exceeding great antiquity, in spite of the many vicissitudes of the various Governments to whose yoke she had successively i^ubmitted;: notwithstanding the efforts made by various people to annihilate her by destroying the small- est vestige and defacing the slightest trace of her, carrying away the stones and materials of which she was built, laying waste her edifices'.i and mutilating the figures with which they were adorned; in spite also of what the lapse of four thousand years and even mote must have added to so many other causes of destruction, her ruins still offer to the eye of- the spectator an assemblage of wonders which astonish the mind, and •vdiich the most gifted writer would find it impossible to describe. The more one contem- 110 THE MONujiiENTS OP UPPER EGYPT. plates this city» the more does the admiration she inspires' increase, and each successive visit to her ruins becomes a fresh cause of wonder and delight." A little further on, Abdrel-Latyf adds : " One sees on the same spot pedestals resting on enormous foundations. The quantity of stones pi'oceeding from the demolition of the buildings seems to fill up the surface of these ruins; in some places bits of broken walls are still standing, . . . elsewhere, nothings is to be seen but the foundations, or heaps of ruined fragments. I saw the arch of a very high door, the two side walla of which are formed each of a single stone, and the vault above, also formed of a single stone, had fallen down in front of the door. ... As for the figures of idols which are found among those ruins, whether as regards their number or their enormous magnitude, it is something that baffles description, and of which one can hardly convey any idea; but what is still more worthy of admiration is the precision of their forms, the accuracy of their proportions and their great resemblance to na- ture. We found one which without its pedestal was rhore than thirty cubits high. . . . This statue was in a single block of red granite, cov- THE KUINS OF MEMPHIS. Ill ered with a red polish to which its antiquity seemed only to lend an additional freshness." And still further on he says : "I saw two lions facing each other within a short distance ; their aspect inspired awe ; for notwithstanding their colossal size, infinitely larger than that of life, the sculptor had succeeded in preserving the truthfulness of form and of proportion. They have been broken and covered with earth." It is impossible to peruse these lines, written by one of the most sagacious and the most truth- ful of Arabian historians, without bitterly regret- • ing the treasures we have lost. Even Karnak, stripped as it has been for the last fifty years of all its riches, can give but a faint idea of what Memphis must have been at tlie end of the XII"' century, before the stones of its temples had one by one been swallowed up in the constructions of Cairo. But alas I there now remains nothing to be seen of Memphis, beyond the few following monuments: — ' 1. The hollow space, on the borders of which the traveller must pass as: he reaches the ruins, and beyond which he perceives through a vista of trees the pointed summits of the Pyramids, is the lake of the temple of Vulcan. Close by 112 THE MONUMENTS OF UPI'EB EGYPT. is a colossus in pink granite, discovered in 1852 by Hekekj'an-Bey. It represents Rameses II., and the superscribed cartouches are those of the immediate successors of that prince. 2. A few yards further on, to the soutli of tlio colossus, is a large stela, in wliito limestone, lying face upwards. It dates from the time of Apries (XXVI'" dynasty). Apries had increased the endowment of the temple of Vulcan, and had enlarged the temple itself, for the service of which he had made several lakes or canals. The stela was intended to preserve the remem- brance of those benefits. 3. Near to the isolated house in which have been stored away some broken statues discovered during our excavations is another colossus. This is in silicious limestone, and represents Rameses II. The statues of Rameses are so common that science would attach no import- ance to this one, were it not that the head, modelled with a grandeur of style which one never tires of admiring, is an authentic por- trait of the celebrated conqueror of the XIX"' dynasty.* * This statue was discovered by Caviglia, about 1820, and was given by Mehemet AH to the ISnglisIi Govern- *1% ^ < PS CO (3 « d tn 3 W g Q ►^ til p:i Ph 03 W 1-1 O H