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Title: Letters from Egypt, Ethiopia, and the peninsula of Sinai
Author: Richard Lepsius
Translator: Joanna B. Horner
Leonora Horner
Release date: June 27, 2026 [eBook #78968]
Language: English
Original publication: London: Henry G. Bohn, York Street, Covent Garden, 1853
Other information and formats: www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/78968
Credits: Chuck Greif and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive)
*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LETTERS FROM EGYPT, ETHIOPIA, AND THE PENINSULA OF SINAI ***
Transcriber’s Note
This book contains text in Greek (λεύκη), Coptic (ⲙⲁⲧ) and Egyptian
hieroglyphs (𓅐𓏏). You may need to install additional fonts to properly
render those languages. Noto Sans Egyptian Hieroglyphs is recommended.
Obvious typographical errors have been corrected. The Hebrew, Arabic,
Coptic, and Greek text has been corrected by comparison with the German
edition from which this work was translated.
Accents and diacritical marks have been standardised throughout, where
it was clear that the same word or name was intended; the original
typesetting appears not to have supported accented small capitals
consistently.
Inconsistencies between index entries and the main text have been silently
corrected where the intended reference was unmistakable.
Letters from Egypt, Ethiopia, and the peninsula of Sinai
[Illustration: MOUNT BARKAL.
_Hinchliff._]
LETTERS
FROM
EGYPT, ETHIOPIA, AND THE
PENINSULA OF SINAI.
BY
DR. RICHARD LEPSIUS.
WITH EXTRACTS FROM HIS
CHRONOLOGY OF THE EGYPTIANS,
WITH REFERENCE TO THE EXODUS OF THE ISRAELITES.
REVISED BY THE AUTHOR.
TRANSLATED BY
LEONORA AND JOANNA B. HORNER.
[Illustration]
LONDON:
HENRY G. BOHN, YORK STREET, COVENT GARDEN.
MDCCCLIII.
TRANSLATORS’ PREFACE.
The first part of this volume consists of Letters from Egypt, Ethiopia,
and the Peninsula of Sinai, published in 1852. In addition to the Map of
the Nile, published in the German edition, and the view of Mount Barkal,
we have been enabled, through the kindness of Dr. Lepsius, to give a
Map of the Peninsula of Sinai, from an unpublished pamphlet, printed at
Berlin in 1846 (_Reise des Prof. Lepsius von Theben nach der Halbinsel
des Sinai, vom 4 März bis zum 14 April, 1845_), which will be found to
contribute much to the elucidation of the interesting Letter on Mount
Sinai.
In the Appendix we have inserted a geological paper, by Mr. Horner, from
the “Edinburgh Philosophical Journal” for July, 1850, in which some
doubts are thrown upon the theory of Dr. Lepsius concerning a supposed
excavation of the bed of the Nile within the historical period. We have
done this at the request of Dr. Lepsius, who is desirous to call more
particular attention to the subject.
The Letters are succeeded by extracts (chiefly relating to the Hebrew
Chronology) from Dr. Lepsius’s larger work (of which only one volume has
yet been published), _Die Chronologie der Ægypter_, in which he states
his conclusions respecting the date of the Exodus. We have also obtained
permission from Chevalier Bunsen to add a note (p. 475), pointing out how
far he differs from Dr. Lepsius respecting the period when the Israelites
entered Egypt. It has been thought desirable to omit those sections
which enter into the subject more minutely than would interest the
general reader.
The whole of this portion of the translation has been revised by the
author, and throughout the volume, whatever alterations or additions have
been suggested by him, are placed between brackets.
A Table of the Egyptian Dynasties, drawn up by Mr. Horner, has been
added, and, at his request, revised by Dr. Lepsius, who has inserted
the results of his latest investigations concerning the dates of the
different Dynasties.
Wherever measurements by feet are mentioned, French feet are to be
understood, unless it is otherwise specified.
August, 1853.
AUTHOR’S PREFACE TO THE LETTERS.
The object of the Scientific Expedition which the KING OF PRUSSIA sent
to Egypt in the year 1842, was to investigate and collect, with an
historical and antiquarian view, the ancient Egyptian monuments in the
Nile valley, and upon the Peninsula of Sinai. It was fitted out and
maintained for more than three years by the munificence of the King, and
enjoyed uninterruptedly his gracious favour and sympathy, as well as the
most active and kind attention from ALEXANDER V. HUMBOLDT, and by a rare
union of fortunate circumstances, it attained the purposes they had in
view, as completely as could be expected. A “Preliminary Account of the
Expedition, its Results, and their Publication” (Berlin, 1849; 4to), was
issued at the same time with the first portion of the great work upon
the Monuments, which will be published by desire of his Majesty, in a
style corresponding with the magnificence of the treasures we brought
away with us, and which will contain a concise survey of the principal
results of the Expedition.
In the work upon “the Monuments of Egypt and Ethiopia,” here announced,
which will comprise more than 800 folio plates, half of which are already
completed, and 240 published, these results will be fully displayed, as
far as regards Sculpture, Topography, and Architecture, and they will be
considered more accurately in the accompanying text.
Independently, however, of our strictly scientific labours, it appeared
right to offer a picture to a larger circle of interested readers of
the external features of the Expedition, the personal co-operation of
the different members belonging to it, the obstacles, or the fortunate
circumstances of the journey, the condition of the countries that we
traversed, and the influence they exercised on the immediate objects
of our undertaking; finally, a series of remarks on the individual
sites of the monuments in that most historical of all countries,
with all the meaning and completeness in which they appear to those
travellers who, by their study of that most ancient history, are
peculiarly prepared to understand them, but which may also excite an
increased sympathy in others who have acknowledged the great importance
of this newly-established science. If it should directly further a
correct criticism of the scientific labours which have resulted from
this journey, and which are being gradually published, to consult the
circumstances under which the materials were collected, I believe that no
farther justification is necessary for the publication of the following
Letters, however little pretension they may have on the one side to the
completeness and the literary charm of a regular account of travels, or,
on the other side, to the value of a strictly scientific work.
The Letters have remained almost throughout in their original form;
some are respectfully addressed to his Majesty the King, some to his
Excellency Eichhorn, at that time Minister of Public Instruction, or to
other distinguished patrons and honoured men, such as A. v. Humboldt,
Bunsen, v. Olfers, Ehrenberg, and lastly, some to my father, who
constantly preserved the liveliest interest in all that concerned me.
Several letters, immediately upon their arrival in Europe, were printed
in the newspapers, especially in the Prussian Gazette, and from that were
received into other papers. The immaterial alterations in some of the
details are, for the most part, only made for publication. All additions
or expansions are put in the form of notes. To this class belong the
more detailed notes and the proofs given concerning the true position of
Sinai, which, I believe, is pointed out for the first time by me; this
has since been criticised from different quarters, and has been condemned
by some, while it has met with approbation from others. The subject of
the 36th Letter on the decoration of the Egyptian Museum in Berlin is
certainly very different from the rest; but as an exception it may be
justified, since the point there considered is not only of local interest
in Berlin, but is valuable in all cases of observation, where there are
similar requirements, and where the subject treated about is a method of
adjustment between ancient Egyptian and modern Art.
Berlin, 2nd June, 1852.
CONTENTS.
PAGE
PRELIMINARY ACCOUNT OF THE EXPEDITION AND ITS RESULTS 12
LETTER I.—_On board the Oriental Steamer, 5th September, 1842_ 35
Voyage to Alexandria.
LETTER II.—_Alexandria, 23rd September, 1842_ 38
Malta—Gobat—Isenberg—Krapf—Alexandria—Mohammed Ali.
LETTER III.—_Cairo, 16th October, 1842_ 41
Alexandria—Pompey’s Pillar—Cleopatra’s Needle—Werne’s
Collection of Natural History—Departure from
Alexandria—Sais—Naharieh—Cairo—Heliopolis—The
Celebration of the King’s Birthday at the
Pyramids—Panoramic View from the Pyramid of Cheops.
LETTER IV.—_At the foot of the largest Pyramid, 2nd January, 1843_ 51
Pyramids of Gizeh—Tombs of Private Individuals—Sphinx—A
Deluge of Rain—Celebration of Christmas—Life in the Camp.
LETTER V.—_Pyramids of Gizeh, 17th January, 1843_ 56
The Hieroglyphic Memorial tablet on the Pyramid of Cheops—What
we gained in a Historical point of View.
LETTER VI.—_Pyramids of Gizeh, 28th January, 1843_ 59
The most ancient Royal Dynasties—Tomb of Prince Merhet—Tombs
of Private Individuals—Ravages committed by the Arabs—Most
ancient Obelisk.
LETTER VII.—_Saqâra, 18th March, 1843_ 64
Pyramids of Meidûm—The Structure of Pyramids—The Enigma of
the Sphinx—Locusts—Comet.
LETTER VIII.—_Saqâra, 13th April, 1843_ 69
Prince Albert of Prussia—Festivities in Cairo—Entrance of
Pilgrims—Mulid e’ Nebbi—Doseh—Visit of the Prince to the
Pyramids—Most ancient Application of the Pointed Arch in
Cairo—The most ancient Round Arch in Egypt—Attack by Night
in Saqâra—Day of Trial.
LETTER IX.—_Cairo, 22nd April, 1843_ 79
Plan of the Site of the Pyramid Fields—Cairo.
LETTER X.—_Ruins of the Labyrinth, 31st May, 1843_ 81
Departure for the Faiûm—Camels and Dromedaries—Lischt—
Meidûm—Illahûn—Labyrinth—Arabic Song—Bedouins—Turkish
Kawass.
LETTER XI.—_The Labyrinth, 25th June, 1843_ 89
The Ruins of the Labyrinth—Its First Builder—Its Pyramid—Lake
Mœris.
LETTER XII.—_The Labyrinth, 18th July, 1843_ 94
Journey round the Faiûm—The Dams of Mœris—Birket-el-Qorn—
Diméh—Qasr Qerûn.
LETTER XIII.—_Cairo, 14th August, 1843_ 98
Departure of Frey—Ethiopian Manuscripts.
LETTER XIV.—_Thebes, 13th October, 1843_ 100
Voyage on the Nile to Upper Egypt—Rock-Grotto of Surarieh—Tombs
of the Sixth Dynasty, in Central Egypt; of the Twelfth, in
Benihassan, Siut, Berscheh—Arrival in Thebes—Climate—Journey
onwards.
LETTER XV.—_Korusko, 20th November, 1843_ 105
Greek Inscriptions—Benihassan—Berscheh—Tombs of the Sixth
Dynasty—El Amarna—Siut—Alabaster Quarries of El
Bosra—Echmim (Chemmis)—Thebes—El Kab (Eileithyia)—Edfu—
Ombos—Egyptian Canon of Proportions—Assuan—Philæ—
Hieroglyphic-Demotic Inscriptions—Succession of the
Ptolemies—Entrance into Lower Nubia—Debôt—Gertassi—
Kalabscheh (Talmis)—Dendûr—Dakkeh (Pselchis)—Korte—
Hierasykaminos—Mehendi—Sebûa—Korusko—Nubian Language.
LETTER XVI.—_Korusko, 5th January, 1844_ 130
Scarcity of Camels—Excursion to Wadi Haifa—Achmed Pascha
Menekle and the newly-named Pascha of the Sudan.
LETTER XVII.—_E’ Dâmer, 24th January, 1844_ 133
Nubian Desert—Roft Mountain Range—Wadi E’ Sufr—Wadi
Murhad—Ababde Arabs—Abu Hammed—The Province of Berber—El
Mechêref—Mogrân or Atbara (Astaboras)—E’ Dâmer—Mandera.
LETTER XVIII.—_On the Blue River, Province of Sennâr, 13° N. Lat.,
2nd March, 1844_ 148
The borders of a Tropical Climate—Kawass—Hagi Ibrahim—Meröe—
Begerauîeh—Pyramids—Ferlini—The Age of the Monuments—
Schendi—Ben Naga—Naga in the Desert—Mesaurât e’ Sofra—
Tamaniât—Chartûm—Bahr el Abiat (the White River)—Dinka
and Schilluk—Soba—Kamlîn—Bauer—Inscription on Marble—
Baobab—Abu Harras—Rahad—Character of the Country—Dender—
Dilêb Palms—Sennâr—Abdîn—Româli—Sero—Return towards the
North—Wed Médineh—Sorîba—Sultâna Nasr—Gabre Máriam—Rebâbi—
Funeral Ceremony—The Military—Emin Pascha—Tâiba—Messelemîeh—
Kamlîn—Soba—Vase with an Inscription.
LETTER XIX.—_Chartûm, 21st March, 1844_ 190
Military Revolt at Wed Médineh—Insurrection of the Slaves.
LETTER XX.—_The Pyramids of Meröe, 22nd April, 1844_ 193
Tamaniât—Qirre Mountain Range—Meröe—Return of the Turkish
Army from Taka—Osman Bey—Prisoners from Taka—Language of
the Bischâri from Taka—Customs in the South—Pyramids of
Meröe—Ethiopian Inscriptions—Name of Meröe.
LETTER XXI.—_Keli, 29th April, 1844_ 210
Departure from Meröe—Groups of Tombs north of Meröe.
LETTER XXII.—_Barkal, 9th May, 1844_ 213
The Desert of Gilif—Gôs Burri—Wadi Gaqedûl—Mágeqa—Trees of
the Desert—Wadi Abu Dôm—Wadi Gazâl—Coptic Churches—Greek
Inscriptions—Pyramids of Nuri—Arrival at Barkal.
LETTER XXIII.—_Mount Barkal, 28th May, 1844_ 222
Ethiopian Kings—Temple of Ramses II.—Napata—Méraui—Climate.
LETTER XXIV.—_Dongola, 15th June, 1844_ 225
Excursion into the Cataract Country—Bân—Departure from
Barkal—Pyramids of Tangassi, Kurru, and Zûma—Churches
and Fortifications of Bachît, Magal, Gebel Dêqa—Old
Dongola—Nubian Language.
LETTER XXV.—_Dongola, 23rd June, 1844_ 233
Island of Argo—Kermân and Defûfa—Tombos—Inscriptions of
Tuthmosis I.—Languages of Darfur.
LETTER XXVI.—_Korusko, 17th August, 1844_ 235
Fakir Fenti—Sêse—Soleb—Gebel Dosche—Sedeïnga—Amara—Island
of Sai—Sulphur Spring Of Okmeh—Semneh—Heights of the Nile
in the Reign of Amenemha-Mœris—Abu Simbel—Greek Inscription
in the Reign of Psammeticus I.—Ibrîm (Primis) Anîbe—Korusko.
LETTER XXVII.—_Philæ, 1st September, 1844_ 241
Wadi Kenûs—Bega Language of the Bischâri—Talmis—Philæ—
Meroitic-Ethiopian Inscriptions.
LETTER XXVIII.—_Thebes—Qurna, 24th November, 1844_ 243
Excavations in the Temple and in the Rock-Tombs of Ramses
II.—Languages of the Sudan—History and Civilisation of
Ethiopia.
LETTER XXIX.—_Thebes—Qurna, 8th January, 1845_ 245
Monuments and Plaster Casts we took away with us.
LETTER XXX.—_Thebes, 25th February, 1845_ 246
Description of Thebes—The Temple of Karnac, and its
History—Luqsor—El Asasif—Statue of Memnon—The
Memnonium—Temple of Ramses II.—Medînet Hâbu—The Royal
Tombs—Tombs of Private Individuals from the Time of
Psammeticus—Imperial Time—Coptic Convents and
Churches—Copts of the present Day—Revenge for bloodshed
among the Arabs—Our dwelling in Abd-el-Qurna—Visit from
Travellers.
LETTER XXXI.—_On the Red Sea, 21st March, 1845_ 274
Change of abode from Qurna to Karnac—Departure to the
Peninsula of Sinai—Qenneh—Seïd Hussên—Stone-Quarries
and Inscriptions of Hamamât—Gebel Fatireh—Losing our
Way—Porphyry Quarries at Gebel Dochân—Gebel Zeït.
LETTER XXXII.—_Convent of Sinai, 24th March, 1845_ 290
Landing at Tôr—Gebel Hammâm—Wadi Hebrân—Convent—Gebel
Mûsa—Gebel Sefsâf.
LETTER XXXIII.—_On the Red Sea, 6th April, 1845_ 293
Departure from the Convent—Wadi e’ Scheikh—Ascent of
Serbâl—Wadi Firân—Wadi Mokatteb—Copper Mines of Wadi
Maghâra—Rock-Inscriptions of the Fourth Dynasty—Sarbut
el Châdem—Mounds of Dross—Wadi Nasb—Harbour of Abu
Zelîmeh—The true Position of Sinai—Tradition of the
Monks—Local and Historical Conditions—Elim at Abu
Zelîmeh—Mara in Wadi Gharandel—The Desert of Sin—Sinai,
the Mount of Sin—The Mount of God—Subsistence of the
Israelites—Raphidîm at Pharan—Sinai-Choreb at
Raphidîm—Review of the Question upon Sinai.
LETTER XXXIV.—_Thebes—Karnac, 4th May, 1845_ 321
Return to Thebes—Revenge for bloodshed.
LETTER XXXV.—_Cairo, 10th July, 1845_ 322
Dendera—El Amarna—Dr. Bethmann—Removal of the Sepulchral
Chambers at the Pyramids.
LETTER XXXVI.—_Cairo, 11th July, 1845_ 323
The Egyptian Museum in Berlin—Pictures on the Walls.
LETTER XXXVII.—_Jaffa, 7th October, 1845_ 332
Journey across the Delta—San (Tanis)—Arrival in Jaffa.
LETTER XXXVIII.—_Nazareth, 9th November, 1845_ 333
Jerusalem—Nablus (Sichem)—Tabor—Nazareth—Lake of Tiberias.
LETTER XXXIX.—_Smyrna, 7th December, 1845_ 336
Carmel—Libanon—Berut—Departure to Damascus—Zachleh—Tomb of
Noah—Bárada—Tomb of Abel—Inscriptions at Bárada—Tomb of
Seth—Bâlbeck—Ibrahim—Cedars of Libanon—Egyptian and
Assyrian Rock-Inscriptions at Nahr el Kelb.
PRELIMINARY ACCOUNT OF THE EXPEDITION AND ITS RESULTS.
In the year 1842, in accordance with the proposal of Eichhorn, at that
time Minister of Instruction, and at the recommendation of MM. Alexander
v. Humboldt and Bunsen, his Majesty King Frederic William IV. of Prussia
determined to send a scientific expedition to investigate the remains of
ancient Egyptian and Ethiopian civilisation still in preservation in the
Nile valley and the adjacent countries. The direction of the undertaking
was entrusted to me, after the detailed plans of the proposed expedition
had been minutely examined by the _Royal Academy of Sciences_, and in all
points graciously approved by the King.
The land-surveyor, G. Erbkam, from Berlin, and the draughtsmen and
painters, Ernest and Max Weidenbach, from Naumburg, and J. Frey, from
Basle, were appointed to make the drawings and coloured representations,
as well as those architectonic plans, which had to be executed on the
spot. When J. Frey was obliged to return to Europe from Lower Egypt,
on account of the injurious climate, he was replaced by the painter O.
Georgi, from Leipzig. Two English artists, also, J. Bonomi, who, from
the interest he took in the journey, became attached to our party while
we were in London, and the architect J. Wild, who joined us of his own
accord, took an active part in the expedition as long as it remained
in Lower Egypt. Lastly, during nearly the whole of the journey, we
enjoyed the society of the present Counsellor of Legation, H. Abeken,
who accompanied us voluntarily and on an independent footing, and who
in various ways promoted the antiquarian objects of the journey. We
were also provided with the means of obtaining plaster casts of those
representations that were best qualified for the purpose, by the addition
of Franke the moulder.
The different members of the expedition arriving by various roads, met
in _Alexandria_, on the 18th September, 1842. On the 9th November we
encamped near the great Pyramids of _Gizeh_. What we obtained on that
spot, as well as from the adjoining Pyramid fields of _Abusir_, _Saqâra_,
and _Daschûr_, which are situated to the south, occupied us exclusively
and uninterruptedly for more than six months. The inexhaustible number
of important and instructive monuments and representations, which
we met with in these Necropoli, the most ancient that have existed
in any country, surpassed every expectation we had been entitled to
hold concerning them, and accounts for our long abode in this part
of the country, which is the first approached and visited, but has,
notwithstanding, been very little investigated. If we except the
celebrated and well-known examination of the Pyramids in the year 1837,
by Colonel Howard Vyse, assisted by the accomplished architect Perring,
little had been done to promote a more minute investigation of this
remarkable spot; the French-Tuscan expedition, in particular, did little
more than pass through it. Nevertheless, the innumerable tombs of private
individuals grouped about those royal Pyramids, partly constructed
of massive square blocks, partly hewn into the living rock, contain,
almost exclusively, representations belonging to the old Egyptian
Monarchy, which terminated between two and three thousand years before
Christ; indeed, most of them belong to the fourth and fifth Manethonic
Dynasties, therefore between three and four thousand years before Christ.
The wonderful age of those Pyramids, and of the surrounding tombs, is
no longer generally denied by intelligent inquirers, and in the first
volume of my “Egyptian Chronology,”[1] which has lately appeared, I have
endeavoured to furnish a critical proof of the certain foundations we
possess for a more special determination of time as far back as that
period. But were any one only to believe in the lowest acceptation of
modern scholars concerning the age of the first Egyptian Dynasties, he
would still be compelled to yield priority to those monuments before
any other Egyptian remains of art, and generally before all artistic
remains belonging to the whole race of man, to which we can historically
refer. It is only to this that we can attribute the wonderful growth
in the interest which we attach, partly to the monuments themselves,
as proofs of the earliest activity shown in art, partly to the various
representations of the manner of living in those primitive times.
On the western border of the Desert, which stretches from the most
northerly groups of Pyramids at Abu Roasch, past the ruins of the old
capital of Memphis, to the Oasis-peninsula of the “Faiûm,” we discovered
the remains of sixty-seven Pyramids, which, with a few exceptions, were
only destined for kings, and in the neighbourhood of the principal groups
we investigated, still more minutely, 130 tombs of private individuals,
which deserved to be more particularly recorded. A great many of
these sepulchral chambers, richly adorned with representations and
inscriptions, could only be reached by excavations. Most of them belonged
to the highest functionaries of those flourishing Dynasties, among whom
there were also thirteen royal princes and seven princesses.
After we had taken the most careful topographical plans of all the
fields of Pyramids, and had noted down the architectonic ground plans,
and sections of the most important tombs, and after we had, in the most
complete manner, drawn or taken paper impressions of their pictures and
inscriptions, as far as they were accessible to us, we had accomplished
more completely than we ever hoped to do, the first and most important
task of our journey, since we had acquired a basis for our knowledge
concerning the monuments of the oldest Egyptian monarchy.
On the 19th May, 1843, we proceeded still farther, and encamped on the
23rd in the Faiûm, upon the ruins of the LABYRINTH. Its true position
was long ago conjectured; and our first view dissipated all our doubts
concerning it. The interesting discovery of the actual site of the
ancient Lake Mœris was made about the same time, by the distinguished
French architect Linant, which we had the opportunity of confirming
on the spot. This greatly facilitated the means of comprehending the
topographical and historical conditions of this province, so remarkable
in all its features. The magnificent schemes which converted this
originally desolate Oasis into one of the most productive parts of Egypt,
were intimately connected with each other, and must have belonged, if
not to a single king, still to one epoch of time. The most important
result we obtained by our investigations of the Labyrinth and of the
adjoining Pyramids, was the determination of the historical position of
the original founder; this we obtained by excavations, which occupied
a considerable time. We discovered that the king, who was erroneously
called Mœris by the Greeks, from Lake Mere—_i. e._ from the Lake of
the Nile inundation—lived at the end of the 12th Manethonic Dynasty,
shortly before the invasion of the Hyksos, and was called _Amenemhe_ by
Manetho Ἀμενέμης, the third of his name. His predecessors in the same
Dynasty had already founded the town of Crocodilopolis, in the centre
of the Faiûm, which is proved by some ruins that still exist belonging
to that period; and they probably conducted the Nile Canal, Bahr-Jusef,
which branches off from Derut-Scherif, into the basin of the Desert.
That part of the basin which is most advanced, and situated highest,
terminated in a lake formed by means of gigantic dams, many of which
still exist; and the connection of the canal was regulated by sluices
in such a manner, that in the dry season the reserved water could flow
back again into the valley of the Nile, and irrigate the country round
the capital long after the Nile had retreated within its banks. Amenemhe
built his Pyramid on the shore of the lake, and a splendid temple in
front of it. It afterwards formed the centre of the Labyrinth, whose many
hundred chambers, forming three regular masses of buildings, surrounded
the oldest portion, and, according to Herodotus, were destined by the
Dodecarchs for the general Diets. The ruins of the Labyrinth had never
yet been correctly represented, not even in their general arrangement.
An Arabian canal, which was carried through it at a later period, had
drawn away the attention of passing travellers from that portion of
the chambers which was in best preservation. We have made the most
exact ground plan, accompanied by sections and views. A journey round
the province, as far as Birqet-el-Qorn, and beyond it, to the ruins of
_Diméh_ and _Qasr Qerûn_, induced us to remain several months in this
neighbourhood.
On the 23rd August we embarked at _Beni-suef_, visited a small
rock-temple of King _Sethôs I._ at _Surarieh_, on the eastern shore,
and farther on, the remains of later monuments in the neighbourhood of
_Tehneh_. At _Kûm-Ahmar_, a little to the south of Zauiet-el-meitîn, we
examined a series of nineteen rock-tombs belonging to the 6th Manethonic
Dynasty. The groups of tombs which are scattered about a few days’
journey to the south, at _Schech-Said_, _El-Harib_, _Wadi-Selin_, and
still farther on, at _Qasr-e’-Saiât_, also belonged to this period,
which, in point of age, was immediately connected with the flourishing
time of the great builder of the Pyramids. If we judge by the remains
now extant, it appears that there were, at that early period especially,
in this portion of Central Egypt, a number of flourishing cities. Royal
kindred are frequently met with among the ancient possessors of the
tombs, but no sons or daughters of the king, because there was no royal
residence in that neighbourhood. But we found the last flourishing period
of the Old Monarchy—the 12th Manethonic Dynasty—represented in this
part of Egypt by the most beautiful and most considerable remains. The
rock-tombs of Beni Hassan, so remarkable for their architecture, as well
as for the various paintings on their walls, peculiarly belong to this
period. The town to which they appertained, the residence of a governor
of the eastern province of the country, has entirely disappeared, all
except the name, which is preserved in the inscriptions. It appears that
it only flourished a short time during this dynasty, and again declined
at the invasion of the Hyksos. In the neighbouring _Berscheh_ also, and
farther on, among the Lybian rocks, behind the town of _Siut_, which was
as important 4000 years ago as it is at present, we again found the same
plans of tombs on as magnificent a scale, whose period of erection might
be recognised even at a distance.
It is a singular fact, that in point of age the greater proportion of
the remains of the Egyptian monuments become more modern the higher we
ascend the Nile valley, the reverse of what might have been expected from
a large view of the subject; according to which the Egyptian civilisation
of the Nile valley extended from south to north. While the Pyramids of
Lower Egypt, with the monuments around them, had displayed the oldest
civilisation of the 3rd, 4th, and 5th Dynasties in such wonderful
abundance, we found the 6th Dynasty, and the most flourishing period of
the 12th, the last of the Old Monarchy, especially represented in Central
Egypt. Thebes was the brilliant capital of the New Monarchy, especially
of their first Dynasties, surpassing all other places in the number of
its wonderful monuments; and even now it offers us a reflection of the
splendour of Egypt in her greatest times. Art, which still created
magnificent things even in its decline, under the Ptolemies and the
Roman emperors, has left considerable monuments behind it, consisting
of a series of stately temples in _Dendera_, _Erment_, _Esneh_, _Edfu_,
_Kûm-Ombo_, _Debôd_, _Kalabscheh_, _Dendûr_, _Dakkeh_, which are all,
with the exception of Dendera, in the southern part of the Thebaid, or
in Lower Nubia. Lastly, those monuments of the Nile valley which are
situated most to the south, especially those of the “Island” of _Meröe_,
are the latest of all, and most of them belong to the centuries after the
Christian era.
We hastened immediately from the monuments of the Old Monarchy in Central
Egypt to Thebes, and deferred till our return the examination of the
well-preserved, but modern temple of Dendera, the ruins of Abydos, and
several other places. But of Thebes, also, we took but a preliminary
survey, for we only remained there twelve days, from the 6th to the 18th
of October.
We were impatient to commence immediately our second fresh task, which
consisted in the investigation of the Ethiopian countries, situated
higher up the river. The French-Tuscan expedition did not go beyond
Wadi Halfa; Wilkinson’s careful description of the Nile land and its
monuments, which contains so much information, only extends a little
higher up, as far as Semneh. The most various conjectures were still
entertained concerning the monuments of Gebel Barkal and Meröe, with
reference to their age and their signification. It was necessary to
obtain a general view of the true relation between the History and
Civilisation of Egypt and Ethiopia, founded upon a complete examination
of the remains which are still extant.
Therefore, after a cursory visit to the temple ruins, as far up as Wadi
Halfa, we returned to Korusko, from which place we started on the 8th
of January, 1844, through the Great Desert to Abu-Hammed, and the Upper
Nile countries. On the 16th of January we arrived at Abu-Hammed, on the
other side of the desert; on the 28th, at _Beg´erauîeh_, near to which
the Pyramids of Meröe are situated. From _Schendi_, which lies more to
the south, we visited the temple ruins of _Naga_ and _Wadi e’ Sofra_,
far on in the interior of the eastern desert. On the 5th of February we
reached _Chartûm_, at the confluence of the White and the Blue Nile. From
this place, accompanied by Abeken, I descended the Blue River, passed the
ruins of _Soba_ and _Sennâr_, as far as the 13° of N. lat.; whilst the
other members of the expedition returned from Chartûm to the Pyramids of
Meröe. The tropical countries of the Nile, when contrasted with those
northern ones, devoid of rain, extending south as far as the 17°; and the
plants and animals now almost exclusively confined to South Ethiopia,
when compared with individual representations of the ancient Egyptian
monuments, were rendered still more interesting by the discovery of some
monuments, with inscriptions upon them, near Soba, by which we obtained
traces of the ancient vernacular language of those districts in a written
character resembling the Coptic.
I also made use of our residence in these districts to be instructed by
the natives of the adjacent countries in the grammar and vocabulary of
their languages.
On the 5th of April I returned with Abeken to the other members of the
expedition at _Beg´erauîeh_. After drawings had been made of all that
still existed which peculiarly represented the state of civilisation in
Ethiopia, and after we had taken the most exact plans of the localities,
we proceeded in six days, by the desert Gilif, to _Gebel Barkal_, where
we arrived on the 6th of May. Here was the more northern, the more
ancient, and, to judge by the remains, also the more important capital
of the State of Meröe. At the foot of this single mass of rock, which
rises in an imposing manner, and is called there, in the hieroglyphical
inscriptions, “The Sacred Mountains,” is situated _Napata_. The history
of this place, which we may still derive from its ruins, gives us at once
a key to the relations which subsisted in general between Ethiopia and
Egypt, as regards the history of their civilisation. We find that the
most ancient epoch of art in Ethiopia was purely Egyptian. It is as early
as the period of the great Ramses, who, of all the Pharaohs, extended his
power farthest, not only towards the north, but also towards the south,
and testified this by monuments. At an early period he built a great
temple here. The second epoch begins with King _Tahraka_, also known as
the ruler of Egypt, the _Thirhaka_ of the Bible. This spot was adorned
with several magnificent monuments by him and his immediate successors,
and though they were built in a style now employed by native kings, it
is, nevertheless, only a faithful copy of the Egyptian style. Lastly,
the third epoch is that of the kings of _Meröe_, whose dominion extended
as far as Philæ, and was manifested also at Gebel Barkal by numerous
monuments. On an intermediate journey into the Cataract country, situated
farther up the river, which we had cut off by the Desert journey, I found
only Middle-Age, but no ancient, Ethiopian remains of buildings.
The fertile and extensive province of _Dongola_, on the northern
frontier, which we traversed on the 4th of June, after our departure
from Barkal, afforded us but few remarkable ancient remains; we may,
however, mention among these the island of _Argo_, with its monuments,
from the 13th Manethonic Dynasty. They became still more numerous in the
northern borders of Dongola, from which a nearly continuous Cataract
country extends as far as Wadi Halfa. Near _Tombos_ we found traces of
the Egyptian dominion under the Pharaohs of the 17th and 18th Dynasties,
rock-tablets with the shields of the two first Thutmosis and of the third
Amenophis. Farther on, at _Sesebi_, there were the remains of temples of
the first SETHÔS of the 19th Dynasty. The great Temple of _Soleb_, built
by Amenophis III. and IV., detained us five days. The ruins of the Temple
of _Sedeïnga_, and those upon the island of _Sai_, belonged to the 18th
and 19th Dynasties. Opposite this island stood the remarkable Temple of
_Amara_, which was built by the Kings of Meröe and Naga, and is still an
important proof of the extent of their dominion.
_Semneh_ was the next point we reached. The Nile is here compressed
within a breadth of only about 1150 feet between high rocky shores.
On both sides there are ruins of old temples of the 18th Dynasty. But
these were not the earliest buildings which were erected here. We found
a considerable number of inscriptions from the 12th and 13th Manethonic
Dynasties, especially on the large foundations of the Temple of _Kummeh_,
situated lower down, opposite Semneh on the eastern bank, as well as on
the scattered rocks on both banks in the neighbourhood of that temple.
Many of them were intended to indicate the highest risings of the Nile
during a series of years, especially in the reigns of the Kings Amenemhe
III. and Sebekhotep I., and by comparing them, we obtained the remarkable
result, that about 4000 years ago the Nile used to rise at that point,
on an average, twenty-two feet higher than it does at present. This,
therefore, which we saw before us was the most ancient Nilometer; and
the earliest statements of the heights, and their greatest number, were
recorded during the reign of the same king, the Mœris of the Greeks,
with whom we had already become acquainted in the Faiûm, as the great
hydraulic architect. The strong fortifications on both banks of that
narrow part of the river convinced us at once that, during the early
times of the 12th Dynasty, this remarkable point served as the boundary
of the Egyptian dominion, against the Ethiopian nations who dwelt more to
the south.
At _Wadi Halfa_, on the 30th of July, we again left the Cataract
country, remained from the 2nd to the 11th of August in _Abu Simbel_,
examined until the end of the month the ruins of _Ibrîm_, _Anîbe_,
_Derr_, _Amada_, _Sebûa_, _Dakkeh_, _Kubán_, _Gerf-Hussên_, _Sabagûra_,
_Dendûr_, _Kalabscheh_, _Debôt_, and spent the whole of the following
month in examining the monuments of the Island of _Philæ_, and the
islands of _Bigeh_, _Konosso_, _Sehêl_, and _Elephantine_, surrounding
it, and of the stone quarries between _Philæ_ and _Assuan_. October was
spent visiting _Ombos_, the two _Silsilis_, _Edfu_, the desert Temple of
_Redesíeh_, _El-Kâb_, _Esneh_, _Tôd_, and _Erment_.
On the 2nd of November we again arrived on Theban ground, and first
visited the rock-tombs of _Qurnah_, on the west side, where we remained
nearly four months, till the 20th of February, 1845, when we encamped
for three more months at _Karnak_. The number of monuments of all
kinds, both above and below ground, at Thebes, is so great that they
may be truly called inexhaustible, even for a combined power like ours,
and for the limited portion of time which we were able to devote to
their investigation. But the age of the monuments at Thebes is almost
exclusively limited to the _New Monarchy_; and the most ancient we
discovered, such as one might generally expect to find, are not earlier
than the 11th Manethonic Dynasty, the last but one of the Old Monarchy;
for this simple reason, because it was in this Dynasty that Thebes first
became a royal residence, and hence the focus of Egyptian splendour. The
great break in the succession at the end of the 12th Dynasty, caused
by the invasion of the Hyksos, and their dominion, which lasted many
centuries, first drove the Egyptian power back into Ethiopia, and at
length entirely destroyed it, till the powerful Pharaohs of the 17th,
18th, and 19th Dynasties again advanced from the south, drove back
the Semitic intruders, and raised the power of the Egyptian empire to
its summit. The greater proportion of Theban monuments date also from
this period. As we may suppose they have been the principal object of
investigation to all travellers, therefore our work here had been for the
most part anticipated.
Nevertheless it was necessary to re-examine the whole ground most
carefully, partly to complete the deficiencies left by our predecessors,
partly to make a proper selection of those monuments which were of
most importance for our particular purpose, and which we were anxious
to insert among our collections, either in the shape of a drawing, or
an impression upon paper, or even in the original itself. We directed
our principal attention during the whole journey, and especially here,
to taking the most exact architectonic plans of all the buildings and
other localities which appeared to us to be of any consequence; and for
this purpose we did not hesitate to make extensive excavations. By this
means we succeeded, amongst other things, in discovering, and recording
for the first time, a perfect plan of the most beautiful of all the
temple buildings, namely, the Ammon Temple, built by Ramses II., which
is described by Diodorus under the name of the sepulchre of Osymandyas.
We made several excavations also in the valleys of the royal tombs, and
opened, for instance, the rock-tomb of the same Ramses II., one of the
largest of those which have hitherto been accessible. Unfortunately, the
interior chambers were so much destroyed by the dirt and rubbish that had
fallen in, that we could make out little more from the representation
upon the walls than the proprietor of the tomb.
Accompanied by the artist Max Weidenbach, I made an intermediate journey
from Karnak to the peninsula of Sinai. We went thither by the old road
from _Koptos_ to _Aennum_ (_Philotera_), now leading from _Qeneh_ to
_Kossêr_, which conducted us first to the remarkable stone quarries of
_Hammamât_, already worked out during the Old Monarchy. The numerous
rock-inscriptions, which date as far back as the 6th Dynasty, occupied
us here for five whole days. From this place we passed through the
Arabian chain of mountains to the north, as far as _Gebel Zeït_, where
we embarked for _Tôr_, situated opposite. We ascended through _Wadi
Hebrân_ to the convent, and from thence through _Wadi e’ Scheikh_, _Wadi
Firân_, _W. Mokatteb_, _W. Maghâra_, by _Sarbut el Châdem_, down again to
_Abu Zelîmeh_, where we got into our vessel, to return to _Kossêr_ and
_Thebes._
As early as the 4th Manethonic Dynasty, between three and four thousand
years before Christ, this Desert Peninsula was subject to Egypt, and was
principally colonised by the Egyptians on account of the Copper mines,
which are there met with on the limits of the primitive mountain range,
and the surrounding sandstone mountains. Upon several rock-tablets of
_Wadi Maghâra_, the kings of those oldest Dynasties were represented
fighting with the Semitic aborigines, and the inscriptions of _Sarbut el
Châdem_ were at least as early as the 12th Dynasty. We did not, also,
lose sight of the great interest which is attached to these localities
of the peninsula in connection with the Old Testament. More especially,
I believe, that I have succeeded for the first time (not excepting
Burckhardt) in determining the correct position of _Sinai_, since,
contrary to the tradition of the convent, hitherto accepted, I did not
recognise it in one of the southern mountains, but in _Serbâl_, which is
situated several days’ journey more to the north, at whose base lies the
only fertile oasis of the whole peninsula. This opinion which has been
already published in a preliminary account of the journey, addressed to
the King of Prussia, has met with frequent oppositions, but has also
latterly received much approbation, I believe, in a special treatise upon
the question, by W. Hogg, printed in the last half of the “Transactions
for the Royal Society of Literature” (1848). I have not hitherto been
able to discover any material counter-arguments in the discussions which
have been held upon the subject, but, on the other hand, much stronger
evidence that, contrary to the later Byzantine tradition, the more
ancient Christian, and probably the Egyptian tradition itself, considered
Serbâl, at whose foot the oldest convent was situated, to be the true
Sinai.
On the 14th of April we returned to Thebes, and finally left it on the
16th of May. On our way back to Lower Egypt, we re-examined more minutely
the monuments of _Schenhur_, _Dendera_, _Hou_, _Abydos_, _Echmim_, _El
Bosra_, _Tel el Amarna_, and _El Hibe_, and on the 27th of June, our
party, which had been increased at the last stage by the addition of Dr.
Bethmann, again entered Cairo.
I was detained there myself some months longer than the other members
of the expedition, in order to direct the transportation of several
sepulchral chambers in the neighbourhood of the Great Pyramids, and to
superintend the embarkation of the valuable blocks of stone, together
with the other monuments, which we brought with us from Upper Egypt and
Ethiopia, and which the Viceroy Mohammed Ali sent as a present to his
Majesty the King of Prussia. In this troublesome as well as important
affair, for the practical performance of which four experienced workmen
had been expressly sent from Berlin to Egypt, I had only the kind
assistance of Dr. Bethmann, who accompanied me on an independent footing
during the remainder of the journey back.
After a final visit to Alexandria, we embarked on the 25th of September
at _Cairo_ for _Damietta_, but on the way visited the ruins of _Samanúd_,
_Behbét_, and the Ramses-Temple of _San_ (Tanis), and left Egypt on
the 1st of October, in a vessel which took us to Jaffa. After we had
traversed the whole length of Palestine, and from Jerusalem had visited
the Dead Sea, and from Beyrout, Damascus, and Baalbec, at the mouth of
the _Nahr el Kelb_, the ancient _Lykos_, we came upon the last Egyptian
monuments in the north, namely, those celebrated memorial-tablets,
which the great Ramses II. engraved beside the old military road, as
a recollection of his warlike and victorious Asiatic campaigns in the
fourteenth century before Christ. After a period of more than 3000 years,
neither the form, nor even the Name-Shield of the powerful Pharaoh, at
whose court Moses was educated, had been destroyed by the destructive
sea-air. On one tablet, indeed, I was able to distinguish the date of
the fourth, on another that of the second year of his reign.
According to the testimony of Herodotus, similar monuments of Sesostris
are also found in Ionia, and some time ago, one which he describes as
being there, was re-discovered. But an excursion from Smyrna to that spot
soon convinced us that the rock-picture of _Karabel_ was produced by an
Asiatic and not by an Egyptian chisel.
Lastly, we saw in the Hippodrome, at Constantinople, the obelisk of the
third Tuthmosis, but, like others, sought in vain for the second, which
earlier travellers would have us believe that they had seen. On the 24th
December, I left Constantinople, and landed on the 5th January, 1846, in
Trieste.
* * * * *
The whole journey, of which this is a very hasty sketch, was one of the
most fortunate expeditions which has ever been undertaken for a similar
purpose. None who participated in it suffered from the climate or the
accidental casualties of a journey. We travelled under the powerful and,
in every way efficient protection of the Viceroy. We had an explicit
and written permission to make excavations, wherever we should consider
it desirable, and we employed it, to acquire a number of interesting
monuments for the Royal Museum at Berlin, which would either have
remained in Egypt as rubbish under the sand-hills, or exposed, like so
many others, to be destroyed, for all kinds of material purposes.
The scientific results of the expedition have, in almost all respects,
surpassed our own expectations. In confirmation of this it will be
sufficient briefly to survey these results, which I shall do in the
following pages, according to their principal objects, and by entering
into some of the details.
The plan of the journey, as a whole, and in its individual parts, was
founded principally with a Historical purpose in view. The French-Tuscan
expedition, compared with ours was a _Journey of Discovery_, with all
the advantages, but also with all the disadvantages, connected with
such an undertaking. We were able from the commencement to aspire after
a certain completeness, within the wide limits that were assigned us,
not however failing in making new discoveries, which were as important
as they were unexpected. The investigation of the most ancient Egyptian
times, namely, the epoch of the first Pharaonic Monarchy, from about 3900
to 1700 before Christ, extending the history of the world almost two
thousand years farther back, was left entirely unfathomed by Champollion.
He only ascended the Nile valley as far as the second Cataract, beyond
which there existed a great number of Egyptian monuments of all kinds,
wholly unexamined, in which we must seek for an explanation of all those
Ethiopian antiquities which are inseparable from the Egyptian.
The most important results we obtained, therefore, were in Chronology
and History. The Pyramid-fields of Memphis gave us a notion of the
Civilisation of Egypt in those primitive times, which is pictorially
presented to us in 400 large drawings, and will be considered in future
as the first section in that portion of the history of man, capable of
investigation, and must be regarded with the greatest interest. Those
earliest Dynasties of Egyptian dominion, now afford us more than a barren
series of empty, lost, and doubtful names. They are not only free from
every real doubt and arranged in the Order and the Epochs of time, which
have been determined by a critical examination, but by showing us the
flourishing condition of the people in those times, both in the affairs
of the State, Civil affairs, and in the Arts, they have received an
intellectual and frequently a very individual historical reality. We
have already mentioned the discovery of five different burial-places of
the 6th Dynasty in Central Egypt, and what we obtained from them. The
prosperous times of the New Monarchy, namely, the period of splendour in
the Thebaid, as well as the Dynasties which followed, were necessarily
more or less completed and verified. Even the Ptolemies, with whom
we appeared to be perfectly acquainted in the clear narratives of
Grecian history, have come forward in a new light through the Egyptian
representations and inscriptions, and their deficiencies have been filled
up by persons who were hitherto considered doubtful, and were hardly
mentioned by the Greeks. Lastly, on the Egyptian monuments we beheld the
Roman emperors in still greater and almost unbroken series, in their
capacity of Egyptian governors, and they have been carried down since
Caracalla, who had hitherto been considered as the last name written in
hieroglyphics, through two additional later emperors, as far as Decius,
by which means the whole Egyptian monumental history has been extended
for a series of years in the other direction.
Egyptian Philology has also made considerable progress by this journey.
The lexicon has been increased by our becoming acquainted with several
hundred signs, or groups, and the grammar has received a great many
corrections. Such copious materials have also been acquired for these
purposes, especially by the numerous paper impressions of the most
important inscriptions, that Egyptian Philology must be essentially
furthered by their being gradually adopted. For owing to the strict
accuracy of these impressions, they are almost as valuable, in many
investigations, as an equally large collection of original monuments.
In addition to this, the history of the Egyptian language, which by the
great age attributed to the earliest written monuments, embraces a period
of time between five or six thousand years, becomes now of much greater
importance in the universal history of the human language and writing.
Among the individual discoveries we made, the one which attracted most
attention, was that of the two decrees on the Island of Philæ, which
were bilingual, namely, written in hieroglyphics, and in the demotic
character,—one of which contains the decree belonging to the Rosetta
inscription, referring to the wife of Epiphanes.
In spite of numerous writings upon Egyptian Mythology, it has
nevertheless been hitherto deficient in a fixed monumental basis.
In the Temple at Thebes we beheld a series of representations whose
meaning had not hitherto been recognised, and which seem to me to afford
entirely new conclusions for the correct comprehension and development
of Egyptian mythology. The series of the first arrangement of the gods
mentioned by Herodotus and Manetho, which in modern investigations has
been differently arranged in its details by all scholars, is at length
placed beyond all doubt, and certainly differs in all essential points
from what has been hitherto everywhere adopted. I will briefly allude
here to another fact, important both in the history of mythology as
well as in a purely historical point of view, and which was elicited by
an attentive investigation of the monuments. The direct succession of
the reigning royal family was interrupted, towards the end of the 18th
Dynasty. Through the monuments we became acquainted with several kings of
this period, who were not afterwards admitted in the legitimate lists,
but were regarded as unauthorised cotemporary or intermediate kings.
Among these Amenophis IV. is to be particularly noted, who, during a
very active reign of twelve years, endeavoured to accomplish a complete
reformation of all secular and spiritual institutions. He built a royal
capital for himself in Central Egypt, near the present Tel-el-Amarna,
introduced new offices and usages, and aimed at no less a thing than to
abolish the whole religious system of the Egyptians, which had hitherto
subsisted, and to place in its stead the single worship of the _Sun_. In
all the inscriptions composed during his reign, there is not one Egyptian
god mentioned except the Sun; even in other words the sacred symbols
were avoided, _e. g._ the word _mut_, mother, Coptic ⲙⲁⲧ, was no longer
written as usual with the hawk 𓅐𓏏, the symbol of the goddess _Mut_, but
𓐝𓏏, MT, with the universal phonetic signs. Indeed, the former gods and
their worship were persecuted to such an extent by this king, that he
erased all the gods’ names, with the single exception of the Sun-god
_Ra_, from every monument that was accessible throughout the country,
and because his own name, Amenophis, contained the name of Ammon, he
changed it into Bech-en-aten, “Worshipper of the Sun’s disk.” Therefore
the fact, which has often been previously remarked, that at one particular
period the name of Ammon was intentionally destroyed, forms only part of
an event which had a much wider influence, and which unexpectedly reveals
to us the religious movements of those times.
The History of Art has never yet been considered in the point of view
from which Egypt, and all that concerns it, is now regarded. This
necessarily formed a particular object of our expedition, and most
directly gained by the increased chronological knowledge we obtained
concerning the monuments. For the first time we were able to pursue all
its branches during the old Egyptian Monarchy, previous to the invasion
of the Hyksos, and accordingly to extend both it and the history of Egypt
about sixteen centuries farther back, and some tens of years lower down
in time. The different epochs of Egyptian art now first appeared clear
and distinct, each marked by its peculiar character, intimately connected
with the general development of the people. They had so frequently been
misunderstood, that no one believed in their existence; they were lost
in the general uniformity. I must mention, as one of the most important
facts connected with this, that we found innumerable instances on
unfinished monuments of three different canons of proportions of the
human body; one belonging to the most ancient Pharaonic Monarchy, another
later than the 12th Dynasty, when Thebes first began to flourish; a
third, which appears at first in the time of the Psammetichi, with an
entire alteration in the Principle of the division, and which remained
unaltered till the time of the Roman emperors. The last is the same
which Diodorus expressly mentions in his first book. Among the separate
branches of Egyptian art, Architecture, which was almost unnoticed by
the French-Tuscan expedition, was with us peculiarly attended to, by
the extremely careful and circumspect labours of our architect Erbkam.
This was befitting the important position occupied by this particular
branch, in which grandeur, that element of art, peculiarly belonging to
the Egyptian beyond all other nations, was capable of being developed,
and has developed itself to the utmost. The study of the sculpture
and paintings devolved upon the other artists who accompanied us, and
the ability and fidelity with which they fulfilled their task must be
recognised by every one. The Egyptian style associated with the limited
views characteristic of the infancy of art, nevertheless possesses a
highly-cultivated ideal element, which must be acknowledged by every
one. The genius of Greece could never have bestowed on art such a marked
character, indicative of a period of prosperous liberty, if it had not
received it as a severe, chaste, and carefully nurtured child from the
Egyptians. The principal task of the history of Egyptian art is to point
out wherein consisted this cultivation of art, peculiar to the Egyptians,
above all the primitive nations of Asia.
In the next place, Egyptian archæology, in the widest sense of the word,
claimed a large portion of our time and attention: an extensive field,
already examined, both successfully and diligently, by Wilkinson and
Rosellini, which they were enabled to do by means of the inexhaustible
number of separate objects belonging to every-day life, still in
preservation, and by the representations of them, which are found in all
directions, far surpassing any other ancient remains.
On that account it was still more necessary to make a stricter
investigation, and to regard it from a higher point of view, rather than
accumulate a greater number of individual things, that notwithstanding
obtruded themselves on all sides, and which, besides, we collected in
large quantities, as material to work upon.
Lastly, Geography and Chorography, which travellers are especially
expected to promote, required to be more peculiarly prosecuted. We must
particularly mention here, that besides the peculiar investigation of
the Pyramid fields at Memphis, and in the Faiûm, which have been already
alluded to, our records of the ruins of towns, and ancient monuments
in the Nile country, as far up as Sennâr, are more perfect and exact
than any hitherto made. With regard to the modern geographical names,
which must always be viewed in comparison with the ancient, I have been
most particular in obtaining the Arabic names—at least, throughout the
district we traversed—in order to counteract, as far as lay in my power,
the insufferable confusion in the names which are marked down. During
the journey, I made special maps for the individual portions of the
eastern mountains of Egypt and the peninsula of Sinai, and I collected
geographical accounts from travellers concerning some remote districts,
which we did not enter, and which are but little known; and I had
geographical drawings made of them. Our investigations of the historical
places in the peninsula of Sinai have been already alluded to. The
discovery, mentioned above, of the most ancient Nilometer at _Semneh_,
has added, in a remarkable degree, also to the history of the physical
condition of the Nile valley; since it is quite evident, from the water
just above the second Cataract, standing at that time twenty-two feet
higher than at present, and the height of the water in the Thebaid being
contemporaneously twelve to fifteen feet lower, that the fall of the Nile
in the intermediate country was thirty-five feet greater in those times
than it is now. But this gradual levelling of the bed of the river must
have had the most decided influence on the history of the cultivation
of the valley, and of the whole population; because the soil on the
banks of the river in the district of Nubia, more especially owing to
the considerable sinking of the water, being inaccessible to the natural
overflowings, was laid dry, and could only be irrigated with great
difficulty, and imperfectly, by means of artificial water-wheels.
Considerable progress was made in the knowledge of the African languages,
by the investigation which I was principally enabled to make in the
southern part of our journey. I inquired into and noted down as much
of the grammar and vocabulary of three languages, as would enable me
to give a distinct idea of them. First, Kongára, spoken at Dar-Fûr and
the adjacent countries, a Central African-Negro language. Secondly,
the Nuba language, which is spoken in two chief dialects, in one part
of the Nubian-Nile valley and in the neighbouring countries situated
to the south-west, and also appears to be derived from the interior of
Africa. It had hitherto never been a written language, and I collected
together for the first time a piece of written Nubian literature, for
I made a Nubian Sheikh, who was perfectly familiar with the Arabic
language and writing, translate the Fables of Locman, a portion of the
Thousand and One Nights, and the Gospel of St. Mark, from the Arabian
into the Nubian tongue, and write down besides nineteen Nubian songs,
some of them in rhyme, some only rhythmical, and translate them into
Arabic. Unfortunately, these precious packets, all but the Nubian gospel,
were lost in Europe, with little hope of recovery. The third language
investigated by me was the Beg´a, which is spoken by the Bischâri
nation, who dwell between the Red Sea and the Nubian Nile. This language
occupies an important position with reference to philology, since it
seems to be a branch of the original Asiatic stock, of which the African
offsets may be comprehended under the name of the HAMITIC languages; and
is, besides, particularly interesting in our study of the monuments,
because, most probably, it was once the key to decipher the ancient
Ethiopian inscriptions, numbers of which were discovered by us upon the
Island of Meröe, and from that place, in the Nile valley, as far down as
Philæ. These inscriptions are written in simple characters, from right to
left, and derive their origin from the powerful nation of the Meröitic
Ethiopians, whose direct descendants we behold in the present Beg´a
nations. By comparing those languages with the other languages of Africa,
which are already better known, I think I shall be able to separate,
according to fixed principles, these “Hamitic languages” of north and
north-east Africa (which may still be referred to their native home in
Asia) from the numerous other languages of this enigmatical continent;
and I am now engaged in preparing these philological investigations for
special publication.
I must finally mention, among the results of our journey, two collections
of inscriptions. In the first place, all the Greek inscriptions in the
countries we travelled through were carefully sought out, and impressions
of them were taken upon paper; by which Græco-Egyptian archæology,
and more particularly the learned collections of inscriptions which
have lately excited such lively interest, will probably be completed,
confirmed, or justified in a satisfactory manner. Secondly, in the
peninsula of Sinai we made as perfect a collection as was possible of
the so-called _Sinaitic Inscriptions_, which are found engraved on the
rocks in different districts of the peninsula, but principally in the
neighbourhood of the old town of Faran, at the foot of the mountain range
of Serbâl, and at a resting-place of the caravans in Wadi Mokatteb,
situated farther north, which is named after them.
We were only able casually to turn our attention to objects of Natural
Science; nevertheless, I did not however neglect, especially during
remote mountainous journeys, to collect specimens of stone and earth
from the more remarkable localities. We not only visited the celebrated
stone quarries in the chalk mountains of Tura, in the sandstone range of
Selseleh, in the granite rocks of Assuan, and others situated in the Nile
valley, but also those alabaster quarries of El Bosra, opposite Siut,
which were discovered a few years ago by the Bedouins, in which last we
found a rock-inscription from the commencement of the 17th Dynasty. They
resemble those quarries of granite and brecciaverde at HAMMAMÂT, upon
the road leading from Qeneh to the Red Sea, which have been worked from
the earliest times, and also the porphyry and granite quarries at Gebel
Fatireh (Mons Claudianus), and at Gebel Dochân (Mons Porphyrites), in the
Arabian chain of mountains, celebrated in the Roman period. I also had
an opportunity of purchasing an interesting Ethnographical and Natural
History collection in Alexandria, obtained by H. Werne during Mohammed
Ali’s second expedition up the Nile, which penetrated as far as the 4°
N. lat., of which an account was published; and I received a valuable
collection of Egyptian fishes for the Anatomical Museum in Berlin, from
the celebrated French physician Clot Bey.
LETTERS FROM EGYPT AND ETHIOPIA.
DEDICATED, WITH THE PROFOUNDEST VENERATION AND GRATITUDE, TO ALEXANDER
VON HUMBOLDT.
LETTER I.
_On board the Oriental Steamer, the 5th of September, 1842._
All our efforts were taxed to enable us to depart on the 1st September;
the delay of one day would have cost us a whole month, so it was
necessary to be doubly active. A visit to Paris was indispensable, and I
reached it in thirty-one hours from London; but two days were all that
could be spared to procure what was requisite in the way of purchases,
letters, and notes. I returned richly laden from this city, ever rich
to me in interest, information, and various proofs of kindness. In
London, I acquired two additional excellent travelling companions—Bonomi
and Wild, who had lately determined to share in the expedition on an
independent footing. The former, already well known as a traveller in
Egypt and Ethiopia, not only has a thorough practical acquaintance with
the mode of life in those parts, but also possesses a critical knowledge
of Egyptian art, and is a master in Egyptian drawing; the latter, a young
architect, full of genius, seeks with enthusiasm in the East a new field
for the exercise of the rich and various gifts with which he is endowed.
At length, everything was purchased, provided, and packed, and we had
bid farewell to our friends. Bunsen alone, with his usual kindness, and
unwearied friendship, accompanied us as far as Southampton, the place of
our embarkation, where we spent the evening together.
As at other times, when landing from a stormy sea after days of rough
tossing, we suddenly enjoy an almost inconceivable degree of repose in
the quiet harbour, although for a long time we still feel the ground
tottering beneath us, and fancy we hear the sound of the breakers, so
on this occasion I experienced the same, though the case was reversed;
when, after the whirl of the last days and weeks, and coming from the
immense metropolis of the world, I reached the harbour, and entered the
narrow, quickly traversed and surveyed, wooden house of the monotonous
wilderness of the ocean. All at once there was nothing more to provide
and to hasten; the long row of more than thirty chests of our baggage
had vanished piece by piece into the dark hold of the ship; our cabins
required no arrangement, for they could scarcely contain more than our
own persons. The absence of disturbance for some time caused a new and
undefined kind of disturbance: anxiety, without anything to be anxious
about.
Among the passengers, I will only mention the missionary Lieder, a German
by birth, returning with his English wife to Cairo. Commissioned by the
English Missionary Society, he has founded and conducted a boys’ and
girls’ school there, which is now to be restricted exclusively to the
children of the Coptic Christians. Lieder has introduced instruction
in the Coptic language into this school, and has thus restored to an
honourable position that remarkable and most ancient language of the
country, which, for many centuries past, has been entirely supplanted
among the people by the Arabic tongue. It is true that the Holy
Scriptures still exist in the country in the Coptic tongue, and are even
used in public worship, but they are only chanted as psalms, and are no
longer understood.
We started from Southampton on the 1st September, about ten o’clock in
the morning. The wind was against us, and therefore we did not reach
Falmouth till twenty-four hours afterwards, where our ship waited for the
London mail, to take in the letters. We remained several hours at anchor
there, in a charming bay; an old castle is situated at the entrance
on either side, while in the background the town forms an extremely
picturesque group. About three o’clock we again put to sea, and as there
was a side-wind, it caused much sea-sickness among our party. I consider
myself fortunate, that even on the most stormy voyages I have never been
in this disagreeable condition, which nevertheless has something comic
in it for those who are not suffering. It is a curious circumstance that
the same motion which rocks the child into a sweet slumber, or which
invites us to a pleasure-sail in the tossing boat, on shipboard owing
to the slower time of the wide-swinging pendulum, becomes intolerable
suffering, and prostrates the strongest heroes, without, however, being
accompanied by any serious danger.
The following day we reached the Bay of Biscay, and with difficulty
cut through the long and deep waves, which rolled out from the distant
coast. On the morning of the 4th instant, Sunday, very few appeared at
breakfast. About eleven o’clock, in spite of the violent motion, we
assembled for divine service. The English flag, as the most sacred cloth
in the ship, was spread over the pulpit desk; Herr Lieder preached,
simply and well. About four o’clock we saw the Spanish coast for the
first time, in faint, misty outline. The nearer we approached it, the
waves gradually fell, for the wind blew off shore. Air, sky, and sea were
incomparably beautiful. Cape Finisterre, and the adjoining head-lands,
became more clear. We descried several small sailing-vessels along the
coast; and all kinds of sea-fowl swarmed round the ship. By degrees, the
whole company, even the ladies, collected on deck. The sea became as
smooth as the clearest mirror, and we kept the Spanish coast in sight
the whole afternoon. The sun descended magnificently into the sea; the
evening star was soon followed by the whole host of the heavenly stars,
and a glorious night wrapt around us.
But now the most splendid spectacle presented itself that I have ever
seen at sea. The ocean began to lighten up, all the crests of the
breaking waves glowed with an emerald-green fire, and a brilliant
greenish-white waterfall fell from the paddle-wheels of the vessel, which
left in its long wake a broad, light streak in the dark sea. The sides of
the vessel, and our downward gazing faces, were lighted up as bright as
moonlight, and I was able to read print without any difficulty by this
water-fire. When the illuminating matter, which, according to Ehrenberg’s
researches, proceeds from infusorial animalculæ, was most intense, we saw
flames dancing over the sea, as far as the coast, so that it seemed as
if we were sailing through a more richly-starred sky than that which was
above us. I have frequently observed this illumination of the sea on the
Mediterranean also, but never with such extraordinary brilliancy as on
this occasion. The spectacle was quite like enchantment.
Suddenly I observed between the waves new living streaks of fire, which
radiated from the vessel like two gigantic serpents, and, judging by the
proportions of the ship, were at least from sixty to eighty feet long;
they moved in a deceptive manner, in large windings beside the vessel,
crossed the waves, dipped into the foam of the paddle-wheels, reappeared,
retreated, hurried forward, and finally vanished in the distance. For
a long time I could not explain this phenomenon. I thought of the old
tales, so frequently repeated, of the huge sea-serpents which have been
seen from time to time. Nothing could more closely resemble what was
here before us. At length it occurred to me that it might however only
be fishes running a race with the vessel, and, by their rapid movements,
brushing the surface of the luminous sea, they might produce the long
streaks of light behind them. Nevertheless, the ocular demonstration
remained as deceptive as before; I could discover nothing of the dark
fishes, nor determine their size; but I at length consoled myself by my
own conjecture.
LETTER II.
_Alexandria, the 23rd of September, 1842._
I put my last letter into the post in Gibraltar, on the 7th September,
where we employed the few hours which were granted us in viewing the
citadel. The African continent lay before us, a light streak on the
horizon. Beneath me, apes were clambering on the rocks, the only ones
in Europe which live in a wild state, and on that account they are
left unmolested. In Malta, which we reached on the 11th September, we
found the painter Frey, from Basle, whom I had known at Rome. He told
me first, by word of mouth, that he desired to join in the expedition,
and had arrived some days before from Naples. We were compelled to wait
nearly three days for the post from Marseilles. This gave us at least
an opportunity to visit the wonders of the island; namely, the gigantic
buildings discovered, a few years back, near La Valetta, and to make
some purchases. Through Lieder, I became acquainted with Gobat, who has
hitherto managed the Maltese station of the English Missionary Society,
but is now waiting for a new destination, as pecuniary circumstances
compel the society to give up this station entirely. It gave me great
pleasure to make the acquaintance of this distinguished person.[2]
From Malta we were accompanied by the missionary Isenberg, who, like
Gobat, had lived for a long time in Abyssinia, and is also well known to
linguists by his grammar of the Amharic language. A young girl from Basle
was under his protection—Rosina Dietrich, the bride of the missionary
Krapf, who has married her here, and is now going to return with her
and his colleagues, Isenberg and Mühleisen, to the English missionary
station in Schoa, by the next Indian steamer. He was married in the
English chapel, and I was present as a witness at the ceremony, which was
performed with simplicity and feeling.
On our arrival, on the 18th September, we found Erbkam, Ernest
Weidenbach, and Franke, already here. They had been waiting for us
several days.
Mohammed Ali had put to sea with the fleet, as he was impatiently
expecting the arrival of Sami Bey, who was to bring him intelligence of
the desired reduction of tribute; in place of which, he had received the
appointment of Grand Vizier.
The Swedish Consul-General, d’Anastasi, who as the representative of our
Consul-General Von Wagner, still absent, manages the affairs of Prussia,
and who enters with zeal into all our interests, presented us to-day to
the Viceroy, and we have just returned from the audience. He expressed
himself much pleased with the vases, which I delivered to the Pascha in
the name of our Sovereign, and he felt himself still more honoured by the
King’s letter, of which he immediately ordered a written translation to
be made, and perused it with great attention in our presence, and desired
that I should be informed that he would give me the answer when we should
again leave the country. We were received, and dismissed standing; coffee
was handed to us, and he showed us other attentions, some of which were
afterwards carefully explained to me by d’Anastasi. Boghos Bey, his
confidential minister, was the only one present, and remained standing
all the time. Mohammed Ali appeared to be cheerful, and youthful in his
actions and conversation; no debility was visible in the features and
flashing eye of the old man of seventy-three. He spoke with interest of
his expeditions up the Nile, and assured us he intended to repeat them,
till he should have found the sources of the White River. On my inquiring
about his Museum in Cairo, he replied, that it certainly had not hitherto
been very successful, but that frequently, when rapid progress was
expected in his enterprises, unjust claims were made on him relative to
these matters in Europe; since he was compelled first to obtain a basis
and foundation, which, with us, had long been prepared. I only cursorily
alluded to our excavations; and in the course of conversation assumed
that he had granted us permission to make them; this I am soon to receive
in due form.[3]
[Illustration: EGYPT, NUBIA AND THE UPPER NILE
to illustrate the
_LETTERS OF DR. LEPSIUS_.]
LETTER III.
_Cairo, the 16th October, 1842._
We were detained almost fourteen days in Alexandria. The whole time
was spent in preparations for our farther journey. I saw the Pascha
several times again, and found him always favourably inclined towards
our expedition. But we had gained little in a scientific point of view.
We visited Pompey’s Pillar, which has nevertheless no connection with
Pompey, but, as we learn by the Greek inscription on the base, was placed
there by the Prefect Publius, in honour of the Emperor Diocletian. The
blocks of the foundation are partly fragments of older buildings; the
Royal Ring of the second Psammeticus could still be recognised upon one
of them.
The two obelisks, of which the one still standing is called Cleopatra’s
Needle, are very much destroyed on the sides which are exposed to the
weather, and in part have become totally illegible. They were erected
by THUTMOSIS III., in the sixteenth century before Christ; at a later
period RAMSES MIAMUN has inscribed his name, and still later, on the
outermost borders of the four sides, another king, who proved to be
hitherto wholly unknown, and was therefore gladly greeted by me. I must
also mention an interesting collection of objects of every sort connected
with ethnography and natural history, which was made by Werne, a native
of Prussia, during the second expedition of the Pascha up the Nile, as
far as the White River, in lands till then unknown, and which a few
months previously had been conveyed to Alexandria.[4] It appeared to me
of such value, and to be so unique in its kind, that I have purchased it
for our Museums. While we were still there, it was packed up, ready to be
despatched. I think it will be welcome in Berlin.
At length the Bujurldis (Firman) of the Pascha was ready, and we hastened
to quit Alexandria. We embarked the same day that I received it (the
30th September), on the Mahmudieh canal. Darkness surprised us before
we had accomplished this first difficult departure. It was nine o’clock
before we drove off from our hotel, on the extensive and beautiful
Frank-square, in two carriages belonging to M. d’Anastasi, preceded by
the customary runners with torches. The gate was opened at the watchword
that had been given to us; our baggage had already been conveyed to the
boat some hours previously on camels, so that we were able to depart very
soon after our entrance into the roomy vessel, which I had hired in the
morning. The Nile, which we entered at Atfeh, had tolerably high waves,
as the wind was strong and unfavourable. The usual mode of navigation
here, is with two pointed sails, which rise upwards like the wings of a
bee; these are easily beaten down, by every violent gust of wind, not
without danger, especially in the dark. I therefore granted the sailors
permission to stop every stormy night.
The following day, the 2nd of October, we landed at SA EL HAGER to
visit the ruins of ancient SAIS, the city of the Psammetici, famous by
its temple to Minerva. The circular walls of the town, built of bricks
of Nile earth, and the deserted ruins of the houses, are alone extant;
there are no remains of stone buildings with inscriptions. We paced the
circumference of the city, and made a simple plan of the locality. The
Acropolis was situated to the north-west of the town, which is even now
marked by tolerably high mounds of rubbish. We spent the night at NEKLEH.
I have got the great maps of the “Description de l’Egypte” beside me, on
which we were able to trace almost every step of our excursions. We have
hitherto found it almost everywhere to be depended upon.
The 3rd of October we landed on the western bank, to inspect the remains
of the old Rosetta canal, and spent almost the whole afternoon till
sunset in examining the ruins of an old town near NAHARIEH. No walls
are now visible, only mounds of rubbish, yet we found in the houses of
the modern town several stones with inscriptions, chiefly built into
door-sills, which had originally belonged to a temple of King Psammeticus
I. and APRIES (Hophre). The next night we stopped on the western bank at
TEIRIEH, and landed there the following morning to search for some ruins,
an hour distant from the bank, but from which we obtained nothing. The
Libyan desert here for the first time advances quite close to the Nile,
and presented us with a new and deeply impressive sight.
On the following morning, we first saw the Great Pyramids of Memphis,
rising above the horizon; I could not for a long time take my eyes off
them. We still continued to sail on the Rosetta arm; about mid-day we
reached the so-called Cowsbelly, where the Nile divides into its two
principal arms. Now for the first time we were able to survey the noble,
wonderful river in its whole magnitude, which with its fertilising and
sweet-tasting water, influences the life and manners of the inhabitants
on its banks like no other river in the world. It usually attains
its greatest height about the beginning of October. But this year an
inundation has occurred, such as has not been remembered for generations
past. A breach in the dams is dreaded, which after the great murrain,
that is said to have carried off up to the last week forty thousand head
of cattle, would cause Egypt to be afflicted a second time this year.
About five o’clock in the evening we arrived at BULAQ, the harbour
of Cairo. We rode at once from the harbour to the town, and made
arrangements for a considerable stay. By-the-by, when we say CAIRO, and
the French LA CAIRE, it proceeds from a pure error in language. The town
is never called anything by the Arabs now, but MASR, and the country the
same; that is the old Semetic name, which is more easily pronounced by
us in the dual termination Mis’raim. It was only in the tenth century,
when the present city was founded, that the modern Masr, by the addition
EL QAHIREH, that is “the victorious,” was distinguished from the earlier
MASR EL ATIQEH, the present Old Cairo. The Italians then omitted the _h_,
which they could not pronounce, mistook the Arabic article EL for their
masculine IL, and thus by its termination also, stamped the whole word as
masculine.
It was just the commencement of the Musulmans’ holy fasting month, the
Ramadan, during which they neither take food, nor “drink smoke or water”
the whole day, and receive no visits, but only begin the whole business
of life after sunset; thus completely changing day and night, which, on
account of our Arabian servants, causes us much inconvenience. Our Kawass
(the Pascha’s guard of honour that had been given us), which had missed
the time of our departure from Alexandria, established itself here. As
our Prussian vice-consul is out of health, I applied to the Austrian
consul, M. Champion, to whom I had been warmly recommended by Ehrenberg,
with respect to our being presented to the representatives of the Pascha
at this place. He received us with the greatest politeness and anxiety
to serve us, and has obtained for us everywhere a good reception. On
my official visits, which, on account of the Ramadan, were necessarily
made about eight o’clock in the evening, I was usually accompanied by
Erbkam and Bonomi. Our torch-bearers ran before us, then followed on
asses, first the Dragoman of the consul, and our Pascha’s Kawass, then we
ourselves, in stately procession. We rode almost across the whole town to
the Citadel, through the narrow streets, which were filled with Arabs,
and picturesquely illuminated by our torches, there we first paid a visit
to Abbas Pascha,[5] a grandson of Mehemet Ali. He is governor of Cairo,
but rarely there. From him we went to Scherif Pascha, his representative,
and then to the minister of war, Ahmet Pascha. We were everywhere
received with great courtesy.
On the day after our arrival, I received a diploma as honorary member of
the older Egyptian Society, from which the younger one, which had already
forwarded to London the same invitation to me, has separated. Both held
meetings during the first days after our arrival, but I was only able
to attend one of them, in which an interesting paper was read by Krapf,
on certain nations in Central Africa. The accounts were given him by a
native of the country of Enarea, who had travelled into the country of
the Doko on mercantile business, and describes the people there very much
as Herodotus describes the Libyan dwarf nation, according to the account
of the Nasamonians, namely, as composed entirely of little people, about
the size of children from ten to twelve years old. We might almost
imagine that they were speaking of apes. As the geographical notices of
the hitherto wholly unknown land of the Doko are also interesting, I had
the whole paper copied, in order to send it along with the small map
which belongs to it, to our venerated Ritter.[6]
On the 13th of October we made our first excursion from this place to
the ruins of HELIOPOLIS, the biblical _On_, whence Joseph took his wife
Asnath, the daughter of a priest. Nothing remains of this highly-praised
city, which prided itself in possessing, next to Thebes, the most learned
body of priests, but the walls, which now resemble great ramparts of
earth, and an obelisk still erect, and perhaps in its original site.
The peculiar interest of this obelisk is, that it was erected by King
SESURTESEN I. in the Old Monarchy, about B.C. 2300, and is by far the
most ancient of all known obelisks; for the broken one in the Fayoum
at Crocodilopolis, which bears the name of the same king, is rather a
lengthened _stele_, or tablet, in the form of an obelisk. Boghos Bey has
received a present of the ground on which the obelisk stands, and has
laid out a garden round it. The flowers of the garden have attracted a
multitude of bees, and they have been unable to find a more commodious
habitation than in the deep and sharply-cut hieroglyphics of the obelisk.
Within the space of a twelvemonth, they have covered the inscriptions of
the four sides to such a degree, that a great portion of them have now
become quite illegible. They had been, however, previously published,
and we had little difficulty in our examination, because three sides bear
the same inscription, and that on the fourth, also, differs but little.
Yesterday, the 15th October, was our king’s birthday, and I had selected
this day for the first visit to the Great Pyramids. We would there,
with a few friends, commemorate our King and our Fatherland in a joyous
festival. We invited the Austrian consul, Champion; the Prussian consul,
Bokty; our learned countryman, Dr. Pruner, and Messrs. Lieder, Isenberg,
Mühleisen, and Krapf to join our party, some of whom however, were to our
regret, prevented from attending.
The morning was beautiful beyond description, fresh and festive. We rode
in a long procession through the yet quiet city, and through the green
avenues and gardens which are now laid out before it. Wherever, almost,
that we met with new and well carried out works, Ibrahim Pascha was named
to us as their originator. He seems to be doing much in all parts of
Egypt for the embellishment and improvement of the country.
It is impossible to describe the scene that met our view when we emerged
from the avenues of date-trees and acacias; the sun rose on the left
behind the Moqattam hills, and illuminated the summits of the Pyramids
in front, which lay before us in the plain like gigantic rock crystals.
All were overpowered, and felt the solemn influence of the splendour and
grandeur of this morning scene. At Old Cairo we were transported across
the Nile to the village of Gizeh, from which the largest Pyramids are
called HARAM EL GIZEH. From this spot, in the dry season, one may ride
over to the Pyramids, by a straight road, in an hour, or little more. But
as the inundation now stands at its highest point, we were compelled to
make a great circuit on long dams; we came nearly as far up as Saqâra,
and only reached the foot of the greatest Pyramid at the end of five
hours and a half.
The unexpected length of the ride gave us an appetite for the simple
breakfast which, in order to strengthen us for the ascent of the
greatest Pyramid, we partook forthwith in one of the old sepulchral
chambers; these had been here hewn in the rock, somewhere about five
thousand years ago, and are now inhabited by some Bedouins. Meantime,
a spacious tent, with decorations of various colours, which I hired in
Cairo, had arrived. I had it pitched on the northern side of the Pyramid,
and the great Prussian royal standard, the black eagle with the golden
sceptre, the crown and the blue sword on a white ground, which our
artists had themselves, during the last few days, sketched, stitched, and
fastened to a high pole, was planted before the door of the tent.
About thirty Bedouins had, in the meanwhile, gathered around us, and
waited for the moment when we should ascend the Pyramids, in order to
raise us, with their strong brown arms, up the steps, which are between
three and four feet high. Scarcely had the signal for departure been
given, than immediately each of us was surrounded by several Bedouins,
who dragged us up the rough, steep path to the summit, as in a whirlwind.
A few minutes later, and our flag was unfurled on the summit of the
oldest and highest of human works that is known, and we greeted the
Prussian eagle with three joyous cheers to our king. Flying towards the
south, the eagle turned his crowned head towards our home in the north,
from which a refreshing wind blew, and diverted the hot rays of the
mid-day sun from off us. We also looked homewards, and each one thought
aloud, or silently in his heart, of those who loving, and beloved, he had
left behind.
The panoramic view of the landscape spread out at our feet next riveted
our attention. On the one side the Nile valley, a wide sea of overflowed
waters, intersected by long serpentine dams; here and there broken
by villages rising above its surface like islands, and by cultivated
promontories filling the whole plain of the valley that extended to the
opposite Moqattam hills, on whose most northerly point the citadel of
Cairo rises above the town stretched out at their base. On the other
side, the Libyan desert, a still more wonderful sea of sandy plains and
barren rocky hills, boundless, colourless, noiseless, enlivened by no
creature, no plants, no trace of the presence of man, not even by tombs;
and between both, the ruined _Necropolis_, whose general position and
simple outline lay spread out clearly and distinctly as on a map.
What a spectacle, and what recollections did it call forth! When Abraham
came to Egypt for the first time, he saw these very Pyramids, which had
been already built many centuries before his coming. In the plain before
us lay ancient Memphis, the residence of the kings on whose tombs we
were then standing; there dwelt Joseph, and ruled the land under one of
the most powerful and wisest Pharaohs of the newly restored Monarchy.
Farther away, to the left of the Moqattam hills, where the fruitful
low ground extends on the eastern arm of the Nile, beyond Heliopolis,
distinguished by its Obelisk, begins the blest region of Goshen, out of
which Moses led his people to the Syrian desert. It would not, indeed,
be difficult from our position to recognise that ancient fig-tree on the
road to Heliopolis, at Matarîeh, under whose shade, according to the
tradition of the country, Mary rested with the infant Christ. How many
thousand pilgrims of all nations have since visited these wonders of
the world down to ourselves, who, the youngest in time, are yet but the
predecessors of many other thousands who will succeed us, ascend these
Pyramids, and contemplate them with astonishment. I will not describe
any further the thoughts and feelings which agitated me during these
moments. There, at the goal of the wishes of many years, and at the
same time at the commencement of our expedition; there, at the summit
of the Cheops-Pyramid, to which the first link of our whole monumental
historical inquiry—not merely for the history of Egypt, but for that of
the world—is immoveably attached; there, where I looked down upon the
wonderful field of tombs, from which the Moses’-wand of science now calls
forth the shadows of the ancient dead, and causes them to pass before the
mirror of history, in the order of their time and rank, with their names
and titles, and with all their peculiarities, customs, and surrounding
accompaniments.
After I had taken an exact survey of the neighbouring tombs, with a view
to select some points for future excavations, we once more descended
to the entrance of the Pyramid, and, providing ourselves with lights,
entered, like miners, the steeply sloping shaft with some guides, and
reached the gallery, and so-called King’s Chamber, by paths already
familiar to me by drawings. We admired the infinitely fine seams of the
enormous blocks, and examined the quality of the stones of the passages
and chambers. In the spacious hall, whose floor, walls, and ceiling, are
entirely built of granite, and, therefore, return a metallic-sounding
echo, we sang our Prussian hymn, which sounded so powerful and so solemn
that our guides afterwards told the remaining Bedouins that we had
selected the innermost part of the Pyramid to perform divine service and
utter a loud general prayer. We now visited also the so-called Chamber
of the Queen, and then quitted the Pyramid, reserving the view of the
chambers which were more difficult of access for a future and longer
visit.
Meantime, our orientally-ornamented tent had been arranged, and a dinner
was prepared within it, seasoned by the importance of the festival, of
which only Prussians partook, with the exception of our two English
companions. It need hardly be told that our first toast on this occasion,
also, was to the king and his household, and it required no great
eloquence to inspire all hearts.
The remainder of the day passed in cheerful, festive, and tender
reminiscences and conversation, till the time for our departure had
arrived. We were still obliged to wait a quarter of an hour after sunset
to give our servants, our mule-drivers, and other Arabian attendants,
time to eat their frugal meal, as, on account of the Ramadan, in spite
of the heat and labours of the day, they had not yet tasted anything.
Then the clear, full moon guided us in the cool and silent night across
the sea of sand and waters, through villages and palm-groves back to the
city, which we did not reach before midnight.
LETTER IV.
_At the foot of the largest Pyramid, the 2nd Jan., 1843._
Still always here! in full activity since the 9th November, and perhaps
for several weeks longer in the new year. But yet, how could I suspect
from the accounts that have hitherto been given by travellers what a
harvest we had to gather on this spot; here, on the oldest scene of
all determinable chronological human history. It is strange how little
this spot has been examined, though it has been the most frequently
visited in Egypt. I will not, however, quarrel with our predecessors,
as we reap the fruits of their neglect. I have rather been compelled to
restrain our desire to see more of this land of wonders, as we shall
perhaps have to discharge half of our whole task on this spot. Two
tombs, besides the Pyramids, are conspicuously marked on the best of
the earlier maps. Rosellini has only accurately examined one tomb; and
Champollion says, in his letters: “Il y a peu à faire ici, et lorsqu’on
aura copié des scènes de la vie domestique, sculptées dans un tombeau,
je regagnerai nos embarcations.” We have given forty-five tombs on our
accurate topographical plan of the whole necropolis, whose occupants
have become known to me by their inscriptions, and altogether I have
recorded eighty-two, which seemed worthy of notice, by their inscriptions
or by other peculiarities.[7] Few of them belong to later times; almost
all of them were built during, or shortly after, the erection of the
great Pyramids, and therefore afford us an invaluable series of dates
for the knowledge of the oldest determinable civilisation of the human
race. The architecture of that period, about which I formerly could
only offer conjectures,[8] is now clearly developed before me. We have
thus early presented to us almost all the different component parts of
architecture; sculptures of entire figures, of all sizes, in alto-relievo
and basso-relievo, are presented in astonishing numbers. The style
is very marked, and beautifully executed, but it is evident that the
Egyptians of that time did not yet possess that canon of proportions
which we find prevailing at a later period.[9]
The painting on a very fine coating of lime is often beautiful beyond
conception, and is sometimes preserved as fresh and perfect as if it had
been done yesterday. The representations on the walls chiefly contain
scenes from the life of the deceased, and appear especially intended
to place before the eyes of the spectator his wealth in cattle, fish,
game, boats, domestics, &c. We thus become familiar with all the details
of his private life. The numerous inscriptions describe or designate
these scenes, or they exhibit the often widely-branching family of the
deceased, and all his titles and offices, so that I could almost compose
a court and state calendar of King Cheops, or Chephren. The most splendid
tombs or rock-sepulchres belonged principally to the princes, their
relatives, or the highest official persons under the kings beside whose
Pyramids they are laid; and not unfrequently, I have found the tombs of
father, son, and grandson, even great grandson, so that whole pedigrees
of those distinguished families, who, above 5000 years ago, formed the
nobility of the land, are brought to light. The most beautiful of the
tombs, which, with many others, I myself discovered beneath the sand,
which here buries all things, belongs to a prince of the family of King
Cheops.
I am now employing daily from forty to sixty people in excavations and
similar works. I have also made them dig in front of the great Sphinx,
to disclose the small temple which is situated between its paws, and to
expose the colossal stele of a single block of granite, eleven feet high
and seven feet broad, which forms the back wall of the little temple,
and which is still covered up with sand to nearly its entire height. It
is one of the few monuments here from the times of the great Pharaohs of
the New Monarchy, after the expulsion of the Hyksos; I have had a plaster
cast taken of it.
The Egyptian winter is not always so spring-like as is sometimes imagined
in Europe. About sunrise, when all hasten to their work, we have already
had it +5° R. (43¼ Fahr.), so that the sketchers could hardly use their
fingers.
The winter season began here with a scene which will always be vividly
remembered by me. I had ridden out to the excavations, when seeing a
large black cloud approaching, I sent a servant to the tents, to take
care of them, but as it began to rain slightly, I soon rode after him
myself. Shortly after my arrival a storm of wind began; I therefore
ordered the cords of the tents to be secured, but soon a violent shower
of rain came in addition, which alarmed all our Arabs, and drove them
into the rock-tomb, in which is our kitchen. Erbkam and Franke were the
only ones of our own party here. Suddenly the storm became a regular
hurricane, such as I had never witnessed in Europe, and a hailstorm came
down on us, which almost turned the day into night. I had the greatest
trouble to drive our Arabs out of the grotto, that they might bring our
things to the rock-tombs, where it was dry, as every moment we might
expect the overthrow of the tents. And it was not long before first our
common tent fell down, and when I had hastened from that into my own, in
order to hold it from the inside, this also broke down above me. After I
had crawled out, I found that my things were tolerably well covered by
the tent, so that for the present I might leave them alone, to prevent
a still greater danger. Our tents, protected from the worst winds, the
north and west, lay in a depression of the valley, towards which the
plateau of the Pyramids inclines. From that place I suddenly saw a rapid
mountain torrent precipitating, like a gigantic serpent on its certain
prey, upon our encampment, already half destroyed and beaten into the
sand. The principal stream first dashed towards the great tent; another
arm threatened mine, but did not however quite reach it. Everything,
however, which had been floated out of our tents by the heavy rain was
carried off by both streams, which united below the tents, and was borne
a hundred steps farther into a deep hollow behind the Sphinx, where a
great lake, which fortunately had no outlet, formed itself in a moment.
Now picture to yourself this scene! Our tents shattered to the ground by
the storms of rain and hail, between two mountain torrents, which at once
dug out a channel for themselves in the sandy ground, in several places
six feet deep, and carried down with them into the muddy, foam-covered,
slimy lake, our books, drawings, sketches, linen, instruments of all
kinds, even our levers and iron crows, in short everything they laid hold
on. In addition to this, we ourselves, with dripping clothes, without
hats, securing the heavier articles, pursuing the lighter ones, wading
up to the waist in the stream or lake, to fish out what the sand had not
yet swallowed, and all this the work of a quarter of an hour, at whose
expiration the sun forthwith shone again, and proclaimed the end of this
deluge scene by a splendid and brilliant rainbow.
It was difficult to see at once what we had lost, and where we had to
begin, to bring things again into some order. Both the Weidenbachs and
Frey had gazed, from the tombs where they were working, upon the whole
scene, as a magnificent natural spectacle, not suspecting what we had
experienced here, till I sent for them to assist us immediately in
preparing for the approaching night. For several days we continued to
fish and dig for our things. Many were lost, much had become useless;
the greater part of what was not enclosed in chests and trunks bore more
or less traces of this flood. After all, however, nothing essential
was destroyed. I had first placed in safety the great portfolios, with
my manuscripts and books; in short, a few days afterwards, the whole
affair only seemed to me a remarkable picture, which I should be sorry to
forget, without leaving any disagreeable consequences behind it.
Since then, we have often had to suffer from violent winds, which
sometimes fill the air for several days together with sand, to such a
degree, as to be annoying to the lungs; it entirely prevents painting
with colours, and covers the drawing and writing-paper incessantly with
a most disagreeable and constantly renewed coat of dust. This fine sand
penetrates all our clothes, enters every box, even those which close most
perfectly, fills nose, ears, and hair, and is the unavoidable ingredient
of all food, solid and liquid.
_5th January._—On the evening of the first Christmas holiday, I surprised
my companions by a great fire, which I had caused to be lighted on the
summit of the highest Pyramid. The flame illuminated both the other
Pyramids splendidly, as well as the whole field of tombs, and shone quite
across the valley as far as Cairo. That was indeed a Christmas Pyramid!
I only let Abeken into the secret, who, with his constantly cheerful
temper, and his intellectual and instructive conversation, had happily
joined us on the 10th December. With his assistance I then prepared a
special Christmas-tree for the following day, in the King’s Chamber of
the Great Pyramid. We planted a young palm-tree in the sarcophagus of
the ancient king, and adorned it with lights, and small presents, which
I had ordered from the town for us children of the desert. St. Sylvester
must have his share of honours also. At twelve o’clock on New-year’s
Eve immense flames rose simultaneously at midnight from the three great
Pyramids, and proclaimed the changes of the Christian year, far and wide,
to the Islamite provinces at their base.
I consider it to be a useful mental regimen to our party that their
tedious and monotonous labours, more especially those of our artists,
should be relieved not by the weekly holiday of Sunday only, but also as
often as there are opportunities, by cheerful festivities and agreeable
diversions. Nor has the slightest discord hitherto disturbed the happy
disposition and the good-humour of our confederation, which daily
acquires fresh elasticity, both from the abundance of new impressions
that we receive, and from the mutual reciprocation of the different
natures and talents, as by overcoming the manifold difficulties and
hardships of this Bedouin life itself.
You may judge of the variety of the elements of which our assembled
party is composed, by the Babel of languages in which we continually
move; the English language is competently represented by our companions,
Wild and Bonomi; French and Italian serve for our intercourse with
the authorities, with strangers and Levantine interpreters. We give
orders, eat, and travel, in Arabic, and we reflect, talk, sing, and
live, in good German. But during the day we usually all live separate,
and uninterruptedly each at his own work. We take our coffee before
sunrise, and our dinner after sunset; and breakfast during work. Thus our
draughtsmen have already been enabled to supply our swelling portfolios
with a hundred great folio sheets, cleanly executed, partly in pencil,
partly in colours.
LETTER V.
_The Pyramids of Gizeh, 17th January, 1843._
The inscription which was composed in celebration of the king’s birthday
has now become a stone monumental tablet, in the fashion of the old
steles and Proskynemata,[10] and its contents are as follows; the nearer,
indeed, it approaches the manner of the Egyptians, the less appropriate
is it in German:
“Thus speak the servants of the King, whose name is the SUN AND ROCK
OF PRUSSIA, Lepsius the scribe, Erbkam the architect, the Brothers
Weidenbach the painters, Frey the painter, Franke the moulder, Bonomi
the sculptor, Wild the architect: All hail to the Eagle, THE PROTECTOR
OF THE CROSS, to the KING THE SUN AND ROCK OF PRUSSIA, to the Son of the
Sun,[11] who freed his Fatherland, Frederick William the Fourth, the
Philopator, the Father of his Country, the Gracious One, the Favourite
of Wisdom and History, the Guardian of the Rhine, whom Germany has
chosen, the Dispenser of Life. May the Most high God grant the King, and
his Consort, the Queen Elizabeth, the Rich in Life, the Philometor, the
Mother of her Country, the Gracious One, an ever new and long life on
Earth, and a blessed habitation in Heaven through all Eternity. In the
year of our Saviour, 1842, in the tenth month, on the fifteenth day, on
the forty-seventh Birthday of his Majesty, on the Pyramid of King Cheops;
in the third year, in the fifth month, on the ninth day of the reign of
his Majesty; in the year 3164 from the commencement of the Sothis period
under the King Menepthes.”
We left behind us the hieroglyphic inscription engraved on stone and
painted with oil colour, occupying a space five feet broad and four feet
high. The stone, specially polished and prepared for the purpose, is
placed at a considerable height near the entrance into the Pyramid of
Cheops.
It seemed to me fitting, that while the members of the Prussian
expedition dedicated this tablet to the much-honoured Prince by whom they
were sent hither, they should at the same time, for the sake of future
travellers, leave behind them some traces of their activity on this field
of Pyramids, where it was reserved for them to gather together the rich
materials for the first chapter of the Scientific History of Nations.
Do not, however, believe that these are the important works which detain
us here so long. Our journey has this advantage over previous ones—that
spots like this are entitled to occupy us until they have been thoroughly
ransacked. We already know that even the gigantic and magnificent ruins
of the Theban plain can reveal nothing which can equal in interest the
Memphitic times of the Old Monarchy.
We must, indeed, one day depart; but it will even then be with the
conviction that we leave an infinite amount of interesting materials
behind, which might still be obtained. I had already resolved on our
departure several days ago, when suddenly a series of tombs, different
in architecture, and in the style of the figures and hieroglyphics, with
other titles, and besides, as was to be expected, with other _kings’
names_, again disclosed a new epoch.
It is still by no means conclusive how much has been gained in an
historical point of view, or, at any rate, it is but dimly discerned,
I was, however, in the right when, even in Europe, I proposed to
reconstruct the 3rd Dynasty from the monuments. I have not yet found
a single Shield which could be safely placed before the 4th Dynasty.
It appears that the builders of the great Pyramids desired to assert
their rights, to having formed the commencement of monumental history,
although it is as clear as day that they were not the first to build and
to inscribe their monuments. We have even now found many kings’ names
hitherto unknown, and variations of other names; thus:
𓍹𓂓𓂓𓇋𓍺 KEKA.
𓍹𓅃𓇋𓂓𓅱𓍺 HERAKU.
𓍹𓅱𓄊𓋴𓂓𓆑𓍺 USESKEF.
𓍹𓆛𓈖𓇋𓍺 ANA.
The name which I had hitherto read AMCHURA, in the detailed and painted
inscriptions, which throw no inconsiderable light on the figurative
meaning of the hieroglyphical images, exhibits a decidedly different sign
from the well-known group 𓇋𓌳𓄪𓐍𓅱 AMCHU, namely [Illustration] about the
pronunciation of which I am still in the dark.
There is nothing to alter with respect to the assignment of the great
Pyramids. It cannot be doubted, after our researches, that the second
Pyramid really belongs to Schafra (more correctly Chafra, the Chephyren
of Herodotus), as the first does to Chufu (Cheops), and the third to
Menkera (Mykerinos, Mencherinos). I think I have now discovered the
pathway up from the valley to the second Pyramid; it led directly to
its temple, past the Sphinx, but it was probably destroyed at an early
period. The number also of the Pyramids continues to increase. I have
found three, in ABU ROASCH, in place of one hitherto known, and two
fields of tombs. Two Pyramids once stood also at ZAUIET EL ARRIAN, a
village which has now almost disappeared, and there is a great field of
ruins adjoining to it. The careful researches, measurements, and notes
of Perring, in his beautiful work on the Pyramids, save us much time and
trouble. We are thus the more able to direct our attention to the private
tombs, and their hieroglyphical representations, such as are wholly
wanting in the Pyramids. But nothing is yet determined, nothing is ripe
for definitive arrangement, though wide prospects open before us. Our
portfolios swell; many things have been cast in plaster, and among them
the great stele between the paws of the colossal Sphinx from the first
year of Tuthmosis IV.
LETTER VI.
_The Pyramids of Gizeh, 17th January, 1843._
I have ordered ten camels to be here to-morrow evening, that we may start
for Cairo the day after to-morrow, before sunrise, with the original
monuments and plaster casts, of which we have already collected a
considerable number, and we shall deposit them there, till our return
from the South. This will be the commencement of our departure for
Saqâra. A series of tombs, only recently discovered, belonging to the
Dynasties which immediately succeed that of Cheops, has already delayed
our departure once. The 5th Dynasty, which in Africanus appears as the
Elephantine Collateral Dynasty, and as such was not to be expected here,
now lies complete before us, and in substance such as I already had
constructed it in Europe. The gaps have been filled up with three kings,
whose names were hitherto unknown. At the same time, several kings,
who had hitherto been merely visionary, were added to the 7th and 8th
Dynasties, from which we had hitherto obtained no monumental names. The
reference to the 5th Dynasty as the immediate successor of the 4th, is
of invaluable importance, and would in itself alone richly repay us for
our residence of many months in this place. We are still always occupied
with buildings, sculptures, and inscriptions, which by the Royal Rings
being more exactly defined, will be placed in a flourishing epoch of
civilisation, between _three_ and _four thousand_ years before Christ.
These numbers, hitherto so incredible, cannot be too frequently called to
the remembrance of ourselves and others; the more criticism is thereby
challenged, and compelled to make earnest researches on the subject, so
much the better for the cause. Conviction will immediately follow in
the steps of stimulated criticism, and we shall then at length approach
the results which are connected with it in all branches of antiquarian
research.
A roll of papers will be sent to you along with this letter, which
contains several drawings, that we have taken from the sepulchral
chambers in this place. They are excellent samples of the oldest
Architecture, Sculpture, and Painting which the history of art can
produce, and the most beautiful and best preserved that we have found
on the whole field of tombs. I hope that we shall one day see these
sepulchral chambers arranged in perfect order in the New Museum in
Berlin. That indeed would be the fairest trophy that we could carry
out of Egypt. Their transport will certainly be attended with some
difficulties, for you will easily see by their dimensions that ordinary
means would not in this case be sufficient. I have, therefore, as a
preliminary step, written a letter direct to his Majesty the King,
and inquired whether it would not be possible to send a vessel here
expressly for this purpose, either next year, or at the conclusion of
our expedition, with workmen and implements, to take these monuments to
pieces in a more skilful manner than we are capable of doing, and to
bring them, with the other collections, to Berlin.
Six of the subjoined sheets contain drawings of a sepulchral chamber,
which I myself discovered beneath the sand, and whose colours are
preserved almost as fresh and perfect as you see them in the drawing.[12]
It belongs to a Prince Merhet, and as he was a priest of CHUFU (CHEOPS),
and as he had called one of his sons CHUFU-MER-NUTERU, and possessed
eight villages, the names of which are combined with that of Chufu, and
as the situation of the tomb is on the western side of the Pyramid of
Chufu, and the style of the representations are in perfect keeping with
it, it is more than probable that Merhet was a son of Chufu, from which
circumstance all the representations become still more interesting. This
prince was at the same time superintendent of all the royal buildings,
therefore he filled the office of “Chief of the Board of Works”
(Oberhofbaurath), a high and important position at that period of most
magnificent buildings, which we have frequently seen occupied by princes
and royal relatives. We may therefore conjecture, that he also himself
superintended the building of the largest Pyramid. Is not this alone
sufficient to justify the attempt to transfer the beautifully-constructed
sepulchral chamber of this princely architect to Berlin, which otherwise
will, sooner or later, be destroyed by the Arabs, and be used to build
their ovens, or be burnt in their lime-kilns? There, it would at least
be preserved, and be accessible to the admiration or the study of those
who are eager after knowledge, so long as European art and science teach
us to value such monuments. To reconstruct it, a space must be left
perfectly free of 6 m. 30, (19 feet 8 inches) in breadth, 4 m. 60, (15
feet) in height, and 3 m. 80, (12 feet 5½ inches) in depth, and this
might surely be reserved for it in the New Museum.[13]
I observe, that such chambers form only a small portion of the entire
structure of the tomb, and were not intended for the reception of the
mummy. The tomb of Prince Merhet is above 70 feet long, 45 broad, and 15
high. It is solidly constructed of great square stones, with slanting
outer surfaces. The chamber is alone left vacant, and one, or, as in
this instance, two square shafts, leads from the flat roof through the
building down to the living rock; at the bottom of which, about 60 feet
deep, rock-chambers open at the side, in which the sarcophagi were
deposited. I have carefully preserved the venerable remains of the skull
of the ancient prince of the house of Cheops, which I found in his mummy
chamber. We found, alas! little more, as this tomb also, like most of the
others, had been long ago broken open. The entrance originally was closed
by a slab of stone. The chamber above ground alone remained accessible
at all times, and was therefore ornamented with representations and
inscriptions. Here the sacrifices offered to the dead were brought to the
occupant of the tomb. It was generally dedicated to the worship of the
deceased, and so far corresponded to the temple that was erected before
every pyramid belonging to a king, for his worship. Like those temples,
these chambers have also their entrance always from the east. The shafts,
like the Pyramids, lie behind, to the west, because the deceased was
believed to be in the west, whither he had gone with the setting sun, to
the Osiris of Amente.
The seventh sheet finally, contains two pillars, and their architrave,
from the tomb of a royal relative, who was at the same time the prophet
of four kings, and whose name was Ptah-nefru-be-u. The tomb was
constructed later than that of Prince Merhet, in the fifth Manethonic
Dynasty. It belongs to an entire group of tombs, whose architectonic
plan and connection with one another is very remarkable, and which I
have, therefore, completely divested of sand, and brought to the light of
day, while previously neither the entrance, nor anything but the extreme
summit of the outermost encircling walls, were visible.
I also send you the whole plan of this tomb, besides one of those
contiguous to it, but I think I shall only bring away with me the
architrave, and the beautifully painted pillars of the most southern
chamber, which can be easily removed. On the architrave appears the name
and titles of the deceased, who is also represented at full length on
the four lateral faces of the pillars. AMI, the father of the deceased,
appears on the front sides of the northern pillars; ASESKEF-ANCH, his
grandfather, on that of the southern. The pillars are twelve feet high,
slender, and as usual, without capitals, but with the abacus.
I have entirely isolated the whole chamber at the tomb of Prince Merhet;
but for the present I have relinquished the idea of taking it to pieces,
as this is not the most favourable season for its removal. I have
therefore caused this tomb, as well as the other, to be refilled with
sand; and when I arrive at Cairo to-morrow, I shall obtain an order, to
prevent any of the tombs that have been opened by us, from being robbed
of their stones. It is really revolting to see how long lines of camels
from the neighbouring villages come here daily, and march off again,
loaded with building stones. Fortunately—for is not everything for the
best—the accommodating Fellahs are more attracted by the Psammetic tombs,
than by those belonging to the most ancient Dynasties, in which the great
blocks are not sufficiently manageable. I begin, however, to have more
serious fears for the tombs of the 5th and 7th Dynasties, which have been
built with stones of a more moderate size. Yesterday a beautiful standing
pillar, covered with inscriptions, which was just going to be sketched,
was overturned by the robbers behind our backs. They do not seem to have
succeeded in breaking it to pieces. The people here are so degenerate
that their strength is quite insufficient, with all their assiduity, to
destroy what their great predecessors have erected.
A few days ago, we found a small obelisk erect, in its original position,
in a tomb from the commencement of the 7th Dynasty. It is only a few feet
high, but in good preservation, and with the name of the occupant of the
tomb inscribed upon it. This form of monument, which is first conspicuous
in the New Monarchy, is thus removed several Dynasties farther back in
the Old Monarchy, even than the Obelisk of Heliopolis.
LETTER VII.
_Saqâra, the 18th March, 1843._
A short time ago, I made an excursion with Abeken and Bonomi to the more
distant Pyramids of Lischt and Meidûm. The last especially interested
me extremely, as it has solved in a general manner some enigmas in the
structure of the Pyramids, which had long occupied my mind.[14] As an
exception to the general rule, it lies almost in the lower plain, in the
immediate neighbourhood of Bahr Jussuf, and is only just removed out of
reach of the inundation; but it rises up so high and stately from the
flat surface of the surrounding country, that it attracts notice even
from a great distance. Its square, sharp-angled tower-like centre, which
diminishes slightly at the summit, namely, at an angle of 74°, rises
from an envelopment of rubbish, which surrounds it almost half-way up,
to the height of 120 feet. Another hundred feet higher, there succeeds a
platform, from which rises a more slender tower of moderate height, in
the same angle, which again, in the centre of its flat upper surface,
bears the remains of a third elevation. The walls of the principal tower
are for the most part smoothly polished, but have stripes at intervals
that have been left rough, the cause of which are first appeared almost
inexplicable; but on more minute examination, I also found in the
interior of the half-destroyed building which surrounds the base, some
rising walls that were smooth, and having the same angle as the tower; in
front of these, again lay other walls, which followed one upon another
like scales. At length it occurred to me that the whole building had
proceeded from a small Pyramid, which had been erected in stages of about
forty feet high, and then first increased and heightened simultaneously
on all sides, by superimposed coverings of stone, from fifteen to twenty
feet in breadth, till at length the great steps were filled up so as to
form one common flat side, giving the usual pyramidal form to the whole.
This gradual growth explains the enormous magnitude of particular
Pyramids, beside so many other smaller ones. Each king began the building
of his Pyramid as soon as he ascended the throne; he only designed a
small one, to ensure himself a complete tomb, even were he destined to
be but a few years upon the throne. But with the advancing years of his
reign, he increased it by successive layers, till he thought that he was
near the termination of his life. If he died during the erection, then
the external covering was alone completed, and the monument of death
finally remained proportionate to the duration of the life of the king.
If, in the course of centuries, all the other conditions which determine
our calculations had equally remained, then, as by the rings of a tree,
we might even now have been able to calculate the years in the reigns of
particular kings, by the coatings of the Pyramids.
On the other hand, the great enigma of the bearded giant Sphinx still
remains unsolved! When, and by whom, was the colossal statue erected, and
what was its signification? We must leave the reply to more fortunate
successors. It is almost half-covered up with sand, and the granite
stele, above eleven feet high, which stands between the paws, and which
in itself forms the back wall of a small temple, which is here inserted,
was totally invisible. Even the immense excavations made by Caviglia, in
the year 1818, had long disappeared, so as not to leave a trace behind.
By means of between sixty to eighty persons labouring for whole days
together, we almost reached the base of the stele, a drawing of which I
caused immediately to be made, as well as an impression on paper, and
also a plaster cast, in order to set it up one day in Berlin. This stele,
on which the Sphinx is itself represented, was erected by TUTHMOSIS IV.,
and dates from the first year of his reign. Thus, he must have found
the Colossus already there. We are accustomed to regard the Sphinx, in
Egypt, as a portrait of the king, and generally indeed, for that of a
particular king, whose features it is said to represent; therefore, with
the single exception, as far as I am aware, of one female sphinx, which
represents the wife of King Horus, they are always andro-sphinxes. In the
hieroglyphic written character, the Sphinx is called NEB (the Lord), and
forms _e. g._ the middle syllable in the name of the King NECTANEBUS.
But what king does our Colossus represent? He stands in front of the
second Pyramid, that of Schafra (Chephren), not exactly in the axis, yet
parallel with the sides of the temple, which stands before it, and in
such a manner, as if the rock beside the Sphinx on the northern side was
intended as its counterpart. Sphinxes, rams, statues, and obelisks, used
besides always to stand in former times in pairs before the entrances
of the temples. But what a powerful impression would have been made on
the approaching worshipper by two such giant watchmen, between which the
ancient pathway led up to the Temple of Chephren. They would have been
worthy of that period of vast colossal monuments, and in due proportion
with the Pyramid which rises up behind. I cannot deny that this connexion
would be most satisfactory to me. What other motive would have induced
the Theban kings of the 18th Dynasty, who are alone to be thought of
in the New Monarchy, to adorn the Memphitic Field of Death with such a
wonder of the world, if entirely unconnected with what surrounds it. In
addition to this, upon the steles of Tuthmosis, the name of King CHEPHREN
is inscribed in a line, which farther on is almost entirely broken away;
a portion of his Name-Shield, unfortunately quite isolated, has been
still preserved, therefore undoubtedly it had some sort of reference to
the builder of the Pyramid which is situated behind it.
On the other hand, indeed, the question arises: If King Chephren was
represented here, why does not the image bear his name? It is rather
designated as HAREM-CHU (Horus in the Horizon), that is, as the image of
the Sun-god, the emblem of all kings, and also HARMACHIS in one of the
Greek inscriptions which have been found in front of the Sphinx. It does
not appear to me altogether improbable that Pliny’s fable is founded on
this, who makes a King Amasis (Armasis) be buried in the Sphinx;[15] for
we surely cannot suppose it was a real sepulchre. Another consideration
to be borne in mind is that I have not in general met with the image of
the Sphinx in that oldest period of the builders of the Pyramids; yet too
much stress need not be laid on this; the form of the Sphinx is not often
found, even in inscriptions or representations, in the New Monarchy. In
short, the true Œdipus is still wanting for this king of all sphinxes.
He who can clear away the inexhaustible sand-flood which is again burying
that very field of tombs, and who can expose to view the base of the
Sphinx, the ancient pathway to the temple, and the surrounding hills,
might soon venture to decide this question.
The enigmas of history are in this land associated with many enigmas and
wonders in nature, which I must not leave wholly unnoticed. I must at
least describe to you the most recent.
I had descended into a mummy-pit with Abeken, that we might open some
sarcophagi we had discovered, and I was not a little astonished, on
stepping out, to find myself in an actual snow-storm of locusts, which
almost darkening the sky, moved above our heads in hundreds of thousands
from the desert in the south-west towards the valley. I fancied it was
a single flight, and in haste called the others out of the tombs, that
they might witness the Egyptian wonder before it had passed away. But
the flight continued, indeed the workmen said, it had even begun an hour
previously. We now observed for the first time, that the whole country,
far and wide, was covered with locusts. I sent a servant into the desert
to find out the breadth of the flight. He ran for about a quarter of an
hour, then returned, and said that still as far as he had been able to
see, he could discover no termination. I rode home, still in the midst
of the storm of locusts. They fell down in heaps on the border of the
fruitful plain; and so it lasted the whole day through, till evening,
and so on the next, from morning till night, to the third, indeed to
the sixth day, and even longer, but in less numerous flights. The day
before yesterday, a storm of rain seems for the first time to have beaten
down the rear-guard, and destroyed them in the desert. The Arabs make
great smoking fires in their fields, they rattle and scream all day
long to protect their crops from the unexpected invasion. But it will
avail them little. These millions of graminivorous winged insects cover
even the adjacent sandy plain like a new living vegetation, to such a
degree, that scarcely anything is to be seen of the ground; and when
they swarm up from any point, they fall down again on whatever is in
the immediate neighbourhood; exhausted by their long journey, in their
eagerness they fill their hollow stomachs, and, as if conscious of their
enormous numbers, they appear to have lost even all fear of their natural
enemies, man, animals, smoke, and noise. But what is most wonderful to
me, is their origin from the naked desert, and the instinct which has
led them from some oasis across the inhospitable sandy sea, to the rich
pastures of the Nile valley. The last time that this land-plague of
Egypt exhibited itself to a similar extent was above fourteen years ago.
The people say that it is sent by the comet which we have observed in
the south-west for the last twelve days, and which now, in the hours of
evening, since it is no longer outshone by the moon, again stretches its
magnificent tail of fire across the heavens. The zodiacal light, which is
so rarely seen in the north, has also been visible of late almost every
evening.
I have only now been enabled completely to conclude my account with
Gizeh, and to combine the historical results. I have every reason to
rejoice over it; the 4th and 5th Dynasties are completed, with the
exception of one king. I have just received the somewhat illegible
drawing of a stone which has been built into a wall in the village of
Abusir, representing a series of kings of the 4th and 5th Dynasties upon
their thrones, and, as it appears, in chronological order. I intend to
ride there myself to see the original.
LETTER VIII.
_Saqâra, the 13th April, 1843._
I hasten to communicate to you an event which I should not like you to
hear for the first time from other quarters, perhaps with alterations
and exaggerations. Our camp, a few days ago, was attacked and plundered
during the night by an armed band; yet none of our party were seriously
injured, and nothing that is irreparable was lost. The affair therefore,
is over, and the consequences may only prove a useful lesson to us. But I
must first go back several days in my journal.
On the 3rd of April, his R.H. Prince Albert (of Prussia) returned to
Cairo from Upper Egypt. The following day I visited the city, and laid
before the prince a portion of our labours, in which he especially took
a lively interest as he had already seen more of this land of wonders
than we ourselves, and the field of Pyramids alone he had still left
unvisited. On his first arrival in Cairo, I was absent on an excursion of
several days to the Faiûm, with Abeken and Bonomi. The prince returned
at the very time of the celebration of some of the chief festivals of
the Mahometans, which, had he not been there, I should probably have
neglected to attend. On the 6th, the entrance of the returning caravan
of pilgrims from Mecca was welcomed by a solemn festival, and, some days
later, the birthday of the Prophet, “MULID E’ NEBBI,” was celebrated,
one of the most original feasts of the entire East. The principal actors
in it are dervishes, who spend the day in processions, and perform
their horribly extatic dances, called _sikrs_, in the evening, in tents
illuminated by coloured lamps, which are erected in the avenues of
the Ezbekîeh. Between thirty and forty of this religious sect place
themselves in a circle, and, keeping time, begin first slowly, then
gradually more vehemently, to throw the upper part of their bodies, which
are naked, backwards and forwards into the most violent distortions, like
people who are possessed. At the same time, they ejaculate in a rhythm,
with a loud screaming voice, their Prophet’s saying, LA ILAHA ILL’ ALLAH
(“There is no God but Allah”), which, gradually stammered out lower and
more feebly, is finally almost rattled in the throat, till at length,
their strength being entirely exhausted, some fall down, others withdraw
reeling, and the broken circle is, after a short pause, replaced by
another.
What a fearful, barbarous worship, which the astonished multitude,
great and small, people of condition and those of inferior rank,
contemplate with seriousness or in stupid veneration, and in which they
themselves not unfrequently take an active part. The god who is appealed
to is evidently much less the object of adoration than the appealing,
raptured saints themselves; for the crazy and the simple, or men and
women who are physically disordered in other ways, are very generally
held sacred by the Mahometans, and are treated with great reverence. It
is the demoniacal force in nature, acting without being comprehended,
and therefore regarded with fear, which is worshipped by the natural
man wherever he perceives it, because he feels that it is connected
with, yet not under the control of his mental faculties; first, in the
mighty elements, then in the wonderful instincts of animals—to us dark,
yet subject to a law; finally, in the still more exciting, extatic, or
generally abnormal psychological conditions of his own race. We must
indeed, regard the Egyptian worship of animals—in as far as it was not
merely a symbolic embodiment of deeper and more refined ideas—as resting
on the same basis of a universal worship of nature; and the adoration
paid to men with disordered intellects, which appears occasionally in
other nations also, may be considered as a remarkable offset from that
tendency. Whether such conditions really exist at the present time, or
whether, as among the dervishes, it is produced artificially, and is
intentionally cherished, will not be detected by the multitude; and
besides, for the individual case, it is indifferent. An uncomfortable
feeling of fear creeps over us in such a neighbourhood, and we feel it
necessary to avoid uttering any expressions, or even to give a sign of
disgust, or to betray that we see through it, lest we should direct the
brutal outbursts on ourselves.
The festival, which lasts nine days, closes with a peculiar ceremony
called DOSEH, the Trampling, but which I could not bear to look at. The
sheikh of the Saadîeh dervishes rides to the chief sheikh of all the
dervishes in Egypt, El Bekri. On the way thither, a great number of these
holy people, and others who do not consider themselves inferior to
them in piety, throw themselves flat on the ground, face downwards, and
in such a manner that the feet of one always lies close to the head of
another. The sheikh then rides over this living carpet of human bodies,
and his horse is obliged to be led on each side by a servant, to compel
it to make this march, unnatural even to the animal. Each body receives
two treads from the horse; the greater number spring up again unhurt, but
whoever comes away seriously, or, as sometimes occurs, mortally injured,
has, besides, this disgrace, that it is believed that on the previous day
he had either misunderstood or neglected to say the proper prayers and
charm-formularies, which were alone able to protect him.
On the 7th April, Erbkam and I accompanied the prince to the Pyramids,
first of all to those of Gizeh. The Pyramid of Cheops was ascended, and
the interior was visited. In order to exhibit the beautiful tomb of
Prince Merhet, I caused it to be re-opened. We next proceeded to our camp
at Saqâra.
Here we heard that during the previous night a daring robbery had been
committed in Abeken’s tent. He was sleeping in it, on his return from
Cairo, beside a burning light, when his full portmanteau, pistols, and
other objects lying near, were purloined. It was only while the thief
was making his retreat that a noise was heard by the slumbering guards,
composing the night-watch, immediately behind the tent; the darkness,
however, hindered all pursuit.
After the prince had also seen the most beautiful tomb of Saqâra, we
rode across the plain to Mitrahinneh, to visit the mounds of ruins at
Memphis, and the half-buried colossal granite statue of Ramses Miamun
(Sesostris)[16], the face of which is still preserved almost without a
blemish. It was late in the evening before we again reached Cairo, after
a day’s journey of sixteen hours, hardly interrupted even by short
pauses for repose; but the unusual exertion seemed rather to heighten
than to depress the prince’s cheerful enjoyment in travelling.
The following day we visited the mosques of the city, which are
remarkable, partly by their splendour, and in part, also, are peculiarly
interesting for the history of architecture in the middle ages, as
the earliest general application of the pointed arch is here visible.
The questions which relate to this most characteristic department of
architecture, the so-called gothic style, interested me so deeply a few
years ago, that even here I could not forbear following my old pursuit.
The pointed arch is found in the oldest mosques, even as far back as the
ninth century. Upon the conquest of Sicily by the Arabs, the new form
of arch was transported to that island, where, in the eleventh century,
it was found by the Normans, the next conquerors, and was still more
generally adopted. Without entering into further details, it seems to
me scarcely possible to indicate any historical connexion of the Norman
pointed arch of Palermo with our style of pointed arch of the twelfth
and thirteenth centuries. The acceptance of such a connexion would be
still more difficult for the explanation of the rows of pointed arches
to be found already much earlier in Germany, which are sporadic, but
still according to rule; those, for example, in the cathedral of Naumburg
as early as the eleventh century, and in Memleben even in the tenth.
Theorists do not indeed admit this yet, but I am still waiting for a
refutation of the argument I have brought forward.[17]
The Nilometer on the island of Roda, which we visited after the mosques,
also contains a series of pointed arches, belonging to the original
building, which dates as far back as the ninth century, proved by the
Cufic inscriptions, which have been carefully examined by those who are
learned in these matters.
Egypt, however, does not only lay claim to the oldest application,
therefore, perhaps to the invention, of the _pointed arch_, but also to
that of the _round arch_. Near the Pyramids there are a number of tombs
having stone vaulted roofs, whose single blocks exhibit the correct
concentric cut. These belong to the 26th Manethonic Dynasty of the
Psammetici, that is, to the seventh and sixth centuries before Christ,
and are therefore coeval with the _Cloaca Maxima_ and the _Carcer
Mamertinus_ in Rome. But we have also found tombs with vaulted roofs made
of Nile mud bricks, which go back as far as the time of the Pyramids.
Now, contrary to the opinion of others, I deny that the brick arch, whose
single bricks with their parallel surfaces, are only made concentric by
the wedge of cement, presupposes a more intimate acquaintance with the
actual principle of the arch, and more especially with its qualities of
support; and, as a proof of this, we never meet with a concentric joined
arch before the time of the Psammetici, but frequently an apparently real
arch, in like manner cut out of horizontal layers of stone. But wherever
the brick arch was very ancient, we may there most naturally place the
development of the concentric stone arch, which is met with at a later
period at that very place, contemporaneous at least with its appearance
in other countries.
On the following morning I was intending to accompany the prince into the
interesting institute of M. Lieder, when Erbkam arrived unexpectedly from
our camp. He reported that during the previous night, between two and
three in the morning, a number of shots had been suddenly fired in the
immediate neighbourhood of our tents, and that at the same time a body of
more than twenty people had broken into the camp. Our encampment is on a
narrow flat space in front of the rock-tombs, which are excavated about
half-way up the precipitous sides of the Libyan valley, and the great
accumulation of rubbish has formed a broad terrace before them. It was
only accessible on one side, by a cleft, which passes our terrace from
above, downwards. It was from this point that the attack was made. They
first fell upon the tent in which we all take our meals, and which also
serves the purpose of a drawing-room, which soon fell down. Then followed
the other great tent, in which Erbkam, Frey, Ernest Weidenbach, and
Franke, were sleeping. This was also torn down, and covered its inmates,
who, in the general confusion, extricated themselves with difficulty
from the ropes and canvas. Besides all this, the arms had been taken the
day before into one tent, for the reception of the prince, and had been
arranged and secured to the central pole, so that no one had them at
hand. The watchmen—cowardly fellows—who knew that by the orders of the
police here, they would incur punishment, were anything of the sort to
befal us, even should they not be to blame, had immediately run off on
all sides, uttering loud cries, and have not yet returned. The robbers
now laid hold of the chests and boxes which stood nearest to them, rolled
whatever they could seize down the hill, and soon disappeared across the
plain. Their muskets were evidently not loaded with ball, for no one had
been wounded by them; they had, however, attained their object, which was
to increase the confusion. E. Weidenbach, and some of our servants, had
alone been wounded in the head and shoulders, though not dangerously, by
the butt-ends of their muskets, or by bludgeons. The purloined articles
must, however, have bitterly disappointed the expectation of the robbers,
for the great trunks scarcely contained anything but European clothes,
and other things, which no Arab can use. A number of coloured sketches
are most to be regretted—the Sunday studies, up to the present time, of
the very able artist Frey.
We know besides, very well, from whence this attack has proceeded. We
dwell on the frontier of the territory of Abusir, an Arab village which
has been long under evil report, situated between Kafr el Batran, at the
foot of the Pyramids of Gizeh, and Saqâra. By ARABS (Arab. pl. ʾUrbân)
I mean, according to the custom of this country, those inhabitants who,
as we are informed, only settled at a later period in the Nile valley,
and having obtained certain privileges, founded some villages here. They
are distinguished by their free origin, and their more manly character,
from the FELLAHS (Fellahʿ, pl. Fellahʿîn), the original peasants of
the land, who, enervated by their centuries of bondage, have reached a
low point of degradation, and who were not, besides, able to withstand
the encroachment of Islam. The name of BEDOUIN (Bedaui, pl. Bedauîn)
belongs alone to the ever free son of the Desert, who only roves about
the borders of the inhabited country. In the vicinity of the Pyramids
there are now a number of Arab villages. To these, also, belong the three
places I have mentioned. Since our place of encampment was within the
territory of the Sheikh of Abusir, a young, handsome, and enterprising
man, he had a certain claim to supply us with the necessary number of
well-paid watchmen. I, however, preferred to place ourselves under the
protection of the more trustworthy, and more powerful Sheikh of Saqâra,
whom I had known before, and within whose district the principal field
of our labours is situated. This determination deprived the people of
Abusir of a reward, and us of their friendship, as I had already observed
for some time past, without vexing myself any further about it. They had
manifestly taken the opportunity at the present time, when I was absent
in Cairo with several servants, to execute this prank. The footmarks were
traced through the plain to Abusir, and a little clever boy probably
served as a spy, the grandson of an old Turk from the Mameluke times, the
only friend in Abusir, with whom we sometimes exchanged visits. It must
have been also by means of this boy, who often came to our camp, that
the first theft was committed in Abeken’s tent, with which he was well
acquainted.
The attack was a serious affair, and its consequences might be important,
if it remained unpunished. I went immediately with M. von Wagner to
Scherif Pascha, the minister, whose business it was to find out the
offenders.
A few days afterwards the plain beneath our camp became an animated
scene. The mudhir (governor) of the province arrived with a splendid
cavalcade, and a great troop of under officials, and servants, and
pitched his gay camp at the foot of the hill. We exchanged visits of
ceremony, and discussed what had happened. The mudhir told us beforehand
that the individual offenders would not be found out, at any rate they
would not be brought to confess, because each knew that his throat stood
a poor chance. However, on the second day, the Sheikhs of Saqâra and
of Abusir, and a number of suspected persons were brought forward, in
order to be put upon their trial. As was to be expected, no decision
was come to, neither by personal interviews, nor examinations. The
punishment was therefore summarily executed. One after the other they
were tied to a post, their faces towards the ground, and the soles of
their feet upwards. They were then unmercifully bastinadoed with a
long whip of hippopotamus hide, called _kurbatsch_, often till they
fainted. It was in vain that I urged that I saw no reason to punish
these particular persons, and I was still more astonished when our old
venerable friend, the Sheikh of Saqâra, for whose innocence I would have
accepted any surety, was also led up, and, like the others, was laid in
the dust. I expressed my surprise to the mudhir, and protested earnestly
against it, but received for answer that he could not be exempted from
the punishment, as though, indeed, we had not been on his ground and
territory, we had however received the watchmen from him, who had run
off, and had not then returned. With some difficulty I obtained, at
least, a mitigation of the punishment; but he had already become almost
insensible, and it was necessary to have him carried to the tent, where
his feet were bound up. The whole affair ended with a compensation in
money for the value of the stolen articles, which I purposely did not
estimate at too low a price, as every loss of money remains for years
in the remembrance of the Arab, while he forgets the bastinado, indeed
boasts of it, as soon as he no longer feels it. _Nezel min e’ semma e’
nebút, bárakak min Allah_, say the Arabs, _i. e._ “The rod came from
Heaven, a blessing from God.” But also in the matter of the fine, the
sum that we demanded was so distributed, that the rich Sheikh of Saqâra
was compelled to pay a far greater share than the Sheikh of Abusir, a
partiality which was probably in some measure owing to the intercession
of the old distinguished Turk of Abusir with the Turkish mudhir.
As soon as the money was paid down I went to our Sheikh of Saqâra,
whose unmerited adverse fate had seriously vexed me, and I publicly
gave him the half of his money back again, promising in confidence that
afterwards, when the mudhir should have departed, I would restore to him
also the other half. This was such an unexpected thing to the old sheikh,
that he looked at me for a long time incredulously, then kissed my hands
and feet, and called me his best friend on earth; I, who had just been,
at all events, the indirect occasion of his beautiful beard being soiled
with dust, and of his feet being so lacerated as to cause him weeks of
pain. His wondering joy, however, was not directed so much at me as at
the unhoped-for sight of the money, which never loses its charm with the
Arab.
There is a curious mixture of noble pride and vulgar avarice to be found
in the Arab, which is at first quite incomprehensible to the European.
Their free noble bearing, and imperturbable repose, appear to express
nothing but a proud sense of honour; balanced, however, against the
smallest gain of money, it melts away like wax before the sun, and the
most contemptuous treatment is not taken into consideration, but is borne
with crouching servility where money is in question. We might at first
imagine one of these two natures to be hypocrisy, or dissimulation; but
the contradiction returns too often in all forms, both great and small,
not to lead to the conviction that it is characteristic of the Arab, if
not of the entire East. Even as early as in the days of the Romans, the
Egyptians had so far degenerated, that Ammianus Marcellinus could say of
them: _Erubescit apud eos, si quis non infitiando tributa plurimas in
corpore vibices ostendat_,[18] and in the same manner the fellah to-day
points with a contented smile to his scars as soon as the tax-gatherer
has withdrawn, who, in spite of his instruments of torture, has been
curtailed of a few piastres.
LETTER IX.
_Cairo, the 22nd April, 1843._
A violent cold, which for some time checked my usual activity, has led me
hither from our camp at Saqâra. The worst is, that we are still obliged
to postpone our further journey. Certainly all which such a spot affords
is of the utmost interest, but the abundance of material this time almost
causes us embarrassment. The most important, but most difficult works,
and those which occupy the longest time, are those of our architect
Erbkam. To him belongs the great task of making the most detailed plans
of the border of the desert, in nearly the central point of which we
lie encamped. This ground comprises the almost uninterrupted field of
tombs from the Pyramid of Rigah as far as that of Daschûr. The separate
plans of the northern fields of Abu Roasch, Gizeh, Zauiet el Arrian are
already completed. However meritorious the sketches of Perring, they
cannot be compared in exactitude with ours. Entire Necropoli, with the
Pyramids belonging to them, have been newly discovered, partly by myself,
partly by Erbkam. Some of the Pyramids, hitherto unknown, are even now
from eighty to a hundred feet high; others are indeed almost wholly
demolished, but were originally of considerable extent, as is manifested
by their base. My return to Saqâra will, it is to be hoped, give the
signal for our departure.
We shall go by land to the Faiûm, the province which branches off
into the desert. The season is still incomparably beautiful, and the
desert-journey will undoubtedly be far more conducive to our health than
the voyage on the Nile, which we before contemplated.
It is to be hoped that my state of health will not detain me long here,
for my impatience daily increases to return from the living city of
the Mamelukes into the solemn Death-city of the old Pharaohs. And yet
it would perhaps afford you more pleasure if I were able to paint in
colours, or in words, what I here see before my windows.
I live in the extensive square of the Ezbekîeh, in the most beautiful and
most frequented part of the city. Formerly, there was a great lake in the
centre, which is now, however, converted into gardens. Broad streets run
round it, separated for riders, and foot passengers, and shaded by lofty
trees. There all the East pass by, with their gaily-coloured, various,
yet always picturesque costumes; the poorer classes with blue and white
tucked up blouses, and the richer with long garments of different
materials, with silk kaftans,[19] or fine cloth dresses of delicately
contrasted colours, with white, red, green, and black turbans, or with
the more refined, but less becoming, Turkish tarbusch;[20] amidst these
some Greeks, with their dandy tunics, or Arab Sheikhs, wrapped up in
their wide antique mantles, thrown around them; the children wholly or
half naked, also with shaven heads, on which now and then a single tuft
stands up from the crown, as if ready to be laid hold of; the women
with veiled faces, but whose eyes painted round with black, peer forth
ghost-like hither and thither through peep-holes in the veil. All these,
and a hundred other indescribable figures, walk, glide, and rush past,
on foot, on asses, mules, dromedaries, camels, horses, only not in
carriages; for these were more used even in the time of the Pharaohs than
they are at present. If I look up from the street, my view is bounded
on one side by splendid mosques, with cupolas, and slender-springing
minarets, together with long rows of houses, most of them built
carelessly, yet some of a more distinguished class, richly ornamented
with artistically carved grated windows, and elegant balconies; on the
other side, by the green domes of palm-trees, or by leafy sycamores and
acacias. Finally, in the distant background, beyond the flat roofs, and
green intervening masses, the far-shining sister-pair of the two largest
Pyramids stand out distinctly on the Libyan horizon in sharp lines
through the thin vapour. What a contrast from that mongrel Alexandria,
where innate Eastern habits and feelings still struggle for mastery with
the overpowering high-pressure civilisation of Europe. It seems to me as
if we had already here penetrated into the innermost heart of the East of
the present day.
LETTER X.
_On the Ruins of the Labyrinth, the 31st May, 1843._
After my return to the camp of Saqâra, I only required three more
days to finish our work there. I paid a last visit to the ruins of
ancient Memphis, the plan of which Erbkam had meanwhile completed; some
interesting discoveries terminated our researches.
On the 19th of May we at length set out on our journey, with twenty
camels, two dromedaries, thirteen asses, and one horse. When I speak of
_camels_ and _dromedaries_, it is perhaps not superfluous to observe
what is here understood by these names, for in Europe an incorrect or
rather arbitrary distinction is made between them, which is unknown
here. We Germans call _camel_ what the French call _dromadaire_, and
_dromedary_ (_Trampelthier_, _Germ._ a corruption of dromedary), what
they call _chameau_. The first is said to have _one_ hump, the other
_two_. According to that, there can be no question of dromedaries or
_chameaux_ in Egypt, for here there are no two-humped creatures, although
now and then they appear in one-humped families. In Syria again, and the
central parts of Asia, there would be no camels or _dromadaires_; at
least the one-humped animals are very rare. In truth, however, it is a
very immaterial difference, and whether the one hump of fat on the back
be divided in two or not, in itself alone would perhaps scarcely justify
the distinction of a different species. The people of the East, at the
present day at least, make no distinction between them; neither did the
ancients also, for the one-humped creatures do not carry easier, nor
move quicker, than the others. Nor does the rider sit more conveniently
between two humps, for the saddle is equally raised over the two as
over the one hump. On the other hand a great distinction, although not
founded on natural history grounds, has been generally established
between the strong, dull _camel_, used as a beast of _burden_, commonly
called _gémel_, and the younger, more tractable, broken-in, riding camel,
which is called _heggîn_, because the pilgrims to Mecca (_hágg_, _pl._
_heggâg_) set a great value on good riding animals. An Arab takes it as
much amiss if his slim favourite camel is called a _gémel_, as if with
us, a well-broken horse was to be described as a plough or draught-horse.
_Dromedarius_, or _camelus dromas_, κάμηλος δρομάς, does not appear to
have meant more among the ancients, as the name proves, than a courser of
a slight breed, suited for riding.
As these last are far more expensive, it is often difficult to procure,
even a few of the better animals from the Arabs who furnish them; most of
us are obliged to be contented with ordinary beasts of burden. Mine was
this time endurable, and received, at least, the title of _heggîn_, from
the Arabs.
I did not wait for the decampment of the general party, in which the
Sheikhs of Saqâra and Mitrahinneh were included, but rode on in front
with Erbkam, always beside the desert. On our way, the latter made
one more plan of a Pyramid, with the surrounding ground, which I had
observed on a former trip. We have now a list of, altogether, sixty-seven
Pyramids, almost twice as many as are to be found in Perring. The
topographical plans of Erbkam are most invaluable.
Soon after sunset we arrived at the first Pyramid of _Lischt_, where we
found our tents already pitched. The following morning I made the caravan
depart early, and I remained behind with Erbkam, that we might employ
ourselves in examining and noting down the two Pyramids, which stand
rather widely apart in this isolated field of death. We did not follow
till two o’clock, and arrived about seven in the evening at our tents,
which were pitched on the south side of the stately Pyramid of Meidûm.
It was again a short day’s journey to the Pyramid of Illahûn, and thence
through the embouchure of the Faiûm to this spot, three hours more.[21]
It was late before we started. I left Erbkam and E. Weidenbach behind, to
put on paper the examination of the ground; and I rode off with only two
servants, half an hour in advance of the caravan, in order to reach the
Labyrinth by a more interesting route, along the Bahr Jussuf, and to fix
upon the place of encampment.
Here we have been, on the southern side of the Pyramid of Mœris, since
the 23rd May, and are settled among the ruins of the _Labyrinth_; for I
was certain from the first, after we had made but a hasty survey of the
whole, that we are perfectly entitled to designate them under this name:
I did not, however, imagine that it would have been so easy for us to
become convinced of this.
As soon as Erbkam had measured and noted down a small plan of what
is extant, I caused some excavators to be levied from the surrounding
villages, through the Mudhir of Medînet el Faiûm, the governor of the
province, and ordered them to make trenches through the ruins, and to
dig at four or five places at once. A hundred and eight people were thus
occupied to-day. With the exception of those belonging to the nearest
place, Howara, who return home every evening, I allow these people to
encamp on the northern side of the Pyramid, and to spend their nights
there. They have their overseers, and bread is brought to them; every
morning they are counted, and they are paid every evening; each man
receives a piastre—about two silver groschens;[22] each child, half a
piastre, sometimes, when they have been particularly diligent, as much
as thirty paras (there are forty of them in a piastre). Each of the men
brings with him a pickaxe, and a shallow, woven basket (_maktaf_). The
children, who form the greatest numbers, are only required to bring
baskets. The maktafs are filled by the men, and carried away by the
children on their heads. This is done in long processions, which are kept
in order and at work by special overseers.
Their chief pleasure, and a material assistance in their daily work, is
singing. They have some simple melodies, which at a distance, owing to
their great monotony, make almost a melancholy impression. When near
them, however, the unmerciful persistence of the shrill voices, as they
often amuse themselves many hours together in the same manner, is hardly
to be borne. It is only the consideration that I am helping so many to
bear half their burden for the day, and that I materially further the
work, which has constantly prevented me interfering when it reaches this
point, till I sometimes at length leave my tent in despair, in order,
by employing myself at a greater distance, to obtain some repose for my
ears. The only variety in the execution of the stanza of two lines, is
that the first line is sung by one voice, the second by the whole chorus,
while the hands are clapped at every bar of common time. For example:
[Music:
1. Om mi be-tá-kul má-ku-li U a-ná bagh-bágh-tét aʾ-léï (Dill)
2. Dill as-sa—ri mál u mal Bun yál dill ebánne ú aʾ-léï (Yâ)
Yâ-min sa-báhʾ u le-bén U sámneh sâih ʾá-le-ʾï &c.
_i. e._ 1. My mother eats my dates,
And I—anger overcomes me.
2. The shade of Asser (vesper-time) lowers itself and lowers itself.
The wall (bunyân).
3. (Oh) Happiness (when) the morning milk
And butter pour over me.]
_Makûl_, in the first line, is really only “_food_,” but it has become a
general expression for _dates_, because, in the huts of the Fellah, this
is the chief, and, for many people, the only food. Another rather more
animated melody is this one:
[Music]
in which the chorus, in exception to the general rule, separates into
two parts. I hardly think, however, that these thirds are intentional,
they slip in of themselves; for it sometimes happens that single
voices join in singing the same cadence in a totally different strain
without paying any regard to whole hours of discord. The Arab—I might
almost say, the people of the East generally—are devoid of the sense
of making the simplest complications of several voices into a harmony.
The most artistic music of the best singers and performers, which often
inexpressibly delights the most civilised Musulman in Cairo, and collects
large masses of people as an audience, consists only in a melody a
hundred times repeated, flourishing, restless, and whirling, whose theme
cannot be retained, and can scarcely be detected by a European ear. Nor
are the different instruments, when played together, employed for any
harmonious united variety, beyond what is suggested by the rhythm.
We have eight watchmen during the night, who really do watch, as I often
convince myself by making a nightly round. One of them walks constantly
up and down with his gun on the ramparts surrounding our camp, for if
any where, we have to fear another attack here, not from the Arabs, but
from the still more dangerous Bedouins, who inhabit the borders of the
desert in many single hordes, and are not under the control of great
sheikhs, who we might secure in our interests. From Illahûn to this
place, we passed through a Bedouin camp, whose sheikh must have known
of our arrival, as he rode out to meet me on horseback, and offered
his services, if we should require anything here. Farther on, we met
an old man and a girl in a distracted state, uttering loud cries of
despair. They threw dust into the air, and heaped it on their heads. As
we approached nearer to them, they complained to us with inconsolable
expressions that two Bedouins had just robbed them of their only buffalo.
We actually saw the robbers still in the distance, on horseback, driving
the buffalo before them into the desert. I was alone with my dragoman and
my little donkey-boy, Auad, a lively, dark-skinned Berber, and I could
be of no assistance to these poor people. Such thefts are not unfrequent
here. A short time ago, one tribe drove a hundred and twenty camels away
from another tribe, and none of them have yet come back.
Nevertheless, we shall probably remain here unmolested; for the sentence
we passed at Saqâra is well known, and they are aware that we are
specially recommended to the authorities. They have also now become
convinced that we carry no gold or silver with us in our heavy chests,
which was formerly very generally believed among the Arabs. Added
to this, we are ourselves well armed against any new attack. I have
collected the most valuable chests in my own tent, and every night an
English double-barrelled gun and two pistols lie ready beside my bed.
Besides, I clear out my tent every evening, that we may be prepared for
anything, especially for storms, from which we have had to suffer much
latterly, and of a degree of violence unknown in Europe. Abeken’s tent
fell three times over his head in one day, and the last time roused him
in a very disagreeable manner out of his sleep. Thus we are often whole
days and nights in constant expectation that during the next gust of wind
our airy house may fall down upon our heads; under this apprehension, it
requires some habit to continue to work or to sleep quietly.
It appears that we are to have a taste of all the plagues of Egypt. Our
experience began with the inundation at the Great Pyramids; then came the
locusts, whose young fry has now increased like sand upon the sea-shore,
and is again devouring the green fields and trees, which, combined with
the previous cattle disease, is indeed sufficient to cause a famine; then
occurred the hostile attack which was preceded by a daring robbery. Nor
has even a conflagration been wholly wanting. By an incautious salute,
Wild’s tent was set on fire and partly burnt in Saqâra, while we stood
around in bright sunshine, which prevented the fire being seen by us.
Now comes, in addition to this, the annoyance of mice, which we had not
hitherto experienced; they gnaw, play, and squeak away in my tent, as if
they had always been at home there, quite unconcerned whether I am within
it or not. During the night they run over my bed, and over my face; and
yesterday I started up frightened, out of my sleep, because I suddenly
felt the sharp little tooth of one of these audacious guests upon my
foot. I sprang up in a rage, struck a light, and knocked against all the
chests and pegs; but on lying down once more, I was soon driven out of
bed again. In spite of all these annoyances, however, we continue to keep
up a good and cheerful spirit, and God be thanked, they have hitherto
only threatened us, and made us heedful, not materially injured us.
The superintendence over the servants, and the management of much extra
business, has now been considerably alleviated, by my having brought
a well-qualified Kawass with me from Cairo. These Kawass, who form a
peculiar band of sub-officers of the Pascha, are considered here, in
the country, a peculiar and important class of persons. Only Turks are
appointed, and they possess, through their nationality alone, an innate
superiority over every Arab. There are probably few nations who have
so much natural ability to rule as the Turks, who, nevertheless, we
are often accustomed to regard as rude, uncouth, and half barbarians.
On the contrary, as a nation, they have some degree of distinction.
Imperturbable repose, calmness, reserve, and energy of will, appear
to belong to every Turk, down to the common soldier, and do not fail
to make a certain impression upon the European on first acquaintance.
This external bearing with the appearance of deliberate firmness, this
reserved proud politeness easily passing into nice shades of ceremonial,
is met with in a still higher degree among the upper rank of Turks,
who have all, from childhood upwards, passed through a school of the
strictest etiquette in their own families. They have an innate contempt
for everything which does not belong to their own nation, and appear to
have no feeling for the natural superiority of higher mental culture and
civilisation which the ordinary European usually inspires among other
nations.
Nothing is to be gained from the Turk by kindness, considerate attention,
demonstration, or even by anger; these he considers as proofs of
weakness. The greatest reserve alone, and the most careful distant
politeness towards the great, or the bearing of a person of some
consequence, and absolute commands to inferiors, answers the purpose
here. A Turkish Kawass drives a whole village of Fellahs, or Arabs,
before him, and makes a decided impression even on the still prouder
Bedouins. The Pascha employs the Kawass-corps as special messengers,
and on commissions, throughout the whole country. They are the chief
executive servants of the Pascha, and of the governors of the provinces.
Every foreign consul has also a similar Kawass, without whom he hardly
takes a single step, since he is his guard of honour, the sign, and the
right hand of his indisputable authority. When he rides out, the Kawass
rides before him with a great silver stick, and drives the people and
animals with words or blows out of his path; and woe to him who should
make a movement, or even a gesture of disobedience. The Pascha sometimes
also gives such a guard of honour, with similar authority, as an escort
to strangers who are specially recommended to him, and thus we also
received a Kawass at the commencement of our journey, who however, during
our long period of repose in Gizeh was only a burden, and at length,
on account of his making extravagant demands, was not very graciously
dismissed by me. On the occasion of the attack in Saqâra, I caused
another to be given me by Scherif Pascha; but he still is not the sort
of man that we want, so I have now brought a third with me from Cairo,
who hitherto has proved an excellent one. He relieves me from the entire
superintendence over the servants, and manages admirably all that I
have to transact with the people and authorities of the country. If I
were in Europe I should have supposed that I had more than sufficient
strength for the whole external guidance of the expedition, as well as
for its more immediate object, but in this climate one must measure by a
different scale. Patience and repose are here, just as necessary elements
of life, as meat and drink.
LETTER XI.
_The Labyrinth, the 25th June, 1843._
These lines are written to you from the distinctly recognised Labyrinth
of Mœris and the Dodecarchs, not from the doubtful spot whose identity
is still contested, of which I myself was unable to form any conception
from the hitherto more than deficient descriptions even of those who
have removed the Labyrinth hither. An immense cluster of chambers still
remains, and in the centre lies the great square, where the courts once
stood, covered with the remains of large monolithic granite columns, and
of others of white hard limestone, shining almost like marble.
I approached the spot, fearing that we must only endeavour, as others
had done before us, to confirm the information of the ancients on the
geographical position of the place; that all form of the edifice itself
had disappeared, and that an unshapely heap of ruins might deter us from
making any examinations. Instead of this, at the first superficial survey
of the ground, a number of complicated spaces, of true labyrinthine
forms, immediately presented themselves, both above and below ground, and
the eye could easily detect the principal buildings, more than a stadium
(Strabo) in extent. Where the French expedition had vainly sought for
chambers, we literally at once find hundreds of them, both next to, and
above one another, small, often diminutive ones, beside greater ones, and
large ones, supported by small columns, with thresholds, and niches in
the walls, with remains of columns, and single casing-stones, connected
by corridors, without any regularity in the entrances and exits, so
that the descriptions of Herodotus and Strabo, in this respect, are
fully justified. But at the same time also, the opinion, which was never
adopted by me, and is irreconcileable with any architectonic view, that
there are _serpentine_, case-like windings, in place of square rooms, is
decidedly refuted.
The whole is so arranged, that three immense masses of buildings, 300
feet broad, enclose a square place, which is 600 feet long and 500 feet
wide. The fourth side, one of the narrow ones, is bounded by the Pyramid,
which lies behind it; it is 300 feet square, and therefore does not quite
reach the side wings of the above-mentioned masses of buildings. A canal
of rather modern date, passing obliquely through the ruins, and which one
can almost leap over, at least at the present season, cuts off exactly
the best preserved portion of the labyrinthian chambers, together with
part of the great central square, which at one time was divided into
courts. The travellers preferred not wetting their feet, and remained
on this side, where the continuation of the wings of the buildings is
certainly more concealed beneath the rubbish. But the chambers lying on
the farther side, especially their southern point, where the walls rise
nearly ten feet above the rubbish, and about twenty feet above the base
of the ruins, are to be seen very well even from this, the eastern side;
and viewed from the summit of the Pyramid, the regular plan of the
whole design lies before one as on a map. Erbkam has been occupied ever
since our arrival, in making the special plan, on which every chamber
or wall, however small, will be noted down. The farther portion of the
ruins is, therefore, by far the most difficult to record. On this side
it is an easier task, but so much the more difficult to understand. Here
the labyrinth of chambers passes on southwards. The courts were situated
between this and the Pyramid lying opposite on the northern side. But
almost all of these have disappeared. We have, therefore, nothing to
guide us but the dimensions of the square, which lead us to suppose that
it was divided into two halves, by a long wall, against which the twelve
courts (for we cannot, indeed, with any certainty, make out that there
were more) abutted on both sides, so that their entrances turned towards
opposite sides, and had immediately facing them the extensive mass of
innumerable chambers.
But who was the Maros, Mendes, Imandes, who, by the account of the
Greeks, erected the Labyrinth, or rather the Pyramid belonging to it, for
his tomb? In the Manethonic list of Kings, we find the builder of the
Labyrinth introduced towards the end of the 12th Dynasty, the last of the
Old Monarchy, shortly before the invasion of the Hyksos. The fragments of
the mighty columns and architraves which we have dug up from the great
square of the halls, exhibit the name-shields of the sixth king of this
same 12th Dynasty, Amenemha III. Thus the important question of its place
in history is answered.[23] We have also made excavations on the north
side of the Pyramid, because it is here that we conjecture the entrance
must have been. But it has not been hitherto discovered. We have only
as yet penetrated into a chamber which lay in front of the Pyramid, and
which was covered by a great quantity of rubbish, and we have several
times found the name of Amenemha here also. The builder and occupier
of the Pyramid is therefore determined. But this does not refute the
statement of Herodotus, that the Dodecarchs, only 200 years before his
time, had undertaken the building of the Labyrinth. We have found no
inscriptions in the ruins of the great masses of chambers which surround
the central space. It may be easily proved by future excavations that
this whole building, and probably also the disposition of the twelve
courts, belong only, in fact, to the 26th Dynasty of Manetho, so that
the original temple of Amenemha formed merely part of this gigantic
architectural enclosure.
So much for the Labyrinth and its Pyramid. The exact position which its
builder occupies in history is by far the most important result that
we could altogether hope to obtain here. I must now say a few words
respecting the other world’s wonder of this province, Lake Mœris.
The obscurity which has hitherto hung over it seems at length to have
been dispersed, by a beautiful discovery, which was made a short time
ago by the excellent Linant, the director of the water-works of the
Pascha. Hitherto there was only one point of agreement, that the lake
was situated in the Faiûm. Now, as at the present day there is only
one single lake in this remarkable semi-oasis, the Birqet-el-Qorn,
which is situated in its most remote and lowest parts, this must be the
Lake Mœris; we have no other choice. Its celebrity, however, rested
principally upon this, that it was an artificially designed (Herodotus
says an excavated) and extremely profitable lake, which was filled by
the Nile when it was high, and when the water was low, flowed off again
by the connecting canal; and irrigating on the one side the grounds of
the Faiûm, on the other, during its reflux, the adjacent tracts of the
Memphitic district, at the same time yielded extremely rich fishing
near the double sluices at the mouth of the Faiûm. To the annoyance
of Antiquarians and Philologists, not one of all these peculiarities
belonged to the Birqet-el-Qorn. This is not an artificial, but a natural
lake, which is only in part fed by the water of the Jussuf canal. One of
its useful qualities can be hardly said to exist, since no fishing-boat
enlivens its surface, encircled by an arid desert, because the brackish
water contains scarcely any fish, and is in no degree favourable to the
vegetation on its shores. When the Nile is at its height, and there is
a more abundant supply of water, it certainly rises; but it is situated
at far too low a level to allow a drop of the water with which it has
been supplied, ever to flow back again. The whole province must be buried
beneath the flood before the waters could find their way back into
the valley, for the artificially lowered rocky channel through which
the Bahr Jussuf is brought hither, branching off from the Nile about
forty miles south, lies higher than the whole oasis. The surface of the
Birqet-el-Qorn is now about seventy feet below the point where the canal
flows in, and can never have risen to a much greater height,[24] which
is proved by some remains of a temple upon its shores. As little does it
agree with the statement, that the Labyrinth, and the capital Arsinoë,
the present Medînet-el-Faiûm, were situated on its shores.
Linant has now discovered huge dams, miles in length, of the most
ancient solid construction, which separates the uppermost portion of
the shell-like, convex-formed basin of the Faiûm from those parts
which are situated lower and lie farther back, and, according to him,
could only have been intended to retain artificially a great lake,
which now, however, since the dams have been long broken through,
lies completely dry. This lake he holds to be that of Mœris. I must
confess that the whole thing, when he first communicated it to me by
word of mouth, impressed me with the idea that it was an extremely
happy discovery, which will also spare us in future many fruitless
researches. An inspection of the ground has now removed all my doubts as
to the correctness of this view. I hold it to be an insubvertible fact.
Linant’s treatise is now being printed, and I will send it to you as
soon as it is to be had.[25]
But finally, if you ask me what the name of Mœris has to do with that of
Amenemha, I can only answer, nothing. The name Mœris neither appears on
the monuments, nor in Manetho. I rather think that here again we find one
of the numerous misunderstandings of the Greeks. The Egyptians called
the lake, Phiom en mere, the Lake of the Nile-inundation (Copt. ⲙⲏⲣⲉ,
_inundatio_). The Greeks made out of _mere_, the water which formed the
lake, a King Mœris who designed the lake, and then troubled themselves no
further about the true originator, Amenemha. At a later period the whole
province received the name ⲫⲓⲟⲙ, Phiom, the Lake, from which the present
name Faiûm has been derived.
LETTER XII.
_The Labyrinth, the 18th July, 1843._
We have accomplished our journey round that remarkable province, the
Faiûm, very rarely visited by Europeans, which, on account of its
fertility, may be named the Garden of Egypt; and precisely because these
parts are almost as unknown as the distant oases of Libya, you will,
perhaps, be glad to hear some more details about them from me.
I started with Erbkam, E. Weidenbach, and Abeken, on the 3rd of July. We
went from the Labyrinth along the Bahr Wardâni, which skirts the eastern
border of the desert, and forms the boundary, to which the shore of
Lake Mœris at one time extended towards the East. The canal is now dry,
and is replaced by the still more recent Bahr Scherkîeh, which, as they
say, was made by the Sultan Barquq, and is conducted through the middle
of the Labyrinth; it at first crosses the Wardâni several times, but
afterwards keeps more inland. In three hours we reached the point where
the huge dam of Mœris projects from the middle of the Faiûm into the
desert. It runs out in this spot for about one and a half geographical
miles as far as El Elâm. In the middle of this tract it is intersected
by Bahr-bela-mâ, a deep bed of a stream, which now cuts through the old
lake-bottom, and is usually dry, but when there is a great supply of
water, it is used as an outlet for the superfluity towards Tamîeh, and
into the Birqet-el-Qorn. This enabled us to examine the dam itself from a
nearer point of view. The current, which at times is swollen and rapid,
has scooped out a passage for itself since the destruction of the lake,
not only through the alluvial soil that formed the bottom of the lake,
but also through several other layers of earth, and even through the
slightly indurated limestone lying undermost; so that the water, at this
season, reduced certainly to a minimum, flows about sixty feet lower than
the present dry bottom of the lake. I measured accurately the separate
layers of earth, and carried away with me a specimen of each. The breadth
of the dam cannot be determined with certainty, but may, perhaps, have
amounted to 150 feet. The height of the dam has probably become somewhat
lower with time. I found it to be 1 m. 90 (6 feet 3 inches English) above
the present bottom of the lake, and 5 m. 60 (18 feet 4 inches English)
above the opposite plain. If we suppose this last to be on a similar
level with the original bottom of the lake (which was, however, probably
lower, because the external ground was irrigated, and consequently became
elevated), then the dam, apart from its gradual levelling from above
downwards, must have been formerly as much as 5 m. 60, consequently 17
feet high, and the ground in the inner part of the lake, during its
existence of more than two thousand years, must have risen by deposits
of earth about 11 feet. But if we admit that the black earth also, from
11 to 12 feet thick, which is still to be found outside of the dams, was
deposited within the historical times, then the above numbers would even
require to be doubled. Thus we have some idea how its utility must have
been much diminished with time; for the lake (if we assume that its
circumference is what Linant asserts), by the filling up of the 11 feet
of earth, must have lost 13,000 millions of square feet of the water,
which it might have formerly contained. An elevation of the dams could
in no possible manner have prevented this, because they had been already
placed in exact relation to the point of the influx of the Bahr Jussuf
into the Faiûm. This may have been one of the most substantial reasons
why Lake Mœris was allowed at a later period to fall into decay; and even
Linant’s bold project to restore the lake could not wholly repair this
loss, even if he were to make the Bahr Jussuf branch off from the Nile at
a much higher point than was thought necessary by the old Pharaohs.
In two hours and a half from this intersection, following the dam to
El Elâm, where it ceases, we reached the remarkable remains of the two
monuments of Biahmu, which Linant considers to be the Pyramids of Mœris
and his consort, which were seen by Herodotus in the lake. They were
built out of great massive blocks; the nucleus of each of them is still
standing, but not in the centre of the almost square rectangle, which, by
their appearance, they seem to have originally occupied. They rose at an
angle of 64°, therefore, with a much steeper inclination than Pyramids
usually do. Their present height, which, however, seems to have been
originally the same as it is now, only amounts to twenty-three feet, to
which, nevertheless, must be added, a peculiar and somewhat projecting
base of seven feet. A small excavation convinced me that the lowest
layer of stone, which only reaches four feet beneath the present ground,
was founded neither on sand nor on rock, but upon Nile mud, which more
especially render the great antiquity of these buildings very doubtful.
At least it is to be inferred from this that they did not stand in the
lake, which, if it encircled them, must have had a remarkable curve
outwards to the north-west.
We had been riding hitherto on the line of separation between the
ancient bottom of the lake and the adjacent district. The former is
bare and sterile, since the land, at the present day, lies so high that
it cannot be overflowed. On the other hand, the broad tract of land
enclosing the ancient lake, forms by far the most beautiful and most
fertile part of the Faiûm. We now traversed this district, while we left
the capital of the province, Medînet el Faiûm, with the mounds of the
ancient CROCODILOPOLIS on our left, and rode by Selajîn and Fidimîn, to
Agamîeh, where we spent the night. The next morning, near Bischeh, we
reached the limits of this continuous garden-land. Here we entered a
new region, forming a striking contrast to the former, by its sterility
and desolation, enriching it like a girdle, and separating it from the
crescent-shaped Birqet-el-Qorn, situated in the lowest and most distant
part. About mid-day we reached the lake. The only boat which was to be
had, far and wide, conveyed us in an hour and a half across the expanse
of water, encircled all around by the desert, to an island lying in the
centre of the lake, called Gezîret-el-Qorn. We, however, found nothing
on it worthy of notice, not even a trace of a building, so towards the
evening we returned.
The next morning we re-crossed the lake in a more northerly direction,
and landed on a small peninsula of the opposite shore, which rises at
once 150 feet, to a plateau of the Libyan Desert, commanding the whole
Oasis. We then ascended, and about an hour distant from the shore, in
the midst of the inhospitable desert, devoid of water and vegetation, we
found the extensive ruins of an ancient town, which on earlier maps is
named Medînet Nimrud. They were utterly unacquainted with this name here;
the place was only known by the designation of DIMÉH. On the following
day, the 7th July, the regular plan of these ruins, with the remains of
its temple, was noted down by Erbkam, who had spent the night here with
Abeken. There are no inscriptions on the temple, and whatever sculptures
we found, were placed in this remarkable building at a late period. It
was probably intended only as a military station, against invasions from
Lybia into the rich country of the Faiûm.
On the 8th July we went in our boat to QASR QERÛN, an old town on the
southern end of the lake, with a temple of late date, and in excellent
preservation, but with no inscriptions, the plan of which was taken on
the following day. From this place we followed the southern frontier
of the Oasis, by Neslet, as far as the ruins of Medînet Mâdi, on LAKE
GHARAQ, near which the ancient dams of Lake Mœris projected from the
north, and on the 11th July we again arrived at our camp on the ruins
of the Labyrinth. We found all well, including Frey, whom we had left
indisposed, and whose repeated attacks of illness, probably produced by
the climate, cause me some anxiety.
To-morrow I am thinking of going to Cairo with Abeken and Bonomi, to hire
a boat for our journey south, and to prepare everything that is requisite
for our final departure from the neighbourhood of the capital. We shall
take four camels with us for the transport of the monuments which we have
collected in the Faiûm, and strike into the shortest road, namely, from
here by TAMÎEH, which we did not touch at, on our journey round, and
thence across the desert heights which separate this part of the Faiûm
from the Nile valley; we shall then descend into it by the Pyramids of
Daschûr, and thus hope to reach Cairo in two days and a half.
LETTER XIII.
_Cairo, the 14th August, 1843._
I regret to say that I received such uncomfortable accounts of the state
of Frey’s health, soon after our arrival in Cairo, that Abeken and Bonomi
at length determined to go to our camp, and to bring him in a litter
which they took with them, from the Labyrinth to Zani on the Nile, and
thence by water to this place. As soon as Dr. Pruner had seen him, he
pronounced that the only advisable course was to let him immediately
return to Europe. The liver complaint, under which he was found to be
suffering, is incurable in Egypt, and as it had already made great
progress, he left us yesterday at mid-day. May the climate of home soon
restore our friend’s strength, who is both amiable and full of talent,
and is a great loss to us all.
A few days ago, I purchased some Ethiopian Manuscripts for the Library
at Berlin, from a Basque, Domingo Lorda, who has lived a long time in
Abyssinia, and accompanied D’Abadie on several journeys. He bought them,
probably, for a small sum, in a convent situated on the island of Thâna,
near Gorata, one day’s journey from the sources of the Blue Nile, whose
inhabitants were brought to a state of great distress by locusts. The one
contains the history of Abyssinia, from Solomon to Christ, and is said to
come from Axum, and to be between five and six hundred years old. This
first part of the Abyssinian history, called KEBRE NEGEST, “the Fame of
the Kings,” is said to be far more rare than the second, TARIK NEGEST,
“the History of the Kings;” but this manuscript also contains at the
end a list of the Ethiopian kings since the time of Christ. The largest
manuscript, adorned with many great pictures in the Byzantine style, and
by what I learn about it from Lieder, almost unique in its kind, contains
chiefly the histories of saints. The third contains the still valid
_Canones_ of the Church, complete. I hope that it will be an acceptable
purchase for our Library.[26]
The purchases for our journey are also now completed; a convenient boat
is hired, which will save us from the great difficulties of a land
journey, since this, more especially during the impending season of
inundation, could scarcely be accomplished.
LETTER XIV.
_Thebes, the 13th October, 1843._
On the 16th August I went from Cairo to the Faiûm, from which our camp
broke up on the 21st. Two days later we sailed away from BENI-SUEF, and,
sending the camels back to Cairo, only took the asses with us in our
boat, as, on considering the matter more attentively, we found that the
land journey, originally contemplated by me along the range of the hills
some distance from the river on the western side, was quite impracticable
during the inundation, and on the eastern bank would have been partly
too fatiguing, and partly devoid of objects of interest to us on account
of the proximity of the desert frontier on that side, beyond which there
is nothing for us to explore. We have, therefore, only made excursions
from the boat, sometimes on foot, sometimes on asses, principally to the
eastern hills, which are easily reached; but on the western bank, also,
we have visited the most important points.
The very day after our departure from Beni-suef we found a small
rock-temple in the neighbourhood of the village of SURARIEH, unnoticed by
earlier travellers, not even mentioned by Wilkinson, which, as early as
the 19th Dynasty, was dedicated by Menephthes, the son of Ramses Miamun,
to the Egyptian Venus (Hathor). Farther on are several groups of tombs,
which had also hitherto received scarcely any notice, although, from
their extreme antiquity, they are peculiarly interesting. The whole of
Middle Egypt, judging by the tombs which have been preserved, seems to
have principally flourished during the Old Monarchy, before the invasion
of the Hyksos, not only during the 12th Dynasty, to which the renowned
tombs of Benihassan, Siut, and Berscheh belong, but even as early as the
6th. We have found groups of tombs, of considerable size, from this early
period, which belonged to towns whose names even are no longer known in
the later Egyptian geography, because they had probably been destroyed by
the Hyksos. We remained the longest time in Benihassan, namely, sixteen
days. Hence the season has now arrived, which we must not lose for our
journey south. In the following places, therefore, notes alone were
taken, and paper impressions of a most important kind; for instance, in
El Amarna, in Siut, in the venerable Abydos, and in the more recent, but
not on that account less magnificent, Temple of Dendera, which is almost
in perfect preservation. In Siut we visited the Governor of Upper Egypt,
Selîm Pascha, who for several months past has been working an ancient
alabaster quarry, which had been re-discovered by the Bedouins, between
Berscheh and Gauâta.
The town of SIUT is beautifully built and in a charming situation,
especially when viewed from the steep rock on the western bank of the
valley close behind it. The view of the overflowed Nile valley from these
heights is the most beautiful which we have yet seen, and, at the same
time, extremely characteristic of the inundation season, in which we are
now travelling. From the foot of the steep rock, a small dam overgrown
with sont-trees,[27] and a bridge, leads across to the town, which lies
like an island in the boundless sea of inundation. The gardens of Ibrahim
Pascha, extending on the left, form another island, green and fresh,
covered with trees and brushwood. The town, with its fifteen minarets,
rises high above the mounds of rubbish of the ancient Lycopolis. A still
larger dam leads from it to the Nile, and, towards the south, other long
dams may be seen, like floating threads drawn across the mass of waters.
On the other side the Arabian chain of mountains approach tolerably
near, by which the valley becomes closed in, forming a picture which can
be easily surveyed.
We have been in the royal city of THEBES since the 6th October. Our boat
landed us first, under the walls of Luqsor, at the most southern point
of the Theban ruins. The strong current of the river has here encroached
to within such a short distance of the old temple that it is itself
even in considerable danger. I endeavoured to obtain a view over the
ruins of Thebes, from the summit of the temple, in order to compare it
with the image that I had formed of it from maps and descriptions. The
distances, however, are too great to make a good picture. You look upon
a wide landscape, in which the scattered groups of temples stand forth
as single points, and can only be recognised by one who has a previous
knowledge of the subject. Towards the north, at the distance of a short
hour, rise the mighty Pylones of KARNAK, which of itself formed a town
of temples altogether gigantic and astonishing. We spent the succeeding
days in taking a cursory survey of them. On the other side of the river,
at the foot of the Libyan range, are the MEMNONIA, once an uninterrupted
series of splendid buildings, unrivalled among the monuments of
antiquity. Even now the temples of MEDÎNET HÂBU, with their high mounds
of rubbish, are distinguishable in the distance, at the southern end
of this series, exactly opposite to Luqsor; and at the northern end,
an hour from that point down the river, the temple of QURNAH, which is
in good preservation; between them both stands the temple of Ramses
Miamun (Sesostris), already of great celebrity, from its description by
Diodorus. Thus the four Arabian places, Karnak, and Luqsor on the eastern
side of the river, Qurnah, and Medînet Hâbu on the western, form a great
square, which measures on every side about half a geographical mile,
and gives us some notion of the magnitude of the most splendid portion
of ancient Thebes. How far the remaining inhabited portion of the City
of a Hundred Gates extended towards the east, north, and south, it is
difficult to discover now, because all that in the lapse of time has not
maintained its original position, has gradually disappeared beneath the
annually increasing rise of the soil of the lower plain by the inundation.
No one ever inquires here about the weather, for one day is exactly like
the other, serene, clear, and hitherto not too hot. We have no morning
or evening red, as there are neither clouds nor vapours; but the first
ray of the morning calls forth a world of colours in the bare and rugged
limestone mountains closing in around us, and in the brownish glittering
desert, contrasted with the black, or green-clothed lower plain, such as
is never seen in northern countries. There is scarcely any twilight, as
the sun sinks down at once. The separation of night and day is just as
sudden as that between meadow and desert; one step, one moment, divides
the one from the other. The sombre brilliancy of the moon and starlight
nights is so much the more refreshing to the eye which has been dazzled
by the ocean light of day. The air is so pure and dry, that except in the
immediate vicinity of the river, in spite of the sudden change at sunset,
there is no fall of dew. We have almost entirely forgotten what rain
is, for it is above six months since it last rained with us in Saqâra.
A few days ago we rejoiced, when, towards evening, we discovered some
light clouds in the sky to the south-west, which reminded us of Europe.
Nevertheless, we do not want coolness even in the daytime, for a light
wind is almost always blowing, which does not allow the heat to become
too oppressive. Added to this, the Nile water is pleasant to the taste,
and maybe enjoyed in great abundance without any detriment.
The clay water-bottles (Qulleh) are invaluable to us; they are composed
of fine, porous Nile mud, which allows the water to ooze through them
continually; the evaporation of this, as soon as it appears on the warm
surface, as is well known, produces cold, and thus, by this simple
process, the bottles are constantly kept cool in the hottest period of
the day. The drinking-water, on that account, is usually cooler than it
is in Europe during the summer. We principally live upon poultry, and,
as a change, we occasionally kill a sheep. There are very few vegetables.
Every meal is concluded by a dish of rice. For dessert we have the most
beautiful yellow melons, or juicy red water-melons. The dates also are
excellent, but not to be had everywhere. I have at length, to the great
joy of my companions, learned to smoke a Turkish pipe, which keeps me a
quarter of an hour in perfect _kêf_: by this word the Arabs designate
their easy repose, their comfort; for as long as one “drinks” the blue
smoke of the long pipe from the shallow bowl, so easily overset, it is
impossible to leave one’s position, or to undertake anything else. We
have a convenient costume—loose trousers of light cotton stuff, and over
them a wide long tunic, with short wide sleeves. Besides this I wear a
broad, turned-up, grey felt hat, as a European badge, which keeps the
Arabs in proper respect. We eat, according to the custom of the country,
on a low round table, not a foot high, sitting on cushions, with our legs
folded under us. This position has become so convenient to me, that I
even write in it, sitting on my couch, the letter portfolio on my knees,
as a support. Above me is spread out a canopy of gauze to keep off the
flies—this most shameless plague of Egypt during the day—and the gnats
during the night. In other respects, we suffer far less from vermin here,
than in Italy. We have not yet been bit by scorpions and serpents, but in
return there are very malignant wasps, which have frequently stung us.
We shall only remain here till the day after to-morrow, and shall then
travel towards the south without stopping. We shall wait for our return
to devote as much time and labour as the treasures in this spot demand.
At Assuan, on the frontiers of Egypt, we shall, for the first time,
change our mode of transport, and send back our great boat, in which we
already feel quite at home. On the other side of the cataracts we shall
take two smaller boats for our journey onwards.
LETTER XV.
_Korusko, the 20th November, 1843._[28]
Our journey from the Faiûm, through Egypt, was necessarily very much
hastened owing to the advanced season. We have, therefore, rarely
remained longer at a place than was requisite for a hasty survey, and
have chiefly confined ourselves, during the past three months, to keeping
an exact register of what exists, and to increasing our important
collection of impressions upon paper of the most interesting inscriptions.
On our rapid journey as far as Wadi Halfa, we have collected from three
to four hundred impressions, or exact copies, of Greek inscriptions
alone. They often confirm Letronne’s acute conjectures, but also not
unfrequently correct the unavoidable mistakes of such a difficult work
as his. In the inscription from which, without any foundation, it was
proposed to settle the position of the town of Akoris, his conjecture,
ΙΣΙΔΙ ΛΟΧΙΑΔΙ, is not verified: L’Hôte had read ΜΟΧΙΑΔΙ, but it is
ΜΩΧΙΑΔΙ, and before ΕΡΩΕΩΣ, not ΕΡΕΕΩΣ.
The dedicatory inscription of the Temple of PSELCHIS (as it is given in
the inscription, in accordance with Strabo, instead of Pselcis) is almost
as long again as Letronne assumes it to be, and the first line does not
end with ΚΛΕΟΠΑΤΡΑΣ, but with ΑΔΕΛΦΗΣ, so that we must probably restore
it thus:
Ὑπὲρ βασιλέως Πτολεμαίου καὶ βασιλίσσης
Κλεοπάτρας τῆς ἀδελφῆς
Θεῶν Εὐεργετῶν.[29] ... [30]
At the end of the second line ΤΩΙΚΑΙ, therefore, is confirmed. The
surname of Hermes, which follows in the third line, however, has been
ΠΑΟΤΠΝΟΥΦΙ (ΔΙ) differing from the writing in other later inscriptions,
where he is called ΠΑΥΤΝΟΥΦΙΣ. The same surname is also not unfrequently
found in hieroglyphics, and then sounds _Tut en Pnubs_, that is to
say, _Thoth_ of, or Lord of Πνούψ, a town, the site of which is still
uncertain. I have already met with this Thoth in temples of earlier
date, where he frequently appears beside the _Thoth_ of _Schmun_, i. e.
_Hermopolis Magna_. In the popular language it was called _Pet-Pnubs_;
from this, it became _Paot-Pnuphis_.
The interesting problem about the owner of the name, Εὐπάτωρ, which
Letronne endeavours to solve in a new manner, by means of the
inscriptions on the obelisk of Philæ, appears to be decided by the
hieroglyphic inscriptions, where the same circumstances recur, but lead
to other conjectures.[31] I have found several very perfect series of the
Ptolemies, the longest down to Neos Dionysos, and his consort Cleopatra,
who, according to the hieroglyphic inscriptions, was surnamed, by the
Egyptians, TRYPHÆNA.[32] A fact worthy of consideration is connected
with this, namely, that in this _Egyptian_ list of the Ptolemies, the
first king is never Ptolemy Soter I., but PHILADELPHUS. In Qurna, where
Euergetes II. worships his predecessors, not alone Philometor, the
brother of Euergetes is wanting, which is easily explained, but also
Soter I., and Rosellini is mistaken when he regards the king who is
worshipped under the title of Philadelphus, about whom Champollion was
still doubtful, as Soter I. instead of Euergetes I. It appears that the
son of Lagus, although he assumed the title of _king_ from the year 305,
was yet not acknowledged as such by the Egyptians, as his shields do not
appear on a single monument which was erected by him. So much the more do
I rejoice that I have nevertheless found his name mentioned once, in an
inscription of Philadelphus, as the father of Arsinoë II. But here, we
must observe, Soter has, indeed, the royal ring round his name, and also
a peculiar Throne-shield name, but quite contrary to the usual Egyptian
custom, no king’s title stands before either of the shields, although his
daughter is called “royal daughter” and “royal lady.”[33]
It is astonishing how little Champollion seems to have attended to the
monuments of the Old Monarchy. During his whole journey through Central
Egypt, as far as Dendera, he only found the rock-tombs of Benihassan
worthy of notice, and these also, he considered to be works of the 16th
and 17th Dynasties, therefore belonging to the New Monarchy. He also
mentions Zauiet el Meitîn and Siut, but hardly notices them.
So little has been said by others, besides, on most of the monuments of
Central Egypt, that almost everything that we here found was new to me.
I, therefore, was not a little astonished when we discovered in ZAUIET EL
MEITÎN a series of nineteen rock-tombs, all of them bearing inscriptions,
which informed us who were their inhabitants, and belonging to the old
time of the 6th Dynasty, therefore extending almost to the period of
the great Pyramids. Five among them contain, more than once, the Shield
of Makrobioten Apappus Pepi, who is said to have lived to the age of a
hundred and six years, and to have reigned a hundred years; in another,
Cheops is mentioned. Apart from these there is also a single grave from
the period of Ramses.
In BENIHASSAN, I have had a complete drawing made of an entire rock-tomb;
it is to give a specimen of the magnificent style of architecture
and artistic skill, from the second flourishing period of the Old
Monarchy, during the powerful 12th Dynasty.[34] I think it will excite
some attention among the Egyptologists, when they shortly learn from
Bunsen’s work, why I make a division in the tablet of Abydos, and why I
ventured to transfer SESURTESEN and AMENEMHA, these well-known Pharaohs
of Heliopolis, the Faiûm, Benihassan, Thebes, and as far as Wadi Halfa,
from the New, to the Old Monarchy. It must have been a brilliant period
in Egypt at that time, which these magnificent halls for the dead
alone testify. At the same time, among the rich representations on the
walls, which exhibit a high standard of the peaceful arts, as well as
the refined luxury of the great at that period, it is interesting even
then to meet with the prognostics of that great adverse destiny, which
brought Egypt for several centuries under the power of her northern
enemies. Gladiatorial games, which form a characteristic representation
of frequent recurrence, in many tombs occupy entire walls, by which
we may conclude they were extensively practised at that period, but
afterwards almost disappeared. Among these we frequently find amidst
the red or dark-brown people of the Egyptian race, and of those races
dwelling more to the south, a very light-coloured people, standing singly
or in small divisions, who have usually a different costume, and most of
them have the hair of the head and beard red, and have blue eyes. They
also sometimes appear among the domestics of persons of rank, and are
manifestly of northern, probably of Semetic, origin. We find victories
of the kings over the Ethiopians and Negroes mentioned on the monuments
of that period; therefore it is not surprising to see black slaves and
attendants. We learn nothing of wars against the northern neighbours, but
it appears that the migrations of people from the north-east had already
begun at that time, and that many emigrants sought a home in the fruitful
land of Egypt, in exchange for service, or other useful employments.
I here allude particularly to the remarkable scene in the tomb of the
royal relative NEHERA-SI-NUMHOTEP, the second tomb approaching from the
north, which gives an animated idea of the entrance of Jacob with his
family, and which might tempt us really to connect these circumstances,
if Jacob had not come at a much later period, and if we were not
compelled to acknowledge that such immigrations of single families could
never have been a rare event. These, however, were the predecessors of
the Hyksos, and assuredly in many respects paved the way for them. As it
is only painted, and is still in very good preservation, I have traced
through the whole representation, which is about eight feet long, and
one and a half high. The royal scribe NEFRUHOTEP, who introduces the
company before the high official, to whom the tomb belongs, hands him a
sheet of papyrus. Upon this, the sixth year of King Sesurtesen II. is
mentioned, when that family of thirty-seven persons came to Egypt. Their
chief, and lord, was called ABSCHA, they themselves AAMU, a popular name,
which we meet with again associated with the same light-coloured race;
this, with three other races, is frequently represented in the royal
tombs of the 19th Dynasty, and formed one of the four principal families
of the human race known to the Egyptians. Champollion, when he was in
Benihassan, regarded them as Greeks; he was not then aware of the extreme
age of the monuments which were before him. Wilkinson considers them
to be prisoners; this is contradicted by their appearing with weapons
and lyres, with women, children, asses, and baggage. I view them as a
migrating Hyksos family, who pray to be received into the blessed land,
and whose descendants, perhaps, opened the gates of Egypt to the Semetic
conquerors, allied to them by race.
The town, to which the rich rock-necropolis of Benihassan belonged, and
which is named in the hieroglyphic inscriptions NUS, must have been of
considerable size, and, doubtless, lay opposite, on the left bank of
the Nile, where ancient mounds exist even at the present time, and are
marked upon the French maps. That no more of this town of NUS was known
in the geography of the Greeks and Romans than of many other towns of the
Old Monarchy, ought not to surprise us, if we consider that the dominion
of the Hyksos intervened, which lasted five hundred years. It is thought
that the sudden fall of the Monarchy, and of this flourishing town, may
be traced, even now, to have happened at the end of the 12th Dynasty
by this circumstance—that only eleven of the numerous rock-tombs have
inscriptions, and that among these, three alone were quite completed.
Special roads of considerable width led to these last, ascending direct
from the bank of the river, which near the steep upper part ended in
steps cut out of the rock.
Benihassan, however, is not the only place where we became acquainted
with the works of the 12th Dynasty. At BERSCHEH, a little to the south of
the great plain, where the Emperor Hadrian, in honour of his favourite,
who was there drowned, built the town of ANTINOE, with its splendid
streets, even now partly passable, and encompassed with hundreds of
columns, a narrow valley opens to the east, where we again found a
series of splendidly executed rock-tombs of the 12th Dynasty, most of
which, unfortunately, were mutilated by recent quarrying. In the tomb of
Ki-si-Tuthotep there is a representation of the transport of the great
Colossus, which has been already published by Rosellini, but without the
accompanying inscriptions; from these we perceive that it was formed
of _limestone_ (here, for the first time, I learned the hieroglyphic
term for this), and that it was 13 Egyptian ells high, which is about
21 feet.[35] A series of still older tombs are hewn into the face of
the rock on the southern side of the same valley, but with very few
inscriptions; to judge by the style of the hieroglyphics, and the titles
of the deceased, they belong to the 6th Dynasty.
Some hours farther to the south there is another group of tombs,
which also belong to the 6th Dynasty; here, likewise, King Cheops is
occasionally mentioned, whose name we several times met with before,
in a hieratic inscription in Benihassan. We found tombs from the 6th
Dynasty, though with few inscriptions, in two other places situated,
between the valley EL AMARNA, which contains the very remarkable
tomb-grottoes of King Bech-en-Aten, and Siut. Perring, the measurer
of the Pyramids, a short time ago seriously endeavoured, in an essay,
to maintain the strange opinion, which, however, I also met with
while in Cairo, that the monuments of El Amarna were derived from the
Hyksos; others, on account of their striking, though not inexplicable
peculiarities, would even carry them back to the time before Menes. While
still in Europe I had recognised the builder of these monuments, and some
other allied kings, to be antagonistic kings of the 18th Dynasty.
Rock-tombs of vast size open on the side of the valley behind SIUT, in
which, even from a distance, we recognised the imposing style of the 12th
Dynasty. Here also, unfortunately, many of these splendid remains have
been destroyed of late, as it was found more convenient to break away the
walls and columns of the grottoes, than to hew out building stones from
the rock itself.
I learned from Selîm Pascha, the Governor of Upper Egypt, who received
us in a most friendly manner in Siut, that the Bedouins had a short
time ago discovered some alabaster quarries in the eastern range of
mountains, between two and three hours distant, the working of which had
been committed to him by Mohammed Ali; and I heard from his dragoman,
that in that place also there was an inscription on the rock. I
therefore determined to start the following day, accompanied by the two
Weidenbachs, our dragoman and Kawass, on this hot ride, on the Pascha’s
horses, which he had sent to El Bosra for the purpose. We found there a
little colony of eighteen labourers, thirty-one souls altogether, in the
lonely, sultry, rocky defile, occupied in working the quarries. On the
side of the rock, behind the tent of the overseer, the name and titles
of the wife, so highly venerated by the Egyptians of the first Amasis,
the head of the 18th Dynasty which expelled the Hyksos, were preserved
in distinct, sharp-cut hieroglyphics, the remains of an inscription that
had been formerly longer. These are the first alabaster quarries the
age of which is proved by an inscription. Not far from that place there
have been others also, which, however, had been worked out in ancient
times. Above three hundred blocks have been already obtained from the
one now re-opened during the last four months, the largest of which are
eight feet long and two feet thick. The Pascha informed me, through
his dragoman, that on our return I should find a slab, whose size and
form I might myself determine, of the best quality in the quarry, and
which I might accept, as a token of the pleasure he had derived from
our visit. The alabaster quarries which have hitherto been discovered
in this neighbourhood, are all between Berscheh and Gauâta; we might be
inclined, therefore, to view El Bosra as the ancient Alabastron, if the
passage in Ptolemy could be reconciled with it. At any rate, Alabastron
has certainly nothing to do with the ruins in the valley of El Amarna,
for which it has hitherto been taken, which does not either agree with
the statement of Ptolemy, and with which it appears to have a totally
different relation. The hieroglyphic name of these ruins frequently
appears in the inscriptions.
In the rocky chain of GEBEL SELÎN there are some more very early tombs
belonging to the Old Monarchy, probably to the 6th Dynasty, but with few
inscriptions.
Opposite to old PANOPOLIS, or CHEMMIS, we climbed up to the remarkable
rock-grotto of Pan (Chem). It was founded by another rival king of the
18th Dynasty, whose tomb we have since visited in Thebes. The holy name
of the city frequently appears in the inscriptions here—“The Habitation
of CHEM,” _i. e._ Panopolis. Whether the popular name Chemmis, now
Echmim, originated from this, is perhaps doubtful. I have always found
two different names for Siut, Dendera, Abydos, and other towns; the
holy and the popular name. The first is taken from the chief god of the
local temple; the second has nothing to do with this. My hieroglyphic
geography increases nearly with every new monumental locality. In
ABYDOS we came to the first of the larger temple structures. The last
interesting tombs of the Old Monarchy we found at QASR E’ SAIAT; they go
as far back as the 6th Dynasty. In DENDERA we visited the imposing Temple
of Hathor, perhaps the best preserved in all Egypt.
We spent twelve overwhelming and astounding days in Thebes, which were
scarcely sufficient to enable us to thread our way among the palaces,
temples, and tombs, whose royal gigantic splendour fills this wide plain.
We celebrated the birthday of our beloved king with a _feu de joie_,
and waving of banners, with chorus songs and heartfelt toasts, which we
pledged in a glass of genuine German Rhine wine, in the jewel of all
the splendid buildings of Egypt—the palace of Ramses-Sesostris: it was
erected by this greatest of the Pharaohs to “Ammon-Ra, the King of the
Gods,” the tutelar patron of the royal city of Ammon, situated on a
terrace of gentle elevation, calculated to command the wide plain on both
sides of the majestic river, and was worthy of himself and of the god. I
need scarcely say that on such an occasion we also thought of you with a
full heart. When night came, we kindled a kettle of pitch above the outer
entrance between the Pylones, on both sides of which our banners were
planted, and then made a great fire flame up from the flat roof of the
Pronaos (or vestibule), which exhibited the beautiful proportions of the
hall of columns in splendid relief; for the first time since thousands
of years we again restored this to its original destination as a festive
hall—the saloon of “panegyrics.”[36] The two mighty Memnon Colossi,
calmly reposing on their thrones, were also magically lighted up in the
distance.
We have reserved all great undertakings for our return; but it will be
difficult to select from the inexhaustible materials for our particular
object, and with reference to what has been already communicated in
other works. On the 10th of October we quitted Thebes. HERMONTHIS we saw
in passing. The great hall of ESNEH was several years ago excavated down
to the foundation by order of the Pascha, and afforded us a magnificent
spectacle. We remained three days in EL KAB, the ancient EILEITHYIA.
Still more wonderful than the different temples of this once mighty
place, are its rock-tombs, most of which date from the commencement of
the Egyptian War of Freedom against the Hyksos, and throw much light on
the relations between the Dynasties of that period. Several distinguished
persons, buried there, bear the strange title of Masculine Nurse of a
Royal Prince, by the well-known group _mena_, and the determinative of
the female breast, in the Coptic tongue expressed ⲙⲟⲡⲓ. The deceased is
represented with the prince upon his lap.
The Temple of EDFU is also among those which are in best preservation;
it was dedicated to Horus and to Hathor, the Egyptian Venus, who is here
in one place called “The Queen of Men and Women.” Horus, as a child,
is represented naked, as are all children on the monuments, and with
his finger on his mouth. I had before explained the name of HARPOKRATES
from it, which now I have found represented and written here complete,
as HAR-PE-CHROTI, _i. e._ “Horus the child.” The Romans misunderstood
the Egyptian gesture of the finger, and out of the child who cannot
yet speak, they made the God of Silence who will not speak. The most
interesting inscription, hitherto neither noticed nor mentioned by
any one, is on the outer eastern wall of the temple built by Ptolemy
Alexander I. It contains several dates, of the kings Darius, Nectanebus,
and of the falsely so-called Amyrtæus, and refers to the landed estates
which belonged to the temple. The intense heat of the day we spent
there caused me to postpone, till our return, a closer examination, and
taking the paper impression of this wall.[37] GEBEL SILSILIS is one of
the places most abundant in historical inscriptions, which are chiefly
connected with the vast workings of the sandstone quarries.
I was rejoiced to find a third _canon of the proportions_ of the human
body, in OMBOS, differing very distinctly from both the older Egyptian
canons which I had before met with in many examples. The second canon
is closely connected with the first, and oldest, of the time of the
Pyramids, from which it differs only in being brought to greater
perfection, and being differently applied. The foot, as the unit, is the
foundation of both, this taken six times, corresponded to the height of
the body when upright; but it must be observed, from the sole of the
foot, not as far as the crown of the head, but only to the top of the
forehead. That portion from where the hair begins to grow on the upper
part of the forehead, to the crown of the head, did not come into the
calculation at all, and occupies sometimes three-quarters, sometimes the
half, sometimes still less of a fresh square. The difference between the
first and the second canon chiefly rests on the position of the knee.
In the Ptolemaic canon, however, the division has itself been altered.
The body was no longer divided into 18 parts, as in the second canon,
but into 21¼ parts, to the top of the forehead, or into 23 parts, up to
the crown of the head. This is the division which DIODORUS gives, in
the last chapter of his first book. In the lower part of the body the
proportions of the second and third canon remain the same; on the other
hand, those of the upper part of the body are essentially altered, the
contours become altogether more extravagant, and the previous beautiful
simplicity and chasteness of the forms, in which consisted both its grand
and peculiarly Egyptian character, yielded to the imperfect imitation of
an uncomprehended foreign style of art. The proportion of the foot to the
length of the body remains the same, but the foot is no longer placed for
the basis as unit.
At ASSUAN we were obliged to change our boat, on account of the
Cataracts, and for the first time for six months past, or longer, we
had the home enjoyment of heavy rain, and a violent thunderstorm, which
gathered on the farther side of the Cataracts, crossed with a mighty
force the granite girdle, and then, amidst the most violent explosions,
rolled down the valley as far as Cairo, and (as we have since heard)
covered it with floods of water, such as had been scarcely remembered
before. So we may say, with Strabo and Champollion, “In our time it
rained in Upper Egypt.” Rain is, indeed, so rare here, that our guards
never remembered to have beheld such a spectacle, and our Turkish Kawass,
who is in all respects perfectly acquainted with the country, continued
to leave his own things untouched; while we long before had been carrying
our chests into the tents, and having them better secured, he quietly
repeated _abaden moie_, “never rain,” a word which since then he has
often been compelled to hear, as he was thoroughly drenched, and caught
a violent, feverish cold, for which he was obliged to wait patiently in
Philæ.
The situation of PHILÆ is as charming as it is interesting by its
monuments. Some of the most delightful recollections of our journey are
associated with our eight days’ residence on this holy island. We used
to assemble before dinner, after the scattered work of the day, on the
elevated temple terrace, which rises abruptly from the river, on the
eastern shore of the island; we there watched the shadow of the temple
(which is in good preservation, and built of sharply cut, deep-coloured
glowing blocks of sandstone) steal over the river, and mingle with the
black volcanic masses of rock, towering above each other, between which
the golden yellow sand pours into the valley like streams of fire. The
island appears only to have become holy to the Egyptians at a late
period, for the first time under the Ptolemies. Herodotus, who during
the rule of the Persians ascended as far as the Cataracts, does not
mention Philæ at all; it was at that time inhabited by the Ethiopians,
who were also in possession of half of the island of Elephantine. The
oldest buildings now to be found upon the island were erected on the
southern point by Nectanebus, the last king but two of Egyptian origin,
almost a hundred years after the journey of Herodotus. There are no
traces of earlier remains, not even of any that were destroyed or built
up into other buildings. Many older inscriptions are to be found upon
the large neighbouring island of Bigeh, named in hieroglyphics SENMUT.
As early as the Old Monarchy, it was adorned with Egyptian monuments;
for we have found a granite statue of King Sesurtesen III. from the 12th
Dynasty. The little rocky island KONOSSO, named in hieroglyphics KENES,
also contains very old inscriptions, engraved upon the rock, in which a
new and hitherto wholly unknown King of the Hyksos period is also named.
Hitherto the hieroglyphic name of the island of Philæ was read Manlak. I
have found the name undoubtedly more than once written Ilak; hence with
the article, PHILAK became in the mouth of the Greeks PHILAI. The sign
which Champollion read “man,” in other groups changes into _i_, thence
the expression I-lak, P-i-lak, Memphitic Ph-i-lak, is now established.
We have made a valuable discovery in the court of the great Temple of
Isis, of two _bilingual_ decrees of the Egyptian priests, that is to
say, drawn up in the Hieroglyphic and Demotic characters; they are
tolerably rich in words, and one of them contains the same text as the
decree of the Rosetta stone. I have, at least, up to the present moment,
compared the last seven lines, which correspond with the inscription
of Rosetta, not only in their contents, but also in the length of each
single line; the inscription must be copied before I can say more
about it; at all events, it is no inconsiderable advantage to Egyptian
philology, if only a portion of the fragmentary decree of Rosetta can,
through this, be completed. The whole of the first portion of the
Rosetta inscription which precedes the decree, is here wanting. Instead
of this, there is a second decree beside it, which refers to the same
Ptolemy Epiphanes; in the introduction, the “Fortress of Alexander,”
_i. e._ the town of Alexandria, is mentioned for the first time, on the
monuments which have hitherto become known. Both decrees conclude, like
the Rosetta inscription, with the intention to set up the inscription in
Hieroglyphic, Demotic, and Greek characters. Nevertheless, the Greek is
wanting here; unless, perhaps, it was written down in red, and rubbed out
when Ptolemy Lathyrus cut his hieroglyphic inscriptions over the earlier
ones.[38]
The hieroglyphic succession of the Ptolemies, which appears here, begins
again with Philadelphus; whereas, in the Greek text of the Rosetta
inscription, it begins with Soter. Another very remarkable fact is, that
Epiphanes is here called, the son of Ptolemy Philopator and _Cleopatra_,
while, by the historical accounts, the only wife of Philopator was
Arsinoë, and she is besides so named in the Rosetta inscription, and on
other monuments. She is also certainly called Cleopatra in one passage of
Pliny, but this might have been considered a mistake of the author, or of
the manuscript, if a hieroglyphic, and, indeed, an official document did
not even now present the same change of names. There are now, therefore,
no longer any grounds to place the mission by the Roman Senate of Marcus
Atilius, and Marcus Acilius to Egypt, to negotiate a new alliance on
account of the Queen Cleopatra, who is mentioned by Livy, under Ptolemy
Epiphanes, as is done by Champollion Figeac, instead of under Ptolemy
Philopator as other authors relate. We must rather assume now, either
that the wife and sister of Philopator bore both names, which, indeed,
even then would not quite remove the difficulties; or that the project
mentioned by Appian, of a marriage between Philopator and the Syrian
Cleopatra, who afterwards became the wife of Epiphanes, was carried into
effect after the murder of Arsinoë, though the authors give us no account
of it. Here, naturally, I am without the means of making this point
perfectly clear.[39]
The multitude of Greek inscriptions in Philæ is incalculable, and it will
interest Letronne to hear, that on the base of the second obelisk, which
still exists in its original place and position, of which only a portion
has travelled with the other obelisk to England, I have found the remains
of a Greek inscription, written in red, difficult indeed to decipher,
which, perhaps, was at one time also gilt, similar to the two last
discovered upon the base in England. I have already written to Letronne,
that the hieroglyphic inscriptions of the obelisk, which, together with
the Greek one of the base, I myself copied in Dorsetshire, and which I
afterwards published in my “Egyptian Atlas,” have nothing to do with the
Greek inscription, and were not even set up simultaneously; but it still
remains a question, whether the inscription of the second base was not in
connexion with that of the first; the correspondence of the three known
inscriptions certainly appears exclusively confined to themselves.
The chief temple of the island was dedicated to Isis. She is called by
preference “The Lady of Philek.” Osiris was only θεὸς σύνναος, which
has its peculiar hieroglyphic expression, and he is only sometimes
exceptionally called “Lord of Philek;” on the other hand, he was “Lord
of Ph-i-uêb,” _i. e._ Abaton, and Isis, who was there σύνναος, is only
exceptionally called “The Lady of Ph-i-uêb.” Even from this, we may
infer, that the famous tomb of Osiris, on his own island of Phiuêb,
was not upon Philek. Both places were expressly designated by their
determinatives as _Islands_. There is, therefore, no question that the
Abaton of inscriptions and authors was not a particular place upon the
island of Philæ; it was itself an island. Diodorus and Plutarch both say
so, in distinct terms, as they place it πρὸς Φιλαις. Diodorus expressly
designates the island with the tomb of Osiris, as a peculiar island,
which, on account of this tomb, was called ἱερὸν πεδίον, “the sacred
plain.” This is a translation of PH-I-UEB, or PH-IH-UEB (for the _h_
is also found in the hieroglyphics), in the Coptic tongue ⲫ-ⲓⲁϩ-ⲟⲩⲏⲃ,
PH-IAH-UEB, “the sacred field.” This sacred plain was an _Abaton_,
inaccessible except to the priests.
On the 6th of November we left the enchanting island, and began our
_Ethiopian_ journey. Even in DEBÔD, the next temple we came to towards
the south, in hieroglyphics called _Tabet_ (in Coptic, perhaps, ⲧⲁ ⲁⲃⲏⲧ),
we found the sculptures of an Ethiopian king, ARKAMEN the ERGAMENES,
of the authors, who reigned at the same time as Ptolemy Philadelphus,
and probably was in very friendly relations with Egypt. There is great
confusion in the French work on Champollion’s expedition (I have not got
Rosellini at hand). Many sheets which belong to Dakkeh are attributed to
Debôd, and _vice versâ_: we collected nearly sixty Greek inscriptions
in GERTASSI. Letronne, who knew them, through Gau, has perhaps already
published them; I am eager to learn what he has made out of γόμοι, whose
priests play an important part in these inscriptions, as also out of the
new gods, Σρούπτιχις and Πουρσεπμοῦνις.
The Inscriptions of TALMIS offer a new instance how incorrectly the
Egyptian names were often comprehended by the Greeks, who name the same
god MANDULIS, who in the hieroglyphic language was distinctly called
MERULI, and was the local god of Talmis. It is striking that the name
of Talmis, which is frequently found in this temple, never appears in
the rock-temple of Bet el Ualli, certainly of much older date, which
is situated in its immediate neighbourhood. DENDÛR also had a peculiar
protecting patron, the god PETISI, who never appears anywhere else, and
has also the surname of Peschir Tenthur; Champollion’s sheets are here,
also, in wonderful disorder, since the representations and inscriptions
are erroneously combined.
The Temples of GERF HUSSÊN and SEBÛA are especially worthy of notice,
because Ramses Sesostris, by whom they were built, appears here both as
a contemplative divinity and worshipping himself as such, with Phtha and
Ammon, the two chief divinities of this temple. In the first, he is even
one time called “Ruler of the Gods.”
Champollion has already remarked, with justice, that indeed all the
temples of the Ptolemies, and of the Roman emperors in Nubia, were only
restorations of former sanctuaries, which, in more ancient times, had
been erected by the Pharaohs of the 18th and 19th Dynasties, and had
been destroyed by the Persians. Thus also the Temple of PSELCHIS was
first built by Tuthmosis III. Besides the scattered fragments of stone
belonging to this first building, which, however, was not dedicated to
Thoth, as Champollion believes, but to Horus, and thus at a later period
altered its destination; we have found others, likewise, of Sethôs I.
and Menephthes. It also appears that the axis of the first plan was not
parallel with the river, like the later one, but similar to almost all
other temples, its entrance was towards the river.
At the Temple of KORTE the entrance door alone is inscribed with
hieroglyphics, and those of the worst style. Yet even this small amount
was sufficient to inform us that the sanctuary was dedicated to Isis, who
is named “The Lady of Kerte.” Here also we discovered some blocks that
had been used in later buildings, which had escaped the notice of former
travellers; they belonged to an ancient temple, erected by Tuthmosis
III., and the foundation walls may still be recognised.
In HIERASYKAMINOS we reaped the last harvest of Greek inscriptions.
As far as this place Greek and Roman travellers were protected by the
garrison of Pselchis, and by another strong position MEHENDI, which
is not given on the maps, but was situated some hours to the south of
Hierasykaminos. PRIMIS seems only to have had a temporary garrison
after the campaign of Petronius. MEHENDI, whose name, indeed, seems
only to designate in Arabic the buildings, the fortress, is the best
preserved Roman camp that I have ever seen. It lies upon a tolerably
steep eminence, and from that commands the river, and a small valley,
which passes upwards from the river, to the south side of the fortress;
the caravan road, also, here branches off into the desert, and does not
redescend to the river till near Medik. The wall of the town encloses a
square, which, towards the east, passes down the hill a short way, and
measures 175 paces from north to south, and 125 from east to west. Four
corner towers, and four central towers, spring up at regular intervals
from the walls; among the last, those lying to the north and south were
also the gates, which, for greater security, did not lead straight into
the town, but with a bend. The southern gate, and all the southern
portion of the fortress, which encompassed about 120 houses, are in
excellent preservation. Immediately behind the gate you enter a straight
street, sixty-seven paces long, which, with but little interruption,
is still completely arched over; several narrow side streets lead off
on both sides, and are also, as well as all the houses of that whole
portion of the town, covered over with arched roofs, made of Nile bricks.
The street leads to a somewhat large open place in the middle of the
town, near to which was situated, upon the highest point of the ridge
of the rock, the largest, and best built house, doubtless that of the
commander, with a semicircular niche at the eastern end. The walls of
the town are built out of unhewn stones; the gate alone, which supports
a well-constructed Roman arch, is built of sharply-cut square stones,
amongst which several built into it, have sculptures of the genuine
Egyptian style, although of late date; a proof that before the erection
of the fortress, there was an Egyptian or Ethiopian sanctuary, probably a
chapel to Isis. We discovered a head of Osiris, and two heads of Isis, in
one of which we could still recognise the red-marked proportion square of
the third canon.
The last monument that we visited, before our arrival in Korusko, was
the Temple of Ammon in WADI SEBÛA (the Lion Valley), so called from the
row of Sphinxes, which are now scarcely visible above the sea of sand
which has buried nearly the whole temple, as far as it stood out alone.
Even the western portion of the temple, hewn in the rock, is filled up
high with sand, and we were compelled to summon the whole crew of our
boat to open an entrance into this part of it. We here encountered a new
and very peculiar combination of divine and human nature, in a group of
four divinities. The first of which was called “PHTHA OF RAMSES, in the
house of Ammon;” the second, PHTHA, with other customary surnames; the
third, RAMSES, in the house of Ammon; the fourth, HATHOR. In another
inscription, “AMMON OF RAMSES, in the house of Ammon,” was named. It is
difficult to explain this combination.[40]
I was no less astonished to find a posterity of King Ramses-Miamun in
the outer court of this Temple of Ammon, consisting of a hundred and
sixty-two children, represented with their names and titles, most of
which, indeed, were scarcely legible, as they are very much destroyed;
others are covered with rubbish, and at present could only be estimated
by the distances of the spaces. Hitherto, only twenty-five sons and
ten daughters of this great king were known. He did not take the two
legitimate wives which appear upon the monuments simultaneously, but the
one after the death of the other. To-day we had a visit from the old,
blind, but powerful and rich Hassan Kaschef, of Derr, who formerly was
independent regent of Lower Nubia; he had no less than sixty-four wives,
of whom forty-two still remain; twenty-nine sons and seventeen daughters
are still living. He has, probably, never taken the trouble to reckon
how many of them he has lost, but by the usual proportion here, he must
have had about four times the number of those living, therefore about two
hundred children.
KORUSKO is an Arabian place, in the centre of the land of the NUBIANS, or
Barâbra (plural of Bérberi), which includes the Nile valley from Assuan
to beyond Dongola. They are an intelligent and honest race; peaceful, but
of a disposition anything but slavish, with well-formed bodies, and a
skin of a light, reddish-brown colour. The occupation of Korusko by the
Arabs of the race of the Ababde, who inhabit the whole of the eastern
desert from Assuan as far as Abu Hammed, is explained by the important
situation of the place, being the commencement of the great caravan
road, which leads direct to the province of Berber, and cuts off the
great-western curvature of the Nile.
The Arabic tongue—in which we have now learnt, at least to give orders
and to ask questions, indeed, also to carry on a little conversation
of civilities, or on the news of the day—had become so familiar to
our ears in Egypt, that the Nubian language attracted us, even by its
novelty. It is divided, as far as I have been hitherto able to learn,
into a northern and a southern dialect, which meet near Korusko.[41]
The language has a distinct character from the Arabic, even in its
first elements in the system of consonants and vowels. It is much more
euphonous, as it has hardly any accumulation of consonants, no hard
guttural sounds; it has little sibilance, and many simple vowels,
differing more distinctly from one another than in the Arabic, and
generally parted by a consonant, thus again avoiding an effeminate
accumulation of vowels. It has no accordance, either with the Semitic
languages or with the Egyptian, in any part of the grammatical forms,
or the radical words, much less with our own, and therefore surely
belongs to the original African tongue, without any immediate connexion
with the present language of the Ethiopian-Egyptian race, although the
people may have been often comprehended by the ancients under the name
of Ethiopians, and were, perhaps, less strangers to them by descent.
They are not a trading people, and therefore can only reckon up to
twenty in their own language; they borrow the higher decades from the
Arabic language, yet they use a peculiar word for one hundred—_imil_.
The grammatical distinction between the genders exists almost solely
throughout the language in the personal pronouns when they stand
alone; they make a distinction between “he” and “she,” but not between
“he gives” and “she gives.” They conjugate more by additional actual
flexions, as in our languages, than by alteration of accent, and change
of vowel, as in the Semitic. They form the ordinals by the addition of
_iti_; the plural, by _îgi_; they do not possess a dual. The connexion
of the pronouns with the verb is both prefix and affix, but it is simple
and natural; they distinguish between the present and the preterite; they
express the future by a particle; they have also a peculiar form for the
passive voice. The root of the negation is _m_, usually succeeded by an
_n_; perhaps the only agreement more than accidental with the roots of
most other languages. Their original wealth of ideas is very limited.
They have, indeed, peculiar words for the sun, the moon, and the stars;
but they borrow terms from the Arabic for time, year, month, day, and
hour; water, sea, and river, are all _essi_; but it is remarkable that
they designate the Nile by a particular word—_Tossi_. They have peculiar
words for all native animals, tame and wild; Arabic words for everything
connected with house-building, and even navigation; it is only the boat
they themselves call _kub_, which, most likely, has nothing to do with
the Arabic _mérkab_. They have only one word—_béti_ (fenti)—for the
date-fruit and the date-tree, which are expressed by different terms in
Arabic—_bellah_ and _nachele_. The sycamore-tree they call by an Arabic
name: but it is remarkable, that they designate the sont (acacia) tree by
the same word as tree generally—_g’ôui_. Spirit, God, slave, the ideas
of relationship, the different parts of the body, weapons, the produce
of the field, and all that belongs to the preparation of bread, have
Nubian names; on the other hand, servant, friend, enemy, temple, to pray,
believe, read, is Arabic. It is striking that they have special words for
writing, and book; but not for style, ink, paper, letter. They call all
the metals by Arabic names, with the exception of iron. They are _rich_,
in the Berber tongue; _poor_, in Arabic; and, in fact, they are all rich
in their miserable home, which they cling to like the Swiss, and, devoid
of wants, they despise the Arabic gold, which they might earn in Egypt,
where their services are much sought for, as house watchmen, and in all
confidential posts.
We are now waiting for the arrival of the camels, to commence our desert
journey. Till we reach Abu Hammed, eight days hence, we shall only once
find water fit to drink. We shall travel four days longer on camels, as
far as Berber; there, by the arrangement of Achmed Pascha, we shall find
boats ready for us. We must go to Kartûm, to supply ourselves again with
provisions; if we may believe Linant, to go still higher up as far as
Abu Haras, and thence to Mandera, in the eastern desert, will scarcely
repay us; but Achmed Pascha has promised to send an officer to Mandera,
to test once more the statements of the natives.
I shall send this report, with other letters, by an express messenger to
Qeneh.
LETTER XVI.
_Korusko, the 5th January, 1844._
It is with no small regret that I have to inform you that we shall,
perhaps, be compelled to give up our Ethiopian journey, the second
principal task of our expedition, and return to the north from this spot.
We have waited, in vain, since the 17th November for the camels, always
promised, but never appearing, that were to take us to Berber, and we
have still no more prospect of seeing them than at the beginning. I am
sorry to say that what we heard on our arrival is confirmed; the Arab
tribes, who alone manage the transport, are discontented with Mohammed
Ali’s reduction of the charge from eighty to sixty piastres for each
camel from hence to Berber; they have agreed among each other to send
no more camels here, and no Firman, no promises, no threats, are of any
avail. A great number of chests, with ammunition, destined for Chartûm,
have been lying here these ten months past, and they are unable to convey
them any farther. We had hoped for the assistance of Achmed Pascha
Menekle, the new governor of the Southern Provinces, as he had been most
friendly and unbounded in his promises. The officer, who remained behind
here with the ammunition, received a direct order from him to detain the
first camels that should arrive, for our use; nevertheless, we are not at
all nearer to our object. The Pascha himself had scarcely means to pursue
his journey onward, although he required but few camels. He had brought
some of them with him from the north, and he caused some to be forcibly
driven together here. Notwithstanding this, he was very ill-provided on
his departure, and it is said that half of his beasts either died, or
fell sick in the desert.
On the 3rd December, as no camels had yet come, though the Pascha must
have passed the province of Berber, from whence he was to send us the
requisite number, I sent our own excellent and trustworthy Kawass,
Ibrahim Aga, with Mohammed Ali’s Firman, across the desert of nine days’
journey, to Berber. Meanwhile, we went up as far as Wadi Halfa, to the
second Cataract, and visited the numerous monuments which are to be found
in this region, returning here, three weeks afterwards, with a rich
harvest.
It is now thirty-one days since our Kawass set out on his journey, and
a few days ago I received a letter from the Mudhir of Berber, by which
I learn that he was still unable to furnish me with camels, although,
after the arrival of our Kawass, and the reception of the letter of the
Mudhir in this place, he had immediately despatched soldiers, in order to
collect the necessary number of sixty camels. Thus they are in the same
situation there, as we here; the authorities can do nothing in opposition
to the ill-will of the Arabs.
Since the sudden death by poison, at Chartûm, of Achmed Pascha, who had
been placed at the head of the whole Sudan, and who, as it is asserted,
has for some time past been engaged in a conspiracy, in order to make
himself independent of Mohammed Ali, the Southern Kingdom has been
divided into five provinces, and placed under five Paschas, who are to
be installed in their several offices by Achmed Pascha Menekle. One of
their number, Emir Pascha, has been hitherto Bey at Chartûm, under Achmed
Pascha, who, it appears, he betrayed. Three others arrived at Korusko
soon after Achmed Pascha Menekle. The most powerful of them, Hassan
Pascha, went to his province of Dongola by water, as far as Wadi Halfa;
he had scarcely any attendants, and wanted but few camels to proceed on
his journey. The second, Mustaffa Pascha, who is destined for Kordofan,
has seized by force a mercantile caravan returning from Berber. However,
by the Arabs’ report, some of the wearied beasts became unserviceable
when they reached the well, which is situated about four days’ journey
in the desert; there he found some merchants, whom he robbed of eight
camels; the rest of this caravan did not make its appearance here,
fearing probably that it would be again detained, it has taken another
route to Egypt. The third Pascha, Ferhât, is still waiting here with us,
and uses all the means in his power to collect some camels from the north
or the south for himself. Hence our last hope has vanished with respect
to this province, as we are less capable than he to arouse the small
force of the authorities; and at this moment we have neither Firman nor
Kawass with us. Every one, and the Paschas more than all, endeavour to
console us in the most friendly manner from day to day; but meanwhile the
winter is passing away, the only season when we can work in the upper
country. In addition to this, the Mudhir, till now of Lower Nubia, with
whom we were on friendly terms, has been complained of by the Nubian
Sheikh of his province to Mohammed Ali, and has just been recalled by
him. This part of the country has, therefore, been temporarily placed
under the Mudhir of Esneh, whose deputy is a young, but otherwise
well-disposed man, not however yet acquainted with the province, so we
must expect still less from him.
I have, therefore, at length made up my mind for the last course which
remains open to me. I shall, myself, go to Berber with Abeken, and a very
few camels, and leave Erbkam here, with the rest of our party, and all
the baggage. There I shall be better able to see the state of affairs on
the spot, and, by aid of the Firman and the Kawass, whose authority I
am much in want of here, I shall try what can be done. We were received
here, by Achmed Pascha Menekle, with the greatest courtesy, and are
already assured of his most efficient support, through the interposition
of his body-physician, our countryman and personal friend, Dr. Koch.
Perhaps money and threats, even though late in the day, may carry our
point. By mere chance I have myself been able to procure six camels. Two
more are still absolutely necessary for the completion of our little
caravan; but the deputy of the Mudhir, with the best will towards us,
cannot even procure these two camels. We have already been waiting three
days for them, and still do not know whether we shall receive them.
LETTER XVII.
_E’ Dâmer, the 24th January, 1844._
Our difficulties, though at a late hour, are terminated. I arrived
here yesterday with Abeken, still two days’ journey from the Pyramids
of Meröe, and probably the whole of our camp also arrived yesterday
at the southern extremity of the Great Desert at Abu Hammed. After my
last discouraging account from Berber, I set out on the 8th January,
about mid-day, with Abeken, the dragoman Jussuf Scherebîeh, a cook, and
our little Nubian boy Auad. We had eight camels, two of them, however,
scarcely in a fit state to make the journey, and two asses. As the
promised guide was not at hand, I compelled the Sheikh of the camels,
Achmed, to accompany us himself, as he might be of service to us, on
account of his reputation among the tribes of the Ababde Arabs dwelling
here. We had besides these, another guide, Adâr, who had been given us
instead of the promised one, and five camel-drivers; and soon after
our departure several other foot-passengers joined our party, besides
two people with asses, who availed themselves of this opportunity to
return to Berber. We took with us ten water-skins, some stores of rice,
macaroni, biscuit, and cold meat, besides a light tent, our coverlets on
which to ride and sleep, the requisite changes of linen, and a few books;
and, in addition, a proper supply of good courage, of which I scarcely
ever feel the want in starting on a journey. Our friends accompanied us
a short way into the rocky valley, which very soon entirely concealed the
neighbouring banks of the river, and its pleasant palm-trees.
The valley was both wild and monotonous, nothing but sandstone rock,
the surface of which was burnt as black as coal, but in every quarry,
and every hollow, this changed into a brilliant golden yellow; from
these a multitude of streams of sand, like streams of fire out of black
dross, trickled down, and filled the valleys. We were preceded by the
guides; they had simple folds of drapery round their shoulders and hips;
in their hands were either one or two spears, made of firm, but light
wood, provided with iron points and shafts; a round, or lightly carved
shield, with a very prominent boss made of giraffe skin covered their
naked backs; their other shields were oblong in form, and usually made
of hippopotamus skin, or of the dorsal hide of the crocodile. During the
night, and often in the daytime also, they bound sandals under their
feet, the thongs of which, not unfrequently cut out of one piece with
the sole, are drawn between the great toe and the second toe, and then
surround the foot in the manner of a skate.
Sheikh Achmed was a magnificent man, youthful, but tall and noble in
stature; he had extremely supple limbs, of a brilliant brown-black
colour, his features were very expressive of emotion, a brilliant dark
eye, which had both a gentle and sly look, and his mode of speech was
so incomparably beautiful, with such harmonious expression, that I
liked to have him constantly beside me, although we had a continual
contest with him in Korusko, as he was bound to furnish the camels and
all appurtenances, and on account of circumstances he neither would nor
could procure them. He gave us a proof in the desert of his agility and
the elasticity of his limbs, for taking a long run on the sandy ground,
peculiarly unfavourable for leaping, he made a bound of 14½ feet in
width; I measured the distance between the footmarks with his lance,
which was rather more than two metres long (6 feet 7 inches English).
Adâr, our second guide, alone ventured to make the leap after him, but he
did not nearly reach the same distance.
The first day we had started early, about eleven o’clock in the morning,
and we rode on till about five; we then stopped for an hour and a
half, and went on again till about half-past twelve. We then pitched
our tents on the hard ground, and laid down to sleep, after a march of
twelve hours. The most refreshing thing, after these hot and fatiguing
days’ journeys, was our tea in the evening; we were, however, obliged
to habituate ourselves to the leathery taste of the water, which we
perceived even through the tea and coffee. The second day we were
fourteen hours on our camels; starting about eight in the morning, we
halted about four o’clock in the afternoon to eat something, proceeded on
our journey about half-past five, and about half-past twelve we struck
our encampment for the night, having left the hills, and about ten
o’clock, with the rising moon, descended into a vast plain. Hitherto we
had not seen a tree, nor a blade of grass, not even a creature, except
some white eagles and ravens, who fed upon the carrion of the camels
which had fallen. On the third day, after setting off early in the
morning, we met a troop of one hundred and fifty camels, which had been
purchased by the Government, to be sent into Egypt. The Pascha is anxious
to import several thousand camels from Berber, that he may thereby, in
some measure, repair the consequences of the cattle-disease of last year.
A great number had already passed through Korusko, without our venturing
to make use of them, as they are the private property of the Pascha; we
could not have mounted them besides, as they had no saddles.
The guide of the troop, whom we met to-day, brought us at last the long
desired intelligence that our Kawass, Ibrahim Aga, had left Berber with
sixty camels, and was already marching quite close to us, but on another
route, which led across the desert a little more to the west. Sheikh
Achmed was sent after him, that he might bring us three good camels, in
place of our feeble ones; and also to gain some further intelligence
about him. He said that he should overtake us the following night, or
at latest the second. I sent a couple of lines to Erbkam, by the Chabîr
(guide) of the troop. We halted about half-past five, and remained all
night, hoping to see Sheikh Achmed arrive sooner. Towards evening we saw
the first scanty vegetation of the desert; the yellowish-grey dry blades
of grass, which were hardly visible when near, in the distance gave a
pale greenish-yellowish colour to the ground, which alone called my
attention to it.
We ought to have arrived the fourth day at the well of brackish water,
fit however for the camels to drink; but that we might not hasten on
too quickly before Sheikh Achmed, we terminated our day’s journey as
early as four o’clock, about four hours distant from the well. At
length, about mid-day, we left the great plain BAHR BELA MA (the River
without Water), which unites with the mountain chain of EL BAB, two
days’ journey in length, and which we had entered coming out of Korusko,
and we now approached other chains. Hitherto we had seen nothing but
sandstone rocks, both beneath and around us; it was therefore really
a joyful event, when looking down from my tall camel upon the sand, I
saw the first Plutonic Rock. I immediately glided down from my saddle,
and broke off a fragment; it was a greyish green stone of very fine
grain, and undoubtedly of the nature of granite. The preceding chains of
mountains were also chiefly composed of species of porphyry and granite
of different colours, not unfrequently associated with broad veins of
red syenite, such as appears so abundantly on the surface at Assuan, and
which was so extensively worked by the ancient Egyptians. Farther in the
mountains, quartz was sometimes very prevalent, and the appearance was
very singular when, here and there at different heights, the snow-white
silicious veins appeared on the surface of the black mountains issuing
like a spring from a point in the mountain, and flowing into the valley,
where its white rolled fragments spread out like a lake. I carried away
with me some small specimens of the different kinds of rocks. After we
had passed behind a low mountain defile and a small valley, BAHR ʾHATAB
(the Wood River, on account of the wood, which is said to grow somewhat
farther away on some neighbouring mountains), and another valley, WADI
DELAH, inclining to the northern side of the principal mountain which
succeeds it, we reached the rocky hollow, E’ SUFR, where we expected to
find rain water, and to re-fill our shrunken water-skins (_girbe_, _pl._
_geràb_). During one month of the year, about May, there is usually some
rain in this high mountain of primitive rock. The huge granite basins
in the hollow valleys are then filled, and retain the water throughout
the entire year. Some vegetation was to be seen on this Plutonic Rock,
resulting from the rain, and because the granite itself seems to contain
more fertilising matter than the barren loose sand, almost wholly
composed of small grains of quartz. In WADI DELAH, which evidently has
water in the rainy season, we came to a long continuous row of Doum
Palms; the circular form of their leaves, and their bushy growth, has a
less bare appearance than the long slender-leaved date palm; the latter
cannot stand the rain, and therefore cannot live in Berber, while the
Doum Palm appears in Upper Egypt for the first time, quite isolated, and
the farther we travel south, we see them in greater numbers, larger in
size, and of more luxuriant growth. If their fruit drop off when unripe
and dry, the small portion of pulp round the stony kernel tastes like a
coating of sugar; if they ripen, the yellowish woody pulp may be chewed;
it has a good taste, and some of their fruit had an aroma almost similar
to the pine-apple. They are sometimes as large as the largest apples.
About four o’clock we pitched our camp, the camels were sent into the
hollow, situated behind, to the rain water, and Abeken and I got upon
our asses, to accompany them to these natural reservoirs. Riding over
coarse gravel and sharp stones we penetrated deeper and deeper into the
ascending defile; the first large basins were empty, we left our asses
and camels behind, clambered up the smooth granite sides of the rock,
and stepped from one basin to another amidst these huge masses of rock.
All were empty; the guide said there must be water in the fissure which
lay farthest back, that there it was never exhausted; but even in that
spot not a drop was to be found, so we were obliged to return without any
success, as dry as we came. The numerous herds of cattle, which during
the past year had been driven out of the Sudan into Egypt, had consumed
it all. Only three skins of water had remained over for our party, and
we were therefore compelled to find out some means to procure more.
Other cisterns were said to exist higher up in the mountains behind
this defile. I was anxious to climb up the rocks with the guide, but he
considered it too dangerous an undertaking. We turned round, rode back to
the encampment, and with the setting sun, the camels were forced to start
once more in search of water among the hills lying to the north, about
an hour distant from this spot. They returned at a late hour with four
skins full; the water was good, and pleasant to the taste. Sheikh Achmed,
however, did not either return this night, and we now hoped to find him
at the well, whither he might have preceded us by the southern road.
We started soon after sunrise, on the fifth day, and penetrated deeper
into the great mountain chain of ROFT, which always exhibited the same
rock, at first slaty in texture, then more in the form of blocks,
afterwards abounding in quartz. The heat of the day was more oppressive
in the mountains than in the plains, where the north wind blowing almost
continuously, produces greater coolness. With the exception of the
different kinds of rock, there was little around to attract our notice.
I met with a great ant-hill in the middle of the barren desert, and
I looked at it for a long time; there were smaller and larger bright
black ants, who were carrying all the small pieces of earth which they
were able to lift out of their building, so that the coarser little
stones alone remained, and formed solid walls; the larger ants were
distinguished by their heads being in proportion to their size, twice
as thick as the others, and they did not themselves work, but led the
regiment, and gave a push to each of the smaller ants, who were carrying
nothing, drove them forwards, and kept them more diligently at work.
The difficulty to converse when riding on the hard-pacing camel is so
much the greater because it is not easy to make them keep the step
beside each other, as with the horse or ass. When upon a good dromedary
(Heggîn), and travelling without, or with but very little baggage,
the creature keeps in a trot. This is an easy pace, and is not very
fatiguing, but it is difficult to get accustomed to the long step of
the ordinary baggage-camel, which throws the high load backwards and
forwards. Yet even this was alleviated by our being sometimes able to
dismount from our camels and get upon our asses, and we often went on
foot for a considerable distance both early in the morning and in the
evening.
I now return to the fifth day of our desert journey. We started about
eight o’clock in the morning from the little valley of E’ Sufr, where we
had encamped under some gum, or sont-trees, and about half-past twelve,
after turning to our left into a flat valley for the distance of about
half an hour from our road among the hills, we reached the brackish well
in WADI MURHAD. Here we had accomplished about half our desert journey.
We saw some huts built of small stones and reeds, and near them a couple
of starved goats were fruitlessly searching for some pasture; our black
host led us into a reed arbour, where we made ourselves as comfortable as
we could in the shade.
In this rocky valley we had been struck for some time by the snow-white
crust of Natron, frequently appearing above the sand which makes the
water of the well brackish. Towards the end of the valley, where it
divides into two branches, the water is to be found between five and six
feet beneath the surface, and has been discovered by digging eight wells.
The water in the wells which lie farthest back, is greenish, rather salt,
and has a bad taste, which, however, satisfies the camels; the three in
front, on the contrary, yield clear water, which might very well have
been drank by us in a case of necessity. There is a government station
here, usually inhabited by six persons, but at the present moment four
of them had been sent out on an excursion, and only two remained behind.
From this spot there are two roads to Korusko, a western and an eastern
one. Ibrahim Aga had chosen the former road, we the latter, and we had,
therefore, unfortunately missed each other. Sheikh Achmed was also not to
be found here; probably he had not overtaken our camels before the second
day, and we were compelled to proceed on our journey without him.
The ABABDE ARABS, with whom we have now everywhere to deal, are an
honest and trustworthy people, from whom we have less to fear than from
the crafty and thievish Fellahs in Egypt. To the north-east of their
territory, the races of the BISCHÂRI are spread over the country, who
have a peculiar language, and are now in bitter enmity with the Ababde
Arabs, because more than two years ago when they had attacked and
murdered some Turkish soldiers in the little valley where we had spent
the night, Hassan Chalif, the superior Sheikh of the Ababdes, to whose
protection the road of communication between Berber and Korusko had been
confided, caused forty of the Bischâris to be put to death. Besides, by
aid of the Ababdes, more than four-and-twenty years ago, Ismael Pascha
succeeded in bringing his army across the desert, and taking possession
of the Sudan. It is only upon the road that we are now pursuing that
guides are maintained by government; there are none on the longer
road, from Berber to Assuan, which is, however, better supplied with
water, though now but little used. About half-past four we rode away
from the well, after we had inspected some _hagr mektub_ (stones with
inscriptions) for which we inquire everywhere, viz., some rocks in the
neighbourhood, on which, in somewhat modern times, a number of horses,
camels, and other creatures have been roughly scratched, similar to what
we had already often seen in Nubia. About half-past nine we halted for
the night, after having quitted the high chain of mountains an hour and
a half previously. On the morning of the sixth day, we crossed the wide
plain MUNDERA, to which another lofty chain, ABU SIHHA, is attached, at
the farther side; the southern frontier of this plain, where it inclines
towards that chain, is called ABDEBAB; the southern portion of the large
chain of Roft laying behind us is called ABU SENEJAT.
About three o’clock we left the plain behind us, and again entered the
mountain range, which, like the others, is composed of granite. Half an
hour afterwards, we halted for our mid-day’s repose. In a couple of hours
we rode on farther, and encamped towards midnight, after we had traversed
another small plain, and from the stony range ADAR AUÎB which succeeds
it, entered a new plain, comprehended under the same appellation, which
extends as far as the last chain of mountains belonging to this desert of
GEBEL GRAIBÂT.
On the following day, the seventh of our journey, we started about
half-past seven in the morning, and at length, beyond Gebel Graibât, we
reached the great boundless plain of ADERERÂT, which we did not quit
again till we arrived at ABU HAMMED. To the south-west we now kept in
view the small hill EL FARÛT and the larger range of MOGRAD; to the east,
far distant, another mountain chain, ABU NUGARA, joins that of Adar Auîb.
Then to the south-east there were other Bischâri chains of mountains,
whose names were unknown to our Ababde guides. The commencement of
the great plain of Adererât was covered for whole hours together with
beautiful, pure quartz, sometimes rising up out of the sand in the form
of solid rock, although the predominant kind of rock continued to be
black granite, which towards the south was traversed by a broad vein of
red granite. Early in the day a small caravan of merchants passed us at
some little distance.
At a very early hour in the day we saw the most beautiful mirages, both
near us and at a distance, exhibiting a very deceptive resemblance
to lakes and rivers, in which the mountains, blocks of stone, and
everything around is reflected, as if in clear water. They form a strange
contrast with the hard arid desert, and, as it is related, must have
often bitterly deceived many a poor wanderer. When we are not aware that
no water can be there, it is often totally impossible to distinguish the
semblance from the reality. Only a few days ago, in the neighbourhood of
EL MECHÊREF, I felt perfectly certain that I saw either Nile water which
had overflowed, or a branch of the river, and I rode up, but only found
BAHR SCHEITAN, “The water of Satan,” as it is called by the Arabs.
Even though the sand may have obliterated all traces of the caravan road,
it cannot easily be missed during the day, as it is sufficiently marked
by innumerable skeletons of camels, several of which are always in view;
yesterday I counted forty-one, which we passed during the last half hour
before sunset. We did not lose one of our own camels, although they had
not rested long in Korusko, and had had scarcely anything to eat or drink
on the road. My own camel, into whose mouth I had sometimes put a piece
of biscuit, used to look round in the middle of the march when it heard
me biting, or twist round its long neck, till it laid its head, with its
soft large eyes on my lap, to get something more.
About four o’clock in the afternoon we stopped for about two hours, and
then went on again till about eleven o’clock, when we went in search of
a place for our night’s encampment in the great plain. The wind however
blew so violently that it was impossible to secure our tent. In spite of
the ten iron pegs which fasten it all the way round, it was three times
overthrown, before it was completely pitched; we allowed it therefore to
remain as it was, and laid ourselves down behind a little wall, which the
guide had made out of the saddles of the camels, to protect us from the
wind, and we slept _à la belle étoile_.
On the eighth day we might have arrived at Abu Hammed late that evening,
but determined to halt for the night, one hour sooner, that we might
reach the Nile by daylight. The birds of prey increased in number as
we approached the river; we frightened away about thirty vultures from
the fresh carcase of a camel, and only the day before I had shot a white
eagle in the desert, as well as some desert partridges, that were in
search of stray grains of Durra[42] on the caravan road. We only saw the
footsteps of beasts of prey, round the skeletons of the camels; they did
not disturb us in the night, as they did in the camp at Korusko, where we
killed a hyæna, besides several jackals. Towards mid-day we met a caravan
of slaves. The last encampment for the night before we reached Abu Hammed
was in a less windy position, yet our supply of charcoal was exhausted,
and our people had forgotten to collect camels’ dung on the road for
fuel; therefore, to appease our thirst, we were obliged to be contented
to drink the last brown water of the skins unboiled. We could give no
more to the asses.
On the 16th January we mounted our camels about half-past seven in the
morning, and looked forth from our high thrones towards the Nile. It was,
however, only visible a very short time before we reached it. The river
does not cut through any broad valley at this spot, but flows in a bare,
rocky channel, passing almost unperceived through the slightly elevated
and wide rocky plain. On the farther side of the river the ground had
more the character of a plain, and some Doum Palms grew upon an island
that had formed there. Shortly before we reached the bank, we met a troop
of 150 camels, which had just started from Abu Hammed. A great circular
embankment of earth then became visible with some towers upon it like a
fortress, which had been erected by the great Arab Sheikh Hassan Chalif,
for the government stores. A small hollow contains five huts, one made
of stones and earth, another of trunks of trees, two of mats, one of
bus, or durra-straw; a more open space then spread before us surrounded
by several wretched houses, one of which was prepared for our reception.
A brother of Hassan Chalif who lives here came out to meet us; he led
us into the house, and proffered his services. Some anqarebs (reed
bedsteads), which on account of the creeping vermin are much in use here,
were brought within doors, and we settled ourselves for the day, and the
following night, for we were obliged to allow the camels at least so much
time for repose.
We were surrounded by a great square space, thirty feet wide on every
side, the walls were made of stone and earth, two thick trunks of trees,
branching like a fork, supported a large architrave, above which the
other joists were placed, which were covered and joined together by mats
and wickerwork. It strongly reminded me of some very ancient architecture
which we had seen represented in the rock-grottoes of Benihassan; the
columns, the network of the ceiling, through which as in that instance
the only light except what was admitted by the door entered by a square
opening in the centre, there was no window. The door was composed of
four short trunks of trees, of which the uppermost one was exactly like
the ornamented door-posts in the tombs of the time of the Pyramids. We
hung a canvas curtain before the door to protect us from the wind and
dust; another door led at the opposite corner into a side-room, which
was arranged for the kitchen. It was a windy day, and the wind was
disagreeably charged with sand, so that we went very little out of doors.
But we refreshed ourselves with some pure and fresh Nile water, and a
meal of well-dressed mutton. The Great Desert lay behind us; and we were
only four days’ journey from El Mechêref, the capital of Berber, during
which time we should follow the course of the river. We learned that
Achmed Pascha Menekle was in our neighbourhood, or that he would soon
arrive, in order to lead a military expedition from Dâmer, a short day’s
journey beyond El Mechêref, up the Atbara to the province of TAKA, where
some of the tribes of the Bischâris had revolted.
When we stepped out of doors the following morning, our Arabs had all
anointed themselves most beautifully, and had put on clean clothes; but
what most astonished us, was the appearance of their magnificent white
powdered wigs, which gave quite a venerable appearance to their faces.
To make their toilet complete, they are in the habit of combing up their
great heads of hair into a high toupie, which is sprinkled over with
fine, flaky, shining, white butter, like powder, expressly prepared for
this purpose. But in a short time, when the sun rises higher, this greasy
snow melts, and the hair seems then as if it was covered with innumerable
pearls of dew, till even these gradually disappear, and dripping over the
neck and shoulders, spread a gloss over the pliant dark brown skin, which
gives their well-built figures the appearance of antique bronze statues.
We started the next morning, about eight o’clock, with a fresh camel,
which we had had an opportunity of obtaining in exchange for a tired
one. The nearer we approach the island of Meröe, the valley becomes so
much the wider, and more fertile, and the desert even becomes more like
a steppe. The first station was GEG, where we passed the night in an
open space of ground; the air is very warm; about half-past five in the
afternoon it was still 25° R. (87° Fahr.). The second night we halted
beyond ABU HASCHIN, close to a village, which in fact is not really a
station, as we were anxious to get through the five ordinary stations in
the space of four days; the third night we halted in the open air, near
a cataract of the Nile. On the fourth day from Abu Hammed we removed
somewhat farther from the river into the desert, yet we always remained
on the soil of the ancient valley, if I may so designate a yellowish
earth which is now no longer overflowed by the river, but which was
turned up by the inhabitants of the village directly from beneath the
sand; that they might improve their fields with it. We stopped in the
evening at the village of EL CHÔR, one hour distant from El Mechêref, and
the fifth day we arrived at an early hour at the capital of the province
of Berber.
I sent the dragoman forward to announce our arrival, and to ask for
a house, which was given up to us, and we took possession of it
immediately. The Mudhir of Berber was in Dâmer, but his Wakil, or
representative, visited us, and soon after Hassan Chalif, the principal
Arab Sheikh, who promised us better camels to take us to Dâmer; he was
rejoiced to hear some tidings of his and our friends, Linant and Bonomi,
and was much pleased in looking over our picture books, among which he
found likenesses of some of his own relations and ancestors. We had
scarcely arrived, before we received news that Hassan Pascha had arrived
at the same time as ourselves, from a different quarter. He had travelled
from Korusko to his province of Dongola, and now came from Edabbe, on the
southern frontier of Dongola, right across the desert to El Mechêref,
whither Emin, the new Pascha of Chartûm, had gone to meet him. This
meeting caused us some inconvenience with respect to the arrangements of
our journey; nevertheless, we so far advanced our object, that on the
following morning, the 22nd of January, soon after Hassan Pascha had
again set out on his journey, we were also enabled to depart for the
south, leaving two camels behind, which we did not require any longer as
water-carriers, and exchanging three others for better ones.
We rode away about mid-day, and stopped in the evening at the last
village before reaching the river Mogrân, the ancient ASTABORAS, which we
had to cross before getting to DÂMER. It is called on the maps ATBARA,
which is evidently derived from Astaboras; yet this name does not appear
now to be used for the lower, but for the upper river, beginning from
the place of the same name. On the following morning we crossed the
river close to its mouth. Even at this point it was now very narrow
in its great bed, which in the rainy season is entirely filled, and
two months hence it is only prevented from being wholly dried up by a
little stagnant water. On the farther side of the river we entered the
(Strabonic) island of MERÖE, by which appellation the land between the
Nile and the Astaboras was designated. Two hours more and we arrived at
Dâmer.
The houses were too wretched to receive us. I despatched Jussuf to Emin
Pascha, in whose province we now are, and who has encamped in tents with
Hassan Pascha on the bank of the river. He sent a Kawass to meet us, and
invited us to dismount and to dine with them. I however preferred to have
our tent pitched at some little distance, and first of all to change our
travelling costume. The Mudhir of Berber immediately visited us to ask
what we might require, and soon after Emin Pascha sent a sumptuous dinner
for us to our tent: four well cooked dishes, and, besides, a whole sheep
stuffed with rice and roasted on the spit, with a flat cake of puff paste
stuffed with meat.
About three o’clock in the afternoon, about the time of Asser, we
announced that we were going to pay our visit; just as we were making
our arrangements to set out we heard some sailors’ songs, and saw two
boats with red flags, and the crescent, floating down the river; it was
Achmed Pascha Menekle, who was returning from Chartûm. The Paschas and
the Mudhir immediately repaired to his boat, and it was late before
they separated; our friend, Dr. Koch, unfortunately, was not expected
to arrive from Chartûm for two days later. I had received a letter from
Erbkam very soon after our arrival, in which he announced to me, through
a passing Kawass, that he had left Korusko on the 15th January with
Ibrahim Aga; he wrote from their first night’s encampment. The Kawass
had ridden with incredible speed in fourteen days from Cairo to Berber,
and he brought Achmed Pascha the permission which had been earnestly
requested, to raise the government charge for the camels between Korusko
and Berber from sixty to ninety piastres above what it was before.
_26th January._—The day before yesterday we paid an early visit to Achmed
Pascha, which he returned yesterday. He will do all in his power to
accelerate our journey onwards. He communicated to us that, as he had
before promised, he had sent an officer from Abu Haras to Mandera, three
days into the desert, and had heard it reported by him that some great
ruins were still extant on that spot. A letter from Chartûm, which we
received yesterday from Dr. Koch, mentioned the same thing, and it was
verbally confirmed by himself this morning. After dinner he is going to
introduce us to Mûsa Bey, who has been on the spot. At the same time he
informed us that he had received some letters addressed to us, and that
they were left in Chartûm; also that the draughtsman who had been engaged
from Rome had arrived in Cairo.
A boat is ready in El Mechêref for our travelling companions. I myself,
however, intend to ride on before with Abeken. Achmed Pascha has sent me
word that in an hour’s time a courier departs for Cairo, who will take
this letter with him.
_Postscript._—The glowing accounts about Mandera, upon closer inquiry,
seem to want confirmation. It will hardly be worth our while to go there.
LETTER XVIII.
_On the Blue River, Province of Sennâr, Lat. 13°, 2nd March, 1844._
To-day we reach the most southern limit of our African journey. To-morrow
we again turn towards the north and homewards. We shall go as far as
the neighbourhood of SERO—a place on the boundary between the provinces
of Sennâr and Fasokl, for our time will not allow us to do more. From
Chartûm I have ascended the river as far as this spot, with Abeken alone.
We relinquished the desert journey to Mandera, the rather as the eastern
territories are at present insecure from the war in Taka; and we now
employ the time, in travelling several days farther across Sennâr, to
gain some information about the character of the river and the adjacent
country. This journey is worth the trouble, for, from Abu Haras, situated
at the influx of the Rahad, between Chartûm and Sennâr, the character of
the whole country is completely altered in its soil, vegetation, and
animals. I then thought I should like to obtain a view of the Nile valley
itself, as far up the river as possible, as the character of this narrow
strip of country has had a greater influence on the course of history
than any other spot in the whole world.
It is impossible, without incurring danger, or making peculiar
preparations, to travel up the White River beyond a few days’ journey,
as far as the boundaries of Mohamed Ali’s conquests. After this, there
are the SCHILLUKS on the western bank, the DINKAS on the eastern, both
native negro nations, who are not very friendly to Northern guests.
The Blue River is navigable still farther up, and in historical times,
as well as at the present day, was of much greater importance than the
White River, as it was the means of communication between the North, and
Abyssinia. I should have liked to have penetrated as far as the province
of Fasokl, the last under Egyptian rule; but it cannot be combined with
the calculation of our time. This evening, therefore, we shall terminate
our southern journey.
But I must go back in my reports to Dâmer, where, on the 27th January,
I embarked with Abeken upon a boat belonging to Mûsa Bey, the first
adjutant of Achmed Pascha, who politely placed it at our disposal. About
eight o’clock in the evening we halted for the night at the island of
DAL HAUI. We had received a Kawass from Emin Pascha, who came here with
Ismael Pascha at the time of the conquest of the country, went with
Defterdar Bey to Kordofan (or, as he expresses it, Kordifal), then
accompanied him on his avenging march to Schendi, in consequence of the
murder of Ismael, and since that time has, for three-and-twenty years,
roamed over the whole of the Sudan in all directions. He carries in his
head the most complete map of these countries, and has a marvellous
memory for names, directions, and distances; so that I have drawn two
maps according to his statements, particular parts of which may not be
without geographical interest. He has also been in Mecca, and therefore
likes to be called Haggi Ibrahim (The Pilgrim Ibrahim). He has great
experience in other matters also, and will be extremely useful to us from
his long and extensive knowledge of the country.
On the 28th January we halted about mid-day at an island called GOMRA,
as we heard that there were some ruins in the vicinity which we were
anxious to see. We were obliged to go through a shallow arm of the Nile,
and to ride back an hour northwards on the eastern bank. At length, after
passing the villages of Motmar and El Akarid, between a third village,
SAGADI, and a fourth, GENNA, we found the insignificant ruins of an
ancient place, constructed of bricks and strewed over with potsherds.
We returned in the mid-day heat, not in the very best humour, and did not
reach BEG´ERAUÎEH in our boat before sunset, near which the Pyramids of
Meröe are situated. It is singular that Cailliaud does not mention this
spot; he only speaks of the Pyramids of ASSUR, _i. e._ SÛR, or E’ SÛR.
This is the name of the whole plain in which the ruins of the town and
Pyramids are situated, and also a single portion of Beg´erauîeh, which
last, by wrong spelling, is called, in Hoskins, BEGROMI.
Although it was already dark, I nevertheless rode to the Pyramids with
Abeken. They are situated a short hour inland, on the first elevation
of the low hills which run along in an easterly direction. The moon,
which was in its first quarter, feebly illuminated the plain, covered
with stones, low bushes, and clumps of reeds. After a rapid ride, we at
length reached the foot of a row of Pyramids, closely crowded together,
which rose before us in a crescent, as the form of the narrow elevation
rendered necessary. To the right, a little behind, another group of
Pyramids joined these; a third lies more to the south, and rather more
forward in the plain, but too distant to be seen by half moonlight. I
fastened the bridle of my donkey-steed to a block of stone, and clambered
up the first mound of ruins.
Although the individual Pyramids are not accurately placed according to
the quarters of the heavens, as they are in Egypt, nevertheless all the
ante-chambers here attached to the Pyramids themselves are turned away
from the river, towards the east, doubtless on the same religious grounds
which induced the Egyptians to place the unattached temples standing in
front of their Pyramids also towards the east; therefore, in Gizeh and
Sagâra, towards the river, while their sepulchral chambers are towards
the west.
Half looking, half feeling, I found some sculptures on the outer
walls of the small sepulchral temple, and I also felt figures and
writing on the inner walls. It occurred to me that I had the end of a
candle in my saddle-pocket; I lighted this, and then examined several
ante-chambers. There I immediately encountered the Egyptian gods, Osiris,
Isis, Nephthys, Atmu, &c., with their names in the known hieroglyphic
character. I also found the name of a king in the first chamber. One
of the two Rings contained the emblems of a great Pharaoh of the Old
Monarchy, Sesurtesen I., the same which had been adopted by two later
Egyptian monarchs, and I here found them, for the fourth time, as the
Throne-Name of an Ethiopian king. The sculptures on the remaining
sides were not completed. I found some Royal Shields this evening also
in another ante-chamber, but not very legible. The inscriptions and
representations had altogether been much damaged. The Pyramids have also
all of them lost their summits, as in Egypt, and many have been destroyed
down to the ground.
Our new Kawass, who did not like to leave us alone in the night time, had
immediately followed us. He had a perfect knowledge of the locality, as
he had been here a long time with FERLINI, and had assisted him in his
researches among the Pyramids. He showed us the spot in which Ferlini, in
1834, had found immured the rich treasure of gold and silver rings.
I also discovered, the same evening, a cased Pyramid, according to the
principle of the Egyptian Pyramids, which were afterwards enlarged
by superimposed layers of stone. According to the inscriptions and
representations of the ante-chambers, these Pyramids were most of them
built solely for kings, some of them, perhaps, for their wives and
children. Therefore, their great number indicates a tolerably long
succession of kings, and a well-established Monarchy, which probably must
have remained in a state of tranquillity for a series of centuries.
The event of most importance in this moon and torchlight survey, was not,
however, exactly the most cheering. I was unavoidably convinced that on
this most renowned spot of ancient Ethiopia, I had nothing before me but
the remains, proportionately speaking, of a very late period of art.
Even earlier than this, the drawings of Ferlini’s monuments, which I saw
for the first time in Rome, and the monuments themselves, which I had
just seen in London, impressed me with the opinion that they had been,
indeed, sculptured in Ethiopia, but certainly not previous to the first
century before the birth of Christ, therefore about the same period to
which certain genuine Greek and Roman works belong, which were discovered
simultaneously with the Ethiopian treasure. I must now make the same
remark upon the monuments in general, which are found not only here but
throughout the whole island of Meröe, as well as of all the Pyramids at
Beg´erauîeh, and of the temples of Ben Naga, of Naga, and in the Wadi e’
Sofra (the Mesaurât of Cailliaud), which we have since then seen. The
representations and inscriptions do not leave the smallest doubt of this,
and it will in future be a fruitless task to endeavour to support the
favourite supposition of an ancient, brilliant, and renowned Meröe, whose
inhabitants were at one time the predecessors and the instructors of the
Egyptians in civilisation, by the demonstration of monumental remains
from that old period.
This conviction is besides of no small scientific value, and seems even
now to throw some light on the historical connection between Egypt and
Ethiopia, the importance of which can be only thoroughly demonstrated by
the monuments of Barkal. There, I have no doubt, will be found the oldest
Ethiopian monuments, although, perhaps, not earlier than the period
of Tahraka, who reigned simultaneously over Egypt and Ethiopia in the
seventh century before Christ.
The next morning at sunrise we rode back to the Pyramids, and discovered
fifteen different kings’ names, some of them, however, in very bad
preservation.
We had just completed our survey of the two groups of Pyramids lying
to the north-east, and were riding on to the third, which is situated
in the plain, not far from the ruins of the town, and is, perhaps, the
oldest Necropolis, when we heard shots from the bank, and saw white sails
fluttering over the river. Soon afterwards Erbkam, the two Weidenbachs,
and Franke, came walking across the plain, and hailed us from a great
distance. We had not expected them to arrive so soon, and, therefore,
rejoiced still more to see them again. We could now pursue our journey to
Chartûm together.
We sailed away about two in the afternoon, and the next morning about
ten o’clock reached SCHENDI. We proceeded in the afternoon, spent the
night on the island of HOBI, and the following morning arrived at BEN
NAGA. Here, we first visited the ruins of two small temples; the one
lying towards the west, had Typhonic pillars, instead of columns, but no
inscription was to be found on the few remains; in the other temple to
the east, some sculptures were preserved on the low remains of the walls
of the temple; and also some writing on several circular fragments of
columns, but too little to take away any connected ideas from them. Had
we made some excavations, we might probably have discovered some kings’
names, but it was impossible to make such an experiment till our return.
We procured some camels for the following day, and about nine o’clock in
the morning I started with Abeken, Erbkam, and Max Weidenbach, for NAGA.
Such is the name given to the ruins of a town and several temples, which
are situated in the eastern desert, between seven and eight hours distant
from the Nile. From our landing-place in the vicinity of the only group
of palm-trees in the surrounding country, it was only one half hour to
the village of BEN NAGA, which is in WADI TERESIB. One hour eastward
down the river (for it here flows in a direction from west to east) are
the above-mentioned ruins, in WADI EL KIRBEGÂN, near to which we had
disembarked the previous day; we left them now on our left hand, and rode
in a south-easterly direction into the desert, having here and there some
parched bushes; we traversed the valley of El Kirbegân, which, as far as
this point, runs outwards from the river, in which we found an encampment
of the Ababde Arabs.
Four hours and a half from Ben Naga we came to a single hill in the
desert called BUÊRIB. It was on the water-shed between the smaller
south-western Wadis (so even the flattest depressions of the ground are
called, in which the water runs off, and which we should scarcely call
valleys) and the great, broad WADI AUATÊB, which we were now descending,
after having left Buêrib at a short distance on our left. In three hours
and three-quarters from Buêrib we arrived at the ruins of NAGA.
It was not till we approached the temple that I solved the enigma,
which I had hitherto sought in vain to interpret, and on which neither
Cailliaud nor Hoskins could offer any explanation; namely, how had it
been possible to found and to maintain a large city in the midst of the
desert, so far removed from the river. The whole valley of Auatêb is even
now cultivated land. We found it far and wide covered with the stubble
of Durra. The inhabitants of Schendi, Ben Naga, Fadniê, Selama, Metamme,
consequently of both banks of the Nile, come as far as this to cultivate
the land and to gather in the Durra. The water of the tropical rains
suffices to fertilise this flat but extensive tract of low ground, and
in ancient times, when more care was bestowed upon it, a still greater
profit must have been derived from this region. During the dry season of
the year they must undoubtedly have had large artificial reservoirs, such
as we found even now, though without water, near the more remote ruins to
the north-west of Naga.
The ruins stand on a projection of a mountain range several hours long,
which from them has taken the name of GEBEL E’ NAGA, and stretches out
from the south, northwards. WADI AUATÊB passes along its western side
towards the river. We arrived about half-past five o’clock, after an
uninterrupted ride. On the road we saw the path covered with the marks of
gazelles, wild asses, foxes, jackals, ostriches. Lions are also met with
here, but we did not see any of their tracks.
I visited the three principal temples before nightfall, all of which
belong to a very late period, and do not suggest the ideas of very
ancient art, as Cailliaud and Hoskins thought they could recognise. There
is, besides, a fourth temple by the side of the three principal temples,
of Egyptian architecture, whose well-joined arches, not unpleasantly
combined with Egyptian ornaments, not only presupposes them to have been
erected when the Roman dominion extended over the world, but even that
Roman architects were on the spot. This last temple has no inscriptions.
With respect to the three others, the two lying to the south were built
by one and the same king; in the representations in both temples he is
accompanied by the same queen. But a third royal personage appears behind
them having a different name in the two temples. The Throne-Shield of
Sesurtesen I. is again attached to the name of the king, although he does
not appear to be the same as the King of the Pyramids of Sûr. Besides,
both those other personages have assumed old Egyptian Throne-Shields,
which might easily mislead us.
The third most northern temple has sustained much injury, and very little
writing remains upon it, yet a king is mentioned on the door-posts who
differs from the builder of both the other temples.
The figures of the gods are almost wholly Egyptian, but on the southern
temple there is a figure unknown in Egypt, with three lions’ heads (a
fourth may perhaps be supposed behind) and four arms. This may be the
barbaric god specially mentioned by Strabo, whom the Meröites worshipped
besides Hercules, Pan, and Isis.
The next morning, the 2nd of February, we again visited the three
temples, took some impressions on paper, and then started for the third
group of monuments, named by Cailliaud MESAURÂT. This, however, is a term
which is here employed to designate all the three groups of ruins, and
which only means _pictures_, or walls furnished with pictures. The ruins
of Ben Naga are called MESAURÂT EL KIRBEGÂN, because they are situated in
WADI EL KIRBEGÂN; it appears that the second group only has retained its
old name of NAGA, or MESAURÂT E’ NAGA; the third group situated towards
Schendi is called MESAURÂT E’ SOFRA from the mountain basin in which it
lies, which is called E’ SOFRA, the table.
We first pursued, for the space of two hours, in a northerly direction
the mountain chain of Gebel e’ Naga, in the valley of Auatêb. Then, about
half-past twelve, we ascended through the first defile which opens to
the right, into a valley situated somewhat higher, E’ SELEHA; it becomes
broader behind the first low fore-range, and is luxuriantly overgrown
with grass and shrubs; after extending for an hour and a quarter in the
direction of S.S.W. to N.N.E., it opens on the left hand into the valley
of Auatêb, and straight on into another smaller valley, from which it
is separated by Gebel Lagâr. It is this small valley, which from its
circular form is called E’ SOFRA; here are the ruins which were also seen
by Hoskins, who did not, however, advance as far as Naga. We arrived
about a quarter past two, and had not, therefore, been quite four hours
coming from Naga to this spot. As we only wished to take a passing hasty
survey, we walked through the widely-scattered ruins of the principal
building, which Cailliaud held to be a great school, and Hoskins an
hospital; and we saw in the few sculptures, which are unaccompanied by
inscriptions, that here also we had before us monuments of a late period,
probably still more recent than those in Sûr and Naga. We then went to a
small temple in the neighbourhood, with pillars on which are represented
riders upon elephants, lions, and other strange barbarous scenes. We
looked at the huge artificial cisterns, now called Wot Mahemût, which in
the dry season must have compensated the inhabitants for the want of the
river; and about four o’clock we returned to Ben Naga.
As we emerged from the hills, we met great troops of wild asses, which
always kept at a little distance from us, as if they would invite us to
hunt them. They are of a grey or greyish-red colour, with white bellies;
they all have a black stripe drawn distinctly across the back, and the
tip of the tail is also generally black. Many of them are caught when
young, but they cannot then even be used for riding or carrying burdens.
It is only the next generation which can be employed in that manner.
Almost all the tame asses in the south, which come from the Ass Cataract
(Schellâl homâr) in Berber, are got from this wild breed, and have the
same colour and similar marks.
We encamped soon after sunset in a plain, overgrown with bushes. The
camel-drivers and our Kawass were in great terror of lions in this desert
till a large fire was kindled, which they kept most carefully alive
throughout the night. If a lion only lets his voice be heard near a
caravan, which really does sound deep and awful across the wide desert,
all the camels run away on every side as if they were mad, and it is
difficult to catch them again, frequently not before they have sustained
and done much injury. Human beings are not, however, easily attacked. A
few days ago a camel was strangled by a lion in our neighbourhood, but on
the farther side of the river. A man who was present saved himself on the
nearest tree.
On the 3rd of February we again set out about seven in the morning;
we left the two Buêribs, the great “blue” and the little “red,” at a
considerable distance on our left hand, and shortly before nine o’clock
arrived in the valley of El Kirbegân, which we followed for half an hour
in the direction of the river. We saw the Mesaurât el Kirbegân in its
whole extent on our right, but kept upon the hills till a little after
eleven, when we arrived at Ben Naga, and half an hour afterwards once
more at our landing-place.
Two hours afterwards we continued our journey in our boat. We made,
however, little progress with a strong adverse wind, and saw nothing new,
except for the first time a hippopotamus swimming in the water. The next
morning we disembarked on the western bank, opposite the village of GÔS
BASABIR, to see the ruins of the walls of an old fortress, with towers of
defence, which surrounded the summit of a hill. The space enclosed was
about 300 paces in diameter. In the afternoon we approached the Schellâl
(the Cataract) of GERASCHAB, the higher mountain ranges lying before
us, closed in upon each other, and at length formed a mountain hollow,
seemingly without any outlet; this was, however, to our surprise, near at
hand, for we turned to our left into a narrow defile, which widened into
a high and wild rocky valley; we followed it for nearly an hour before
again emerging on the other side into another plain. The eruptive granite
ranges of QIRRE pass on the eastern side of the river into RAUIÂN, “the
thirsty quenched;” while to the west, some distance from the river, there
is ATSCHAN “the thirsty,” also rising up in a detached form.
The 5th February we landed about eleven in the morning at TAMANIÂT.
Mohammed Saïd, the former treasurer of the late Achmed Pascha, whose
acquaintance we had made in Dâmer, had given us a letter to one of the
sub-officials there, which contained instructions to him to deliver
to us the fragment of an inscription which had been found in Soba. It
belonged to the centre of a marble table, which was inscribed on both
sides with Greek or Coptic letters of a late period. The signs, which
were not difficult to read, neither contained Greek nor Coptic words;
only the name ⲅⲉⲱⲣⲅⲓⲟ.. could be deciphered. The same evening we arrived
in CHARTÛM. This name signifies an elephant’s trunk, and probably was
derived from the form of the narrow tongue of land on which the town is
situated, between the two Nile rivers which unite at this spot.
My first visit with Abeken was to Emin Pascha, who had reached Chartûm
before us. He received us in a very friendly manner, and would not allow
us to leave him the whole morning.
A magnificent breakfast, consisting of thirty dishes, which we partook
of at his house, gave us a most curious insight into the secrets of
the Turkish culinary art; as I learned from our highly-fed Pascha, it
resembles the most accomplished systems of the latest French kitchens, in
obeying the refined regulations of a fastidious taste in the preparation
and arrangement of food. Soon after the first dishes, mutton, roasted on
the spit, is brought in, which cannot be dispensed with at any Turkish
meal. Then follow various courses of dishes of meats and vegetables,
solid and liquid, sour and sweet, and a certain repetition of changes is
observed in the successive dishes, in order to keep up the keenness of
the appetite. Pillau, boiled rice, always forms the conclusion.
The external preparations for such an entertainment are somewhat as
follows. A great, round, metal tray, with a flat border, about three
feet in diameter, is placed on a low frame, and serves as a table, round
which five or six persons seat themselves on cushions or coverlets; the
legs vanish beneath the body, in the ample folds of the dress; as to the
hands, the left must be invisible, it would be quite improper to let it
ever be seen during meals. The right hand must alone be active. No such
thing as a plate is to be seen, no more than knives and forks. The table
is covered with deeper or shallower, covered or uncovered dishes, which
are constantly changed, so that but a very few morsels can be taken from
each. Particular dishes, however, such as roast meat, cold milk with
cucumbers, &c., remain longer on the table, and one returns to them more
frequently. Both before and after dinner, the hands are of course washed.
A servant, or slave, kneeling, holds in one hand a metal basin, in the
middle of which lies a piece of soap, in a little projecting saucer,
expressly used for the purpose; with the other he pours water from a
metal pitcher over the hands, and a fine, ornamentally embroidered towel
hangs over his arm for drying them.
After dinner the pipe is immediately presented, coffee handed round,
and then one may retire. The Turks are in the habit of making this the
period of their mid-day repose, till Asser. But before we parted from our
host, a number of weapons were brought, belonging to the savage nations
living farther up the country, lances, bows, arrows, clubs, and a king’s
sceptre, which he sent to the boat for me, as a present to his guest.
We afterwards visited our countryman, NEUBAUER, the apothecary of
the province, who has been very unfortunate: a short time since, he
was removed from his post by the late Achmed Pascha; but he has now
been again appointed apothecary by Achmed Pascha Menekle, through
the intercession of Dr. Koch. We then went to a Pole who has settled
here—Hermanovich, the head-physician of the province, who, in consequence
of an order from the Pascha, offered us his house, to which we went the
following day; it had lately been newly fitted up; there was a garden
beside it, and a great court-yard, which was very useful for unpacking
and repairing our chests and tents.
The next day the Pascha returned our visit. He came on horseback. We
handed him coffee, pipes, sherbet, and showed him some drawings and
pictures from Egypt, in which he was interested merely from curiosity.
He is a large, corpulent man, a Circassian by birth, and therefore, like
most of his countrymen, better informed than the Turks in general. I saw
a rich collection of all kinds of birds of the Sudan, at the house of a
Syrian, IBRAHIM CHÊR; there were about 300 different species, and between
twenty and thirty choice specimens of each.
On one of the following days, I took a walk with Abeken and Erbkam to
the opposite bank of our tongue of land on the WHITE RIVER, which we
then followed up to its junction with the Blue; its waters are in fact
whiter, and have a less pleasant taste than those of the Blue, because at
a higher point it flows slowly through several lakes, the standing water
of which imparts an earthy and less pure taste to it. I have filled some
bottles with the water of the Blue, and White Rivers, which I shall take
away with me sealed up.
On the occasion of a more recent and friendly visit of the Pascha, we met
the brother of the former Sultan of Kordofan (who was himself also called
Mak or Melek) and the Vizier of the Sultan NIMR (Tiger) of Schendi. The
latter still lives in Abyssinia, whither he fled, after having, in the
year 1822, burned the conqueror of his country, ISMAEL PASCHA, a son of
Mohammed Ali, and all his officers, after a nocturnal banquet which he
had prepared for him in a somewhat lonely house.
On the 14th, we made an excursion up the WHITE RIVER, but were soon
obliged to turn back, because it has so little current, that, on account
of the north wind which of late has constantly been blowing, our return
threatened to be tedious. The banks of the White River are barren, and
the few trees which formerly stood in the neighbourhood of Chartûm are
now cut down, and have been used for building or fuel. There is a larger
mass of water in the White River than in the Blue, and even after its
junction it preserves its course, so that the Blue River must be viewed
as the secondary river, but the White as the true Nile. Their different
waters can be distinguished beside each other for a long time after their
junction.
On the 16th February, I sent for some DINKA slaves, to interrogate them
about their language. They were, however, so dull of apprehension, that I
could only with difficulty get out of them the words for numbers up to a
hundred, and a few separate pronouns. The languages of the Dinkas and the
Schilluks, who dwell several days’ journey distant up the White River,
the former on the eastern bank, the latter on the western, are as little
known grammatically as most of the other languages of Central Africa; I
therefore requested the Pascha to procure me some intelligent persons who
were well acquainted with those languages. This was impossible for the
present, but we shall attend to it on our return.
Meanwhile our purchases and repairs being completed, I hurried on the
departure as much as possible. The house of Hermanovich will also be
at our disposal on our return; it is built in a convenient manner, and
is very airy. I had a prospect of the oldest house in the town from my
window, whose pointed straw roof peeped over our wall. These pointed
straw huts, called TUKELE, are the characteristic buildings of this
country, and are found almost exclusively in the south. But as Chartûm
is a new town, the small number of old huts have disappeared, with the
exception of this one, and all the houses are built of unburnt bricks.
About mid-day, on the 17th February, we embarked on board our boats.
I sailed to the south with Abeken up the Blue River, partly to become
acquainted with its natural character, partly to view the ruins of Soba
and Mandera; our other travelling companions, who had nothing to occupy
them farther up, sailed northwards back to Meröe, in order to sketch the
monuments there.
The following day we landed on the eastern bank, where great heaps of red
bricks, destined for exportation, proclaimed the vicinity of the ruins
of SOBA. At the present day, unburnt bricks alone are made throughout
the country, therefore all the ruins of burnt stones must have belonged
to an earlier period. This material for building is transported in great
quantities from Soba as far as Chartûm, and beyond it.
We disembarked, and had scarcely got beyond the thorny bushes nearest to
the bank, when we perceived the overturned mounds of bricks, covering a
large plain, possibly an hour in circumference. Some larger heaps might
be the remains of the Christian churches which are described by Selîm of
Assuan (in Macrizi), in the tenth century, as magnificently decorated
with gold, when Soba was still the capital of the kingdom of ALOA. We
were shown the spot where some time ago a stone lion is said to have been
discovered, which is now in the possession of Churshid Pascha, in Cairo.
Nowhere could walls, nor the form of buildings, be recognised; it was
only on the mound to the south, at a little distance off, that we found
some hewn yellow blocks of sandstone, and a low wall; on another heap lay
several rough slabs of a black slaty stone.
The country round Soba, like this, is flat both far and wide to the base
of the hills in front of the Abyssinian range, and the ground, especially
at this season, is arid and black; the denser vegetation is confined to
the bank of the river; farther off there are nothing but single trees,
now in greater, now in fewer numbers.
I promised the sailors a sheep, on condition that we should reach
KAMLÎN betimes, for there was a strong wind, which made us very slow
in our progress; our boat, besides, is not a fast one, the sailors are
inexperienced, and from the low state of the water, the boat easily
sticks fast in the sand; we sailed on almost the whole night through, and
reached Kamlîn about eight in the morning.
The ancient place of the same name lies one half-hour farther up the
river, and is composed of a few huts. The houses near which we landed
belong to a number of factories, which Nureddin Effendi, a Coptic
Catholic Egyptian, who went over to Islam, established, in common with
the late Achmed Pascha, more than four years ago, and which yield a
rich profit. A simple, homely German, who has never given way to the
bad customs of the East, born in the neighbourhood of Würzburg, by name
Bauer, has established a Soap and Brandy Manufactory, of which he takes
the management himself. A Sugar and Indigo Factory is conducted by an
Arab. Bauer has settled farther to the south than any European we have
ever met with in Mohammed Ali’s dominions, and we were rejoiced to find
such a good termination to the long but not very agreeable chain of
Europeans, most of them degenerated in civilisation, who have preferred
the Turkish government to that of their Fatherland.[43]
He has an old German housekeeper with him, Ursula, a comical,
good-natured soul, to whom it was no less a holiday to receive German
guests again, than it was to himself. With joyful alacrity she rummaged
out some European utensils, and the only fork that was still in
preservation, and served up fried chickens, saurkraut, and some small
sausages, with excellent wheaten bread; at last actually a cherry cake,
of baked European cherries (for our fruits do not grow in Egypt), in
short, a home repast such as we never expected to see in this Ultima
Thule.
On a pedestal in front of Bauer’s house we found the most southern
Egyptian sculpture which we have met with: a sitting statue of OSIRIS,
with the usual attributes, carved out of black granite; a portion of it
is mutilated, and it is of a late style, about 2½ feet high; it had been
found in SOBA, and is not devoid of interest, being the only monument of
Egyptian art from this town.
The European arrangement of Bauer’s rooms made a strange impression
on us, here in the midst of the black population in the south. A
wooden Black Forest house-clock, with weights, beat in regular time;
some half-broken European chairs stood round the fixed table, a small
book-shelf was placed behind it, with a selection of the German classics
and historical works; in the corner the Turkish divan, which could not be
dispensed with even here. Above the great table, and beside the canopied
bed in the opposite corner, hung bell-pulls, which communicated with
the kitchen. An inquisitive Nesnas ape looked in at the grated window
next the door; and across the little court-yard we saw the busy Ursula,
in a crimson-flowered gown, tripping hither and thither among little
naked black slave-boys and girls, ordering them to do this and that with
a somewhat scolding voice, and peeping into the steaming-pots in the
adjoining kitchen. We saw nothing of her the whole morning; not even
during the excellent and savoury repast which she had prepared for us;
it was only after dinner that she presented herself, with many curtseys,
to receive our commendations. She lamented over the insufficiency of her
cooking apparatus, and vehemently reproached Herr Bauer because he had
no intentions of leaving this detestable, dirty, hot country, although
he had promised her to do so from one year to the other. She came hither
with Bauer, and has been eleven years in the country, and four years
in Kamlîn. He intends to return to Germany in another year, to settle
in Styria or Thuringia with his savings, and, like his father, to be a
peasant again.
After rising from table, the son of Nureddin Effendi also sent us a
Turkish dinner, ready cooked, of twelve to fifteen dishes, which however,
after our European repast, we left to the servants. We had also seen
the factories that morning, and had tasted the fine brandy (called
Marienbad), which Bauer prepares chiefly from sugar-cane and dates. The
business seemed to be in the best order, and even the cleanliness, so
unusual in this country, of the rooms, the vessels, and utensils, were
proofs of the solid basis upon which this factory, worked by slaves
alone, is conducted. The pleasant impression made upon us by this visit
was also considerably increased by discovering that Bauer possessed a
second piece of the above-mentioned marble inscription, which had been
discovered in the ruins of Soba. He presented me with the fragment, which
was easily joined with the other piece, though we had still not got the
complete inscription. The fragment shows the traces of twelve lines on
the one side, and of nine on the other. The characters can be distinctly
read here also; but the name ⲓⲁⲕⲱⲃ is alone intelligible. It is either
very barbarous Greek, or a peculiar language formerly spoken in Soba.
In fact, we know, through Selîm, that the inhabitants of Soba had their
sacred books in the Greek language, but translated them also into their
own.
After we had also paid a visit to the son of Nureddin Effendi, we
started with the promise to call upon him again on our return.
From Kamlîn the banks continue at an equal elevation. The character of a
river valley is lost. There is no longer a deposit of black earth; the
precipitous and high banks consist of a primitive soil, and a calcareous
conglomerate, which, by Bauer’s account, can be easily burnt into plaster.
On the morning of the 21st we came to a considerable bend of the river
towards the east; the wind became, on that account, so unfavourable,
that our Kawass disembarked, to press into our service people from the
neighbourhood to draw our boat along. I walked for several hours along
the western bank, as far as ARBAGI, a deserted village, built of black
bricks, but on the remains of a still older place, as I discovered from
the walls of burnt bricks. This place was formerly the chief centre of
the commerce of the Sudan, which, at a later period, was transferred
to Messelemîeh. Soon after this we saw the two most northerly growing
BAOBABS, which here are called HÓMARA. These giant trees of the creation
(Adansonia digitata) become more and more frequent, south of this spot,
and at Sero they are among the common trees of the country. One of the
stems which I paced round, measured above 60 feet in circumference, and
was certainly not one of the largest of its kind, as they are still
not numerous here. At this season they were leafless, and stretched
out their bare branches far above the surrounding green trees, which
looked like low bushes beside them. I found their fruit, which is called
GUNGULES,[44] here and there among the Arabs; they resemble small
gourds, in the form of pears, and have a light hairy surface. If the
hard, tough shell is broken, a number of kernels are found inside, which
are surrounded by a dry, sweetish, sourish pulp, which is nevertheless
pleasant to the taste. The leaves are digitate.
On the 22nd of February we arrived on the western bank, at a small
village, whose inhabitants, men, women, and children, fled with terror
at our approach across the sandy plain to the wood, probably because
they were afraid of being pressed to draw the boat on farther. On the
opposite bank there was another village, and from it we saw a magnificent
procession of men, dressed out in the Arabian and Turkish costume,
march down to the river with some beautifully bridled horses. It was
the Kaschef, and the principal Sheikh of ABU HARAS, who had heard about
us from Achmed Pascha, as we had intended to go from this spot into the
desert to Mandera with camels and guides. The horses were intended for
us, and we therefore rode to the house of the Kaschef, to make some more
inquiries about the antiquities of Mandera and Qala. As the desert road
to the shore of the Red Sea leads from here by that place, we found
several people who had passed near it. However, by what I gathered from
all the accounts, there seem to be only some hills in the form of a kind
of fortress at both these places, or, at the most, some roughly-built
walls, intended to protect the caravans, but no ancient buildings or
hieroglyphic inscriptions. In Qala there might be some camels and horses,
also, scratched into the rock by Arabs or other people, such as we have
frequently seen in the Great Desert near the well of Murhad, and in other
places.
We therefore determined to relinquish this desert journey, and to go
farther up the river instead, that we might become acquainted, as far as
our time permitted, with the natural character of the Nile river, its
banks, and neighbouring inhabitants.
After a short quarter of an hour from Abu Haras, we came to the mouth
of the RAHAD, which, in the rainy season, conveys a considerable mass
of water into the Nile, but was now nearly dry, and had only a little
stagnant water, which next month may perhaps also disappear.
I left the boat as often as possible, to get acquainted with the banks.
To go farther inland was of itself interdicted chiefly by the wood,
which clothes both sides of the river, and is nearly impenetrable. There,
in luxuriant splendour, grow the shady, high-domed tamarind-tree, the
tower-like hómara (Baobab), the many-branched gemús (sycamore-tree),
and the various kinds of the brittle, gum-yielding sont-trees. Creeping
plants, often the thickness of a man’s body, climb up their branches
like gigantic serpents, in innumerable windings, to their very summits,
and down again to the ground, where, along with the low shrubs, they
fill up every gap between the huge stems. In addition to this, scarcely
one of ten among the trees or shrubs has not thorns, which renders
any attempt to penetrate the close thicket not only dangerous, but
impossible. Several among them—for instance, the sittere-tree—have thorns
placed together in pairs, and in such a manner, that one thorn bends
forwards, the other back; if any one, therefore, approaches the branches
carelessly, he may be sure that his clothes will carry away with them
some unavoidable signs, not to be obliterated here without difficulty,
and then imperfectly. Some other thorny trees look extremely ornamental,
and growing in more open situations, they rise like slender young
birches. We distinguished two species which are usually joined together,
and can only be known from one another because the bark of the one stem
is of a brilliant red colour up to the outermost little branches, like
a growth of blood-vessels, while that of the other is of a dark black
colour. Both of them have glistening long white thorns, which, with the
little green leaves, rise up with a sharp outline, as if they had been
painted with the brush.
Scarcely one of the birds, which frequently hovered around us in large
numbers, were known to me, even in Egypt. I shot many of them, and
had them stuffed by our cook, Siriân. Among them were some beautiful
silver-grey falcons (suqr schikl), guinea-fowls (gedâd el wadi), with
knobs of horn on the nose, and blue lappets on both sides of the head;
black and white rhinoceros birds (abu tuko) with huge beaks; some birds
quite black, with a bright crimson breast (abu labba); large brown and
white eagles (abu tôk), one of which, with outspread wings, measured
six feet; smaller brown eagles, the _hedâja_, and black and white ones,
which are called _ráchama_. These last, which are much more numerous
towards Egypt, are the same which we are in the habit of seeing among
the hieroglyphics. On the bank there are also great numbers of black and
white plovers, furnished with black curved spines on their wing-joints,
and the long-legged, completely white, _abu baqr_ (cow-birds), who are in
the habit of grazing on the backs of the buffaloes and cows.
We saw great bats frequently flying about in broad daylight; their long
golden-brown wings look bright through the branches, and suddenly they
hang head downwards on the branches like great yellow pears, and can then
easily be shot. They have long ears, and a strange trumpet-like nose.
We also hunted the MONKEYS, but from their agility they were very
difficult to reach. One day we found an immense tree, quite full of
monkeys; some of them hastily came down on our approach, and fled to a
distant thicket; others hid themselves among the foliage, quite at the
top; but some of them who considered both methods of escape dangerous,
sprang with inconceivably bold leaps from the uppermost branches of the
tall tree, which might have been about 100 feet high, to the smaller
trees standing near, whose thorny branches bent down beneath their weight
without letting them fall; they thus gained their end, and escaped my gun.
The CROCODILES become more numerous the farther south we go. The tongues
of the sandy islands are often covered with them. They generally lie in
the sun, close to the edge of the water, open their mouths, and seem to
sleep, but do not allow any one to approach them; but even if they are
hit by the shot they immediately dive into the river. It is therefore
very difficult to obtain one. Our Kawass only once made such a good shot
at a young crocodile, about three feet long, that it was unable to get
back to the water. It was brought to the boat, where it lived for several
days afterwards, to the terror of our little Nesnas monkey, Bachît.
It is no less difficult to approach the HIPPOPOTAMI, which we have
sometimes seen in great numbers, but with their heads alone above the
water. Once only a young hippopotamus stood quite clear out of the water
on a sandy island; it allowed us to come unusually near. The Kawass
shot, and hit it, naturally without the ball penetrating the thick hide,
whereupon the clumsy creature, with its unshapely head, its fat belly,
and short elephant legs, galloped off in a most comical manner to reach
the water close beside him, and immediately disappeared. They generally
are in the habit of coming on land only in the night, and they do much
injury in the fields of Durra and other plantations, by treading down and
devouring. It is not known that a hippopotamus was ever caught alive here.
We saw no lions, but we heard their roaring in the distance throughout
the starlight night; there is something very solemn in the deep and
sonorous voice of this royal beast.
The 24th of February we came to a second tributary river of the Nile,
the DENDER, which is larger than the Rahad. I went up part of it to see
(which was impossible at its mouth) whether the water was still flowing,
and farther up I discovered that, where the still water had collected
into small canals, certainly a very feeble current yet existed; in the
rainy season the Dender must rise more than twenty feet, as may be seen
by its bed; I found its banks were cultivated with cotton bushes, gourds,
and other useful plants.
The heat is not excessive, in the morning about eight o’clock it is
usually 23° R.; about mid-day till about five o’clock, 29°; and about
eleven o’clock at night it is 22° (83¾°, 97¼°, 81½° Fahr.).
We spend our evenings in our boat; here I make our Kawass, Hagi Ibrahim,
inform us about the geography; or I take some Nubian sailors into my
cabin to learn their language. I have already made a long vocabulary
in the Nubian language; comparing it with other lists in Rüppell and
Cailliaud, I found many words in the Koldági language spoken in the
southern territories of Kordofan which agree with them; this proves
there is an intimate connection between the two languages. The Arabs
are in the habit of calling the Nubian language _lisân rotâna_, which
I at first supposed to be its actual name; but it only means a foreign
tongue different from the Arabic. They do not, therefore, only speak of
a _Rotâna Kenûs_, _Mahass_, _Donqolaui_, when they mean to designate the
three Nubian dialects, but also of a _Rotâna Dinkaui_, _Schilluk_—even
of a Rotâna _turki_ and _franki_, thus likewise of Turkish and French;
_i. e._ of European gibberish. The same error is the cause of the now
received designation of the Nubian as the Berber, and of their language
as the Berber language; for this is not the name of the people, nor of
their language, as is generally thought, but originally means only the
people speaking a foreign tongue, the _Barbaros_.
On the 25th of February we disembarked at SABA DOLEB; I searched for
ruins, but only found high domes in the form of bee-hives, built well and
solidly of bricks, about 20 feet high, and closely resembling the Greek
Thesauri, constructed of horizontal layers, lapping over inwardly. They
are tombs of holy Arab Sheikhs of a late period; the inhabitants of the
village could not tell us the date of their erection. Beneath the cupola,
and in the centre of the building, which is between 15 and 18 feet wide,
there is the long narrow tomb of the saint, surrounded with larger
stones, and covered with a number of small stones, which, according to a
superstition, must necessarily amount to a thousand; I found six domes
similar to these, most of them half, some wholly fallen to pieces; two,
however, in very good preservation, which are even still visited; a
seventh, probably the most recent, was built of unburnt bricks.
At WAD NEGUDI, a village situated to the west of the Nile, we found the
first DILÊB PALMS, with slender naked stems and small bushy crowns,
resembling, at a distance, the Date Palm, but when near, from their
leaves, like the Doum Palm. Their fruit is round, like that of the Doum
Palm, but of a larger size. These trees are said to be very abundant
on the tributary rivers towards the east; but here, on the Nile, they
are only to be found within a very small tract of land. The leaves are
regularly divided like a fan into a great number of connected folds, and
the leaf-stalk has strong serrated notches. The Rais of our boat, who
was with me, sawed off another leaf with one of these leaf-stalks; I
had it brought to the boat, to take it away with us. It is divided into
sixty-nine points, and is five feet and a quarter long, from that part of
the stalk where the fan begins, although it is still young, and therefore
its fan is still completely closed. Another larger one, which had just
unfolded itself, we set up in the boat as an umbrella, and sat beneath
its shade. We were obliged to make a path to those palm-trees through
gigantic woods of grass, which shoot up stiff and thick like corn-fields,
and cover large plains. The points of the blades towered up five or six
feet above our heads, and even the tall camels, which are bred here,
could hardly look over it.
On the 26th February we arrived at the village of ABU EL ABAS, on the
eastern bank. It is a chief town of this district, and the Kaschef who
lives here is placed over 112 villages. I there purchased a dog-ape
from a Turkish Kawass for a few piastres. This is the holy ape of the
ancient Egyptians, the Cynocephalus, which was dedicated to Thoth and
the Moon, and appears as the second among the four Gods of Death. It
is interesting to me to have a creature about me for some little time,
which I have seen innumerable times upon the monuments, and thereby to
observe the faithful apprehension and representation of its essential
and characteristic appearances in the ancient Egyptian sculpture. It is
remarkable that this ape, so peculiar to Egypt in ancient times, is now
only found in the south, and even there, it is not very common. How many
species of animals and plants, even manners and customs of men, with
which we become acquainted through the monuments of Egypt, can only now
be found in the most southern parts of ancient Ethiopia, so that now
many representations, for instance in the tombs of Benihassan, seem
to delineate scenes in this country rather than in Egypt. There is no
special name here for the Cynocephalus, only the general one, _qird_
(large monkey). Its head, hair, and colour, are not unlike those of a
dog, and hence its Greek name. Sometimes also it barks and snarls like a
dog. It is still young, and very good-natured, but far more intelligent
than Abeken’s pretty little Nesnas ape. It is extremely ludicrous when
it wishes to get something good to eat, which we have in our hands; it
then lays back its ears on its head, and knows how to express the utmost
delight, but remains sitting quiet like a good child, only chattering
with the lips, like an old wine-bibber. At the sight of the crocodile,
however, all the hair of its body bristled up; it uttered piercing
shrieks, and could scarcely be held down from terror.
On the 27th February we reached SENNÂR, the celebrated ancient capital
of the Sudan, whose king, before the conquest of the country by Ismael
Pascha, had dominion as far as Wadi Halfa, and ruled over a number of
smaller kings who paid him tribute. One would not suspect, from the
present aspect of the place, that only a short time since it was such a
powerful royal residence. Between six and seven hundred pointed straw
huts, Tukele, surrounded the piles of red-brick ruins, where formerly
the royal mansion stood. These bricks are now employed for building an
abode for Solimân Pascha, who is to reside in Sennâr; it was already so
far complete that the Wakil[45] of the absent Pascha was able to hold his
divan within it. We found him there, just as he was sitting in judgment.
Many other people, Sheikhs and Turks, were present; among them the Sheikh
Sandalôba, the chief of the Arabian merchants, and a relative of the
Sultâna Nasr, whose acquaintance we afterwards made in the village of
Sorîba, which she makes her royal residence. We paid a visit to this
distinguished man in his own house, with which honour he seemed much
gratified. His principal apartment is a dark, lofty hall, with a roof
resting on two pillars and four pilasters, upon which we mounted to
obtain a view over the town.
Meanwhile an anqareb was prepared for us, to sit upon in the court-yard;
they brought us mead (honey with water), and led a hyæna out of the
stable, here called Marafil, and two young lions, the largest of which,
belonging to Solimân Pascha, and two wethers, were taken to the boat,
as a present from his Wakil. I had the creature fastened down in the
hold, and as a welcome immediately received a violent scratch on my hand
from his sharp claws. His body is now above two feet long, and his voice
has already become a strong tenor. There is a most tumultuous scene now
every morning on our, not very large, boat, when we drink our tea at an
early hour in front of the cabin; on each side of the door, a monkey is
making its merry leaps, and when the lion is released from the hold of
the vessel, and on the deck, which is given to him during the day, we are
obliged to place our cups and pitchers in safety, as he endeavours to
reach them with his clumsy, but already strong claws.
On the 29th of February, about nine in the morning, we arrived at ABDÎN.
The 1st of March the wind was unfavourable to us, and we made very little
progress, so that we had plenty of time at our disposal for shooting
birds. Towards evening I came to a village romantically situated in a
creek formed by the river, spreading out at this point. Many huts, built
of straw, extended their pointed roofs upwards between the branches
and thick foliage of the trees. Narrow crooked paths, forming a real
labyrinth, led from one hut to the other, between thorns and trunks of
trees; within the huts, and in front of them, the black families were
lying, the children playing by a feeble lamp-light. I asked for some
milk, but was told to apply at an Arab village in the neighbourhood, to
which I was led by a man armed with a spear, the universal weapon of the
country. Making our way through thin shrubs and tall grass, we reached
the large troops of cattle belonging to the Arabs, who had raised their
mat huts round the pasture ground. The Fellahs who have settled here are
much browner than the wandering Arabs, though they are not negroes, but
they appear by race to be connected with the Nubian stock.
The 2nd of March we landed on an island close to the eastern bank. At
a short distance from the landing-place the Rais discovered a broken
crocodile egg, at a spot where there was some newly turned up ground.
He dug down with his hands, and found forty-four eggs lying beside each
other three feet deep in the sand. They were still covered with a slimy
coat, as they had been only laid the previous day or during the night.
Crocodiles prefer coming out of the river on a windy night, they bury
their eggs in the ground, cover them over, and the wind soon disperses
all traces of the disturbed earth. A few months afterwards the young ones
creep out. The eggs are like large goose’s eggs, but as much rounded
off at both ends as these are only at the blunt end. I had some of them
boiled, they are eatable, but have a disagreeable taste; therefore I
willingly left them to the sailors, who devoured them with a hearty
appetite.
We landed at the forsaken village of DÁHELA on the eastern bank, from
which I proceeded alone a distance of about three-quarters of an hour
inland. The character of the vegetation continues the same. The ground
is dry and level, the small hills and valleys which intersect it are not
the original forms of the ground, but seem only to have been produced
by rain. The farthest point I aimed at was a great tamarind-tree which
towered up splendidly from the lower trees and bushes, and round which
were fluttering a number of green and red birds hitherto unknown to me.
On my road, I first came to a settlement, Kumr betá Dáhela, where the
inhabitants of the village I mentioned above are accustomed to keep
their _villeggiatura_. They only remain here during the dry months, and
wander back in the beginning of the rainy season to their more solidly
built village on the bank of the river. The last village that I reached
is called ROMÂLI, a little above the place which is marked SERO on the
map, and which is situated at the 13° of north latitude. On the hot and
fatiguing road back, I was present at a burial; silent and serious,
without sound or lamentation, two corpses wrapped in white cloths were
borne by men on anqarebs, and were laid in a grave several feet deep,
in the wood, close to the passing road. Perhaps they had died of the
cholera-like plague, which we hear has broken out with virulence in these
southern parts.
We would willingly have gone up, as far as Fazoql, into the last province
in Mohammed Ali’s dominions, to become acquainted with the complete
change in the character of the country, which then again occurs,
beginning at Rosêres, and exhibiting so many phenomena, plants and
animals, peculiar to the tropics; but our time had come to an end.
The Rais received orders to lower the sails and masts; by which the
boat at once lost its dignified appearance, and it floated down with
the current of the river like a wreck. Soon the agreeable silence in
the vessel, which had hitherto hastened on as if of its own accord,
was interrupted by the shrill and discordant singing of the rowers,
struggling against the wind.
On the 4th of March we again arrived at Sennâr, and on the morning of the
8th reached Wed Médineh. This place is almost as important as Sennâr. A
regiment of soldiers is here in garrison with the only band of music in
the Sudan, and with two cannons. We were immediately visited by the chief
clerk of the regiment, Seïd Haschim, one of the most distinguished people
of the place, with whom we had formerly become acquainted in Chartûm.
We determined to go from this on a visit to the Sultâna Nasr (Victoria)
in SORÎBA, which is about an hour and a half inland, partly to learn
something of the character of the country farther removed from the river,
partly to gain some notion of the court of an Ethiopian princess. Seïd
Haschim offered his dromedaries and asses, and to accompany us himself on
this expedition. We therefore set out with him in the afternoon over the
hot, black plain, where only a few trees were scattered here and there,
and soon got over the uninteresting ground on our active animals.
NASR is the sister of the most powerful and the richest King (Melek)
in the Sudan, the IDRIS WED (_i. e._ WELLED, the son or descendant of)
ADLÂN, who now indeed is under the supremacy of Mohammed Ali, but yet
rules over several hundred villages in the province of El Fungi; his
title is Mak el Qulle, King of the Qulle Mountains. One of his ancestors
was called ADLÂN, and the whole family at present is named after him;
his father was the same Mohammed (Wed) Adlân, who at the period of the
victorious campaign of Ismael Pascha, appropriated to himself the greater
part of the power belonging to the legitimate but feeble Bâdi, King of
Sennâr, but who afterwards, at the instigation of a second Pretender,
Reg´eb, was murdered. When Ismael approached, and Reg´eb had fled with
his adherents into the Abyssinian mountains, King Bâdi joined the
children and the party of Mohammed Adlân, and submitted to the Pascha,
who made him a Sheikh over the country, had the murderers of Mohammed
Adlân empaled, and bestowed great power and riches on his children Reg´eb
and Idris Adlân. Their sister Nasr was also treated with great respect,
which was still more increased because she was descended, on the mother’s
side, from the legitimate royal house itself. On that account she is
also called _Sultâna_, Queen. Her first husband was Mohammed Sandalôba,
a brother of Hassan Sandalôba, whom we had visited in Sennâr. He died
a long time ago, but by him she had a daughter, Dauer (the Light), who
married a great Sheikh, Abd el Qader, but she was afterwards separated
from him, and now always resides with her mother in Sorîba. The second
husband of Nasr is Mohammed Defalla, the son of one of her father’s
viziers. He was just then with Ahmed Pascha Menekle, on the campaign
(_Ghazua_, out of which the French have made _Razzia_) in Taka. But even
when he is at home, on account of her noble birth, she continues mistress
in the house.
A great preference for the female sex seems to have been a very universal
custom since ancient times in these southern countries. We must recollect
how frequently we find reigning Queens of Ethiopia mentioned. In the
campaigns of Petronius, Candace is well known, a name which, according to
Pliny, was given to all the Ethiopian Queens; according to others, only
to the mother of the King. In the pictures at Meröe, also, we sometimes
see very warlike, and doubtless reigning, Queens represented. According
to Makrizi, the genealogies of the Beg´as, who I consider to be the
direct descendants of the Meröitish Ethiopians, and the ancestors of the
present Bischâris, were not counted by the men, but by the women; and the
inheritance did not go to the son of the deceased, but to the son of the
sister, or of the daughter of the deceased. In like manner, according to
Abu-Sela, among the Nubians, the sister’s son always had the preference
of his own son in the succession to the throne; and, according to Ibn
Batuta, the same custom existed among the Messofites, a negro people
lying to the west. Even now the household and chief offices belonging
to the courts of several southern princes are wholly filled by women.
Ladies of distinction are in the habit of allowing their nails to grow
an inch long, as a sign that their duty consists in commanding, and not
in working; a custom we have lately seen in the representations of the
unshapely and corpulent Queens of Meröe.
When we arrived in SORÎBA, we stepped through a peculiar gate-house
into the great square court-yard, which passes round the principal
building, and then into an open lofty hall, the roof of which rested on
four pillars, and four pilasters. The narrow beams of the ceiling jut
out several feet above the simple architrave, and form the immediate
support of the flat roof; the whole entrance reminded me much of the
open façades of the tombs of Benihassan. In the hall there stood some
beautiful furniture of Indian work in ebony, some broad anqarebs, with
frames for the fly-nets. Magnificent coverlets were immediately brought
in, and sherbet, coffee, and pipes handed round; the vessels were made
of gold and silver. Black slave girls in light white dresses, which are
fastened round the hips, and drawn over the bosom and shoulders, handed
the refreshments, and looked most strange with their half-braided,
half-combed wigs. The Queen did not however appear; perhaps she shrank
from showing herself to Christians; we were only able to see some women
who were standing behind a half-opened door, which re-closed, and to
whom we ourselves might have been an object of curiosity. I therefore
sent word to the Sultâna, through Seïd Haschim, that we had come to pay
a visit to herself, and we now begged we might be permitted to pay our
respects to her. Upon which, soon afterwards, a strong wooden door, cased
with metal, which led from the inner chambers to the hall, opened wide,
and Nasr, with free and dignified steps, walked in. She was wrapped in
long, finely-woven linen, with coloured borders, and underneath she wore
wide, party-coloured trousers of a darker hue. The female household
followed her, eight or ten girls in white dresses, bordered with red, and
ornamented sandals. Nasr sat down before us in a friendly and natural
manner; she only sometimes drew her dress before her mouth and the lower
part of her face, an Oriental custom which is universal in Egypt among
women, but which is less practised in this country. She replied to the
salutations which I addressed to her through the Dragoman, with an
agreeable voice, but only remained a short time with us, and then again
retired through the same door.
We were now permitted to see the interior of the house, with the
exception of her own apartments, which were in a small adjoining house;
and we got upon the roof to have a view over the village. We afterwards
took a walk through the place, saw the well, which is lined with bricks
to the depth of 60 feet, and supplies a lukewarm water, which is more
insipid than that of the Nile, from which Nasr always has her own
drinking water fetched. We then turned back, intending to start, but
Nasr invited us to spend the night in Sorîba, as it was already too late
to return to Wed Médineh by daylight. We accepted the invitation, and
immediately a repast of cooked food was brought in, which was only a
preparation for the magnificent supper. The Sultâna, however, did not
allow herself to be seen again the whole evening. We remained in the
hall, and slept on the same cool cushions which had served us during the
day as a divan. The next morning, however, we were invited to visit her
in her own rooms. She was more willing to talk to-day than yesterday,
had European chairs placed for us, while her attendants and slave girls
squatted down round us. We told her about her name-sister, the Sultâna
Nasr of England, and exhibited her portrait to her on an English gold
coin, which she regarded with much curiosity. Nevertheless, she showed
very little desire to see with her own eyes that distant world beyond the
northern ocean.
About eight o’clock we rode back to Wed Médineh. Soon after our arrival
Seïd Haschim received a letter from Nasr, in which she asked him
confidentially whether I would accept a little slave girl from her,
as a gift to the stranger. I sent a message to inform her that this
was contrary to our customs, but that there would be no difficulty if,
instead of a slave girl, she would select a slave boy; and, after the
removal of some scruples, as this seemed to her less becoming, she really
sent a little slave boy, who was brought to me in our boat.
He had been the playmate of the Sultâna’s little grandson, the son of
her daughter Dauer, and was handed over to me with the name of REHÂN
(the Arabic designation for the sweet-scented basilicum). I was also
informed that he was born in the district of Makâdi, on the frontier of
Abyssinia, which generally furnishes the most intelligent and faithful
slaves. This district is under Christian domination, and is inhabited
both by Christians and Mohammedans, who are separated into different
villages. The former call themselves Nazâra (Nazarenes), or Amhâra
(Amharic Christians); the latter Giberta. Amongst the latter, children of
their own race, or that of their neighbours, are frequently stolen and
sold to Arabian slave-dealers; for in the central parts of Abyssinia the
slave trade is strictly interdicted. However, this account of the boy has
since proved incorrect, and perhaps was only meant to remove the obstacle
which some might find in offering me a Christian boy, while on the other
hand it would appear still more doubtful to hand over to me a native
Mohammedan. The boy himself first communicated to our Christian cook, and
afterwards to myself, that he was born of Christian parents, that he had
here for the first time received the name of Rehân, and that his real
name was Gabre Máriam, _i. e._ in Abyssinian, “the slave of Mary.” He
was born near Gondar, the capital of Amhâra. He appears to have belonged
to a family of some distinction, for the place called Bamba, which is
stated by Bruce to be in the neighbourhood of Lake Tzana, by his accounts
belonged to his grandfather; and his father, who now is dead, possessed
many herds, which the boy often drove, with others, to the pasture. One
day, above three or four years ago, when on such an expedition, at a
considerable distance from his dwelling-place, he was stolen by some
mounted Bedouins, carried off to the village of Waldakarel, and then sold
to King Idris Adlân; by him he was afterwards presented to his sister
Nasr. He is a pretty boy, very dark, and may be now between eight and
nine years old; but much more advanced than a child of this age would be
with us. The girls here marry from eight years old upwards. He wears his
hair in a peculiar manner, in innumerable little braids; these must, at
least once every month, be re-braided and daubed with grease, by a woman
skilled in the art; and his body also must from time to time be well
rubbed with grease. His entire clothing consists in a great white cloth,
which he binds round his hips, and throws upwards over the shoulders. I
call him now by his Christian name, and shall take him to Europe with me.
Seïd Haschim did all in his power to keep us some days longer in Wed
Médineh. The first evening he invited us to his house, with the Turks
of most distinction, and had a number of dancing-girls to show us the
national dances in these parts; they chiefly consist in contortions of
the upper part of the body and the arms, similar to what are represented
on the Egyptian monuments; but differ from the Egyptian dances of the
present day, which are chiefly limited to very ungraceful gestures.
A good-natured and very comical old man led on the dances, while he
at the same time sang some Arabic songs, with a piercing but not
disagreeable voice, which had reference to the assembled company, or to
persons of repute, such as Nasr, Idris Adlân, Mak (_i. e._ Melek), Bâdi,
&c.; and with his left hand touched the chords of a five-stringed lyre,
passing the plectrum over them in time with his right. His instrument
only embraced six tones of the octave. The first string on the right
hand had the highest tone, C, to be struck with the thumb, the string
immediately succeeding, the lowest tone, E; then followed the third, F;
the fourth, A; the fifth, B. The instrument is called RABABA, and the
performer on it REBÂBI. This man had been instructed by an old celebrated
Rebâbi in Schendi; he had made his instrument himself, after the model
of that belonging to his master, and had also acquired from him his
talent for making verses, and thus became the favourite black bard of Wed
Médineh. All the poetry of his songs had been composed by himself; they
were sometimes improvised, and whoever disobliged him or his patrons,
would probably be made the object of his satire.
I made him come to me the following morning, and, through Jussuf, write
down four of his poems in Arabic: one on Mohammed, the son of Mak Mesâʾd,
who resides in Metammeh; one upon King Nimr, who burnt Ismael Pascha,
and is still living in Abyssinia; a third on Nasr; and lastly, a song of
homage to pretty girls.[46] It is impossible to render these melodies
in our notes. I have only written down a small portion of them, which
in some measure approaches our mode of singing. They are generally half
recited, half carried down, with quivering tones, from the highest
notes to a deep and long-sustained tone. These are their most peculiar
characteristics, but they are quite incapable of being noted down. Each
verse contains four rhymes; the voice is retained lightly on each of
them, on the second more than on the first and third; but longest on
the last rhyme. The music always sinks at this point, and the same deep
tone recurs, which gives a certain character to the progressing song.
A particular recurrence of the melody may, indeed, also be noticed,
but this is impossible for a European ear to remember. I purchased
the instrument from the good-natured old man. He gave it unwillingly,
although I let him name his own price; and several times after he had
taken the money, and had laid down his instrument for it, an air of
anxious sorrow came over his expressive countenance. The following day
I bid him come to me again. He was depressed, and told me his wife had
given him a sound beating for having given his instrument away. Here it
is no disgrace for a man to be beaten by his wife, but it is so perhaps
in the reverse case. A woman who has been beaten goes at once to the
Cadi to complain; she then generally obtains justice, and the husband is
punished.
In Wed Médineh we were also present at a funeral ceremony, which seemed
a strange enough one to us. A woman had died three days before; the
day succeeding her death, the third, the seventh, and several days
afterwards are peculiarly solemnised. In front of the house, an hour
before sunset, above a hundred women and children had collected, and
more were constantly coming in, and cowered down beside the others. Two
daughters of the deceased were present, whose richly ornamented and
grease-besmeared heads they had already strewed with ashes, and had
rubbed the whole of the upper part of their bodies white with them, so
that their eyes and mouths alone shone forth clean, and, as it were, set
into the white mask. The women wore long cloths round their hips; the
young girls and children the Ráhat, a girdle composed of five strips of
leather, hanging down close together; this is usually bound round the
loins by a cord, prettily ornamented with shells and pearls, and it falls
half-way down the leg. There was a great wooden bowl with ashes, which
was repeatedly filled again with fresh ones. Female musicians cowered
down close on either side of the door uttering shrill screams, which
pierced our ears; they now clapped their hands together in time; now
struck the sounding DARA-BUKA (a kind of hand kettle-drum, called here
in the Sudan DALUKA); and now beat with sticks on some hollow gourds
floating in tubs of water. The two daughters, about eighteen or twenty
years of age, and the nearest relations, began, two and two, to move at
first slowly towards the door in a narrow passage between the constantly
increasing crowds; then suddenly shrill screams, clapping of hands,
and loud shrieks burst from them all at once; whereupon they turned
round, and began their fearfully contorted dancing. Bending the upper
part of their body in convulsive and strained twistings and turnings,
and slowly balancing themselves, they moved their feet forwards, then
suddenly threw their breasts upwards with violence and their heads back
on their shoulders, which they stretched out in all directions, and
thus, with half-closed eyes, gradually glided forwards. In this manner
they went down a slight incline of fifteen and twenty paces, where they
threw themselves on the ground, covered themselves with dust and earth,
and turned back again to re-commence the same dance. The younger of the
two daughters had a beautiful slight figure, with wonderful elasticity,
and when she stood quietly erect, or was lying on the ground with her
sunken head, her regular and gentle, though inanimate features, even
during the dance, and the classical form of her body, was exactly like
an antique statue. This dancing procession was repeated over and over
again. Each of the mourners is compelled at least to go through this
once, and the nearer the relationship so much the more frequently is it
repeated. Whoever cannot immediately force her way up to the vessel of
ashes, takes them from the head of her neighbour to strew it on her own
head. In front of this squatting assembly some women are cowering, who
understand how to sob loudly and to shed profuse tears, which leave long
black streaks on their white-rubbed cheeks. The most striking, and the
most repelling, part of this spectacle is, that nothing is done from
unrestrained sorrow, but all with deliberation, with a degree of pathos,
and evidently studied; children as young as four and five years old are
placed in the procession, and if they perform the difficult and unnatural
movements well, their mothers, who are cowering behind, call out to them
_taib, taib_—_i. e._ bravo! well done! In the second act, however, of
this ceremony, rendered peculiarly stunning by its continual clapping,
screaming, and shrieking, all the dancers throw themselves into the
dust, and tumble down the hill; but this they also do slowly, and with
deliberation, carefully drawing up their knees to their bodies, to hold
their dresses with them, and also crossing their arms; they then roll
down, over knees and back. This ceremony begins one hour before sunset,
and lasts till night.
The unnatural feeling pervading the whole proceeding makes an
indescribable impression, which is rendered still more disagreeable by
seeing nothing in all of it but an inherited and perverted custom, an
empty spectacle; not a trace of individual truth and natural sentiment
can be perceived in the persons who participate; and yet the comparison
between this and certain descriptions and representations of similar
festivals among the ancients, teaches us to understand much, of which
judging by our own manner of life, we can never form a correct notion,
till we have once seen with our eyes such caricatures of metamorphoses as
are here and there exhibited in the East.
The following day we visited the hospital, which we found very cleanly,
and in good order; it holds a hundred patients, but there were then
only eight-and-twenty within it. We then went to the barracks, in the
large court-yard of which the men are exercised. The commanding officer
ordered out the band of music, and they played several pieces before
us. The first was the Parisienne, which sounded most strangely in this
country, as well as the succeeding pieces, most of them French, and
known to me; they were, however, tolerably well executed. The musicians
performed almost solely on European instruments, and have also admitted
the name of our trumpet into their Arabic musical language, but have
transferred it to the drum, which they call _trumbêta_, while for the
trumpet they have a peculiar name of their own, _nafir_; they call
their great flute _sumára_, the small one _sufára_, and the great drum
_tabli_. There were only twelve hundred soldiers present belonging to the
regiment, which consists of four thousand men, almost all negroes, whose
black faces staring out of their white linen uniform and red-tasselled
caps, made them look like dressed-up monkeys, only much more unhappy
and oppressed. The negroes are incapable of any military discipline and
regular exertion, and generally sink beneath the imposed yoke. We did
not, however, suspect that these same people would two days afterwards
rebel in a body, and set off to their hills.
Emin Pascha was expected hourly. But on the 13th I received in the
morning a letter from him, from Messelemîeh, between four and five hours
distant from this place, in which he wrote that he should not come to Wed
Médineh before the following day, and hoped to find us still there. He
at the same time informed me that the war in Taka was over, and that all
had submitted. Several hundred natives had been killed in skirmishes; the
morning before the chief battle, all the Sheikhs of the tribes from Taka
had come to the Pascha to sue for pardon, which he had granted them, on
condition that no fugitive should venture to remain in the great wood,
which was their chief place of refuge. The following morning he had the
wood searched, and as nobody was discovered in it, he had it set on fire,
and entirely burnt to the ground. On his journey back, he intends to pass
through the eastern districts to Katârif, on the Abyssinian frontier,
and thence to go to the Blue River. We had scarcely read this news
from Taka, when we heard the sound of cannon in front of the barracks
announcing the victorious message to the population round.
In another letter, which had gone to Emin Pascha instead of me, Herr
von Wagner gave me the pleasing intelligence that our new companion,
the painter Georgi, had arrived from Italy, and had already started for
Dongola, where he waits for further orders. I shall write to him to come
as far as Barkal to meet us.
As we were certain by this letter of finding the Pascha still in
Messelemîeh, we started for that place about mid-day; and as the town is
situated an hour and a half distant from the Nile, we made the journey by
land.
The boat, meanwhile, was to follow us to the harbour of Messelemîeh, that
is to say, to the nearest landing-place of this most important of the
commercial towns of the whole Sudan. Besides Jussuf, we took with us the
Kawass and Gabre Máriam, who sat behind me on the dromedary, where there
is always left a small place for a servant, like a coach-box behind the
carriage; he sits on the narrow hinder part of the animal, and holds on
to the saddle with both his hands. It was hot, and the ground was parched
up. The few birds which I saw were different from those which habitually
inhabit the banks of the river.
Half-way we came to TÂIBA, a village which is only inhabited by FUKARA
(plur. of FAKIR). These are the sages, the holy men of the people, a kind
of priest, without however having priestly functions to perform; they
can read and write; they do not permit any music, dancing, or festivals
among them, and therefore have a great reputation for sanctity. The
chief of this village is the greatest Fakir of the whole surrounding
neighbourhood. Every one believes in him like a prophet; whatever he
predicts, happens. The late Achmed Pascha, one month before his death,
caused him to be imprisoned. “God will punish you for this,” was his
answer to the order, and one month afterwards the Pascha died. He is a
very rich man, and possesses several villages. We went in quest of him,
and found him in his house at dinner; about twenty people were sitting
round a colossal wooden bowl, which was filled with a gruel of boiled
Durra and milk. The bowl was pushed in front of us, but we could not eat
any of this food. We amused ourselves with the old Fakir, who joined in
our conversation with easy, friendly, and pleasing manners, and then
inquired our names, and the object of our journey. Every one who entered,
our servants among the number, approached him reverently, and touched his
hand with their mouth and forehead. The dignity of Sheikh is hereditary
in his family; his son is looked up to almost as much as himself, and
in this way we can understand how a village like this, when the Sheikh
has once been himself a Fakir, can become altogether a priest-village.
E’ Dâmer, on the island of Meröe, was formerly a Fakir place similar to
this. The inhabitants of Tâiba, probably of Arabic race, call themselves
ARAKIN. There are a number of such local names here, whose origin it is
difficult to make out.
When we had smoked out our pipes, we left the congregation of holy men,
and rode away. One half hour before we reached Messelemîeh, we came to
a second village called Hellet e’ Solimân, where we dismounted at a
house which had been built by the late Mak, or Melek Kambal, of Halfaï,
when he married the daughter of Defalla, to whom the village belonged;
it now belongs to his brother’s son, Mahmûd welled Schauîsch, who has
besides the title of Melek, but is really only the guardian of Kambal’s
little son, Melek Beshîr. It is easy to see what is now thought here of
the old reverential title of Melek, or King. Mahmûd was not at home, as
he had accompanied Ahmed Pascha on his campaign. Nevertheless, we were
entertained in his house according to the hospitable custom of this
country. Coverlets were spread out, milk and fresh baked Durra bread in
thin slices, which has by no means a bad taste, was brought in; added
to this, another simple, but refreshing beverage, _abréq_, fermented
sourish Durra water. Soon after Asser we reached Messelemîeh. Emin
Pascha received us very kindly, and communicated to us the intelligence
that Mohammed Ali’s first minister, Boghos Bey, whom I had visited in
Alexandria, was dead, and that Artim Bey, a man of elegant manners, and a
shrewd politician, had been appointed in his place.
We declined the Pascha’s invitation to supper, and offer of a night’s
lodging, and soon rode away towards the river, where we hoped to find
our boat. As it had not yet arrived, we spent the night on anqarebs in
the open air. We were not able to start for Kamlîn till the following
morning, the 15th March, and reached it towards evening. The next day we
spent agreeably with our countryman, Herr Bauer. On the 17th, having paid
a visit to Nureddin Effendi, in Wad Eraue, several hours distant from
Kamlîn, we arrived on the following day at SOBA, where I immediately sent
for one of the vases which had been found in the ruins of the ancient
city, and which was said to be kept by the brother of the Sheikh. After
waiting a long time, it was brought to us. It was an ancient vessel
for incense, made of bronze in filigree work. The sides of the vessel,
which was of a roundish form, and about nine inches high, and of similar
width, consisted solely of open-work Arabesques; the swinging chains had
been fastened to the upper border by three little hooks, one of which,
however, has broken away, so that the most interesting part of the whole,
an inscription running round beneath the border, and like the Arabesques
carved _à jour_, in rather large letters, thereby is unfortunately
incomplete. This is of peculiar importance, as the writing is again in
the Greek, or rather in the Coptic character, as on the stone-tablet; but
the language is neither of these, but doubtless the ancient vernacular
tongue of Soba, the capital of the mighty Kingdom of Alŏa. Short as it
is, it is distinguished from the stone inscription by containing the
Coptic signs ϣ (sch) and ϯ (ti), which are not to be found in the latter.
I purchased the vessel for a few piastres. This is now the third monument
of Soba which we take away with us, for I must mention, in addition,
that at the house of Seïd Haschim, in Wed Médineh, we also saw a small
Venus of Greek workmanship, carved in pure style, and about a foot high,
which had likewise been found in Soba, and was presented to me by its
owner. At length, on the 19th March, we again entered the house of Herr
Hermanovich, in Chartûm, later than our original calculations had led
us to expect, for which reason I had already communicated our delay to
Erbkam, in a letter from Wed Médineh.
LETTER XIX.
_Chartûm, the 21st March, 1844._
Here, for the first time, we received more exact intelligence of the
military revolt in Wed Médineh, which was of a most serious nature, and
would have infallibly thrown us into the greatest danger had we remained
two days longer in that town. All the black soldiers revolted while Emin
Pascha was residing there. The drill-sergeant and seven white soldiers
were killed immediately; the Pascha was besieged in his own house, which
was briskly fired into; his negotiators were repelled, and the powder
magazine seized. All the arms and ammunition, with the two cannons,
fell into the hands of the negroes, who then selected six leaders for
themselves, and set out in six divisions on the road to Fazoql to take
refuge in their mountains. The regiment in this place, which has about
1500 blacks in it, was at once disarmed, and will be kept within the
barracks. The most serious consequences are dreaded, as Ahmed Pascha
Menekle has been so inconsiderate as to take almost all the white troops
along with him to Taka; otherwise I should rejoice at the desertion of
the blacks, as they are treated in the most revolting manner by their
Turkish masters. Yet the insurrection may easily bring the whole country
into a state of disorder, and then, also, have an injurious influence
on our expedition. The blacks will undoubtedly endeavour on their road
to draw over to their own party whatever country people they meet,
especially the troops of Solimân Pascha in Sennâr, and of Selîm Pascha in
Fazoql. The whites are far too few to offer them effectual resistance.
News has just arrived that between five and six hundred slaves of the
late Ahmed Pascha, belonging to the indigo factory at Tamaniât, a little
to the north of this, have fled with their wives and children to the
Sudan, and intend to join the soldiers; the same is reported of the
factory at Kamlîn, so that we necessarily feel anxious about our friend
Bauer, who was not, indeed, cruel as the Turks are, but yet was a strict
master.
_26th March._—The news is spread that the troops in Sennâr and the people
belonging to Melek Idris Adlân, have put the negroes to the sword. It
is also said, that the slaves of Tamaniât have been overtaken by the
Arnauts, and murdered or dragged back, and that the revolt in Kamlîn has
been suppressed. Still we cannot build much on this, as the intelligence
reached me through our Kawass from the people belonging to the Pascha,
and the desire was also expressed that I should spread the news still
farther, and write about it to Cairo.
Yesterday, as we were walking in the dusk of the evening, in the large
and beautiful garden belonging to Ibrahim Chêr, in whose cheerful and
pleasantly-situated house I write this letter, we saw tall dark clouds of
sand rise like a wall on the horizon. A violent east wind has also been
blowing to-night ever since, and still blows, enveloping all the trees
and buildings in a disagreeable sandy atmosphere, which almost takes away
our breath. I have closed the window-shutters firmly, and barricaded the
door with stones, to be in some measure secured from the first assault;
nevertheless, I am constantly obliged to cleanse the sheet of letter
paper from the covering of sand which is incessantly thrown down on it.
I returned in such a tattered condition from my hunting excursion to
Sennâr, that I was at length obliged to assume the Turkish costume, which
I cannot now soon exchange again. It has its advantages for the customs
of this country, especially for sitting on coverlets, or low cushions;
but the Tarbusch, which lies so flat upon the head, is very ill-adapted
to this sunny sky, and the fastening of the innumerable buttons and hooks
is daily a most wearisome trial of patience.
_30th March._—We intend to leave Chartûm as soon as this packet of
letters is handed over to the Pascha. The revolution is now completely
suppressed in all parts. It would doubtless have had a far worse result
had it not, from a particular cause, broken out in Wed Médineh several
days too soon. It had been planned and secretly arranged for a long
time past in the whole of the south, and was not to have broken out
before the 19th of this month simultaneously in Sennâr, Wed Médineh,
Kamlîn, Chartûm, and Tamaniât. The precipitate movement in Wed Médineh
had, however, disarranged the whole plan, and had especially given time
to Emin Pascha to send messengers to Chartûm, by which means the negro
soldiers here were consigned and disarmed before news of the outbreak
had reached their ears. Emin Pascha, however, seems himself to have been
totally helpless. The victory is said to be solely due to the courage
and presence of mind of a certain Rustan Effendi, who with 150 devoted
soldiers, chiefly whites, pursued the negroes, who were 600 strong,
overtook them beyond Sennâr, and after attacking them three times,
defeated them, with great loss of life. Above a hundred of the fugitives
have surrendered, and have been taken to Sennâr in irons; the remaining
number were killed in the action, or leapt into the river and were
drowned there.
But the news arrived here at the same time, that an insurrection had also
broken out on account of the taxes in Lower Nubia, in Kalabsche, and
another village, that both villages had on that account been immediately
destroyed by Hassan Pascha, who is to come to Chartûm in place of Emin
Pascha, and that the inhabitants had been killed or driven away.
LETTER XX.
_The Pyramids of Meröe, 22nd April, 1844._
We quitted Chartûm on the 30th March, towards evening, and proceeded half
the night by moonlight.
The following day we arrived at TAMANIÂT. Almost the whole of the large
village had disappeared, and only one vast burning plain was to be seen.
The slaves in their revolt had laid everything in ashes, the walls of the
factory are alone left standing. As I had quitted the boat and arrived
on foot, I was unexpectedly startled near the still smoking ruins by
a horrible spectacle, for I suddenly found myself in an open piece of
garden, which was completely covered by the mutilated corpses of blacks.
The greatest proportion of the slaves who had been recaptured were here
shot down in masses.
We stopped at sunset in Surîe Abu Ramle, before a cataract, which we were
unable to pass during the night.
The 1st of April we again started long before daybreak, and thought we
should make a good step in advance. But the wind rose with the sun, and
as the boat could not be towed at this point on account of the rocky
banks, a few hours afterwards we were compelled to halt again, and to
lie quiet in the heavy, dense atmosphere of sand. In front of us lay the
insulated range of Qirre, detached from which, Aschtân (the Thirsty) on
our left hand, Rauiân (the Thirsty assuaged) on our right, stand forth
from the plain like watch-posts; the former, however, at a greater
distance from the river.
Rauiân was only about three-quarters of an hour distant from our boat.
I set out with my gun, traversed the bare stony plain, and climbed
the mountain, during the inundation season almost entirely surrounded
by water, for which reason we were always told that it stood upon an
island. The rock of which it is composed is granite, of a mixed coarse
and fine grain, with much quartz. On the road back, I passed the village
of Meláh, the huts of which lie hidden behind large mounds of upturned
earth, formed by the inhabitants when they dig for salt (malh). A great
deal of it is found in the surrounding country (thus Meláh is the Arabic
translation of salt-work, or Sulza). Towards evening we sailed on a
little farther, in the midst of the range, and lay to, in a little rocky
creek. The following day, also, we made but little progress. We saw
some black slaves wandering about like chamois, on the eastern summits
of the wild granitic rocks, who have perhaps escaped from Tamaniât, but
their miserable life will not probably be much longer prolonged. They
disappeared immediately again behind the jagged summits, our Kawass
having indulged in the brutal jest of firing at them in the air. I
climbed up the western mountains with Abeken; they rise precipitously for
about 200 or 300 feet from the bank. It is evident here, by the natural
walls of rock, to what height the river rises and deposits its mud at
high-water. I measured nearly 8 metres (26 feet English) from that point
to the surface of the water at the present moment, and the river will
continue to sink about 2 feet more.
From the summit of the mountain we saw the wide desert extending behind
the farthest eminences, and soon after passing Méraui, we shall be
wandering across it. We quitted the picturesque range of mountains with
regret, which form such an agreeable interruption to the flat banks of
this far and wide level country.
On the morning of the 4th April, we at length reached our group of
palm-trees at BEN NAGA, and immediately went to the ruins in the Wadi el
Kirbegân, where we found a portion of a pillar, and several altars in the
south-eastern temple which had been newly-excavated by Erbkam; the same
Royal Shields were upon them as upon the principal temples of Naga in
the desert, besides several others which had not previously appeared. Of
the three altars that had been excavated, the central one, of very hard
sandstone, was in excellent preservation. On the western side there was
a representation of the King, on the eastern, of the Queen, with their
names, and on both the other sides were two goddesses. On the northern
side the hieroglyphic group of the North was also inscribed, and on the
southern that of the South. Both the other altars exhibited the same
figures. All three were still standing on their original site, and were
let into a smooth floor, which was composed of square slabs of stone
covered with plaster. Unfortunately I had not then the means of carrying
away the best of these altars, which weighed at least 50 cwt., and I had,
therefore, to plan a special excursion from Meröe for the purpose.
On Good Friday, the 5th April, we arrived at Schendi. We entered the
widely-scattered but depopulated town, saw the ruins of the palace
of King Nimr, in which he had burnt Ismael Pascha, after a nocturnal
festival which he had prepared for him, and many houses which still bore
traces of the balls of Defterdar Bey, who was sent by Mohammed Ali to
revenge the death of his son. The dwelling of King Nimr, which now also
lay in ruins, used to stand in the centre of the town on an artificial
eminence. The suburb, built for the present military garrison, is at
a little distance up the river, and separated from the town. We then
returned to the boat, which had put in near the fortress-like house of
Churshid Pascha, where the military commander now resides.
On the same day we arrived, shortly before sunset, at Beg´erauîeh, and
immediately rode to the Pyramids, where we once more found Erbkam and the
remainder of the party safe and sound. They have been diligently drawing
in Naga and Wadi Sofra, and the rich costume of the kings and gods, as
well as the representations belonging to these Ethiopian temples in
general, devoid of style indeed, but ornamental, look very well on paper,
and will make a splendid show in our sketch-books. Much had been done in
this spot also, and many new things had come to light in clearing out
the ante-chambers, which had been full of rubbish. Abeken thought, even,
during our first visit, that he had found the name of the Queen KENTAKI
(CANDACE). Now, indeed, we see that the Shield is not written
𓍹𓎡𓈖𓍘𓇋𓎡𓇌𓏏𓆇𓍺 but 𓍹𓎡𓈖𓍘𓇋𓎱𓇌𓏏𓆇𓍺
which would read KENTAHEBI; nevertheless it seems to me to have meant
that famous name, and that the questionable sign merely has been changed
by the ignorant scribes. The determinative signs 𓏏𓆇 prove, at least, that
it is the name of a Queen. The name of CANDACE was known even at an
earlier period as that of a private person. The name of ERGAMENES is
likewise found, and this also written sometimes correctly, sometimes
with mistaken variation.
We kindled Easter bonfires on the evenings of the succeeding holidays.
Our tents are situated between two groups of Pyramids in a small hollow
of the valley, which is everywhere covered with dry tufts of a woody
grass. We lighted this all about us; it blazed up high, and flung the
whirling flames upwards into the dark starry night. The spectacle of
fifty or sixty such fires burning at once in the valley was beautiful;
they threw a ghost-like light on the half-crumbled Pyramids of the old
kings ranged on the eminences round, and on our airy tent-pyramids rising
in the foreground.
We were surprised on the 8th of April by seeing a magnificent cavalcade
of horses and camels, which appeared within our camp. It was OSMAN BEY,
who, as the chief in command, is leading back the army of 5000 men from
Taka. The French military surgeon, Peney, was in his suite, besides the
Chief Sheikh Ahmed welled ʾAuad. The troops had encamped near Gabuschié,
one hour farther up the river, and were to pass through Beg´erauîeh
in the evening. The visit to our camp had, however, another object,
which was soon disclosed in the course of conversation. Osman Bey was
desirous of making treasure-diggers out of his pioneers, and of ordering
some battalions to come hither, to pull down a number of Pyramids. The
discovery of Ferlini is still remembered by most people, and has since
that time caused the ruin of many Pyramids. They were also full of it at
Chartûm, and more than one European, besides the Pascha himself, imagined
they might still find treasures there. I constantly endeavoured to prove
to them all, that the discovery of Ferlini was pure chance, that he had
not found the gold rings in the sepulchral chambers with the mummies,
where they alone might reasonably have been searched for with any hope
of success, but walled up in the stone, in which place they had been
concealed by a whim of the owner. I endeavoured to convince Osman Bey
of this also, who even offered me the aid of his companies of soldiers
to conduct the work of destruction. I naturally declined this, though
perhaps I should have accepted it for the sake of laying open to view
the sepulchral chambers, which necessarily must have their entrance in
front of the Pyramids in the natural rock, had I not feared that here
also we might not arrive at any brilliant result, and even if our own
expectations were not so, yet those of the credulous general might be
bitterly disappointed. I succeeded in diverting him from his idea, and
thus for the present, at least, the existing Pyramids have been saved.
The soldiers have departed without having made war on the Pyramids.
I invited the three gentlemen to dine with us, which placed the old
Sheikh in some embarrassment, for he was always trying to cut the meat
with the back of his knife, till at length I myself laid aside the
European implements, and began to eat in good Turkish fashion; my example
was soon followed willingly by the rest of the company, especially by
our excellent dark-skinned guest, who did not fail to observe my polite
attention. After dinner they again mounted their sumptuously-caparisoned
animals, and the procession hastened towards the river.
On the 9th of April, I sent Franke and Ibrahim Aga to Ben Naga, with
stone-saws, hammers, and ropes, to transport the great altar to this
spot. I myself rode with Jussuf to Gabuschié, partly to return the
visit of Osman Bey, who had intended to give the soldiers a day of rest
in our neighbourhood, partly to take advantage of the presence of the
distinguished Sheikh Ahmed, through whose interest I hoped to procure
boats to carry us across the river, and camels for the desert journey
that we had in prospect. The army had, however, already decamped, and had
passed the first places on the road. I therefore rode after them with
Jussuf in a brisk trot, and soon overtook the 400 Arnauts who formed
the rear. They were not, however, able to inform us how far Osman Bey
was in advance. The Arnauts are the soldiers most dreaded in the whole
country for brutality and cruelty, who at the same time are treated with
most indulgence by their leaders, because they are the only troops who
serve voluntarily, and the only foreigners taken into pay. It is but a
few months ago since they were sent to the late Ahmed Pascha by Mohammed
Ali, under an officer who was peculiarly feared, with the order, as it
is said, to bring the Pascha, dead or alive, to Cairo. The sudden death
of the Pascha at all events released him from his commission. The name
of that officer is Omar Aga, but he is known through the whole country
by the not very flattering appellation of Tomus Aga (Commandant Cochon)
which was once given him by Ibrahim Pascha, and which, since that time,
he himself thinks it an honour to bear. His own attendants, when we
overtook his horses and baggage, and inquired after their master, called
him by this name. After riding briskly for about five or six hours in the
most oppressive heat, we at length reached the camp at the village of
Bêida.
We had by degrees gone more than half-way to Schendi, and were rejoiced
at the near prospect of finding some refreshment, after the exhaustion
of the hot ride; for we had already made up our minds to fast, till our
return in the evening, as there was absolutely nothing that we could eat
in the villages between; there was not even milk to be had.
Osman Bey and Hakîm Peney were as much surprised as delighted at
my visit; some bowls of _Suri_ were immediately brought for our
refreshment—a beverage which undergoes a slow and troublesome process of
preparation, from half-fermented Durra; it is an agreeable acid, and,
especially with sugar, has a most excellent and refreshing taste. After
our breakfast, I went through the camp with Peney. The tents were pitched
along the river in the most picturesque variety of groups, on a great
space of ground here and there scattered over with trees and thicket, and
completely surrounded by it. An Egyptian army, composed half of blacks
and half of whites, most of them in tatters, returning in forced marches
from a depredatory expedition against the poor natives, presents, indeed,
a very different aspect from what we are accustomed to witness at home.
Although the intimidated population of Taka, for the most part innocent
of individual revolt, had already sent messengers to the Pascha, to avert
his vengeance, and moreover, on the approach of the troops, had not
offered the slightest resistance, nevertheless, several hundred unarmed
men and women, who either would not, or could not fly, were murdered by
that notorious troop of Arnauts; and Ahmed Pascha caused a number of
other men, who were believed to have been concerned in the insurrection,
as they were each led before him, to be beheaded in front of his tent.
Then, after all the conditions that were imposed had been fulfilled,
and the heavy contributions which had been required from them under
every variety of pretext had been also correctly paid, the Pascha caused
all the Sheikhs to assemble at once, as if for a fresh conference, but
forthwith had them all put in fetters, together with 120 other people,
and led away as prisoners. The young and strong men were to be placed
among the troops, the women handed over to the soldiers as slaves; the
Sheikhs were reserved for punishment till a later day.
This was the glorious history of the Turkish campaign against Taka, as
it was related to me by the European eye-witnesses. Already twelve among
the forty-one Sheikhs who were carried away, and were nearly sinking
under the fatigue of the marches, have been shot on the road. The others
were exhibited to me singly. Each of them carried before him the stem
of a tree as thick as a man’s arm, about five or six feet long, which
terminated in a fork, into which the neck was fixed. The prongs of the
fork were bound together by a cross-piece of wood, fastened with a strap.
Some of their hands, also, were tied fast to the handle of the fork,
and in this condition they remain day and night. During the march, the
soldier who is specially appointed to overlook the prisoner, carries
the end of the pole: in the night most of them have their feet also
pinioned together. All of them had had their black curls shaven off.
The Sheikhs alone still wore their large head-dress of braids or curls.
Most of them looked very depressed and miserable; they had been the most
distinguished of their nation, and had been accustomed to be treated
by those they commanded, with the greatest reverence. They almost all
spoke Arabic, beside their own language, and mentioned to me the tribes
to which they severally belonged. But the most distinguished of all of
them was a Fakir, who was held sacred; his word had been regarded like
that of a prophet throughout the whole land, and, by his oracular sayings
and exhortations, he had been chiefly instrumental in causing the whole
revolution. He was called Sheikh MÛSA EL FAKIR, and was of the tribe of
the Mitkenâbs. I found him an old, blind, broken-down, hoary man, with
a few snow-white hairs; his body was already more like a skeleton; he
was obliged to be raised up by others, and was scarcely able to hear and
answer the questions which were addressed to him. His little, shrivelled
face, was incapable of any new expression corresponding to the present
circumstances. He looked forwards with a fixed and indifferent stare,
and I was surprised how such a shadow could have still exercised so
much influence on the minds of his fellow-countrymen as to excite a
revolution. Yet it is remarkable that, both in Egypt and everywhere about
here, blind people have an especial reputation for sanctity, and are held
in great respect as Prophets.
After breakfast I had one of the captured Sheikhs, Mohammed welled
Hammed, brought to the tent of Osman, that I might question him about his
language, of which I was still perfectly ignorant. He was an intelligent,
well-spoken man, who at once took advantage of the opportunity which
I readily granted him, to relate his history to Osman Bey and Sheikh
Ahmed, and to assure them of his innocence of the revolutionary events.
He belonged to the tribe of the HALENKA, from the village of KASSALA. I
made him give me the lists of the forty-one Sheikhs and their tribes, and
had them written down. Six tribes had taken part in the insurrection—the
Mitkenâb, Halenka, Kelûli, Mohammedîn, Sobeh, Sikulâb, and Hadenduwa
(plur. from Henduwa).
All the tribes of Taka speak the same language; but only a few of them
also understand the Arabic. I suspect that it is the same as that of the
Bischâri tribes. It has many, and well-distributed vowels, and is very
euphonous, as it is without the hard guttural sound of the Arabs. On
the other hand, it has a peculiar alphabetical letter, which to our ear
seems to stand between _r_, _l_, and _d_; a cerebral _d_, which, like the
Sanscrit, is pronounced by throwing back the point of the tongue upwards.
After our examination of the Sheikh it had become too late to set out
again; night would have overtaken me, and especially on camel-back, it
is impossible to avoid the dangerous branches of the thorny trees. I
therefore complied with the invitation to spend the night in the camp,
till the rising of the moon; Osman Bey would then at the same time start
in the opposite direction with the army. A whole sheep was roasted on
the spit, which we ate with a hearty appetite.
I learnt from Osman Bey about many interesting customs of the most
southern provinces, as for the last sixteen years he has been living
here in the south, and has an accurate knowledge of the country, to the
extreme limits of Mohammed Ali’s government. It is still the custom in
Fazoql to hang a king who is no longer beloved, which occurred only a few
years ago to the father of the present reigning monarch. His relatives
and ministers assemble round him, and announce to him that as he no
longer pleases the men and women of the country, the oxen, asses, and
fowls, &c., &c., but is detested by all, it is better that he should die.
Once upon a time, when a king did not wish to submit to this practice,
his own wife and mother made the most pressing remonstrances to him, not
to load himself with still greater disgrace, upon which he yielded to his
fate. Diodorus narrates exactly the same resignation to death in those
who in Ethiopia were to die by judicial verdict; a person who had been
condemned, and who had at first intended to save himself by flight, had
nevertheless allowed himself to be strangled without resistance by his
mother, who had obstructed him in his design. Osman Bey has only lately,
he assures me himself, abolished the custom there of burying old people
alive, when they become feeble. A pit used to be dug and a horizontal
passage at the end of it, and the body laid within, like that of a dead
person, firmly swathed in cloths; by his side they placed a bowl with
merisa, fermented Durra water, a pipe, and a hoe, to cultivate the land;
also, according to the wealth of the individual, one or two ounces of
gold, to pay the ferryman who must convey the deceased across the great
river which flows between heaven and hell. The entrance is then filled
up with rubbish. Indeed, according to Osman, the whole legend of Charon,
even with a Cerberus, appears still to exist here.
This custom of burying old people alive also exists, as I afterwards
heard, among the negro tribes to the south of Kordofan. Invalids and
cripples, those especially who have an infectious malady, are there
also put to death in a similar manner. The family complains to the sick
man, that because of him, no one will come near them any longer; that
he himself is wretched, and death would be only a gain for him; that
he would again find his relations in the other world, and would be in
health and happiness there. They charge him with kind messages to all
the deceased, and then bury him either as they do in Fazoql, or standing
upright in a pit. Besides merisa, bread, a hoe, and a pipe, he is there
given a sword and two pairs of sandals, for the deceased live in the
other world just as they do here on earth, only in greater happiness.
The dead are buried with loud lamentations, while their actions and good
qualities are extolled. Nothing is there known of a river and ferryman
of the lower world, but they are acquainted with the old Mohammedan
legend of the invisible angel Asrael, or as he was here called Osraîn.
He is commissioned by God, as they say, to receive the souls of the
dead, and to conduct the good to the place of reward, the bad to that
of punishment. He dwells upon a tree, _el Ségerat Mohàna_ (the Tree of
Completion), which has as many leaves as there are living men. There is
a name upon every leaf, and a new one grows whenever a child is born.
If any one sickens, his leaf fades, and should he die, Osraîn breaks it
off. In former times he used to come in a visible form to those whom he
was going to carry away from the earth, and thereby put them in a great
fright. Since the days of the Prophet he has been invisible, for when
he came to fetch the soul of Mohammed, the latter told him that it was
not good that he should terrify mankind by his visible appearance; they
might then easily die of fright without having previously prayed; for he
himself, although very courageous, and a man of enlarged mind, had been
terrified by his appearance. The Prophet, therefore, prayed to God that
he would make Osraîn invisible, and the prayer was heard.
Osman Bey told me that among some other tribes in Fazoql, the king was
obliged to administer justice daily beneath a certain tree. If on account
of sickness, or from any other mishap, which renders him unfit, he does
not make his appearance for three whole days, he is hung up. Two razors
are placed in the noose, and when this is drawn tight, they cut the
throat across.
The meaning of another of their customs is quite obscure. At a certain
time of the year they have a kind of carnival, where every one does what
he likes best. Four ministers of the king then bear him on an anqareb out
of his house to an open space of ground; a dog is fastened by a long cord
to one of the feet of the anqareb. The whole population collects round
the place, streaming in on every side. They then throw darts and stones
at the dog, till he is killed, after which the king is again borne into
his house.
Amidst these and other tales and accounts of those tribes, which were
besides confirmed by the old Chief Sheikh Ahmed, we feasted on the
roasted sheep in the open air in front of the tent. Night was somewhat
advanced, and the near and distant camp-fires, with the people busy
around them, either squatting about, or walking up and down between
groups of trees, had an extremely picturesque and unique effect.
Gradually they all became extinguished, with the exception of the
watch-fire; the poor prisoners scattered here and there, had their legs
fastened still more tightly together, and it became quieter in the camp.
Osman Bey is a strong, cheerful man, with natural manners, and at
the same time a strict and valued officer. He promised to give me a
slight proof of the discipline and good order among his soldiers, whose
external appearance did not prejudice me very much in their favour by
an unexpected reveillé. I was sleeping on an anqareb in the open tent,
covered with a soldier’s cloak. About three o’clock in the morning I was
awoke by a slight noise; Osman Bey, who lay beside me on the ground,
got up, and ordered the nearest drummer of the chief watch to beat the
reveillé. He made a few, short, interrupted beats of the drum, quickly
sinking again into silence. These were immediately repeated at the post
of the next regiment, then at the third, fourth, and fifth, in various,
always more distant, positions of the camp; and suddenly the whole mass
of 5000 men rose up and stood to their arms. Nothing was to be heard
but a soft whispering and rustling of the soldiers, who were rousing
each other, and the faint clank of the weapons, which were cautiously
separated from one another. I went through the camp with Dr. Peney, who
came across to me from the adjoining tent, and in a very few minutes we
found the whole army under arms, arranged in ranks, the officers marching
up and down in front. On our return, after we had related to Osman Bey
the wonderfully punctual execution of his commands, he allowed the
soldiers to separate again, and did not give the signal for the breaking
up of the camp before four o’clock. That produced a very different
effect: all were quickly in movement and activity; the abominable
gurgling and miserable roaring of the camels was heard above everything
during the packing up; the tents were taken down, and in less than half
an hour the army marched southwards with pipe and drum.
I started in an opposite direction. The early morning with the bright
moonlight was very refreshing; the birds awoke with the dawn of day, a
cool wind rose, and we trotted quickly through the thorny sont-trees.
Soon after sunrise we met a magnificent procession of well-dressed men,
and attendants, on camels and asses. It was the King Mahmûd welled
Schauîsch, whose father, the warlike Schauîsch, King of the Schaiqies,
is well known in the conquering expedition of Ismael Pascha, to whom he
did not submit for a long time, and at whose house in Hellet e’ Solimân,
near Messelemîeh, we had stopped a few weeks ago. He had gone with Ahmed
Pascha Menekle to Taka, and followed the army to Halfaï, where he now
usually resides. About half-past nine we again reached the Pyramids. My
camel, a young one, and very difficult to manage, shortly before, took
fright in the plain, and ran round in a circle with me as if it was mad;
at length, stumbling over a tall bunch of grass, it fell on one knee,
and hurled me far over its head, happily without doing me any serious
injury.
On my return I occupied myself, without interruption, with the Pyramids
and their inscriptions. I had several more chambers excavated, and made
an exact description of each individual Pyramid. Altogether, I have
found about thirty different names of Ethiopian kings and queens. I have
certainly not yet been able to bring them into any chronological order,
but from a comparison of the different inscriptions, I have learnt much
about the manner of the succession, and form of government. The King of
MERÖE (whose name in one of the most southern Pyramids is written MERU,
or MÉRUA,) was at the same time first Priest of Ammon; if his consort
survived him, she succeeded him in the government, and the male heirs
to the throne only took the second place beside her; if the reverse
happened, the son, as it appears, succeeded, who, even in the lifetime
of his father, bore the royal shields and titles, and was second Priest
of Ammon. Thus we still see here the domination of the priests, which is
spoken of by Diodorus and Strabo, and the pre-eminence of the worship of
Ammon, which is even mentioned by Herodotus.
The inscriptions on the Pyramids show that, at the period of their
erection, the hieroglyphic writing was no longer perfectly understood,
and that the hieroglyphic signs were often only added as a customary
ornament, without wishing to express anything by them. Even the kings’
names are thereby rendered uncertain, and this for a long time prevented
me from recognising the three royal personages who built the chief
temples in Naga, Ben Naga, and in Wadi Temêd, and who undoubtedly
belonged to one of the most brilliant periods of the Meröitic Monarchy.
I am now convinced that the Pyramids with Roman arched ante-chambers, in
the brick-work of which Ferlini found the treasure concealed, in spite of
slight alterations in the name, belonged to the same mighty and warlike
queen who appears in Naga with her rich decorations, and her pointed
nails almost an inch long. By the circumstance of their having belonged
to a well-known, and, as it appears, the greatest of all the queens of
Meröe, who built almost all the temples still in tolerable preservation
on the island, Ferlini’s jewels become infinitely more valuable for the
history of Ethiopian art, in which they now occupy a fixed position. The
purchase of that remarkable discovery is a most important acquisition to
our museum.
An _Ethiopian-demotic_ writing was more in use at that period, and
more generally understood than hieroglyphics. It was similar to the
Egyptian-demotic in its characters, although consisting of a very limited
alphabet of between twenty-five and thirty signs. The writing, like the
latter, is read from right to left, but is distinguished by a constant
separation of the words by two strongly-marked points. I have already
found six-and-twenty similar demotic inscriptions; some of them on
steles and libation-tablets; some of them in the ante-chambers of the
Pyramids, over the persons belonging to the processions, who usually go
to meet the deceased king with palm-branches; some of them on the smooth
surfaces of the Pyramids; and indeed always in such a state, that they
are clearly proved to have belonged originally to the representations,
and not to have been added at a later period. On a closer examination
of this writing, it will not perhaps be difficult to decipher, and we
should then obtain the first certain sounds of the Ethiopian language
spoken here at that period, and could decide on its true relation to
the Egyptian language, while the almost perfect agreement between the
Ethiopian and Egyptian hieroglyphics have hitherto yielded no conclusive
evidence that there is an equal accordance between the two languages. It
seems, on the contrary, and with respect to the later Meröitic period
may be safely affirmed, that the hieroglyphics, as the sacred monumental
writing, were adopted from Egypt without alteration, but also without
being perfectly understood. The few signs which constantly recur,
prove that the Ethiopian-demotic writing is purely alphabetic, which
must very much facilitate the deciphering of it. The separation in the
words has perhaps been borrowed from the Roman writing. But its analogy
with the Egyptian development of writing went still further; for next
to this Ethiopian-demotic writing there is an _Ethiopian-Greek_, at a
later period, which may be perfectly compared with the _Coptic_, and
it has borrowed certain letters directly from it. It is found in the
inscriptions of Soba, and in some others on the walls of the temple-ruins
of Wadi e’ Sofra. We have therefore now, as in the case in Egypt, two
modes of writing, which no doubt sprang up one after the other, and
really contain the actual Ethiopian dialect of the country. It is now
usual to call the ancient Abyssinian Geez language the Ethiopian, which,
with the characteristics of a Semetic language that has immigrated from
Arabia, has only a local, but no ethnographic claim on our attention. A
Geez inscription, which I have found in the chamber of a Pyramid, has
evidently been written down at a later period.
I hope that we shall obtain many important results from studying the
native inscriptions, as well as the present living languages. The
Ethiopian name comprehended much that was dissimilar among the ancients.
The ancient population of the whole Nile valley as far as Chartûm, and
perhaps, also, along the Blue River, as well as the tribes of the desert
to the east of the Nile, and the Abyssinian nations, were in former
times probably more distinctly separated from the Negroes than now, and
belonged to the _Caucasian_ race. The Ethiopians of Meröe (according to
Herodotus, the parent-state of all Ethiopia) were a red-brown people,
similar to the Egyptians, but darker, as they are at the present day.
The monuments also prove this, on which I have more than once found the
_red_ colour of the skin in the kings and queens preserved. In Egypt,
especially in the Old Monarchy, before the mixture with the Ethiopian
race, at the period of the Hyksos, the women were always painted yellow;
and the Egyptian women even now, who are blanched in the harem, incline
to the same colour. But red women appear even after the 18th Dynasty,
and the Ethiopian women were always so represented. It appears that much
Ethiopian blood is mingled with the nation of the so-called Barâbras, so
widely distributed at the present day, and this perhaps will also one day
appear still more distinctly from their language. This, no doubt, is the
ancient _Nubian_, and has been still retained in somewhat distant regions
to the south-west under this name; for the Nuba languages in and round
Kordofan, as can be proved, are partly related to the Berber language.
I have also found indications in the local names that this last, which
is only now spoken from Assuan to Dar Schaiqîeh, south of Dongola, in
the Nile valley, predominated for a long while also in the province of
Berber, and still higher up.
MARÛGA, DANQELEH, and E’ SÛR, are close to the ruins of the city of
Meröe, and are situated along the river from south to north; all three
are comprehended under the name of BEGERAUÎEH, so that we scarcely ever
hear anything but this last name mentioned. Five minutes to the north of
e’ Sûr lies the village of Qala, and ten minutes farther on El Guês, both
of which are comprehended under the name of Ghabîne. One hour down the
river there are two other villages, not far apart, called MARÛGA, which
were deserted even before the conquest of the country; and still more to
the north, close to the Omarâb Mountains, which project towards the river
on the eastern bank, there is a third village called GEBEL (mountain
village) inhabited only by Fukaras. Cailliaud knew only the most southern
of the three MARUGAS, situated near the largest temple-ruins. He was
struck by the name, on account of its similarity with that of Meröe. The
similarity becomes still more evident when it is known that the real name
is MARU, since -GA is only the universal termination to names, and is
always either added or omitted, according to the grammatical combination,
for it does not belong to the root of the word. In the dialect of Kenûs
and Dongola this termination is -GI; in the dialect of Mahass and
Sukkôt it is -GA. When I ran over the different local names of the upper
countries with one of our Berber servants, I learnt that in one dialect
_maro_ or _marôgi_, in the other _maru_ or _marûga_, means “mounds of
ruins,” “destroyed temples;” thus, for example, the ruins of ancient
Syene, or those on the island of Philæ, are called _marôgi_. There is
another Berber word quite distinct from this, _mérua_, which is also
pronounced _méraui_, by which all _white rocks_, _white stones_, are
designated; as, for example, such a rock as occurs in the neighbourhood
of Assuan, on the eastern side of the Nile, at the village of El Gezîret.
By this it is evident that the appellation Marûga has nothing to do with
the name of Meröe, as a town would not be called when first founded
“ruin city.” On the other hand, the name of Mérua, Méraui (in German,
_Weissenfels_, white rock), would be very appropriate for a town, if its
local position gave occasion to it, as at Mount Barkal, but which, again,
is not really the case here.
LETTER XXI.
_Keli, opposite Meröe, the 29th April._
Franke did not return from his expedition to Ben Naga before the 23rd
instant. He brought the altar here, on a boat, in sixteen blocks. All
the stones taken together, which we must carry along with us on the
difficult journey of six or seven days across the desert, form a load
for about twenty camels, so that our train will be considerably longer
than before. Unfortunately, on account of the difficulty of the means of
transport, we have been unable to take anything away with us from NAGA
in the desert, except a Roman inscription, mentioned above, and a great
_Clavis Nilotica_, peculiarly carved. Some very strange representations
are to be seen there; among others, a figure sitting frontways, a crown
of rays over the floating hair, the left arm raised at a right angle, and
the fore-finger and middle-finger of the hand stretching upwards, as is
represented in the old Byzantine figures of Christ. The right hand holds
a long staff resting on the ground, as John the Baptist usually holds it.
This figure is totally different from the Egyptian representations, and
no doubt is borrowed elsewhere, as well as another god who frequently
appears, also represented frontwise, with a richly curling beard; he
might at first sight be compared to a Jupiter, or Serapis, in bearing and
appearance. The mixture of the religions had made great progress at that
period, evidently of very late date, and it would not surprise me if it
should be proved by later researches that the Ethiopian kings had adopted
Christ and Jupiter also, among their various kinds of gods. The god with
the three or four lions’ heads is probably not a native invention, but
obtained from some other quarter.
On the 25th we crossed the Nile in boats, in order to set out on the
left bank, on our road across the desert to Gebel Barkal. There seemed
to be difficulties again about procuring camels, but my threat, that if
they would not come to a private agreement I should, on the ground of my
Firman, settle the matter, not with the Sheikh but with the Government,
had such a rapid effect, that, even the following morning, we were
enabled to set out with eighty camels from Gôs Burri in the immediate
neighbourhood, across the desert.
Here, in Keli, I had again an opportunity of witnessing a funeral
ceremony—this time, for a deceased Fellah—for which purpose about two
hundred people had collected, the men separate from the women. The men
were seated, two and two opposite, embracing each other; they laid their
heads on their shoulders, raised them up again, beat themselves, clapped
their hands, and wept as much as they were able. The women moaned, sang
songs of lamentation, strewed themselves with ashes, walked about in
procession, and threw themselves on the ground; everything very similar
to what we saw in Wed Médineh, except that their dance more resembled,
in its violent movements, that of the Dervishes. The remainder of the
inhabitants of Keli sat round in groups under the shade of the trees,
sighing and lamenting, with their heads bent down.
As we were obliged to wait for the camels, I once more crossed over
to Beg´erauîeh, to search for certain ruins, which were said to be
situated somewhat more to the north. Starting from EL GUÊS, I arrived in
three-quarters of an hour, upon my ass, at the two villages of Marûga,
not far removed from each other. To the eastward of the first, on the
low eminences running along in that direction, there are a number of
mounds of tombs, which from a little distance looked like a group of
Pyramids standing out from the sky. The elevation turns backwards, in
the form of a crescent, towards the south, and is covered with these
circular-thrown-up mounds, composed of black desert stone; standing on a
large mound in the centre I counted fifty-six of them.
Five minutes farther on in the desert there is a second group of similar
mounds, twenty-one in number; but many others lie near it, scattered
on single small pieces of ground. Situated in a still lower position,
and even within the limit of the thicket, I discovered a third group,
to the south of the two former ones, containing about forty tombs, in
some of which we could still clearly recognise their original square
form. The tomb in best preservation was between 15 and 18 feet wide on
every side; like many others, it had been excavated in the centre, and
had been filled up with mud deposited by the rain, in which a tree was
growing; a great square wall of 24 paces enclosing it on every side, was
still remaining of another tomb, the lowest layers were built up solidly
of small black stones, and a mound seemed to have been erected within,
but not in the centre. Another still stronger circumvallation, in good
preservation, was not much smaller in circumference, but appeared to have
been completely filled up with a Pyramid. Nothing was to be seen of an
actual casing. The mounds continued still more to the south amidst the
thicket, and altogether there might be about two hundred which could be
distinguished. Perhaps, also, they continue still farther on the border
of the desert, in the direction of Meröe, whither I would have ridden
back had I not sent the boat too far down the river, in quest of which
I now was obliged to hasten. It appears, therefore, that this was the
actual cemetery of Meröe, and that pyramidal, or, in default of smooth
sides, conical mounds of stones, were the usual forms of the tombs, even
of private individuals, at that period.
LETTER XXII.
_Barkal, the 9th May, 1844._
The desert of GILIF, which we traversed on our road hither, to cut off
the great eastern bend of the Nile, derives its name from the principal
mountain range which lies in the centre of it. On the maps it is
confounded with the desert BAHIUDA, which bounds it to the south-east,
and across which runs the road from Chartûm to Ambukôl and Barkal.
Our direction was first due east as far as a well, afterwards to the
north-west, and in the midst of the Gilif range to the great Wadi Abu
Dôm, which then led us across in the same direction to the western bend
of the Nile.
The general character of the country here, is not so much that of a
desert as between Korusko and Abu Hammed, but more that of a sandy
steppe. It is almost everywhere covered with Gesch (tufts of reed-grass),
and not unfrequently with low trees, chiefly Sont-trees. The rains which
fall here at certain seasons of the year, have deposited considerable
masses of earth on the low grounds, which might be profitably cultivated,
and this is sometimes traversed, to the depth of three or four feet,
by torrents occasioned by the rain. The soil is yellow, and composed
of a clayey sand. The rock forming the subsoil, and the whole of the
mountains, with the exception of the lofty Gilif range, is a sandstone.
The ground is covered to a considerable extent with hard, black blocks
of sandstone, the road is generally uneven, and undulating. Numerous
gazelles, and large white antelopes with only a brown stripe down their
backs, are to be found on these plains, which are also frequented in the
rainy season by herds of camels and of goats, on account of the plentiful
supply of pasture.
On the 29th April we left the river, but, as is very customary in
caravans of any considerable size, this was only a first start—a trial of
our travelling powers, such as birds of passage make before their long
migration. We had only been two hours on the road when the guide allowed
the restless swarm to encamp again, just beyond GÔS BURRI, at a little
distance from the river; the camel-drivers were without their provisions;
some single beasts were still procured, others were exchanged. It was not
before the following day at twelve o’clock that we got into perfect order
and in full march. We spent the night in the WADI ABU HAMMED, at which
point GEBEL OMARDA was on our right hand.
The third day we started very early; passed GEBEL QERMANA, and arrived
at the well of ABU TLÊH, which took us far to the east, and detained
us several hours after mid-day. From this point we were seven hours
traversing a wide plain, and encamped about ten at night near GEBEL
SERGEN. The 2nd May, after proceeding four hours, we reached a district
well supplied with trees, to the right of GEBEL NUSF, the “Mountain of
the Half,” which is situated half-way between the well of Abu Tlêh and
Gaqedûl, as on all these journeys the wells are the real indicators of
the hour in the desert-clock.
The Arabs from the district of Gôs Burri, who are our guides, belong to
the tribe of the ʾAuadîeh; they are not nearly as respectable as the
Ababde Arabs, have a rapid and indistinct mode of speech, and altogether
seem to have very little capacity. They may have already intermingled
much with the Fellahîn of the country, who here call themselves Qaleâb,
Homerâb, Gaalîn. There are also some Schaiqîeh Arabs here, probably only
from the time of the conquest of the country by the Egyptians; they carry
shields and spears like the Ababde Arabs. The wealthy Sheikh, Emin, of
Gôs Burri, had given us his brother, the Fakir Fadl Allah, as our guide,
and his own son, Fadl Allah, as overseer to his camels; but even the
best among these people make but a miserable and starved appearance in
comparison with our desert companions of Korusko. The order of the day
here was as follows: that in general we should start about six in the
morning, and keep moving till ten o’clock; after that, the caravan rested
during the mid-day heat till about three o’clock, and we then proceeded
again till about ten or eleven at night.
We rode across the large plain of EL GÔS the whole afternoon, so called,
probably, from the great sand dunes, which are characteristic of this
part of the country, and which, more especially towards the south, assume
a peculiar form. They are almost all in the shape of a crescent, which
opens towards the south-west, so that from the road on our right hand
we look into a number of tunnels, or semi-theatres, whose precipitous
walls of sand rise nearly ten feet from the ground, while the north
wind, passing over the field within, clears it completely from the sand,
which would gradually fill up the cavity. But the rapidity with which
this moveable sand-architecture alters its position is manifested by the
single tracks on the caravan-road, which are frequently lost under the
very centre of the highest sand-hills. About eight o’clock in the evening
we left GEBEL BARQUGRES on our left hand, and halted for the night, about
ten o’clock, at a short distance from the Gilif range.
The 3rd May we marched through the WADI GUAH EL ʾALEM, which is covered
with a great many trees, into the heart of the mountains, which are
chiefly composed of porphyritic rock, and like all primitive mountains,
on account of their longer retention of the precipitated humidity and the
small amount of rain, are more covered with vegetation than the sandy
plains. In three hours we reached the WADI GAQEDÛL, thickly covered with
Gesch and thorny trees of every description, Sont, Somra, and Serha. We
met some herds of camels and goats grazing here, especially near the
water, which had also attracted numerous birds, among others ravens and
pigeons. The water is said to be retained for the space of three years,
without any fresh accession in this broad, low-situated grotto, about 300
feet in diameter, surrounded, and for the most part covered in, by lofty
walls of granite. It was, however, so dirty, and had such an abominable
smell, that it was even despised by my thirsty ass. The drinkable water
is situated higher up in the mountains, and is difficult of access.
We here quitted the northerly direction into which we had been led by
the well, since leaving Gebel Nusf, and continued for several hours
very much to the west along the Gilif range, into the WADI EL MEHET,
then traversing the perfectly dry bed of the valley (Chôr) of EL AMMER,
from which the road to Ambukôl diverges, we halted past ten o’clock at
night in the WADI EL UER, which was named by others the WADI ABU HAROD.
From this point, the Gilif range retreated for some distance farther
towards the east, and only left a succession of sandstone hills in the
foreground, along which we rode the following morning. In the W.N.W. we
saw other mountain ranges, which are no longer called Gilif; one single
two-pointed mountain among them, which stood out from the rest, was
called MIGLIK. The great inlet of the Gilif chain, filled with sandstone
rock, is two hours broad;[47] the road then continues to lead in a more
northerly direction, into the midst of the range itself, which is here
called GEBEL EL MÁGEQA, after the well of MÁGEQA.
Before entering this mountain range, we came to a place covered with
heaps of stones, which might be supposed to be barrows, though no
one lies buried beneath them. Whenever the date merchants come this
road, many of whom we met the following morning, with their large
round plaited straw baskets, their camel-drivers at this spot demand
a trifle from them. He who will give nothing, has a cenotaph such as
this erected to him, out of the surrounding stones, as a bad omen for
his hard-heartedness. We met with a similar assemblage of tombs in the
desert of Korusko. We reached this well soon after nine o’clock, but
without halting ascended a wild valley to a considerable height, where we
encamped about mid-day.
The whole road was amply supplied with trees, and thereby offered an
agreeable variety. The Sont, or gum-trees, were rare here; the Somra
appeared most frequently, which begins to spread out directly from the
ground in several strong branches, and terminates with a flat covering of
thinly-scattered boughs and small green leaves, so that it often forms a
completely regular inverted cone, which at this spot sometimes attains
to about the height of fifteen feet. Near it grows the HEGLIK, with
irregular boughs round the stem, and single tufts of leaves and twigs,
like the pear-tree. The thornless SERHA, on the other hand, has all the
branches surrounded with quite small green leaves, like moss, and the
TONDUB has no leaves at all, but in their place only small green little
twigs, growing zig-zag, and almost as close as foliage, while the Sálame
shrub consists of long flexible twigs covered with green leaves and long
green thorns.
About four o’clock we set out, and descended very gradually from the
heights. There are also a number of wells in the WADI KALAS, with very
good rain water, about twenty feet in depth; we pitched our encampment
for the night at this spot, although we arrived there soon after sunset.
The animals were watered, and the skins filled. The whole of the plateau
is well supplied with trees and shrubs, and inhabited by men and animals.
Our road on the following day preserved the same character, as long as we
were wandering between the beautiful and rugged escarpments of porphyry.
After proceeding a couple of hours farther, we came to two other wells,
also called KALAS, with little, but good water. From this spot, a road
diverged in a north-easterly direction to the well of MERÖE, in the Wadi
Abu Dôm, probably so called also from a white rock.
Three hours farther, having passed GEBEL ABRAK, we entered the great
WADI ABU DÔM, which we now pursued in a west north-west direction. This
remarkable valley passes uninterruptedly by the side of a long mountain
chain from the Nile at El Mechêref to the village of Abu Dôm, which is
situated obliquely opposite Mount Barkal. When we consider that the upper
north-eastern opening of this valley, which traverses the whole Peninsula
and its mountain ranges, lies nearly opposite the mouth of the Atbara,
which flows into the Nile in the same direction above Mechêref, we cannot
help suspecting that once, though perhaps not in historical times, there
must have been a connection by water, which cut off the largest portion
of the great eastern bend of the Nile, now formed by the rocky elevated
plateau at Abu Hammed, driving back the stream above a degree and a half
towards the south, contrary to its common direction. The name of the
valley is derived from the single Dôm Palms, which are here and there
found in it. The mountain chain, which passes along the north of the
valley, is completely separated from the range, through which we had
hitherto come. At the entrance of this valley we left the solid ground
of which the mountain is composed, and the loose sands again prevailed,
without however overpowering the still far from scanty vegetation.
In the afternoon, after leaving on our left hand a side valley, OM
SCHEBAK, which contains well-water, we encamped for the night as early as
nine o’clock. The following morning we came to the deep well of HANIK,
and halted about mid-day at a second well, which was called OM SAIALE,
after the tree of that name.
At this spot, I left the caravan with Jussuf, to reach Barkal by a
circuitous road by NURI, situated on this side of the river somewhat
higher up. In an hour and a half we arrived at some considerable ruins of
a large Christian convent in the WADI GAZÂL, so called from the gazelles,
which dig in great numbers for water here in the Chôr (bed of the
valley). The church was built as high as the windows of white, well-hewn
sandstone, and above that of unburnt bricks. The walls are covered with
a strong coating of plaster, and are painted in the interior. The vaulted
apse of the three-naved Basilica is situated, as usual, towards the east,
the entrances behind the western transept are towards the north and
south; all the arches of the doors, the windows, and between the pillars,
are round: above the doors, Coptic crosses are frequently exhibited, more
or less ornamented, whose most simple form ✙ may be compared with the
ancient Egyptian symbol of Life. The whole church is a genuine type of
all the Coptic churches which I have seen in ruins, and I therefore add
the small ground plan just as Erbkam took it down.
[Illustration]
The building is above eighty feet long, and exactly half as broad. The
outer wall to the north has fallen in. The church is surrounded by a
great court, whose walls of enclosure, as well as the numerous convent
cells, some of which have vaulted roofs, are built of rough blocks, and
are in good preservation; the largest of them, a dwelling forty-six
feet long, is situated in front of the western side of the church, and
is only separated from it by a small narrow court; no doubt it belonged
to the prior, and a special side-entrance led from it into the church.
Two churchyards are situated on the southern side of the convent; that
to the west, about forty paces removed from the church, contained a
number of tombs, which consisted simply of a collection of black stones
heaped up together. The eastern churchyard was situated nearer to the
buildings, and was remarkable from possessing a considerable amount of
tombstones with inscriptions, partly in Greek, partly in Coptic, which
will induce me to pay a second visit to this remarkable convent before
we leave Barkal. I counted more than twenty stones with inscriptions,
some of which had sustained much injury, and about as many tablets in
burnt earth, with inscriptions scratched into them, though most of them
were broken to pieces. They contain the most southern Greek inscriptions
which have been hitherto known in the Nile region, with the exception of
those of Adulis and Axum in Abyssinia. There is no doubt that the Greek
language following in the wake of Christianity, and the traces of which
we might have ourselves pursued in structural remains even beyond Soba,
was at one time employed and understood, at least for religious objects,
by the natives in the flourishing districts, even as far as the interior
of Abyssinia; nevertheless these monumental inscriptions (none of them,
as far as I could see in a hasty survey, in the Ethiopian language) allow
us to infer that the inhabitants of the convent were Greek Coptics who
had immigrated.
About five o’clock I left my companions, who went direct to Abu Dôm, and
I immediately set out for NURI. We soon saw MOUNT BARKAL shining blue
in the distance; it rises singly and precipitously from the surrounding
plain, and has a broad platform, and, by its peculiar form and position,
at once attracts attention; about six o’clock the Nile valley, which is
here of considerable breadth, lay spread out before us, a sight always
longed for after the desert journey, and which, like the approaching
misty coast after a sea voyage, keeps the attention of the traveller in a
state of joyful expectation.
Our road, however, now turned towards the right, and led among the
mountains, which stretch out into the plain, and are still composed
of masses of porphyry. When we stood directly in front of Barkal, I
observed on our left hand a great number of black barrows, either round,
or pyramidal in form, similar to those I previously saw at Meröe. It
was probably the general cemetery of NAPATA, which even in the time
of Herodotus was the royal residence of the Ethiopian kings, and was
situated on the farther bank; a considerable town must therefore at
one time have been placed on the left bank of the Nile, which would
also explain the position of the Pyramids of NURI on the same side of
the river. Nevertheless, I have not been able to discover any mound of
ruins in accordance with this surmise. I only saw some similar to these,
though not of considerable extent, behind the village of Duêm and at Abu
Dôm, which were called SANAB. It was not before half-past seven that we
arrived in the neighbourhood of this considerable group of Pyramids, and
we quartered ourselves for the night in the house of the Sheikh of the
village.
Before sunrise I was already at the Pyramids, of which I counted
twenty-five. They are some of them grander than those at Meröe, but are
built of soft sandstone, and, therefore, have suffered much from exposure
to the weather; only very few of them had a portion of the smooth casing
preserved. The largest shows, again, the same structure in the interior
which I have referred to in the Pyramids of Lower Egypt; a smaller
internal Pyramid was enlarged in all its dimensions by a superimposed
stone casing. In one place, on the west side, the smoothed upper surface
of the internal structure was most clearly disclosed beneath the
well-joined external covering, which is eight feet thick. Little is to be
seen here of ante-chambers such as there are in Meröe and at the Pyramids
of Barkal; I think I have only found the remains of two; the rest, if
they ever existed, must have been completely demolished, or buried
beneath the rubbish. Some of the Pyramids, however, stand so immediately
against each other, that, on that account alone, an ante-chamber, at
least on the last side where it might have been expected, could not have
existed. Besides this, the Pyramids are generally built quite massively
of square blocks; I could only perceive, on the one situated most to the
east, that it was filled up with black unhewn stones. There is also a
truncated Pyramid like that of Daschûr; but here the lower, and not, as
in that instance, the upper angle of inclination, must have been the one
originally intended, as the former is scarcely sufficient for a series
of steps. Although, unfortunately, I had been unable to discover any
inscriptions, with the exception of one single small fragment of granite,
yet much seems to favour the idea that this group of Pyramids is of an
older date, while those of Barkal are more recent.
Soon after ten o’clock I reached ABU DÔM, where I found my companions
already arrived. The whole of the next day was occupied in crossing the
Nile, and we did not reach Barkal before sunset. Georgi, to my delight,
had arrived here some days previously from Dongola. We now more than ever
require his assistance, because drawings must be made of whatever we meet
with here. The Ethiopian royal residence of King TAHRAKA, who reigned at
the same time in Egypt, and left buildings behind him, the same who in
the time of Hezekiah marched to Palestine against Sennacherib, is too
important for us not to exhaust it, if possible, of its treasures.
LETTER XXIII.
_Mount Barkal, the 28th May, 1844._
During the next few days I expect the arrival of the transport boats
which I begged of Hassan Pascha, and which set off eleven days ago; they
are to receive our Ethiopian treasures, and to convey us to Dongola.
The results of our researches here are not without importance. Upon
the whole, they are quite confirmatory of the opinion that Ethiopian
art is only a late offshoot from the Egyptian. It does not commence
under native rulers before the time of Tahraka. The little which is
extant from a still earlier period belongs to the Egyptian conquerors
and their artists. Here, at least, it is confined solely to one temple,
which Ramses the Great erected to Amen-Ra. It is true that the name of
Amenophis III. has been discovered on several of the granite Rams, as
well as on Lord Prudhoe’s Lion in London, but there are good grounds to
suppose that these magnificent Colossi did not originally belong to a
temple here. They were only brought here at a later period, it appears,
from Soleb, probably by the Ethiopian king whose name is found engraved
on the breast of the above-mentioned lion, and which, from the incorrect
omission of a sign, has been hitherto read AMEN ASRU in place of MI AMEN
ASRU.
Nevertheless, I consider these Rams so remarkable, especially on account
of their inscriptions, that I have determined to carry away the best of
them. The fat wether probably weighs nearly 150 cwt. However, in the
space of three sultry days, it has been safely dragged on rollers to the
river bank by ninety-two Fellahs, and it there waits for embarkation.
Several other monuments besides are to accompany us from this spot, as
we need no longer fear their weight since the desert is behind us. I
will only mention an Ethiopian altar, four feet high, with the Shields
of the king who erected it; a statue of Isis, on whose plinth there is
an Ethiopian-demotic inscription of eighteen lines; another also from
Méraui; as well as the peculiar monument bearing the name of Amenophis
III., which was copied by Cailliaud, and was thought to be a foot, but,
in truth, is the lower portion of the sacred sparrow-hawk. All these
monuments are of black granite.[48]
The town of NAPATA, the name of which I have now frequently found in
hieroglyphics, and even on the monuments of Tahraka, was situated, no
doubt, somewhat farther down the river, near the present town of MÉRAUI,
where considerable mounds of ruins still testify to this. The Temples
and Pyramids were alone situated near the mountain. This remarkable
mass of rock bears the name of the “Sacred Mount” 𓈋𓏤𓃂 in the hieroglyphic
inscriptions. The god who was peculiarly worshipped here was Ammon-Ra.
On the 18th of May we accomplished our long intended second visit to
the Wadi Gazâl; we took an impression of all the Greek and Coptic
inscriptions of the cemetery, and carried away with us such as appeared
in some degree legible.
We feel now, more than ever, what the torrid zone will be in the hot
season which we are now approaching. The thermometer generally rises
after mid-day to 37° and 38° R. (115-117¼° Fahr.), and is occasionally
even above 40° (122° Fahr.) in the shade. I frequently found the burning
sand beneath our feet as much as 53° (151° Fahr.); and anything made of
metal can only be laid hold of in the open air with a cloth. All our
drawings and papers are abundantly bedewed with drops of perspiration.
But the most oppressive thing is the hot wind, which, instead of cooling
us, drives a regular furnace heat into our faces, and the nights are not
much more refreshing. The thermometer, towards evening, falls down to 33°
(106¼° Fahr.), and by the morning is as low as 28° (95° Fahr.). Our only
refreshment is in taking frequent baths in the Nile, which, however, in
Europe, would be considered warm baths. Between times we have more than
once had tempests, with violent storms of wind loaded with sand, and
even a few drops of rain fell in the midst of them. Yesterday, a gust
of wind beat our tent down to the ground, and at the same moment, owing
to its violence, our large arbour, built of solid stems of trees and
palm-branches, fell upon our heads, while we were eating within it; we
could scarcely enjoy our dinner from the strong spicing of sand. Violent
squalls and whirlwinds seem to be peculiar to this country, or to this
season, for often we see four or five high columns of sand rushing up at
once to the sky, at different distances, like great volcanoes. There are
few snakes here; but, on that very account, more scorpions and hideous
great spiders, which are dreaded by the natives even more than the
scorpions. We now sleep, on account of the venomous vermin, on anqarebs,
which we have had brought out of the village.
LETTER XXIV.
_Dongola, the 15th June, 1844._
Before we left Barkal, I undertook another excursion of three days up the
Nile to the Cataract country, which we had cut off by our desert journey.
I was anxious to become acquainted with the character of this district
also, the only part of the Nile valley through which we had not travelled
with the caravan. We went by water as far as KASINQAR, and spent the
night there. At this point bold masses of granite rise up majestically,
which divide the river into numerous islands, and impede the navigation.
The following morning, before the camels were ready, we reached, not
without difficulty, the island of ISCHISCHI; it is surrounded by violent
and dangerous currents. We here found ruins of walls, and buildings built
of bricks, and sometimes of stones, both hewn and unhewn, by which we may
conclude there were fortifications on the island at different periods of
time; but there were no inscriptions, except one single one, consisting
of a few incomprehensible signs.
We did not mount our camels in Kasinqar before nine o’clock, and then
rode along the right bank between the granite rocks, which leave but a
small space for a scanty vegetation. Almost all the numerous, though
generally small, islands refresh the eye by green groups of trees and
cultivated bits of ground, which are cut up in a variety of ways by the
black rocks. There would be scarcely room in this rocky channel for
villages of any considerable size, still less sufficient to maintain
them. Those that exist are distributed in houses standing singly, and
small groups of houses far apart, but which bear one and the same name
up to certain frontier points. The village plot of ground belonging to
Kasinqar terminated with a beautiful group of palm-trees. We then entered
the territory of KÛʾEH, after that followed the long tract of HAMDÂB,
which includes the island of MÉRUI or MERÖE, which is a quarter of an
hour in extent. Here also the name is explained by its appearance. It
is very lofty, sometimes forty feet above the surface of the water, but
completely barren and uninhabited; and with the exception of the low
black rock, which at times is covered by the water, the whole island is
totally white. This chiefly arises on account of the dazzling moving
sands with which it is covered; but, what is still more remarkable, the
rock which projects from them is also white, either on account of great
veins of quartz, similar to what I had observed in another strikingly
white rock which lay on our road in the province of ROBATAT, and which
was called HAGER MÉRUI by the camel-drivers, or because the weathered
granite had here assumed this colour. The name of the town of MÉRAUI,
near Barkal, is perhaps derived from the same origin; in that instance
the white rocky precipices descending from Méraui to the river, which,
on our departure, especially struck me by their colour, must have given
occasion to it. On the opposite bank, GEBEL KONGELI approaches close to
the river, which is also called Gebel Mérui, from the island, and in the
same manner the rushing cataract a little above the island has received
the name of Schellâl Mérui.
About four o’clock we arrived at the ruins of HELLET EL BIB, which in the
distance looks exactly like a castle of the middle ages. It rises from a
low rock, whose ridge intersects the court and the building itself, so
that one portion of it looks like an upper story to the other. The whole
structure is composed of unburnt, but well and carefully made, bricks,
which were firmly joined together with a little lime, and covered with
a coating of the same. There are various larger and smaller chambers in
the interior, some of them furnished with semicircular niches, and arched
doors. The walls on the western side were fifteen feet high. The outer
wall of the court was of unhewn stones, but carefully built up to the
height of between five and eight feet; it embraced a tolerably regular
square space, each side of which was about sixty-five paces long.
This small castle, though of considerable importance in this district,
reminded us much, by its niches and arched doors, of the Christian
architecture of the earlier centuries, but yet did not seem to have had
any religious destination. Perhaps, therefore, it only belonged to the
flourishing times of the powerful and warlike Schaiqîeh tribes, which,
according to tradition, are said to have first wandered from Arabia
into these parts several hundred years ago. In the time of the Egyptian
conquest the country was under three Schaiqîeh princes, one of whom might
have resided here. The neighbourhood, besides, was somewhat more favoured
by nature, the banks more level, and covered with thicket, which here
and there bordered some of the land capable of cultivation. After I had
drawn out the plan of the building we started on our return about nine
o’clock in the evening, by the light of a full moon, and we considerably
shortened our journey by taking the road through the desert from the
island of SAFFI. About eleven o’clock we halted for the night, on an open
sandy spot of ground of the great granite plain. About five o’clock we
again started betwixt moonlight and morning dawn, and, as early as nine,
we reached our boat at Kasinqar.
Near this place I met with a new tree in a small Wadi, which led to the
river. It was called BÂN, and is said to grow nowhere in this country
except in this Wadi, called after it CHÔR EL BÂN, and in one other
Wadi near Méraui.[49] A strong stem, with a white bark, not unlike our
walnut-tree, with some side stems and branches just as white, rose short
and knotty from the ground. Most of the branches were now bare; only
a few of them had foliage, if we choose to call the long green twigs
collected in little bunches by that name. The fruits are long, roundish,
furrowed pods, which split into three parts, when the black-shelled
nuts contained within (of the size of small hazel nuts), five to ten
in number, are ripe; the white oily kernel, sweet as a nut, though
also somewhat acrid, is good to eat, and is much liked, but it is more
particularly used by the inhabitants in the immediate neighbourhood for
pressing oil out of it. The blossoms are said to be yellow, and to grow
in clusters.
About mid-day the Sheikh of Nuri came on board our boat, and I collected
some more information from him about the Cataract country. In the
province of SCHAIQÎEH, and the adjoining one of MONASSIR, eight separate
cataracts are reckoned; the first, Schellâl Gerêndid, at the island of
Ischischi; then Schellâl Terâi, at Kûʾeh; Schellâl Mérui; Schellâl Dahák,
at the island of Uli; Schellâl el Edermîeh; e’ Kabenât; e’ Tanarâi; and
Om Derás. Afterwards the rocky country continues uninterruptedly to El
Kab, from which point the river has very little fall as far as Schellâl
Mogrât, in the great bend towards Berber.
At the present day nothing but Arabic is spoken in the whole of this
district; but some recollection of the earlier Nubian population has
been distinctly retained, since even now a number of villages are
distinguished from the others as _Nuba places_. The following were
mentioned to me as such, above the province of Dongola: GEBEL MAQÁL and
ZÛMA on the right bank, and near it the island of MASSAUI, which also
still bears the Nubian name of ABRANARTI; then upon the left bank BELLED
E’ NUBA, between Debbe and Abu Dôm, HALUF or NURI and BELLEL; opposite to
these, GERF E’ SCHECH and KASINQAR. Then there is a gap in the statement,
and it refers to places up the river to CHÔSCH E’ GURÛF, a little below
the island of Mogrât, to SALAME and DARMALI, two villages between
Mechêref and Dâmer; lastly, there is another BELLED E’ NUBA to the north
of Gôs Burri, in the province of Metamme.
On the 4th of June we at length left Barkal, after having placed the Ram
and the other heavy monuments on two transport boats specially devoted to
that purpose.
We stopped the first night in Abu Dôm, on the left bank. I had heard of a
Fakir in this place, who was said to be in possession of written records
about the tribes of the Schaiqîeh Arabs. He was an intelligent, and, for
this country, a learned man, who would not indeed yield up to me the few
sheets of his own copy which he actually possessed, but immediately set
to work to transcribe them for me.
The following morning we first landed in TANQASSI, situated an hour and
a half below Abu Dôm, where we were told we should find ruins. A Fakir
Daha, who belonged to the Korêsch, the tribe of the Prophet, accompanied
us to the, now at least insignificant, mound of bricks. We passed his
hereditary sepulchre, a small building with a cupola that had been built
by his grandfather, but had already received in addition to him, his
father and several relatives. From this spot I descried some mounds in
the distance, which the Fakir pronounced to be natural. We, however, rode
up to them, and a short half hour from the river found more than twenty
Pyramids of tolerable size, now apparently only consisting of black
earth, but originally built of Nile bricks. Single stones lay around, and
on the eastern side, at a short distance, there were always two small
heaps of stones, which seem to have belonged to the ante-chamber, and
were perhaps connected with the Pyramid by brick walls; but nowhere could
we find hewn stones, and still less inscriptions.
We also found a field of Pyramids at KURRU, on the farther bank, although
but little could be discovered of the ruins of a town. Of the two most
considerable Pyramids, the largest, which still bears the strange name
of QANTUR, was 35 feet high; and towards the south-east we saw the
remains of an ante-chamber. Twenty-one smaller ones are grouped round
these two, four of which, like the largest Pyramid, were entirely
built of sandstone, but are now in great part demolished; others only
consisted of black field stones. Lastly, to the west of all of them, the
ground plan is still to be seen of a large Pyramid, which was probably
once completely massive, and has been on that account demolished; the
foundations were laid in the rock. It appears that these Pyramids also,
which, by their solid structure, are quite distinct from those lying
opposite, belonged to a royal Dynasty of Napata, for which reason the
absence of any considerable ruins of a town would be easier to explain
here than on the opposite side of the river.
Three-quarters of an hour farther down the river is situated the village
of ZÛMA, on the right bank. Near it, in the direction of the mountains,
there rises an old fortress, with towers of defence, called KARAT NEGIL,
whose front walls were only destroyed and thrown down about fifty or
sixty years ago, when the inhabitants of Zûma settled here. The name is
derived from an ancient King of the country, NEGIL, in whose time the
surrounding land, now dry, was still within reach of the Nile, and is
said to have been fertile.
The first thing that I saw on the road to the fortress was again a number
of Pyramids, eight of which are still 20 feet high; including those which
are destroyed, and which in general seem to have been those which were
most massive, we found above thirty; the ancient stone quarries are still
to be seen which furnished the material for the Pyramids.
These three fields of Pyramids, that of TANQASSI, KURRU, and ZÛMA, or
KARAT NEGIL, whose sites were paced, and carefully noted down by Erbkam,
are planted on an extent of ground of but a few hours in circumference,
and indicate the existence of a strong and flourishing population in this
district in Heathen times; on the other hand, in the district immediately
succeeding this, and more or less throughout the whole province of
Dongola, we found numerous remains of Christian churches.
On the 7th of June we visited three of these, situated at short distances
from each other, all on the right bank of the river. Two hours and a
half from Zûma we first come to BACHÎT. Here the precipitous rock of the
desert advances close upon the river, and bears a fortress, no doubt,
also dating from Christian times, with eighteen semicircular projecting
towers of defence. In the interior, beneath barren heaps of rubbish,
there were still the ruins of a church, which at that time seems to
have everywhere formed the central point of the stronghold. Here it was
only 63 feet long, and the whole nave rested on four columns and two
pilasters; nevertheless, the plan corresponded perfectly with the general
type.
The church of MAGAL, which is situated only one half hour farther on,
must have been considerably larger, as we found beneath the ruins
monolithic granite columns 13½ feet high from below the capital, which is
separated from it, and is 1½ foot high and 2 feet in diameter; it appears
to have had five naves.
From this point we reached GEBEL DÊQA in one hour. Strong, massive
walls again surrounded a Christian fortress, which was situated on the
projecting sandstone rock, and in the interior exhibited the ruins of
several buildings of considerable size; among them, those of a small,
three-naved church, very similar to the one at Bachît.
This is the frontier village of the province of Schaiqîeh, in the
direction of Dongola, the last place coming from the south, whose
inhabitants speak Arabic. Formerly the frontier of the Nubian population
and language, undoubtedly, was as far up as the cataracts above Barkal.
This seems to have occasioned the accumulation of strong posts in this
district, and probably also the strong fortification of the island of
Ischischi.
Christianity penetrated to the Nubians from Abyssinia as early as the
sixth century; they were at that time a powerful people, till their
Christian priest-kings, in the fourteenth century, yielded to the
encroachment of Islamism. We must date the erection of the numerous
churches from those days, the ruins of which we have found scattered from
Wadi Gazâl, northwards, throughout the whole province.
The same day we went as far as AMBUKÔL, at the extremity of the western
bend of the Nile, and halted here for the night. The following day we
reached TIFAR, and again visited the ruins of an old fortress with the
remains of a church.
On the road we met the boat of Hassan Pascha, which was on its way to
Méraui. We each fired many salutes as a mutual greeting, and anchored
beside each other. The Pascha inquired with interest about the treasures
which he suspected existed in the Pyramids of Barkal, and with the
greatest courtesy promised us all that we could desire to promote our
journey and its objects. After returning our visit, we parted with fresh
salutes.
The 10th June we reached OLD DONGOLA, the former royal residence of this
Christian kingdom. The extensive ruins of the town, however, now testify
to little more than the considerable extent which it once embraced. On
a hill in the neighbourhood, which commanded an admirable panorama, now
stands a mosque. An Arabic inscription on marble proves that it was
opened on the 20 Rabî el auel, of the year 717 (1st June, 1317), after
the victory of Safeddin Abdallah e’ Nâsir over the infidels.
As we have had very little opportunity of improving our monumental
knowledge since leaving Barkal, and had much leisure in our boat,
I employed myself specially during this time with a comparison and
research, as far as lay in my power, of the Nubian language, which
is spoken in this part of the country. It presents very remarkable
linguistic phenomena, but does not exhibit the slightest similarity with
the Egyptian language. My belief is, that the whole race penetrated into
the Nile valley from the south-west at a late period. We have now a
servant from Derr, the capital of Lower Nubia, who speaks tolerably good
Italian, is animated and intelligent, and is a great assistance to me in
acquiring a knowledge of his own dialect, the Mahass. I have sometimes
tormented him with questions in the boat for five or six entire hours in
one day, for it is no small trouble for both of us to understand each
other about grammatical forms and inflections. He has, at any rate, at
the same time acquired more respect for his own language, here everywhere
considered bad, and inferior to the Arabic, and which it is thought one
ought rather to be ashamed of.
Yesterday, after sailing three days from Old Dongola, we at length
reached New Dongola, usually only called by the Arabs EL ORDE (the Camp);
we had the great joy of receiving here the large packet of letters, whose
arrival had already been announced to us on the road by Hassan Pascha.
We now look forward with fresh courage and renewed confidence to the
last difficult portion of our southern journey. For from this point we
must again, alas! quit our boats, and mount the far more uncomfortable
ships of the desert. The Cataract country before us can only be navigated
during the short season of the highest flood, and even then not without
danger. Nevertheless, our richly freighted stone-boat must undergo this
dangerous trial, as naturally it is impossible to think of transporting
our Ram and the other monuments from Barkal by land.
We shall besides be unable to leave this as soon as we otherwise should
have done, owing to the total change in the arrangements for our journey
during the next five or six weeks. Yet we shall be obliged to separate
from our boat of burden, as it must seize the proper moments of high
water, which first occurs a few weeks hence.
LETTER XXV.
_Dongola, the 23rd June, 1844._
Yesterday we returned from an excursion of four days to the nearest
cataract, which we were able to reach by water. We were rewarded far
beyond our expectations, for we found a number of ancient Pharaonic
monuments, the only ones in the whole province of Dongola, and some of
them of extreme antiquity.
On the island of Argo we discovered the first Egyptian sculptures from
the Hyksos period; and at KERMÂN, on the right bank, the traces of a
town extending far across the plain, with an immense necropolis attached
to it, in which two huge monumental tombs were distinguished above all
the others, one of which was called Kermân (like the village), the other
DEFÛFA. They are not Pyramids, but of an oblong form; the first 150 by
66 feet, the second 132 by 66 feet in extent, and about 40 feet high,
built massively of good, solid unburnt bricks of Nile mud; each provided
with an outer building, which might have corresponded to the temples in
front of the Egyptian Pyramids. Several fragments of statues from the
best ancient style scattered round them, some, having good hieroglyphics
upon them, testify their great antiquity, and lead us to suppose that the
oldest Egyptian settlement of any importance on Ethiopian territory must
have been on this spot: it was probably occasioned by the Egyptian power
having been driven back towards Ethiopia during the rule of the Hyksos in
Egypt. No doubt the enormous granite quarries which we found on the right
bank, some hours to the north of Kermân, opposite the island of TOMBOS,
at the entrance of the Cataract country, were connected with this. The
inscriptions on the rock contain Shields of the 17th Dynasty, and an
inscription of eighteen lines, mentions the second year of Tuthmosis I.
I have also, here in Dongola, begun to study the Kong´âra language of
Dar Fûr. A negro soldier, a native of that dreaded warlike country, with
woolly hair, and thick projecting lips, and who we took with us last year
from Korusko to Wadi Halfa, as a military attendant, instead of Ibrahim
Aga, who had been sent away, found us out here again, and was given
up to me by the Pascha for my studies in language. He promises well,
but in half an hour I am obliged to exchange him with the Nubian. The
Kong´âra language is quite different from the Nubian, and in particular
points seems to me to show a stronger analogy with certain South African
languages.
I was rejoiced here to see the fortress built by Ehrenberg in 1822,
which has suffered indeed by the inundations, but still always serves as
a dwelling for the governor, now Hassan Pascha. We shall also leave a
monumental structure behind us, for Hassan Pascha has requested Erbkam to
give him the plan of a powder-magazine, and to seek out a suitable site
for it.
LETTER XXVI.
_Korusko, the 17th August, 1844._
We did not accomplish our departure from Dongola before the 2nd of
July. We went slowly down the western side of the river. That very
day we passed over extensive fields of ruins, the dim remains of once
flourishing towns, whose names have died away. The first we found were
opposite ARGONSENE, others at KOÏ, and at MOSCH. The following day we
arrived at HANNIK, opposite Tombos, in the province of MÁHAS. Here the
Cataract country begins immediately, and a fresh Nuba dialect, which
extends as far down as Derr and Korusko. The Nile, on the whole, retains
its northerly direction as far as a high mountain, named after a former
conqueror, Ali Bersi. Early on the third day we left this on our left
hand. It is situated on the sharp bend of the river, from north-west to
due east, from which point it is usual to cut off the largest portion of
the province of Máhas by a desert road running in a northerly direction.
We, however, followed the turns of the river, and dismounted near two
old castles on the bank, at a grove of palm-trees, under whose shade we
rested during the sultry mid-day hours. The nearest of these castles,
so romantically situated between the fissures of the rock, I find
differently named on every map, as FAKIR EFFENDI (Cailliaud); FAKIR EL
BINT, from _Bint_, the girl (Hoskins); FAKIR BENDER, from _Bender_, the
capital (Arrowsmith). In the dialect of this place, however, it is called
FAKIR FENTI, or, in that of Dongola, FAKIR BENTI; and it is so named
from the palm-trees at its foot, _Fenti_, _Benti_, being the names for
palm and date.
On the 4th of July we got as far as SÊSE, a hill which bears the remnants
of a fortress. Our servant, Ahmed, from Derr, related to us that, at the
death of every king, his successor was led up to its summit, and there
adorned with a peculiar royal cap. Castles like that of Sêse, many of
which we saw, far and near, on the plateau beyond the river district,
indicate an early, numerous, and warlike population, which has now
almost entirely disappeared. The ruins, situated a quarter of an hour
south of Mount Sêse, are called SESEBI. Here stood an ancient temple, of
which only four columns stand erect, with palm capitals. They have the
Shields of SETHÔS I., the most southern we have met with belonging to
this king. Near these temple remains are the ruins of a large town, on
an artificially raised piece of ground, of which the regular encircling
walls may still be recognised.
On the 6th July we arrived at SOLB (Soleb), where a temple of
considerable importance, and still in good preservation, was erected by
Amenophis III. to his own genius, the deified RA-NEB-MA (Amenophis).[50]
The rich representations belonging to this temple—the same to which once
also belonged our own Ram from Barkal, and Lord Prudhoe’s Lion—gave us
materials for almost five days’ work. We did not again set off before the
11th July.
Scarcely one hour to the north of this is situated GEBEL DOSCHE, a
sandstone rock, projecting into the river, in which, on the river side, a
grotto is cut, which contains representations of the third TUTHMOSIS.
The very same evening we arrived at SEDEÏNGA, where AMENOPHIS III.
erected a small temple to his own wife, TII. In the midst of the
picturesque heap of ruins, thrown one above another, rises one single
column, which has remained standing. A great necropolis stretches out
towards the west.
On the 13th of July we halted near a Schôna (such is the name given to
the station store-houses maintained by government), opposite Mount ABIR
or QABIR, a little below the northern point of the island of SAI. On the
other side of the river, not exactly opposite, stands the village of
AMARA, and near it the ruins of a temple. I was not a little surprised
to recognise directly on the columns (six of which are still preserved)
the fat Queen of NAGA and MERÖE, with her husband. This temple was built
by them, an important testimony to the widely-extended dominion of
that Ethiopian Dynasty. In the necropolis to the south of the temple I
also observed fragments of inscriptions in the above-mentioned demotic
Ethiopian alphabetic writing, such as I had also found near Sedeïnga.
The following day, after having visited the island of SAI, where we had
found the scanty remains of a temple with inscriptions of Tuthmosis III.
and Amenophis II., besides the remains of a town and a Coptic church, we
proceeded farther, and on the 15th of July reached DAL, which forms the
frontier between the provinces of Sukkôt and Batn el hagér (Stone-belly);
at night we encamped at the Cataract of KALFA.
From this point our road passed near the hot sulphur spring of OKMEH, to
which I turned off from our caravan road with Abeken. It led us from the
Schôna, where we separated, along the rocky bank, above an hour backwards
to a square tower, which has been erected over the spring, and which is
now called after its builder, HAMMÂM SEIDNA SOLIMÂN. The tower, which is
9 feet in diameter, and in the inside 4 feet wide, is now half filled
with sand and earth; the stream of water, about the thickness of a man’s
wrist, issues from the eastern side of the tower; on the other side,
within the space of a square foot, sixteen little whirlpools rise out of
the sand, and here, where the water is hottest, it is not quite 44° R.
(131° Fahr.). It tastes sulphureous, and a white substance is deposited
on the earth round the spring. Every year the river rises above it, and
even over the tower, which stands half-way up the river bank. The surface
of the water had now only risen to about the height of a man, and had
not yet reached the spring. A rough hole is dug into the rubbish for the
sick who come here, and is covered with branches to keep back the stream.
Somewhat farther down the river another small spring of water appears,
which has a temperature of 40° R. (122° Fahr.) when it issues from the
ground. The saying goes, that OKASCHE, a friend of the Prophet’s, was
killed in a campaign in the south, his corpse floated down hither, and
then disappeared in the rock on the opposite bank; there, even now, at
some distance up the river, his grave is shown; a tree marks the spot.
On the 17th July we encamped at the temple of SEMNEH. The village
consists only of a few straw huts, which are shaded by some date palms,
but the number of potsherds in the neighbourhood prove that a place of
some importance stood here formerly. The temple is surrounded with very
ancient fortifications, of immense dimensions; its erection dates even
as far back as the Old Monarchy under Sesurtesen III., a king of the
12th Dynasty. It appears that this king first enlarged the limits of
the Egyptian Monarchy as far as this point; indeed it has been found
that at a later period he was himself worshipped in these districts as
a divinity of the country. The temple which Tuthmosis III. erected here
in the New Monarchy, is also dedicated to him, and to the god TETUN. On
the right bank, also, at the village of KUMMEH, there are still some old
fortifications, and within them a still larger temple, which was even
begun by Tuthmosis II.
The most important discovery which we made here, and which I shall only
mention briefly, because I am at this moment sending a more detailed
account of it to Ehrenberg, is a number of short rock inscriptions
which mark the highest rises of the Nile during a series of years
under the government of AMENEMHA III. (MŒRIS), and of his immediate
successors. These statements have in some measure a _historical_ value,
as they decidedly confirm my supposition that the SEBEKHOTEPS followed
immediately after the 12th Dynasty, and they are in some measure
peculiarly interesting for the geological history of the Nile valley;
because they prove that the river, above 4000 years ago, rose more than
24 feet higher than now, and thereby must have produced totally different
conditions in the inundation and in the whole surface of the ground both
above and below this spot. Our examination of this remarkable locality,
with its temples and rock-inscriptions, occupied us twelve whole days.[51]
On the 29th July we went from Semneh to ABKE, and the following day
visited the old castle situated to the north of it, which is called el
Kenissa, the church, and formerly therefore probably contained one. From
the top of this castle we had the most magnificent prospect of the chief
cataracts of the whole country. Three great falls could be distinguished
from the smaller ones in the broad, rocky island valley, and the eye
passed over several hundred islands, as far as the black mountain range
on the opposite bank. But towards the north the wide plain spread out,
which extends from Wadi Halfa to Philæ. The succession of the different
kinds of rock was most distinctly visible as we descended from the
last ridge of the rocks on the banks into the great plain, from which
some single cones of sandstone alone protruded, as if from the bed of
a primitive ocean. Here undoubtedly are the sources of the everlasting
sand, which, driven by the northern wind among the primitive mountains,
rendered our road to Semneh very difficult.
On the 1st of August we left WADI HALFA in three boats, and from
this point again sailed through a country with which we were already
acquainted. The following morning we came to ABU SIMBEL, where we spent
nine days, in order to become perfectly acquainted with the copious
representations on both the rock-temples. I long searched in vain for
the remarkable Greek inscription which Leake had found on one of the
four great Ramses Colossi, till I fortunately re-discovered it, buried
tolerably deep, on the left leg of the second Colossus from the south.
I was obliged to make a great excavation to obtain a perfect impression
of it on paper. I see no reason why we should not take this antique
inscription for what it states itself to be, namely, memoranda of the
Greek mercenaries, who came hither with PSAMMETICUS I. in pursuit of the
rebellious warriors. Beneath the other inscriptions on the Colossus, I
also found some Phœnician inscriptions.
After we had visited from this point some other rock-monuments on the
opposite bank at ABAHUDA and SCHATAUI, we quitted Abu Simbel on the 11th
of July, and next halted on the right bank near IBRÎM, ancient PRIMIS,
the name of which I have also found in hieroglyphics written P.R.M. Ibrîm
is situated on the left bank opposite ANÎBE, near which we discovered,
and made a drawing of, only one private tomb from the period of the 20th
Dynasty, but it was in good preservation. Thence we proceeded to DERR,
where we got the largest despatch of letters we have yet received, so
that it was a real holiday for us. With these treasures we hastened past
AMADA to this spot KORUSKO, whose delightful group of palms had won
our hearts during our long, though involuntary, detention there last
year. We have fixed upon the present Sunday to celebrate with pleasant
recollections the happy termination of our southern journey. Our boats
lie quietly beside the bank.
LETTER XXVII.
_Philæ, the 1st September, 1844._
I am only now able to finish my journal from Korusko, whence we set sail
on the evening of the 18th August for SEBÛA.
From this point, as far as Philæ, the valley is called WADI KENÛS, “the
valley of the BENI KENSI,” a tribe of which we read much in the Arabic
accounts. The upper valley of Korusko, as far as Wadi Halfa, is called
on all the maps WADI NUBA, a name which has indeed been already used by
Burckhardt, but which must originate in some mistake. Neither our Nubian
servant, Ahmed, a native of the district of Derr, nor the people who are
settled in the country, are acquainted with this name; and even Hassan
Kaschef, above seventy years of age, who governed the country before
the Egyptian conquest, could give no answers to my particular inquiries
about this name. They all agree in stating that the lower district has
always been called WADI KENÛS. Afterwards, near Korusko, follows the WADI
EL ARAB, so called from the Arabs of the desert, who have encroached as
far as this spot; then WADI IBRÎM; and lastly, WADI HALFA. But since
the conquest the official name for the whole province between the two
cataracts is GISM HALFA, the province of Halfa.
In Korusko I found a Bischâri, by name ALI, whose animated and pleasant
deportment determined me at once to make him my instructor in this
important language. He was quite satisfied with my invitation for him
to accompany us, and now every moment that is at liberty is employed in
preparing a grammar and vocabulary of this language. He comes from the
interior of the country, from Beled Ellâqi, which is eight days distant
from the Nile, and twenty from the Red Sea, and gives a name to the
remarkable Wadi Ellâqi, which extends, without interruption, through the
very midst of the extensive range of country between the Nile and the
Red Sea. He calls the country of the Bischâri tribes EDBAI, and their
language, _Midâb_ to _Beg´auîe_, the Beg´a language, from which may be
traced its identity with the language of the mighty Beg´a nations, so
often mentioned in the middle ages.
From Korusko we next sailed to SEBÛA, where we spent four days; then by
DAKKEH (Pselchis) and KUBÁN (Contra Pselchis) to GERF HUSSÊN, with its
rock-temple dedicated by Ramses to Ptah. This place is frequently called
by earlier travellers GIRSCHE, a confusion with the village situated on
the farther eastern bank, which is called by the Arabs QIRSCH, by the
Nubians KISCH or KISCHIGA, and which is situated near some considerable
ruins of an ancient city which bear the name of SABAGÛRA. The 25th August
we spent in the temple of DENDÛR, first built under the Roman dominion;
and the following day in KALABSCHEH, the ancient TALMIS, whose temple
likewise contains only the Shields of Cæsar (Augustus). Talmis was for
a long time a capital of the BLEMYES, whose inroads into Egypt gave the
Romans plenty of employment. On one of the columns of the great outer
court there is engraved the interesting inscription of Silco, who calls
himself a βασιλίσκος Νουβάδων καὶ ὅλων τῶν Αἰθιόπων.[52] In it he boasts
of his victories over the Blemyes, who I hold to be a branch of the
Meröitic Ethiopians, the Bischâri of the present day. It seems that the
demotic Ethiopian inscriptions, one of which is remarkable by its length,
and perhaps forms a counterpart to the Greek inscription of the Nubian
King, can only be ascribed to these Blemyes. I have discovered another
very late inscription on the wall to the back of the temple, but in such
barbarous Greek that it is almost inexplicable. I send it to Böckh for
him to decipher.
On the 30th August we reached DEBÔT, and the following day PHILÆ, where
we immediately took possession of the enchanting temple-terrace, which,
since that time, has been our chief quarters, and will remain so for
several weeks longer. The great temple-buildings, although the most
ancient of them date only as far back as NECTANEBUS, present an unusual
number of hieroglyphic, demotic, and Greek inscriptions, and, to my
surprise, I have also found here a whole chamber in one of the pylones
which contains nothing but ETHIOPIAN representations and inscriptions.
LETTER XXVIII.
_Thebes, Qurna, 24th November, 1844._
On the 4th of November we reached this last great station of our journey,
and feel that we have again reached much nearer home. We have selected a
charming castle on a rock for our residence here, which will certainly
be protracted for several months. It is situated on a hill called ABD EL
QURNA, and is an ancient tomb enlarged by brick buildings, from which we
overlook the whole Theban plain at one view. I should be afraid of being
almost oppressed by the overwhelming number of monuments, if the mighty
character of the ruins of this most royal city of all antiquity did not
maintain, and daily renew, our interest to the highest possible degree.
While our investigations of the numerous temples, from the Ptolemaic
and the Roman period, immediately preceding that, had in fact become
almost fatiguing, here, where the Homeric forms of the mighty Pharaohs
of the 18th and 19th Dynasties stand out before me in their dignity and
splendour, I feel as fresh again as at the commencement of our journey.
I first had excavations made in the renowned temple of Ramses Miamun,
lying at our feet, which have led to unexpected results. Erbkam has
superintended the work with the greatest care, and his ground plan which
is now finished of this most beautiful building of the Pharaonic times,
described by Diodorus as the tomb of Osymandyas, is the first which can
be called perfect, as it no longer rests on arbitrary restorations,
which are too long in the French descriptions and too short in those of
Wilkinson.
I have also had excavations made in the rock-tomb of the same RAMSES in
Bab el Meluk, which was covered over with rubbish, and which Rosellini
was mistaken in thinking unfinished; several chambers have already
been opened, and if fortune favours us we shall also still find the
sarcophagus, not indeed unopened—the Persians had already taken care of
that—but perhaps less mutilated than others, as the tomb has been closed
up by the river mud from very ancient times.
On our journey from Korusko hither, besides our antiquarian labours,
I was engaged with the languages of the southern countries, still so
little known. Amidst these, three may be selected as being the most
widely-distributed; the NUBA language, that of the Nuba or Berber nation;
the KUNGARA language, of the negroes of DAR FÛR; and the BEGA language,
that of the BISCHARÎBAS inhabiting the eastern portion of the Sudan.
I have prepared the grammar and vocabulary of all three, so fully,
that whenever they are published some notion of these languages may be
obtained. The most important of them is the one last mentioned, because,
both with reference to its grammatical construction and by its position
in the development of languages, it proves itself to be a very remarkable
member of the _Caucasian_ stock. It is spoken by the people, for which
reason I think I can perceive that they were once the inhabitants of the
flourishing city of Meröe, and thus have a peculiar claim, to be called
in a more exact sense the ETHIOPIAN people.
It has furthermore been proved, that nothing can be discovered of a
primitive Ethiopian civilisation, or indeed of an ancient Ethiopian
national civilisation, which is so much held up by modern erudition;
indeed, we have every reason to deny this completely. Whatever in the
accounts of the ancients does not rest on total misapprehension, only
refers to _Egyptian_ civilisation and art, which had fled in the time
of the Hyksos rule to ETHIOPIA. The irruption of Egyptian power from
Ethiopia, at the foundation of the new Egyptian Monarchy, and its
progress even far into Asia, was mentioned in the Asiatic, and afterwards
in the Greek traditions, as an event which was transferred from the
Ethiopian _country_ to the Ethiopian _nation_, for no knowledge of a
still older Egyptian Monarchy, and of its high but peaceful state of
civilisation, had penetrated to the northern nations. I have sent an
account of the results of our Ethiopian journey to the Academy, and in
it I give a cursory survey of the history of Ethiopia from the first
conquest of the country by Sesurtesen III. in the 12th Manethonic Dynasty
down to the most flourishing period of the Meröitic Monarchy in the
first centuries of our era, and then through the middle ages down to the
Bischarîbas of the present day, whose Sheikhs we saw in chains marching
over the ruins of what was once their capital, and passing in front of
the Pyramids of their ancient kings.
LETTER XXIX.
_Thebes, Qurna, 8th January, 1845._
A short time ago we received the joyful intelligence that our colossal
Ram and the other Ethiopian monuments had arrived safely in Alexandria.
We shall also bring away some valuable monuments from this spot, among
them a beautiful sarcophagus of fine white limestone, on parts of which
are some painted inscriptions, which go back as far as the Old Monarchy
in the first period of the increasing greatness of Thebes.[53]
I have made another conquest to-day, which gives me double pleasure,
as it was only effected with indescribable difficulty, and has brought
out a monument in the most perfect preservation, which will hardly
find its equal in our museums. A sepulchral chamber with interesting
representations of kings of which we have made drawings, opens out of a
deep pit which was excavated a short time ago; from this a narrow passage
leads still deeper into a second chamber, which is painted all over, just
like the other. The chambers are hewn out of an extremely friable rock,
which loosens from the ceiling in large fragments at the slightest touch;
the rock-caves were therefore vaulted in a circular form, with Nile
bricks, which were covered with stucco, and then painted. At the side of
the inner door, on the right hand, King AMENOPHIS I. is represented, and
on the left, his mother AAHMES-NUFRE-ARI, who even in later times was
much worshipped. Both are about four feet high, painted on the stucco,
and the colours preserved as fresh as possible. I was anxious to detach
these figures from the wall, which they entirely covered; but for this
purpose I was compelled to break through the brick walls all round, and
afterwards also to take out the bricks singly from behind the stucco
with the greatest care. This at length we have accomplished after great
labour. We have taken out the whole stucco, which is only the thickness
of a finger, with the figures completely uninjured, and, placing it on
two slabs composed of smooth boards covered with skins, linen, and paper,
we raised it from the narrow sepulchral cave, which is still half filled
with rubbish.
We have also, to my great delight, got a fresh supply for our plaster
casts. A short time ago 5 cwt. of plaster arrived, forwarded to us by
M. Clot Bey, for which we had sent an order to France, and I have found
an Arab here, and immediately taken him into my service, who has at
least sufficient knowledge to prepare the plaster and to make casts from
bas-reliefs.
LETTER XXX.
_Thebes, the 25th February, 1845._
We have now been inhabiting our Theban Acropolis, on the hill of Qurna,
above a quarter of a year, every one busily employed in his own way
from morning to evening, in investigating, describing, and drawing the
most valuable monuments, taking paper impressions of the inscriptions,
and in making plans of the buildings; we have not yet been able to
complete the Libyan side alone, where there are at least twelve temples,
five-and-twenty tombs of kings, fifteen belonging to the royal wives or
daughters, and a countless number belonging to private persons, still to
be examined. The eastern side, with its six-and-twenty sanctuaries, in
a certain degree of preservation, will however demand no less time, and
yet, more has been done by previous travellers and expeditions in Thebes
itself, especially by the French-Tuscan expedition, than in any other
spot, and we have everywhere only compared and completed their labours,
and not repeated them. We are also far from imagining that we have now
by any means exhausted the infinite number of monuments; whoever follows
us with new information, and with the results of more advanced science,
will also find fresh treasures, and gain fresh instruction from the same
monuments. I have always had a historical aim in view, and this has
especially determined my selection of the monuments. Whenever I believed
that I had attained what was most essential for this end I was satisfied.
The river here divides the broad valley into two unequal halves. On the
west side it approaches close to the precipitous Libyan range, which
there projects; on the eastern side it bounds a wide fruitful plain,
extending as far as Medamôt, a spot situated on the border of the Arabian
desert, several hours distant. On this side stood the actual town of
THEBES, which seems to have been chiefly grouped round the two great
temples of KARNAK and LUQSOR, situated above half an hour apart. Karnak
lies more to the north, and farther removed from the Nile; Luqsor is now
actually washed by the waves of the river, and may even formerly have
been the harbour of the city. The west side of the river contained the
necropolis of Thebes, and all the temples which stood here referred more
or less to the worship of the dead; indeed, all the inhabitants of this
part, which was afterwards comprehended by the Greeks under the name
of MEMNONIA, seem to have been principally occupied with the care of
the dead and their tombs. The former extent of the Memnonia may be now
distinguished by Qurna and Medînet Hâbu, places situated at the northern
and southern extremities.
A survey of the Theban monuments naturally begins with the ruins of
KARNAK. Here stood the great royal temple of the hundred-gated Thebes,
which was dedicated to Ammon-Ra, the King of the Gods, and to the
peculiar local god of the city of Ammon, so called after him (No-Ammon,
Diospolis). AP, along with the feminine article TAP, from which the
Greeks made THEBE, was the name of one particular sanctuary of Ammon.
It is also often employed in hieroglyphics in the singular, or still
more frequently in the plural (Napu), as the name of the town; for
which reason the Greeks naturally, without changing the article along
with it, generally used the plural Θῆβαι. The whole history of the
Egyptian Monarchy, after the city of Ammon was raised to be one of the
two royal residences in the land, is connected with this temple. All
Dynasties emulated in the glory of having contributed their share to the
enlargement, embellishment, or restoration of this national sanctuary.
It was founded by their first king, the mighty SESURTESEN I., under the
1st Theban Royal Dynasty, the 12th of Manetho, between 2600 and 2700
B.C., and even now exhibits some ruins in the centre of the building
from that period, bearing the name of this king. During the Dynasties
immediately succeeding, which for several centuries groaned under the
yoke of the victorious hereditary enemy, this sanctuary no doubt was
also deserted, and nothing has been preserved which belonged to that
period. But after the first king of the 17th Dynasty, Amosis, in the 17th
century B.C., had succeeded in his first war against the Hyksos, his two
successors, AMENOPHIS I. and TUTHMOSIS I., built round the remains of the
most ancient sanctuary a magnificent temple, with a great many chambers
round the cella, and with a broad court, and pylones appertaining to it,
in front of which Tutmosis I. erected two obelisks. Two other pylones,
with contiguous court-walls, were built by the same king, at a right
angle with the temple in the direction of Luqsor. Tutmosis III. and his
sister enlarged this temple to the back by a hall resting on fifty-six
columns, besides many other chambers, which surrounded it on three sides,
and were encircled by one common outer wall. The succeeding kings partly
closed the temple more perfectly in front, partly built new independent
temples near it, and also placed two more large pylones towards the
south-west, in front of those erected by Tuthmosis I., so that now four
lofty pylones formed the magnificent entrance to the principal temple on
this side.
But a far more splendid enlargement of the temple was executed in the
fifteenth and fourteenth centuries B.C. by the great Pharaohs of the
19th Dynasty; for SETHÔS I., the father of Ramses Miamun, added in the
original axis of the temple the most magnificent hall of pillars that
was ever seen in Egypt or elsewhere. The stone roof, supported by 134
columns, covers a space of 164 feet in depth, and 320 feet in breadth.
Each of the twelve central columns is 36 feet in circumference, and 66
feet high beneath the architrave; the other columns, 40 feet high, are
27 feet in circumference. It is impossible to describe the overwhelming
impression which is experienced upon entering for the first time into
this forest of columns, and wandering from one range into the other,
between the lofty figures of gods and kings on every side represented
on them, projecting sometimes entirely, sometimes only in part. Every
surface is covered with various sculptures, now in relief, now sunk,
which were, however, only completed under the successors of the builder;
most of them, indeed, by his son RAMSES MIAMUN. In front of this
hypostyle hall was placed, at a later period, a great hypæthral court,
270 by 320 feet in extent, decorated on the sides only with colonnades,
and entered by a magnificent pylon.
The principal part of the temple terminated here, comprising a length of
1170 feet, not including the row of Sphinxes in front of its external
pylon, nor the peculiar sanctuary which was placed by Ramses Miamun
directly beside the wall farthest back in the temple, and with the
same axis, but turned in such a manner that its entrance was on the
opposite side. Including these enlargements, the entire length must have
amounted to nearly 2000 feet, reckoning to the most southern gate of the
external wall, which surrounded the whole space, which was of nearly
equal breadth. The later Dynasties, who now found the principal temples
completed on all sides, but who also were desirous of contributing their
share to the embellishment of this centre of the Theban worship, began
partly to erect separate small temples on the large level space which was
surrounded by the above-mentioned enclosure-wall, partly to extend these
temples also externally.
The head of the 20th Dynasty, RAMSES III., whose campaigns in Asia, in
the fifteenth century before Christ, were scarcely inferior to those of
his renowned ancestors, Sethôs I. and Ramses II., built a special temple,
with a court of columns and a hypostyle hall, above 200 feet long, which
now intersects, in a rather unsymmetrical manner, the enclosure-wall of
the external court in front; and he founded, at a little distance from
it, a still larger sanctuary for the third person of the Theban Triad,
Chensu, the son of Ammon. This last was completed by the succeeding kings
of his Dynasty, and the priest-kings of the 21st Dynasty, who added to
it a magnificent court of columns, with a pylon in front. In the 22nd
Dynasty we recognise SCHESCHENK I., the warlike King Shishak of the
Bible, who, about 970 B.C., conquered Jerusalem. His Asiatic campaigns
are celebrated on the southern external wall of the great temple, where,
in the symbolic form of prisoners, he leads 140 vanquished towns and
countries before Ammon. Among their names there is one which, not without
reason, is considered to be a designation for the kingdom of Judæa, as
well as the names of several well-known towns in Palestine.
The two priests’ Dynasties mentioned above, which followed immediately
after the Ramessides, were no longer of the Theban race, but proceeded
from towns in Lower Egypt. The power of the Monarchy sank with this
change; and after the short 23rd Dynasty, from which period there are
still some remains in Karnak, a revolution seems to have occurred. The
present lists of authors name only _one_ king of the 24th Dynasty, who
has not yet been re-discovered on the Egyptian monuments. In his reign
the invasion of the Ethiopians occurred, who, from the 25th Dynasty,
SCHABAK and TAHRAKA (the So and Tirhaka of the Bible), reigned in Egypt
at the commencement of the seventh century B.C. These kings came, indeed,
from Ethiopia, but governed completely in the Egyptian manner, and they
did not neglect to worship the Egyptian god-kings. Their names are found
on several smaller temples of Karnak, and on a splendid colonnade in the
great court in front, which seems to have been first placed there by
Tahraka. According to historical accounts, this last king returned of
his own accord to Ethiopia, and left the Egyptian kingdom to its native
rulers.
The dispossessed Saitic Dynasty now returned to the throne, and once
more, in the seventh and sixth centuries, developed all the splendour
of which this country, as rich in internal resources as in external
power, was capable of producing under a powerful and wise sceptre.
It opened for the first time a peaceful intercourse between foreign
countries and Egypt; Greeks settled amongst them, commerce flourished,
and a new and enormous amount of wealth was accumulated, such as before
had only been attained by the spoils of war and tribute. But this was
only an artificial height of glory; for the pristine vigour of the
nation had long been broken, and even art gave more signs of luxury
than of intrinsic value. The last flourishing period of the nation soon
passed away. The country could not withstand the advancing storm of the
Persians. In the year 525 it was conquered by CAMBYSES, and trodden
down with barbaric fanaticism. Many monuments were destroyed, and not a
single sanctuary nor wall was erected during this period; nothing at
least has been preserved to our time, not even from the long and milder
government of DARIUS; one temple only in the Oasis of Kargeh, or at
least sculptures with his name, having been discovered from that period.
Under Darius II., exactly one hundred years after the commencement of
the Persian rule, Egypt became, indeed, once more independent, and we
then again find the names of the native kings in the temples of Karnak;
but after three Dynasties had succeeded each other in rapid succession,
during the space of sixty-four years, it fell a second time under the
dominion of the Persians, who soon afterwards, in the year 332, lost
it by the conquest of Alexander of Macedon. Since then the country was
reduced to the necessity of getting habituated to foreign rulers, it had
lost its independence for ever, and passed from one hand to another, the
succeeding ruler always worse than the preceding, down to the present day.
Under the Macedonians and Greeks, Egypt still possessed sufficient vigour
to retain its religion and institutions in the manner that had been
carried down from ancient times. The foreign princes in all respects took
the place, and followed in the footsteps of the ancient Pharaohs. Karnak
bears testimony to this. We here find the names of ALEXANDER and PHILIP
ARIDÆUS, who preceded the Ptolemies in restoring that which had been
destroyed by the Persians. Alexander rebuilt the sanctuary behind the
great temple; Philip that to the front; the Ptolemies added sculptures to
it—restored other parts, and even erected entirely new sanctuaries, at
no inconsiderable expense, though no longer, indeed, on the grand scale
of the Egyptian classic style of the olden times. Even the last epoch
of declining Egypt, that of the Roman dominion, is still represented in
Karnak by a series of representations which were executed under CÆSAR
AUGUSTUS.
Thus this remarkable spot, which, in the course of twenty-five hundred
years, had increased from the small sanctuary in the centre of the
large temple to a complete city of temples, situated on a level space
a quarter of a geographical mile in length, and above 2000 feet in
breadth, presents both an almost uninterrupted thread of events, and an
interesting scale of measurement for the history of the whole of the
New Egyptian Monarchy, from its origin in the Old Monarchy down to its
decline under the Roman dominion. The appearance or non-appearance of the
Dynasties and individual kings in Egyptian history is almost uniform with
the representation of them in and round the temple of Karnak.
Higher up the river than Karnak, where the stream, which has been divided
by the fertile island of Gedîdeh, reunites, rises even now to view a
second bright point of the ancient city, the temple of LUQSOR. One of
the most powerful Pharaohs of the 18th Dynasty, AMENOPHIS III., who had
only built a side temple in Karnak, and had added but very little to the
principal temple, here erected a so much the more splendid sanctuary to
Ammon, which the great Ramses enlarged still more by a second magnificent
court in front, in the direction of Karnak. For, although a good half
hour distant from it, this temple must also be regarded as belonging to
the space dedicated, from ancient times, to the great national sanctuary.
This is proved by a circumstance which otherwise would be difficult to
explain: that the temple, though situated close to the bank, has its
entrance, contrary to custom, away from the river, and directed towards
Karnak, with which it was, besides, immediately connected by colonnades,
series of rams, and artificially-constructed roads.
The ruins on the eastern bank terminate with Luqsor. The monuments of
_western_ Thebes offer still greater variety, as here the subterranean
dwellings and palaces of the dead are added to those above ground. At
one time an uninterrupted series of the most splendid temples extended
from Qurna as far as Medînet Hâbu, which nearly occupied the whole of the
narrow strip of desert between the cultivated land watered by the Nile
and the foot of the mountain range. The immense field of the dead spreads
out immediately behind these temples, where the sepulchral caves, like
the cells of bees, close beside each other, are either dug in the rock of
the plain, or hewn in the adjacent hills.
Qurna is situated on the angle of the Lybian range, projecting farther
forward towards the river. As the mountains here suddenly retreat
towards the west, they form a great mountain cauldron, the front part
of which, where it is separated by low hills from the valley, is called
EL ASASIF. Behind, it is closed in by lofty, steep escarpments of rock,
which display their beautiful stone to the mid-day and morning sun.
These precipitous declivities of the limestone range, which, owing to
their solid and uniform texture, are particularly adapted for the finest
sculptures of the rock-tombs, seem to have been produced by the gradual
removal of a bed of clay beneath them, from the wearing effects of
exposure to the weather, and thus the overhanging masses are deprived of
their foundation.
In this rock-creek are situated the _most ancient_ tombs, and they belong
to the Old Monarchy. Their entrances may be seen from a distance, high up
in the rocks lying to the north, exactly beneath the vertical precipice
which rises from the steep hills of rubbish to the summit of the mountain
ridge. Their external site, and the road up, bounded by low stone walls
leading to the entrances in a steep and straight line of several hundred
feet from the valley, reminded me directly of the tombs of Benihassan,
which belong to the same period. They date from between 2500 and 3000
B.C., under the kings of the 11th and 12th Manethonic Dynasties, the
first of which laid the foundation of the mighty power of Thebes, and
made the town the seat of the government they had rendered independent of
Memphis; the second elevated it to be the capital of the Monarchy of the
whole country.
These grottoes, of which there are some of a similar age in the adjacent
hills in the foreground, generally descend, in an oblique angle, deep
into the rock, but they have neither paintings nor inscriptions; it was
only the stone sarcophagi on which peculiar diligence was bestowed. These
are usually formed of the finest limestone, and are sometimes above
nine feet long; they have inscriptions, and are decorated with colours,
both internally and externally, in the elaborate and pure style of that
period, very elegantly, though with a certain degree of parsimony. We
are bringing away with us one of these sarcophagi, as I mentioned once
before. A few days ago it was safely carried down into the plain, after
the pit, which had long been completely filled with rubbish, had been
cleared, and part of the solid rock itself had been cut through, to
obtain a shorter exit for it. The occupant of the tomb was the son of
a prince, and himself bore the dynastic appellation of the 11th Royal
Dynasty, namely, NENTEF.
In the outermost angle of this rock-cove is situated the most ancient
temple-building of Western Thebes, which belongs to the period of the
New Egyptian Monarchy, at the commencement of its glory. One street,
above 1600 feet long, adorned on either side with colossal rams and
sphinxes, led from the valley in a straight line to an outer court, then,
by means of a flight of steps to another, whose front wall was adorned
with sculpture, and had a colonnade before it, and finally, beyond, by a
second flight of steps to a granite gate in good preservation, and to the
last temple court, which was surrounded on both sides with beautifully
decorated halls and chambers, and terminated behind with a broad façade,
placed along the precipitous rock. Another granite gate, in the centre
of this façade, leads at length to the innermost temple-chamber, which
was hewn into the rock, and had a lofty, stone-vaulted roof, out of
which again opened several smaller niches and chambers, at the sides
and the back. All these chambers were covered with the most beautiful
sculptures, with variegated colours on a grey ground, executed in the
finished style of that period. This grand structure, beside which stood
other series of buildings, now destroyed, seems to have been originally
connected with the river, by a street intersecting the whole valley, and
beyond, with the great temple of Karnak, which lies exactly in the same
direction; I have no doubt that it was with this object that the narrow
rock-gate was first artificially cut through the hills in front, across
which the temple-street enters into the lower plain. It was a Queen, NUMT
AMEN, the elder sister of Tuthmosis III., who accomplished this bold
plan of a structural connection between the two sides of the valley, the
same who had erected the two greatest obelisks in front of the temple
of Karnak. She never appears on her monuments as a woman, but in male
attire; we only find out her sex by the inscriptions. No doubt at that
period it was illegal for a woman to govern; for that reason, also, her
brother, probably still a minor, appears at a later period as ruler along
with her. After her death, her Shields were everywhere converted into
Tuthmosis Shields, the feminine forms of speech in the inscription were
changed, and her names were never adopted in the later lists along with
the legitimate kings.
There are two peculiar temples, both erected on the border of the desert
by TUTHMOSIS III., who completed the work of his royal sister during the
long period that he sat alone upon the throne. Of these, the northern one
can now only be recognised by its ground plan, and by the remains of its
brick pylon; the southern one, on the other hand, at Medînet Hâbu, is
still in good preservation; and judging by some sculptures, the oldest
part of the building might perhaps have belonged to an earlier Tuthmosis,
and have only been completed by him. His second successor, TUTHMOSIS IV.,
also built a temple, which has now almost disappeared.
He was followed by AMENOPHIS III., in whose brilliant and long reign the
temple of Luqsor was built. To him are inscribed the two giant Colossi,
far out in the fertile plain, near Medînet Hâbu, which once stood at the
gates of a great temple-building, but whose remains are now for the most
part buried beneath the crops of the annually accumulating soil of the
valley. Perhaps, also, a connecting street, corresponding with that to
the north, once led from this point across the valley to Luqsor, on the
opposite side. Of the two Colossi, the one situated to the north-east was
the celebrated sounding statue, which the Greeks connected with their
charming legend of the beautiful Memnon, who every morning at sunrise
greeted his mother, Aurora, while she moistened him with her tears of
dew for his early heroic death. This myth, as Letronne has shown, was
only composed at a late period; because the actual phenomenon of clear
tremulous tones produced by the springing of small particles of the
stone when it became rapidly warm after being cooled during the night,
did not become strikingly evident till fragments of the statue had
partly fallen inwards upon itself, having been previously split by an
earthquake which happened in the year B.C. 27. The phenomenon of cracking
and sounding stones in the desert and among great fields of ruins, is
not unfrequent in Egypt; but the nature of the hard flinty conglomerate
of which this statue is composed, is peculiarly favourable to it, as is
further proved by the innumerable large and small cracks now penetrating
in all directions portions of the statue, which were described even as
late as the Greek period, and consequently were then uninjured. It is
also remarkable how, even now, several of the pieces that have split
off, and are only hanging loose, sound as clear as metal if they are
struck, while others beside them remain perfectly dumb and without
sound, according as they are more or less moistened by their reciprocal
positions. The numerous Greek and Roman inscriptions which are engraved
upon the statue, and which intimate the visits of strangers, especially
if they have been so fortunate as to hear the morning greeting, first
commence in the time of Nero, and extend down to the time of Septimius
Severus, from which period we may probably date the restoration of the
original monolithic statue. Since this restoration of the upper portion
in single blocks, the phenomenon of the sounding stones seems, if not to
have entirely ceased, yet to have become less frequent and less striking.
The change of Amenophis (who even then, as the inscriptions inform us,
was not forgotten) into Memnon was probably chiefly occasioned by the
name of this entire western portion of Thebes, MEMNONIA, which the Greeks
seem to have explained by the “palaces of Memnon,” while the name in
hieroglyphics, _Mennu_, meant, speaking generally, “splendid buildings,
palaces.” At the present day the statues are called by the Arabs Schama
and Tama, or, both together, the Sanamât, _i. e._ the “idols” (not
Salamât).[54]
When we came here in the beginning of November, the whole plain, as far
as the eye could reach, was overflowed, and formed one entire sea, from
which the Sanamât rose up still more strangely and more solitary than
from the green but yet accessible corn-fields. A few days ago I measured
the Colossi and the elevation to which the soil of the Nile had risen
upon their thrones. The height of the Memnon statue, calculated from head
to foot, not including the tall ornament on the head which it once bore,
amounted to about 14 metres 28′, or 45 feet and a half, in addition to
which the base separated from it, a block by itself, measured 4 metres
25′, or 13′ 7″, of which 3 feet were covered by steps placed round. Thus
the statues were originally nearly 60 feet in height, including the
Pschent, perhaps 70 feet above the ground on which the temple stood.
Now the surface of the valley is already 8 feet above that level, and
the inundation sometimes rises as far as the upper edge of the base,
therefore 14 feet higher than it could ever have risen, at the period of
their erection, without reaching the temple itself. Now, if we compare
this fact with our discovery at Semneh, where the surface of the Nile
during historical times has sunk above 23 feet, it is proved, by simple
addition, that the Nile at the Cataracts fell from a greater height by at
least 37 feet between this and Semneh than it does at present.[55]
Horus, the last King of that great 18th Dynasty, had also erected a
temple near Medînet Hâbu, which has now, however, disappeared in rubbish.
The fragment of a colossal statue of the King, of hard limestone,
almost like marble, seems to point out the position of what was once
the entrance to the temple, the bust carved in the most finished style,
weighing several hundred-weight, is intended for our Museum.
A large portion of two temples still exist from the succeeding Dynasty;
they were built by the two greatest and most renowned of all the
Pharaohs—SETHÔS I. and his son RAMSES II. The temple belonging to the
first is the most northern in the series, and is usually called the
temple of QURNA, because the old village of Qurna was grouped round a
Coptic church at this spot, and was principally situated in the interior
of the great outer courts of the temple, but which was afterwards
deserted by the inhabitants, and exchanged for the rock-tombs in the
angle of the mountain situated very near at hand.
Farther towards the south, between the temples of TUTHMOSIS III. and
IV., now totally destroyed, stands the temple of RAMSES II. (MIAMUN),
in its structural arrangement, and in all its parts, perhaps the most
beautiful in Egypt, though inferior in grandeur of scale, and in variety
of interest, to the temple of Karnak. That portion of the temple to the
back as well as the lateral halls, belonging to the hypostyle hall, have
disappeared, and their original plan could only be explained by the aid
of careful, protracted excavations, under the direction of Erbkam. All
round this destroyed portion of the temple the extensive brick halls
are visible, which are everywhere covered with regular and neatly-built
waggon-vaulted roofs, some of them 12 feet wide, which belong to the
period of the erection of the temple itself. This is indisputably proved
by the stamps, which were impressed on every brick in the royal factory,
and which contain the Name-Shields of King Ramses. That this temple, even
in ancient times, attracted much notice, we learn from the particular
description of it, under the name of the TOMB OF OSYMANDYAS, given by
Diodorus Siculus, according to Hecataeus.
Directly to the right of the temple, one of the few industrious Fellahs
has laid out a small vegetable garden, which affords us some variety for
our table, and for that reason, yielding to the intercessions of our
good-natured dark-skinned gardener, as was but just, it was spared in our
excavations, which threatened to extend towards that side, although it is
over the foundations of a side temple hitherto unnoticed, whose entrance
I found opening into the outer court of the temple of Ramses.
The southernmost, and best preserved of all the splendid buildings in
the long series, is situated in the midst of the ruins of the houses of
MEDÎNET HÂBU, a Coptic town, now totally forsaken, but once of no small
importance. It was founded by RAMSES III., the first King of the 20th
Dynasty, the rich Rhampsinitus of Herodotus, in the thirteenth century
before Christ, and on its walls extols the great campaigns of this King,
by land and by sea, which might rival those of the great Ramses. In the
interior of the second outer court a great church was built by the Copts,
the monolithic granite columns of which are still scattered about. The
chambers to the back are for the most part in a heap of rubbish. But the
far projecting sort of pylon building, in front of the temple, is of
peculiar interest; it contained the private apartments of the King, in
four stories, placed one above the other. The Prince is represented on
the walls, in the midst of his family, conversing with his daughters, who
are recognised to be Princesses by the side-plait of their hair; he is
playing at drafts, and receiving fruits and flowers from them.
This building terminates the series of large splendid temples known
under the peculiar appellation of MEMNONIA. They comprise the really
flourishing period of the New Monarchy, for after Ramses III., the
external power, as well as the internal greatness of the Monarchy again
declined. It is only from this, and the immediately succeeding period,
that we find the tombs of the Kings in the rock-valleys of the mountain
range.
The entrance to these is situated on the farther side of the promontory
of Qurna. The escarpments of the rock there rise rugged and barren on
either side, rounding off above to bare summits, and their golden brows
are partly covered with coal black stones, as if they had been burnt
by the sun. The peculiarly solemn and gloomy character of this country
always struck me most vividly when I was riding back after sunset over
the endless heaps of stony rubbish covering the bottom of the valley
to a considerable height, and only furrowed by broad chasms, formed in
the course of thousands of years, by sudden torrents of rain, which,
though of rare occurrence, are not entirely unknown, as we ourselves have
witnessed. All is mute and dead around; the rapid tramps of my little ass
being only interrupted occasionally by the dull barks of the jackals, or
the gloomy hooting of the night-owls.
After long windings, which lead by circuitous paths almost immediately
behind the lofty mountain sides of the Asasif valley described above, the
valley divides into two branches, the one on the right hand conducting
to the most ancient of those tombs. Only two of these are opened, both
belonging to the 18th Dynasty: the one dedicated to AMENOPHIS III.,
the Memnon of the Greeks, the other to a rival King AI, coming very
soon after him, who was not admitted into the monumental lists of the
legitimate kings.[56]
The last is situated at the extreme end of the slowly-ascending cleft in
the rock; the granite sarcophagus of the King, in the small sepulchral
chamber, has been destroyed, and his name is everywhere studiously
erased, with the exception of a few traces on the walls, as well as
upon the sarcophagus. The other lies farther forward in the valley,
is of greater extent, and covered with beautiful sculptures, though,
alas! much mutilated by time and human hands. Besides these two tombs,
there are several more here incomplete, without sculptures; others, no
doubt, are concealed beneath the high mounds of rubbish, which to clear
away would have occupied more of our time and means than, after mature
consideration, we thought right to bestow on it. In one place where I
made them dig, following tolerably certain signs, we found, indeed, about
ten feet beneath the rubbish, a door and chamber, but these also without
sculpture. Some remains of earthen vases were, however, brought to light
at the same time, which contained the name of a king hitherto unknown.
The left branch of the principal valley, which contains the tombs of
almost all the Kings of the 19th and 20th Dynasties, seems to have been
originally closed by an elevation of the bottom of the valley, and to
have been first opened artificially, by a paved ascent to the spot.
Here we find pits with wide openings not far above the bottom of the
valley, on the descending slope of the mountain, which pass downwards at
a somewhat oblique angle. Where the overhanging rock has a perpendicular
height of 12 to 15 feet, the sharply-carved door-posts of the first
entrance appear, which was once provided with one or two great
folding-doors to close it. There also the painted sculptures generally
commence, which, on suddenly approaching, strike one by the wonderful
contrast between their sharp lines, brilliant surfaces, and fresh vivid
colours, and the jagged rock and rugged rolled stones scattered around,
among which they are placed. Long corridors of imposing height and width
now lead always deeper into the rocky mountain range; the sculptures
on the sides, and the ceiling also, continue in single subdivisions,
which are formed by the contraction of the passages and by additional
doors. The King is represented worshipping before different gods, and
directs his prayers and justifications for his earthly life to them; the
peaceful occupations of the justified spirits are represented on one
side, the punishments of Hell for the wicked on the other; the Goddess
of Heaven is represented extended lengthways on the ceiling, as well
as the hours of the day and night, with their influences on mankind,
and their astrological signification, all accompanied by explanatory
inscriptions. Lastly, we arrive at a great vaulted hall of pillars, whose
walls generally exhibit the representations on a golden yellow ground,
for which reason it also bore the name of the Golden Hall. This was
intended for the royal sarcophagus, which stood in the centre, and was
from six to ten feet high. But often if the King, after the completion of
the tomb, in its first and most necessary extent, felt his vigour still
unimpaired, and promised himself a prolonged life, the central passage
of this hall of pillars was cut out in a still more steep descent, for
the commencement of a new hall; new corridors and lateral chambers were
attached, sometimes they deviated from the first direction into another,
till the King, for the second time, fixed upon a goal, and terminated the
building with a second hall of pillars, almost more spacious and splendid
than the first; smaller chambers on both sides were then added to this,
if the time still allowed, destined for particular sacrifices for the
dead, till at length the last hour struck, and the royal corpse, having
undergone the process of embalming for seventy days, was entombed in the
sarcophagus. It was then closed up, in such an artificial manner that
the colossal granite tomb, as the cover could not be raised, was always
obliged to be destroyed by the plunderers of the corpses, who, at a
later period, penetrated into every spot.
The tombs of the PRINCESSES also, which are collected together in a
smaller valley behind Medînet Hâbu, at the southern end of the Memnonia,
belong exclusively to the period from the 18th to the 20th Dynasties,
as well as the most important of the innumerable tombs of private
individuals, which extend over hill and valley, from beyond Medînet Hâbu
to the entrance of the King’s valley. The priests of rank, and the great
officers, liked to have represented on the walls of their tombs their
whole wealth in horses and carriages, herds, boats, and implements, as
well as their hunting-ground and fish-ponds, their gardens and hall, for
company, even the artists and artisans they employed, actively engaged
in various ways; all this renders these tombs much more interesting than
those of the Kings, where the representations almost exclusively refer to
the life after death.
Among the later monuments, the tombs from the 26th Dynasty of the seventh
and sixth centuries before Christ are especially worthy of notice. The
greatest proportion of these are dug in the flat ground, in the front
part of the rocky creek between Qurna and the hill of Abd el Qurna, where
we reside, and they are called specially EL ASASIF. The rocky plain alone
afforded room at that time for sepulchral buildings of any considerable
size, and was therefore employed for that purpose on a vast scale.
Even in the distance a number of lofty gates and walls built of black
bricks are seen. These enclosed great sunken courts within an oblong,
to which the entrance led by immense arched pylon gates, resembling at
a little distance Roman triumphal arches. Stepping through this within
the enclosure wall, we look directly into a court cut 12 or 15 feet deep
into the rock, into which we descended by a staircase. This uncovered
court belongs to the largest sepulchral building now accessible; it was
built for a royal scribe, Petamenap; is 100 feet long, and 74 broad.
From this we stepped through an outer hall into a great rock-chamber,
having an extent of from 65 to 52 feet, supported by two rows of pillars,
with some lateral chambers and corridors on either side; then through
an arched entrance into a second hall, from 52 to 36 feet large, with
eight pillars; and into a third, 31 feet both ways, with four pillars;
and lastly, into a chamber from 20 to 12 feet large, terminating with a
niche. From this chamber, at the head of the first series of rooms, a
door on the left hand leads into an immense chamber; and on the right,
another to a continuous series of six corridors, with two staircases of
nine to twenty-three steps, and a chamber in which a perpendicular pit,
44 feet deep, led at the bottom to a small lateral chamber. This second
range of chambers and passages which run at right angles with the first,
amounted in its whole length to 172 feet, while the first, including the
external court, amounted to 311 feet. Finally, from the chamber with the
well, a corridor turns off again to the right, which leads to a diagonal
chamber, extending altogether 58 feet in this third direction. But before
arriving at the two staircases in the second range, a fourth line of
passages again opened to the right, running on 122 feet in one and the
same direction, to which, on the left hand, is attached a great passage
running round in a square 60 feet long on every side, along with other
lateral chambers; the central part of which is decorated on its four
sides like a huge sarcophagus. The sarcophagus of the deceased rests
also, in fact, in the centre beneath the great square, which, however,
can only be reached by means of a vertical pit 18 feet deep, opening into
a fourth range, which conducts to a horizontal passage 58 feet long;
then to a third pit, through this to more chambers; and lastly, through
the ceiling of the last to a chamber placed above it, which contains
the sarcophagus, and which is situated exactly beneath the centre of
the above-mentioned square. The whole of the ground covered by this
tomb, that of a private individual, amounts accordingly to 21,600 square
feet, and calculated with the pit chambers, to 23,148 square feet.[57]
This enormous work appears still more colossal if we consider that all
the surface of the walls, the pillars, and the doors are covered from
above downwards with innumerable representations and inscriptions, which
astonish us still more by the care, sharpness, and elegance with which
they are executed.
The few remains which are found from the period of the later foreign
dominion are far less important. We can only mention two small temples
near Medînet Hâbu among those erected under the Ptolemies, and a third
at the end of the great Lake circumvallation, which extends from Medînet
Hâbu towards the south. The oldest sculptures in this last are from
the time of CÆSAR AUGUSTUS, yet the Cella, now the only part in good
preservation, was built by Antoninus Pius. The outermost gate of the
temple district contains the only representations found in Egypt of the
Emperor OTHO, the discovery of which was once a most joyful event to
Champollion and Rosellini. They had, however, overlooked the circumstance
that on the opposite side the name of the Emperor GALBA, hitherto equally
unknown in Egypt, was also to be found.
Even in Strabo’s time ancient Thebes had crumbled into several villages,
and Germanicus visited it, as we are doing, from a thirst for knowledge,
and with reverence for the great antiquity of its monuments, _cognoscendæ
antiquitatis_, as Tacitus informs us. The latest hieroglyphic imperial
name that I have found in all Egypt, is that of DECIUS (A.D. 250); it
appears in a representation on the temple of Esneh. A hundred years later
the holy ATHANASIUS retires to the Theban desert among the Christian
hermits there resident. The edict of THEODOSIUS against Paganism (391)
divested the Egyptian temples of their last authority, and greatly
favoured the development of monkish and recluse habits, to which Egyptian
Christianity was always peculiarly inclined.
After that period numerous churches and convents spring up throughout
the country, even in the upper districts of the Nile; and the sepulchral
caves of the desert become troglodytic habitations for an ascetic hermit
population. The Thebaic necropolis, above all other places, presented
the greatest variety of means to satisfy these new wants. Both the
kings’ tombs, as well as the tombs of private individuals, were very
much employed for Christian cells, and still bear traces on their walls
of this new purpose to which they were applied. A letter of the holy
Athanasius, the archbishop of Alexandria, to the orthodox monks of
Thebes, still exists in a tomb at Qurna, in beautiful untial characters
on the white stucco, but unfortunately in a very fragmentary condition.
It was a favourite practice to convert ancient temples into Coptic
churches or convents.
The largest church seems to have been erected in the temple of Medînet
Hâbu (town of Hâbu). Monolithic granite columns of considerable size
still cover the ground in great numbers, in the second outer court at
this spot; in order to obtain room for the niches in the choir, an
ancient Egyptian pillar was taken away on the northern side, and a
series of doors from the chambers which were arranged for the priests’
cells were broken through the external wall of the temple to the back.
The convent appertaining to it, called the DER EL MEDÎNET—“belonging to
a town”—was placed in the Ptolemaic temple behind the hill of Qurnet
Murrâi, situated close at hand. Another church stood in the temple of
Old Qurna, and the convent of DER EL BACHÎT, situated on the heights of
Qurna, probably belonged to it. The ruins of a third convent occupy the
chambers of the temple of the Queen Numtamen, in the angle of the Asasif
valley, and bear the name of DER EL BAHRI, the northern convent.
Such transformations of the ancient magnificent buildings were partly
against, and partly in favour of, their preservation. Single walls were
frequently demolished, or broken through, to enable them to make new
arrangements; upon others the heathen images were destroyed to obtain
bare walls, or at least, the human figures and even those of animals
in the inscriptions, especially the heads, were studiously picked out,
and mutilated, as high up as the loftiest ceilings. Not unfrequently,
however, the same zealous, pious hands also served to preserve the
ancient splendour in a most successful manner, for sometimes, instead of
laboriously destroying the representations with a hammer, they preferred
covering them over from the top to the bottom with Nile mud, which had
generally afterwards an additional white coating, in order to receive the
Christian paintings. In time this Coptic loam again fell off, and the
ancient paintings came out once more, with a brilliancy and surprising
freshness, which they could hardly have retained on uncovered walls,
exposed to the air and sun. In the niche of an ancient cella I found St.
Peter, in the ancient Byzantine style, holding the key, and raising his
finger, but beneath the half-decayed Christian casing, the cow’s horns
of the goddess Hathor, the Egyptian Venus, peeped forth from behind the
glory; to her, originally was given the incense and sacrifice of the
king who is standing by her side, which now are offered to the venerable
apostle. I have often with my own hands assisted time in the work of
restoration, and still further loosened the stucco, which is generally
covered over with totally uninteresting Coptic paintings, that I might
restore the splendid sculptures of the Egyptian gods and kings concealed
beneath them once more to their older and greater claims on our attention.
A great part of the population of Thebes on both sides of the Nile is
still Coptic; our Christian cook Siriân was born here, and a Coptic
woman of good means, Mustafîeh, who lives at a short distance from us,
supplies us daily with excellent wheaten bread. For a long time past,
however, the Arabic Mohammedan population has gained the upper hand here,
as throughout the country, and the Copts can only oppose this by the
influence derived from ancient days, by their knowledge of arithmetic,
and their privilege of filling the most important financial offices in
the country.
The small church in which the Theban Christians are now in the habit of
assembling every Sunday, is situated alone in the great gravelly plain
to the south of Medînet Hâbu. It has an Arabic cupola, and is surrounded
by the wall of a court. I entered it a few days ago from noticing that
the black turbans, which are only worn by Copts, were proceeding in
greater numbers than usual to the chapel. It was the feast of the holy
Donadeos, who had founded the church. The service was over. I only found
the old priest, who inhabits and takes charge of the church, inside with
his numerous family. The compartments were covered with mats; I was
shown the division for the men and women, the small chapels decorated
with variegated carved work attached to it, the square cistern for
baptisms and holy water. A large old Coptic book still lay open on the
reading-desk, with extracts from the Psalms and Gospels, and an Arabic
translation beside it. I asked the old man whether he could read Coptic;
he answered in the affirmative, but thought that his children could read
better than himself; his eyes had already become feeble. I sat myself
down upon the mat, and the whole troop of great and small yellow-brown
children and grandchildren of the old priest squatted down around me.
I asked the eldest lad to read a little, and he immediately began not
to read, but to sing with the greatest fluency—that is to say, to chant
in rough grumbling tones. I interrupted him, and asked him now to read
slowly in his usual voice; he did it with far greater difficulty, and
with many mistakes, which his younger brother sometimes corrected over
his shoulder; but when I went so far as to inquire the meaning of the
individual words, he pointed coolly to the Arabic translation, and
thought it was explained there, and wanted to read this aloud to me;
he could tell me nothing as to the single words, not even about the
value of the single letters over the paragraphs, nor, indeed, could the
old man have done that at any time. Afterwards I made them show me the
other treasures in the way of books belonging to the church, which were
immediately brought in a great cloth tied together at the four corners,
containing some prayer-books very much worn, some of them in Coptic,
some in Arabic. I left a small present behind for the good of the church,
and had rode on a little farther, when one of the boys overtook me,
bringing me breathless a small consecrated kind of biscuit cake, stamped
with a Coptic cross and a Greek inscription, which gift I was obliged to
repay by a second bakschisch. These are the Epigoni, the most genuine,
unmixed descendants of the old Pharaonic nation that once conquered Asia
and Ethiopia, and led its prisoners from the north and south into the
great hall of Karnak before Ammon; in whose wisdom Moses was educated,
and with whose priesthood the Greek sages went to school.
_O Aegypte, Aegypte! religionum tuarum solæ supererunt fabulæ, æque
incredibiles posteris; solaque supererunt verba lapidibus incisa tua
pia facta narrantibus, et inhabitabit Aegyptum, Scythes, aut Indus, aut
aliquis talis, id est vicina barbaria._[58]
We now know the meaning of this _aliquis_ which Hermes Trismegistus then
knew not how to explain; it is the Turks, who at present dwell in the
fields of Osiris.
At the foot of our hill, in the direction of the green plain, stands
a single group of Sont-trees, which overshadow a pleasant reservoir
nicely lined with stones; here the sheep and goats are daily brought
to water, and every evening and morning the dark girls and veiled
women descend from their rock-caves, returning afterwards with a slow
step, their tall water-jugs on their heads; a lovely picture from the
patriarchal times. But close to where the refreshing element is found
there is a bare white spot in the middle of the fertile plain: on this,
two lime-kilns are erected, in which, as often as they are wanted, the
very best blocks of the ancient temples and rock-grottoes, with their
images and inscriptions, are pounded and burnt into lime, that they
may again cement together other blocks, which are extracted from these
convenient and inexhaustible stone-quarries, for some cattle-stall or
other structure for government purposes.
The same day that I visited the Coptic church, I was desirous of riding
from that spot to the village of KÔM EL BIRÂT, which is situated on the
other side of the great lake of Hâbu, now dry. To my no small surprise,
my guide, the excellent old ʾAuad, who I have engaged to be my servant
while here, on account of his great knowledge of the locality, informed
me that he could not accompany me thither, he even almost shrank from
pronouncing the name of the village, and could not be persuaded to give
me any information about it, and about his strange behaviour. It was only
when I got home that I learnt the ground of his refusal from others, and
afterwards also from himself. Above seven or eight years ago a man was
killed in the house of the Sheikh of Qurna, to whose household ʾAuad then
belonged; how it happened is not yet made out. In consequence of this
circumstance, the whole family of the murdered man emigrated from this
place, and settled in Kôm el Birât. Ever since the law of vengeance for
blood has hung over the two families. Not a single member of that family
has from that time trod the ground of Qurna; and if ʾAuad, or any other
individual from the Sheikh’s house were to be seen in that village, any
one of the injured family would be justified in killing him openly. This
is the ancient Arabic custom.[59]
I turn from my wanderings through the ruins of the great royal city, and
through the changes of thousands of years which have passed over them,
to our castle on the detached hill of Abd el Qurna. Wilkinson and Hay
have rendered an essential service to later travellers by building up
the habitable rooms, which, from our being desirous of spending a long
time in Thebes, we have profited by. A broad, convenient road leads by
windings from the plain to a spacious court, the left side of which
(the mountain side) is formed by a long shady colonnade; beyond this
there are several habitable rooms. At the end of the court stands a
single watch-tower, on which the Prussian flag waves, and beside it a
small house with two rooms, one above the other, the lowest of which I
occupy myself. There is no want of accommodation either for the kitchen
department, the servants, and the asses.
The wide, boundless prospect across the Theban plain over the wall of
the court, low on the inner side, but with a deep fall externally, is
most beautiful and enchanting. The eye from this point, and still more
perfectly from the summit of the tower, or from the top of the hill
rising directly behind our dwelling, commands all, that still remains of
Ancient Thebes. In front of us the splendid ruins of the Memnonia, from
the angle of the hills at Qurna on our left, to the lofty Pylones, which
tower up above the mounds of ruins of Medînet Hâbu on our right; then the
green meadow encircled by the broad Nile, from which the solitary Colossi
of Amenophis rise on the right hand, and beyond the river the groups
of temples at Karnak and Luqsor, behind which the lower plain extends
several hours farther to the clear outline of the slightly undulating
Arabic ranges, which every morning were lit up by the first rays of the
sun casting a wonderful richness of colouring over the valley and rocky
desert all around us. There is no other spectacle in the world that I can
compare with this, a scene which daily impresses us with fresh wonders
and delight; but it reminds me perhaps of the view, for two years before
my window, looking down from the Tarpeian Rock, which comprised the whole
of Ancient Rome from the Aventine, with the Tiber at its foot, to the
Quirinal, and beyond that the undulating Campagna, with the beautiful
profile of the Alban hills (strikingly like those we now behold) in the
background.
We never, however, look out into the distant country without being
peculiarly attracted to the silvery water-highway, and without our eyes
following the pointed sails, which may bring us letters or travellers
from the North. Winter here, as in all other places, is the season of
sociability. Not a week passes that we do not see several guests among
us. A stranger’s book, which I have placed here for future travellers,
and furnished with an introduction, was inaugurated on New Year’s Day
by our own signatures. Since then above thirty names have been added,
although the book has hitherto been kept exclusively in our castle, and
will only be handed over to our faithful castellan ʾAuad on our departure.
On Christmas Eve we for the third time selected a palm for our
Christmas-tree. This symbol, still more beautiful than our fir-tree,
was decorated with lights and small gifts. Our artists celebrated the
cheerful festival in other imaginative ways, and an illuminated Christmas
crib, executed in the typical manner, and placed at the end of the long
rock-passage, was most successful.
As it is natural to expect, England is by far the most numerously
represented among travellers; the French are more rarely seen, but among
their numbers I must mention the well-known and amiable savant Ampère,
who, as he told me, intends to spend several months in this country, in
order to make some solid progress in his Egyptian studies.[60] We are
not, however, without some of our German countrymen, and one beautiful
Sunday morning, at the close of the year, we had the pleasure of seeing
Lic. Strauss, the son of the court chaplain in Berlin, and his cousin
Dr. Krafft. We were just about to begin our simple Sunday service, which
ever since Abeken, our dear friend and former preacher of the desert, has
quitted us, I have been in the habit of conducting myself. I therefore
immediately resigned my place to one of these two rev. gentlemen, which
more befitted them than me; and as it happened that we had with us the
very sermons written by the two fathers of our dear guests, one of these
was selected for a discourse.
Messrs. SEUFFERHELD and Dr. BAGGE, from Frankfort, visited us almost
simultaneously with them, and soon afterwards our friend Dr. SCHLEDEHAUS
from Alexandria, with the Austrian painter SATTLER, and when Messrs.
Strauss and Krafft called on us a second time, on their journey back,
they met some other guests here, Messrs. TAMM, STAMM, SCHWAB, and the
Assessor von ROHR, from Berlin. This very day twelve Germans (nine of
them Prussians) sat down to dinner with us.
LETTER XXXI.
_On the Red Sea, between Gebel Zeït and Tôr. Good Friday.
The commencement of Spring. 21st March, 1845._
Our vessel lies motionless in the midst of the sea, in sight of the
distant coast of Tôr, which we hoped to have reached in the course
of last night. I sit down to write in order to divest myself of the
annoying state of impatience necessarily resulting from an exceedingly
inconvenient and protracted calm, under a sultry mid-day sun, in a
sailing vessel, adapted only for bales of goods.
On the 20th of February we changed our abode in Thebes from the western
to the eastern bank, from Qurna to Karnak. We settled ourselves here
in some chambers of the great royal temple; but as I was desirous of
setting out on my journey to the Peninsula of Sinai as soon as possible,
I limited myself for the time, to merely taking such a survey of the
monuments as was absolutely necessary, in order to enable me to appoint
the work that was to be done during my absence.
The 3rd of March I set out on my journey. The younger Weidenbach
accompanied me, in order to give me some assistance in the drawings,
which would be absolutely required: besides him, I took our Dragoman
Jussuf along with me, the Kawass Ibrahim Aga, Gabre Máriam, and two
additional servants. We first went down the Nile as far as Qeneh. After
it became dark and the stars had risen, the conversation, which had
hitherto been animated, ceased, and, lying on the deck, I watched the
star of Isis, the sparkling Sothis (Sirius), this Polar star of Egyptian
chronology, as it gradually ascended over our heads. Our two oarsmen were
only too musically inclined, and went through their whole stock of songs,
quivering them with innumerable repetitions, sometimes interrupted by the
short cry of _Scherk_, _Gharb_ (East, West), which was softly answered by
the feeble and obedient boy’s voice of our little steersman. Half waking,
half dreaming, we then glided down the river till about midnight, when
the Arab quivering also ceased; the strokes of the oar became fainter,
and at length the boat was left entirely to the waves. The rising of the
moon in her last quarter, and dawning day, first aroused them to renewed
activity.
We arrived early in Qeneh, where we were very kindly received in the
house of the illustrious Seïd Hussên. He is the important man through
whose hands all our letters pass, both going and coming, and who is
thus highly deserving of our gratitude. He and his two sons were of
great assistance to us in obtaining the innumerable things which were
requisite for our departure for the desert, which we were desirous of
accelerating as much as possible. Meanwhile, I was delighted with the
patriarchal manners which prevailed in this most estimable Arabian
family. All business was carried on there, as it is throughout the East,
in public, and most commonly in the street. In front of each house there
is a long divan, another in the room; friends come in, make a short
salutation, sit down almost unnoticed, and business goes on as usual.
Guests of higher rank are offered coffee, or the long pipe. Slaves stand
round, ready at the slightest sign. Acquaintance of inferior rank kiss
the hand of the master of the house, even if they are only passers by;
they do it all seriously and quietly, without the least demonstration of
feeling, but with the usual greetings, frequently murmured for a long
time from one to another. If there is no more space left on the divan,
or if it is occupied by persons of higher rank, the new comer squats
down on the ground beside it. Every one rises and goes at his pleasure,
and, what strikes us as very singular, without any parting words, though
the forms of greeting are so long. The master of the house, also, quits
his guests without any salutation, if the visitor is not a person of
distinction; when such is the case, he is frequently detained for a
long while by the monotonous, and almost always empty, conversation.
This domestic life in the street, such as prevailed more or less among
the ancient Greeks and Romans, and which is so fundamentally different
from the life in our studies and offices, is closely united with the
Eastern character in general. Individuals always deport themselves with
propriety and reserve, but they are compliant, and ready for anything
that occurs. In respectable families, such as this, there also exists an
amiable religious feeling, originating in a true and kindly disposition.
Old Hussên is above seventy, with a white beard, but, in spite of his
age, taking a lively interest in all that occurs, and meeting every one
in a friendly manner. The two sons, who are nearly fifty, carry on the
business. They treat the old man with extreme reverence. Both are great
smokers, but they never smoke in the presence of their father; this
would be regarded as a want of the respect which is due to him; they
immediately lay aside their pipes when he enters. In the evening after
supper, when it would have been too great a privation to resign them, the
sons sit in front of the threshold to smoke; while we, as the guests, sit
with the old man in the room, they only take part in the conversation
through the open door.
The evening before our departure we visited a manufactory of the
celebrated Qulleh (cooling vessels), 200,000 of which are annually made;
and also the field from which the clay of which they are made is taken.
It is only one Feddan (160 square roods) in extent.
After spending a couple of days at Qeneh, we quitted it, on the 6th
March, with fifteen camels. The first day we only rode three hours, as
far as the copious spring of BIR AMBAR, charmingly situated between Palms
and Nebek-trees,[61] and provided by Ibrahim Pascha with a dome-shaped
building for the caravans. We also reached early on the following day the
second night-encampment, at the station of Leqêta. The ancient road to
Kossêr from Koptos, the present Quft, the mounds of which we saw in the
distance on our right hand, leads immediately to the projecting mountains
of El Qorn (the Horns). We did not descend into the broad Kossêr road
until we approached these mountains, and after a march of six hours
arrived at LEQÊTA at the junction of the roads from Qeneh, Quft (Koptos),
Qûs (the ancient ⲕⲱⲥ or _Apollinopolis parva_), and a fourth road, also,
leading direct from Luqsor hither. Five wells furnish here a supply of
tolerably good water; two buildings, with domes half fallen down, are
destined for the reception of travellers.
I here noticed a trait of Arabian hospitality which I must also mention.
At our last repast at Qeneh a fresh draught of the delicious Nile water
was brought me in an ornamental gilt cup, decorated with pious sayings
from the Koran. I was pleased with its simple and yet agreeable form,
the segment of a sphere, and expressed this to old Hussên, without
anticipating the answer I immediately received:—“The cup belongs to
you.” As I had nothing about me which I could give in return for the
gift, I went away shortly after, declining the civility, and left the
cup standing unnoticed. That night, when I went to rest, I found it
placed beside my bed, but the following morning I gave express orders
that it should not be packed up. We started on our journey, and in
Leqêta, where for the first time I opened my travelling-bag, my surprise
was great when the first thing I beheld was the cup carefully placed
within it. Gabre Máriam had closed my baggage, and in reply to my almost
angry inquiry how it was that the cup was here, contrary to my order, he
confessed that he had been obliged to place it at the top, by the express
wish of old Seïd Hussên. I was now, indeed, compelled to yield, and to
think of some present for him, on my return.
We again started from Leqêta the same evening, and rode three hours
farther to an old station, at the GEBEL MAÁUAD, very little used now, and
deficient in water. Our Arabs, from the tribe of the Ag´aïze, are not so
animated as the Ababde, or Bischariîn, and their camels are also inferior.
After Gebel Maáuad, we entered the hilly, sandy plain of QSUR EL BENAT,
and after another pass, the plain of RESCHRASCHI. At the end of this,
Gebel ABU GUEH rises on the left, upon which we turned our backs and went
to the right, round an angle of rock, on the precipitous sides of which,
composed of sandstone, I found engraved the Shields of the sun-worshipper
Amenophis IV., along with his consort, and over it the Sun, with rays
spread out like hands around it. Their names, as everywhere else, were
partly erased, although the King had not yet altered his name into that
of BECH-EN-ATEN. Towards mid-day we entered the primitive mountain range,
and in three-quarters of an hour arrived at the well of HAMAMÂT.
There appears to have been an ancient Coptic settlement here, and the
broad well, about 80 feet deep, lined with stones, into which there is a
descent by a winding staircase, is even now ascribed by the Arabs to the
Nazarenes (the Christians). The ancient stone-quarries, which were our
most immediate object, were situated another half hour from the well.
I pitched my head-quarters here, in a spacious grotto covered with
Egyptian and Greek inscriptions, as, by a hasty survey, we easily
perceived that we should find work which would occupy us for several
days. The ancient Egyptians, who were great lovers and eminent
connoisseurs of remarkable kinds of stone, had here found a bed of
precious green breccia, and beside it, also, some beautiful dark-coloured
veins of granite, which were worked as early as the 6th Dynasty, rather
more than B.C. 2000. There are numerous memorial inscriptions engraved
on the surrounding rocks since that period. Among them there are several
especially deserving notice, from the time of the Persian Government. The
hieroglyphic shields of Cambyses, Darius, Xerxes, Artaxerxes, are indeed
almost alone known in this spot; and a royal state architect from the
Dynasty of the Psammeteci, has displayed his whole pedigree, no less than
twenty-three families, who, _without one exception_, held this important
post, and some of them also, in connection with high priestly honours.
An ancestral mother stands at the head of the long series, who must have
lived nearly 700 years before the last link of the chain. A great number
of Greek Proskynemata allow us to infer that the stone-quarries were
still used in the time of the Greeks and Romans. For five whole days we
were occupied from morning to night with copying and taking impressions,
to the continual wonder of the small caravans which we saw almost daily
pass before us, as the principal road by which the pilgrims of Upper
Egypt, and a great part of the Sudan, pass to Kossêr and Mecca, leads
through this valley.
My original plan had been to go from Qeneh to Kossêr, and to embark
thence for Tôr. As the voyage, however, occupies a great deal of time, I
was very glad to learn in Qeneh that there is also a road from Hamamât,
across the mountain chain to Gebel Zeït, nearly opposite Tôr. I therefore
determined to take that road, difficult, indeed, but interesting, and far
shorter. At the same time I sent a messenger in advance to Kossêr to give
orders that a vessel should start for Gebel Zeït without delay, and await
us there.
In Hamamât I had also a severe contest with the Arabs, who suddenly
became apprehensive of the long road, but little known and almost devoid
of water, and who wanted rather to guide us by Kossêr along the coast.
But as my principal object was to visit certain ancient stone-quarries
in the lofty mountain range, I threatened, if they did not keep their
word, to write to the Pascha, and I made them responsible for all the
consequences. Thus after long capitulations I accomplished my plan.
Nevertheless, it was still very nearly upset, as, on the evening before
our departure, we were almost poisoned by the carelessness of our cook,
who had allowed some vinegar to stand in copper vessels. However, we
recovered happily after a night of great suffering, and on the 13th March
started from Hamamât.
We had brought with us six barrels full of water from Qeneh; the
camel-drivers were worse provided, and must consequently have suffered
much from thirst. Besides Selâm, our old trustworthy guide of the
caravan, I had brought with me in addition a special guide from Qeneh,
Selîm, who was said to be well acquainted with the mountainous district
between Hamamât and Gebel Zeït, although he had only made the journey
once before, above twelve years ago; and under his guidance, we got in
two days as far as GEBEL FATIREH. After great labour and long searching,
we re-discovered the remains of the ancient colony of workmen, who
quarried here a beautiful black and white granite. From this point,
however, the ignorance of the guide was manifested in many ways. On
the evening of the 15th of March we arrived at a high water-shed, and
were compelled to pass the night on the hard rocky ground, there being
no possibility of pitching a tent. The following day, Palm Sunday, we
suddenly came early in the morning upon a steep precipice, which descends
about 800 feet between the two chains of the MUNFÎEH mountain range. It
seemed impossible to pass the steep and dangerous path with a caravan.
The Arabs one and all protested in the most decided manner against
attempting it, and poured forth the most violent curses upon Selîm. He
was in a difficult position. He had evidently not known the difficulties
of this pass; the roads that are passable, though it is true they are
very circuitous, lead either by NECHEL DELFA, eastward, or by SCHAIB
EL BENAT, westward of this spot. To strike into one of these two roads
now, would have at least cost us two more days, and as we had already
lost a great deal of time at Gebel Fatireh, we should have run into
still greater danger of a deficiency of water, as our supply had been
calculated very exactly, and between Hamamât and Gebel Zeït we had only
the prospect of one single spring, which was said to be situated near
Gebel Dochân. I therefore gave orders, and carried my point in spite
of the most violent protestations to the contrary, that all the camels
should be unloaded on the height, and that the whole of the baggage
should be carried down on the shoulders of the Arabs. My own servants
had to begin, and we all set to work together. Chests and trunks were
taken singly from one point of rock to another; we had most difficulty
in managing the great water-casks, which could only be moved by three or
four people at once. The unloaded beasts were then carefully led down,
and thus the bold enterprise terminated successfully without any accident
or injury, amid loud and fervent appeals to Abd el Qader, the sacred
patron of the camel. After three toilsome hours, all was over, and the
beasts were again loaded.
Soon after, however, we were to encounter a far more serious danger. I
was as usual riding in advance with Max and some of the servants, and
had charged the caravan to follow the footmarks of my ass in the sand.
Towards mid-day we saw GEBEL DOCHÂN, “the Smoking Mountain,” on our
left hand, rising deep blue beyond the Munfîeh chain, and several hours
afterwards, when we emerged from the higher mountains into an undulating
and more open country, on the farther side of the wide plain, and beyond
the sea, we, for the first time, saw the distant mountains of Tôr, like
rising mist, situated in the third quarter of the globe, which we were
now about to enter.
Soon after three o’clock we came to two Bedouin huts made of mats, in
which we found a woman, and a dark-skinned boy, with beautiful eyes, who
gave us some milk. On my inquiring whether there were ancient walls in
the neighbourhood, the boy conducted us to a piece of granite rock, one
hour distant, standing isolated, surrounded by a rough, but well piled
up, wall, about 10 feet high. The square, in which the above-mentioned
rock formed the acropolis, was 70 paces long, and 60 broad; the entrance
from the south was furnished with two circular bastions; and similar
ones stood at the four corners, and in the centre of the three remaining
sides. In the interior single chambers were partitioned off, and in the
centre there was a well of burnt bricks, but which was now covered with
rubbish.[62]
According to the statements of our guide, we ought now to have been
near the water that was said to be only one half day’s journey distant
from our last night’s encampment. But the sun went down without our
having reached the desired goal. By the dim light of the moon in her
first quarter, we at length turned into a lofty rock-valley, which Selîm
assured us would certainly lead to the spring. We ascended for a long
time between bare granite precipices; the moon set, no well appeared, and
the guide confessed that he had missed the right valley. We were obliged
to turn back. The same thing occurred in a second and a third valley into
which the guide conducted us, who was now evidently quite lost, having
altered his direction more than once. He excused himself on the plea
of uncertain moonlight, and assured us that at break of day he would
immediately discover the right path. Nothing, therefore, remained but
to lie down on the hard ground, in our light riding-dresses, to take a
short disturbed sleep, without eating or drinking; for our water-bottles
had long been emptied, and we had each of us, some time before, devoured
our small provision of four biscuits. Some camel-saddles were our only
protection from the cold north wind. Thus, with the stars above and the
stones beneath us, we placed our hopes in the following morning.
With the dawn of day we again mounted. My ass, who had taken the last
scanty ration of water that had been measured out for it, more than
four-and-twenty hours back, and could not endure thirst like the camels,
would scarcely go a step farther. Selîm, however, was in good heart, and
thought we should soon get back to the right road. We found innumerable
marks of camels. “Only a little while longer,” exclaimed the guide, “and
we shall be all right.” Our hope was again revived.
Beautiful variegated blocks of granite and porphyry, which I saw lying
among the loose stones, were joyful signs to me of the vicinity of the
_Mons porphyrites_. Meanwhile, the broad valley into which we had turned
constantly became narrower, and divided into two branches, the right of
which we ascended. But this also divided once more, and like the valleys
described above, everything round us led to the sad conviction that
here we were again upon the wrong path; I made a halt to give some rest
to our tired animals, and sent the guide forward alone to find out his
right road. Hungry, and above all, thirsting for a draught of water,
we encamped in the shadow of a rock-precipice. We were in a critical
position. I had begun to doubt whether our guide would ever find the
spring in this desert and uniformly barren mountainous region. And where
was our caravan? Had it found its way to the water? If, as hitherto
had been the case, it had followed the footmarks of my ass, which were
distinguished singly among the innumerable tracks of camels, then it was
lost like ourselves. We waited impatiently for Selîm; he could at least
lead us back to the Arab huts, which we had seen the previous day. But
one hour after the other passed away: Selîm did not come. The sun rose
higher, and deprived us of the narrow shadow of the mountain precipice,
beside which we had halted. We sat silent upon the burning stones. We
did not venture to leave the spot for fear of missing Selîm. Had he met
with an accident, or could he have forgotten himself so far as only to
think of his own preservation, and to leave us to our fate, which is said
to have happened some years ago to three Turks, in this same desert, who
were never seen again? Or was Selîm too weary to return back to us? He
had been on foot almost all the way, and must consequently be much more
exhausted than we were.
From time to time we mounted the nearest heights, and fired off our
guns. All in vain! We were at length compelled to yield to the cheerless
conviction that we should not see our guide again. After waiting four
hours, mid-day had arrived, and with it the latest time to start, if we
could still cling to the faint hope of again finding out the Arab huts,
which must be about six hours distant from us. To search any longer for
the spring of water would have been madness, as even Selîm had not found
it; Gebel Zeït, where our vessel lay, was two and a half days’ journey
distant, and the Nile, on the other side of the mountain range, five
days’ journey off: the camels had drank nothing for four days, and the
ass was already completely exhausted.
We, therefore, started once more. My companions had done everything
that I proposed, but I never felt more severely the responsibility I
was under for others, whose lives were at stake with my own, than when
forming that lingering determination. It seemed foolhardy to think of
travelling without our guide, only directed by the stars, in this totally
uninhabited and barren mountainous land, lost as we already were, and
brought still more out of our right direction by the crossed and crooked
paths we had pursued during the night; nevertheless, it was our last
resource.
After deliberating for some time, we determined to ride back to the
principal valley, which we had passed through that morning so full of
hope; the endless variety of bare, jagged mountain precipices, however,
and the valleys without a tree or bush, filled only with rubbish and
loose stones, leave such a completely uniform impression, that none of us
would ever have recognised this principal valley, had we not felt sure
that we were right by the direction and probable distance. At the outlet
of this valley we were obliged again to enter the region of the lower
hills, between which, towards the south, it seemed at least there was a
possibility of finding the Arab huts, as I had taken the position of the
magnet, with reference to the highest point of Dochân, from the mountain
fortress, which was not too far removed from that spot. The huts, indeed,
were so concealed, that we might ride past them at a short distance
without observing them; perhaps, even the mats might to-day be set up in
a different place. Thus we were lost in the wide, burning desert, without
a guide, tormented by increasing hunger and thirst, and so far as human
calculation went, wholly in the hands of chance. Silently we descended
in the burning, mid-day heat, each occupied with his own reflections,
when suddenly—I shall never forget that moment—two men emerged from the
nearest angle of the rock; they rushed towards us, embraced our knees,
kissed our hands, offered us water from their pitchers, and continued to
repeat their congratulations and salutations with touching joy. “El hamdu
l’illah!” Praised be God! sounded from all sides. We were saved.
Our caravan, from which the two Arabs came, had as usual followed our
traces, and therefore, like us, got into the wrong road; but Ibrahim Aga,
soon perceiving our error, had halted early in the day, and during the
night kindled small fires on some of the hills with the scanty materials
for burning which had been collected with difficulty, and he had almost
fired off all his powder. But the wind blew towards the opposite
quarter, and we heard none of the signals of our anxious comrades. The
following morning they had proceeded onwards, and owing to Sheikh Selâm’s
surprising knowledge of the locality, though he had only once been
here above five-and-twenty years before, they reached the road to the
spring. Nevertheless, Ibrahim Aga made the caravan encamp one hour before
arriving at it, as all traces of us had disappeared, and anxious about
our fate, he sent patrols of Arabs into the mountains in search of us.
How strange, then, that during this very quarter of an hour we should
have again struck into the great valley, where we could not fail to
meet this message. As we had reached our side valley over the mountain,
no marks of our beasts could lead thither, as here these generally
disappeared upon the stones; had we therefore started but a few minutes
later, they would certainly have passed us, and had we descended the
valley earlier than this, we should have forthwith bent our steps to the
right towards the huts, and turned our backs on the caravan, encamped far
away on our left hand.
About two o’clock we reached the encampment, which we entered amidst
universal cries of joy. The greatest surprise was expressed at not
finding Selîm with us—he was given up by all. I would not, however, allow
the camp to break up, but had the camels at once led alone to the spring.
The Arabs were again sent into the mountains in search of Selîm, and I
remained the rest of the day quietly in my tent.
Towards evening some Arabs returned from the spring, bearing with
them, upon a camel, Selîm, hardly in possession of his senses, his
feet bleeding and bound up. He had been found speechless, lying beside
the reservoir of water, his mouth open, his body swollen from having
taken an immoderate draught of the water. How he came there we could
not immediately learn, for he answered none of our questions. He
must, however, have at length found his way out of the high mountains
accidentally, or by the wonderful faculty possessed by the Arab of
following tracks. At present, perhaps, it was rather his fears of the
serious consequences which might ensue from the wretched trick he had
played us which rendered him speechless. When he observed that he had
excited our compassion, he very soon recovered. I no longer, however,
retained him near my person, but for the remainder of the journey took
the old, trustworthy Sheikh Selâm as our guide in front, and left the
former behind with the caravan.
GEBEL DOCHÂN, the porphyry mountain, our real object in this district,
and which had occasioned the whole enterprise, now after all lay
far behind us. We had been riding for several hours continuously
at its base, as I had suspected even the day before, in spite of
Selîm’s assurance to the contrary, for we had incorrectly fancied the
spring was in its neighbourhood. None of the caravan had ever seen
the stone-quarries and the remains of the ancient colony of workmen.
Nevertheless, I determined to venture upon a second attempt the following
day, which was successful.
I set out at daybreak with Max, the Sheikh Selâm, and a young, active
Arab. The huts had not been observed by the caravan, and were also
situated too much towards the east for us. We therefore rode straight
towards the highest point of the group of Dochân. It so chanced, that
just as we were in the neighbourhood of the river, we met an Abâdi from
one of the huts with some camels, for which he was seeking out some
pasture ground. With his assistance we soon attained our object.
We first found the large opening to a well built up with unhewn stones;
it was 12 feet in diameter, but was now fallen to pieces and filled
up with rubbish. Five pillars were still standing on the western
side, most likely formerly belonging to a covered hall; a sixth was
demolished. Three hundred paces farther up the valley a temple, now in
ruins, was erected on a granite rock projecting from the left side of
the valley. The walls were formed of unhewn stones, the finer parts of
the architecture were, however, very delicately chiselled out of red
granite. A staircase of twenty steps led from the north to the paved
outer court, which was surrounded by a wall, and in the middle stood a
rough granite altar. On the left hand four cell-chambers were attached
to this court, the most southern of which, however, had partly fallen
with its rock-basis. Another small chamber had been joined to these as
the rock offered space for it, in which stood a tolerably large altar,
but also without inscriptions. In front of these chambers, in the centre
of the court, at an elevation of several feet, and with a foundation of
sharply-cut blocks of granite, rose an Ionic portico, which consisted
of four monolithic slender and swelling granite columns, whose bases
and voluted capitals, with the blocks of the gables and architraves, lay
scattered around in ruins. The long dedicatory inscriptions mentioned
that the temple had been consecrated under the Emperor HADRIAN to ZEUS
HELIOS SERAPIS, by the Eparch, Rammius Martialis. To the left of the well
the ruins of the town are situated on an elevated spot. It was in the
form of a square, and, as usual, fortified with towers. In the centre
there was another well, the chief requisite of every station, built of
burnt bricks, and covered with a coating of lime. Eight rough, slender,
granite pillars form the entrance to the well.
An ancient precipitous road leads to the adjoining mountain, and conducts
to the porphyry quarries, which were situated immediately beneath
its summit; they furnished the beautiful deep red porphyry which is
displayed in so many monuments of the imperial time. Broad veins of it,
which were worked to a considerable depth, passed between another kind
of rock of a blue colour, sprinkled with white, and a rock of almost a
red brick colour. We found five or six quarries beside each other, the
largest about 40 paces square. I could nowhere discover wedge-holes
for splitting; on the contrary, the bluish rock immediately beside the
quarry, which was pulverised nearly as fine as sand, seemed to indicate
the application of fire. In the town, also, I found lofty and peculiar
heaps of ashes.
From the quarries I ascended to the summit of the mountain, affording
an extensive and glorious prospect over the mountains in the immediate
vicinity to the plain, which declined rapidly from the hilly district to
a sandy level extending to the sea; and on the opposite side of the blue
surface of the water, we descried the lofty range of Tôr. After I had
taken a number of observations with the compass I re-descended, and after
sunset once more reached our camp at the MOIE MESSÂID.
The 19th of March we crossed the plain to the ENNED mountains, stretching
along the sea-coast, which we traversed by a valley running diagonally
across them. An abundant spring here came to the surface, whose rippling
waters accompanied us for a long while. It might be considered the _Fons
Tadnos_ of Pliny, as its water has only recently become brackish and
undrinkable, from the bed of natron on the surface. We left the ruins
of ABU SCHAR, the ancient _Myos hormos_ or _Philoteras portus_, on our
right, and encamped on the peninsula of GIMSCHEH, which is called by the
Arabs, KEBRIT, from the sulphur which is there obtained.
Yesterday morning we rode to the Bay of Gebel Zeït, between the Enned
mountains and the sea-shore. The Range of Tôr, which floated before
sunrise in a milky blue colour over the surface of the sea, stood out
faintly from the sky; its outline only disappeared with the rising sun.
After mid-day we arrived at GEBEL ZEÏT, the oil mountain. Our vessel,
which had been appointed to meet us from Kossêr, made the voyage from
thence in six days, and had already waited four days for our arrival. The
camels were dismissed here, and returned the same evening.
One quarter of an hour north of our anchorage were the ZEITIEH; such is
the name given to five or six pits, hollowed out in the sandy shore, or
in the rock, and which fill with blackish-brown naphtha, like syrup. A
few years ago researches were set on foot by Em Bey, who was in hopes of
finding coal beneath, though hitherto they have had no success.
Yesterday evening it was a perfect calm. It was only during the night
that a light wind rose from the north, which we immediately availed
ourselves of, for setting sail. With the wind in our favour we might have
accomplished the passage across in one night; but now the day is again
drawing to a close, and we have not yet reached the port. The ship of
burden scarcely stirs, though the long oars have been at length set in
motion.
The sailors of this sea are very different from those on the Nile.
Their deportment is more reserved, less sly and subservient. Their
songs, which commence at the first stroke of the oar, consist of
fragmentary short lines, which are sung first by one, and are taken up
by another, while the remainder utter short and deep grunting sounds,
as an accompaniment, at equal intervals. The Rais, on an elevated seat,
rows along with the others. He is a negro, as well as several others
among the sailors, but one of the handsomest and strongest Moors that I
ever saw—a real Othello; when making his athletic movements, he rolls
his yellow-white eyes, shows his dazzling teeth, and gives the tone to
the song, leading it for a length of time, with a shrill, piercing, but
skilful voice.
LETTER XXXII.
_Convent on Mount Sinai, the 24th March, 1845. Easter Monday._
On the evening of Good Friday we landed in Tôr by moonlight. The harbour
is now so much sanded up, that our vessel was obliged to lie off several
hundred paces, and we were landed in a boat. We were met on shore by
the old Greek NICOLA JANNI, who had before received EHRENBERG, LEON DE
LABORDE, RÜPPELL, ISENBERG, and other well-known travellers; and he had
favourable testimonials to produce of the reception they had met with
from him. After long negotiations with the insolent Arabs, who, when they
discovered we were in a hurry, and that they were indispensable to us,
endeavoured in all ways to overreach us, we started early the day before
yesterday from Tôr, limiting ourselves to what was absolutely necessary
for the land journey; and we sent the vessel to await us at Cape ABU
ZELÎMEH.
Our road led in a due northerly direction to the mouth of WADI HEBRÂN,
across the plain of EL G´EʾAH, which, being five or six hours broad, is
situated between the sea and mountain. On first starting, however, I
made a digression to the hot springs of GEBEL HAMMÂM. They are situated
at the southern end of the isolated line of mountains, which, commencing
one hour to the north of Tôr, extends to the sea-shore. I again met
the caravan at the well of EL HAI, which is pleasantly situated, on
the direct road, between gardens of palm-trees. The ground gradually
rises from the sea-coast to beyond this well. As soon as we got an open
prospect over the whole plain, and to the lofty range which descends
towards the south-west in a steep and regularly declining chain to the
extremity of the Peninsula, I took the points of the compass, with
reference to all the places of any note, the mouths of valleys, and
summits of mountains, which the guides were able to name. About half-past
five I reached the foot of the mountain range. Here already, at the
entrance of the valley, I observed the first SINAITIC Inscription on the
black blocks of stone. A little farther on we came to the small piece of
water shaded by some palm-trees, where we spent the night.
Yesterday we traversed the WADI HEBRÂN, which separates the group of
Serbâl from the principal range of Gebel Mûsa, crossed over NAKB EL
EGAUI, which forms the water-shed between the west and east, and turning
from this point southwards, over NAKB EL HAUI, the wind-saddle, we
reached the CONVENT on Easter Sunday, as the sun was setting. We were
drawn, like other travellers, up the high wall of the fortification, to
the entrance, although there is another entrance through the convent
garden, or more level ground, but which they are only in the habit
of using from within. The aged and worthy prior, who is mentioned by
Robinson, had died that year in Cairo, and had been replaced by another,
Demetrius Nicodemus, who is said to hold the rank of a bishop.
As it is a Greek convent, instead of Easter rejoicings we came to a
strict season of fasting. But independently of that, the whole life and
habits of the four priests and twenty-one lay brothers made by no means
such an edifying impression as we might have expected to witness in
this spot. A gloomy spirit of wearisome sloth and ignorance hangs like a
cloud of mist over their discontented countenances. Yet these fugitives
from this world of cares are wandering beneath an ever cheerful sky of
moderate temperature, are alone able, of all the inhabitants of this
sultry wilderness, to refresh themselves beneath the dark shade of the
cypress, palm, and olive-tree, and have besides in their possession a
library of 1500 volumes, not in the smallest degree considering the best
purpose for which they are intended—viz., a ἰατρεῖον ψυχῆς.[63]
To-day we ascended GEBEL MÛSA. In my own imagination, and by the
descriptions of former travellers, it formed the actual centre of the
whole range; but this is not the case. Both in elevation and in the
planimetrical projection of the whole mass of the primitive range, it
forms part of the north-eastern slope. The convent in a direct line is
_three times_ as near the eastern border of the range as the western.
Even Gebel Katherîn, situated immediately to the south, is loftier than
the almost concealed summit of Gebel Mûsa, which is invisible to the
whole of the surrounding country. Still higher mountains rise on the
farther side of Katherîn, but in steps, as for example, UM RIGLIN, ABU
SCHEGERE, QETTÂR, &c., as far as UM SCHÔMAR, which towers up over all
the others, and stands in the centre of the eastern and western slope of
the whole elevation, forming the principal and most northern vertebra
of the long backbone of the range, which passes down to the south, and
determines the direction of the whole Peninsula. All the way up Gebel
Mûsa, along with the various spots which are connected with holy legends,
was a walk amidst the wildest and grandest natural features; it reminded
me of being led through a castle of historical renown, where the places
of rest and study, &c., of some great king are exhibited.
On our return from Gebel Mûsa, we ascended the actual brow of the
so-called HOREB, which Robinson regards as the TRUE SINAI instead of
Gebel Mûsa, which has hitherto been viewed as such. We passed several
hermit’s huts and chapels, till we at length reached one, situated in a
rocky basin, behind which the principal mass of Horeb rises up abruptly
and grandly. There is no accessible road to it. We clambered up, first
through a precipitous cleft in the rock, then over the brows of the rock
towards the south. About half-past five we reached the summit, just
above the great plain of Râha, on the immense round-formed mountain top,
which has such a grand appearance from the plain. Robinson seems to have
attempted this road at first, but to have given it up afterwards, and
mounted to the top of Sessâf, which certainly is loftier, but situated a
little to the westward, and does not project into the plain as the actual
central point, like the knob which we ascended.[64] Our companions, with
the exception of one active Arab boy, had remained behind, as it was, in
fact, a dangerous ascent. Even this site did not allow me to entertain
the view that Moses ever stood upon a rock that was visible from this
valley, if the narrative is to be understood in so literal a manner. We
did not ascend Gebel Katherîn, as it has fewer historical claims even
than Gebel Mûsa.
LETTER XXXIII.
_On the Red Sea, the 6th April, 1845._
I shall employ our tranquil sea voyage, which will last for several days
longer, in arranging the various materials I have collected on the
Peninsula, and combining the principal events of this episode in our
journey. I shall send a more detailed account of it from Thebes.[65]
These lines, however, shall be handed over to Seïd Hussên in Qeneh, and
shall be forwarded to the north by the first opportunity.
We left the convent on the 25th March, towards evening, and passed
downwards through the broad WADI E’ SCHEIKH. I selected this roundabout
way, as formerly, before the wild defile of Nakb el Haui was rendered
passable, this valley was the only way by which the Israelites, if they
were desirous of marching to the plains of Râha, could have reached that
spot.[66] We spent the night in the upper part of the valley, near the
tomb of the holy SHEIKH SALIH, from whom it receives the name of WADI
E’ SCHEIKH. In the lower portion of the valley we first meet with the
manna-yielding shrubs of Tarfa,[67] and the Sinaitic inscriptions on
the sides of the valley become more frequent. But before reaching the
outlet of the valley, we quitted it and climbed over to our left into
the WADI SELÂF, which lower down joins the Wadi e’ Scheikh, in order to
reach the foot of SERBÂL, by the shortest road from this. We had already
frequently seen at every opening on the road the huge rocky summit rising
above the surrounding mountainous district, and the accounts given us by
the Arabs, of the fertile and irrigated WADI FIRÂN at its base, had long
made me desirous of becoming better acquainted with it. I had resolved to
ascend the mountain, and therefore made them lead us into the WADI RIM,
that runs down from the mountain into the Wadi Selâf, which passes along
Serbâl. After riding upwards of an hour in this valley, we came to an
old stone hut, which might have once sheltered a hermit; soon afterwards
we found some Arab tents, and at a short distance beyond these, several
Sittere-trees, which we selected for our place of encampment.
On the 27th March we rose early to ascend the mountain Derb e’ Serbâl.
The true road to Serbâl leads from WADI FIRÂN through Wadi Aleyât to
the mountain. We were forced to go round its south-eastern extremity,
and ascend behind from the south, as it would have been far beyond our
powers to clamber up the heights through the Rim ravine, which descends
precipitously, and in a direct line between the two eastern summits. One
quarter of an hour above our encampment we came to a spring, shaded by
Nebek, Hamâda, and Palm-trees, whose fresh, pure water, was walled round
to the depth of several feet. We then climbed over a small rib of the
mountain, on which there again stood several ancient stone houses, down
into another branch of the Rim valley (Rim el mehâsni), and in an hour
and a half reached the south-eastern angle of the mountain. From this
point we pursued a paved road of rock, which was even sometimes supported
by masonry work. This led us to an artificial terrace and a wall, the
remains, as it appeared, of a house that had been destroyed, and to
a cool spring, shaded by tall reeds, a palm-tree, and several Jassur
bushes[68] (from which the Moses rods are cut); the whole mountain is
here overgrown with Habak, and other sweet-smelling herbs. Some minutes
farther on we came to several caves in the rock, which once served as
hermit’s cells; and after wandering for almost four hours we reached a
small plateau spreading out between the summits, where we again found
a house with two rooms. A road led over this level ground to the edge
of the western side of the mountain, which sinks at first steep and
rugged, then in more gently-inclined wide ribs, to the sandy plain of EL
G´EʾAH, and here disclosed to me across the sea a glorious prospect of
the opposite coast, and the Egyptian chain of mountains bounding it. From
this point the rock-path suddenly descended along the ragged mountain
declivity into a wild, deep basin, round which the five summits of Serbâl
meet in a semicircle, forming one mighty crown. In the middle of this
basin, called WADI SIʾQELJI, are the ruins of an old convent, to which
the mountain path leads, which unfortunately we had not time to visit.[69]
I therefore returned across the level space, and then began to ascend
the most southern of the summits of Serbâl. When I had almost got to
the top of the precipitous height, I thought I observed that the second
summit was somewhat higher, and therefore hastened down again, and sought
out a way to reach this. We passed a small piece of water, and were
obliged to go almost round the whole basin, till we at length succeeded
in clambering up it, from the north-east side. Here, to my astonishment,
between the two points into which the summit is divided, I found a small
level valley, plentifully supplied with shrubs and herbs, and from this
I first ascended the one, then the other point, and by the assistance
of my guide, who was conversant with the spot, I took the points of
the compass with reference to all the places of note which might here
be surveyed in the wide horizon. For instance, I could clearly perceive
how the mountain summits beyond Gebel Mûsa continue to rise higher, and
that the distant UM SCHÔMAR rose above all the others. We did not set
out on our return till four o’clock, so that we were obliged to avoid
the circuitous road by which we had ascended, unless we were desirous of
being overtaken by darkness. We therefore determined to leap down, from
block to block like chamois, and follow the precipitous rocky ravine,
which led almost in a straight line to our camp in Wadi Rim, and in two
hours and a half, with trembling knees, we reached our tent by this
impracticable path, the most difficult and the most fatiguing that I ever
trod in the whole course of my life.
The following day we proceeded farther, and passing through Wadi Selâf,
and the lowest part of Wadi e’ Scheikh, we reached the WADI FIRÂN—this
most precious jewel of the Peninsula, with its Palms and groves of Tarfa,
on the banks of a lovely rushing stream, which, winding among shrubs and
flowers, conducted us to the old convent mountain of the town of PHARAN,
the FIRÂN of the present day. Everything that we had hitherto seen, and
what we afterwards saw, was naked, stony desert compared to this fertile
oasis, abounding in wood and water. For the first time since we had left
the Nile valley, we once more walked on soft black earth, obliged to
defend ourselves with our arms from the overhanging leafy branches, and
we heard singing birds warbling in the thick foliage. At the point where
the broad Wadi Aleyât, descending from Serbâl, enters Wadi Firân, and
where the valley spreads out into a spacious level tract, there rises
in the centre of it a rocky hill called HERERAT, on the summit of which
are the ruins of an ancient convent building. At its foot stood once a
magnificent church, constructed of well-hewn blocks of sandstone, the
ruins of which are built into the houses of the town situated on the
slope of the opposite mountain.
The same evening I went up Wadi Aleyât, passing innumerable
rock-inscriptions, to a well, surrounded by Palm and Nebek trees, where
I enjoyed the entire prospect of the majestic mountain chain. Apart
from all the other mountains, and united into one single mass, Serbâl
rises, at first in a slope of moderate inclination, afterwards in steep
precipices, with chasms, to the height of 6000 feet (above the sea).
Nothing could equal the scene when the valleys and low mountains around
were already veiled in the shadows of night, and the summits of the
mountain still glowed above the colourless grey, like a fiery cloud in
the sinking sun.
The following morning I repeated my visit to Wadi Aleyât, and completed
my observations of the whole of this remarkable district, the principal
features of which I had already noted down from the summit of Serbâl.
The most fertile district of Wadi Firân is enclosed between two hills
which rise from the centre of the valley; the upper one of these two
is called EL BUÊB, the lower, situated at the outlet of Wadi Aleyât,
MEHARRET or HERERAT. In very ancient times the valley appears to have
been closed in here, and the waters rushing down from all sides, even
from Gebel Mûsa, into this basin, appear to have united into a lake. It
is only in this manner that we can explain the very remarkable deposit
of earth, which extends along the sides of the valley to between eighty
and a hundred feet high, and no doubt it is this remarkable position
of Firân, as the lowest point of a large mountainous district, which
occasions the unusual supply of water that issues forth at this point.
Directly behind the convent hill we found the narrow bed of the valley
as stony and barren as the more elevated valleys, although the brook was
still visible by our side for half an hour. The violent irruption of
those primitive waters permitted no more deposits of earth in this spot.
It was only at the next still more decided bend of the valley, called EL
HESSUE, that a few more groups of palm-trees appeared. Here the brook
disappeared in a cleft of the rock, as suddenly as it had burst forth
behind Buêb, and we did not see it again.
After being five hours on the road, we quitted Wadi Firân, that here
turned off to the left hand towards the sea, and we emerged from the
primitive mountains into a more level region of sandstone. The loftier
range retreated towards the north-west, and encircled in a great bow
the hilly, sandy district that we traversed. We next came to the WADI
MOKATTEB, the “valley with inscriptions,” which derives its name from the
immense numbers of inscriptions which are to be found here in several
places. It is easy to perceive, that it is those places sheltered from
the mid-day sun, which invited passing travellers on the road to Firân
to engrave their names and short mottoes in the soft rock. We took
impressions on paper of as many of them as we could obtain, or copied
with the pen those which were less adapted for an impression. We found
these inscriptions scattered singly, in the most various, and frequently
very remote places of the Peninsula, and taking them altogether, I have
no doubt whatever that they were engraved by the inhabitants of the
country during the first centuries before and after Christ. I sometimes
found them cut over more ancient Greek names, and not unfrequently
Christian crosses are connected with them. These inscriptions are
habitually called SINAITIC, which would not be inappropriate, if thereby
the whole Peninsula of Sinai was intended to be designated as the spot
where they are found. But we must observe, that on Gebel Mûsa itself,
which is regarded as Sinai, very few single and short inscriptions
of this kind have been found, such as those which, after careful
observation, are to be met with in almost all spots adapted to them, but
that, on the contrary, their actual centre was rather PHARAN, at the foot
of SERBÂL.
On the 31st of March we again reached the lofty chain which turns
back from the east, and marched through Wadi Qeneh into the small
WADI MAGHÂRA, which branches off from it, and in which the sandstone
and primitive rock border on one another. Here we found, high up in
the northern sandstone precipices, the remarkable Egyptian rock stele
belonging to the earliest monuments generally known to us among Egyptian
antiquities.[70] As early as the 4th Manethonic Dynasty, the same which
built the great Pyramids of Gizeh, in Egypt, more than 3000 years before
our era, _copper mines_ were discovered in this wilderness, which were
worked by a colony of labourers. Even then the Peninsula was inhabited by
Asiatic, probably Semetic races, for which reason we frequently see the
Pharaoh represented in those rock-images as conqueror over the enemies of
Egypt. Almost all the inscriptions belong to the Old Monarchy; we only
found one from the period when King Tuthmosis III. and his sister reigned
together.
From this point I was anxious to take the shortest road to the second
place in the Peninsula, where there are ancient Egyptian monuments,
SARBUT EL CHÂDEM. But there was no direct road over this lofty range
to its slope on the other and north-easterly side, so we were obliged
to return to WADI MOKATTEB, and get across the mountains by a very
circuitous route through WADI SITTERE and WADI SICH. As we again emerged,
we had the immeasurable plateau in front of us, which includes the whole
of the north of the Peninsula, and consists of one single vast bed of
sandstone. This, however, descends towards the south by two steps, so
that the prospect seems as if it were bounded by two lofty mountain
precipices retreating at about equal distances into the far distance. The
descent nearest to the south, called E’ TIH, sinks to a flat, broad sandy
valley, DEBBET E’ RAMLEH, while the masses of sandstone rock, on this
side, seem to be as high as the general plateau.
On a terrace protruding far into the broad valley, which we climbed with
great difficulty, are the wonderful monuments of SARBUT EL CHÂDEM, which
appear no less so, even to those who are prepared to behold them. The
oldest representations led us also here into the Old Monarchy, but only
as far back as its last dynasty, the twelfth of the Manethonic list. In
this period, under AMENEMHA III., a small rock-grotto was excavated,
and furnished with an ante-chamber; lofty steles were erected outside,
at different distances, and without any determined arrangement, the one
lying most remote being a short quarter of an hour distant on the highest
point of the plateau. During the New Monarchy, TUTHMOSIS III. enlarged
the building towards the west, and added a small pylon with an outer
court. The later kings had built an additional long series of chambers,
one in front of the other, in the same direction, solely, as it appears,
for the purpose of protecting the memorial stele erected upon them from
the weather, especially from the sharp wind, often loaded with sand,
which has now almost totally destroyed the ancient steles, which were
even at that time unprotected. The latest stele exhibits the Shields of
the last king of the 19th Dynasty, therefore since that time, or soon
afterwards, the place was probably deserted by the Egyptians.
The divinity who was here peculiarly worshipped in the New Monarchy,
was HATHOR, with the epithet which is also found in the Wadi Maghâra,
“Mistress of MAFKAT”—_i. e._ of the _copper country_, for _mafka_ in
hieroglyphics, as well as still in the Coptic language, meant “copper.”
Therefore no doubt copper was also obtained here. This was confirmed by
a peculiar appearance, which, strange to say, seems to have been left
unnoticed by all previous travellers. To the east and west, namely of the
temple, may be seen great mounds of slag, which, by their black colour,
form a strong contrast with all that surrounds them. These artificial
elevations, the largest of which is 256 paces long, and from 60 to 120
broad, are situated on a tongue of land forming a terrace that projects
into the valley; they are coated over with a solid crust of slag between
4 and 5 feet thick, and are covered to their base with separate fragments
of slag to the depth of 12 to 15 feet. The ground shows that the mines
could not have been situated in the immediate neighbourhood, their site
might, however, easily be discovered by the ancient roads, which are
still visible, leading to the mountain range, but unfortunately we had
not sufficient time to accomplish this. Hence it appears that this open
spot was probably selected merely for smelting the ore, on account of the
keen draught of wind, which, as we were assured by the Arabs, is here
almost incessantly blowing.
The 3rd of April we rode on farther, visited the Wadi Nasb, in which we
also found the traces of ancient smelting places, and the following day,
towards evening, reached our ship, which had been waiting for us several
days, in the harbour of ABU ZELÎMEH.
We here, to our no small surprise, found four German journeymen; two of
them Prussians, from the district of the Neisse, in Silesia. They had
started from Cairo with the intention of visiting Sinai, and reached
Suez safely; had there waited in vain for a ship, and at length, like
genuine modern Crusaders, started alone to attain their bold object. They
had been told (hardly in good German) that the way was short, and could
not be missed, and that there was no want of water. Possessed with this
happy belief, their pilgrim’s bottle filled to the brim, they entered the
wilderness. But the footsteps of the children of Israel had long since
disappeared, and no pillar of smoke went before them. The third day they
lost their way, their bread was consumed, they had missed the wells,
had several times been stopped by Arabs, and only escaped being robbed
because they possessed nothing worth robbing; and thus they certainly
would have been starved in the wilderness, had they not looked down from
the mountains and beheld our vessel on the coast many hours distant,
and fortunately reached it before our arrival. On my inquiring about
the trades, to perfect which, they had undertaken this journey to the
East, and also whether they hoped to find employment with the monks on
Mount Sinai, as they had no money with them, it appeared that one was
a carpenter, who was in hopes of making himself very useful there; I
was, alas! compelled to inform him, that he would have to compete with a
lay-brother in that department; the other was a shoemaker, the third a
stocking-weaver, and the fourth, after some hesitation, confessed that he
was a woman’s tailor. Nothing remained but to take these strange people
along with us in the vessel, although they were regarded with a jealous
eye by the sailors, as we began to feel some scarcity in the supply of
water. I landed them at Tôr, and arranged that some one should accompany
them thence to the convent.
Besides the remarkable _Egyptian_ monumental sites of this copper
country, and the so-called _Sinaitic_ inscriptions, I was chiefly
occupied during the journey with geographical inquiries in connection
with the sojourn of the _Israelites_ on the Peninsula. I think I have
arrived at some results with respect to this, deviating, indeed, in
essential points, from what has hitherto been admitted; but if they
are correct, they furnish some important features for the historical
and geographical background of that most important event in the Old
Testament. I will here only point out briefly some of the chief points,
of which I will say more when I write from Thebes.
I became doubtful, even in the convent at GEBEL MÛSA, whether the holy
mount of the law-giving could have been situated here. Since I have seen
SERBÂL and WADI FIRÂN at its base, besides a great part of the rest of
the country, I have become convinced that SERBÂL must be recognised as
SINAI, in preference to the other.[71]
The monkish tradition of the present day is of no value to the
unprejudiced inquirer.[72] Whoever has once occupied himself earnestly
with such matters is aware of this. Even in Jerusalem it is for the
most part useless, and has not the slightest weight, if unsupported by
original authorities, how much more so in the Peninsula of Sinai, where
far more remote questions, both as to time and place, are treated of. In
the long interval of time between the law-giving and the first centuries
of the Christian era, Sinai is only once mentioned in a passage referring
to a later historical event, as the “Mount of God, HOREB,” to which
Elijah retires.[73] It would, in fact, be most strange if the tradition
had never received an interruption during this period, although the
population of the Peninsula had meantime changed so much that we are no
longer able to point out with certainty a single Old Testament name for
a locality; and even the Greeks and Romans were unacquainted with those
ancient designations.[74] We are, therefore, referred solely to the
Mosaic narrative to prove the correctness of our present assumptions.
We must further premise with respect to this, that the general
geographical conditions of the Peninsula have not essentially altered
since the days of Moses. Whoever takes refuge in the opposite
supposition, may indeed prove everything, but for that very reason proves
nothing. It is, however, just as important to bear in mind distinctly the
_historical_ conditions of the different periods, because these indeed
were calculated to produce partial alterations of particular districts.
Accordingly, no one will be able to deny that WADI FIRÂN, abounding at
all times, and therefore in the time of Moses, in water, and possessing
a rich soil, must, in consequence of its incomparable fertility and
its inexhaustible rapid stream, have been the most important and the
most desirable central spot of the whole Peninsula. For this wonderful
Oasis, in the centre of the ever barren wilderness, was subject even
then, as now, to the general conditions of the surface of the ground in
that country. On the other hand, it is however no less certain, that the
vicinity of the present convent of GEBEL MÛSA was formerly, in spite
of the scanty springs of water also appearing on the surface there,
but which merely moisten the ground immediately surrounding them, just
as barren as all the other parts of that mountainous wilderness, only
furnishing sufficient water for the inhabitants of the convent by means
of a draw-well dug into the rock;[75] and after more than a thousand
years of artificial irrigation, the most careful employment of every
means of cultivation only enabled them to make small plantations, such
as exist there at the present time.[76] In ancient times there was not
the slightest reason for making that wilderness habitable by artificial
means, the rather as it was situated away from the great roads connecting
the different parts of the Peninsula, and formed an actual _cul de sac_,
with only one single entrance through the Wadi e’ Scheikh.
On the other hand, there is another spot in the Peninsula which was a
position of great importance long before the time of Moses, and even
in his days, but has lost it since that time: it is the harbour of
ABU ZELÎMEH. It was to this point that the roads led from the three
different mines that hitherto we have become acquainted with. They
proceeded from WADI MAGHÂRA, SARBUT EL CHÂDEM, and WADI NASB. There was
no more convenient landing-place than this, to connect Egypt with those
colonies; indeed, our sailors decidedly affirmed that it was the best
harbour on the whole coast, not excepting that of Tôr. The Egyptians
were therefore compelled to provide, above all things, for a copious
supply of water, in the most immediate neighbourhood of that spot. As
this was neither furnished by the sandy sea-coast, nor by valleys,
which had their outlets here, wells no doubt were made at the nearest
spots which offered a likelihood of yielding water from below ground.
Such a spot was discovered at the lower outlet of the Wadi Schebêkeh
(called by others Tâibeh), where even now, there are a number of Palms,
and many other trees, consequently a moist soil, although there is no
appearance of a spring.[77] This, therefore, would have been the most
suitable point to dig for water, and to make a well. No one now differs
in opinion that the place of encampment at the RED SEA, mentioned after
Elim in the Book of Numbers,[78] was near ABU ZELÎMEH. In Exodus this
statement is omitted, and the _twelve wells_ and _seventy palm-trees_
of ELIM are alone mentioned.[79] What, therefore, can be a more natural
conclusion, or indeed an almost unavoidable one, than that the wells
and palms of Elim were situated about an hour distant from the outlet
of the valley whose entrance was at the harbour of Abu Zelîmeh, and for
that very reason in Exodus, the encampment on the sea, is related as
being not specially separated from ELIM, the watering station of the
harbour, which probably bore the same name. According to the statements
that have been hitherto admitted, as well as those of Robinson, the
twelve wells of Elim were situated in the WADI GHARANDEL, by the latest
calculations[80] between eight and nine hours distant from the port, a
long day’s journey, therefore useless for the supply of that important
spot. It is not easy to perceive what could have occasioned twelve wells
to be made precisely in Wadi Gharandel, where even now the brackish
water of that whole district appears on the surface in somewhat greater
abundance than elsewhere. In addition to this, we should further be
compelled to transfer the station of MARA, which immediately preceded
it, to an insignificant spring not more than an hour and a half, or
two hours distant from Wadi Gharandel, while the succeeding station is
assumed to be at the distance of eight hours. To me, it seems scarcely
possible to doubt that the first three desert marches conducted as far as
WADI GHARANDEL, _i. e._ MARA, the fourth, to the harbour station of ABU
ZELÎMEH, _i. e._ ELIM.
It is only in this manner that we can understand their progress, when
it is said, “And they took their journey from Elim—and came unto the
wilderness of _Sin, which is between Elim and Sinai_.”[81] The boundary
of two provinces at Wadi Gharandel would geographically be just as
inconceivable, as it is natural at Abu Zelîmeh. The harbour, with its
small plain situated between the Nochol rock and Gebel Hammâm Faraûn,
forms in fact, by the rock protruding into the sea, the most important
geographical section of the whole coast.[82]
The northern plateau sinking uniformly towards the sea was called the
Wilderness of SÛR; the southern mountainous district rising higher, and
soon passing into the primitive rock, totally different in character,
is called the Wilderness of SIN. There would be no meaning in the remark
that this last was situated _between_ Elim and Sinai, if by this it were
not meant that the Wilderness of Sin extended as far as Sinai, or even
farther. The next departure, therefore, from the Wilderness of Sin to
Raphidîm, is not to be understood as if they had quitted this wilderness;
on the contrary, they remained in it till they reached Sinai, whose
name SINI, _i. e._ “the Mount of SIN,” was evidently first derived from
this district, and for this very reason should not be sought for beyond
its limits. The same conclusion may be deduced from the account about
the _Manna_ which was given to the Israelites in the Wilderness of Sin;
for this is first met with in the valleys in the vicinity of Firân, and
appears as little in the sandy districts near the sea, as in the more
elevated regions of Gebel Mûsa.[83]
Now, if we already here put the preliminary question, which of the
two mounts, SERBÂL or GEBEL MÛSA, was so situated as to be peculiarly
designated as SINI, the “SINIC,” “the Mount of the Wilderness of
SIN,” there cannot be a moment’s doubt which to select. Gebel Mûsa,
invisible from every quarter, almost concealed and buried,[84] neither
distinguished by height, form, position, nor any other peculiarity,
presented nothing which could have induced the native tribes, or the
Egyptians who had settled there, to give it the peculiar designation of
the “Mount of Sin,” while Serbâl, attracting the eye to itself from all
sides, and from a great distance, unequivocally commanding the whole of
the northern portion of the primitive range, has always been the central
point for the widely-scattered inhabitants of the country, and the goal
of travellers, not only from its external aspect, but also on account of
Wadi Firân, situated at its base; therefore it might very appropriately
be designated the “Mount of Sin.” But if any one were to conclude from
the expression the departure from the Wilderness of Sin to Raphidîm,
that the broad tract of sea-shore to the south of Abu Zelîmeh, which the
Israelites were obliged to traverse, was alone called the Wilderness
of Sin, which is Robinson’s view of the question,[85] Serbâl, which
commands and also comes into immediate contact with this district, and
is accessible from this point by the old convent of Siʾqelji, might even
then have been designated Mount Sin, for instance by the sailors on the
Red Sea; but Gebel Mûsa, situated exactly on the opposite and eastern
side of the great range, could not possibly have been named after the
western Wilderness of Sin, nor have given the smallest ground for the
statement that the Wilderness of Sin was situated between Abu Zelîmeh and
Gebel Mûsa. One other view might still be adopted: for instance, that the
whole of the primitive mountain range—that is to say, the whole of the
Peninsula to the south of Abu Zelîmeh—was called the “Wilderness of Sin,”
and consequently included Gebel Mûsa. Even this would not necessarily
prevent our assuming that Serbâl, as the mountain best known, and nearest
at hand, must especially have appeared of more importance to the Egyptian
colonists than the southern range, and might have been distinguished by
that name; whilst in the principal southern range Um Schômar, as the
loftiest central point, would have alone justified such a distinction,
and not the entirely subordinate Gebel Mûsa, still less the insulated
rock Sefsâf, which is regarded as such by Robinson.
All that has been here said about SINAI as the “MOUNT OF THE WILDERNESS
OF SIN,” is also applicable to the still more remote question, which of
the two mountains, Serbâl, or Gebel Mûsa, possessed such qualifications
as to have been regarded by the native tribes of the Peninsula, even
before the great event of the Law-giving, as a “HOLY MOUNT,” A MOUNT
OF GOD.[86] For Moses drove the sheep of Jethro from Midian beyond
the wilderness to the “MOUNT OF GOD, CHOREB,”[87] and Aaron met him,
on his return to Egypt, at the MOUNT OF GOD.[88] If we maintain that
the necessary centre of the Sinaitic population must have been, at
all events, the Oasis of FIRÂN, we may also suppose that those tribes
founded a sanctuary, a common PLACE OF WORSHIP, in the vicinity of that
spot, either at the base, or, still more naturally, on the summit of
the mountain which rises up from that valley.[89] This also was the
most appropriate place for the meeting between Moses, who came from
Midian in the East, and Aaron, who came from Egypt. In such a barren and
uninhabited country there was no occasion to search for any peculiarly
secret and remote corner among the mountains for such an interview.
In addition to this, the _Sinaitic inscriptions_, which, as mentioned
above, are found in the greatest numbers, especially on the roads to Wadi
Firân, and in Wadi Aleyât, which leads up to Serbâl, seem to indicate
that in much later times also considerable pilgrimages were undertaken
thither to solemnise religious festivals.[90]
If we now pass at once to the principal point, which must appear as
most decisive to those who look attentively at the general conditions
connected with the march of the Israelites, it must be allowed that
if Moses desired to lead his numerous people to the Peninsula, the
first and chief task he had to perform, in accordance with his wisdom,
and his knowledge of the country, was to _maintain_ them. For however
we may explain the given numbers of the emigrants, which according
to Robinson amounted to two millions, by Lane’s account equal to the
present population of Egypt, we must always admit that there was a
very considerable mass of people who were suddenly to be maintained
in the Sinaitic wilderness without any importation of provisions. How
then can we imagine that Moses would not have kept in view, above
all other places, the only spot in the Peninsula that was fertile and
amply supplied with water; and that he would not have endeavoured to
reach it by the shortest path; but that in place of this, a remote
nook in the mountains should have been sought out, which at that time
could not possibly have supplied the daily necessity of water and other
nourishment, even for only 2000 emigrants and their belongings—I mention
a high number intentionally. Moses would have been wrong to have trusted
here to miraculous aid from God; for this is never manifested until
human wisdom and human counsel, which is not intended to be rendered
superfluous through it, can go no further.
It appears to me that we should not relinquish this inevitable opinion
respecting the position of Sinai, which is opposed to the view hitherto
entertained, and becomes stronger the longer we reflect upon it, and we
ought not to disclaim any more particular historical consideration of
this wonderful occurrence, unless other grounds, as urgent, should afford
proofs against our mode of acceptation. Let us therefore pursue the
narrative still further.
From Elim, Moses reached Raphidîm in a march of three days. Modern
scholars generally agree that the march from Abu Zelîmeh did not pass
again through the same Wadi Schebêkeh or Tâibeh through which they had
descended, back to the eastern sandy plain of E’ Raml, but followed the
customary caravan road which leads to Wadi Firân. How should Moses then
have selected the far longer upper road devoid of water, or even the
still longer, and still more arid, circuitous route along the sea-coast
by Tôr and Wadi Hebrân, instead of at once entering the less arid valleys
of the primitive range which abounded in manna?
He was obliged therefore to go to Wadi Firân; no third way was possible.
This is the urgent reason why Raphidîm (except by Robinson[91]) has
almost as unanimously been transferred to FIRÂN. It seems, however,
impossible that this oasis, if it was traversed, should not have been
once mentioned; therefore even Josephus,[92] Eusebius,[93] Jerome,[94]
and, as it appears, all the older authors and travellers,[95] place
Raphidîm near the town of PHARAN. No spot in the whole land could have
been of greater value for the native tribes who were menaced by Moses
than these orchards of Pharan. We may, therefore, perfectly conceive that
Moses was attacked at this very spot in Raphidîm by the Amalekites, who
were about to lose their most precious possession. He repulsed them, and
Moses could now first say that he had got possession of the Peninsula.
His nearest object was attained. What could have attracted him still
farther from this point?
It is also said, however, in distinct terms, that the people had arrived
here at the MOUNT OF GOD; consequently at the MOUNT OF THE LAW. For it
is said, after the victory at Raphidîm, that Jethro, the father-in-law
of Moses in Midian, heard of all that had happened. “And Jethro, Moses’
father-in-law, came with his sons and his wife unto Moses into the
Wilderness, WHERE HE ENCAMPED AT THE MOUNT OF GOD.”[96] And even before
that, the Lord had said to Moses, “Behold, I will stand before thee there
upon the rock in CHOREB; and thou shalt smite the rock, and there shall
come water out of it, that the people may drink,”[97] words which could
only have alluded to the wonderful spring of Firân, as has been already
supposed long before my time.[98] It may still further be deduced, that
Moses really found repose here in Raphidîm, because now, by the advice
of Jethro, he organises the hitherto disorderly mass of people to enable
him to govern them.[99] He selects the best qualified men, and places
them over a thousand, over a hundred, over fifty, and over ten; these
are appointed judges of smaller matters while he only retains the most
important for himself.
All this evidently indicates that the journey was past, and the period of
repose had commenced.
The beginning of the following chapter (Exodus xix. 1-3) certainly
seems to contradict this, for it is said, “In the third month, when the
children of Israel were gone forth out of the land of Egypt, the same
day[100] came they into the wilderness of SINAI. For they were DEPARTED
FROM Raphidîm, and were come to the desert of Sinai, and had pitched in
the wilderness; and there Israel camped BEFORE THE MOUNT, and Moses went
up unto God, and the Lord called unto him OUT OF THE MOUNTAIN,” &c.
According to this, they decamped between Raphidîm and Sinai. This
favoured the tradition which believed that the Mount of the Law might
be re-discovered in Gebel Mûsa beyond Firân. At the same time, however,
it was not considered that by admitting this we encounter much greater
contradictions with the text. In the first place, the words mention no
more than one day’s journey,[101] not even in the Book of Numbers,[102]
where, nevertheless, between Elim and Raphidîm, not only Alus and Daphka,
but the Red Sea (though this last was near Elim) are particularly
mentioned. From Firân to Gebel Mûsa there were, however, at least two
long days’ journeys, if not more. The “MOUNT OF GOD” has likewise been
already mentioned in Raphidîm, it was there called a rock in CHOREB; and
it is therefore impossible to understand by the Mount of God any other
than “THE MOUNT OF GOD” to which Moses drives the sheep of Jethro.
We should, thus, be obliged to admit that there were _two_ “Mounts of
God;” one, the “MOUNT OF GOD, CHOREB,” in Raphidîm, which would be
SERBÂL, and a “MOUNT OF GOD, SINAI,” on which the law was given, which
would be GEBEL MÛSA.[103]
To admit this would, however, in itself not only be scarcely
conceivable, but most distinctly self-contradictory, inasmuch as it
maintains that the Mount of God, CHOREB, where God first appears to
Moses, is even in anticipation designated as the Mount of the Law (Exodus
iii. 1-12); that further, the general designation, the “MOUNT OF GOD,”
which appears so frequently without a name being appended (Exodus iv.
27, xviii. 5, xxiv. 13; Numbers x. 33), could only have been employed if
there were no more than _one_ such Mount; and, finally, because the name
of SINAI, or MOUNT SINAI, and CHOREB, or MOUNT CHOREB, are continually
mentioned with exactly the same meaning as Mount of the Law-giving.
This evident difficulty has indeed been felt strongly at all times.[104]
Josephus (Ant. iii. 2, 3) forwarded his view by transposing the doubtful
commencement of the xix chapter from its present position _after_ the
visit of Jethro, to _before_ it, so that Moses does not receive his
family in Raphidîm, but in Sinai. By this means certainly the double
difficulty is avoided; on the one hand, because two Mounts of God do not
appear, on the other, that the organisation of the people does not occur
during the journey. He also deliberately omits the statement that in
CHOREB was situated the rock which Moses strikes for the spring of water.
Modern scholars have, on the contrary, proposed either to make Sinai the
general name for the whole of the range, and Choreb the individual Mount
of the Law-giving, or _vice versâ_, Choreb for the more extended, and
Sinai for the limited designation,[105] while the tradition of the monks
refer both names to different mountains situated immediately beside each
other.[106] It seems to me that the comparison of the individual passages
admits of none of these views; in my opinion it is rather clearly proved,
by the names of Choreb and Sinai being used alternately, but with perfect
equality, that _both_ designated _one and the same mountain_ together
with the district immediately surrounding it,[107] so that Choreb
perhaps was the more precise Amalekitish local name, Sinai the more
indeterminate one, derived from its position in the Wilderness of Sin.
But with respect to the departure from Raphidîm, many might think it very
probable that those words, which so strikingly interrupt the natural
sequence of circumstances as to have been intentionally transposed either
by Josephus, or prior to his time, did not originally belong here, but
were placed at the commencement of the account of the Law-giving; if, as
no doubt frequently occurred, this was to be understood by itself alone,
separate from all that preceded and succeeded it.[108] The unusual manner
in which they are connected, since the arrival at Sinai is mentioned
previously to the departure from Raphidîm, and the expression “the same
day,” which is so difficult to explain, while in the other statements of
time a particular day is mentioned, would support the supposition.[109]
Whoever, however, may consider it too bold to assume that we no longer
possess the original composition, can only explain the fresh departure to
be a last and insignificant removal of the encampment, such as we were
obliged to admit to be the case at the departure from Elim to the sea
coast. This removal was either while they advanced from El Hessue (where
they first beheld the water) towards Firân, or from Firân into the upper
portion of Wadi Aleyât, where the camp might have extended far and wide
at the foot of the Mount.[110]
Whoever endeavours to realise the whole progress of the event, with
its essential and necessary characteristics, can only be satisfied by
comprehending it in this manner. He will not be able to blind himself
to the conviction that Serbâl, on account of the oasis at its base,
must have been the necessary object and centre for the pouring in of
the new people, and that the wise Man of God, so well acquainted with
the country, could never have intended to lead the multitude into a
mountain enclosure like the plain at Gebel Mûsa, where they would find
no water, no trees bearing fruit, nor manna, and where they would have
been more easily cut off from all connection with the other parts of
the Peninsula than anywhere else. He will be compelled to acknowledge
that the designation of SINAI as the chief mountain of the Wilderness
of SIN, and the sanctity with which it was regarded, not merely by the
Israelites, but by the native tribes of the country, decidedly points
to Serbâl; further, that the Raphidîm defended by the Amalekites was
undoubtedly situated, together with the spring of Moses in Choreb, in
the Wadi Firân; that consequently the Mount of God at Choreb, where God
appeared to Moses, and the Mount of God at Raphidîm, where Moses is
visited by Jethro, and organises the people, could also be no other than
Serbâl, from which, finally, we must as necessarily deduce that unless we
admit that there were two Mounts of God, the Mount of the Law was also
near Raphidîm, and is recognisable in Serbâl, not in Gebel Mûsa.
In conclusion, if we now once more look back and observe how the
present tradition bears on our account of the event, we perceive that
it refers at once to the foundation of the convent, by Justinian, in
the sixth century.[111] This, however, was by no means the first church
of the Peninsula. At a far earlier period we already find a bishopric
in the town of Pharan, at the foot of Serbâl.[112] Here was the first
Christian centre of the Peninsula, and the church founded by Justinian
also remained dependent on this for the space of several centuries. The
question therefore is, whether the tradition which regards the present
Gebel Mûsa as Sinai can be referred to a time prior to Justinian.[113]
The remoteness of that district, and its distance from frequented roads
of communication, though from its position in the lofty range offering
sufficient subsistence for the trifling necessities of the single,
scattered monks, rendered it peculiarly applicable for individual
hermits, but for the same reason inapplicable for a large people, ruling
the land for a certain period of time, and exhausting all its resources.
The gradually increasing hermit population might have drawn the attention
of the Byzantine emperors to that particular district, and, as it
appears, have fixed the previously wavering tradition to that spot for
future times.[114]
I have, indeed, been in need of a learned foundation for what I have here
said about the position of Elim, Raphidîm, and Mount Choreb or Sinai, but
this I shall not be able to supply even in Thebes; it would, however,
chiefly refer to the history of the earliest tradition before Justinian,
which, even were it to agree in all its parts with the tradition of the
present day, would still hardly suffice to decide anything conclusively.
It seems to me that these questions will always remain unsolved, if
the elements which were at my command—namely, the Mosaic account, a
personal view of the locality, and acquaintance with the history of that
period—should not be considered sufficient to explain them. We shall
only obtain a correct idea of the whole of the external character of the
event, by simultaneously observing these three most essential sides of
the investigation, while, on the other hand, an endeavour to obtain an
indifferent and equal confirmation of each individual feature in the
account now under our consideration, must necessarily lead to the wide
road of false criticism, which always sacrifices the comprehension of the
whole, to the comprehension of the individual part.
[Illustration: MAP OF THE PENINSULA OF MOUNT SINAI TO EXPLAIN THE MARCH
OF THE ISRAELITES FROM ELIM TO HOREB
by R. Lepsius 1845.
G. ERBKAM delᵗ.
Engraved by J. & C. Walker.]
LETTER XXXIV.
_Thebes, Karnak, the 4th of May._
On the 6th of April we quitted Tôr, where we had only spent one night.
During our farther voyage we landed every evening on the shelly and
coralline coast of Africa, till, on the 10th, we arrived at Kossêr, where
excellent Seïd Mohammed of Qeneh was waiting to furnish us with camels
for our return to Thebes. In four days we passed over the broad Rossafa
road, crossing the mountain range, passed Hamamât, and on the 14th of
April once more reached our Theban head-quarters.
We found everything in the most desirable order and activity; but our old
and faithful castellan, ʾAuad, met me with a bandaged head, and saluted
me in a feeble voice. A short time previously he had a narrow escape from
death. I mentioned in a former letter that many years ago he, together
with the whole house of the Sheikh of Qurna, burdened themselves with
a crime of blood, which had not yet been expiated. The family of the
man who had been killed in Kôm el Birât, had, soon after our departure,
seized an opportunity when ʾAuad was returning home from Luqsor one
evening with a relation, to fall upon the two unsuspicious wanderers. The
attack was more aimed at the companion of ʾAuad than at himself, they
therefore called out to him to go away; however, as he did not do this,
but vigorously defended his relation, he received an almost deadly blow
on his head from a sharp weapon, which stretched him insensible on the
ground; the other man was murdered and thrown into the Nile, sacrificed
to the revenge for bloodshed, which had remained unsatisfied seven years.
Since that time there has been peace between the families.
A longer account of our Sinai journey will be despatched to-day, to which
I have also added two maps of the Peninsula, by Erbkam, drawn from my
notes. I now contemplate the difficult task of finishing my account with
Thebes, which, however, I hope to accomplish in about ten or twelve days.
LETTER XXXV.
_Cairo, the 10th of July, 1845._
The first place we halted at after we left Thebes on the 16th of May,
was DENDERA, whose magnificent temple is the last towards the North,
and although of later date, almost confined to the Roman period, it
yet presented an unusual amount of subjects for our portfolios and
note-books. We then spent nine additional whole days upon the remarkable
rock-tombs of AMARNA, from the time of the fourth Amenophis, that royal
Puritan who persecuted all the gods of Egypt, and would only permit the
worship of the sun’s disc.
As we approached Beni-suef, we saw a magnificent steamer of Ibrahim
Pascha’s hastening towards us. We hoisted our flag, and immediately the
red Turkish flag, with the Crescent, appeared on board the steam-boat
in return for our salute. It then altered its course, steered directly
towards us, and stopped.
We were eager for the news which we were about to hear: a boat pushed
off, and pulled to beside our ship. It was, indeed, a joyful surprise
when I recognised my old university friend, Dr. Bethmann, in the fair
Frank who came on board, and who had come hither from Italy to accompany
me on my journey back by Palestine and Constantinople. Ali Bey, the right
hand of Ibrahim Pascha, who was steaming to Upper Egypt, had kindly
taken him into his vessel, and told me he unwillingly parted with his
agreeable travelling companion, to whom he had become much attached even
in their short acquaintance.
His presence, and the assistance he affords me, have become still more
valuable since my other travelling companions have left me behind
alone. They started from hence yesterday. Willingly indeed I would have
accompanied them, as to-day is the third anniversary of my departure from
Berlin, but the taking to pieces of the Pyramid tombs still detains us.
The four workmen, able young men, who were sent to assist me from Berlin,
have arrived, and I immediately took them with me to the Pyramids. We
made ourselves a lodging in a tomb which was in a convenient situation.
A travelling blacksmith’s forge was constructed, some scaffolding was
raised for the windlass, and we set to work vigorously.
The difficulties of the whole affair, however, rest still more in the
petty jealousies, by which we are here surrounded on every side, and in
the different diplomatic influences, which are not unfrequently rendered
abortive by Mohammed Ali’s distinct orders. Herr von Wagner therefore
considered it absolutely necessary that I should by no means quit Egypt
before the transport and embarkation of the monuments was completed, and
I therefore shall be obliged to wait here patiently for several weeks
longer.
LETTER XXXVI.
_Cairo, the 11th July, 1845._
Will you permit me to communicate briefly some ideas which have of late
considerably occupied my attention.[115] I have never lost sight of your
wish to decorate the New Museum in harmony with the monuments which it
contains, and I hope that you continue to entertain these views. I have
had great pleasure in the account Herr Hertel has given me respecting
the arrangement of the Egyptian saloons, and have heard from him that
the facing of the columns is still _in suspenso_. It is very improbable
that such a favourable opportunity will ever recur of having such means
at our disposal on the first formation of a museum as we have in the
arrangement of this Egyptian one, when we shall be able to furnish a
complete whole, and at the same time offer to the public so much that
is new and important in plan, materials, and arrangement. If I remember
rightly, you have expressed a desire to form an _historical_ museum,
such, in fact, as all such museums should be, in conformity with their
purpose and idea, and yet such as nowhere exists. This view, however, in
an Egyptian museum, is at all events attainable in a degree which, even
under the most favourable circumstances, can be but remotely approached
in all other museums, because in no other nation can the date of each
individual monument be so precisely and surely presented as in this, and
because no other collection is distributed throughout so long a period
of time (above 3000 years). I therefore presume that, as a whole, you
wish to arrange the principal saloons historically, so far as this can
be accomplished, and by some method to combine what belongs to the Old,
what to the New, and what to the Greek-Roman Monarchy, in such a manner
at least, that each chamber of any size should have a definite historical
character. I have always borne this in view in forming the collection,
although I by no means believe that this principle should be carried out
pedantically in details. With respect to the plaster casts which you will
probably wish to incorporate as a whole with the existing collection of
casts, it would be very desirable to have a few duplicates made of these
for the Egyptian saloons, for the sake of rendering them complete.
But what especially induces me to write from hence on such matters, is
the notion that even now, or perhaps very soon, you may have made such
progress in the edifice as to be desirous of coming to a decision with
reference to the architectonic and pictorial decoration of the saloons,
and in that case a few observations may not perhaps be unacceptable from
me.
You will, no doubt, select _Egyptian architecture_ for the Egyptian
saloons; this should by all means be carried out in every part, and by
what I hear from Hertel, there is still ample time for this. I think,
for instance, that to produce a general harmonious impression the
architectural style of ranges of columns, which is characteristic of
different periods, should be retained in their historical succession of
series, as well as with all their rich decoration of colouring.
The coloured paintings on the walls are, however, then indispensable.
Every temple, every tomb, every wall in the palaces of the Egyptians
was decorated from top to bottom with painted sculptures or paintings.
The first inquiry must be, in what style these paintings should be
executed. They might either be _free compositions in the Greek style_,
or strictly _Egyptian representations, avoiding, however, Egyptian
perspective_, therefore a kind of translation, somewhat in the manner of
the frieze on the wall in the _Musée Charles X._; or, lastly, they might
be simple _copies of genuine Egyptian representations_ drawn by us, and
only adapted for this particular purpose. With respect to the _first_
view, I think that a man like CORNELIUS, if he chose to enter on such a
completely new field, would be capable of forming a beautiful and great
work out of such a task; but then, the public would most likely be much
more interested in the master than in the subject of the representation
derived from a history of which they are still so ignorant. The _second_
method would perhaps deserve a trial; it might succeed once, in a single
case, and would certainly then not be devoid of interest. But I am firmly
persuaded that a series of any length of such bastard representations
would not fulfil the requisite demands, presupposing, as they would,
a double mastery of two artistic languages, and that they would also
be decidedly contrary to the taste of the public. All attempts of this
nature that I have occasionally seen have, in my opinion, been completely
unsuccessful, and have appeared ridiculous to connoisseurs; although,
as I have already said, I do not believe that such an attempt might not
succeed in an individual case, if the subject were carefully selected. It
therefore appears to me, that the _third_ method is the only one left,
although it has least pretension; but it unites so many advantages, that
I believe, indeed, it will also meet with your approval.
There can scarcely be any doubt with respect to the subject of the
representations. They ought to place before us in characteristic features
the highest point of Egyptian history, civilisation, and art, and I was
even astonished at the great number of most suitable subjects which
immediately present themselves, if we allow all that has been hitherto
disclosed of Egyptian history to pass before us. Merely to give you a
hasty notion of this, I will communicate the individual points, which I
wrote down when I was still doubtful whether one of the two first modes
of representation might not be executed. A more diffuse commentary than
I can now give ought indeed to be appended to this, but it only refers
to a very preliminary notion. The names within brackets indicate where
materials could be found for single compositions.
PRE-HISTORICAL.
The elevation of the god HORUS upon OSIRIS’ gods’ throne.
(Dendera.) To be placed with reference to the last number.
OLD MONARCHY.
Dyn. I. The removal of MENES from This, the city of Osiris.
Foundation of MEMPHIS, the town of Phtha by Menes.
Dyn. IV. The Pyramids built by CHEOPS and CHEPHREN.
Dyn. VI. The union of the two crowns of Upper and Lower Egypt
during the reign of APAPPUS, which lasted a hundred years.
Dyn. XII. The Temple of Ammon in THEBES, the city of Ammon,
founded by SESURTESEN I. in the 12th Dynasty.
Immigrating HYKSOS. (Benihassan.)
The LABYRINTH and LAKE MŒRIS, the works of AMENEMHA III. of the
12th Dynasty.
Dyn. XIII. The INVASION OF THE HYKSOS into Lower Egypt, occurring
shortly after.
Expulsion of the Egyptian rulers to Ethiopia.
The rule of the Hyksos.
NEW MONARCHY.
Dyn. XVII.-XVIII. AMENOPHIS I. and the black Queen Aahmesnefruari.
TUTHMOSIS III. expels the HYKSOS from Abaris. JERUSALEM founded
by them.
AMENOPHIS III. Memnon and the sounding statue.
Persecution of the Egyptian gods, and introduction of the worship
of the sun, under BECH EN ATEN. (Amarna.) King HORUS, the
Revenger.
Dyn. XIX. SETHÔS I. (Sethôsis, Sesostris.) Conquest of CANAAN.
(Karnak.) Joseph and his brethren.
RAMSES II. the Great. Miamun. War against the Cheta. (Ramesseum.)
The (brick-making) Israelites (Thebes) build Pithom and Ramses,
under Ramses II.
Colonisation of GREECE from Egypt.
MENEPTHES. EXODUS OF THE ISRAELITES to Sinai. Moses before
Pharaoh. Commencement of the new SIRIUS PERIOD, B.C. 1322.
Dyn. XX. RAMSES III. A battle from Medînet Hâbu.
The king among his daughters. The riches and luxury of
Rhampsinitus. (Medînet Hâbu.)
Dyn. XXII. SCHESCHENK I. (Shishak) takes possession of Jerusalem.
(Thebes.)
Dyn. XXV. SABAKO, the Ethiopian, rules in Egypt.
Dyn. XXVI. PSAMMETICUS, the friend of the Greeks, elevates art.
Removal of the warrior caste to Ethiopia.
Dyn. XXVII. CAMBYSES rages; he destroys temples and statues.
Dyn. XXX. NECTANEBUS. (Philæ.)
ALEXANDER, the son of Ammon, conquers Egypt; builds Alexandria.
Ptolemy PHILADELPHUS founds the library.
CLEOPATRA and CÆSARION. (Dendera.)
Coronation of CÆSAR AUGUSTUS. (Philæ.)
CHRIST at Heliopolis.
This selection would not, indeed, be so great, if we had only to deal
with existing representations. The Old Monarchy would first commence with
the 4th Dynasty, and would entirely omit the Hyksos period, since nothing
has been preserved before the former period, or from the time of the
Hyksos.
On the other hand, the Egyptian conceptions of art might be more
completely represented, and each single representation would at the same
time have a scientific interest. The following provisional selection
which occurred to me might, however, be increased, and altered in all its
parts from the ample supply of subjects in our drawings, which are 1300
in number.
MYTHOLOGY.
1. The great and minor gods; the 1st and 2nd Dynasty of the gods.
(Karnak.)
2. OSIRIS undertakes the government of the lower world. HORUS
that of the upper. (Dendera.)
3. Triad of the gods from THIS and ABYDOS. Osiris, Isis, Horus.
4. Triad of the gods from MEMPHIS. Phtha, Pasht, Imhotep.
5. Triad of the gods from THEBES. Ammon Ra, Mut, Chensu.
OLD MONARCHY.
King CHUFU (Cheops) beheading his enemies. (Peninsula of Sinai.)
Scenes from private life of the 4th and 5th Dynasties. (Giseh and
Saqâra.)
APAPPUS unites the two crowns. (Kossêr road.)
SESURTESEN I., of the 12th Dynasty, beats the Ethiopians.
(Florence.)
Scenes from private life of the peaceful flourishing period of
the 12th Dynasty. Asiatic attendants. Precursors of the Hyksos;
wrestlers, games, a hunt, &c. (Benihassan.) The Colossus dragged
by men. (Berscheh.)
Immigrating HYKSOS who seek for protection. (Benihassan.)
NEW MONARCHY.
The working of the stone quarries of Memphis. (Tura.)
AMENOPHIS I. and Aahmesnefruari. (Thebes.)
TUTHMOSIS III. and his sister. (Thebes; Rome.)
TUTHMOSIS III. Tribute. Erection of obelisks. (Thebes.)
AMENOPHIS III. (Memnon) and his consort Tii before Ammon Ra.
(Thebes.)
March of an Ethiopian queen to Egypt under AMENTUANCH. (Thebes.)
AMENOPHIS IV. (Bech-en-aten), the SUN-WORSHIPPER. His procession
with the queen and four princesses drawn in a chariot to the
Temple of the Sun in Amarna. (Grottoes of Amarna.)
A favourite is borne on the shoulders of the people before
Amenophis IV. Distribution of wreaths of honour among the whole
of the royal family.
HORUS running to Ammon. (Karnak.)
SETHÔS I. makes war upon Canaan. (Karnak.)
RAMSES II. Battle against the Asiatic Cheta. (Ramesseum.)
The same in the Tree of Life. (Ramesseum.)
The same triumphant. Royal procession. (Ramesseum.)
RAMSES III. Battle against the Robu. (Medînet Hâbu.)
The same among his daughters; he plays with them. (Medînet Hâbu.)
RAMSES XII. Procession of great pomp to Ammon. (Qurna.)
PISCHEM, the Priest King. (Karnak.)
SCHESCHENK I. (Shishak) brings the prisoners from Palestine
before Ammon (Karnak), King of JUDAH.
SABAKO, the Ethiopian. (Thebes.)
TAHRAKA, the Ethiopian. (Barkal.)
PSAMMETICUS, Amasis. (Thebes.)
NECTANEBUS. (Thebes.)
ALEXANDER. PHILIP ARIDÆUS. (Thebes.)
PTOLEMY PHILADELPHUS. (Thebes.)
CLEOPATRA and CÆSARION. (Dendera.)
Coronation of CÆSAR AUGUSTUS. (Philæ.)
Ethiopian subjects from MERÖE.
This selection of representations, or one similar to this, as large as
the partitions in the walls permit, executed in the strict Egyptian
classic style, with the full, splendid colouring of the original,
would have the great advantage, beyond all other methods, of giving
the spectator some idea on a great scale of Egyptian art; the subjects
would force themselves on his criticism, and the study of them, in
conjunction with the smaller and isolated original monuments, would be
more complete. For, with the exception of the tombs which we are now
taking to pieces, and which only offer the most simple subjects, no
monument is of sufficient size to give a notion of Egyptian temples, and
of wall decoration in general, in which grandeur of idea and dexterity of
composition is frequently displayed with a feeling for general harmony
in the distribution and arrangement of the whole, most astonishing to
the attentive observer. Such a selection of what is most beautiful
and characteristic, in large representations, capable of being easily
surveyed, would perhaps be of more service than any other thing in
imparting Egyptian science to a larger proportion of the public, and
at the same time offers the advantage, which is hardly sufficiently
considered at the present day, of averting all invidious criticisms of
the representations regarded as modern works. All hasty critics would,
by this method, be referred to the original, which cannot be robbed of
its most important position in the artistic history of the human race,
by a miserable journalist. They would all learn that before venturing to
criticise the faithful copy, they must first study the original, for if
we can turn the attention of those young artists who have studied for
three years to record these things, I am certain that the classic purity
of their style will not easily be attacked. The novelty of the idea,
and the effect on a large scale, and as a whole, could not fail to make
a considerable impression on the learned and unlearned public, and the
series of subjects mentioned above, independent of their execution, would
afford satisfaction to intellectual men, and more especially to the King.
Lastly, in addition to this, it might be executed at a comparatively
small expense, on account of the perfect simplicity of the design and
colouring, and because all expenditure on the artistic composition has
been previously borne by the ancient Egyptians themselves.
The representations should only commence at a certain height, according
to the manners of the Egyptians, and as is most convenient to our own
purpose, and should rest on a deep band below, the colour of which ought
to be an imitation of wood or stone. The lofty walls should probably be
partly divided one above the other into several sections, and perhaps
the whole series of the Egyptian Pharaohs, or their Name-Shields only,
might be introduced in the frieze. The ceilings in the ante-chambers
might be blue, with gold stars, the usual representation of the Egyptian
heavens; and in the historical saloons there might be the long series of
vultures, with outspread wings, the symbol of victory, with which most of
the ceilings of the temples and palaces are decorated, in an incomparably
splendid manner. Finally, a certain amount of hieroglyphic inscriptions
must not be absent, which are so essentially connected with all Egyptian
representations, and make a splendid impression in variegated colours.
Modern hieroglyphic inscriptions might be easily composed for the doors,
and the central stripes of the ceilings, which would refer in the
ancient Egyptian fashion to the munificence of the king, the locality,
the period, and the purpose of the building. How magnificent the two
Egyptian rows of columns would then look in the centre of all, with their
simplicity and rich colouring!
Finally, another idea might be carried out, perhaps, in the
ante-chambers. Views of the Egyptian localities at the present day might
be introduced upon the walls, to give a notion of the country to a person
on first entering, and of the state of the buildings from which the
ancient monuments, by which they are surrounded, are taken. These views
might be also arranged historically, according to the principal places in
the different epochs of time. But here we must presume that the spectator
possesses some of the historical knowledge which we may hope to see
generally diffused. On that account it would be more useful to attempt
a geographical sequence, and we might embrace the views of Alexandria,
Cairo, the Pyramids of Giseh, Siut, Benihassan, Abydos, Karnak, Qurna,
the Cataracts of Assuan, Korusko, Wadi Halfa, Sedeïnga, Semneh, Dongola,
Barkal, Meröe, Chartûm, Sennâr, and Sarbut el Châdem, in Arabia Petræa.
Besides all this, a most rich, interesting, and at the same time useful,
selection of the subjects and occupations of private life might be
introduced in the lateral chambers, all of them copied from the original,
on a large scale, by which means we might facilitate and excite both
an inviting and effective mode of comprehending that portion of the
collection of antiquities which refer to private life.
LETTER XXXVII.
_Jaffa, 7th October, 1845._
We proceeded rapidly in taking the tombs to pieces; nevertheless, as
was to be expected, the most manifold obstacles were thrown in the way
of the transport and embarkation. The export of the whole collection
of monuments even then required a special permit from the Viceroy; I
therefore set out on the 29th of August for Alexandria, in order to take
leave of Mohammed Ali, and availed myself of this opportunity to give an
official termination to our mission.
The Pascha received me with his former kindness, and immediately issued
the most distinct commands with respect to the export of the collection,
which he presented to H.M. our King in a special letter, which was handed
to me. As soon as all the preparations were accomplished I returned to
Cairo, and there made the last arrangements respecting the transport of
the stone-boat to Alexandria, and then, on the 25th September, started
with Bethmann for Damietta. On the road thither I visited several ruins
of towns in the eastern part of the Delta, such as those of ATRIB
(Athribis), SAMANÚD (Sebennytos), BEHBÉT EL HAGÉR (Iseum), but except
the high mounds of rubbish, composed of Nile mud and potsherds, which
generally indicate historical sites, we everywhere found only a few
blocks, all that remained of the ancient temples. In SAN, the ancient
renowned TANIS, whither I made a last excursion from Damietta across Lake
Menzaleh, the foundation of a temple of Ramses II. alone remains, and
about twelve or fourteen small granite obelisks, belonging to the same
king, are preserved, some entire and some in fragments.
On the 1st of October we went from Damietta, and embarking in the roads
of Ezbe, the following morning set sail for the Syrian coast. We had an
almost incessant contrary wind, and cruised for a whole day in front
of Ascalon, situated picturesquely on lofty sea cliffs; we only landed
yesterday in the Holy Land, on the beach of Joppa.
LETTER XXXVIII.
_Nazareth, 9th November, 1845._
You will not, I am sorry to say, receive my last letter of the 26th
October from Jerusalem, as the courier of our consul, Dr. Schulz, in
whose charge I gave it, with five other letters, was attacked by robbers
at Cæsarea, on the road to Berut, maltreated, and robbed of all the
despatches, as well as of a small amount of money which he had on his
person. There is great disorganisation in this country. The Turkish
authorities, to whom the land has been again handed over by Christian
valour, are both lazy, malevolent, and impotent, while Ibrahim Pascha
knew at least how to preserve order and security, so far as his own
government extended.
We spent nearly three weeks in Jerusalem, part of which time I passed in
becoming better acquainted with the state of religious matters at the
present day, a subject daily becoming of greater importance; partly in
making some antiquarian and topographical researches. These delightful
days were rendered peculiarly valuable and instructive by the extreme
amiability of Bishop Alexander, who overtook us with Abeken from Jaffa,
and was willing to impart all that he knew; and by the scientific ability
of Dr. Schulz, with whom I had been on terms of friendship since our
mutual residence in Paris, in the years 1834 and 1835. An excursion to
Jericho, the Jordan, and the Dead Sea, and back by San Saba, formed an
interesting episode. My journal of this expedition, which I wrote very
fully, was, however, contained in that letter, and will probably never
reappear, so that I can but imperfectly restore it now.
The 4th of November we left the Holy City. We had some difficulty in
procuring horses or mules on account of the war the Pascha of Jerusalem
was carrying on with Hebron, which was assuming a more serious aspect.
We spent the first night after leaving Jerusalem in a tent in BÎREH.
The second day we proceeded by BETHIN (Bethel), ʾAIN EL HARAMIEH (the
Robbers’ spring), and SELUN (Silo) to NABLUS (Sichem, Neapolis), and the
same evening ascended GARIZIM, the holy mount of the Samaritans, whose
remaining population (about 70 men, or 150 souls) we became somewhat
better acquainted with the following morning. They still continue to
be shunned by the Jews, and have as little communication with the
Christians and Mohammedans.
On Garizim we saw the bare rocky surface, surrounded by some remains of
an ancient wall, where these SAMARI still, as in past ages, annually
offer up the sacrifice of sheep to their God. The following morning,
after we had visited the Samaritan place of worship, in which we were
shown the old Samaritan manuscript of the Pentateuch, and had seen
Jacob’s well, and Joseph’s tomb surrounded by vine branches, we rode on
farther, with an armed attendant of Solimân Bey’s, in whose house we were
lodging, and proceeded first to SEBASTIEH (Sebaste, the ancient Samaria),
where we saw the ruins of the beautiful old church from the period of the
Crusaders, said to be built over the tomb of John the Baptist. We spent
the night in the woody GENNIN (Egennin). Thence our road led through the
wide and fertile, but nevertheless barren, plain of Jesreel (Esdraelon),
the great bloody plain of Palestine, to ZERIN and the beautiful spring
(AIN GULUT, Goliath’s spring), where Naboth’s vineyard was situated,
and where the whole house of Ahab was murdered; then to GEBEL DAHʿI,
little HERMON, beyond which TABOR (GEBEL E’ TUR), distinguished by
its cupola-like form and isolated position, rose up and arrested our
attention, until we once more rode into the mountains to NAZARETH,
beautifully situated in a mountain hollow, like an amphitheatre.
Yesterday we made an excursion in the morning from this place over Mount
Tabor to TIBERIAS, on Lake Genezaret, and have only just returned. In
spite of my endeavours to the contrary, we were compelled to take a
body-guard of armed Arabs with us thither, as we did to the Dead Sea; and
we, in fact, encountered various groups of low Bedouin rabble in their
picturesque variegated costume, whom I should have been sorry to have met
alone, most of them in the neighbourhood of beautiful wooded Tabor, where
they were lying on the road, or riding past across the plain.
LETTER XXXIX.
_Smyrna, 7th December, 1845._
From Nazareth we proceeded down the plain of JESREEL to Mount CARMEL,
where we passed the night in the magnificent convent which has been
newly erected. The following morning we descended from this promontory,
commanding the wide ocean and its fragrant coast, to HAIPHA (Hepha),
crossed over the bay to ACCA (Ako, Ptolemais), and then rode along the
coast on the damp sandy shore, keeping the mountain range constantly in
view, and by SÛR (Tyrus) and SAIDA (Sidon) to BERUT (Berytos), where we
met with a kind reception from the Prussian consul-general, Herr von
Wildenbruch.
On the 15th of November, we started from Berut for Damascus. I left
Gabre Máriam behind with Herr von Wildenbruch, and only took with me
my faithful Berber, Ibrahim, and a Kawass. The road, after leaving
the sand-hills immediately surrounding Berut, rises directly up these
glorious mountains, abounding in flowers, trees, and springs of water.
We crossed it nearly on the frontier between the territories of the
Druses and the Maronites. We ascended all day, part of the time on
terribly bad roads cut in the rock, and spent the night on this side
of the mountain ridge; we did not reach the summit till the following
morning, and now had a wide prospect over the fertile plain of the
LEONTES, which separates Libanon and Anti-Libanon, and which, with the
brief interruption of Gebel e’ Scheikh (Hermon), with its ramifications
protruding upwards, it forms one single huge cleft through the whole
of the valley of the Jordan, and continues across the Dead Sea, as far
as the Gulf of Akaba and the Red Sea. We descended to MEKSEH, took our
breakfast on one of its flat roofs, and intended to have cut across
from this point, in a south-easterly direction, through the valley to
MEGDEL and AITHI, but, in preference, we took a circuitous road towards
the north to ZACHLEH, which is one of the largest and most flourishing
towns of Christian Libanon. On the road we met a troop of soldiers,
who were escorting some thousands of weapons on asses, which had been
taken the previous day from the inhabitants of Zachleh. The disarming
of the whole of Libanon by Schekib Effendi had commenced from the
south, and, as is well known, was executed with the greatest prejudice
against the unfortunate Christians, who were miserably sacrificed to a
piece of reckless commercial policy. In order to disarm Zachleh, which
is a strong and influential post, it had been besieged by two hundred
regular troops, some of whom we still found stationed there, and also a
countless multitude of Bedouins had been allowed to encamp in the great
valley of the Beqâʾa, whose aid against the Christians they would have
availed themselves of in case of necessity; these last, however, had
again withdrawn. We inquired in the town, which was still in a state
of great excitement, after Bishop Theophilus, who was described to us
as both a vigorous and heroic champion in the fight; but unfortunately
he had just set off for Beirut. After we had again departed, we met on
the road a German Catholic priest, who accompanied us to the adjoining
place, MOʾALLAQA, and told us much of the cruelties which the Turks had
practised here, as elsewhere, on the miserable inhabitants. Several
hundred more muskets had been demanded than really existed in the whole
place, and the old Sheikhs, who ought to have supplied them, were
cudgelled till the missing muskets had been purchased by the inhabitants
at a high price, and with great difficulty, in the camp of the Turks
themselves.
From Zachleh we went to KERAK, in order to visit the tomb of Noah at that
spot. We found a long, narrow building, of well joined square blocks,
and beside it a small building with a cupola, surrounded by trees, from
which there was a beautiful prospect of the plain, and of Anti-Libanon.
Through a window, hung with votive shreds, I saw a tomb built up in
the usual Oriental form within the long vaulted room, and I was not a
little surprised to see, through the windows in the whole length of the
building, a constant continuation of this same tomb, which seemed to have
neither a beginning nor an end. At length the door-keeper arrived, and,
to my astonishment, I was convinced that the tomb was 40 ells long, by
exact measurement 31 metres 77′ (131 feet English), therefore somewhat
more than 40 ordinary Egyptian ells.[116] The case assumes an air of
probability, as this measurement of the length of Noah’s body is exactly
proportionate to the length of his life, one thousand years.
From Kerak we at length turned to our right, into the plain across to TEL
EMDIEH, we then turned to our left into a valley, which again conducted
us directly northward, and at sunset arrived at EL ʾAIN, a small village
near a spring, situated at the upper end of the valley, at a considerable
height above the great plain. From our having followed the circuitous
road to Zachleh and Kerak, we were somewhat beyond the day that we had
calculated on, and therefore determined, to the disappointment of our
mule driver, to go on still farther to ZEBEDÊNI, which was said to be
situated on the eastern declivity of Anti-Libanon, two hours from hence.
As none of our people had ever gone this road across the mountains, we
took a guide with us, who very soon led us out of our valley, which
ascended towards the north, between the lower mountains and the principal
ridge, and led us up a steep, toilsome, and endless rocky path on our
right hand. The moon rose, hours passed on, and the ardently-desired
Zebedêni would never make its appearance. At length we stood on the
precipitous border of another deep valley, up which we were compelled to
clamber painfully on foot, for another whole hour, leading our animals;
and it was not before midnight that we reached Zebedêni, after a march of
six hours. All here were plunged in the most profound slumber; we were
obliged to knock at several houses to inquire our road to the convent,
where we hoped to find some shelter. At length we were told that there
was indeed a church, but no room in the adjoining convent to receive us.
We therefore quartered ourselves in the last house, which was opened to
us after knocking at it for a long time. It only contained _one_ large
room, but there was sufficient space for ourselves and our servants,
after the whole of the numerous family of men, women, and children, had
retired to one corner. The people were, however, friendly and courteous,
the next morning received their backshish, and took leave of us, with
an invitation to repeat the visit on our return. We now proceeded down
the beautiful fertile valley of Zebedêni towards the south, for an hour
and a half, when we again turned eastward, into the precipitous rocky
defile, where the rippling brook, beside which we had hitherto been
marching, swelled into a small river, called BÁRADA, opening a path for
itself, in most beautiful and picturesque cascades, through luxuriant
verdure, to the great plain of Damascus. We rode for several hours along
its precipitous banks, sometimes in the very bed itself, till we came
to a lofty pointed arch, which, as a bridge, conducted us from the left
to the right bank. Here the road went up the mountain, and disclosed a
number of ancient rock-tombs, opposite the continuation of the steep
rock-precipice we had just left. Soon afterwards the wild ravine opened
into a broader valley, through which the rushing river winds more
quietly, passing several pleasantly situated villages. It had hitherto
pierced in an easterly direction, through a mountain ridge, passing from
north to south, from which it now issued through a lofty rock-gate. Two
single mountain masses rose up like mighty pylons towards the east; on
the summit of the one to the south, rising almost perpendicularly several
thousand feet, was a small sepulchral edifice, surrounded by trees. This
place is worshipped as the tomb of Abel, NEBBI HABÎL, who, according to
tradition, was buried here. The summit is said to be almost inaccessible,
and so it appeared, at least from this side, we therefore omitted to
investigate whether a tomb, 40 ells in length, had been also erected to
the youth Habel. At the foot of the mount the ancient city of ABILA was
formerly situated, whose name has probably given rise to the story.
We now quitted for several hours the enchanting valley of the Bárada, and
rode over bare rocky plateaus, till at GEDÎDEH we again descended to it,
and rested a short time upon its bank, in the shadow of tall plane-trees
and silver poplars of changing hue. At length we once more quitted the
river, which had become gradually fuller, and more rapid, by the addition
of various brooks, and ascending a high mountain, we suddenly stood in
front of the illimitable plain, which lay spread out before us unbounded
by mountain ranges, and covered like one large garden with innumerable
leafy green trees, and intersected by roads and streams. In the midst of
this garden, and immediately at our feet, lay glorious DAMASCUS, with its
cupolas, minarets, and terraces. We knew that we were about to see one of
the most celebrated prospects in the world, but we were, nevertheless,
astonished, and found our expectations surpassed by the magnificent
picture which, like a stroke of enchantment, unfolded itself before us in
the direction of the lovely but narrow valleys, alternating with barren,
rocky deserts. We lingered nearly an hour at this point, which has been
rendered prominent by a magnificent dome, resting upon four isolated
pillars, called QUBBET E’ NASR, the “victorious cupola.”
Damascus is one of the holiest and most lauded cities of the East. The
prophet Mohammed considered it thrice blessed, because the angels spread
their wings over the city, and at the glorious sight are said not to
have taken possession of it for this reason, that _one_ Paradise only is
intended for man, and that one he will find in heaven. In the Koran, God
swears by the fig and the olive-tree, that is by Damascus and Jerusalem,
and the Arabian geographers call it the mole on the cheek of the World,
the plumage of the peacock of Paradise, the necklace of beauty, and among
the Sultan’s titles, “the Paradise-scented Dimischk.”[117] In accordance
with the legend of the Oriental Christians, Adam was here formed out of
the reddish earth of the district; and tradition places the spot where
Cain slew Abel on Mount KASIUN, near this.
The Bárada, which we had followed from its first source, enters the great
plain a little south of Damascus, turns to the left towards the city,
through which it flows in seven branches, and then passes into a lake.
It was the gold-streaming Chrysorrhoas of the ancients, the much-praised
Farfar of the Eastern poets. It was this river that, calling forth the
whole idea of Paradise, gave at all times to this most ancient city—known
even by Abraham, and conquered by David—its great importance. Damascus
was formerly one of the chief seats of Arabian literature and learning,
and a disciple of the Prophet is said to have given instruction in
reading the Koran to 1600 of the faithful at once (after the method of
Joseph Lancaster) in the great mosque of the Ommiads. The city at first
seemed but little to correspond with the glorious country surrounding
it. We entered streets of considerable breadth, but bare, closed in by
low houses, whose mud walls had small doors, and scarcely any windows.
None of the beautiful wood-carvings of Cairo, or stone decorations, were
to be seen on the windows and doors. Some of the mosques and fountains
which we passed were the only exceptions; and the number of single trees
in the streets and in the squares had a pleasant appearance. Farther in
the interior of the city we came to the long bazaar, consisting mostly
of massive building. The well-filled booths, the abundance of fruits
of every kind that were heaped up, finally, the crowd of people, of
all ages and of every description, in all sorts of costumes, and the
endless turnings from one street into the other, impressed us with the
feeling that we were in a large and wealthy capital of the East. We first
rode to our Prussian consul, who was, however, prostrated with fever.
We therefore proceeded still farther, to an inn, lately established.
Here also, as in the consul’s house, we passed through a narrow door
in a plain outer wall into a small dark court, and out of that into
another low and angular passage. But then a beautiful spacious court was
disclosed, surrounded on all sides by magnificent shining marble walls,
in the centre of which was a fountain, overshadowed by tall trees. On
the farther side was a vaulted niche, the entrance-arch of which was
five-and-twenty feet high. To this we ascended by some marble steps, and
now found ourselves in a somewhat narrow but lofty saloon, which was open
to the court, and had commodious divans placed along the inner walls. On
the left of this niche was the dining-room; on the right a staircase,
by which we ascended to the rooms above, which we occupied. They were
wainscoted all round, and the walls, as well as the ceiling, were adorned
with a variety of decorations painted in gold and silver. We afterwards
saw several more of the finest houses in Damascus, all of which appeared
externally almost mean, but in the interior displayed Oriental splendour
more like a fairy tale than anything which I have since seen in these
countries. And occasionally, even at the present day, they build their
houses in this style, at least if we may judge by some of these small
palaces, which were only erected between ten and twenty years ago. There
is a lavish display of marble, and other costly stones, in these courts,
halls, and rooms, such as with us is only seen in royal palaces. The
beautiful open hall, which is always formed in front simply by a lofty
arch, sometimes appears on two, or even three, sides of the court, and
not unfrequently has also a small fountain to itself, independent of the
larger one, which is never absent, and is usually shaded by trees, which
grow up from the midst of the slabs of marble.
The following day we spent entirely in viewing the city, and especially
the rich bazaars, in which beautiful silks embroidered in gold and
silver, splendid weapons, and other brilliant articles of Eastern luxury
are exposed for sale. We visited the great Khan, with its nine immense
domed chambers, a kind of exchange frequented by the most considerable
merchants; then the mighty Mosque of the Ommiads, regarded as very
sacred, whose Hall of Pillars is 550 feet long and 150 broad. It was
formerly a Christian church, which itself was said to have been built on
the foundation of a Roman temple to Juno. We were not permitted to enter,
and therefore could only survey it through the numerous open gates, and
were even prevented from mounting on the roof of a neighbouring house by
a fanatical Mussulman, so that we were obliged to defer doing so till
our return on the following day. We were shown the enormous plane-tree,
thirty-five feet in circumference, standing in the middle of a street
near a fountain, called after an old Sheikh, Ali, who is said to have
planted the tree. We also stepped into the inviting coffee-houses on the
cool bank of the river. Next morning we rode to the southern gate of the
city, called BAB ALLAH, to which a street above an hour long leads in
a direct line between magnificent shops, mosques, workshops, and other
buildings; this is probably the so-called “Straight-street” (ἡ ῥύμη ἡ
καλουμένη εὐθεῖα) in which Saul dwelt when he was converted by Ananias.
(Acts ix. 11.)
On the road we stopped at the small cupola building which is usually
regarded as the tomb of Saladin, but which is only a place of worship
built to his honour by Sultan Selîm. The real tomb is said to be twelve
hours to the south of Damascus, near a place called GIBBA; this was
confirmed by the Sheikh whom we met here. From BAB ALLAH, the “gate
of God,” through which the pilgrims to Jerusalem and Mecca pass, we
rode to the left round the city through the pleasant gardens of olives,
poplars, mulberries, and gigantic apricot-trees; these last produce those
delicious apricots which, when dried, are sent to all quarters of the
world under the appellation of Misch-misch. We then came to the cemetery
of the Jews, where a corpse was being lowered into the grave; and,
according to the custom here, the virtues of the deceased were called
to mind and eulogised. Not far off is situated the Christian cemetery,
near which the spot is marked where Saul was struck to the ground by the
heavenly vision. Thence our road led over a small bridge to the city
wall, in which, near a gate now built up, we were shown a window from
which Paul was let down. We followed the wall as far as a beautiful
ancient Roman gate with three entrances, the _porta orientalis_, through
which we came to the house of Ananias, with the rock-cave, which is now
converted into a Latin chapel. We then rode through the gardens of fruit
and olive-trees to a neighbouring village, GÔBA, where Elisha crowned
King Hazael of Syria, and where Elijah was fed by a raven in a chamber of
the rock.
On our departure from Damascus we also visited SALHÎEH, a place in the
neighbourhood, the tomb of the greatest of the Arabian mysticists, the
celebrated Sheikh MOHIEDDIN EL ARABI, and were here also reminded of his
teacher, SCHEDELI, who invented the beverage of coffee, and who was in
the habit of keeping his disciples awake with it.
In Palestine we had wandered among the tombs of Abraham, Isaac, and
Jacob, of Rebecca, Leah, and Rachel, of Joseph, David, Solomon, and the
prophets, of Christ, his parents and disciples. Here we came to the tombs
of Noah and Abel, and soon after to Seth also, and set foot on the fields
of Paradise, which belonged to the first pair. What a strange sensation
to travel in these regions, where tradition deals with such materials!
We halted the first night after our departure in SUK EL BÁRADA, at the
foot of Nebbi Habîl. From this point we again crossed over the old
pointed arch bridge, which, like most early structures in this country,
is said to have been built by the Empress Helena; and this time we
examined the ancient rock-tombs somewhat more accurately. We reached them
by a difficult path, partly by an ancient aqueduct hewn in the rock. Some
of these tombs were planned in a singular manner, and appeared to be very
old; farther on followed several from the Greek period, with bas-reliefs
and gable-ends, and some steles upon the rock, on which we were still
able to decipher some Greek words. Not far from this, up the river, we
found a mighty Roman work, the great, ancient, now deserted high-road
hewn for a considerable distance through the living rock, and two Roman
inscriptions, each in two copies, on the flat lofty wall behind. The
longer one ran as follows:—IMPerator CAESar Marcus AVRELius ANTONINVS |
AVGustus ARMENIACVS ET IMPerator CAESar Lucius AVRELius VERVS AVGustus AR
| MENIACVS VIAM FLVMINIS | VI ABRVPTAM INTERCISO | MONTE RESTITVERVNT PER
| IVLium VERVM LEGatum PRO PRaetore PROVINCiæ | SYRiæ ET AMICVM SVVM |
IMPENDIIS ABILENORVM. The other:—PRO SALVTE IMPeratoris AVGusti ANTONI |
NI ET VERI Marcus VO | LVSIVS MAXIMVS | Ↄ (centurio) LEGionis XVI Flaviae
Firmae | QVI OPERI IN | STITIT Vota suscepto.[118]
Since that time the rock has no doubt been twice hollowed out and broken
away by the torrent, which has certainly great force every spring;
for, in the immediate neighbourhood of the second copy of the two
inscriptions, the rock-road is terminated by a sudden precipice. By four
o’clock we had mounted Anti-Libanon, and at NEBBI SCHÎT, that is SETH,
we again entered the great plain of the Leontes. We immediately went in
search of the tomb of Nebbi Schît, and were not a little surprised to
find here also, as at Nebbi Noëh, a solid ancient Arabian building, with
a small cupola standing beside it, and within, a tomb _forty_ ells long.
It was even broader than that of Noah, because three steps led up to the
height of the monument on either side, the whole way along, which in the
former case were wanting. By bestowing on them such an unusual size of
body, the legend evidently wished to distinguish these two patriarchs
as having lived before the Flood, and the number 40, which is used so
frequently both in the Old and New Testament as an undetermined sacred
number, has not, as is here exemplified, lost its application among the
Arabs.
The same evening we rode on two hours farther, to BRITAN; and the
following morning we started before sunrise for BÂLBECK, the ancient
Heliopolis, with its celebrated ruins of the temple of the Sun. I
lingered first at the ancient stone-quarries, in front of which the road
passed, and there measured a block of building-stone, which was not quite
separated from the rock; it was 67 feet long, 14 feet broad, and 13 feet
5 inches thick. Many of the walls in the temple ruins in Bâlbeck are
composed of similar, or not much smaller blocks. One which I measured on
the spot, and in its original position, without making any particular
selection, was 65 feet 4 inches by 12 feet 3 inches and 9 feet 9 inches
large. They are, indeed, grand ruins, but the ornamental part of the
architecture is heavy, overloaded, and some in a very barbarous taste.
Bâlbeck is associated with a sad recollection. As I approached the
scattered houses of the village, immediately adjoining the ancient temple
ruins, my faithful servant Ibrahim, who had arrived here before us, met
me with the joyful intelligence that Abeken, from whom we had separated
in Jerusalem, had just arrived. I found him, in fact, in the house of the
venerable Bishop Athanasius situated close at hand; but we had scarcely
greeted each other, when I was informed that Ibrahim was lying in the
road dying. I hastened out, and found him almost in the very spot where
he had shortly before saluted me in so friendly a manner, lying extended
with the rattle in his throat; his eyes were already dim. It was in vain
that a priest of the neighbouring convent endeavoured to give assistance;
in a few minutes he died before my face. His death seems to have been
occasioned by a chill. He was a thoroughly excellent man, with a natural
nobleness of character not often found among the Arabs. I had taken him
with me on my journey to Nubia from Assuan; he wished of his own accord,
and from his attachment to me, to accompany me to Europe, and by his
knowledge of the Nubian dialect, would have been very useful to me in my
studies of the languages of the Sudan. I was anxious to place a tombstone
to his memory at the foot of Anti-Libanon, where he was buried on the
declivity of the hill, beside a tree, but we found no stone-mason who
could execute it. I therefore sent one to Bâlbeck from Berut, with an
inscription as follows:—IBRAHIMO HASSAN SYENE ORIVNDO SERVO BENE MERENTI
P. R. LEPSIUS. D. XXI. _Novemb._ MDCCCXLV.
This news made a great impression on Gabre Máriam when I communicated it
to him in Berut; he wept bitterly, for they had been excellent friends.
Before we left Bâlbeck, the bishop advised us to take a different road
from what we intended, as intelligence had been received that there was
much disturbance on the other side of Libanon, and that the population
had revolted. But, in fact, as the whole country was in a state of great
excitement, and we had notwithstanding found no difficulty, we paid
little regard to his recommendation, and told him we should only pass
through Christian districts, whose inhabitants would look upon us as
friends. We quitted Bâlbeck shortly before sunset, and traversed the
narrow plain, in order to spend the night in DER EL AHMAR, the “Red
Convent,” and the following day, with renewed strength, ascend Libanon
almost to its highest point, so that we might again descend by the famous
cedar forest. Hitherto we had been favoured, during our whole journey in
Palestine and Syria, with the most beautiful weather. From day to day
we had been expecting increasing rain, according to the calendar of the
weather on other years, and up to the present time had only once been
drenched—on our return from the Dead Sea to Jerusalem. The wide plain of
BEQÂʾA, which we now traversed for the second time, is quite impassable
after rain at this season of the year, and the numerous mountain streams
of Libanon, so abounding in springs, generally swell these to such a
degree that, with the frequent absence of bridges, they can only be
crossed with extreme danger. The sky clouded over in a threatening
manner this evening, the obscurity of the night was impenetrable, and at
length, after we had already seen some of the lights of DER EL AHMAR in
the distance, we lost our way on a barren piece of ground rent by rugged
clefts. At length, we had hardly arrived, when the rain poured down in
torrents. Here again we shared a large room with the whole of a Christian
peasant family, but we spent a most restless night. There were constant
groans and lamentations among the women and children, who appeared to
be sick. In a short time the incessant rain had soaked through the flat
roof of the house, and trickled upon the beds; people were now sent up
to throw fresh sand upon the roof, and to ram it firm with pieces of
stone pillars, which are ready for this purpose on the top of all the
houses; but this operation sent down so much lime and dirt upon us,
that we were at length compelled to request they would discontinue this
well-intentioned repair. In a small shed near the door lay a dog with a
numerous progeny, whose bed seemed also to have been invaded by the rain,
for they began to whine and yelp in the most wretched manner. At length
our hosts were roused by repeated loud knocks, to furnish a horse for a
soldier, who was carrying letters farther on at the utmost speed for the
Pascha. Thus we got no rest the whole night through; and if an Arabian
proverb says, that the king of the fleas keeps his court in Tiberias, the
holy city of the Jews, I have now every reason to suppose that he has
since then transferred his residence hither from that spot, where we had
found good and undisturbed lodging.
The rain subsided towards morning, and gave place to a thick mist which,
continuing still in single large clouds, seemed sometimes wholly to cut
off the ascent to the mountain fronting the lofty ridge of Libanon, but
also often charmed us by its magic play with the penetrating light of
the cool morning sun round the nearer and the more distant wooded hills
and points of rock. When we reached the first elevations, which are
separated from the principal chain by a level valley, we suddenly burst
upon an indescribably beautiful and astounding prospect. The sight of the
chain of Libanon, covered in its whole extent and far down with fresh
dazzling snow, was a real Alpine landscape on the grandest scale, rising
majestically above the eternal spring of this blessed land, though now
indeed so miserably trodden down by the hereditary enemy the Turk. I
thoroughly enjoyed this unusual spectacle, which roused a true home-like
joy in my heart, and I endeavoured to imbibe all that I could of the
clear, white, quiet light. I drove my little Egyptian horse in front
of me, which had lost its rider in Bâlbeck, and now bore on its back
the small possessions he had left behind him. I thought how, a few days
previously, I had been enjoying the thoughts of seeing my good Ibrahim’s
surprise when he should pass through the snowy region of Libanon along
with us. The deep parts of the snow which soon after we were obliged
to ride through, did not seem to annoy the ass; it frequently stood
still astonished in the midst of the snow, and no doubt viewed it all
as salt, soft white fields of which it had known near the Red Sea and
elsewhere. We rode zig-zag up the extremely steep mountain precipice
between seven and eight thousand feet high. It is not rocky at this
point, but covered with earth, and terminates in a sharp ridge. “El hamdu
l’illah,” exclaimed the old guide when he had attained the summit, and
“Salâm, salâm,” resounded in one chorus of voices. We had almost ascended
the highest point of Libanon, but the prospect over land and sea was
unfortunately hidden from us by clouds and layers of mist, although we
had blue sky above us. After a short ride downwards from the summit, our
guide pointed out the ancient venerable forest of cedars at our feet in a
great level bay of the mountain range, from which King Hiram had sent the
huge stems to Solomon for the building of the Temple; it looked as small
as a garden from this lofty point. For a long while it was considered the
only remains of those ancient forests, till, in recent times, several
more tracts of cedar forest have been discovered in some of the northern
parts of Libanon. We soon again lost sight of the cedars as we descended
deeper among the layers of cloud, which excluded all prospect. Suddenly
the dark shade of these gigantic trees rose like mountain spirits, close
beside us, out of the grey mass of mist. We rode to the chapel of the
hermit, who usually presents the stranger here, with a good glass of wine
of Libanon, but we found it closed; just then the clouds dissolved into a
most prosaic rain, from which we were scarcely able to shelter ourselves
beneath the wide roof of needles of the noble cedars. I found a beautiful
cedar cone hanging down sufficiently low for me to break it off and take
it away with me as a keepsake. Single stems of these cedars are 40 feet
in circumference, and 90 feet high; and as one cedar, which they pretend
they know to be 100 years old, is only half a foot in diameter, the
largest cedars are stated to be 3000 years old, which would go back as
far as the time of Solomon. The rain increased, and we had still several
thousand feet to descend before reaching the nearest village, BSCHERREH.
The lower we came, so much the more slippery and dangerous grew the
narrow, sometimes rocky, sometimes soaked footpath, which led along the
precipitous side of the valley with an abrupt precipice to our right.
Turning an angle of rock, we at length gained sight of the night quarters
we so longed to reach. The wealthy, inviting, and important village of
Bscherreh, which gives a name to the whole district, is well known from
its powerful and influential, but wild, uncontrolled, and often cruel
inhabitants.
The rain had abated, the white houses, with their terrace roofs, between
which a number of silver poplars, plane-trees, and cypresses, rise up
singly, or in rows, were placed one above the other in a semicircle, on a
hill projecting from the right side of the valley, and shining after the
rain, they looked as if they had just emerged from a bath. Nothing was
stirring in the village; it seemed as if it were perfectly dead. I rode
in advance of the rest of our party, with our old guide, up a narrow path
beside vineyard walls, when suddenly, at a bend in the road, a strong
voice called out to me, and when I looked up, over the terrace of the
vineyard, which was about a man’s height, to my no small surprise I saw
about twenty muskets pointed at me and the guide. He let go the bridle of
his horse, stretched out his hands towards heaven, and shouted out to the
people. I hastily threw back the cape of my cloak, in order to show the
people my European hat, and let them see who we were. When they perceived
that we were but a small party, and that we did not put ourselves in any
attitude of defence, they came out in hundreds from behind the trees,
surrounded us with loud yells, and for a long time would not believe
but that we were soldiers in disguise. Some even struck at our horses
with staves, downwards from the terrace, while I was endeavouring to
explain to those nearest to us who we were. Others had more quickly
perceived their error; they came down to the street, and took my horse
by the bridle. One especially, an animated boy of about fourteen, with a
clear eye, beautiful forehead, and ruddy, fresh cheeks, pressed forwards
towards me, calling out in Italian, that we should fear nothing, it was
all a mistake, we were their friends, that I had only to ride on and
dismount at the house of his brother. Some vehement people continued to
accompany us, and called out to us from the wall, with the most angry
gesticulations, while the great mass were already satisfied, and uttered
a deafening cry of joy; they fired off muskets in the air, and now
conducted us in triumph to the village.
All were on foot in Bscherreh, which contains between 1200 and 1500
inhabitants, and there was pressing and pushing to kiss our hands and
clothes; the women began their piercing shrieks, clapped their hands, and
danced; my honest youth remained constantly by my side, and thus step by
step we made our way through the dense crowd, whom we now also greeted as
friends, till we arrived in front of the Sheikh’s house, whose youngest
brother was my companion and guide. We were led up the stone staircase,
and the open hall in front, to the spacious saloon which was to shelter
us.
I conversed almost the whole evening with the Sheikh of the village,
JUSEF HANNA DAHIR, a young and handsome man, with a serious, gentle
countenance, inspiring confidence. His father had fallen in the war,
under Ibrahim Pascha, who will soon be invested here with an odour of
sanctity, should the present abominations of the Turks last much longer.
Sheikh Jusef was the eldest son of this numerous and ancient family, in
which the dignity of Sheikh is hereditary. He related to me with perfect
frankness, composure, and intelligence, what was now going on among them,
how they had resolved to supply the weapons which were required, but had
retracted this determination when they heard of the disgraceful manner
in which the Turkish military had behaved in the southern districts;
thirty-four villages had now combined, and sworn in their churches not
to furnish the weapons, but to use them against the Turkish dogs. When
I asked him if they had any prospect of being able to defend themselves
successfully against a disciplined army, especially since the death of
their common leader, Emir Beschir, he told me that in Bscherreh alone
there were 3000, and in the whole of the district which had formed a
combination 13,000 armed men—as large a number as the Turkish military
in the country. Besides this, they had their mountains, their snow and
rain, their passes and lurking holes, which would render all the Turkish
cavalry and artillery useless. I nevertheless advised them to apply to
a consul at Berut, who was friendly to their cause, to solicit some
mediation, and to avoid the last extremity. As I afterwards heard, this
has taken place. The French consul-general, Bourré, has treated with the
Pascha on their behalf.
But all may have been too late, and I fear that the storm of war has
long since broken over my excellent hosts in Bscherreh, and that their
wives and children have been even less spared than those of their weaker
neighbours.
I was rejoiced to be of some service that evening to the young Sheikh,
whose pleasing and composed deportment pre-possessed me much in his
favour. I bound up a wound for him better than was possible with the
means he had at hand, and provided him with linen and lint. He told me
that we could not set out next day, for he must prepare a feast for us,
roast a sheep, and show us that he was our friend; but I declined the
invitation, which was made with all sincerity.
The following morning we took a servant of the Sheikh with us as far
as the next village, EHDEN, which we also found in great excitement,
but not inimical to us. Outposts had been stationed, and the variegated
costume of the population, their bright red and yellow dresses, looked
at a distance like a spring flower-garden among the green trees; they
surrounded and questioned us, and even here there seemed to be divided
opinions as to what we were. One young Amazon ran for a considerable
distance beside us, raised her finger in a menacing manner, and upbraided
us that we Franks did not openly and vigorously side with them.
We here dismissed our companion from Bscherreh; in his place, a rider,
on a magnificent fiery horse, unasked, attached himself to our party;
he politely saluted us, and keeping at a certain distance never lost
sight of us. In about a couple of hours afterwards, at a more gentle
inclination of the mountain, we perceived a troop of armed people in the
field, who had planted the red banner of blood to preach war and revolt
far away over the plain. The patrol advanced to meet us, and absolutely
refused our proceeding any farther. It was only after long negotiations
that, by means of a gold piece and the intercession of our companion,
who seemed to be the Sheikh of a neighbouring village, we were granted
free passage, but the whole troop accompanied us down the hill. When we
had passed the next and last village, ZAHERA, our attendant Sheikh was
obliged to employ serious threats to get us safe across the frontiers
of the revolted district; he then accompanied us still farther down a
valley, as far as a turn of the rock, and then saluting us shortly,
rode merrily back among his mountains. We were but a few hours distant
from TRIPOLIS, which we reached shortly after sunset; passing the
grave Turkish guards, who may have possibly lost some of their stupid
indolence, with the prospect of a near and desperate contest with the
courageous inhabitants of the mountains.
In TRIPOLIS, now called TARABLUS, we stayed in the Latin convent, which
is inhabited and taken care of by only two monks. They related to us that
the Christians of Libanon had come to them a short time ago, and asked
for their spiritual intercessions, whereupon they had not scrupled to
dispense the holy sacrament for the space of three days. Unfortunately,
the Maronites fail much less in such spiritual intercessions and good
wishes than in the corporal provisions of bread and powder, for the Turks
cut off their supply.
The following morning we visited the Prussian American consul, who
inhabits a handsome house, fitted up in the Oriental style, and
afterwards went to the Bazar. Just then a large division of Turkish
horsemen, on their road to Libanon, passed over a beautiful old bridge in
the centre of the town, dressed in their party-coloured, streaked, dirty
uniforms, with their lances ten feet long adorned with black bunches of
ostrich feathers, their small war kettle-drums in full beat. Towards noon
we again departed, just as the new Turkish general entered by the same
gate from Berut, through which we had ridden out. On the road we met the
divisions of the troops which had been ordered hither from Zachleh. From
this point our road lay along the sea-coast, and almost the whole day we
heard the thunder of the artillery in the adjacent mountains.
We spent the night in a Khan on this side of the promontory of RAS E’
SCHEKAB, named after the ancient θεοῦ πρόσωπον; no doubt because the
black mountain, which here projects into the sea, assumes the exact form
of a bust to those coming from the north. The following day we came to
ancient BYBLOS (Gebel), and then crossed over the ADONIS river, which
still, after violent rain, is occasionally the colour of blood, mourning
over the wounded favourite of Aphrodite. Passing GUNEH, generally
proceeding along the sea, sometimes even in it, we arrived at NAHR EL
KELB, the ancient LYCUS, to the south of which the celebrated bas-reliefs
of Ramses-Sesostris, and of a later Assyrian king[119], are engraved upon
a rock projecting into the sea. In spite of our rapid ride we did not
reach the rock-tablets till shortly after sunset, and we spent the night
in the Khan beyond.
The following morning I investigated the sculpture more accurately,
close to which passed the very ancient, artificial road, which is now
destroyed, and I was rejoiced to make an important acquisition, for I
was enabled to decipher a date in the hieroglyphic inscriptions. Among
the three Egyptian representations, which all bear the Shields of Ramses
II., the central one is dedicated to the chief god of the Egyptians, RA
(Helios), the southern one to the Theban or Upper Egyptian AMMON, and the
northern to the Memphitic or Lower Egyptian PHTHA; this Ramses had also
dedicated to these same gods the three remarkable rock-temples in Nubia,
at GERF HUSSÊN, SEBÛA, and DERR, no doubt because they were viewed by
him as the three chief representatives of Egypt. On the central stele,
the inscription begins below the representation, with the date of the
2ND CHOIAK OF THE 4TH YEAR OF THE REIGN OF KING RAMSES; the Ammon stele,
on the other hand, was dated from the _second_, or (if the two strokes
above were connected) from the _tenth_ year; at all events, not the same
year as the central stele, from which we might conclude that all three
representations referred to _different_ campaigns.
We did not leave the tomb of St. George unvisited, and the church
dedicated to him near Nahr el Kelb; and as we entered BERUT towards
evening, we deviated from our path to visit the well where the dragon
which he slew was in the habit of drinking. Thus, on the 26th of
November, we ended our excursion to, and over the mountain range of,
Libanon; justly lauded from its numerous historical recollections, and
its rare natural beauties, of which the poet says, “that it bears winter
on its head, spring upon its shoulders, autumn in its lap, but that
summer slumbers at its feet on the Mediterranean.”
EXTRACTS FROM THE WORK OF DR. LEPSIUS ENTITLED THE CHRONOLOGY OF THE
EGYPTIANS.
BERLIN, 1849.
WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO THE EXODUS OF THE ISRAELITES.
REVISED BY THE AUTHOR.
EXTRACTS FROM THE AUTHOR’S DEDICATION TO THE CHEVALIER BUNSEN.
My chronological work (the first volume of which is now before you),
starting from a far more limited point of view, has a less remote
aim than your history[120], and will be at most but a supplemental
elaboration of the ideas originally laid down in your more comprehensive
plan. It is not my task to indicate the position Egypt occupies in the
HISTORY OF THE WORLD, but only in its external form in the HISTORY OF
TIME; it is therefore chronological, not historical. But to obtain the
chronological basis was, with reason in your opinion also, the first
and most important point of your inquiry, because upon this must depend
every extensive development of history. You derived your information
directly from those authors from whom we learn the connection of events,
as a whole, and in detail. I obtained mine from the monuments, which
establish the authenticity of the Greek account, frequently disclose
their meaning, and necessarily correct, complete, and confirm their
separate statements. The mutual interchange was intended to have led to a
common result. If formerly this was not always the case, the interruption
of our intercourse could not but lead us in many points still farther
apart. I have never hesitated to express myself freely when I have
differed from you, because I well know that, like me, you alone regard
the subject before you, and are convinced that truth is finally elicited
only by a distinct presentation of opposing possibilities. In the present
investigations, also, I have yielded to this conviction, but on that
account have felt it still more obligatory to lay them first of all
before you, and fulfilling an agreeable duty, dedicate them to you as a
public testimony of my gratitude.
In this work I have touched upon the most various provinces of
archæology, and have frequently been obliged to oppose, in essential
points, the views of men whom I honour and admire as the heroes of
science, and as unsurpassed models in criticism and true inquiry. This
opposition would be presumptuous were it not that these contested points
are mere specialities in the wide domain over which those men rule,
to refute which, even successfully, could not abate from their just
fame; while, on the other hand, most of them are vital questions in the
solution of the present undertaking, and closely connected with the
very substance of those investigations, with which I have especially
endeavoured to render myself familiar.
Had my vocation placed me in a political position, my motto would have
been REVERENCE and FREEDOM, and with REVERENCE and FREEDOM (those are
your words) science must also be pursued. Reverence, for everything that
is venerable, sacred, noble, great, and approved; freedom, wherever
truth and a conviction of it are to be obtained and expressed. Where the
latter is wanting, there fear and hypocrisy will exist; where the former,
insolence and presumption will luxuriate in science as in life.
The investigation of Egyptian history will gradually exercise an
extensive influence upon all branches of archæology—upon our whole
conception of the past history of man. We must therefore expect a
reaction from all these sides. Some of these influential points have
been already vindicated, partly by you and partly in the investigations
now before us. They will not fail to call forth an animated opposition,
and at best elicit discussion, going to the root of the question, and
emendation on the part of the learned, to whose opinion I attach the
greatest weight.
That section of my volume which endeavours to establish the relation
of the Egyptian to the Old Hebrew Chronology, will meet with most
opposition. Considering the intimate connection that necessarily subsists
between the philological and dogmatical method of examining the Biblical
Records, it is perfectly natural, that whenever a step in advance, or an
error, strives to obtain a place on the philological side, theological
interest, so much more universally distributed, takes a part either for,
or against it. Whoever would dispute its right to do this, must deny to
theology in general its character as a science. The Christianity, which
derives its origin and its sustenance from the Bible, is essentially and
intrinsically wholly independent of all learned confirmation. But it
is the duty of theology, whose task it is to fathom Christianity in a
rational manner, and prove its results, to decide scientifically what are
the essential points in the holy Scriptures on which it founds its system
of Christian belief. Should its true supports not be recognised, but
imaginary ones placed in their stead, it will not injure Christianity,
but the theological system, or that portion of it which was built on
unstable ground. That truth which is discerned by the sound progress
of any science whatsoever, cannot be hostile to Christian truth, but
must promote it; for all truths, from the very beginning, have formed a
compact league against everything that is false and erroneous. Theology,
however, possesses no other means than every other science to distinguish
scientifically, in any department, between truth and error, namely, only
a reasonable and circumspect criticism. Whatever is brought forward
according to this method, can only be corrected, or entirely refuted, by
a still better and more circumspect criticism.
I believe that you, my honoured friend, and myself, have only one opinion
on these points, I have therefore ventured to refer, at the conclusion
of this section, to your excellent words, written on an occasion similar
to the present. It seems to me, also, that the practical religious
meaning, which the Old Testament possesses for every Christian reader,
is very independent of the dates of periods, the exact knowledge of
which could only have been known by means of a purposeless inspiration
to the authors and elaborators of those writings, many of whom lived
several centuries later. Strict science has also very generally decided
in this manner for a long time past, and has not failed to exercise its
purifying reaction upon the dogmatical comprehension of the matter. So
much the more solicitous am I, however, as to whether my views will
stand your examination, and the judgments of other far more competent
investigators than myself in this department, or will, at any rate, meet
your consideration.
The two numbers, namely the 430 years of the sojourn of the Israelites in
Egypt, and the 480 years from the Exodus to the building of the Temple,
have been entirely abandoned by me, but have been the points on which all
the most modern investigations have rested, though they appear to have
been quite unknown, at least not brought under the consideration of all
the older scholars, as Josephus, Africanus, Eusebius, Syncellus, &c. On
the other hand, I have clung to the Levitical registers of Generations
as a far more certain guide; and thus, in place of a chronological
fabric, which had been already long considered untenable, I immediately
obtained a true historical foundation, and a chronology bordering, at
least, on a perfectly reliable one, as far back as Abraham, and this
not only most satisfactorily coincided with all the other historical
relations in the writings of the Old Testament, but also with the already
established Manethonic-Egyptian computation of time. The path which I
have here taken is by no means new. Des Vignoles, Böckh, and Bertheau
had already abandoned the number 480 years; you yourself decided against
the 430 years, and I find the same path pursued by Engelstoft in the
most decided manner in his interesting work, to which, however, too
little attention has been paid. Other preparatory labours in the widely
extended department of this literature may have escaped my notice, but,
at all events, these opinions had hitherto been unable to make themselves
properly appreciated, as is evident from the latest works of the most
important inquirers; and first among them Ewald’s profound and acute
history. Were it only occasioned by this mode of apprehension being
hitherto not sufficiently carried out, and requiring especially the
essential confirmation of Egyptian chronology, and should the new course
which I have adopted on that account win a more general assent, it would
be no slight satisfaction to me, and would especially afford me one more
guarantee of the genuineness of the Egyptian chronology.
But the real foundation for the Egyptian computation of time, according
as, in my opinion, it should be restored, is to be found in the last
section of this volume in the criticism upon the authorities which derive
their information from Manetho. This is a detailed and complicated
investigation, and the superabundant material which is presented,
forms a knot which the labour of almost a thousand years, in place of
disentangling, has only drawn still tighter, because the wrong ends of
the threads were always pulled. It was first of all necessary carefully
to pursue these false ends through all their twistings—I mean especially
the spurious writings, and the influences exercised by them, and separate
them distinctly; but to recognise the true character of the remaining
genuine portion, and to fix securely the few principal points. Besides
my own preparatory labours, I possessed two admirable researches,
upon which I could still further build: your own work, and the one by
Böckh upon the Manethonic Computation of Time. The result of the two
investigations, which were obtained independently of each other, and
published almost simultaneously, deviate very much from one another,
since you fix Menes more than 2000 years later than Böckh believes he
is placed by Manetho. This discrepancy must be the immediate result of
the difference in your fundamental views, which caused Böckh to regard
the Manethonic Dynasties as uninterruptedly consecutive, you as partly
reigning contemporaneously. Böckh especially cited in support of his
view the circumstance, that if we count the Dynasties according to the
presentation of them by Africanus in a continuous line, the first year
of Menes coincided very nearly with the proleptically calculated year
of commencement of an Egyptian Sothis period. He treated the questions
under consideration with all the learning and ingenious criticism which
is peculiar to this master in archæological investigation, pointing out
that the slight deviation between the result which had been arrived at,
and the one expected, might be removed by very simple means; and he came
to the conclusion, that this agreement was intentionally brought about
by the Egyptian annalists, consequently that the Manethonic computation
of time was cyclically invented or adapted, not handed down by history.
The view that you maintain, which differs very much from this, you
founded especially upon the comparison of the Eratosthenic lists with
the Manethonic Dynasties of the Old Monarchy; you thus determined the
continuous Monarchical Dynasties, whose periods you calculated by the
numbers of Eratosthenes, you especially recognised no cyclical element in
the Manethonic chronology, and hence believed the accounts of Manetho and
Eratosthenes to be a historical tradition, in part the result of learned
Alexandrian investigations.
My view corresponds with yours in all essential points. That several
of the Dynasties were contemporaneous, appears to me most decidedly
attested; and I have been able to obtain a direct, and, as I believe, a
genuine Manethonic proof of it. On the other hand, from the beginning I
have never been able to lay so much stress upon the list of Eratosthenes,
especially upon its individual names and numbers, opposed to the
Manethonic statement, as appeared to you justifiable, owing to the
important information you obtained from it concerning the Monarchical
Dynasties. This is the principal reason why we still differ so much
in our determination of the duration of the Old Monarchy down to the
entrance of the Hyksos. A cyclical treatment of the Egyptian chronology,
which you neither recognised in the History of the Gods, nor in the
History of Man, which Böckh, on the other hand, believes he finds in both
parts, appears to me, indeed, capable of being demonstrated, but only
in the mythical history, before Menes. The result of this has been a
confirmation of the sum total of the Manethonic History of Man, which is
also considered genuine by you, and upon which I imagine I may venture to
place the greatest weight.
CONTENTS.
INTRODUCTION
On the previous Conditions necessary for the Origin of a Chronology
among the Egyptians, and the Possibility of its Restoration.
PAGE
Favourable Conditions for an early Egyptian History and
Chronology 368-396
External Circumstances in favour of an Historical Development 368-374
Influence of the Local Character and Climate upon the
Preservation of the Monuments 368-371
Abundance of Building Stone 371
Bricks. Papyrus used as a Writing Material 372
Intellectual Basis and Proofs of Historical Activity 374-396
National Historical Sense of the Egyptians 374-380
Earlier and more extended Habit of Writing 377-380
Books. Libraries 380
Fame of Egyptian Wisdom and Learning among the Greeks 382
Sacred Writings of the Egyptians 387
Remains of Historical Literature 392
Retrospective View 397-400
FIRST PART OF THE CHRONOLOGY.
Criticism upon the Authorities.
The Hebrew Tradition 401-493
Uncertainty of the Hebrew Numbers 401
The Exodus according to Manetho 404
The Exodus according to Hecataeus and Diodorus 408
The Exodus of the Lepers the same as that of the Israelites 411
The Pharaoh of the Exodus according to Manetho 417
The Pharaoh of the Exodus according to Ptolemy Mendesius,
Apion Josephus 420
The Pharaoh of the Exodus according to Eusebius 422
The Pharaoh of the Exodus according to Lysimachus 423
Intimations concerning the Time of the Exodus in the Old
Testament 424
The Situation of Abaris 425
The Situation of Heroonpolis 434
The Situation of Ramses 437
The Town of Ramses built by Ramses-Miamun (Ramses II.) 438
Canal Connection between the Nile and the Red Sea 439
The Towns Pithom and Ramses, on the Canal of Ramses II.,
built in the Reign of Ramses II. 446
The Exodus of the Israelites later than Ramses II. 449
The Exodus in the year B.C. 1314 according to the Rabbinical
Chronology 450
The Date of the Exodus according to the Jewish Generations 457
The Date of the Exodus according to the Book of Judges 470
The Period from Jacob and Joseph to Moses 475-485
The Pharaoh of Joseph in Herodotus and Diodorus 480
The Period from Abraham to Moses 485-492
Joseph placed during the Reign of Aphophis 487
End of Hebrew Tradition 492
The genuine Manethonic Numbers 494
Retrospective View 496
Tables of Egyptian Dynasties 499
INTRODUCTION TO THE CHRONOLOGY OF THE EGYPTIANS.
While the beginnings of Greek and Roman history, by the strict
investigations of modern criticism, have lost more and more of their
historical character, and while cautious inquirers consider it impossible
to obtain a fixed date for separate events, earlier than the seventh and
eighth centuries before Christ, the history of Egypt treats of strictly
historical facts, and its chronology contains exact numbers of years,
months, and days in the third and fourth millennium previous to our
era. This appears such a palpable contradiction, that it is not alone
worth while on account of the larger circle of readers who are more out
of the scope of these investigations, but it must also be important to
the inquirers in this field, to answer for themselves the preliminary
question, how it is possible to prosecute the history of Egypt so much
farther back than the history of the nations of the West and East,
without denying the principles of that criticism which has pointed out
limits to the history of classical antiquity, and which must justly be
considered the most valuable treasure of modern science?
In order to answer this question, we must first call to mind that it has
now become a principle, derived from experience, that the real history
of a nation, in the strictest sense of the word, never recedes much
farther back than its _oldest contemporaneous authorities_, and this
once expressed, becomes, from its intrinsic necessity, self-evident.
This principle applies both to us—since our certain conclusions in
historical investigations do not extend much farther back—and also to
the nations themselves; for they only obtain historical consciousness
and historical experience when they begin to produce monuments,
especially written monuments, to bear witness to posterity of what is
occurring. Monuments form the dial-plate of history; until they exist,
the present alone belongs to a nation, not the past—it exists without a
history. If a nation loses its monuments, either through its own fault
or through circumstances, it will be unable to preserve its history,
which becomes confused and traditionary, and in place of the purely
historical account which it has lost, it obtains, at the best, another
principle of internal order; a poetic-mythological, as with the Greeks;
a philosophic-mythological, as with the Indians; or a religious one,
as with the Israelites; but it always loses its original value as a
reproduction of a series of real facts.
Now if we start from this axiom, that the commencement of every true
history and chronology, as it is scientifically understood at the
present day, cannot be carried much farther back than their _oldest
contemporaneous authorities_, and that we find this confirmed in the
nations of Europe and Asia to the prejudice of their earliest histories,
then it is here precisely that exists the marked _superiority_ of the
history of Egypt above all other histories. It is because we have here
_such very early contemporaneous authorities_—not only _literary_, but
the most direct which exist, namely, _monumental authorities_—that we
possess the means of obtaining so early a history of the Egyptians.
If, with reference to this, we first observe the local and climatal
conditions of Egypt, we shall at once perceive that they aid in a
wonderful manner in preserving all kinds of monuments and other relics
of the earliest antiquity. A damp climate generally prevails in the more
elevated and northern parts of Asia; and in the more favoured regions,
owing to a periodical rainy season, the extensive plains are covered with
a fertile soil and luxuriant vegetation (the barren and stony deserts
being always deprived of any high cultivation), consequently all, even
the most solid, monuments of art, where we might have hoped to find
them in considerable numbers, are overpowered and destroyed by the
predominating vital power of nature, ever inimical to the works of man;
whereas the fertility of Egypt, as is well known, is almost entirely
independent of rain. This certainly applies less to the damp air, often
pregnant with rain, along the sea-coast, or to the well-watered and
marshy low district of the Delta. But it is principally for that reason
that there are so few remains of the numerous large and flourishing towns
of the Delta, and that these are hardly worth mentioning. Irregular
heaps of ruins alone exist now of Memphis, the rich metropolis of Lower
Egypt, renowned in the earliest and latest periods of the Monarchy, and
of Heliopolis, Sais, Bubastis, and other important towns. The granite
obelisks in Alexandria are so corroded by the weather that their
inscriptions are hardly recognisable.
In Upper Egypt, where it _scarcely ever_ rains, it is totally different,
especially with respect to all the monuments which are situated on the
borders of the desert, out of reach of the annual inundation, and this
is uniformly the case with the _tombs_, the richest store-houses for
our knowledge of ancient Egyptian life, which in this country alone
really fulfil their true destination, by serving as an asylum against
destruction and decay. The narrow district of the Nile, annually
recreated, borders in its whole length on the wide, rocky, and petrifying
desert. The towns and temples were therefore chiefly built on the
boundary between the two, partly not to intrench upon the fertile ground,
partly in order that the buildings should be upon a drier and more secure
foundation. And thus, in fact, we find the numerous temples and palaces
in wonderful preservation, so far as they are not mutilated by the hand
of man.
Even the black bricks made of Nile mud, and dried in the sun, apparently
the most perishable material, have not unfrequently been preserved in
the open air for thousands of years, in the form in which they were
built up, and with their coating of plaster. A row of great vaulted
halls, built entirely of black Nile bricks, and partly covered in the
inside with stucco, stands about the celebrated temple of the great
Ramses, in Thebes. They date from the same period as the temple itself,
the beginning of the thirteenth century before Christ. This is not alone
testified by the architectonic plan of the building, but most irrefutably
by the bricks themselves, which bear the name of Ramses-Miamun stamped
upon them, as a mark of the royal manufacture. At that time, and
earlier, during the whole of the 18th and 19th Dynasties, it was a very
common practice to line the excavated rock-tombs with Nile bricks,
and afterwards to paint upon the stucco, especially wherever the rock
was friable, and was therefore hewn into a vaulted roof. But the same
custom is sometimes found even in the earliest period of the Pyramids
of Memphis. In enclosed places, not only the building material, but the
colours, both upon the stone and upon the plaster covering, have almost
without exception retained their original freshness and perfection, and
also, very frequently, where they have been exposed to the open air.
The peculiar incorruptibility of vegetable and even of animal matter
is, however, still more astonishing. Our museums are filled with such
remains. In the most ancient tombs of Memphis, a multitude of objects are
found made of wood, such as sarcophagi, chests, and boxes of all kinds,
chairs, instruments, small ships, likewise grains of corn, and dried
fruits, such as pomegranates, dates, the fruit of the Doum Palm, nuts,
almonds, beans, grapes; also bread and other food, besides cloth made of
bast, a texture of reeds, papyrus, and an incredible quantity of linen.
The countless number of mummies, also, are well known, which, though
taken out of their tombs, still last for centuries with their skin and
hair; also all mummified bodies of animals, with their furs and feathers;
even the internal parts of the human body could there be embalmed for
ever, and are still found in vases expressly designed for that purpose.
This wonderful conservative property belonging to all ancient Egyptian
objects, depends therefore chiefly upon the sky being without rain, and
the dry soil of the non-irrigated desert. But the country offered another
marked advantage above other lands, namely, the greatest abundance of
_materials especially adapted for all kinds of monuments_.
Chief among these, is an admirable stone of the most varied quality,
suited as well to building of all kinds, as to the most delicate
sculpture. The mountain range which flanks the valley, and follows the
course of the river from the Delta to beyond Thebes, is composed of
limestone; in the neighbourhood of ancient Memphis, upon the Lybian
side, where the Pyramids stand, it is a solid nummulitic limestone, more
adapted for excavations in the rock, and for building stone, than for
sculpture; on the opposite side, among the Arabian mountains, it has
the finest grain, and is of a uniform density, approaching almost to
marble; it is capable of being worked in any manner, and on account of
the beautiful polish it takes, was used, among other purposes, for the
external covering of the Pyramids, while the interior was made of the
Lybian stone off the ground, upon which they were erected. The Theban
range of mountains is almost everywhere composed of rock, of such an
extremely fine quality, that the sepulchral passages and chambers of the
dead, hewn out in the living rock, most of them several hundred feet
deep, running in various directions, were capable of receiving everywhere
the richest sculptures, in the most delicate bas-reliefs, directly
upon the polished surface of the rock. Beyond Thebes there are ranges
of sandstone mountains, from Gebel-Selseleh to Assuan. From these, and
especially from the enormous stone-quarries of Selseleh, the architects
as well as the sculptors of the New Monarchy obtained their chief supply
of the most excellent and durable fine-grained sandstone. Finally, the
syenite and granite of Assuan are still considered the most beautiful
and valuable of their kind, and were also used by the ancient Egyptians
not only for their monolithic colossi, obelisks, sarcophagi, statues for
entire small temples, &c., but were employed as a building stone, at
all periods. In the Pyramid of Chufu, the high walls, the ceiling, and
floor of the greatest sarcophagus chamber, are entirely made of polished
granite, and the third Pyramid of Mencheres was cased with it up to a
certain height.
I shall here pass over all the other more valuable kinds of stone,
particularly those of the higher Arabian mountains, abundantly used in
ancient Egypt, each in its own way, especially the beautiful yellow
alabaster, several very valuable breccias, greenstone, serpentine, and
the bluish-red porphyry of Gebel-Dochân, which was much employed at a
later period, as they were all reserved rather for purposes of luxury.
But we must not omit to mention here, that the abundance of building
stone in this country was doubled by the _ease of transport_ from one end
of Egypt to the other, upon the great water road of the Nile; therefore,
sandstone and granite were used nearly as much at Thebes, and in all that
part of the country where limestone rock alone was to be found near at
hand, as in Upper Egypt, where it was hewn.
Limestone or sandstone have been always, and in all countries, the most
important material for monumental productions. Where this was wanting,
or was obtained with difficulty, as in Babylon, or on the Indus, or in
the north of Germany, earthen bricks were used as the best substitute,
at least for building purposes. But in Egypt also they could be replaced
by bricks of the best quality, since the soft, clayey Nile mud was
especially adapted for the latter. Thus the wary Egyptians not only did
not neglect this expedient, but made the utmost use of it, and with
greater results than anywhere else, because here it was not required to
take the place of some better material, but only preferred in those cases
where the object itself made it appear best adapted. This more especially
applies to great dykes, town walls, and those temple enclosures which
were to contain no covered rooms, and no delicately constructed parts;
therefore, even in the earliest times, Pyramids were also built of
bricks. They were employed to fill up the ground and to make elevations,
but were more especially everywhere used where large spaces had to be
covered in, without incurring the great expense of huge slabs of stone,
before the useful principle of concentric stone-cutting was known.
This occasioned the remarkably early use of brick-vaulted roofs, along
with the imperfect stone arch, which was, as it were, only cut out of
horizontal layers of stone. Hence arose the custom connected with this,
which we have already mentioned, of lining rock-chambers of crumbling
stone with arches of Nile bricks. The external layers of the brick
buildings in Babylon and Nineveh were generally made of burnt bricks, and
yet they could not resist the climate and time. In Egypt, dried bricks
alone were everywhere used; owing to their natural solidity, and to the
climate, they answered better for their monumental purpose than the burnt
bricks of Babylon, which is still proved by the numerous extant brick
buildings, with their stucco and their pictures.
But in the history of a nation, a substance favourable to its book
literature is of no less importance than the material for building and
sculpture. Egypt possessed also for this purpose an invaluable product
of the country, the _papyrus plant_, from which they were able to obtain
a perfect material for writing upon, unsurpassed throughout antiquity.
Neither the skins of the Ionians, nor the linen of the ancient Romans,
nor the cotton stuff and palm leaves of the Indian, nor the parchment of
Mysia, are to be compared with the Egyptian papyrus in pliability, or
in the power of extension, in durability and cheapness; therefore its
use became gradually more widely spread, and was preserved far down into
the middle ages. Even the later discovered paper of our own time has not
only retained the name of the ancient plant, but, with regard to its
material, can only be looked upon as a continuation and perfecting of
the Egyptian paper, since pressed fibres of plants (particularly of flax
and hemp) have proved to be the most suitable material, even up to the
present day. In ancient times the papyrus plant grew more especially in
the marshy ground of the Nile Delta, and is only elsewhere mentioned by
Pliny as growing near Syracuse, where to this day it is found in great
abundance. Why, on the other hand, it has become almost entirely extinct
in Egypt, may be explained by the circumstance that it was artificially
cultivated to an extent far beyond its natural powers of growth, and
became therefore, like other plants, exhausted. Its use may be traced
back to the most ancient times of Egypt; the papyrus roll and the writing
apparatus are found upon monuments as early as the 4th and 5th Dynasties,
therefore between three and four thousand years before Christ. But this
discovery of very ancient Egypt, which may perhaps be considered as the
most important, next to the invention of writing, only obtains its full
significance in history by the unaltered preservation of those very
rolls of writing for thousands of years. For they not only afforded the
Egyptian priests the benefit of primeval uninjured archives, but we still
obtain from them the instructive contemplation of a multitude of such
original documents, written on papyrus, from the prosperous times of the
Monarchy.
In addition, however, to the external aid afforded by the climate and
productions of Egypt, for the preservation of its history, is to be
mentioned the internal and more efficient influence derived from the
original direction of the national character—its _historical sense_. This
can by no means be explained solely by the reaction which the facility
of immortalising the present, and the peculiarly conservative nature of
the neighbouring desert, might produce upon the original tendency of the
national mind; as little as we can interpret the striking want of a sense
for history, among the Indian people, by the less favourable locality of
their country. The ultimate foundation for such national individualities
can always alone be sought, in the particular part they are called to
play in the general history of the world. But, on a nearer examination,
we can have no doubt that such an historical sense existed among the
Egyptian people in an unusually high degree, and was cultivated by them
in all its stages.
It is first of all demonstrated by the incredible multitude of monuments
of every kind, which were at all periods erected by kings, and persons of
private fortune. All the chief cities of Egypt were adorned with temples
and palaces, and the other towns, frequently indeed more insignificant
places, with at least one, often with several sanctuaries; these were
filled with statues of the gods and kings of all sizes, composed of the
most valuable stone, and the walls externally and internally were covered
with coloured sculptures. To erect these public buildings, and to endow
them splendidly, was the exclusive privilege and pride of kings. In their
turn the richer portion of the people vied with them in their concern for
the dead, by erecting monumental tombs. Whilst with reference to public
buildings, the passion for building among the Greeks and Romans, in their
most prosperous days, can alone be placed beside that of the Pharaonic
time, the Egyptian necropoli far surpass those of Greece and Rome, both
in extent and in the number of the monuments, as well as in the richness
of their execution, especially in their endowment of pictures and
inscriptions.
But next to the multitude and splendour of these works, the unsurpassed
attention paid to their durability, especially proves the innate
historical sense of the Egyptians. That they laid due stress on the great
age of their buildings, follows from the annalistic account of Manetho,
which is in no respect liable to suspicion, by which we learn that even
TOSORTHROS, the second king of the 2nd Dynasty, and the cotemporary of
Menes, commenced building with _hewn stones_ διὰ ξεστῶν λίθων.
And it is hardly necessary to mention the great Pyramids of Memphis,
those colossal massive structures, which, solid throughout, and built
of strong nicely joined hewn stones, are piled up above the sepulchral
chambers, cut out of the living rock, generally without leaving any
vacant space, like artificial rocks in the simplest form, as if he who
built them had been aware that, in them he laid the foundation of the
future gigantic building—the _History of Man_. This may equally refer to
all the other buildings, whether they are destined for the living or the
dead; the desire to labour for eternity is imprinted upon all of them.
The belief which was early formed of a life after death, and of a
relation continuing to subsist between the soul and the body, was closely
connected with this; and along with it the exaggerated care that was
bestowed upon the bodies of the dead, embalming them, and swathing
them, and shutting them up in double and triple sarcophagi, made of the
strongest wood, and the hardest stone, which were buried in deep pits,
and in laboriously excavated rock-chambers. Even in the most peaceful
times this nation appears always to have anticipated the possibility of
future hostile invasions, and of barbarous and rapacious races; for that
reason they so ingeniously closed the large granite sarcophagi by means
of metal rods, which only fell down into the holes prepared for them in
the sides, at the last thrust of the cover, which was driven drawer-like
in, so that the sarcophagi could only be opened by the destruction of the
colossal masses of stone. They also endeavoured to guard even the passage
which led to the sarcophagi chambers by heavy stone trap-doors, and by
ingeniously building up the walls, so as to divert the attention, and to
protect them in every other possible way from inroad and desecration. For
that reason many subterranean tombs are undoubtedly still hidden from us;
only a few tombs of kings are known, and many important monuments will
still be discovered in the inexhaustible necropoli of Memphis, Abydos,
and Thebes.
However, we already possess such an abundant supply of works of art, and
other things belonging to daily life, from the earliest, down to the
latest times of the Pharaonic Monarchy, that these in themselves alone,
considered only objectively, would form an extremely important source of
knowledge concerning the mode of life in ancient Egypt. The great work of
Napoleon, the “_Description de l’Egypte_,” has splendidly demonstrated
how much in fact may be gained by such an objective examination of the
monuments; it contains matter that will always deserve praise, and a rich
treasure was collected for the cause of science, although the key to
the hieroglyphics had not yet been discovered, and consequently all the
monuments being chronologically uncomprehended, or wrongly comprehended,
stood beside each other, as in a picture without perspective, on one
plane surface.
This very work, however, is an evident proof of what could _not_ be done,
even with the greatest expenditure of means and learning, without aid
obtained from the inscriptions. The _history_ of the people in all its
varied development remained dark and fabulous as before. It is the same
with the monuments of all nations, which have come down to us either
without any written character, or with it undeciphered, like those of our
own heathen ancestors, or of the aborigines of South America, or even of
the Babylonians. History profits very little by them.
The Egyptians, however, from the beginning, exhibit, even on this higher
stage, their historical sense and vocation. According to the Egyptian
annals, it was the same King Tosorthros who gained the highest reputation
relative to the perpetuity of the history of Egypt since his time, not
only by the introduction of hewn building stones, but still more by the
care he bestowed upon the development of the written character; and
we see upon the monuments, at least since the time of Cheops, between
three and four thousand years before Christ, a perfectly-formed system
of writing, and a universal habit of writing, by no means confined to
the priesthood. Even at that time the writing was no longer merely
monumental; the signs, indeed, when they were rapidly used, sometimes
approached the hieratical short-hand. It therefore appears to me
undoubted that, even in the time of Menes, in the very commencement of
our Egyptian history, the hieroglyphic writing had been long invented,
established, and practised, which we must of course presuppose since
we hold Menes to be historical; for there can be no history without
writing. From the choice of the pictures in hieroglyphics, and from other
reasons, it appears indeed justifiable to suppose, that this wonderful
picture-writing of the Egyptians was formed, with reference to its
peculiar character in Egypt itself, without any other influence from
abroad, although they may have brought the first beginning of it with
them from their original home in Asia. But that a people should produce
anything so perfect as this system of writing, which embraces at once all
the stages of human writing, from the most direct ideographical symbolic
writing through syllables, to the equally direct notification of sound
by means of vowels and consonants, certainly indicates a long previous
development.
The application, however, which the Egyptians made of this early
invention, from which so much resulted, is of still more importance.
For they not only employed it, as often happens among nations of much
higher civilisation, in the most necessitous cases, and where it was most
immediately advantageous, but to an extent which surpasses everything
that we have heard of elsewhere, and which must still astonish any
one who considers the matter for the first time. While the Greeks and
Romans, at the period when they were most lavish of their writing, only
placed a short inscription of a few words on the front of their largest
temples and most splendid buildings, for which reason the monumental
style still denotes among us a short laconic style, as seems most
suitable to the speaking stone; among the Egyptians the temples were
almost covered with inscriptions. All buildings, which were erected to
the gods, to the kings, and to the dead, had generally representations
or inscriptions upon all the walls, ceilings, pillars, architraves,
friezes, and posts—inside as well as outside. In place of only giving
the most necessary information, the writing here forms in itself at the
same time an essential ornament of the architecture, as is the case also
with representations on a larger scale. The variegated written columns on
the white or grey surfaces, not only express a feeling for ornamental
drawing, by the great variety in their lines, which run backward and
forward with the utmost regularity, and satisfy the painter’s eye by the
brilliancy of the varied colours, but they also excite the observation
of the unlearned by the figurative and direct meaning of the written
objects, taken from all the natural kingdom, and, lastly, the intelligent
curiosity of the inquirer, especially of every cultivated man, by the
peculiar signification of their religious or historical purport. Thus
hieroglyphics becomes a _monumental writing_, in a sense and to a degree
of perfection, beyond any other written character on earth.
They had also so far overcome the technical difficulty of engraving these
signs, both in the most fragile and the hardest kinds of stone, that it
seems hardly to have been considered at all, though these signs were
not composed of simple mathematical strokes, like the Roman or Greek
monumental writing, or the cuneiform writing of the Asiatics, but were at
the same time writing and artistic drawing.
Among the Egyptians the written character was not alone the constant
and indispensable accompaniment of architecture, and of the larger
representations upon the walls of the temples, but was placed with an
equal predilection upon all, even the smallest objects of art and of
daily life. How precious among other nations of antiquity are those
statues, vases, gems, or other objects, which bear upon them inscriptions
with respect to their origin, their owners, or their intended use! This
is the universal practice in Egypt. There, no Colossus was so great, and
no amulet so small, that it should not itself express for what it was
designed by means of an inscription; no piece of furniture that did not
bear the name of its owner. Not only the temples had their dedications,
in which the builder was named, and the god to whom it was consecrated
by him, but they were considered of such importance that a particular
class of independent monuments were especially devoted to them, viz., the
obelisks at the entrance of the gates; and besides this, every fresh
addition to the temple, every newly-erected pillar, actually even the
restoration of separate representations, which had been accidentally
injured upon the old walls, had a written information respecting which
of the kings built it, and what he had done for the enlargement,
embellishment, and restoration of the temple. We sometimes find the name
of the reigning king recorded upon the separate building stones, as the
stone-cutter’s mark, and it was usually stamped upon the bricks of royal
manufacture.
Finally, however, writing was employed among the Egyptians in its last
and highest destination, as _book-writing for literary purposes_; and,
indeed, as we have already mentioned, from the earliest times, for the
use of the papyrus goes thus far back, and we frequently see upon the
representations from the time of the great Pyramids of Memphis, one
or more scribes occupied in registering upon sheets their master’s
possessions in flocks, corn, and other treasures. We learn from the
historical accounts relative to the first Dynasties, which are still
preserved, that even at that time they possessed _Annals of the Monarchy_.
If we now reflect upon the period from which the original fragments
of such annals have come down to us, namely, the beginning of the New
Monarchy, we find that this extends one thousand five hundred years
farther back than the oldest remains of book literature in the whole of
antiquity put together. For it is known that the greater proportion of
our manuscripts only go back about as far as the tenth century of our
era; previous to this their number rapidly diminishes, and the small
fragment of a manuscript of Livy, which was lately brought to Berlin,
and was there recognised as probably belonging to the first century
after Christ, may be viewed as the earliest remains of a book which
can be referred to out of Egypt; even the rolls—which were reduced to
coal at Herculaneum—do not go farther back; whereas in Egypt not alone
numerous papyri have been preserved from the time of Ptolemy, but a much
greater number from the centuries previous to that time, namely from
the sixteenth to the thirteenth century, some of them of extraordinary
length[121]. The greatest proportion of them were deposited with the
mummies, and therefore only contain what relates to death and a future
life; but other rolls were interred in the tombs as the most secure
places, carefully packed in particular vases or baskets, and they contain
laudatory songs upon kings or gods, historical annals, the accounts of
the temple, that which relates to the calendar, and many other things
with reference to this life, frequently contracts, law-suits, and
similar documents from the time of the Greeks, sometimes also with Greek
translations or additions.
The large number still in preservation leave therefore no doubt
concerning the remarkable fact communicated by Diodorus I. 49, on good
authority, that King Osymandyas, _i. e._ Ramses-Miamun, built a library
in his temple at Thebes, as early as the fourteenth century before
Christ. The description which he gives us of this splendid building
may still be traced from one chamber to the other among its ruins, and
at the entrance—behind which, according to Diodorus, the library was
situated—Champollion perceived on both sides the representations of
Thoth, the God of Wisdom, and of Saf, the Goddess of History; then,
behind the former, the God of Hearing, and, behind the latter, the God of
Seeing, which significantly reminded the person who was entering of the
locality. Several hieratical papyri, which we still possess, are dated
from the Rameseion, 𓉐𓏤𓈖𓍹𓇳𓄠𓋴𓇓𓌹𓇋𓏠𓈖𓍺 and it is also frequently
mentioned in the so-called Historical Papyri. I found in Thebes the tombs
of two _Librarians_ of the time of Ramses-Miamun, therefore probably
belonging to the library described by Diodorus; they are situated to the
south-west of the palace of Ramses, behind Der el Medînet. The occupants
were father and son, since this office was hereditary, as most of them
were. The father was called Neb-nufre, the son Nufre-hetep, and they bore
the titles of 𓇯𓇩𓏏𓏺𓏼 _her scha· tu_, “Superior over the Books,” and
𓉻𓈖𓇩𓏏𓏺𓏼 _naa en scha· tu_, “Chief over the Books.” In the tomb of
the son, Ramses sacrifices to Amen-Ra, and portions of two statues of
the deceased are still scattered about. We have good reason to suppose
that this library, of which we have incidentally received still further
information, was neither the first, nor the only one, and this is
inferred, among other things, because the two gods above mentioned bear
as one of their fixed titles, not only here, but upon other monuments of
all classes, the one the _Master_ and the other the _Mistress_ of the
_Hall of Books_, and that, consequently, the idea of gods of libraries
must have been very familiar to the Egyptians.
This also explains how, in the earliest times of the Greek dominion,
under Ptolemy Philadelphus, it was possible to fill the library founded
in Alexandria in the space of a few years with 400,000[122] rolls, at
a time when there was no precedent in the Grecian motherland except
the private collection of Aristotle. It is explained, when we remember
that Philadelphus found such an abundant store already existing in the
Egyptian archives and libraries. It no longer seems anything remarkable
when Iamblichus[123], referring to a Seleucus, tells us of 20,000
hermetic books, which we must understand to be a rough computation of all
Egyptian literature; the notice does not obtain a mythological character
until the introduction into it of the cyclical number 36,525, which
Iamblichus quotes from Manetho—of course from the false one.
The fame of Egyptian wisdom[124], which was universally diffused
throughout the ancient world, was grounded upon an abundant literature,
and the stock of knowledge deposited therein, which increased from year
to year like a well-invested capital. This fame was never disputed
even by the Greeks themselves; possessing so much higher natural
endowments than others, they were more just in this point than many of
our modern critics, who would rather consider the genius of the Greeks
as auto-didactic, grown up in a barbarous wilderness. Herodotus calls
the Egyptians “by far the best instructed people with whom he has become
acquainted, since they, of all men, _store up most, for recollection_.”
When the Eleians wished to establish their Olympian games, they sent
an embassy to the Egyptians, they being the wisest people of all the
earth, to obtain their judgment and their good advice upon this great
project[125].
The distinguished series of celebrated men[126] who are said to have
carried Egyptian wisdom to the Greeks, begins as early as the mythical
times. Danaus brought the first germ of higher civilisation from Egypt
to Argos[127], and Erectheus, King of Athens, was considered by some
an Egyptian[128], and taught the Eleusinian mysteries according to the
manner of the Egyptians. The holy singers of antiquity, Orpheus[129],
Musaeus[130], Melampus[131], and Eumolpus[132], thence acquired their
theological wisdom; and even to Homer[133] himself Egypt may not have
been unknown. The most ancient artists of Greece, Daedalus[134],
Telecles[135], and Theodoras[136], are said to have educated themselves
in this land of primeval art, and have employed the Egyptian canon
of proportions. Lycurgus[137] and Solon[138] introduced into their
fatherland all the wise regulations they there became acquainted with;
and Herodotus[139] especially tells us that the Egyptian laws relating
to the surveying of the land, by which every one was obliged to declare
to the monarch his annual revenue, were transferred to Athens by Solon,
and were in use even in his time. Cleobulus, the sage of Lindus, is said
also to have visited Egypt[140]. It signifies little how much historical
foundation there is for these accounts. The general direction taken by
tradition, with reference to it, proves even more than separate facts
could do, the early and late general universal recognition of Egyptian
wisdom. It was considered a glory to participate in it.
But Egypt was especially regarded as a university for philosophy, and
for all that could be gained through science and learning. We therefore
see philosophers, mathematicians, physicians, historians, resorting to
Egypt, each emulating with the other, and studying for many years under
Egyptian teachers. The houses in Heliopolis in which Plato and the
mathematician Eudoxus had lived for thirteen years, were still shown to
Strabo[141]. The observatory of Eudoxus, in which he is said to have made
certain observations of the stars, and on Canobus, in particular, bore
his name[142] in the time of Strabo. Even Thales[143] was instructed by
the Egyptian priests, and as it is expressly said, had besides them, no
other teachers. Here he became acquainted with the division of the year
into seasons, and into 365 days; and here also he learnt how to take the
measurement of high objects, such as the Pyramids by their shadow, at a
particular hour of the day[144]. Archimedes[145] invented his celebrated
water screw in Egypt, and there applied it, in the establishments
which were devoted to the irrigation of the land. Pythagoras[146] was
a long time in Egypt, and all that we know concerning the dogmas of
this influential man agrees with this account[147]. His doctrine of
the immortality of the soul, especially, is very decidedly referred,
by Herodotus, to Egypt. He says, “_This doctrine is wrongly pronounced
by certain Greeks, whom he will not mention, as belonging peculiarly
to them_[148],” by which he evidently has Pythagoras and his master
Pherecydes in view, for it is also related of the latter that he was in
Egypt[149]. And it is in fact now sufficiently known, from the monuments,
that the Egyptians possessed from the earliest times very distinct ideas
about the transmigration of souls, and of judgment after death[150]. The
philosophers _Anaxagorus_[151], _Democritus_[152], _Sphaerus_[153], the
mathematician _Oinopides_[154], the physician _Chrysippus_[155], also
_Alcaeus_[156] and _Euripedes_[157], are enumerated among the visitors
to Egypt. Finally, the same is known of _Hecataeus_[158], _Herodotus_,
_Diodorus_[159], _Strabo_, and many less celebrated Greeks.
All these men did not merely desire to acquire a knowledge of Egypt as
eye-witnesses, but went there principally to gain instruction from the
learned priests on particular branches of knowledge. This is the light in
which those historians regarded it, who give us more detailed accounts
of these wanderings of the Greek scholars to Egypt[160]. The Egyptians
themselves indeed valued it so highly that the priests, as Diodorus, i.
96, expressly recounts, recorded in their annals the visits of celebrated
Greeks. It thence arose that the most distinguished among them, even the
individual teachers, remained known by name and descent, and were handed
down to us[161]. These names bear upon them a genuine Egyptian stamp,
and therefore offer no grounds for any material doubt from this side.
Plutarch calls the teacher of Solon, _Sonchis_, from Sais; of Pythagoras,
_Onnuphis_, from Heliopolis; and of Eudoxus, _Chonuphis_, from Memphis.
Clemens adds to these the teacher of Plato, _Sechnuphis_; all of them
names whose Egyptian form may be easily restored.
It is evident that this instruction must have contained more than an
unintelligible knowledge of symbols, a petrified mysticism, and empty
dreams, as people have been hitherto frequently inclined to believe. Real
knowledge and scientific experiences could only be founded upon a copious
_literature_, carefully fostered for many ages. Its great treasures had
indeed been long known and envied before the time of the Ptolemies; the
Persians, under Artaxerxes, carried off a portion of them, together with
other treasures, from the ancient archives of the temples, and only
restored them for a high ransom[162]. But their contents began for the
first time to be better known, and more perfectly understood, when the
translations appeared, which were extensively made for the Greeks[163]
after the time of the first Ptolemies. Strabo, among others, affords
us a valuable proof of this, where he speaks of the thirteen years’
residence of Plato and Eudoxus in Egypt[164]. “These priests (he says)
were versed in astronomy, but, mysterious and far from communicative,
it was only after the lapse of time and by polite attentions that they
allowed themselves to be induced to communicate some of their doctrines;
but still the most part was kept concealed by these barbarians. For
instance, to complete the perfect year, they added that portion of the
day and night which goes beyond the 365 days; _nevertheless, the perfect
year remained unknown to the Greeks, as well as many other things, until
the later astronomers learnt it from the treatises of the priests, which
were translated into Greek; and they still refer to the writings of the
Egyptians, as well as to those of the Chaldeans_”[165].
But, in order to view more distinctly the multiplicity of the Egyptian
branches of learning, I shall mention the forty-two Hermetic books,
probably chiefly _sacred_, described to us by Clemens of Alexandria, from
a genuine ancient authority[166]. We learn from it that the ten first
and principal books, those of the _Prophets_, called the Hieratical, or
Priest Books, treated of the laws and the gods, namely, of the highest
theological education, which embraced at once divine and human laws[167],
and philosophy[168]. To this was appended, as an immediate and necessary
complement, the ten books of the _Stolistes_—liturgical in their
contents—containing ordinances about the sacrifice, and the offering of
the first-fruits, of hymns, prayers, processions, feasts, &c.
To these twenty writings, which were in a stricter sense sacerdotal,
succeeded fourteen others, treating of more secular learning, what we
should call the _exact_ sciences, which were indeed indispensable to the
priests, but in themselves bore no theological character. These also
were again divided into two divisions; of which the first, consisting of
ten books, belonged to the hierogrammatist[169], and not alone embraced
the wide field of hieroglyphics, _i. e._ writing and drawing; but also
all that fell within the department of the measurement of space and of
geometry, commencing with the more general, _cosmography_, universal
_geography_, the _chorography_ of Egypt, and the course of the Nile;
then, also consequent upon that, the _topography_ of the temple-sites;
and lastly, the most local arrangements of the furniture of the temple,
as it were, or _naography_. The remaining four books, the _astrological_,
more properly called by us the _astronomical_, were committed to a
particular class of scholars—the horoscopi, or time seers. This portion
of their science, so peculiarly important to the Egyptians, and therefore
kept distinct from the rest, entered into everything that it was
necessary to be acquainted with for the calculation of time, both in
detail and on a large scale, therefore more especially with the heavenly
chronometers, the stars, and indeed, above all, the position of the fixed
stars (and the constellations); then the arrangement of the planets (and
their revolutions), the conjunctions and phases of the sun and moon;
lastly, the rising of the stars. The practical purpose was indicated by
the symbols of the horoscopes, the horologium, and the palm-branch of the
years and periods.
After the strict sciences, there followed the two books of the _Chanter_.
He represented the only _art_—at least, the only one which was recognised
as such, by its separate position—that of _music_. Architecture and the
art of drawing were practised, and even with a feeling for art, but they
had not emancipated themselves as independent arts, from the rule and
line condition of the hierogrammatist. Even music, which was apprehended,
and came into the world for the first time through the Greeks, was not
considered by the Egyptians as an independent art, in our sense of the
word, neither could it be regarded a science like drawing, as if it
were equally an efflux of the horoscopical chronology, to which it was
externally attached. It was on that account necessary to keep them apart.
We must, therefore, look upon the chanter only as a precentor—a practical
leader of the religious and festive songs. His two books contained hymns
to the gods, and (encomiastic-poetical) observations upon the _royal
life_, but only as the subject-matter of the religious chorus. It cannot
be known how far real music was here brought into consideration; but
certainly the ᾠδός had nothing to do with the theological purport of his
hymns—information concerning this must be derived from the prophets and
the Stolist.
The contents of the last six books were medicinal, and treated of the
structure of the body, of diseases, the organs, curatives, for the eyes
especially, and of female cases. They are assigned by Clemens, probably
from a misunderstanding, to the _Pastophori_, _i. e._ the watchers of the
temples[170].
This survey of the forty-two ancient sacred books deserves here
especially, our full consideration, because it brings clearly to light
an intelligent, thoughtful, general view of the universe, straining
after inward perfection and conscious arrangement, and also the necessity
of giving this a prominent form by _literature_, and of introducing it
practically into life. Proceeding from the general to the individual,
from the spiritual to the external, from the theoretical to the
practical, as well in the succession of the general sections as in the
arrangement of the separate books, this code forms a defined whole, which
we nowhere find repeated among any of the nations of antiquity, not even
among the Indians. Unfortunately, the ten first and most important books,
which contained their fundamental ideas on religion, philosophy, and
law, and therefore the highest and most spiritual department of their
contemplation, are not so fully described as the following sections, as
regards the detail of their contents; therefore the enumeration of the
separate branches of knowledge with which the hierogrammatists, the real
scholars, and the horoscopi, next to them, occupied themselves, and which
comprehended the whole visible and measurable world, is so much the more
worthy of our notice.
At the same time we must remember that in the construction of this canon
there was no intention of giving the chief features of an encyclopædia of
their sciences. Every scientific purpose was necessarily laid aside, only
the thoroughly practical aim of a sacerdotal compendium was contemplated,
in which learning only formed part of the education of a priest, and
merely occupied a third place after theology and the liturgical forms,
and was only represented so far as a direct practical use could be
obtained from it. Philosophy was therefore not at all separated from
theology; human law was only an efflux of divine law. The knowledge of
geometry was necessary for the surveying of the land, the division of
the produce, the building and decoration of the temples; the knowledge
of astronomy for the calendar of festivals, and the civil calculation of
time; singing formed a part of the Liturgy. Nor is proof wanting that the
knowledge and literature of Egypt far surpassed what was required by the
hierarchy, that the thirty-six or forty-two books were also the earliest
and original centre, to which later progressive improvements might
everywhere attach themselves.
We frequently read in other authors about the “_Sacred Writings_[171]”
of the Egyptians, or of their _Hermetic books_, but it would be wrong
to refer all these notices to the forty-two books named by Clemens. It
seems to me by no means improbable that the above-mentioned precepts on
the life of the king, in Diodorus, which for Egypt bear a thoroughly
classical stamp on them, formed a portion of the sacred law-books of the
prophets, and that the laudatory song upon the deceased king, mentioned
at the end of that passage, might have been composed in imitation of
the ἐκλογισμὸς βασιλικοῦ βίου, in the last of the thirty-six books, and
have only been employed in the last case. But it is not to be supposed
the forty-two books themselves contained separate laudatory songs on
particular kings, although such songs, understood in a wider sense,
certainly belonged to the sacred books.
We read in the same passage of Diodorus, that wise sayings and actions
of the most distinguished men were read aloud to the king after the
sacrifice by the hierogrammatist from the “Sacred Books,” ἐκ τῶν ἱερῶν
βίβλων. We still possess ancient papyri which contain proverbs of a
similar kind, some of them even put into the mouths of certain celebrated
kings belonging to the Old Monarchy, such as Amenemha I., the head of
the 12th Dynasty[172], resembling somewhat in their form the proverbs of
Solomon. For the sake of the reader, and the one who reads out loud, they
are divided by red points recurring at nearly stated intervals into short
verses, according to the sentences, like the Hebrew scriptures. But these
could not have belonged to the ten rolls of the hierogrammatists, nor to
the priests’ canon in general.
It were more easy to suppose that the first book of the singer may have
consisted of single hymns and prayers addressed to particular divinities,
such as we still possess several instances of, _e. g._ to Ra, Amen Ra,
Mut[173], to Thoth[174], to Osiris[175], Atmu[175], &c., yet probably
it likewise only contained the daily litanies, which belonged to every
temple service, and which were also expressly mentioned[176]. I can as
little agree with the opinion[177] that the great Book of the Dead of
the Egyptians was one of the ten books of the Stolistes, although I
consider it to be also[178] a sacred book ascribed to Hermes. Even its
extent forbids the former supposition. And, moreover, it is by no means
a liturgical book, which one belonging to the Stolistes must have been,
nor a book of Rituals, as Champollion appears to have regarded it, but
essentially a history of the soul after death, therefore it was placed in
the tomb with the deceased. The theological basis of this work, however,
was undoubtedly included in the hieratical books of the prophets.
Bunsen[179] justly makes a distinction between the civil law-book,
and the sacred law-books of the prophets. It was impossible that the
regulations and precepts of the six law-givers, who are mentioned by
Diodorus[180], could have been received into the canon, this can only be
supposed of the most ancient portion of them—the laws of Menes, which
were ascribed to Hermes by himself, and probably were the foundation both
of the religious and of the civil law.
We shall now more easily understand why still less space was afforded
in the canon of Clemens for the _historical_ literature. It presented
neither a speculative nor a practical side to the object which Egyptian
theology had in view, and regarded in this light, therefore, it must
appear subordinate. But on that account it no less existed. This is
proved as well by the authors[181] themselves as by the original remains,
which we still possess. Historical facts of all kinds, related both by
means of pictures and writings, covered the walls of the temples in the
principal towns; single battles and whole wars were described, with their
exact dates, and with all the living details of an eye-witness, upon the
stone surfaces of the pylons and the surrounding walls. As long as these
lasted, the remembrance of those actions must have remained living and
true in the mind of every cultivated Egyptian. And, in fact, we find
these representations at a late period used as a direct authority in
history.
Tacitus[182] recounts to us the visit of Germanicus to the “_great
remains of ancient Thebes. And Egyptian inscriptions were still extant
upon the enormous buildings which declared the former riches. One of
the most distinguished of the priests, who was required to explain the
language of the country, related, that at one time 700,000 men, capable
of bearing arms, dwelt here, and that King Ramses with this army had
conquered Libya, Ethiopia, the Medes and Persians, the Bactrians, and
Scythians, and that he held under his dominions the countries of the
Syrians, the Armenians, and the neighbouring Cappadocians, and thence
to the Bithynian and the Lycian Sea; the tribute laid upon the people
was also read aloud, the weight of the silver and gold, the number of
the weapons and horses, and the presents to the temple, of ivory and
frankincense, and how much corn and other objects had been remitted by
each nation, which was not less than what is now imposed upon the people
by the might of the Parthians, or the power of the Romans._”
This is as strictly an historical notice from the reign of Ramses II., in
the fourteenth century before Christ, as was ever related to us by the
Greeks from the life of Xerxes or Alexander: for we read this statement
now in the present day upon the same walls, before which Germanicus
stood with wondering eyes. The Greeks and Romans seldom derived their
knowledge from such a direct source as Germanicus did here, and Tacitus
was quite unconscious that he was speaking of the same King Ramses, when
shortly before he related of King _Sesostris_, that the bird called the
Phœnix appeared for the first time in his reign. We still read the name
Ramses upon the monuments, as the priest read it to Germanicus; Sesostris
was the name of Sethôs I., who was so often confused with his son Ramses,
and was carried down by a Greek mistake, since the time of Herodotus
(ⲥⲉⲑⲱⲥⲓⲥ, ⲥⲉⲥⲟⲱⲥⲓⲥ, ⲥⲉⲥⲱⲥⲧⲣⲓⲥ).
Who can well doubt that along with such a historical literature engraven
in stone, which to this day fills the whole of Egypt from Alexandria
to Mount Barkal, far in Ethiopia, a corresponding _historical book
literature_ must have existed, of course much richer and more complete,
even though we may not be able at present to point out the remains
of it. But in fact we still possess papyrus rolls, one of which
accidentally refers to the identical warlike deeds represented, with
their annotations, upon the walls of the Theban temple. This is one of
the important documents which the British Museum purchased in the year
1839 from M. Sallier, in Aix, after Champollion had already, in the year
1828, recognised and communicated several passages in it which related to
the war of the great Ramses against the people of Cheta[183]. In 1838 I
found at Leghorn, in a collection of Egyptian antiquities belonging to M.
D’Anastasi, a series of papyri very similar to this, which mention other
warlike features of that glorious period. They appear to come originally
from the same tomb as those of Sallier, since they proceed, partly,
indeed, from the same scribe. Other similar pieces are found in the
Egyptian collections at Turin, Leyden, and Berlin.
It is evident, partly from the express date of the author or scribe,
partly from the kings mentioned in the text, that the largest proportion
of them belong to the 19th Dynasty. The most ancient date in the London
papyrus is from the ninth year of the Great RAMSES II.; the latest is
from the first year of King SET-NECHT, the third successor of the former.
The Turin Royal Annals also belong to this or the next Dynasty. Other
papyri are certainly not older than the 20th; _e. g._ one of those which
I obtained in Thebes repeatedly mentions the name of RAMSES IX., and is
dated, upon the reverse side, from the 13th of Pachon—the sixteenth year,
probably, of this king.
Another of these rolls contains, on the other hand, a portion of a
composition which belongs to the time of Tutmes III., the conqueror of
the Hyksos in the 18th Dynasty; a roll in Turin treats of the same king.
We have as little reason to doubt that the first paragraph in the Pap.
Sallier, No. 1, pl. i.-iii., which treats of two kings at the end of the
Hyksos period, was also composed in their time, or soon after their death.
Two remarkable papyrus rolls, which I obtained in London for the Berlin
Museum, mention the first kings of the 12th Dynasty, AMENEMHA I. and
SESURTESEN I. Their writing is very different from the rest of those that
I am acquainted with, and they belong to the very rare exceptions which,
in place of horizontal lines, are written in vertical columns, after the
manner of hieroglyphical writing; so that it would not surprise me, if
by penetrating more deeply into the contents, the result should be, that
they were composed, even this very copy, during the Old Monarchy. But the
most ancient of all the hieratic royal names are found in a papyrus in
my own possession[184]. Here the name of CHUFU (Cheops) is frequently
mentioned, also King SNEFRU in the 3rd Manethonic Dynasty, and three
other kings, who probably belong to the same Dynasty. These kings are,
indeed, all cited as dead, but since the whole of them belonged to that
ancient period, its contents could hardly be placed much later. Among
a people who were at all times surrounded by so many contemporaneous
monuments and historical authorities, reaching as far back as their first
royal Dynasties, it must have been generally much more difficult to
supplant, or essentially to alter the existing genuine history of ancient
times by fabulous tales and poetical inventions of later times.
In spite of the astonishing number of monuments, and in spite of the rich
literature, whose original remains are confirmed by the accounts we find
in different authors, it would, however, have been impossible to the
Egyptians themselves, how much more so to us, to obtain a correct and
clear insight into the course and connection of their history, if from
its commencement a chronological sense had not been so early developed
among them. Without chronology we should obtain no history, even from
the most varied literature; the Indians, especially, give us a striking
proof of this. History first obtains a perfect self-consciousness through
chronology. With the growing civilisation of a people, the necessity
increases for a sharper division of time both in small and large periods.
From the earliest era of their history, the Egyptians have known how to
satisfy this necessity, inherent in every higher state of civilisation.
But a chronology which is well arranged and established must always
proceed from astronomy. We cannot conceive the existence of the former,
in any nation, without the latter being to a certain degree developed. It
will not, therefore, appear superfluous if we enter here more minutely
into the astronomical knowledge of the Egyptians, before we turn our
attention to their computation of time. We shall here, also, commence
with the information we obtain from authors, and afterwards see how far
it is confirmed and completed by the monuments.
[The author here proceeds to the astronomical basis of Egyptian
chronology, and the chronological knowledge possessed by the Egyptians,
and concludes his Introduction with the following words:]
Taking a retrospective survey of the path we have hitherto pursued in our
discussions, I believe I have essentially fulfilled the task we undertook
at the commencement, namely, to point out the _possibility_ of the
existence of such an early history of Egypt.
We have seen how, contrasted with the most ancient Asiatic nations, the
Egyptians (pre-eminently favoured by their climatal and geographical
conditions) were destined, as it were by nature, to be a monumental
nation. These external conditions correspond with the innate bias of
their feelings, which is shown by the innumerable multitude of their
monuments, and by the extreme care they bestowed upon their preservation.
From their desire to retain the fleeting present, may be explained the
early development of their system of writing (so rich and significant in
its organism, owing to its important origin), as well as the excessive
use which was made of this writing, especially for the monuments, beyond
any other nations of antiquity, so that it soon attained its highest
destination by its application to a many-sided book literature. We have
been able to refer to a Theban library as early as the fourteenth century
before Christ, and have found reason for considering it neither the most
ancient, nor the only one in Egypt. It was this very ancient literature
and hereditary learning, which a later antiquity, and more particularly
the Greeks, abundantly acknowledged, praised, sought out, and studied.
Among the various branches of knowledge we have surveyed, especially the
sacred codes of the priests—the forty-two Hermetic books described by
Clemens, we have however particularly attempted, to indicate more closely
from the monuments, the early study of astronomy, because the arrival
at a more fixed chronology depends especially upon its development.
We have likewise endeavoured to point out that, under the favourable
circumstances of an Egyptian sky, and especially since the introduction
of the variable sun-calendar (calculating as it were, and forming periods
for itself), astronomy was cultivated in the most elaborate and most
complete manner, and this we have been able partly to confirm by the
monuments of the 4th and 12th Dynasties of the Old Monarchy. We have
discovered a division of time, less than an hour, to the sixty times
sixtieth part of a minute, and above an hour to the period of 36,525
years. Between these there were the greatest variety of cycles, such as
no other ancient nation, except the Egyptian, has been able to produce
in equal perfection. They were acquainted with the _civil hours_ of day
and night, also with the twenty-four equal or _equinoctial hours_ of the
complete day, νυχθήμερον.
From days they formed the decades, or Egyptian weeks, and from these
the thirty-day month; they also knew the lunar months, and solemnised
the new and full moon. Their season consisted of four months. They
recognised as forms of years, and carried out in the calendar, both the
oldest lunar year, as well as the solar year of 365 days, and the Sirius
year, which is a quarter of a day longer. The civil solar year, after
twenty-five years, namely at the Apis period, agreed again with the lunar
year; in the same way, calculating by the day, it agreed with the Sirius
year, at the lustrum of four years; and in the space of 1461 years, it
agreed completely with the _Sothis period_. The Phœnix period, of 1500
years, was employed to make the civil year agree with the tropical year,
which was afterwards divided according to the three seasons into three
parts—500 years each. Finally, the Sidereal year, or the slow receding of
the ecliptic to the west, became known, and it was expressed, although
with an imperfect comprehension of the direction and velocity of the
movement, by its greatest astronomical period of 36,525 years.
We have gained the principal purpose we had in view if we have succeeded
in pointing out that, in Egypt, from the time of Menes, to whose reign
the historical accounts go back, there existed to an extraordinary degree
all the conditions necessary for the growth and the perfect development
of the self-conscious and historical life of a nation, and for a
chronologically-arranged historical literature, formed by the monuments
and contemporaneous records. These circumstances have placed it in our
power to investigate and restore, from such early times, the experienced
and recorded history of the Egyptians. As far as our present knowledge
extends, the conditions that we have named only appear complete among
the most ancient Asiatic and European nations at a much later period,
namely, during the last millennium before Christ, therefore an historical
investigation, which refers back as far as that of Egypt, has hitherto
been impossible with respect to those nations, except so far as in the
Egyptian history itself new points of information may be found respecting
the oldest history of nations, not Egyptian.
But it may very possibly be imagined that we have been compelled to stop
at the indication of this _possibility_, being deficient in the means to
raise this historical treasure from the depths in which we behold it.
We can only restore true history with the assistance of an historical
literature, and this must either be contemporaneous, and so far possess
in itself a monumental value, or if it is a later literature, referring
to what has long gone by, it must be accompanied by contemporaneous and
intelligible monuments to enable us to prove and correct it by them.
Hitherto we have certainly possessed one of the necessary means for
the restoration of the Pharaonic history, namely, the Greek accounts,
and extracts from an ancient Egyptian historical literature. But they
remained useless and confused, because the monuments and the literary
remains of the country were still mute and unintelligible. However, since
Champollion’s praiseworthy deciphering of the hieroglyphical writing has
rendered it possible to make an historical use of the monuments of the
country, the second means for historical investigation has been placed in
our hands. It was now for the first time possible to gain some advantage
from the literary authorities, and to make a critical examination of
them, which would necessarily demonstrate the general connection that
subsists between the monuments. Only a correct all-sided combination of
the means offered on both sides can here lead to the aim we have in view.
THE HEBREW TRADITION.
We can best exhibit the relation that subsists between the Hebrew and
Egyptian records, by endeavouring to determine chronologically, and by
such means as are extant, the most important point of contact in the
two histories—namely, the Mosaic period—and thus to prove the value of
the several numbers stated. We shall thereby perceive that the Hebrew
accounts, in so far as they are connected with Egypt, may be held to
be of more historical value than several modern inquirers are inclined
to accord to them, and that they are by no means wanting in a fixed
chronological principle, without which history cannot subsist; but that
a more exact chronology, which might serve as a point of support to the
Egyptian, is not to be sought in them, and it is rather this last which
supplies the most certain chronological explanation of those times to
the history of the Israelites. The genuine chronological character of
the Jewish history is pretty well acknowledged by every one as far back
as the division of the kingdom, or the building of the temple, whereby,
indeed, the individual chronological difficulties, which frequently
occur during this epoch, are not considered, but only the chronological
value of those numbers generally which form the basis of these separate
investigations; but the strictly chronological character of the Hebrew
determinations of time before this epoch is disputed, and, indeed, in
those very numbers which contain in themselves alone the threads of an
exact chronology. A critical examination of the value of these numbers
generally is thus necessary, and therefore this discussion becomes
appropriate here. It is, in fact, of the greatest importance to us,
because it determines whether it be possible to solve some marked
contradictions which have at all times keenly engaged the attention
of historians and theologians, and still continue to do so; it will,
besides, enable many people to decide upon the value of the Manethonic,
consequently of the Egyptian chronology generally, so far as it is made
to depend on its agreement with the accounts obtained from the oldest
source, the only one indeed not Egyptian, which here, at all events,
admits of a comparison.
There are, especially, _two numbers_ which have hitherto formed the
turning points of the chronology of the Old Testament for the Mosaic
period, because, passing over the uncertain individual statements,
they fixed the limits to great spaces in time, and appeared to lay
down a rule for more special investigations. I mean the 480 years[185]
which are calculated to be the period between the Exodus and the
building of the temple, and the 430 years[186] for the sojourn of the
Israelites in Egypt. Both numbers very early created difficulty, and
are partly modified, and partly refuted by other statements of time in
the Old Testament. The 480 years ought to correspond with the sum of
the individual numbers in the Book of Judges, which last is, however,
considerably greater. The genealogies of that same period would, on the
other hand, lead to the conclusion that the number of years was much
fewer. The Seventy themselves differ in their statement of the number,
since they write 440 in place of 480 years; and in the Acts of the
Apostles (xiii. 20), 450 years are calculated for the Judges only to
the time of Samuel; and this again differs from all other statements.
Lastly, we find that Josephus also, even if he knew the number 480, still
did not consider it as binding, since he never mentions it, but accepts
different numbers, and far higher ones[187], which, nevertheless, do
not agree with the Book of Judges. It thereby at least follows, that
the number 480 by itself cannot claim any decided authority. But there
is a still greater difference in the acceptation of the 430 years which
the Israelites are said to have passed in Egypt. For, setting aside that
in an earlier prophecy[188] the round number 400 alone is given, the
Seventy understand the whole statement to mean, not from the entrance
of JACOB INTO EGYPT, but from the entrance of ABRAHAM INTO CANAAN, and
they therefore translate the words in Exodus xii. 40, “Now the sojourning
of the children of Israel, who dwelt in Egypt, was four hundred and
thirty years;” by ἡ δὲ κατοίκησις τῶν υἱῶν Ἰσραήλ, ἣν κατῴκησαν ἐν τῇ γῇ
Αἰγύπτῳ καὶ ἐν γῇ Χαναὰν, ἔτη τετρακόσια τριάκοντα (Now the dwelling of
the children of Israel, which they dwelt in the land of Egypt and in the
land of Canaan, was four hundred and thirty years). The Apostle Paul[189]
also reckons the 430 years from the promise of Abraham, and Josephus[190]
does the same, so that for the sojourn in Egypt, which is understood in
the Hebrew text, only 215 years are reckoned, the remaining 215 being
assigned to the time from Abraham to Jacob. Lastly, if we compare the
number of generations in this period, we shall only find four generations
for the four centuries, so that for this, even half of the time stated
would still be far too great.
Finally, if we consider along with these contradictory statements the
intrinsic character of the numbers given in the original text, namely,
the arithmetical relation of the 215 years from Abraham to Jacob, to
the 430 or 215 years from Jacob to Moses, the frequent return also of
the indeterminate number 40, both in the first[191] and still more in
the second period, and lastly the nature of the numbers 480 or 440 as a
multiple of 12 or 11 generations of 40 years each, it appears to me very
natural that either a higher providential meaning, and in spite of all
other opposing considerations, the only correct chronological expression
would be seen in this play of numbers, or that this external garb of
numbers would be regarded as unessential for the religious—indeed, in
part, also, for the historical import of those narrations, but that in
the latter case all more exact chronological investigation of this period
must be relinquished.
The latter view must gradually prevail in stricter science. A criterion
was wanting in the investigation of the Old Testament, which might
decide upon a definite choice among its self-contradictory statements.
Each claimed for itself a like authority. If we believe that we may now
attempt a new solution of the difficulty, we rely upon the fresh point
of view which we can occupy for that purpose, since we now possess a
positive scale that may be relied on (independent of the investigations
of the Old Testament), by which we can estimate the Hebrew statements,
namely, the authentic history and chronology of the Egyptians, which more
than equals the Hebrew in point of age.
Now if it should appear that they can in no way be harmonised, science
would then, indeed, remain in its former uncertainty concerning the times
before Solomon, and we should lose one of the most important and most
acceptable corroborations of Egyptian chronology. But the result of our
investigations is more favourable, since the Egyptian order of time,
resting upon perfectly independent foundations, most decidedly determines
that there is a chronological principle throughout the historical
relation of the Old Testament, and not an arbitrary selection of Hebrew
numbers. By this means a firm foundation is given to the critical
examination of the latter, and both histories reciprocally afford each
other a support that cannot be shaken.
We must first of all show that the Egyptian account of the expulsion
of the LEPERS, given by Manetho, refers really to the same event as
that narrated in the Old Testament, as the Exodus of the ISRAELITES. We
shall afterwards determine the epoch which is recognised in the Egyptian
tradition, and, lastly, attempt to show how every other time is in like
manner excluded by the historical purport of the Hebrew narrative; that
there exists, also, a chronological thread which leads us to the same
result, and, indeed, that the authentic tradition concerning the year of
the Exodus has never been entirely lost among the Jews. From this fixed
point we shall then look back still farther into the times of JOSEPH, and
the accounts of the Greeks appertaining to that period, to which will be
added our views regarding the visit of Abraham to Egypt.
The following is the account of the Mosaic events which Josephus gives
us from Manetho, and partly in the words of Manetho himself[192]. After
describing the expulsion of the Hyksos, whom Josephus considered to
be the ancestors of the Jews, and giving an account of the kings who
succeeded that event, as far as Rampses, the son of Sethôs, he continues:
“After he (Manetho) had therefore related, in conformity with his earlier
narrative, that our ancestors[193] (the Hyksos) had departed from Egypt
so many years earlier, he then says that King Amenophis, whom he here
inserts, desired to become a beholder of the gods, like Horus, one of
his predecessors. He communicated this desire to one Amenophis, son of
Paapis, who, on account of his wisdom and penetration into futurity,
was believed to partake of the divine nature. Now this namesake of
Amenophis told him that if he cleansed the whole country of the LEPERS
and other unclean people, he would then be able to behold the gods. The
king thereby rejoiced, collected together all who were smitten with this
bodily disease, throughout the whole of Egypt 80,000 in number, and cast
them into the stone-quarries, which are situated east of the Nile, in
order that they should there work, apart from the other Egyptians. Among
them were some learned priests, who had been attacked by the leprosy.
But that wise and prophesying Amenophis began to fear the anger of the
gods, for himself as well as for the king, if they, the priests, were
seen at such compulsory labour; and he foretold, moreover, that others
would hasten to the assistance of the unclean, and would govern Egypt for
thirteen years. He did not, however, venture to express this to the king,
but, leaving behind him a written record, he killed himself. Upon that
the king became very much dejected. Then he (Manetho) continues verbatim,
thus: ‘Now, when these people had suffered sufficiently by the hard work
in the stone-quarries, the king yielded to their entreaty, and gave
up to them, for their deliverance and protection, the town of Abaris,
which had at that time been forsaken by the shepherds (Hyksos). But this
town, according to traditions of the gods, had always been a Typhonic
town. Now, when these people had entered into this town, and found the
place favourable for revolt, they appointed as their leader a priest of
Heliopolis, by name Osarsiph, and swore to obey him in all things. He
established as their first law that they should worship no gods, and
that they should not abstain from those animals which, according to the
law, are considered most holy in Egypt, but that they might sacrifice
and consume them all; also, that they should associate only with their
fellow-conspirators. After he had established these and many other laws,
which were entirely opposed to the Egyptian customs, he commanded them
all to set to work to build up the town walls, and to prepare themselves
for war against King Menophis. But, whilst he consulted some of the other
priests and infected persons, he sent messengers to the shepherds who
had been expelled by Tethmosis to the town of Jerusalem, and, after he
had let them know what had happened to himself and to the others who had
been injured along with him, he invited them to make war against Egypt
in unison with his followers. He would first of all conduct them to
Abaris, the town of their forefathers, and amply provide the troops with
what they required; but, if it were necessary, he would protect them,
and easily subject the country to them. Greatly rejoiced, they readily
brought together as many as 200,000 men, and soon arrived at Abaris. But
when Amenophis, the Egyptian king, heard of the invasion of these people,
he was not a little disturbed, for he remembered what Amenophis, the
son of Paapis, had prophesied. He first collected the Egyptian troops,
conferred with his commanders, desired those sacred animals which are
the most honoured in the sanctuaries to be brought to him, and commanded
the individual priests, more especially to conceal the images of the
gods most securely. But he sent his son, Sethôs, who was five years old,
and was also called Ramesses, from Rampses, the father of Amenophis, to
his friend (the King of Ethiopia). He himself, indeed, went forward with
the remaining Egyptians, who amounted to 300,000 fighting men; however,
when the enemy advanced to meet him he did not engage in battle, but
returned hastily to Memphis, because he believed he was fighting against
the gods. There he carried off the Apis and the other sacred animals
which had been brought thither, and repaired immediately with the whole
army and the remaining baggage of the Egyptians to Ethiopia. The King
of Ethiopia was, in fact, beholden to him; he, therefore, received him,
supplied his troops with all the necessaries of life which the country
afforded, assigned to them as many towns and villages as would suffice
for the predetermined thirteen years, in which they would be compelled to
be deprived of his government, and even placed an Ethiopian army on the
borders of Egypt as a protection to the people of King Amenophis. Thus
it stood in Ethiopia. But the Solymites who had come into the country,
and the unclean among the Egyptians, treated the people so shamefully,
that the period of their government appeared to all who then beheld
these impieties the worst of times; for they not only burnt towns and
villages, and were not satisfied with plundering the sanctuaries, and
abusing the images of the gods, but they continually made use of those
venerated and sacred animals which were fit to be eaten, compelled the
priests and prophets to become their butchers and destroyers, and then
sent them away destitute. It is said, however, that the priest who gave
them a constitution and laws, who was a native of Heliopolis, and called
Osarsiph (from the god Osiris in Heliopolis), went over to these people,
changed his name, and was called Moses.’ This and much more, which for
the sake of brevity I must omit, is what the Egyptians relate concerning
the Jews. But Manetho says further, that Amenophis afterwards returned
out of Ethiopia with a great force, that he and his son Rampses, who had
also an army, gave battle to the shepherds and the unclean, conquered
them, killed many, and pursued the remainder to the borders of Syria.
Manetho wrote this and similar things.”
Next to this Manethonic account, we shall place the Greek conception of
the matter as we find it in DIODORUS, xl. 3, taken from Hecataeus of
Abdera (and also in an earlier passage, xxxiv. 1, without his authority
being given).
“When,” says Hecataeus, “a plague once broke out in Egypt, most people
believed that it was a punishment sent by the gods. For since many
strangers of divers races dwelt among them, who practised very anomalous
customs, with respect to the sacred things and to the sacrifice, it
came to pass that hence their own ancient worship of the gods declined.
Therefore the natives feared there would be no end to the evil, if they
did not remove those who were of foreign extraction. The foreigners
were therefore quickly expelled. The best and the most powerful of them
united together, and, as some people say, were driven away to Greece and
other places, under distinguished leaders, of whom Danaus and Cadmus
were the most famous. But the great mass withdrew to the country which
is now called Judea, situated not far from Egypt, which was at that time
barren and uninhabited. The leader of this colony was MOSES, who was
distinguished by the power of his mind, and by his courage. He captured
the country, and besides other towns, built HIERSOLYMA, which has now
become so famous. He also founded the temple, which was so peculiarly
holy in their eyes, taught them the worship and the service of the
Deity, gave them laws, and regulated their constitution. He divided the
people into twelve tribes, because this is the most complete number, and
agrees with the number of months in the year. But he set up no image of
the gods, for he did not believe God had a human form, but that he is
one God, who embraces heaven and earth, and is Lord of all things. He
regulated the sacrifices and the usages of life very differently from
those of other nations; since, in consequence of the banishment which
they had themselves experienced, he introduced a misanthropical mode of
life, hostile to strangers.”
The statement in the earlier passage of DIODORUS, xxxiv. 1, sounds far
more bitter, where he says “that they (the Jews) alone among all nations
scorn any intercourse with others[194], and look upon every one as their
enemy. Their forefathers, also, were driven out of Egypt as disgraced and
hated by the gods; and in order to cleanse the country, those attacked
with the _white_ sickness and leprosy had been collected together and
cast beyond the frontiers as an accursed race. But the expelled people
had conquered the country round Jerusalem, had formed the nation of the
Jews, and transmitted to their descendants their hatred of mankind. On
that account also they had adopted perfectly anomalous laws, neither to
eat with any other people, nor to show them any kindness.” “Antiochus
Epiphanes, after he had conquered the Jews, entered into their holy of
holies, into which only the priests were admitted; he there found a stone
image of a bearded man, who sat upon an ass, and held a book in his hand.
He took this for Moses, who had founded Jerusalem, organised the people,
given them laws, and introduced the disgraceful and misanthropical
customs.”
Now if we compare these relations, which evidently refer to Egyptian and
not to Jewish statements, with the representation we meet with in the
Hebrew conception of the matter, we cannot mistake the general agreement
of the most essential features.
Differing entirely from the former Exodus of the Hyksos, the description
of which is likewise preserved to us by Manetho, here, it is not an open
enemy who is to be subdued, but people of foreign descent, peaceably
dwelling in the land, increasing, however, to a dangerous extent, and
who inspired the Egyptians with fear and hatred. It is true that neither
Manetho, nor any one of the authors we have named, expressly say that
the expelled people were of a different race from the Egyptians; but the
cause of this may have been that the entrance of the family of Jacob into
the country which was so important to the Jews, probably passed unnoticed
by them. The influx of emigrants from the eastern and north-eastern
Semitic countries was apparently much greater in those flourishing times
of the Egyptian kingdom than it was thought necessary to recount in the
detached history of the house of Israel. The influence of those people
from Palestine who had been driven back under Tuthmosis, must only have
increased the former importunity of that people to enter the blessed land
of Egypt. But so long as they came singly and peacefully, and did not
shrink from entering into all kinds of intercourse and alliance with the
Egyptians, they must have been considered by the natives as belonging
to the country—as Egyptians. It is certainly a mistake to suppose the
Israelites were the only strangers in Egypt. They dwelt in the land of
Goshen, situated on the eastern border of the Delta, but of course only
a very small body in the midst of Egyptians, and many Philistines and
Arabians, from whom the Egyptian could not distinguish them. The immense
increase in their numbers, of which we read, is only to be understood in
this manner. How could there have been so distinct a division of the one
race from their Semitic companions, as is usually understood, when their
chief men themselves frequently did not shrink from mingling with the
Egyptians?
Even Ishmael had an Egyptian mother and an Egyptian wife[195]. Joseph
becomes so completely Egyptian that he is able to occupy the highest
position under the king, does not eat at the same table with his
brethren, and speaks to them through an interpreter. He also takes
an Egyptian woman as his wife[196], even the daughter of a Priest of
Heliopolis; and Moses himself marries an Ethiopian[197]. The same
intermingling between the races is afterwards still more frequently
mentioned, without being considered as anything remarkable or forbidden,
_e. g._ Leviticus xxiv. 10; 1 Chron. ii. 34, 35; and the same with
respect to other foreigners, the Tyrians, _e. g._ 1 Kings vii. 14. The
immigrants also did not limit themselves to the land of Goshen, which
had been first assigned to them, but “_filled the land_,” and appeared
“_to grow greater and mightier than the Egyptians_.” That the single race
of Jacob is not here meant, but all who had allied themselves to it, as
to a powerful centre, is again made evident in the Exodus, where it is
said[198], “_And a mixed multitude went up also with them._” There may
even have been many Egyptians among the mixed multitude; indeed the whole
population continued to cling, even long after the Exodus, so firmly to
Egyptian customs, and even to the religious practices of the Egyptians,
that they were constantly inclined to fall back again to the old form of
worship. Is it surprising that the Egyptians should have considered those
people as Egyptians—and called them so in their traditions—who, even at
the foot of Sinai, made an image of the holy bull, Mneuis, and solemnised
it with festivities, thus proving that the greater proportion of them had
adopted the Egyptian religion?
This was naturally the reason why the Jews were so frequently viewed
as an EGYPTIAN COLONY, _e. g._ by Strabo[199], Apion[200], and others;
and in this at least there is no contradiction between the Egyptian and
Hebrew accounts; they rather both assist in completing a more perfect
picture.
The emigrating people were described especially by Manetho, and by all
the other Egyptian traditions, as a race of “_unclean, leprous Egyptians,
godless, and hated by God_.” It is evident that the people designated
here were of foreign extraction, DIFFERING IN FAITH, consequently GODLESS
settlers in Egypt, the shepherd families, who, on account of their
occupation, in remembrance of the old hereditary enemy, were hated by the
genuine Egyptians, especially by the priests, “_for every shepherd is an
abomination unto the Egyptians_[201].”
The Mosaic account also corroborates the opinion that the _leprosy_
and the _white_ sickness (λεύκη, ἀλφός), which resembles it, were very
prevalent in those times, and particularly among the Jews, and that they
were most dangerously infectious. This is intimated by the strict laws
of separation issued by Moses against those attacked by the leprosy,
among whom, however, his own sister Miriam[202] is found; also by the
miracle of Moses, who draws his own hand out of his bosom white as snow
with leprosy[203], and afterwards afflicts the land with the plague and
with noxious boils[204], and finally with the sudden death of all the
first-born. This perfectly explains the Egyptian account of the universal
_plague of the leprosy_, which had more particularly broken out among
the poorer and more uncleanly settlers, and which threatened the whole
Egyptian nation[205]. To this is to be added the belief of the strict
Egyptians that inward uncleanness and godlessness of the heart must
necessarily be inseparably connected with outward uncleanness and with
the leprosy, the most abhorred of the diseases sent by God.
It is said, by Manetho, that among these infected people there were
some learned priests. Possibly these were of the Egyptian race, and yet
were cast together with the unclean strangers. But there is nothing to
prevent our assuming that these priests were also of foreign descent,
and perhaps themselves Israelites. It is not, indeed, an improbable
assertion, that Moses himself was brought up as a priest of Heliopolis.
It is evident that Joseph could not, as a Hebrew, have been first
minister of Pharaoh, but that he must, at the same time, have possessed
both the rank, learning, and outward consecration of the Egyptian
priests, with whom he had also united himself by marriage; and that
Moses likewise, brought up in the house of the king, could only be
instructed, in all the wisdom of the Egyptian priests, through the same
medium of outward fellowship. Contrasted with the Egyptian prophets
and hierogrammatists, who equally convert their staffs into serpents,
change water into blood, and fill the land with frogs, he appears before
Pharaoh only as a wiser, and more highly endowed man, than those sages.
The name _Osarsiph_, is of little importance here, for even the name of
_Moses_ is expressly declared to be Egyptian, as it could not have been
otherwise. But yet on this very account it is worthy of notice, because
it is interpreted as being expressly derived from Osiris at Heliopolis.
As the principal god in that place was Ra, _i. e._ Ἥλιος, the service
of Osiris was undoubtedly most closely united with the holy sun-bull
of Osiris[206], the white bull represented in the paintings gold[207]
𓈖𓏠𓇋𓃒 Menes, or Mneuis, the same whom the people adored in the desert,
and whose worship was even introduced into Palestine by King Jeroboam
I., when he was recalled from Egypt[208]. A particular local worship in
HELIOPOLIS had been dedicated to this bull since the time of Menes; and
this very town, in which, according to the Egyptian tradition, Moses is
said to have been the priest of Osiris (therefore of the golden calf),
is, besides, always considered specially connected with the Jews. From
that town Joseph took his wife, and _On_—so Heliopolis was called by the
people—according to the Septuagint, was even built by the Israelites[209].
This cannot mean that they first founded the town, for it had been already
mentioned as the native town of Joseph’s wife, and is also named upon the
monuments even in the Old Monarchy, and in the annals as early as the
time of Menes; but it cannot also be explained alone by saying that
Heliopolis was probably the principal town of the eastern province of
Goshen, it certainly can only be understood to mean that the Israelites
completed the elevation and damming off of the town against the
inundations, of which we shall say more hereafter. The Manethonic
account is therefore important for this reason also, that it makes
Moses come from Heliopolis, and thence indicates his connection with
the golden bull.
It further follows, from the Egyptian recital, that the _sudden_
persecution of the unclean people had a special cause, and this
appears always to proceed from the advice which the priests give the
superstitious kings, as to how the distress of the leprosy, and the
degeneration and desecration of their religious services were to be
remedied. But in the desire not to expel this whole race, but to destroy
them by hard labour in the country itself, or to let them perish in the
desert, or even to drown them[210], we at the same time perceive another
reason for the persecution, namely, the fear lest they should rise up
as open enemies of the country, and unite themselves with the banished
shepherds for a new subjugation of the land, a fear so well founded,
that what was expected, was soon most completely fulfilled. Here again
there is the silent acknowledgment that those unclean Egyptians were
principally of foreign extraction, and had a natural bias to their
Palestinian hereditary enemies, whom they afterwards called to their
assistance. And the Mosaic account also exactly agrees with this[211]:
“Let us deal wisely with them,” says Pharaoh, “lest they multiply, and it
come to pass that when there falleth out any war _they join also with
our enemies, and fight against us_.” Therefore, taskmasters were placed
over the land, and the people tormented with building and all kinds of
hard service, to which undoubtedly the working in the stone-quarries had
reference, which is made particularly prominent in the Egyptian relation.
The chief feature in both recitals is the design of oppression and
destruction, by means of exorbitant taskwork.
All accounts are also agreed upon the great number of the enemy, which
had grown up in the country, and even if only 280,000[212] had departed,
as the Egyptians related, while in the Hebrew accounts 600,000 are
mentioned, it was at any rate a great event, on which the Egyptian annals
could not possibly preserve silence.
These are all features of the Egyptian narrative, which place beyond
doubt the identity of that insurrection of the Lepers under Osarsiph,
with the Exodus of the Israelites under Moses, even if we set aside the
far more direct, but in the view of some perhaps, on that very account,
less trustworthy evidence, which consists in what is added concerning the
laws of Osarsiph, that the Egyptian gods should no longer be worshipped,
and that they should never again hold intercourse with any other race,
also concerning the name of Moses itself, which Osarsiph is said to have
adopted. For I certainly consider it as more than probable that the name
of Moses was not originally found in the Egyptian narrative; that the
latter was only connected with a rebellious priest Osarsiph, and that
Manetho first changed the name in consequence of the comparison with
the Hebrew accounts, which had been made long before his day. But this
assumption only upholds still more the age and the independence of the
Manethonic narrative, whose genuine and ancient Egyptian character is
besides apparent to the attentive reader through all its other parts.
With reference to this, I shall only mention the peculiar feature of
beholding the gods, and its connection with an earlier king, further the
name of the town _Abaris_, which was entirely lost in later times, and
could not therefore have been orally preserved by the people, but must
have been taken from old writings. Also the unfortunate and ignominious
turn of the event for the Egyptians, the cowardly flight of the king
to Ethiopia, and the revolting usage to which the whole lower country,
and especially the priesthood, were exposed for thirteen years, but,
above all, the complete absence of all allusions and attacks upon the
Jews as such, sufficiently proves that the whole was a simple, faithful
account from the old writings. Therefore, when Josephus, in order to
maintain his wholly untenable opinion that the Hyksos were the Jews,
asserts that Manetho did not derive this narrative from genuine ancient
sources, but that he only relates incredible fables, and declares
besides that Manetho himself granted the uncertainty of his account,
when he says, he will now write what is mentioned in the _tradition_
of the Jews—γράφειν τὰ μυθευόμενα καὶ λεγόμενα περὶ τῶν Ἰουδαίων—(to
write the mythical and legendary accounts concerning the Jews), this
is only one more of the forced and ingenious accusations of which his
controversial work is composed. The words of Manetho, as they are extant,
nowhere support this assertion of Josephus, except the last, which are
to this purport:—λέγεται δ’ ὅτι τὴν πολιτείαν καὶ τοὺς νόμους αὐτοῖς
καταβαλόμενος ἱερεύς, τὸ γένος Ἡλιουπολίτης, ὄνομα Ὀσαρσίφ, ἀπὸ τοῦ ἐν
Ἡλίου πόλει θεοῦ Ὀσίρεως, ὡς μετέβη εἰς τοῦτο τὸ γένος, μετετέθη τοὔνομα
καὶ προσηγορεύθη Μωυσῆς—(_It is said_ that a priest who founded their
polity and laws, a Heliopolitan by race, named Osarsiph, when he went
over to this nation from the service of the god Osiris in Heliopolis,
received a change of name, and was called Moses). This contains the
honest acknowledgment of Manetho that the ancient sources whence he
derived his information neither mention the _Jews_ nor _Moses_, which
is confirmed by his own narrative. Therefore it was only a λεγόμενον
(tradition), if it were not indeed a μυθευόμενον (mere fable), as
Josephus adds, which applied that account to the Jews. Manetho evidently
did not intend to say more. The account of the banishment of the Lepers
bears exactly the same stamp as the earlier account of the banishment
of the Hyksos, and even an entirely superficial critical examination
would only lead us to conclude, from the mention in both accounts of the
city of Abaris (which at Manetho’s time had long since passed out of
remembrance), that he made use of the same ancient authorities for the
one as for the other. Therefore, instead of the reproaches of Josephus,
Manetho rather deserves all our gratitude for so strictly abstaining
from introducing his own views, however correct they may have been, into
the long-approved historical relations. He leaves the decision in the
hands of his readers. And it seems to me that we can now make ours upon
good grounds, not depending upon his opinions, but upon the documentary
evidence he lays before us, to the effect, namely, that the identity of
the two occurrences, recognised even before the time of Manetho, must
actually be accepted.
Josephus, however, is equally groundless and frivolous in his reproach
to the Egyptian historian, when he asserts that he has only of his own
accord inserted the king here, under whom he places the event—Ἀμένωφιν
εἰσποιήσας ἐμβόλιμον βασιλέα—(Having inserted Amenophis as king), and
that he has not therefore ventured to assign a fixed number of years to
his reign. As Josephus before made a great confusion between the kings
Ἄμωσις and Τέθμωσις, and since here also, he has not remarked, that he
has named the same king once before in a former extract (c. 15) in his
right place, and ascribed to him the correct nineteen years and six
months as the period of his reign, the reproach is at once removed from
the Egyptian historian, and falls back upon himself.
Let us now see what place in the Egyptian annals is assigned to the King
of the Exodus. Here again we are first referred to Josephus. We shall
investigate in its proper place more minutely, how far he had the true
account of Manetho before him, or only extracts from it. But it is easy
to perceive from a cursory comparison of his extracts, which are partly
given verbatim, and partly summarily, that in the two principal passages
upon this portion of Egyptian history, he had two different authorities
before him, who, in the writing of the names, and in certain details,
somewhat differ from one another, and thence caused no little confusion
to the inconsiderate critic.
If we now place these two authorities of Josephus beside one another, and
compare with them the corresponding portion of the lists of Africanus and
of the monuments, we obtain the following general view. (See next page.)
LISTS OF JOSEPHUS AND AFRICANUS.
+------------------------------------------------------+---------------+
| MANETHO. | MONUMENTS. |
| +-----------------+--------+ | |
| | | | |
| JOSEPHUS. | AFRICANUS. | |
| +--------+--------+ | | |
| | | | | |
| c. Ap. i. 15. | c. Ap. i. 26. | | |
| | | | |
| Y. M. | Y. M.| | |
| | | | |
|1. Ῥαμέσσης 1. 4.| 1. |1. Ῥαμέσσης 1. | 1. Rameses I. |
| | | | |
|3. Ἀρμέσσης 66. 2.| | | |
| Μιαμμοῦ | | | |
| | | | |
|4. Ἀμένωφις 19. 6.| |(4. Ἀμενωφάθ 19.)| |
| | | | |
|(5) | | | |
|2. Σέθωσις ὁ | 2. Σεθώς 50. 9.|2. Σεθὼς 51. | 2. Sethôs I. |
| καὶ Ῥαμέσσης | (59 _l._) | | |
| | | | |
|3. | 3. Ῥάμψης 66. |3. Ῥαψάκης 66. | 3. Rameses |
| | | (61 _l._) | Miamun |
| | | | |
|4. | 4. Ἀμένωφις |4. Ἀμενέφθης 20. | 4. Menephthes |
| | | | |
|5. | 5. Σεθὼς ὁ καὶ |5. Ῥαμέσσης 60. | 5. Sethôs II. |
| | Ῥαμέσσης | | |
+------------------+-----------------+-----------------+---------------+
The first thing to be remarked is that the last column, that of the
monuments, is _authentically_ determined, because it is entirely borrowed
from several monumental catalogues, and taking it in details, the
testimony of numerous contemporaneous monuments puts it beyond a shadow
of doubt. The lists of the authors may therefore be judged with the
greatest safety, according as they agree with it, but not the reverse.
Hence it follows, that in the first authority of Josephus, either one has
been lost between the first and second names, or the second and third
names are incorrectly anticipated, since they should have come after the
fourth. The numbers placed beside the reigns leave no doubt of this. The
last of the two mistakes has evidently been committed by Africanus with
regard to the Ἀμενωφάθ; therefore, in the comparative columns, the same
has also been assumed to belong to Josephus. Furthermore, we read in the
text of Josephus, chap. 15, Σέθωσις καὶ Ῥαμἑσσης (Sethôsis and Rameses),
but we learn from the context, and chap. 26, that we ought to read ὁ καὶ
(who is also). In the second authority of Josephus, the addition ὁ καὶ
Ῥαμέσσης (who is also Rameses), is entirely wanting, which is undoubtedly
correct, since neither the names of these two, or any other kings, are
seen in connection on the monuments. The mistaken connection appears to
have been occasioned by the confusion that existed at a much earlier
period, in the ideas of the people, about these two kings; whereas,
the surname of the second Ramses, Μιαμμοῦ, is evidently founded on the
constant addition of 𓌹𓇋𓏠𓈖 _Miamun_, on the monuments of this king.
Without entering into further details, it is now undeniably evident
from the same comparative list, that Ἀμένωφις, or Μένωφις, the third
king of the second authority of Josephus, to whom the banishment of the
Lepers was ascribed, is no other than the corresponding Ἀμενέφθης, with
20 years, and the Μενέφθης (_Menephtha_) of the monuments; lastly, no
other than the anticipated Ἀμένωφις, with 19 years and 6 months of the
first authority of Josephus, the son of Ἀρμέσσης Μιαμμοῦ, with 66 years
2 months, _i. e._ of _Ramses-Miamun_, whose sixty-second year appears
upon the monuments. The King of the Exodus therefore belongs, according
to the Egyptian accounts, to the 19th Manethonic Dynasty, and it seems
to me impossible any longer to admit the opinion of those who believed
him to belong to the previous 18th Dynasty[213]. It is true that in this
Dynasty we find three different kings named _Amenophis_, which caused the
confusion with the similarly sounding name _Menephthes_, but none of them
have a Ramses for a father, and a Sethôs for a son and grandfather; for
the two last names never appear in the 18th Dynasty.
We find, indeed, a king of the 18th Dynasty mentioned in the Manethonic
relation in Josephus, viz. King Horus. But this incidental quotation
contains so much the more an impartial and convincing proof, that the
king with whom we are concerned, belonged to the 19th Dynasty, and that
the whole account was taken from an ancient authority, to whom the same
chronological connection was perfectly well known. It is said, namely,
that Amenophis desired to become a beholder of the gods, like _one of
his ancestors, King Horus_. Now this notice is in itself remarkable, and
testifies its genuine character, since King Horus is not otherwise known
to us through the popular tradition, probably because he, like most of
the others, had left no monuments behind him which had attracted any
particular notice in Memphis. But with regard to the time of his reign,
it is apparent that he was certainly a _predecessor_, namely, the fourth
of Menephthes, but a _successor_ of all the three Amenophises of the 18th
Dynasty, which he terminated.
It is of minor importance that, according to Diodorus (34, 1), the
banishment of the Jews is connected with the emigration of Danaus to
Greece, and that this also is placed, according to the Egyptian tradition
at least, in the 19th Dynasty. But we thereby see that the Egyptian
tradition with regard to dates did not deviate much, even when it was
connected with foreign elements.
If we now compare the clear Egyptian statements that we have cited,
concerning the period of the Exodus with what is said about it by the
later, particularly the Jewish and Christian chronologists, it would
be difficult to comprehend why they differed so exceedingly, if we
did not find the fundamental error fully explained in the writings of
Josephus against Apion, where he asserts that the Jews were no other than
the Hyksos. The perfectly untenable grounds for this opinion, which,
nevertheless, has been shared even by some modern scholars, although the
Mosaic narrative is entirely contradictory to it, both as a whole and in
its details, may be gathered from Josephus himself, since a refutation of
them here would be superfluous. But Josephus was by no means the first
who started this opinion. It was already held by PTOLEMY MENDESIUS[214]
and APION[215], perhaps even by POLEMON[216]. From this, also,
originates the other misunderstanding, that it was not _Tuthmosis_, but
_Amosis_, the first king of the 17th Dynasty, who drove away the Hyksos;
and therefore in Josephus[217] the name Τέθμωσις is inserted in place of
Ἄμωσις, and in Syncellus[218] both names appear united as Ἄμωσις ὁ καὶ
Τέθμωσις—(Amosis, who is also Tethmosis). The reason of this confusion
lay simply in this, that Amosis is found placed by Manetho at the head
of the Dynasty which immediately follows the Dynasties of the Hyksos; he
must, therefore, have driven away the Hyksos, who by them are understood
to be the Jews.
We find a different opinion in EUSEBIUS. In his Manethonic list[219],
beside King _Chencheres_, therefore in the middle between the true Exodus
of the Hyksos and that of the Israelites, he writes as follows:—κατὰ
τοῦτον Μωυσῆς τῆς ἐξ Αἰγύπτου πορείας τῶν Ἰουδαίων ἡγήσατο—(During
this reign Moses conducted the journey of the Jews out of Egypt). But
the reason for this deviation from the usual statements concerning the
Pharaoh of the Exodus does not here lie in the name, which perhaps
Eusebius had found somewhere mis-stated, but in his assumption (to which
we shall afterwards return) that the first year of Abraham was also the
first year of the 16th Manethonic Dynasty. He only counted, as he himself
states, 75 years[220] from this year to Abraham’s removal to Haran, and
then the 430 years of bondage in Egypt. By that means he obtained the
year of the Exodus of Moses from Egypt. This happened, according to his
Egyptian list, in the sixteenth year of _Chencheres_; consequently, in
his annals, he entered the Exodus under this king.
The most fabulous recital of the Exodus is in Lysimachus, who appears to
have written about the time of Christ’s birth, shortly before Apion. It
is not, therefore, worth while to investigate whether the name of the
King Bocchoris, in whose reign he makes Moses depart, was arbitrarily
imagined, or whether it originated in some great misunderstanding. His
romance appears, however, to have found acceptance, since we again
meet with the fable of Lysimachus in Tacitus[221], with some new and
additional facts. Tacitus says, that according to some the Jews wandered
to Palestine during the reign of Isis, led by Hierosolymus and Judah;
according to others, they were descendants of the Ethiopians, and
departed during the reign of King Cepheus; but most people said, that
at the breaking out of a plague, King Bocchoris had cleared the land of
them, according to the sentence of an oracle.
But Josephus has rendered the narrative of Lysimachus still more
confused, and by that means has also led astray later scholars. He
relates, namely, as follows, in the second book of his controversy with
Apion: “Manetho says that the Jews wandered out of Egypt in the reign
of _Tethmosis_, 393 years before the flight of Danaus to Argos; but
Lysimachus makes it under King _Bocchoris_, that is, 1700 years ago;
Molon and others make it as it seems best to them; but Apion, the one
most to be depended upon of all of them, placed the Exodus exactly in the
_seventh Olympiad_, and in the _first year_ of it, in which, as he says,
the Phœnicians founded Carthage.”
It was impossible that Josephus could place Bocchoris 1700 years before
his own time, for that would make him nearly cotemporary with the first
kings of the Egyptian succession, whose names he cites, without, however,
mentioning a Bocchoris among them. This king lived, rather, according to
Manetho, about 750, and not about 1650 before Christ. If, furthermore, it
is asserted that Apion placed the Exodus at the Olympiad 7. 1., namely,
B.C. 752, that is most decidedly contradicted by Clemens of Alexandria,
Justin Martyr, and Africanus, in passages above referred to, who, on the
contrary, agree in relating that Apion followed Ptolemy Mendesius, and
placed the Exodus under Amosis, therefore about 1650 years before Christ.
It is evident that Josephus has here in his careless way confused the
authors and the numbers with one another. He meant to say, or ought to
have said, that Manetho fixed the Exodus (not of the Jews, indeed, but of
the Hyksos) 393 years before Danaus, _i. e._ 1700 years before Josephus,
and Lysimachus fixed it, during the reign of _Bocchoris_. The fabulous
narrator, Lysimachus, could hardly have affixed any statement of time to
the name of Bocchoris, or he would certainly have discovered his error;
but Apion, the grammatist and hyper-critic, had probably subjected the
opinion of Lysimachus to his own critical examination, and reckoned that
if he assumed Bocchoris to be the king under whom the Exodus was made,
he must intend to fix his date at Olympiad 7. 1. At any rate there is no
doubt that the Olympiad calculation belonged to Lysimachus, and the 1700
years to the Manethonic statement. The latter point might be remedied if
we could place the words τουτέστι πρὸ ἐτῶν χιλίων ἑπτακοσίων (That is
one thousand seven hundred years) after Δαναοῦ φυγῆς (The flight of the
Danai). But we should certainly be wrong to change the number 1700, as
Böckh[222] has done, into 700; or with Ewald[223] and Bunsen[224], to
accuse Apion of the confusion of which Josephus alone is guilty.
If it is therefore impossible to place the Exodus of Moses, regarding it
from the _Egyptian_ point of view—which has been singularly misunderstood
by all the ancient and modern authors we have mentioned—under any other
Pharaoh than MENEPHTHES, the son of the great Ramses, in the 19th
Dynasty, nothing remains to the opponents of this view than to attack
the truth of this statement from the standing point of the Hebrew
authorities, and to show that there are irrefutable grounds in the
_Mosaic_ accounts which prove the falsity of the Egyptian annals. But,
upon a closer consideration, this is so little the case that, on the
contrary, the Hebrew account confirms in the most unequivocal manner the
Manethonic disposal of this event in the Egyptian history.
There are certainly very few features in the Mosaic account of the Exodus
from which we could obtain in a direct manner any information about the
condition of Egypt at the time of its occurrence. Whatever Egyptian
manners and customs are occasionally mentioned, are generally little
characteristic of any particular epoch of time; greater events, such as
wars, change of government, the erection of famous buildings, are still
less mentioned, everything is so exclusively apprehended and rendered
in an Israelitish point of view. The great change which was introduced
by Joseph in the agrarian condition of the country is almost the only
exception made here, because it happens to be so closely connected with
him personally. Farther on we shall consider the historical inferences
which may be founded upon it concerning the time of Joseph. The
complete absence of Egyptian proper names, which might so frequently be
opportunely mentioned, is particularly striking. Neither the name of the
Pharaoh in whose reign Abraham came into Egypt, nor he of whom Joseph
was the minister, nor, finally, the one in whose house Moses was brought
up, or his successor, in whose reign he left Egypt, are mentioned. This
undoubtedly shows a total indifference about chronological points of
union for the special history of the Israelites of those times, which
is remarkably opposed to the very exact dates, apparently avoiding all
breaks, from which our current chronology of the Old Testament is summed
up.
Only a few _geographical_ names of Egyptian towns and localities enable
us to contemplate, at least in some degree, the theatre of that great
event. But there are two among them of peculiar importance to us here,
because they also throw a light which was much needed upon Egyptian
relations of time, and interpret in a remarkable manner sundry accounts
of the old authors.
It is said in Exodus i. 2: “Therefore they did set over them taskmasters
to afflict them with their burdens. And they built for Pharaoh
treasure-cities, Pithom and Raamses.” The Hebrew name of the latter town
is רעמסס, and is therefore exactly the same as that of King _Ramses_
in hieroglyphics, 𓂋𓂝𓄠𓋴𓋴. Now it is difficult to believe that this king’s
name was given to a town before any King Ramses had reigned. We could
not, therefore, on account of its name, place the building of this town
earlier than under the 19th Manethonic Dynasty, because this dynastic
name first appears here.
It seems to me, that we may now point out the historical relation of
this town _Ramses_, with a particular King _Ramses_, among the many
kings of that name. We shall, then, for the first time, learn the full
significancy of the passage. But it will be necessary for this purpose to
examine more closely the _geographical_ conditions at that time of the
Isthmus of Suez, which formed the boundary between Egypt and Asia, and
was therefore the theatre of the Exodus.
Since the Israelites departed from Ramses, this town must have been
their central point and place of meeting. According to Manetho, the
lepers, as the Hyksos before them, were finally driven out of Abaris.
We might therefore be inclined at first to consider these two towns as
one and the same. This was also the opinion of an old abbreviator of
Eusebius[225], who says of Jacob: καὶ παροικεῖ ἐν τῇ Ῥαμέσῃ τῇ πάλαι
Ἀβάρῃ καλουμένῃ—(And he sojourns in Ramses, which was formerly called
Abare). Many scholars are of the same opinion[226]; Rozière[227] also,
the great traveller, but who seldom hits on the right point, places
Abaris in the spot where we at least believe we ought to place Ramses;
and the same opinion, although given with hesitation, is found even in
the masterly researches of D’Anville[228]. It is still more extraordinary
that Ewald[229] holds Abaris to be _Baal Zephon_, and therefore seeks it
in the immediate neighbourhood of the Red Sea.
The situation of the town of Abaris can only be decided by the accounts
of Manetho; for all other authors, who mention this town, refer to
the same passages in the work of Manetho, which we find most fully
communicated by Josephus[230]. The first mention of the town occurred
in the account of the invasion of the Hyksos, who entered the country
from Syria about 2100 years before Christ, and governed it for many
centuries. The easy success of this invasion, owing to the hitherto
unfortified state of the eastern boundary, immediately directed the
attention of Salatis, the first king of the Hyksos, to the necessity of
closing the gate, which had stood open to them, against every future
invader. He therefore did not delay, as Manetho relates[231], to make use
of his experience: “He resided in Memphis, collected tribute from the
Upper and Lower country, and left garrisons in the most suitable places.
But he fortified the eastern boundaries, especially, as a precaution
against the Assyrians, who were at that time very powerful, and who
might afterwards be desirous like them to invade the same kingdom. Now
he found a town particularly suitable for his purpose, situated to the
east of the _Bubastic_ arm in the _Sethroitic_ Nome; and, according to
the old tradition of the gods, it was named ABARIS. This he built up and
fortified with strong walls, and placed as a guard within a garrison
of 240,000 armed men. Thither he came, in the summer season, partly on
account of the harvest and to issue the pay, partly in order to practise
the garrison diligently in arms to the terror of the foreigners.” But
when at the termination of the rule of the Hyksos, in the reign of
Misphragmuthosis, these hereditary enemies were driven back out of the
whole country, “the king finally enclosed them in that place called
Abaris. It was 10,000 arura in extent, and (according to Manetho) the
Hyksos surrounded it with a great and strong wall.” Since he could not
capture them by a siege, he came to an agreement with them, and permitted
them to depart with all their property to Syria.
Abaris is mentioned for the last time at the Exodus of the lepers, as we
have seen above. It is here called an old Typhonic town, which had been
uninhabited since the departure of the Hyksos, and was given up to the
unclean after they were delivered from their oppression. But they fortify
it again, call the Hyksos from Jerusalem to their assistance, and from
this firm point for many years maintain the upper hand over the feeble
king, until he, with the aid of an Ethiopian army, drove them back to the
borders of Syria.
In these accounts there is an explicit statement about the geographical
situation of Abaris, which determines it to have been placed in the
_Sethroitic_ Nome. For it has been long acknowledged that we should
read it so, instead of the _Saitic_ Nome, as it is in our present text.
This is also shown by the reading of Eusebius, which, indeed, is still
incorrectly written in the Armenian translation[232], but evidently
purports to say, _in nomo Methraite_ in place of _Sethraite_, and by many
other passages in which this town, though without a name, is mentioned
by Manetho, and is placed in the Sethroitic Nome[233]. But even if this
correct reading had not been preserved to us by others, we must still
have rejected the Saitic Nome, because this is situated in the western
part of the Delta, while Abaris ought to be placed to the east of the
Bubastic arm of the Nile.
There can be no doubt about the general situation of the _Sethroitic_
Nome, from the statements of Strabo[234], and of Ptolemy[235], who was
born in Egypt. It lay eastward along the northern part of the Bubastic,
or Pelusaic arm of the Nile. Its capital was Heracleopolis Parva, and
Pelusium, from its position, must also have belonged to this Nome,
although this is never expressly said. Abaris must accordingly be
situated there.
The object also which was to have been gained, by the original founding
of Abaris, directs us to this province, and to its most north-eastern
portion in the neighbourhood of Pelusium. It was to serve as a _boundary
fortification_ against Syria. In all times, ancient as well as modern,
there was only _one_ military entrance from that country. The road
led from Gaza, along the sea-coast by Raphia (Refah), Rhinokolura (El
Arisch), Mons Casius, along the Lake of Serbon, to Pelusium, which
is situated at the mouth of the eastern arm of the Nile. This part
of the Nile, which extended far out towards the east, was the first
within reach; therefore, although the destination of most travellers
lay considerably to the south, the northern circuitous route by this
road was rendered necessary, and for the march of armies indeed it was
quite unavoidable. When _Sesostris_ led home his conquering army from
Asia, he returned by this road. According to Herodotus[236], Δάφναι
αἱ Πηλούσιαι (Daphni of Pelusium) was the place where his treacherous
brother met him; according to Manetho[237] and Diodorus[238], it was
PELUSIUM itself. It is said that from this place the same Sesostris
fortified the eastern frontiers as far as Heliopolis[239]. Hither Sethôs,
the priest of Ptha, came to meet Sanherib, because, as Herodotus[240]
adds, “here was the entrance into Egypt.” In this neighbourhood, at the
Pelusaic mouth, below Bubastis, the Ionians and Carians brought hither by
Psammeticus were stationed undoubtedly as frontier guards, at a place
which afterwards bore the name of Στρατόπεδα[241]. In the strong town of
PELUSIUM, Psammenitus waited for Cambyses, and by losing this position,
lost besides all Egypt to the Persian conqueror[242]. In later times,
the great Macedonian entered by Pelusium[243]. In Strabo’s time, also,
Pelusium, to which point according to him Phenicia extended[244], was the
frontier post in the direction of Syria and Arabia, and the road to Egypt
led through this “inaccessible” country, not only from Phenicia, but
also from the Nabatain Arabia[245]. _Amru_ (_Amr ebn el As_) also took
the same road with his 4000 Arabs, when he conquered Egypt from the side
of Syria, A.D. 639, having first taken the strong town of Pelusium by a
thirty days’ siege; even down to the latest times, we see the Egyptian
armies marching _to_ and from Syria by this road.
It appears accordingly undoubted that ABARIS, which during the time
of the Hyksos, and in the reign of Menephthes, was destined for the
same purpose as Pelusium at a later period, could not have been far
removed from it also in point of situation. To me, indeed, it seems
very probable that it was the ancient name of PELUSIUM. According to
the accounts we receive, both towns were of considerable extent, and
it cannot be supposed that there were several of such a description in
that neighbourhood. No proof is required to show that Πηλούσιον was
not, as the Greeks imagined, formed from πηλός, although the Arabs in
their translation of _Tineh_—_i. e._ _Lutetia_—accepted the quibble.
It is much more probably referred to the Philistine name Pelistim,
which is already proved in the above-mentioned tradition of its heros
eponymos Παλαιστινός, or Πηλούσιος. We must, therefore, explain Pelusium
by “Philistine” or “Palestine-town.” It appears to me that Ewald[246]
has successfully attributed a similar origin to the name of the town
Ἄβαρις[247], as the “_town of the Hebrews_,” _of the Abarim_. A peculiar
historical epoch may, perhaps, be indicated in this change in the
name. Ewald’s searching investigations concerning the history of the
Israelites, have demonstrated that the term Hebrew nation had originally
a far more comprehensive signification than has been hitherto commonly
accepted. It comprised the most south-westerly Semitic tribes[248], and
extended to the gates of Egypt, therefore as far as our frontier town.
But we afterwards find in these very same countries the immigrated race
of the PHILISTINES, who had driven back the Hebrews from that spot.
Ewald[249] does not place this change before the time of the Judges.
Therefore, if our town had formerly been an advanced frontier-post in
the land of the Hebrews, and afterwards in the land of the Philistines,
and was undoubtedly each time filled with a large Semitic population, it
may have exchanged its earlier name Ἄβαρις, Hebrew town, for the later
Πηλούσιον, Philistine-town.
Abaris has frequently been identified with Heroonpolis, by
D’Anville[250], Larcher[251], Champollion[252], Gesenius[253],
Jomard[254], and others. The only apparent reason which is cited for
this opinion is that Stephanus, of Byzantium, quotes the otherwise
unauthenticated tradition, that Typhon was struck with lightning at
Heroonpolis; and that Manetho called Abaris, according to an old
tradition, a Typhonic town[255]. This comparison does not at all
overbalance the distinct geographical statement of Manetho, that Abaris
was situated in the Sethroitic Nome, to which Heroonpolis, as we shall
see, could not belong. That tradition, indeed, seems only to be founded
upon a misunderstanding of Stephanus; namely, upon the unauthentic
information that Ἡρώ was also called Αἷμος. Greek tradition[256], namely,
connected Αἷμος (not a town, however, but the Thracian mountains), as it
did other mountains, with Typhon, and probably, only on account of its
name, imagined that it was here he was killed, and shed his blood.
On the other hand, this tradition about Typhon refers us again to the
idea that Abaris was the most ancient name of Pelusium. Typhon was always
considered as the particular god of the hereditary enemy of the Asiatic
Hyksos. The mythological evidence of this assertion, which is far from
new, does not belong here. But this was, perhaps, the reason why this
god, according to tradition, was also brought into local connection with
that important point on the frontier, the only entrance into the kingdom
of Osiris from the land of Typhon. Herodotus related[257], probably,
therefore, from a native Egyptian tradition, that it was there—namely,
in the Lake of Serbonis, so dangerous to all travellers, which stretched
out directly from Pelusium eastwards, that Typhon, who was struck by
lightning, lay chained; and others, also, make him fly away from Jupiter
out of Syria, as far as Pelusium[258].
But, perhaps, another Typhonic trace may still be referred to Pelusium.
It might have been expected, namely, that the town of Abaris, or
Pelusium, had, besides these signs which were deduced from its origin
or from its population, a real Egyptian name; still more, because we
find that most Egyptian towns had a double name—the popular name which
usually appears in the Coptic and Arabic writings, and the sacred name
derived from the local gods, which the Greeks generally, though not
always, retained in their translations. Πηλούσιον undoubtedly answered
to the popular name of the town. The sacred name, according to report,
could only be derived from Typhon. Now we find the Nome to which Pelusium
belonged always called Σεθρωΐτης, or Σεθραΐτης, not Ἡρακλεοπολίτης, as
we should have expected, since Ἡρακλέους πόλις is cited as its capital.
This denomination necessarily presupposes a town, which in Greek would
have been Σεθρώη, Σεθρώ, Σεθραΐς. Stephanus, of Byzantium, also mentions
such a town, and calls it Σέθρον. Perhaps, instead of reading ⲥⲉⲑⲣⲟⲛ, we
should read, with Salmasius, ⲥⲉⲑⲣⲟⲏ[259].
It is, however, extraordinary, that we should find the town which gave
its name to a Nome, only once mentioned. But this is explained, if we
admit that the denomination of the Nome was taken from the sacred name
of a town, which was unfamiliar to the Greeks, as in Διὸς πόλις, Ἡλίου
πόλις, Πανὸς πόλις. If we may now venture to admit, that the beginning of
the name Σεθρώ, signified the god _Seth_, or _Set_, _i. e._ Typhon[260],
it is not improbable that this was the sacred name of the Typhonic town
Pelusium, which had once been of greater importance, and had given the
name Σεθρωΐτης to the Nome.
The only reason which could be employed against Abaris and Pelusium being
identical places, and which is really given by D’Anville is, that it
would have been mentioned by Manetho. But this reason may be used against
every other town, and in that case we must suppose that the enormous
town had afterwards been entirely deserted, and that no traces of its
ruins remained, which is more than improbable. It is more likely that
either Manetho did not know himself to what modern town the ancient name
ought to be applied, which he only met with in old writings, or that he
mentioned it in a passage which Josephus has not preserved. For Josephus
himself at least supposed, that by Abaris, Pelusium was meant, as his
words show in the 29th chapter, where he even puts the last name in the
mouth of Manetho: τοὐναντίον γὰρ αὐτὸς εἴρηκεν ὡς ὁ παῖς τοῦ Ἀμενώφιος
τριάκοντα μυριάδας ἔχων εἰς Πηλούσιον ὑπηντίαζεν—(For, on the contrary,
he said that the son of Amenophis, having thirty myriads, advanced to
_Pelusium_)—and Chairemon[261] had no doubt about it, since he does not
name Abaris, but makes the lepers march to Pelusium.
Now, if it is certain that Abaris was the ancient name for Pelusium,
or at any rate was situated in the neighbourhood of this town, it is
impossible at the same time to consider it to be Heroonpolis; but neither
could it be Ramses. On the contrary, both these latter towns are brought
into close connection with each other, even by the Seventy, since they
placed the town of Heroonpolis in the district of Ramses, in which
undoubtedly the town of Ramses must have been situated[262].
Scholars also hold the most different opinions about the situation of
Heroonpolis, it will therefore be necessary to examine this question next.
Strabo[263] says that the town was situated “in the _angle of the Arabian
Gulf_,” and thence people concluded that it must have been situated in
the neighbourhood of the present Suez[264], and on that account assert
that the gulf itself was called after it κόλπος Ἡρωοπολίτης[265], and
cites the statement of Ptolemy[266], according to which Heroonpolis is
placed at 30° north latitude, which corresponds nearly with the present
Suez. These reasons appear to be of great importance. Nevertheless we
cling, without hesitation, to the opinion of those scholars who place
Heroonpolis far more north, namely, on the ancient Nile canal, west from
Birket e’ temsah, in the neighbourhood of the valley Seba-Biar. D’Anville
was also of this opinion, though he was not then aware of the ruins of
ancient towns which are found there. The French expedition pointed out
two of them. Adjoining Seba-Biar, at the west end of this low district,
lie the ruins which are now called _Mukfâr_, and farther west those of
_Abu-Keshêb_[267]. The latter are considered by Et. Quatremère[268],
Champollion[269], Du Bois Aymé[270], and others, as the remains of
Heroonpolis. I am more in favour of those at _Mukfâr_.
With regard to the general situation of Heroonpolis in this country, we
must next remark, that it would be singular if _three_ towns, Arsinoë,
Klysma, and Heroonpolis, had been crowded together at the head of the
gulf, while the ruins of _two_ only are to be seen. But it is a still
more important consideration, that we find the meeting between Joseph
and Jacob placed at Heroonpolis not only by Josephus[271], but also by
the Seventy, who must undoubtedly have known the situation. Heroonpolis
existed in their time, indeed it appears to have been first mentioned by
them. But it was impossible that they could have made Joseph go to Suez,
if he wished to meet his father, who came out of Syria. It must have
been situated on the road from Syria, and they undoubtedly mentioned it,
because in their time it was the capital of that province, which they
considered to be the district of Goshen and Ramses. But the situation
which the Itinerarium Antonini[272] gives to the town _Hero_, which is
Heroonpolis, is decisive, since it places it XXIV. mille passus from
_Thoum_, XVIII. from _Serapiu_, and the latter L. from _Klysma_. But
Et. Quatremère[273] has most completely pointed out that Klysma was
situated at the head of the gulf opposite Arsinoë, as it is marked in the
tablet of Peutinger. But _Thoum_, _i. e._ _Pithom_, was situated on the
Nile, in the neighbourhood of Bubastis[274]. Thereby the situation of
Heroonpolis is placed somewhere near the above-mentioned ruins.
This was a convenient situation for the capital of that part of the
country to which it gave its name[275]. But the province, which extended
as far as the gulf, might have been suitably named after it. The account
given by the Seventy also agrees very well with this, since the road
from the north to Cairo still passes in this neighbourhood[276]. But
the question is, how can Strabo, who places Heroonpolis in the _angle
of the gulf_, be made to accord with this? In consequence of these
different statements, Du Bois Aymé believed he was justified in the
supposition[277], which he has fully stated, that in earlier times the
gulf extended much farther north, and filled up all the low districts
of the now dry so-called Bitter lakes, but afterwards being covered by
sand, withdrew itself within its present shore. I do not think that it is
necessary to believe in such a physical change; and the idea of it seems
to me most completely set aside by the remains of an artificial canal,
more than four leagues in length, which runs from Suez towards the north,
and which was pointed out by the French expedition, for no canal could
be cut where there was sea; the utmost that was necessary was to render
the passage navigable when it was filled up with sand. But the opening
of this canal must have had nearly the same results as those which may
be derived from the belief in the extended sea. The wide basins of the
Bitter lakes were filled by the canal, as well as the adjoining lakes to
the north, and the low district of Seba-Biar, which extends even to the
ruins of Mukfâr. Here first commenced the real Nile canal, which received
its water from the west. Here was the harbour, as Strabo expressly
says[278], in which they embarked for a voyage on the Red Sea. On account
of the natural and extensive shore of the lake, the notion of a sea
voyage was here imparted to the traveller; and, therefore, this part
artificially drawn into the gulf might naturally be called the μυχὸς τοῦ
κόλπου, the innermost angle of the gulf. Strabo, or Eratosthenes, whom he
cites, even says expressly in one place, that Heroonpolis was situated on
the Nile, that is to say, on a canal of the Nile, and yet calls the town
itself at the same time the μυχὸς τοῦ Αραβίου κόλπου (The innermost part
of the Arabian Gulf)[279].
Ptolemy also says, that the _Trajanic river_ (as the canal was called,
which was afterwards cut from Babylon) flowed through Heroonpolis. On
account of the sharp angle so far removed to the east, which is formed
here by the Nile canal and the extended gulf, this provincial capital was
particularly adapted for the more general geographical determinations of
those countries, for which purpose it had been especially used by Strabo,
and earlier, also, by Eratosthenes[280].
With regard to the statement of numbers given by Ptolemy, the longitude
agrees very well with our acceptation, and also prevents us placing the
town still farther west. But the latitudes, according to which Ἡρώων
πόλις would fall under 30° (others give 29° 50′), the μυχὸς τοῦ κόλπου
(innermost part of the gulf) under 29° 50′, and Ἀρσινόη under 29° 30′
(or 29° 10′, also 29° 20′), certainly contain an error, wheresoever we
place the μυχός, because Arsinoë, which was undoubtedly situated in the
neighbourhood of Suez, is placed 30′, or even 50′, too far south. It is,
therefore, more probable, that we ought only to consider the distances
of the three places from one another as correctly fixed, somewhat in
the order, 29° 50′, 29° 50′, 29° 10′, exactly as they are given in the
codex Mediceus, but that there is an error easy of explanation throughout
the numbers, by which they have all been placed 50′ too far south. For
the true position, according to other proofs, demanded for Heroonpolis
(Mukfâr), and for the μυχός (Seba-Biar), bordering on it, 30° 40′, for
Arsinoë (not far north of Suez), 30°.
Thus the statements of Ptolemy also appear to me to be no longer opposed
to our acceptation. We decide, therefore, for Mukfâr, rather than for
Abu-Keshêb, because the first was in reality situated close to the μυχός
of Seba-Biar, while Abu-Keshêb lay about an hour and a half farther west
on the canal, and not on the lake.
There is, besides, the additional reason, that we believe we have found
in the ruins of Abu-Keshêb the still more ancient town of _Ramses_, which
must have been situated in this neighbourhood, and yet can hardly be the
same as Heroonpolis. The Seventy say that Heroonpolis was situated in the
province of Ramses. Thence follows that in their time at least the town
no longer bore the name of Ramses. This last name, moreover, is nowhere
found except in the Old Testament. The town had therefore undoubtedly
been already forsaken and forgotten, and appears to have been exactly
supplanted and replaced by Heroonpolis, which was afterwards built in its
neighbourhood; whilst no reason could be discovered wherefore the old
Egyptian name of Ramses should have been changed into the later Egyptian
name of Heroonpolis.
But that we may really seek for Ramses in the ruins of Abu-Keshêb is
most decidedly confirmed by a monument which was found upon those very
ruins as early as the time of the French expedition. It is a group of
three figures cut out of a block of granite, which represents the gods
Ra and Tum, and between them the King Ramses II. The shields of this the
greatest of the Pharaohs are repeated six times in the inscriptions on
the back[281].
It was therefore King RAMSES-MIAMUN who built this town, and was
worshipped there, as is shown by this monument, and he it was who gave
his name to the town[282]; for it is not easy to believe that it was
founded by his grandfather, Ramses I., who only reigned about one year.
This leads us to the history of the remarkable canal on which the town
was built. It is known that this canal afterwards served to connect
the Nile and the Red Sea. Concerning this connection, we read in
Herodotus[283] that it was first undertaken by Nekôs, who also caused
Africa to be circumnavigated, but that it was interrupted before its
completion. Darius then took up the work. The connection actually existed
in the time of Herodotus, as we learn from his words. The assertions of
Aristotle, Diodorus, Strabo, and Pliny appear to contradict this, who
some of them fix the period of the first plan of the connection much
earlier than Herodotus, since they ascribe it to Sesostris, and some
make the completion of the work later than him, namely, that it was only
finished in the time of Ptolemy Philadelphus.
Aristotle[284] says that both Sesostris and afterwards Darius commenced
the work, but gave it up because the sea was discovered to be higher
than the land, and it was therefore feared that the Nile water might be
spoilt by the rushing in of the sea. Aristotle does not mention Nekôs;
it therefore appears that in his day the connection which existed in the
time of Herodotus had again ceased.
We can thus understand why Diodorus[285] ascribes the final completion of
the canal to PTOLEMY PHILADELPHUS. He makes no more mention of Sesostris,
than Herodotus did. But according to him, Nekôs as well as Darius are
prevented from completing it, lest by that means they should overflow
the country. This does not weaken the testimony of Herodotus concerning
the existing connection. Ptolemy Philadelphus did not only re-open the
connections, but he built an artificial sluice at its extreme point, at
Arsinoë, from which this canal received the name of the Ptolemaic.
Strabo[286] says, that SESOSTRIS began it, but desisted, being afraid
of the higher level of the Red Sea. It was not finished by the son of
Psammeticus (_Nekôs_), on account of his premature death. _Darius_ also
discontinued the almost completed work, because he feared that he should
overflow Egypt; the Ptolemies at length finished the opening, and made
a sluice at Arsinoë. By that means, the salt-water of the Bitter lakes
became sweet, and abounded with fish.
Of the more ancient kings, Pliny[287] only mentions SESOSTRIS and
DARIUS, but he says of PTOLEMY PHILADELPHUS, that he cut a canal 100
feet wide and 40 feet deep, as far as the Bitter lakes, called it _amnis
Ptolemæus_, and built Arsinoë upon it. He discontinued cutting the canal,
being afraid of an inundation.
Lastly, we must again cite here what has been already casually mentioned
in a former place, that a Τραϊανὸς ποταμὸς is named by Ptolemy[288],
which ran through Babylon and Heroonpolis.
The contradictions which these different statements of the ancient
authors appear to contain, have been frequently brought forward, but even
the full deliberation which Letronne has bestowed on this interesting
subject[289], does not appear to me to have given a perfectly true
picture of the history of this connecting canal. It has everywhere been
forgotten, that the question is not about _one_, but _two_ canals.
The first and the oldest canal was only conducted from the Nile to
Seba-Biar, in an exact easterly direction. This canal was undoubtedly
cut by Ramses (Sesostris), because, as has been remarked, in the
neighbouring ruins of Abu-Keshêb, a granite group has been found, which
represents this king, and which must have stood in the temple of the
place. Letronne, who appears to have been unaware of this circumstance,
is therefore wrong, when (p. 7) he considers the information given by
Aristotle, Strabo, and Pliny, that Sesostris commenced the connection,
but did not restore it, as a later tradition, only arisen since the time
of Herodotus, in order to enhance still more the name of Sesostris.
This canal, like many others cut by this king, had its own particular
purpose; he acquired thereby a considerable portion of the desert.
But if we consider the especial attention which Sesostris also paid
to ship-building, since he first navigated the Arabian Gulf with war
ships[290], it could not have appeared to him a very strange idea to cut
through the narrow isthmus between the Arabian Gulf and the Bitter lakes.
The Egyptians had for ages possessed the art of levelling in the greatest
perfection, and practised it more than ever in the time of Sesostris,
therefore there was nothing extraordinary at that time in the reasons
given by Aristotle and Strabo why the opening was not ventured upon,
because it was discovered that the Red Sea was too high[291].
NEKÔS, however, undertakes it, but leaves it off again, according to
Herodotus, influenced by an oracle, who told him he worked for the
barbarians (a danger which likewise has always made the calculating
Mehemet Ali disinclined to the undertaking), and according to Strabo,
because he died. Diodorus attributes this scruple to him in place of to
Sesostris, but incorrectly, because the levelling must have been made
before the section could have been commenced. It was necessary, however,
to dig through a double elevation of the ground, and distinct traces of
both these connecting trenches may still be found upon the careful map of
the French engineer, who took the level of this part of the country[292].
The first cutting which restored the connection between Seba-Biar and
the Bitter lakes, was insignificant, and only consisted of about 7000
metres; the second, between the Bitter lakes and the sea, was the most
important, and almost four times as long as the former. Now, it is
possible that Nekôs undertook the first cutting either with the intention
of fertilising the extensive land round the Bitter lakes by the pouring
in of the Nile water, or thus to prepare for the second more difficult
cutting. We can easily imagine that the idea of connecting the two seas
must have been a very natural one to that same Nekôs, who, according to
Herodotus[293], caused Africa to be circumnavigated, and triremes to
be constructed for various enterprises, both on the Mediterranean Sea,
as well as on the Arabian Gulf[294]. The opinion of Letronne seems to
me, therefore, of little value, who imagined that he first borrowed the
idea from the plan of his cotemporary, PERIANDER, for cutting through
the Isthmus of Corinth. The reverse is evidently a much more probable
supposition, since the Greek plan was much more difficult to accomplish,
was less called for by necessity, and was conceived at a time in which,
probably, Egyptian hydraulic architects would have been employed, since
this profession had flourished for ages in Egypt, but nothing similar to
it had been accomplished in Greece.
DARIUS must have certainly cut through the district between the sea
and the Bitter lakes, and thus have restored the first real connection
by water, between the sea and the Nile, for it existed in the time of
Herodotus, whatever Aristotle, Diodorus, and Strabo may say to the
contrary, who again transfer the old tradition about the fear of an
inundation from Sesostris to Darius. It was never possible, indeed, to
make a perfectly free connection, on account of the different height of
the water, and the ebb and flow of the Red Sea. I conjecture, therefore,
that Darius constructed a sluice at the inner extremity of the new canal,
where it discharges itself into the Bitter lakes, in order to protect the
inner waters and the adjacent fertile lands from the overflowing sea.
This was undoubtedly the most suitable point for such a work, since it
would not be so difficult as immediately on the sea. The passage through,
would be regulated by the level of the sea, which changes with the ebb
and flow of the tide, as must be the case with a simple sluice.
But it is in the monuments that we again find the opinion most certainly
confirmed, that a passage existed here as early as the times of the
Persians. During the French expedition, the chief engineer, De Rozière,
discovered, on a military excursion from Suez, a heap of ruins in a
district which is not accurately defined, but which cannot have been
far from the southern extremity of the Bitter lakes, upon which were
scattered the remains of the statue of a _Persian_ king, and several
fragments of _cuneiform inscriptions_, all in red granite[295]. It
appears that no traveller has since visited this spot[296]. But how can
the existence of Persian ruins in this part of the isthmus be explained,
if they were not connected with the opening of the canal, situated there?
Besides this, the largest portion of the cuneiform writings mentioned
above contains precisely the name of King _Darius_, followed by the
addition _narpa vas-(arqa)_, _princeps magnus_, which is also found in
other inscriptions, from which we may deduce with certainty that this
king, whom the image also undoubtedly represented, took an active part
here. At all events it was only a narrow canal, and not constructed for
large ships. Therefore it might afterwards be again filled up with sand,
and fall into disuse, and, indeed, be so far forgotten that Aristotle
might imagine it had never been completed.
PTOLEMY PHILADELPHUS undertook its restoration. He appears to have had
the magnificent intention of restoring a connection by water between
the two seas for ships of war also. This alone explains the grand idea
of constructing a canal to the Bitter lakes, 100 feet wide, and 40 feet
deep, which would have been quite unnecessary for common ships of burden.
At the same time he constructed an artificial sluice, probably at the
point where the sea entered, where he also built the town Arsinoë. But
as Pliny expressly says, he only carried this work from the sea to the
Bitter lakes. It is only this canal that we must undoubtedly understand
by the ποταμὸς Πτολεμαῖος, _amnis Ptolemæus_, which, according to
Diodorus and Pliny, received its name from the second Ptolemy. The
immense difference between this canal and the two northern ones, is
visible in the plan of the French engineer[297], therefore it does not
even require the ingenious explanation of Letronne in order to understand
that it was impossible for Cleopatra, after the battle of Actium, to
cause ships of war to be brought from the Mediterranean to the Red Sea,
except by land.
With reference to this last work, Strabo mentions the PTOLEMAIC kings,
this, connected with the fact that the town of Arsinoë, since the
time of Strabo, is also mentioned under the name Κλεοπατρίς, leads to
the supposition that one of the last Ptolemies, or Cleopatra herself,
completed the workings on this canal, perhaps the sluices.
The name ποταμὸς Τραϊανός, by which Letronne also understands the
whole connecting way as far as the sea[298], was undoubtedly as limited
as the name ποταμὸς Πτολεμαῖος. Ptolemy designedly neither mentions
Arsinoë or the sea; he says that Trajan’s canal flowed through Babylon
and Heroonpolis. This, therefore, refers to the canal, of which traces
are also still extant, which received its water much higher up than
the ancient one of Sesostris, namely, at Babylon, and was afterwards
conducted into it, and discharged itself with it into the basin of
Seba-Biar at Heroonpolis[299].
This geographical digression, whose length may be excused owing to the
peculiar interest of the subject, allows us now, as it seems to me,
to judge confidently on two points, which are important in a critical
examination of the Exodus of the Israelites. From the position of the two
towns, Abaris and Ramses—the former situated on the Mediterranean Sea,
near the mouth of the Pelusaic arm of the Nile, the latter half a degree
more to the south, and almost as much more west—it follows that the
Israelites, according to the Mosaic accounts, marched out of a different
town, as well as in a different direction, from that taken by the
unclean in the Manethonic narration.
On the other hand, we have found that the town of Ramses derived its
name from the King Ramses-Miamun (Sesostris), by whom it was built, and
that the ancient Nile canal, on which it was situated, was constructed,
according to the Greek accounts, by Sesostris, _i. e._ Ramses-Miamun. It
is evident that these two works, that of the canal and that of the town,
are connected, and reciprocally corroborate each other. The new town was
occasioned by the canal being cut. This connection will be still more
apparent by two other facts.
In the western part of the Delta there is a village which to this day
bears the same name as the town we are speaking of, namely, Ramses. This
village also, and its name, are of ancient date, which is proved by the
mound of ruins at that spot; and, what is still more important to us,
it is situated, like the eastern Ramses, on the border of an _ancient
canal_, which was conducted from the Canopic arm, and brought the water
of the Nile to Hermopolis Parva (Damanhur)[300]. The existence of
these ruins of Ramses appears to me alone to justify the very probable
supposition that this great western canal was also cut by Ramses-Miamun,
and that the royal constructor was worshipped as the eponymous divinity
in the town which was there built. It is evident that the Israelites
would not have been sent hither from Goshen in order to build _this_
town[301].
Besides the eastern RAMSES, the Israelites also built the town of PITHOM.
The situation of this town cannot easily be mistaken. It has been long
recognised in the town of Πάτουμος, of which Herodotus speaks when he
says that the eastern Nile canal, which was conducted a little above
Bubastis, flowed past it[302], the Arabian town[303]. It was probably
situated opposite Bubastis (Tel Basta), on the border of the desert, and
at the entrance of the Wadi, through which the canal is led. The ancient
ruins of a town are found there under the name of _Tel el kebir_, and the
_Itinerarium Antonini_ places the town of _Thoum_, which has certainly
been properly recognised as the ancient town of _Tum_ Πά-τουμος[304],
exactly in that place, namely, upon the road from Heliopolis to Pelusium,
on the edge of the desert between Vicus Judæorum (Tel Jehudeh) and
Tacasartha (Salhîeh?). Now if the Coptic translation in the passage which
is cited from Gen. xlvi. 28, writes ⲡⲓⲑⲟⲙ in place of Heroonpolis, as
is translated by the Seventy, it does not mean that Pithom was believed
to be discovered in Heroonpolis, but that it was thought better to fix
the place at which Joseph went to meet Jacob at Pithom rather than at
Heroonpolis.
PITHOM, therefore, was situated at one end, and RAMSES at the other,
of the ancient Nile canal, which was constructed by the great Pharaoh,
Ramses-Miamun, in the land of Goshen. Both were founded in consequence of
the new canal, and their direct connection in the Mosaic narrative, as
well as the statement that they were built by the _Israelites_, is most
decidedly confirmed by the geographical circumstances which have been
exhibited. Taking it in a general point of view, there can be no doubt
that the Israelites were chiefly settled in that very country, namely,
below Heliopolis, in the neighbourhood of Bubastis (Tel Basta) and of
the modern Belbês, where ruins are still extant called _Tel Jehudeh_; and
the Itinerarium Antonini cites a place called _Vicus Judæorum_, where,
finally, the Jewish temple of _Onias_ was built, probably at the Ὀνίου of
Ptolemy[305].
The inference we have arrived at, that if the Israelites built these
towns, they must have been still in Egypt in the reign of King Ramses,
who founded them, and that they could not have departed several centuries
previous, no longer rests upon the name of one single town, which might
be explained by an accidental inexactitude of the writer, or by a
confusion in dates[306], but upon the close connection of a series of
facts, which reciprocally support and explain one another.
Hence the oppression took place more especially under Ramses, and
the Exodus resulting from it under his son and successor Menephthes.
According to the Mosaic narrative also, the Pharaoh by whom the towns
were built was a different one from that of the Exodus[307]. Moses only
returned from Midian upon hearing of the death of the first, and it seems
that the event of the Exodus was directly connected with the change of
government.
Another proof of the correctness of our opinion, that, according to the
history of the Israelites, as recorded in the books of the Old Testament,
the Exodus cannot be fixed before the reign of the second Ramses, is
afforded by the accounts of the settlement of the Jews in Palestine.
It is well known, and most thoroughly confirmed by the monuments, and
the nearly contemporaneous Egyptian papyrus rolls, that Ramses-Miamun
attacked and conquered a great part of Asia, and probably during his
whole reign held under his dominion the adjoining lands, the peninsula of
Petræa, and all Palestine. We also see his father, Sethôs I., represented
upon the monuments in victorious warfare against the people of Syria,
among whom the Canaanites are expressly named. These were the most
glorious times in the whole Egyptian history. That they are nowhere
mentioned in the books of Joshua and Judges, while the numerous far
more transitory subjugations of the Israelites by the nations bordering
upon them are so fully recorded, appears, in fact, to be a fresh proof
that those warlike expeditions happened _before_ the Exodus of the
Israelites[308].
But it even appears as if the true epoch of Egyptian history in which
the Exodus of the Israelites occurred, has been preserved in late
Jewish traditions. I will at least bring forward one circumstance from
_Rabbinical chronology_, which deserves, perhaps, to be followed up by
those who are more familiar with this literature.
This Jewish chronology, namely, deviates in a most striking manner from
every other, and as late as the times of the Persian kings it differs
no less than about 160 years from the recognised numbers. The different
authorities present few deviations among themselves. They reckon by
the years of the world, a mode of reckoning which, as Ideler[309] also
considers, most probably was first discovered, and gradually introduced,
by the Rabbi Hillel Hanassi, in the year 344 after Christ, simultaneously
with the whole of the present arrangement of the year among the Jews.
They place the Creation 3761 years before Christ, and till the time of
Joseph they agree perfectly with the customary mode of reckoning in the
Hebrew text. They fix the Flood 1656 years after Adam; Abraham’s birth
1948; Isaac’s 2048; Jacob’s 2108; Joseph’s 2199; Jacob’s march to Egypt
2238; Joseph’s death 2309. It is only when they come to Moses that they
immediately deviate about 210 years, because, following the precedent of
Josephus and others, they reckon the 400 years of the sojourn in Egypt
from the birth of Isaac, and not from the entrance of Jacob[310]. They
fix the birth of Moses at 2368, and his Exodus at 2448 after the Creation.
_But this year 2448 of their era corresponds with the year 1314 [-1313]_
B.C.[311], and therefore, according to the Manethonic chronology, occurs
in the time of King Menephthes, who reigned nineteen years, therefore
the _same_ king whom the Egyptian annals called the King of the Exodus.
Besides this, the latter tell us of a flight of thirteen years which
the king made into Ethiopia. If this flight took place, as it probably
did, in the first or second year after the change of government, he must
have returned and driven away the lepers in the fourteenth or fifteenth
year of his reign. _But the year 1314 is exactly the fifteenth year of
Menephthes_, according to the Manethonic calculation.
This coincidence is certainly striking, but might possibly be only
accidental, if other circumstances were not added to it. For instance,
the same Jewish chronology places the building of the temple by Solomon,
according to the 1 Kings vi. 1, about 480 years after the Exodus,
therefore 2928 = 834 B.C., the march of Shishak against Rehoboam 2969 =
793, that of Zerah against Asa 2998 = 764, the banishment of Israel 3205
= 557, the destruction of the first Temple by Nebuchadnezzar 3338 = 424,
Darius (Hystaspes) 3406 = 356, the building of the second Temple 3408 =
354. These, as well as the intervening numbers, which I omit here, are
all of them about 165 years too late. But from this place the correct
dates are suddenly restored; Alexander of Macedon is placed 3442 = 320,
therefore only sixteen years too late; his government of the world, and a
march which he is said to have made to Jerusalem, 3448 = 314; his death
3454 = 308, and so forth.
About this time, the Jews being subject to the Syrian government,
adopted the Syrian _Era of the Seleucidæ_, which was called by them the
“Era of the Greeks,” or, on account of its being used in civil affairs,
“the Era of Contracts.” Its commencement happens, as is well known, in
the year 312 before Christ, and we find it adopted in the Book of the
Maccabees[312]. This era is also mentioned in the rabbinical chronology,
and is _quite correctly_ placed by the more ancient authorities in the
year of the world 3450 = 312 B.C.[313] If Ganz[314], in place of this,
gives the year 3448 = 314, it is evidently either an arbitrary change,
or perhaps first devised by him for the sake of the exact period of a
thousand years between the Exodus (2448) and the new era (3448). This
connection that subsisted between the two numbers to form a monarchy
of a thousand years’ duration, was not in fact very remote; we should
only have expected that the number of the Exodus would rather have
been advanced two years, in conformity with the fixed and universally
introduced era of the Seleucidæ, and not, on the contrary, that the
latter should be sent so far back. But the number 2448 was left standing,
which still more indicates a determinate selection of this year,
independent of a cyclical or arbitrary arrangement.
There is proof also that the Rabbis did not alter the commencement of the
Seleucidic Era, in the circumstance, that it has retained its correct
place in chronology, in spite of the universal displacement in the
chain of events. According to that displacement, Alexander first began
to reign 3442 = 320, and died in 3454 = 308. The beginning of the new
era, therefore, according to this, happened in the reign of Alexander
himself, who in reality had been dead twenty-one years at the time of the
battle of Gaza, which occasioned the new era. In consequence of these
contradictions the _number_ was retained, and the _event_ was changed
to agree with it, since the introduction of the era of Seleucus was
transferred to Alexander, and connected with an account of his presence
in Jerusalem, which is otherwise only mentioned by Josephus[315], and the
so-called Barbarus of Scaliger[316].
But the question is, how we can reconcile the remarkable displacement
of events with the true numbers? IDELER has shown that we must refer
the first establishment of the era of the world, and consequently the
foundation of the whole chronological system that we are considering,
to the author of the Moleds, or new moons, and particularly of the late
Jewish calendars, therefore to the Rabbi Hillel, in the first half of
the fourth century. In the time of Eusebius, and Theon of Alexandria,
people could not possibly be so completely ignorant of the history of
the last centuries before Christ, as the rabbinical chronology supposed.
It was least to be believed of such a learned mathematician, astronomer,
and chronologist, as we imagine the reformer of the Jewish calendar to
have been, who founded it upon the nineteenth-yeared cycle of Meton and
Calippus[317].
It appears to me, therefore, that the following acceptation is alone
possible, which I would at least recommend to the closer examination of
well-versed labourers in Jewish antiquities. The Talmud contains very
few chronological dates, and nothing justifies us in the belief that the
learned HILLEL had already given a chronological view of the events, as
we afterwards find them. But he must have necessarily had some resting
points for his technical chronological works, if he desired to connect
his present with the past, and even with the Creation. It could not have
been difficult to find these resting points at that time, so soon after
Africanus; the best authorities were still open to him. But the Exodus
from Egypt must have been his most important point, for previous to that
event the numbers in the Pentateuch were clear, and without mistakes.
It was only necessary for him to decide between the two different views
concerning the period between Jacob and Moses. The numbers after the
Exodus were much more uncertain, as the calculations of Josephus have
already proved. On the other hand, the well-known era of the Seleucidæ,
which was at that time still in use, naturally formed another fixed point
which he could not avoid. Under these circumstances, every clever and
mathematically educated chronologist, would be compelled to connect the
date of the Exodus with the only certain and astronomically verified
Egyptian chronology. If the ERA of KING MENEPHTHES, and the exact
year of its commencement was familiar to the mathematician, Theon of
Alexandria, who lived at a later period, must it not have been equally
well known to the astronomer Hillel? But nothing more was necessary to
determine the date of the _Exodus_, which took place _under the same King
Menephthes_[318].
We should not therefore be surprised to see, even at that time, the
perfectly correct acceptation of the year 2448 for the Exodus. It was,
at all events, impossible to determine the year of the Creation without
having obtained the two periods of the Seleucidic Era, and of the Exodus.
On the other hand, it is very improbable that Hillel set to work as
Ideler[319] imagines he did. He says “that Hillel evidently started
from the beginning of the Seleucidic Era, which was at that time
still universally employed by the Jews, the autumn of the year B.C.
312. Reckoning from this point backwards, he made the next epoch the
_destruction_ of the first Temple, and placed it only 112 years earlier
than the Seleucidic Era, counting about 150 years too little, so that
he advanced Nebuchadnezzar to the times of Artaxerxes I. Whilst he thus
went back still farther to the building of the first Temple, to the
Exodus of the Israelites out of Egypt, to the Flood, and to the Creation,
following partly the express statements of time in the Bible, partly his
own explanation of it, he found the beginning of the year, 3450 of the
world, to be the epoch of the _Minjan schtaroth_.” As we said before, it
was perfectly _impossible_ for a scholar of the fourth century to make
such a gross mistake of nearly 160 years at that late period. But it
is easily explained, if we believe that after the great gap in Jewish
literature, which commenced at the conclusion of the Talmud, about the
year 500, and which lasted to the eighth century, the Rabbis had adopted
those few correct chronological periods fixed by Hillel, and now first
undertook to fill up their history of the world, which comprised 5000
years, according to the statements of the Old Testament. In fact, we find
neither in the Talmud, nor even in the first writings of the rabbis,
which succeed the Talmud, _e. g._ in the _Seder Olam Rabah_, one of the
oldest of those writings, the full chronological details, some extracts
of which we have seen above. It appears to have been first completed in
the twelfth century, therefore in the period of a scientific barbarism,
which had been long introduced. It was only necessary to follow the
numbers of the Pentateuch from the Creation to the Flood, and to the
Exodus, in order to obtain the given year 2448 = 1314. The convenient
number 480 years, down to the building of the Temple, in the first Book
of Kings, was afterwards immediately adopted, and the chronology of the
times of the Judges adapted to it. But hereby the historical event next
following was at the same time displaced to about the 160-170 years we
have mentioned, and drew with it the displacement of all the succeeding
events. It first became apparent at the next fixed point, about the year
3450 = 312, that the chain of events was far too long for the stated
interval, from the building of the first to the second Temple. Therefore,
the period from the erection of the second Temple, built under Darius
Hystaspes, to the time of Alexander, to which was given the name of the
Grecian Era[320], was cut down without ceremony from 184 years into 34
years. This raised no obstacle at first, but afterwards occasioned many
difficulties, until these also were got rid of by the simple expedient of
taking Darius II. and III for one and the same person. Only thus can we
explain the peculiar phenomena of an entirely displaced and afterwards
mutilated chronology, in which, however, there appears two fixed points
alone correct, and which afford us at the same time the important, and
probably the most exact, determination of the Exodus by a truly learned
chronologist of the fourth century[321].
Viewing it, therefore, from this side, we return to the opinion, that the
great stumbling-block to the whole of the chronology hitherto adopted
for the Old Testament was the number 480 years, which was calculated as
the period between the Exodus and the building of the Temple mentioned
in the first Book of Kings[322]. As soon as we set this aside, regarding
it only as a supplementary multiple of twelve generations, or segments
of 40 years each, the Hebrew and Egyptian chronologies are no longer
opposed to each other with reference to the time of the Exodus. All the
other intimations we meet with in the Hebrew accounts, and their whole
connection, demand, on the contrary, precisely the same time, which we
find unequivocally stated in the Egyptian annals of Manetho.
The question now is, whether along with this number 480, to which we
can attribute no greater importance than to the simple number _forty_,
so often repeated in the history of Israel at that period, we must also
give up as valueless every other chronological measure of the events
immediately succeeding the Exodus. But this is so little the case, that,
on the contrary, in the true chronological scale which the Mosaic
writings furnish, we find a fresh refutation of the opinions hitherto
adopted, and a confirmation of the Egyptian statements. We look upon the
REGISTER OF GENERATIONS as this scale.
I am not aware whether these numerous family records have ever been fully
placed under _one_ point of view, and estimated as a whole in their
great chronological significance, in the same way as they have certainly
frequently been used for separate purposes and divisions of time. Such a
survey would very much increase the importance of the separate lists, and
facilitate their application to chronological determinations.
It is well known how in the East at all times, and even to this day, the
register of generations and genealogies is orally transmitted, with a
wonderful fidelity and completeness, through the memories of perfectly
illiterate and frequently even now nomadic races. The Arabian races are
especially noted for this, and their historical recollections are often
almost entirely limited to this dry register. I have met with many such
pedigrees in the upper districts of the Nile, south of the province
of Dongola, among the Arabs who immigrated there from the west, these
being the only written remains of their past, which inform us of their
immigration and distribution in those districts. But these lists of names
are still more to be depended upon among those nations of antiquity, who,
like the Egyptians and the Hebrews, were a literary people, and were
accustomed to preserve in writing these sacred bequests of individual
families. On the rock of the Kosser-road, in the eastern desert of Egypt,
I found a hieroglyphical inscription belonging to the time shortly
before the first Persian dominion, in which a chief architect of the
country, named Ranumhet, carries back his direct ancestors as far as the
twenty-fourth generation, to an ancestral mother Nofratmu, who, according
to a rough calculation, must have lived about the end of the 19th
Dynasty, therefore about the time of Moses.
But the Israelites particularly, above all the nations of antiquity,
appear to have laid the greatest stress upon the register of
generations, lists of names, and general enumerations of tribes and
generations. The writings of the Old Testament are full of them,
especially all the historical books; and the care and exactitude which
was expended upon the general preparation of these lists, is evident to
the reader. The peculiar destiny of the Israelitish people, firmly bound
together, always separating themselves most rigorously from strangers,
yet frequently transplanted in masses from one country to another, and
settled amidst other nations, enables us perfectly to comprehend this
universal attention to an authentic register of generations. We find
it stated that they were already twice numbered[323] in the desert;
for which purpose the whole people were collected together, and were
entered in the registers of the births “by their generations, after
their families, according to the number of the names, from twenty years
and upwards, and by their polls.” On their return from exile it is
particularly observed that some of the wanderers could not trace their
genealogy[324]. Among these were several priests’ families, of whom it
is said, “These sought the register of their generations, but it was not
found, and, therefore, they were _rejected_ from the priesthood[325].” It
follows from this that the priests of the tribe of Levi were obliged by
law to preserve and continue the register of their generations. This law
must naturally only have existed since the Exodus, and, therefore, when
Josephus[326] asserts that the High priests possessed written registers
of their generations, as far back as 2000 years, this is, indeed,
connected with his opinion about the early epoch of the Exodus; it shows,
however, that they were brought down to his time, which is, indeed, also
confirmed by the register of the generations of Jesus Christ[327].
We need no further justification, therefore, for placing great value
upon the successive generations, and for discovering in them the _true
chronological thread_ for those times during which more exact reliable
statements are wanting. We fortunately possess a whole array of
genealogies for the period between the Exodus and the building of the
Temple; and, indeed, principally generations of priests, which go back as
far as Levi, and are, therefore, from the reasons we have stated above,
the most to be depended upon. Altogether, _five_ different generations of
the Levites may be distinguished; some obscurities have crept into our
text, which probably happened at the time it assumed its present form,
since they are found also in the Septuagint; it seems, however, that they
may easily be removed[328].
The following is a survey of the principal genealogies, in which the
_Levitical generations_ preserve the order in which they are cited,
1 Chron. vii.[329] This is preceded by the genealogical succession,
according to Josephus, from _Levi_ to _Zadok_, and by his series of
_High priests_ from _Aaron_ to _Zadok_. Lastly, there follows a table of
the generations of _Judah_. On the other hand, we have excluded other
genealogies; _e. g._ the three of _Ephraim_; Num. xxvi. 35; 1 Chron. vii.
20, 21, 24-27[330]; because they are evidently confused, and lead to no
result[331].
THE GENERATIONS OF THE JEWS FROM ABRAHAM TO DAVID.
+-------------------------+-------------------------+-----------------+
| The Heads of the People | The Succession of the | The Ancestors of|
| from Abraham to David. | High Priests to Zadok, | Zadok, according|
| | according to Josephus, | to Josephus, |
| | A. J. 5, 11, 5. | A. J. 8, 1, 3. |
+-------------------------+-------------------------+-----------------+
| 1. Abraham 100 or 30| | |
| 2. Isaac 100 30| | |
| --- | | |
| 200 | | |
| 3. Jacob 100 30| | |
| --| | |
| 90| | |
| | | |
| 1. Levi 100 30| | 1. Λευί. |
| 2. Kohath 100 30| | 2. Κάαθος. |
| 3. Amram 100 30| | 3. Ἀμαράμης. |
| --- --| | |
| 400 90| | |
| | | |
| 1. Moses 40 | 1. Ἀαρών 30| 1. Ἀαρών 30|
| 2. Joshua 40 | 2. Ἐλεαζάρης 30| 2. Ἐλεαζάρης 30|
| 3. Othniel 40 | 3. Φινεέσης 30| 3. Φινεέσης 30|
| 4. Ehud 40 | 4. Ἀβιεζέρης 30| 4. Ἰώσηπος 30|
| 5. Shamgar 40 | 5. Βουκί 30| 5. Βοκκίας 30|
| 6. Barak 40 | 6. Ὅζις 30| 6. Ἰώθαμος 30|
| 7. Gideon 40 | 7. Ἠλεί 30| 7. Μαραίωθος 30|
| 8. Jephthah 40 | 8. (Φινεέσης) 30| 8. Ἀροφαῖος 30|
| 9. Samson 40 | 9. Ἰοχάβης 30| 9. Ἀχίτωβος 30|
|10. Eli 40 |10. Ἀχιμέλεχος = Ἀχίας 30|10. Σάδωκος 30|
|11. Samuel Saul 40 |11. Ἁβιάθαρος with 30| |
|12. David 40 | Σάδωκος | |
| --- | ---| ---|
| 480 | 330| 300|
+-------------------------+-------------------------+-----------------+
+-----------------+-----------------+-----------------+
| I. | II. | III. |
| | | |
| The Generation |The Generation of|The Generation of|
| of Aaron. | Gershom-Libni. |Kohath-Amminadab.|
| 1 Chron. vii. |1 Chron. vii. 20,| 1 Chron. vii. |
| 1-9, 50-53. | 21. ( = VIII.) | 22-24. ( = VI.) |
| Ezra vii. 2-5. | | |
+-----------------+-----------------+-----------------+
| 1. Levi | 1. Levi | 1. [Levi] |
| 2. Kohath | 2. Gershom | 2. Kohath |
| 3. Amram | 3. Libni | 3. Amminadab |
| | | |
| 1. _Aaron_ 30| 1. (Jahath) | 1. Korah 30|
| 2. _Eleazar_ 30| 2. Zimmah | 2. Assir 30|
| 3. _Phinehas_ 30| 3. Joah | 3. Elkanah 30|
| 4. _Abishua_ 30| 4. Iddo | 4. Ebiasaph 30|
| 5. _Bukki_ 30| 5. Zerah | 5. Assir 30|
| 6. _Uzzi_ 30| 6. Jeaterai | 6. Tahath 30|
| 7. Zerahiah 30| | 7. Uriel 30|
| 8. Meraioth 30| | 8. Uzziah 30|
| 9. Amariah 30| | 9. Saul 30|
|10. Ahitub 30| |10. (Jonathan) 30|
|11. _Zadok_ 30| | |
| ---| | ---|
| 330| | 300|
+-----------------+-----------------+-----------------+
+---------------------+---------------+--------------------------------+
| IV. | V. | VI. VII. |
| | | |
| The | The | The Ancestors of Heman |
| Generation of | Generation of | | |
| Elkanah-Amasai. | Merari-Mahli. | from Izhar. | from Amasai. |
| 1 Chron. vii. | 1 Chron. | 1 Chron. vii. | 1 Chron. vii. |
| 25-28.( = VII.) | vii. 29-30. | 36-38. (= III.)| 33-36. (= IV.)|
+---------------------+---------------+----------------+---------------+
| 1. [Levi] | 1. Levi | 1. Levi | 1. [Levi] |
| 2. Elkanah | 2. Merari | 2. Kohath | 2. Elkanah |
| 3. Amasai (and) | 3. Mahli | 3. Izhar | 3. Amasai |
| | | | |
| 1. Ahimoth 30| 1. Libni | 1. Korah 30| 1. Mahath 30|
| 2. Elkanah 30| 2. Shimei | 2. [Assir] 30| 2. Elkanah 30|
| 3. Elkanah Zophai 30| 3. Uzza | 3. [Elkanah] 30| 3. Zuph 30|
| 4. Nahath 30| 4. Shimea | 4. Ebiasaph 30| 4. Toah 30|
| | | | (Thohu) |
| 5. Eliab 30| 5. Haggiah | 5. Assir 30| 5. Eliel 30|
| | | | (Elihu) |
| 6. Jeroham 30| 6. Asaiah | 6. Tahath 30| 6. Jeroham 30|
| 7. Elkanah 30| | 7. Zephaniah 30| 7. Elkanah 30|
| 8. Samuel 30| | 8. Azariah 30| 8. Shemuel 30|
| 9. Vashni 30| | 9. Joel 30| 9. Joel 30|
|10. --- 30| |10. [Heman] 30|10. Heman 30|
| ---| | ---| ---|
| 300| | 300| 300|
+---------------------+---------------+----------------+---------------+
+--------------------+--------------------+------------------------+
| VIII. | IX. | |
| | | |
| The Ancestors of | The Ancestors of | The Ancestors of |
| Asaph from Jahath, | Ethan from Mushi. | David from Judah. |
|1 Chron. vii. 39-43.|1 Chron. vii. 44-17.| Ruth iv. 18. 1 Chron. |
| (= II.) | |ii. 4-13. Gos. Matth. i.|
| | | 3-6. Luke iii. 32, 33. |
+--------------------+--------------------+------------------------+
| 1. Levi | 1. Levi | 1. Judah |
| 2. Gershom | 2. Merari | |
| 3. (Jahath) | 3. Mushi | 2. Pharez |
| | | |
| 1. Shimei 30| 1. Mahli 30| 1. Hezron 30|
| 2. Zimmah 30| 2. Shamer 30| 2. Ram 30|
| 3. Ethan 30| 3. Bani 30| 3. Amminadab 30|
| 4. Adaiah 30| 4. Amzi 30| 4. Nahshon 30|
| 5. Zerah 30| 5. Hilkiah 30| 5. Salmon 30|
| 6. Ethni 30| 6. Amaziah 30| 6. Boaz 30|
| 7. Malchiah 30| 7. Hashabiah 30| 7. Obed 30|
| 8. Baaseiah 30| 8. Malluch 30| 8. Jesse 30|
| 9. Michael 30| 9. Abdi 30| 9. David 30|
|10. Shimea 30|10. Kishi 30| |
|11. Berachiah 30|11. Ethan 30| |
|12. Asaph 30| | |
| ---| ---| ---|
| 360| 330| 270|
+--------------------+--------------------+------------------------+
The first column contains after the patriarchs from Abraham to Amram,
the 12 heads of the people, commencing with Moses, who appear to have
been regarded as the representations of 12 generations of 40 years each,
and thence to have occasioned the calculation of 480 years. Ewald[332],
as well as Bertheau[333], gives another list, because, on the whole,
the subject admits of no exactitude; the common acknowledgment of
the division of the period into twelve parts is alone of importance
to us. But one (VIII.) of the genealogies we have quoted (1 Chron.
vii. 39-43[334]) contains twelve generations of _one and the same
family_[335]. It is possible, therefore, that this succession, rather
than that uncertain division, gave occasion to the 480 years. It was,
besides, distinguished from the others by being continued through
_Gershom_, the _First-born of Levi_. But the _principal lineage_ of the
Levites was that of the high priests, who were descended from Aaron and
Kohath (I.); this contains, as well as that of Mushi (IX.), only 11
generations. This might therefore be the reason why the Seventy only
reckoned 440 years[336].
In the Chronicles the _second_ succession of Levites is closely connected
with the third[337]. But in the Hebrew as well as in the Greek text
a distinct pause is made at verse 22, after _Jeaterai_. The author
begins again: “_The son of Kohath; Amminadab, his son; Korah, his
son_[338];” and so on. The Seventy even write the plural υἱοὶ Καάθ. A
new succession therefore undoubtedly begins here, and we must consider
the portion from Gershom to Jeaterai as an incomplete genealogy inserted
here, which evidently runs parallel to the first part of our _eighth_
Levitical series[339]. _Kohath_, who succeeds Jeaterai, was also a son
of _Levi_, and the names which follow, clearly show that it ought to
be the same series as our _sixth_. That the third and sixth series are
really identical follows from the name of the grandson of Kohath being
_Korah_, which recurs in both, and also from the three successive names,
_Ebiasaph_, _Assir_, _Tahath_, also recurring. The eighth name, Uzziah,
is also undoubtedly the same name as Azariah in the other text; for the
very same change of both names is again found afterwards in the King
of Judah, the son of Amaziah, who is called Azariah eight times in the
same chapter (2 Kings xv.) and is afterwards three times called by his
usual name, Uzziah[340]. I have not, therefore, hesitated to fill up the
two names of Assir and Elkanah which were wanting after Korah[341] in
the _sixth_ series, as the _third_ series is, on the whole, most to be
depended on. It has undoubtedly been retained on account of the last name
of _Saul_, whom we must consider to be no other than _King_ Saul, whose
generation indeed is usually (1 Sam. ix. 1) carried back through Kish and
Aphiah, with an interruption, to Benjamin, but here again also presents
difficulties and appears in general to have been disputed.
But the _sixth_ series does not conclude in the Chronicles with _Joel_,
but is continued into our _seventh_, and no text appears to indicate
that there is a pause. Yet the correctness of our division here also,
will hardly be found doubtful. It would be quite impossible to believe
that among six genealogies one alone could have been _as long again_
as all the others; for if we omitted the two restored members of the
sixth series, we should still retain nineteen members in place of ten
or eleven, as in the other genealogies. We should therefore still feel
obliged to believe there was a mistake, even though unable to point it
out. But, upon a further investigation, it explains itself.
It is very apparent that we have the same genealogies in the _fourth_
series as in the _seventh_, although there appears to be several
deviations in the manner the names are written, and in some passages
completely different names. Let us now see how the _fourth_ series is
introduced in the Chronicles. The first part of the seventh chapter (in
the Hebrew text made the sixth) brings prominently forward, apart from
the other genealogies, that of the generations of the high priests, which
goes back through Aaron, Amram, and Kohath, to Levi. The generations
of the other Levites are afterwards designated, and indeed in _two_
divisions. The _first_ proceeds from the _first-born_ of the sons of
Levi, in which, nevertheless, in the race of Kohath, _Amram_ has already
been removed from the series, and _Amminadab_, _i. e._ _Izhar_, takes
his place; the _second_ goes upwards from the three songsters of David,
Heman, Assaph, and Ethan, as far back as the grandchildren of Levi. The
ancestors of _Heman_ come first, because a _first-born grandson_ of
Levi stands at the head, _Izhar_, _i. e._ _Amminadab_, whose generation
was therefore already mentioned among those of the first-born grandsons
(III.). The ancestors of _Assaph_ and of _Ethan_ succeed, because
later-born grandsons of Levi stand at the head, who are again arranged in
the succession of the sons of Levi.
There is here a strict and duly considered rule, which is made evident by
the following survey:
LEVI.
|
+-----------------+-+-----------------+--------------+
| | | |
1. _Gershom._ 2. _Kohath._ 3. _Elkanah._ 4. _Merari._
| | | |
| I. 1. Amram. | |
| | | |
| 1. Aaron. 2. Moses. | |
| | |
| III. } | |
II. 1. Libni. VI. } 2. Amminadab-Izhar. | |
| |
IV. } | |
VIII. 2. Jahath-Shimei. 3. Hebron. VII. } 1. Amasai. V. 1. Mahli.
4. Uzziah.
2. Ahimoth. IX. 2. Mushi.
This certainty presupposes what has been already assumed here, that
_Elkanah_ was a _son of Levi_, and, indeed, the THIRD son, although in
former passages he is not cited as among the sons of Levi. Little is
proved by this omission, for there are many such cases, and in this very
chapter, v. 43, _Jahath_ is called a son of _Gershom_, although in v. 17
he is not cited among the sons of Gershom[342]. In such cases, certainly,
the conjecture still remains which we admitted above, p. 464, in the
case of Jahath, that one name has been _substituted_ for another, as,
without doubt, occurs in many cases; and therefore some might prefer
here to suppose _Elkanah_ the same person as _Kohath_, Zuph (VII.) as a
later Elkanah (IV.), Toah (VII.) as Nahath (IV.), Azariah (VI.) as Uzziah
(III.), Joel (VII.) as Vashni (IV.), Laadan as Libni, &c. However, this
seems very improbable here. In the chapter we allude to the children of
Gershom-Libni are first stated in the series of the first-born, then
the children of Kohath-Amminadab, then the children of Elkanah-Amasai,
lastly the children of Merari-Mahli. Elkanah is, therefore, evidently
also placed between _Kohath_ and _Merari_, as one of the _first-born_.
If _Elkanah_, the head of this family, were no other than the _Elkanah_
previously mentioned in v. 23, the son of _Assir_, this whole genealogy
would not belong here, which is evident from the arrangement we have
given above.
But the same arrangement proves that the first part of the genealogy of
_Heman_, our _sixth_ series[343], concludes with the same _Joel_ who in
the second part in our _seventh_ series appears as the father of _Heman_;
that, consequently, we have to complete the end of the _sixth_ series
with the name of Heman again; in short, that we have before us, in place
of one of double length, _two_ single genealogies of _Heman_, which
spring from his father by different grandfathers[344].
So much for the generations of Levi from the Hebrew text. With respect to
the genealogical succession from Levi to Zadok, according to Josephus, it
corresponds with our first Levitical series, but does not entirely agree
with it. According to Josephus, the generations belonging here would be
as follows:
Ἀαρών.
+-----------------------------+
| |
1. Ἐλεαζάρης. Ἰθάμαρος.
2. Φινεέσης. |
|
+------------ |
| |
Ἰώσηπος. 3. Ἀβιεζέρης. |
Βοκκίας. 4. Βουκί. |
Ἰώθαμος. 5. Ὄζις. |
|
(Meraioth =) Μαραίωθος. 6. Ἠλεί.
Ἀροφαῖος. Φινεέσης.
(Ahitub =) Ἀχίτωβος. 7. Ἰοχάβης.
10. Σάδωκος. 8. Ἀχιμέλεχος.
9. Ἀβιάθαρος.
But the Hebrew series is not only supported by three passages, but it
has also more internal probability than that of Josephus. For Βοκκίας
and Βουκί seem to differ but little, and since Zadok and Abiathar are
cotemporary, a name appears to be wanting in the series of Σάδωκος, which
is given in the Hebrew series[345].
In our series of the successions of the _High priests_ φινεέσης is an
interposition, because the pontificate passed immediately from Eli to his
grandson.
The genealogy of _Judah_, which we have added, is at the same time the
table of the generation of _David_. It is the shortest of all, but ought
not therefore to be regarded with suspicion. We must place _Hezron_
equal with _Moses_, although only _one generation_ is given between
him and Judah, for it is said of him (1 Chron. ii. 24) that he died at
Caleb-Ephratah, therefore after the entrance into Palestine, and that
his wife, Abiah, had a son after his death. Therefore there only remains
_Judah_ and _Pharez_ for the Egyptian time. This need not surprise us,
since _Pharez_ was only born to _Judah_ by _Thamar_ after she had been
already the wife of his sons; _Pharez_ is, therefore, both the son and
the _grandson_ of _Judah_. There remain nine generations for the period
from the Exodus to the building of the Temple; but here, also, we know at
least concerning the last name, _David_, that he was the _seventh_ son of
his father.
If we now review the collected series of our table, we find among them
_eight_ different and complete series, namely, besides six tribes of
Levi, the tribe of _Judah_, and the series of the High priests. Of these,
_one_ contains 12 names, _three_ of them 11, _three_ 10, and _one_ 9.
This gives as a mean number exactly ten and a half generations.
If we inquire the mean number for the years of a generation, we must not
think of the Hebrew number 40. It is evidently too high a number, and
was only sometimes conferred by the Hebrews on the generations, because
it had been long used by them for undetermined quantities as a round and
sacred number.
The 33⅓rd years also of the Egyptian generations, according to Herodotus
(ii. 142), was rather a subdivision of the _century_ than a calculation
of the real succession of generations. The longest series, from which we
could obtain a mean number, are the _series of kings_. But we can obtain
no scale even from them. The kings of Judah only reigned on an average
nineteen years, those of Israel only twelve years. Successions of reigns
are, however, always shorter than generations, and in Judah seven out
of twenty kings were killed, or expelled; in Israel, fully half out of
twenty. We shall therefore approach much nearer the truth if we adopt the
_Greek_ acceptation[346] of thirty years for a generation, in which we
only follow most of the modern scholars.
Admitting this, ten or eleven generations would amount to 300 or 330
years, and if we place _Solomon_ about the year 1000, the genealogies
would lead us to 1300 or 1330 years before Christ, which most perfectly
agrees with our earlier results, since, according to Manetho, we believe
we ought to place _Menephthes_ 1328-1309. The _Rabbinical_ date of the
Exodus is B.C. 1314, exactly between 1300 and 1330, upon which of course
no more importance is to be laid than is allowable by the indeterminate
factors of the calculation. At any rate the whole discussion leads to
this, that the _genealogies_, the only trustworthy although less exact
chronological thread of those Hebrew times, speak as decidedly against
the calculation hitherto adopted of 480 years, as in favour of our
calculation of, about, 300 years. This agreement appears to me of the
greatest importance in judging both the Egyptian as well as the Jewish
history.
But if, finally, we look at the numbers in the Book of Judges, we have
already seen that, according to the usual mode of reckoning, they are
by no means found to agree immediately with any other chronological
acceptation; still the chronological character of many separate numbers
cannot be mistaken, and we may at least expect that, from our point of
view also, a simple solution must present itself, which would release
the statements of numbers in the Book of Judges from the contradictions
in which, as hitherto interpreted, they have stood with the Manethonic
chronology.
Bunsen[347] gives us a survey of this period. He compares the “Time of
Foreign Rule and Anarchy” with the “Time of the Judges and of Peace.”
For the former he puts 3 _x_ + 111 years, for the latter, including
the monarchical time to the building of the Temple, 4 _x_ + 442 years.
He considers the first, less historical than the last (p. 212), and
supposes that the number 480 is perhaps formed out of the latter 442.
At all events, he believes we must start from this number. But I should
prefer an entirely different combination, which promises to lead sooner
to a result. If we place the uncertain and round numbers upon one side,
and the remaining on the other side, we shall obtain the following
survey[348]:
INDETERMINATE NUMBERS. | HISTORICAL NUMBERS.
-------------------------------------+---------------------------------
40. Years in the Desert. |
|
_x_ _Joshua_ (25, according to |
Josephus, A. J. V. 1, 29). |
|
_x_ Successors to Joshua (Joshua |
xxiv. 31). |
|
40. _Othniel_ (Judg. iii. 11). | 8. under Mesopotamia (Judg.
| iii. 8.)
|
| 18. under the Moabites (Judg.
80. _Ehud_ (Judg. iii. 30; according | iii. 14).
to the Seventy 40). |
|
_x_ _Shamgar._ |
|
| 20. under the Canaanites (Judg.
| iv. 3. This Period happens,
40. _Deborah_ (Judg. iv. 4) and | according to Judg. iv. 4,
_Barak_ (Judg. v. 1, 31). | perhaps under Deborah).
|
40. _Gideon_ (Judg. viii. 28). | 7. under the Midianites (Judg.
| vi. 1).
|
| 3. _Abimelech_ (Judg. ix. 22).
| 23. _Tola_ (Judg. x. 2).
| 22. _Jair_ (Judg. x. 3).
| 18. Philistines (Judg. x. 8).
| 6. _Jephthah_ (Judg. xii. 7).
| 7. _Ibzan_ (Judg. xii. 9).
| 10. _Elon_ (Judg. xii. 11).
| 8. _Abdon_ (Judg. xii. 14).
| ---
40. Philistines (Judg. xiii. 1). | 150
|
20. _Samson_ (in the time of the |
Philistines, Judg. xv. 20, |
xvi. 31). |
|
_x_ Anarchy (Judg. xvii. 6, xviii. |
1, xix. 1, xxi. 25). |
|
40. _Eli_ (1 Sam. iv. 18). |
|
20. _Saul_ (1 Sam. vii. 1, 2; |
compare iv. 18, vi. 1; 2 Sam. |
vi. 3; 1 Chron. xiv. 3. |
According to Acts xiii. 21, |
Jos. A. J. VI. 14, 9, Saul |
reigned 40 years). |
|
40. _David_ (2 Sam. v. 4, 5; 1 |
Kings, ii. 11). |
-------------------------------------+---------------------------------
14 times _x_ × 12 years = 168. 150 + 168 = 318 years.
From this juxtaposition alone we obtain a threefold division of the
whole period. In the first division we see from the time of Joshua the
determinate and indeterminate numbers alternating almost regularly (for
_Shamgar_ appears to be included in _Ehud’s_ higher number, and therefore
to have no number himself), and the historical numbers are certainly
not ascribed here to the separate personages, but to the period of the
oppression, therefore the whole time appears to have been one of contest
and startling revolts, which, by means of a succession of powerful men,
ends at length in a victorious assertion of their own dominion.
This second period commences with Abimelech, and is only once interrupted
by the government of the Philistines. Here there is a real succession of
events and separate governments, and therefore no round numbers.
The third division begins with a new, and, as it appears, a far longer
oppression by the Philistines, in which the narrative of _Sampson_ only
forms a passing episode. It seems to me that the anarchical times, which
are entirely omitted by others, are connected with this oppression, and,
although there is no date, that they were of considerable duration. They
form, in a certain degree, the real conclusion of the time of the Judges.
The new, the regal time, begins with Eli, which is always alluded to in
the time of the anarchy. Before the time of Eli the historical thread
was broken; from his time it continues uninterrupted. Eli prepares the
way for the kings. Samuel grows up under him, and his first action after
the death of Eli seems to have been to anoint _Saul_ as king. He appears
to have continued his _office of judge_ under Saul, whom he has rather
chosen as a _general_, as he also afterwards anoints _David_ as king.
This may be the reason why no time is ascribed to him; the Ark of the
Covenant, which was taken as booty in the conquest of Mizpah by the
Philistines, and was retained for seven months (1 Sam. vi. 1), was thus
brought to Kirjath-Jearim, shortly before Saul’s elevation; remained
there twenty years (1 Sam. vii. 2), and was first brought away from that
place at the elevation of David (2 Sam. vi. 3), “_for we inquired not at
it in the days of Saul_” (1 Chron. xiii. 3).
If we now add up the historical numbers, we shall obtain 150 years, so
that there is on an average 12 years for each of the twelve governments.
Now if we apply this mean number (which is best adapted to the purpose,
and which was also that of the kings of Israel) to the fourteen
governments, whose numbers are uncertain, we shall obtain 168 years,
which, together with the 150, gives 318 years. Now if we count these
backward, beginning at Solomon, about 1000 years before Christ, we come
to the year 1318 before Christ, therefore again under the government of
Pharaoh MENEPHTHES.
We thus obtain, also, from this side a simple confirmation of our former
results. It is at least evident, that the numbers in the Book of Judges
can no longer be employed as a refutation of the Manethonic calculation.
But this agreement between the chronology of the time of the Judges, and
the genealogies of the Chronicles, is of manifest importance to Jewish
history.
As soon as we may consider the chronological importance of the
genealogies established, we are enabled to rise still higher on the
same path in the history of Israel, and to obtain a chronological view
concerning the period of the sojourn of the Israelites _in Egypt_.
If in the 40 years of the later generations we can only perceive a
chronological _garb_, without on that account supposing that the
substance of the narratives are unhistorical, still less should we see
in the hundred and more years of the generations from Abraham to Moses,
the true chronological relation upon which these perfectly credible
narratives are founded. The whole array of numbers is rather, as we have
indicated above, to be judged from a perfectly different point of view,
the closer investigation of which does not belong here.
When, for the sake of judging the chronology of the times from Moses to
Jacob, and from Jacob to Abraham, we start from the historical importance
of the genealogies, this period becomes extremely contracted, and we are
led to new historical comparisons, which appear to throw a clear light
upon those times.
In all registers of generations we only find _three_ generations from
_Joseph_ or _Levi_ to _Moses_. In the pedigree of _Judah_, indeed, we
only saw _two_, which was however explained by the unnatural alliance of
Thamar. But _Aaron_ himself, and _Moses_, on the father’s side, stood in
the third degree from _Levi_, but from the maternal side in the second;
for their father, _Amram_, the grandson of Levi, took to wife in Egypt
his aunt _Jochabed_, the daughter of Levi (Exod. vi. 20; Num. xxvi.
59), who bore him Moses and Aaron. Thus one event explains and confirms
another, and allows us still less to doubt the historical reality and the
natural relations which the successive generations bear to each other.
Therefore, unless we wish to regard all the narratives of those times,
and all the accounts, which afterwards refer to them, as mythical and
unhistorical, for which there is not the slightest ground, we must
also here separate the chronological garb from the subject itself, and
recognise, as a necessary conclusion, that _only about ninety years
intervened from the entrance of Jacob to the Exodus of Moses_, and
_about as much_ from the _entrance of Abraham into Canaan_, to _Jacob’s
Exodus_[349], so that from Abraham to Moses only about 180, or if we wish
to make the most of it, 215 years passed, which alone, according to the
present calculation, are reckoned from Abraham to Jacob.
But even this result is by no means only founded upon the internal
impossibility of the numbers hitherto adopted, nor upon the genealogies
alone, but upon a much more general historical connection of the events,
as we find them both in the Egyptian and Israelitish history of those
times.
All the views hitherto adopted from Josephus, and from those who before
his day held the same opinions, down to the most modern scholars, must,
on the supposition that the Jews were the Hyksos—which we have rejected
above (p. 422), as not worth refutation—or at least that they departed
_with_ them, and further that they lived in Egypt from the time of Jacob,
215 or 430 years, necessarily have led them to the conclusion that Joseph
and Jacob came to Egypt during the _dominion of the Hyksos_. But an
attentive and impartial consideration of the passages bearing upon this
point, show beyond doubt that this could not be the case according to the
_Biblical_ accounts, and therefore that either this representation, or
the accepted chronology, must contain errors.
“And Joseph,” it says, Gen. xxxix. 1, “was brought down to Egypt, and
Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh, captain of the guard, an Egyptian,
bought him of the hands of the Ishmaelites, which had brought him down
thither.”
Here, as in all the other passages where the _Egyptian_ king is
mentioned, he is called _Pharaoh_. This is an Egyptian designation
and not a _Semitic_ one, as we should have expected if the Semitic
Hyksos[350] had still ruled in Egypt. In that case we should have been
everywhere compelled to admit in this designation, throughout the history
of Abraham, Jacob, Joseph, and Moses, an anachronism which cannot easily
find a parallel. The captain of the king’s body-guard was also an
_Egyptian_, as is proved by his name Potiphar, פוטיפר[351], which is
written by the Seventy Πετεφρής, _i. e._ _Petphra_. Still an _Egyptian_
in so important a situation at a _Semitic_ court might as well form an
exceptional case, as the _Hebrew_ Joseph, according to our opinion, at an
_Egyptian_ court. “And Pharaoh took off his ring from his hand, and put
it upon Joseph’s hand, and arrayed him in vestures of fine linen[352],
and put a gold chain[353] about his neck. And he made him to ride in
the second chariot[354] which he had, and they cried before him, Bow
the knee; and he made him ruler over all the land of Egypt. And Pharaoh
said unto Joseph, I am Pharaoh, and without thee shall no man lift up
his hand or foot in all the land of Egypt. And Pharaoh called Joseph’s
name צפנת פענח (Ψονθομφανήχ), and he gave him to wife _Asenath_,
the daughter of _Potipherah_, PRIEST OF ON.” (Gen. xli. 42, &c.) The
fact that the distinctions here conferred upon Joseph are in perfect
accordance with Egyptian manners[355], would still not be sufficient to
prove that he lived at an Egyptian court, for the Semitic rulers might
possibly have brought with them the same customs, or might have adopted
them. But if such were our belief, it would be impossible to combine
with it the circumstance that Joseph received from Pharaoh expressly
an _Egyptian_ name. For even if the older Hebrew commentators have
attempted to derive the name from the Hebrew, these attempts have long
been rejected by modern scholars[356]. We should be able to decide with
more complete certainty about the Egyptian signification of the name if
we found it written in hieroglyphics. It sounds in Hebrew _Zepnet-ponch_
(_Zaphnath-phaneach_). It appears to me that the last portion can hardly
be referred to any other word than the hieroglyphical 𓋹𓈖𓐍 anch, Coptic
ⲱⲛϩ, ⲁⲛϩ, with the article ⲡ ⲱⲛϩ, the life; the first part is obscure.
Since the Seventy write Ψονθομφανήχ, it is generally supposed that the
two first letters in the Hebrew text have been misplaced, and that the
uniting genitive —_n_ (before the labial —_m_) has been omitted. Both are
possible, but not probable. It seems to me that the Seventy cannot claim
any more authority on this point than any other interpreter. It is not
surprising that, without understanding the hieroglyphical writing, they
were as little capable as we are of explaining the old name from the
popular language. But that they wrote Ψονθ in place of _Zepnet_, or
_Zpent_, seems to prove that they explained the name something like ⲡ
ⲥⲱⲛⲧ ⲙ ⲫⲁⲛϩ _creatio_ (_creator_) vitæ.
But how is it possible that a _Semitic_ king, who, like the six in the
lists of the so-called shepherd kings, must undoubtedly have himself
borne a Semitic name, would have given Joseph an _Egyptian_ name, in
order to do him honour.
_Asenath_ is of course an _Egyptian_ name like that of her father,
_Potiphra_, _i. e._ _Petphra_, and his being called a _High priest
of On_ (Heliopolis) is an additional and more certain proof that the
Semitic nation of the Hyksos were not reigning here, for they would have
destroyed all the Egyptian temples; and they would hardly have permitted
the worship of _Ra_ (Helios) to continue in the neighbourhood of Memphis,
whose High priest must give his daughter to Joseph for a wife, in order
to show him particular honour, and to naturalise him completely.
It is equally evident, from the meeting of Joseph with his brethren, that
he lived at a really Egyptian court. Distrust towards their Phœnician
neighbours was continually kept alive among the Egyptians, therefore it
was easy to form a pretext to attack the Hebrews. “Ye are spies, to see
the nakedness of the land ye are come.” (Gen. xlii. 9, 12, 14.) When the
brethren talk among themselves of the act which they perpetrated against
Joseph, they speak out loud in the presence of Joseph: “They knew not
that Joseph understood them, for he spake unto them by an _interpreter_.”
(Gen. xlii. 23.) Joseph had become so completely an Egyptian, and the
Egyptian language was so exclusively spoken at the court of Pharaoh, that
the brethren could not conjecture any one was near them who understood
their language.
When, therefore, on their second visit to Joseph’s house, they were about
to take their meal, it is said, “And they set for him by himself, and for
them by themselves, and for the Egyptians, which did eat with him, by
themselves: _because the Egyptians might not eat bread with the Hebrews,
for that is an abomination unto the Egyptians_.” (Gen. xliii. 32.) The
native Egyptians could never have expressed this horror, and regulated
their manners accordingly, under the dominion of a Semitic reigning
family. Lastly, it is equally improbable that Joseph would have advised
the immigrating family to call themselves shepherds in order to obtain
from Pharaoh a country set apart for themselves. “And it shall come to
pass when Pharaoh shall call you, and shall say, What is your occupation?
That ye shall say, Thy servant’s trade hath been about cattle from our
youth, even until now, both we, and also our fathers; that ye may dwell
in the land of Goshen; for every shepherd is an abomination unto the
Egyptians.” (Gen. xlvi. 33.) If the shepherd people of the Hyksos reigned
in Egypt, how could the shepherds be an abomination to them?
If it is therefore evident that Joseph lived at an _Egyptian_, and
not at a _Semitic_ court, the old tradition of the Jewish interpreters
that Joseph came to Egypt in the reign of a shepherd king, Apophis, is
entirely destroyed, as well as the view taken by more modern scholars
concerning the Hebrew chronology of that time.
But according to Manetho, the Exodus happened in the reign of Menephthes,
and according to all the Hebrew genealogies, Jacob’s entrance could only
have happened 90 or 100 years earlier. Therefore Sethôs, the father of
the great Ramses, must certainly be the Pharaoh under whom Joseph came
into Egypt. This is most indubitably confirmed by the unmistakeable
agreement which exists between the Hebrew account of the Pharaoh of
Joseph, and what is related by others of King Sethôs. It is said by the
former, “And Joseph bought all the land of Egypt for Pharaoh; for the
Egyptians sold every man his field, because the famine prevailed over
them: _so the land became Pharaoh’s_. And as for the people, he removed
them to cities from one end of the borders of Egypt even to the other
end thereof. Only the land of the priests bought he not; for the priests
had a portion assigned them of Pharaoh, and did eat their portion which
Pharaoh gave them: wherefore they sold not their lands. Then Joseph said
unto the people, Behold, I have bought you this day and your land for
Pharaoh: lo, here is seed for you, and ye shall sow the land. And it
shall come to pass in the increase, that ye shall give the fifth part
unto Pharaoh, and four parts shall be your own.... And Joseph made it
a law over the land of Egypt unto this day, that Pharaoh should have
the fifth part; except the land of the priests only, which became not
Pharaoh’s.” (Gen. lxvii. 20, &c.)
We find the same great alteration in the agrarian conditions of the
country, and connected with it the introduction of a general ground-tax,
from which the priests alone were excepted, ascribed by Herodotus and
Diodorus to the King _Sesostris-Sesoosis_.
We read in Herodotus, ii. 1081, that the king intersected the country
with canals, because the places which were remote from the Nile suffered,
when it retreated, from a scarcity of water. It appears from what
has been observed above, that it was chiefly Ramses who completed the
Egyptian system of canals, although it is very probable that the great
transformation in the condition of the ground which it occasioned had
been already commenced by his father, _Sethôsis_. It is well known that
the fertility of Egypt alone depends upon the proper and well-maintained
regulation of the overflowings. Since the time of _Möris-Amenemha_, who
was the first to bestow any considerable attention upon it, the country
had degenerated, owing to its long foreign rule, and had but just risen
again to complete independence under the mighty Pharaohs of the 18th
Dynasty. It is quite conceivable that such comprehensive and tedious
undertakings for increasing the general prosperity, as a universal
construction of canals, especially in the Delta, could only have been
first undertaken by the earlier kings of the 19th Dynasty, _Sethôsis_
and _Ramses_, who were both of them favoured by long reigns. Therefore
until that time, a general failure of the crops and a famine might have
very frequently occurred, at a low or even a moderate rise of the water,
and perhaps happened for several successive years. Strabo[357] relates
that, before the time of the Prefect Petronius, owing to the water-works
being neglected, famine broke out in Egypt if the Nile only rose 8 ells,
and 14 ells were necessary for a particularly good year; whereas, by
his improvements, it was only necessary for the Nile to rise 10 ells to
produce the best harvest, and if it rose but 8 ells no scarcity ensued.
Famine broke out in Egypt in the Arabian times also from the same
reason[358]. Thus the famine-years in the time of Joseph may be explained
to have occurred in the reign of Sethôs; this event may even have called
attention to the necessity of a better water regulation in the country.
In the following chapter Herodotus says, that the King Sesostris “divided
the land between all the Egyptians by giving an equal-sized square
portion to each, from which he afterwards derived his income by laying
an annual tax upon it. But when the river carried away a part of any
person’s portion, he showed it to the king, who sent people to inquire
and measure how much smaller the piece of land had become, in order that
he might pay the tax for the remainder according to the commands.” This
is essentially the same arrangement which is ascribed to Joseph, the
minister of Pharaoh. Herodotus had already[359] mentioned in an earlier
passage that the priests paid no taxes, but even received their daily
sustenance besides, exactly as it is related in the Mosaic accounts.
Diodorus[360] says of SESOOSIS, that he “divided the whole country into
thirty-six parts,” which the Egyptians called Nomes; over these he placed
Nomarchs, who had the charge of the ROYAL REVENUES, and “ruled everything
besides in their provinces.” Therefore here again there was an entirely
new division and government of the country, in which the taxes to the
king are not forgotten. Afterwards (c. 57) he adds also, that he raised
many great mounds, and upon them _transplanted the towns_ which were
situated too low (μετῴκισεν). The fresh regulations in the country, and
especially the new canals, necessarily created a great number of towns
and villages for the management of the grounds which were portioned out,
and were now partly cultivated for the first time. To this we may most
naturally refer the remark in the Hebrew account that Pharaoh “removed
them to cities from one end of the borders of Egypt even to the other
end thereof.” (Gen. xlvii. 21.) Diodorus (c. 56) also mentions the hard
taskwork which thence became necessary, and that in consequence of it
the “Babylonian prisoners, who could no longer bear the toilsome labour,
rebelled against the king.”
In the very valuable description of the manner in which the Egyptian
administration had subsisted under the _old_[361] kings of the country,
which is drawn from the most ancient sources, Diodorus again mentions
(c. 73, 74) the arrangement of the Nomes, and a division of the property,
by which one-third belonged to the priests, one to the king, the other
to the warriors; and how all the cultivators of the soil, for a small
reward, only performed task-service for the three orders who possessed
land. It is here also expressly mentioned, that the priests were exempt
(ἀτελεῖς) from taxation[362]. But it seems that it is only from the
Mosaic narrative we learn that the universal statute of the taxes imposed
on the remaining possessors of the land was fixed upon exactly the _fifth
part_ of the produce; this narrative here, as well as in other points,
confidently completes our knowledge of those circumstances.
Now if the arrangements we have cited, which in fact so essentially
changed Egypt, that their introduction could not fail to occupy an
important place in the monuments of that time, and to be thus handed down
to posterity, were ascribed in the Greek account to SESOSTRIS-SESOOSIS,
we should, in the next place, be uncertain whether SETHÔS or his son
RAMSES was meant. It is not in itself improbable, that works demanding so
much time, and the extensive alterations in the political circumstances,
might fully occupy two such long reigns as those of both the kings
mentioned; and of the canal works especially, we know that at least two
particular canals of considerable importance were completed by Ramses,
east and west of the Delta, and towns were built beside them. But since
it can now hardly be disputed that those events could not have taken
place either earlier or later than under these two reigns, which embraced
more than a century, it appears to be perfectly justifiable to suppose
that the first and most essential steps to this reform were taken in the
reign of Sethôs, because, according to the genealogical calculation of
time in the Bible, Joseph must have lived and acted in the first half of
the reign of Sethôsis. The succession of kings in the Mosaic accounts
also perfectly agrees with this. We here read of only _three Pharaohs_
during that time. Joseph came to Potiphar in Egypt in the reign of the
first, and rose by his wisdom to be first minister of the king. This
Pharaoh was Sethôsis I., with whom the Manethonic lists begin a new
Dynasty. By means of the new improvements introduced and regulated by
him, the country was saved from the years of famine which had hitherto
been constantly dreaded, and the power of the king was increased and
strengthened.
“And Joseph died, and all his brethren, and his whole race.” “Now there
arose up a new king over Egypt, which knew not Joseph[363].” Sethôsis
had reigned more than fifty years, and Joseph must have lived in the
first part of his reign. It is therefore conceivable that the new King
Ramses II. knew nothing more of him, or wished to know nothing more, and
therefore might not on his (Joseph’s) account have favoured the rapidly
increasing population of the Israelites in Egypt. We therefore see that
it was incorrect to explain the words of the account, which are only
correct when taken in their simplest signification, that a _new king_
arose—by understanding that by this the commencement of a new royal house
is intended after a long and indefinite period. The birth of Moses, and
his education at the court of Pharaoh, happened under this King Ramses
II., and indeed in the latter part of his reign of sixty-six years,
in which the times of Joseph were still more forgotten, and the hard
oppressions and persecutions of the Jews prevailed. This king, although
of a Theban family, resided equally, and perhaps in those times, even
more at Memphis than at Thebes, as the later Saitic, Bubastic, and other
dynasties also by no means forsook the old palace in Memphis. There
exists, therefore, no grounds for imagining the youth of Moses to have
been spent at Thebes rather than at Memphis.
But when Moses had slain the Egyptian, he fled to Midian. “And it came to
pass in process of time, that the _King of Egypt died_; and the children
of Israel sighed by reason of the bondage[364].” The _third_ king,
therefore, succeeded the Pharaoh of the Exodus, MENEPHTHES, the son of
the great Ramses, the same under whom, as we believe we have pointed
out, the Exodus really happened, and from whom the new Sothis period,
which began in his reign, likewise received its name.
If, in the same manner, we go still farther back in the Hebrew accounts
from Joseph to Abraham, we find this period also only occupied by
three generations, which would fix it, according to the views we have
exhibited, to about 90 or 100 years.
According to the chronology hitherto adopted, ABRAHAM’S visit to Egypt
would also have happened in the TIME of the HYKSOS. But this is partly
opposed by the same objections which we mentioned when speaking of the
immigration of Jacob. Abraham also comes to the court of a Pharaoh,
therefore of a native Egyptian ruler, and, in accordance with the
Manethonic chronology, the visit of Abraham would have happened under
Tuthmosis IV. or Amenophis III., therefore in the middle of the 18th
Dynasty, after the Hyksos had been already expelled by the 17th Dynasty,
first into the lowest country of the Delta, and then from their last
fortress, Abaris.
Therefore only about 200 years had passed between Abraham’s journey into
Egypt and the time of the Exodus. But what gave _occasion_ to the number
_four hundred and thirty years_, so expressly stated in Exodus xii. 40,
and which appears, in comparison with the round statement of 400 years in
Gen. xv. 13, as more exact, and, at all events, not an unmeaning number?
We have already expressed our opinion that the round and indeterminate
numbers, as well as the larger calculations, were only adopted at a
later period in the writings of the Old Testament. The number 480 or
440 years between the Exodus and the building of the Temple appeared
to us to depend upon a calculation of 12 or 11 generations of 40 years
each. But in the 430 years may, perhaps, lie the first indication of
the early-conceived idea mentioned above, that the Israelites were the
Hyksos. For the number would, in fact, be most perfectly explained if it
was referred to the residence of these Semitic races in Egypt.
We shall, namely, point out, in the second part of the chronology, that
the long contest between the Egyptians and the Hyksos, mentioned by
Manetho, occurred during the 17th Dynasty from AMOSIS to TUTHMOSIS III.
The former completely broke the foreign dominion, and drove back the
Hyksos to the northern part of the Delta; but it was Tuthmosis who first
succeeded in sending them out of their last stronghold of refuge, Abaris.
Thence arose the confusion that has so generally prevailed concerning
these two kings. The one as much as the other might be regarded as
the conqueror of the Hyksos. Manetho specified the whole time of the
residence of the Hyksos in Egypt, up to their departure from Abaris, to
be 511 years. But it must also have appeared from his narrative, and
have been a fact specially known to the priests from their history, that
the real dominion of the Hyksos in Egypt was terminated by Amosis. If
we now subtract the time from Amosis to Tuthmosis, which was 80 years,
from 511[365], exactly _four hundred and thirty years_ remain for the
dominion of the Hyksos in Egypt[366]. If, therefore, in the present
day, the opinion can in any way be maintained and defended that Abraham
(or Jacob) was King Salatis, and entered Egypt not as a petitioner,
but as a powerful and conquering enemy, and that his seed was first
conquered and driven away in the time of Moses by the native kings,
the relation of the above-mentioned numbers would certainly appear as
one of the most important proofs of it. It cannot, however, be argued
that an admission which appears, according to our present criticism,
perfectly impossible, must have appeared equally so in ancient times.
An impartial apprehension of the present, and a faithful rendering of
the past, was the vocation of an ancient annalist or historian; it is
only thus that they are of importance and worthy of consideration in
our inquiry. Criticism was completely out of their sphere, historical
as well as philological; and when, nevertheless, we do meet with it, it
is generally very unsatisfactory, and even from the most distinguished
writers, astonishingly feeble. The school of professional Alexandrian
critics is by no means excepted. We find the most striking examples of
this, particularly in the Christian chronologists, who were not wanting
either in abundance of authorities, nor in extensive learning and honest
intentions. But we have actually seen, from the example of Josephus, as
well as from earlier and later authors, how the opinion above mentioned,
of the identity of the Hyksos with the Jews, really gained admittance
from various very superficial foundations, and yet Josephus belonged
undoubtedly to the most learned antiquarians who we can place under
our observation here. We ought not, therefore, to be surprised even if
we find this view again stated at an earlier period in the arrangement
and combinations of the Hebrew historical books; and this appears, in
fact, to be very probable, by the number 430 years, which can neither be
applied to the three generations of Jacob, nor to the six from Abraham to
Moses.
The calculation also verifies itself still further. It was an early
opinion that Joseph came to Egypt in the reign of the shepherd King
_Aphophis_. This is expressly said by Eusebius and Syncellus; and the
various changes in the position of Aphophis, who is differently placed
both by Josephus and Africanus, appear, upon a closer investigation,
always to originate from the same reason, namely, in order to place
Joseph under Aphophis. The correct position of Aphophis, according to
Manetho, was undoubtedly at the end of the 16th Dynasty, as we find it
stated by Africanus[367]. Joseph stood, according to the generations,
exactly between Abraham and Moses. According to the Egyptian chronology,
the first Dynasty of the Hyksos reigned 259 years, the second 251
years, therefore Aphophis, the last king of the 1st Dynasty, reigned
in the middle of the time of the Hyksos. This was probably the first
idea which supported the opinion of the exact division of the 430 years
into two equal halves, and the belief that Jacob came to Egypt in the
time of Aphophis. Jacob’s entrance, or the end of the first 215 years,
accordingly happened in the seventeenth year of the Aphophis; Joseph
was exalted by Pharaoh 9 years earlier, therefore in the eighth year of
Aphophis.
But the correct Egyptian statement, that the Hyksos first departed in
the reign of Tuthmosis, had been already misunderstood in the time of
Josephus. He placed the Exodus of the Hyksos and of the Jews under
Amosis, and made the whole 17th Dynasty of 251 years precede Amosis. It
was impossible, therefore, that he could place Joseph under Aphophis.
He could as little make the entrance of Abraham happen at the same time
as that of the Hyksos, for he gave 511 years for the residence of the
Hyksos, 430 for that of the Jews. But he nowhere says either that the
Jews entered with the Hyksos, as they departed with them, or that Jacob
or Josephus came to Egypt in the reign of Aphophis. He appears rather
to have believed that the _first_ and not the _second_ entrance of the
Jews into Egypt, therefore the entrance of Abraham happened in the time
of _Aphophis_; and thus that the tradition, which was no doubt known
to him, was so to be understood. He must, at least, have thought that
the entrance of Abraham really took place in the first Hyksos Dynasty,
although, indeed, not under the _last_, but under the _fourth_ king.
According to my opinion, this was the reason why Josephus made Aphophis
the _fourth_ king of the Dynasty.
Africanus, the most faithful among the reporters, did not admit all these
calculations, or seek to explain the Manethonic calculation, and to make
it agree with his own, but let the contradictions stand, and therefore
simply gave the Manethonic tradition, even when he did not understand it,
and could not correct the mistakes which were handed down to him. We
therefore find the correct position of Aphophis retained by him.
Eusebius on the other hand, and his uncertain authorities, again wished
to mediate and to explain. In his account we find the first year of
the 16th Dynasty placed contemporaneous with the first year of the
life of Abraham, which is evidently an arbitrary proceeding, and one
that necessarily drew other changes along with it, which are met with
plentifully in the numbers substituted for those of Manetho. His 17th
Dynasty names the four first kings of the Manethonic 16th Dynasty, and
Amosis follows immediately after. In order to fit in again with the later
history, it was necessary to abridge considerably the 16th and 17th
Dynasties. The numbers of Eusebius, as they appear in the Canon, clearly
state that he only counted seventy-five years from the first year of
Abraham to his entrance into Canaan and Egypt, and again 430 years from
that time to the Exodus of Moses. This happened, therefore, in the last
year of Χενχέρης. The same is given in the codex A of Syncellus, p. 72,
D. If we here again calculate 215 years to the entrance of Jacob, or 224
to the exaltation of Joseph, we arrive at his reign of APHOPHIS, as was
intended. But in codex B, and in the Armenian translation, the two kings,
Athoris and Chencheres, who are correctly placed in the Eusebian Canon,
are omitted, and undoubtedly by the oversight of Eusebius himself, not
of Syncellus. Thence the Exodus was placed in the reign of Achencheres,
in place of Chencheres. The similarity in the names themselves appears
to have led to the oversight; thus Syncellus found the text. Now, if
we count back from Achencheres 215 or 224 years, we come to Archles,
the predecessor of _Aphophis_. Syncellus knew of no better way than to
transpose Archles and Aphophis, as we find to be really the case in his
text of Eusebius, p. 62, A; this of course can no longer be reconciled
with the emendations of the codex A, which were added in a later passage
out of Eusebius. No doubt seems to be left by this explanation of the
numbers.
Lastly, Syncellus, who follows the false Sothis, places the Exodus in the
last year of MISPHRAGMUTHOSIS, calculates from here backwards 215 years,
and passing over the 2nd Hyksos Dynasty, which Sothis and Eusebius had
already placed before the 1st Hyksos Dynasty, arrives at the fourth king
of the latter. Therefore, as in Josephus, Aphophis is placed there.
All these circumstances are easily explained when the aim and the issue
of the matter is known. But the original grounds why Aphophis, the last
king of the 1st Manethonic Hyksos Dynasty, was regarded as the Pharaoh of
Joseph and Jacob, is alone apparent by the simple relation which we have
found subsisting between the Hebrew and the Manethonic numbers.
I do not believe that a sound critical examination can consider so many
and such universal agreements and confirmations to be accidental, or
the result of an artificial correction, which, at all events, would of
necessity be easily pointed out, the more so as, with the exception of a
few individual points, my restoration of the Manethonic chronology was
principally determined before my journey to Egypt.
We therefore believe, that by means of a new path, namely, the Manethonic
chronology, we have found the key to the relative portions of time
in the Old Testament, so far as these are connected with Egypt; and
in an inverse manner we may now consider the agreement that subsists
between the chronology of the Hebrew history (both the true chronology
represented in the genealogies, and the false one, which was afterwards
erroneously adopted) and the Egyptian numbers upon which the chronology
was originally founded, to be indeed strongly confirmatory of the
authenticity of these last, as they appear according to our restoration
of them.
It is very evident that our carrying back the Old Testament chronology
to its natural relations, as far back as Abraham, must be not merely
of chronological, but of truly historical importance in the highest
meaning of the term. The prolongation to above a hundred years, contrary
to all historical experience, of the thirty-yeared generations of the
immediate ancestors of Moses, who lived in the midst of the Egyptians,
the length of whose lives was exactly like our own, must either appear
an intentional miracle, or make us doubt the simple historical reality
of the persons themselves, and of the events concerning them. The
superhuman duration of life, considered as a miracle, would appear to
be entirely without a purpose; besides, in the Old Testament itself it
is never viewed as such. The Psalmist[368], on the contrary, considered
as we do, a life of eighty years as a great age. Therefore the most
distinguished, and most earnest inquirers of the present day were led to
the opinion, evidently from the numbers, that the history of the three
patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, was less strictly historical, but
only brought before the reader, as it were, three representations of long
epochs of about a century each[369]. It was likewise necessary to regard
the register of generations in the time of the Judges as defective,
and extremely shortened, because in no other manner could they fill up
the long period of 480 years. In order to make this abbreviation more
probable, the genealogy of _Haman_ was referred to as the only one which
was preserved perfect[370], while we, on the contrary, consider it a
double one.
Now according to our view of the subject, this apparently so well-founded
doubt of the real continuity of the events, and of the historical
character of the contents, in as far as they depend upon the chronology,
entirely disappears, and I see no longer any reason to consider the
accounts of the great personality of Abraham, of the non-prominent
activity of Isaac, the opulent life of Jacob, and the remarkable fate
of Joseph, chiefly as typical, and as it were only slightly connected
with the historical reality[371]. For although we must still make a
considerable difference between the character of the history of Israel
before and after the building of the temple, yet it cannot be denied that
the agreement we have pointed out between the true chronological thread,
as it is represented to us by the genealogies, and the Egyptian history,
as well as the confirmation of so many notices respecting Egypt, from the
time of Moses and Joseph, establish a far greater _historical_ character
for the Hebrew accounts, as far back as Abraham, than would have ever
been allowed them by a strict criticism, had we been obliged to ascribe
to the old authorities themselves the numbers which were inserted at a
later period.
[After some notice concerning the times before Abraham, the author
concludes this section as follows:]
If, however, our entire view of the Old Testament chronology, regarding
it as founded upon accurately preserved dates, only so far back as the
separation of the kingdom, but nevertheless attached from that epoch up
to the time of Abraham to an evidently authentic thread of historically
reliable genealogies, offering, however, before the Egyptian period,
only cyclical instead of historical numbers and genealogies, and mainly
confined to Babylonian sources and traditions—if, I say, this general
view of the character of the chronological data which leaves untouched
the significance of their contents, should, on theological grounds,
arouse scruples in the mind of any one, I would refer him to the
introduction which Bunsen has prefixed to the third section of his first
book on Egypt, as full of talent as of meaning, and from which I would
more especially extract the following passages[372].
“Whoever adopts as a principle that chronology is a matter of revelation,
is precluded from giving effect to any doubt that may cross his path, as
involving a virtual abandonment of his faith in revelation. He must be
prepared, not only to deny the existence of contradictory statements,
but to fill up chasms; however irreconcileable the former may appear by
any aid of philology and history, however unfathomable the latter. He
who, on the other hand, neither believes in an historical tradition as to
the eternal existence of man, nor admits an historical and chronological
element in revelation, will either contemptuously dismiss the inquiry,
or, by prematurely rejecting its more difficult elements, fail to
discover those threads of the research which lie beneath the unsightly
and time-worn surface, and which yet may prove the thread of Ariadne.
“The assumption that it entered into the scheme of Divine Providence
either to preserve for us a chronology of the Jews and their forefathers
by real tradition, or to provide the later commentators with magic
powers, in respect to the most exoteric element of history, may seem
indispensable to some, and absurd to others. Historical inquiry has
nothing whatever to do with such idle, preposterous, and often fallacious
assumptions. Its business is to see whether anything—and if so, what—has
been transmitted to us. If it fulfil this duty in a spirit of reverence
as well as of liberty, sooner or later it will obtain the prize, which,
if the history of the last 2000 years prove anything at all, Providence
has refused to both the other systems.”
[After the two first sections of _The Criticism upon the Authorities_,
of which the first, upon Herodotus and Diodorus, has been omitted in
this translation, while the second, upon the Hebrew tradition, has been
strongly dwelt upon, the author proceeds to the third and last section,
which treats of the historical works of Manetho and the authorities
which refer to him. Now, although this section contains the really
critical restoration of the Manethonic chronology, considered by the
author as the only one to be relied on in its general features, it has
not been considered compatible with the object of the present work to
communicate at full length this difficult research, which was only
written for the profound investigator. We think it sufficient to give the
two passages in which the whole extent of the Manethonic history, down
to the second Persian conquest, according to a statement obtained from
Manetho himself, is said to amount to 3555 years, and the connection is
pointed out between this time, considered as strictly historical, and the
cyclically discovered History of the Gods.]
The number 3555 is, however, alone essential and important, and, in
spite of all the uncertainties and revisings of the text, there cannot
be the slightest doubt about it. It led undoubtedly to the termination
of the reign of Nectanebus II. If we can, therefore, determine this end
in other more certain ways, we need no longer trouble ourselves about
the calculation of Syncellus; since this, as every one allows, is, at
all events, incorrect. But it cannot be doubted that Manetho knew, and
correctly stated, the true year of the conquest of Egypt by Ochus, which
very likely happened during his lifetime.
The calculation of this concluding year has, however, been so fully and
convincingly proved by Böckh (p. 125-133), that I consider it would be
superfluous to return to it again. I assume with him that _the year 340_
B.C. is perfectly ascertained to be _the concluding year of the Egyptian
dominion_. Calculating back from this stated terminating point 3555
Egyptian or 3553 Julian years, we come to the _year 3893 before Christ,
as the first of Menes_. We consider this to be established as perfectly
historical, in as far as the Manethonic relation founded upon the annals
of the kingdom may generally be regarded as historically correct.
But long before the cyclical system of the government of the gods could
be founded upon the Sothis periods, which were established in the course
of history, MENES had already been admitted into the Egyptian annals, and
was maintained to be the fixed chronological commencement of Egyptian
history, especially of the history of Lower Egypt. His epoch could be
no more altered. What happened before his time was ante-historical, and
might be adjusted to the cyclical necessities of mythology. The only
historical fact was, that other kings had reigned before Menes, and
indeed in THIS. In order to distinguish them from the later kings as
being ante-historical, a designation was selected, which we are not yet
acquainted with in hieroglyphics, but which was translated in Greek by
Νέκυες, _the deceased_; here also undoubtedly establishing the idea that
they were deceased MEN.
We may, however, certainly regard it as the most welcome confirmation
of the whole of our restoration of the Manethonic chronology, that
this ante-historical Dynasty of man of the ten Thinitic kings, the
invention of whom could have no other aim than the extension of the
history of man to the commencement of the current Sothis period, most
accurately indeed fulfils the purpose that was designed. For while we
add to the first of the 3555 Manethonic years, namely, to the year 3893
(3892) B.C. (Julian), the first of the reign of Menes, the 350 civil
years of the Thinitic Νέκυες, the year 4242 is the result, _which was,
in reality, the necessarily expected commencement year of the current
Sothis period_. This immediately explains why the number 350, although it
was ante-historical, and was therefore invented, is still in itself no
cyclical number, and is in no way related to the Sothis period. It could
just as little be a Sothic number as the number 3555, which it completed.
But, on the contrary, it thence proves both the truthfulness as well as
the historical character of the important and genuine Manethonic number
3555, and further proves that the establishment of the first historical
year, or the Menes epoch, which is directly given by the number 3555
years, cannot first proceed from Manetho, but must be at least as old as
the invention of the cyclical system of Egyptian mythology inseparably
united with it, which no one will or can ascribe first to Manetho,
because we have pointed out the same numbers belonging to the gods before
his time. But the establishment of the discovered Menes year must indeed
be still older than the formation of the whole cyclical system, since
this is first appended to that number, and presupposes it; that is to
say, _the Menes epoch designated by Manetho was one which had been given
from the beginning, and was handed down historically_, and was combined
in the following manner, with the cyclical system of the history of the
gods.
PERIOD OF THE GODS.
_Gods_ 13,870 years.
_Demi-gods_ 3,650 ”
------
17,520 ” = 12 Sothis periods.
PERIOD OF MAN.
_Ante-Historical Dynasty_ 350 years.
_30 Historical Dynasties_ 3555 ”
_Foreign dominion to the time of Antoninus_ 478 ”
----
4383 ” = 3 Sothis periods.
Thus the history of the thirty Manethonic Dynasties, which began with
Menes and comprised 3555 Egyptian years, was between two Sothis periods,
without coming in contact with them, an evident proof that they were not
formed with reference to the Sothis periods.
* * * * *
In order to take a general survey, we shall now repeat, in a few words,
the result of our investigations.
Manetho apparently added himself to his detailed history, which was
comprised in three Books, a _Review of the Dynasties_, in a continued
series, in the style of the old Egyptian annals. These were more often
transcribed than the work itself, which seems, indeed, to have been
less widely distributed, owing to this convenient compendium. Separate
narratives, however, from the work itself have been adopted by later
authors, and were thereby preserved to us, although not without some
alterations, after the complete work itself was lost, which must have
happened at an early period, perhaps when the Alexandrian library was
destroyed.
It was at least unknown to Josephus in the first century of our
era; but the more copious, and certainly chiefly _literal extracts_
communicated by him, he has borrowed from other works. Along with these,
he either himself combined, or found combined, _another partial list_
of kings, which only included the names from Amosis down to Menephthes
(Amenophis), and which was drawn up specially and solely for the learned
purposes of the Jews, at all events before the time of Josephus.
Theophilus, Bishop of Antioch, in the second century, communicated the
same list with slight deviations, and probably not from the writings of
Josephus.
The complete Dynastic lists of the Manethonic work, which by a different
method have also themselves been preserved, seem to have been unknown to
both. These were first preserved to us by Africanus in the third century.
They had undoubtedly before this time passed through several hands, and
assumed forms partly deviating from one another. The partial Jewish list
which we find in Josephus and Theophilus, was already adopted, in the
time of Africanus (though hardly by himself), in the same series with the
others, as one peculiarly authenticated, and apparently complete; because
it contained no subdivision in itself, it was regarded as one single
Dynasty, the 18th, although it really corresponded with the 17th and 18th
and half of the 19th Dynasty taken together. Thence arose the confusion
which now exists here.
The necessity for an agreement between the Christian-Jewish and the
Egyptian computation of time produced, towards the end of the third, or
the beginning of the fourth century, two spurious writings; first, the
_Old Chronicle_, which retained the Egyptian cyclical point of view,
that, namely, of the history of the gods, and even extended it, yet in
such a manner that the means of reduction was suggested, by which these
large numbers might be compressed into the period assumed as that given
by Moses for the time since Adam. With the same end in view the first 15
Dynasties of man were transformed into 15 Generations.
The second spurious work, the SOTHIS, professed to be Manethonic; and
could do this more easily, because a long time had elapsed since the
genuine history had been lost. This writing proceeded still further
upon the same road as the Old Chronicle. By means of alterations and
abbreviations it reduced the Egyptian numbers to certain epochs, which
were considered as Biblical, and on the other hand partly abandoned the
Cyclical basis.
Eusebius, who wrote in the fourth century, was deceived by both these
writings, and endeavoured to make their statements agree with the genuine
Manethonic Dynastic lists. He had these lists before him in a form which
was rather different from, and at all events more negligently drawn up,
than that of Africanus. He followed it for the Old Monarchy, which was
almost entirely omitted in the two spurious writings. In the New Monarchy
he adopted principally the Dynastic numbers of the Old Chronicle. In
other points he followed the Sothis. His numbers of the gods, like those
of the spurious writings, are upon the whole founded on the genuine
Manethonic numbers, which he nevertheless combined in a mistaken manner.
In the commencement of the fifth century the speculative chronologists,
ANIANOS and PANODORUS, laboured with subtle ingenuity at Egyptian
chronology, but necessarily entirely failed in discovering the truth,
because they considered the two spurious writings as the true basis. They
endeavoured by ingenious arithmetical calculations to bring the numbers
of the Old Chronicle and of the Sothis to agree more exactly with their
acceptations of the Biblical chronology, than it had been the intention
of these writings themselves.
Lastly, in the eighth century, GEORGIUS SYNCELLUS delivered his compiled,
but on that very account for us most important work, by which we first
became acquainted with almost all the earlier authorities. Through him
alone we possess especially the most valuable basis for our Manethonic
chronology, the Dynastic lists of Africanus. He himself decided
nevertheless likewise in favour of the two spurious writings, and indeed
as they were worked out by Panodorus; upon this last he founded his own
system, which therefore is only so far of value to us as we thereby
become acquainted with his authorities.
TABLES OF EGYPTIAN DYNASTIES, COMPILED FOR THIS TRANSLATION.
As many of the readers of this work may not be acquainted with the
several Dynasties which successively reigned over Egypt, and the
approximate dates which have been assigned to them, the following Tables
have been compiled for their convenience, on the authority of the
Chevalier Bunsen[373] and Dr. Richard Lepsius[374], and of Kenrick’s
“Egypt under the Pharaohs.”
Manetho, High Priest of the Temple of Isis at Sebennytus, in Lower Egypt,
in the reign of the first Ptolemy, the son of Lagus, surnamed Soter,
322 to 284 B.C., a man of the highest reputation for wisdom, and versed
in Greek as well as in Egyptian lore, published various works for the
purpose of informing the Greeks. Although his history is lost, we have
the Dynasties tolerably entire. His excellence as an historian is placed
in the clearest light by the monuments which are now made accessible
to us; and the notices concerning him transmitted by Greek and Latin
authors, are in no respect contradictory. The writers by whom the works
of Manetho have been preserved to us, are:
Julius Africanus, Bishop of Emmæus, or Nicopolis, in Judæa, a man
of learning, research, and probity, who wrote in the beginning of
the third century, A.C.;
Eusebius, Bishop of Cesarea, in Palestine, about a hundred years
later than Africanus; and
Syncellus, a Byzantine monk, of the beginning of the ninth
century.
The lists of Manetho comprise 30 Dynasties. Egyptian history is divided
into three periods—the Old Monarchy, which comprised 13 Dynasties; the
Middle Monarchy, which included the 14th and 17th Dynasties; and the New
Monarchy, which, commencing with the 18th, ended with Nectanebus, the
last of the Pharaohs, 339 years before Christ.
“The result of our chronological investigations (Bunsen and
Lepsius) has been, to carry us up to the foundation of an empire
in Egypt, and to a series of kings whose names have not only been
registered and transmitted to us by the Egyptians themselves, but
which are now legible on Egyptian monuments, most of them erected
in the lifetime of the kings whose names they record.”—BUNSEN.
+-------------+----------------+----------------------+----------------+
|DYNASTY. | | | Approximate |
| ORIGIN. | Names of | | Dates B.C. of |
| | the Kings | Names of | beginning |
| | in the Lists | the same Kings | of Dynasty. |
| | of Manetho, | in other +-------+--------+
| | or of | Authors. |Bunsen.|Lepsius.|
| | Eratosthenes. | | | [375] |
+-------------+----------------+----------------------+-------+--------+
|I. |Menes |Menaios, _Herodotus_ | 3643 | 3893 |
| THINITE. |Athothis | | | |
| |Kenkenes | | | |
| |Menephis |Mnevis, _Pliny_ | | |
| |Semempses {|Ismandes, | | |
| | {| _Strabo_ | | |
| | {|Osymandyas, | | |
| | {| _Diodorus_ | | |
REMARKABLE EVENTS.
MENES, born at Abydos, or This, in Upper Egypt. Several States existed
in the Thebaid and Delta before his time, and he united them in one
Monarchy. He founded Memphis.
Under Semempses, the building of the Pyramid at the Labyrinth in the
Fayoum, the oldest existing in Egypt.
+-------------+----------------+----------------------+-------+--------+
|II. |Boethos | | | |
| THINITE. |Kaiechos |Choos-Kechoos | | |
| |Binothris | | | |
| |Tlas | | | |
| |Sethenes | | | |
| |Chaires | | | |
| |Nephercheres | | | |
| |Sesochris | | | |
| |Cheneres | | | |
Under Kaiechos, the introduction of the worship of the Bull,—APIS at
Memphis, and MNEVIS at Heliopolis, and of the Mendesian Goat.
+-------------+----------------+----------------------+-------+--------+
|III. |Sesorcheres | | 3453 | 3640 |
| MEMPHITE. |Toichares | | | |
| |Sesortosis |Ægyptus, _Diodorus_ | | |
| |Mares |Sasychis, _Herodotus_ | | |
| |An-Soyphis | | | |
Under Sesortosis the introduction of building with hewn stones; also
improvements in the art of writing.
Building of the Pyramids of Dashour.
+-------------+----------------+----------------------+-------+--------+
|IV. |Saophis {|Cheops, _Herodotus_ | 3229 | 3426 |
| MEMPHITE. | {|Chufu | | |
| |Saophis II. { |Chephren | | |
| | { |Schafra | | |
| |Mencheres {|Menkera | | |
| |Mencheres II. {|Mykerinus | | |
| |Pammês | | | |
Builder of the Great Pyramid of Gizeh.
Builds the second Pyramid.
Builds the third Pyramid.
+-------------+----------------+----------------------+-------+--------+
|V. |Usercheris | | |c. 3150 |
| ELEPHANTINE.|Snephres | | | |
| |Nephercheres | | | |
| |Sisires | | | |
| |Cheres | | | |
| |Rathures | | | |
| |Mencheres | | | |
| |Tancheres | | | |
| |Onnos |Unas | | |
+-------------+----------------+----------------------+-------+--------+
|VI. |Othoes | | 3074 | |
| MEMPHITE. |Phios | | | |
| |Methusuphis | | | |
| |Phiops |Apappus, _Eratos._, | | |
| |Menthesuphis | the Mœris of the | | |
| |Nitokris (a | Greeks and Romans | | |
| | queen), widow | | | |
| | of Phiops, | | | |
| | resigned after | | | |
| | the death | | | |
| | of her son | | | |
| | Menthesuphis | | | |
Phiops (Mœris) formed out of the desert, the fertile district of the
Fayoum.
+-------------+----------------+----------------------+-------+--------+
|VII. to XI. |} Manetho does not give the names of | 2967 |c. 2960 |
| |} the Kings of these Dynasties; none | | |
| |} between Nitokris and Amenemes. | | |
+-------------+----------------+----------------------+-------+--------+
|XII. & XIII. |{ Amenemhe I. | | 2801 |c. 2330 |
| THEBAN. |{ Sesortesen I. |Osirtasen | 2654 |c. 2120 |
| | Amenemhe II. | | | |
| | Sesortesen II.|The Great Sesostris | | |
| | | of the Greeks | | |
| | Amenemhe III. |Mares Amenemes | | |
| | | Memnon of the Greeks| | |
Sesortesen I. conquers Ethiopia; erects the Obelisk of Heliopolis.
Amenemhe III., the builder of the Labyrinth in the Fayoum.
Foundation of Thebes by Sesortesen I.
+-------------+----------------+----------------------+-------+--------+
|XIV. |} | | |
|XV. |} | | |
|XVI. |} The Hyksos, or Shepherd Kings. | | |
|XVII. |} | | |
+-------------+----------------+----------------------+-------+--------+
|XVIII. |Amos |Aahmes | 1638 | |
| THEBAN. | |Amasis | | |
| |Amenophis I. |Amenatep | | |
| |Tuthmosis I. |Tuthmes | | |
| | ” II. | ” | | |
| | ” III. | ” | | |
| |Amenophis II. |Amenatep | | |
| |Tuthmosis IV. |Tuthmes | | |
| |Amenophis III. |Amenatep | | |
| |Horus |Her | | |
Under Tuthmosis III. the temple on the eastern side of Thebes was
built—Drove the Hyksos from the frontier—The Israelites sorely
oppressed.
Erection of the obelisks at Alexandria by Tuthmosis III.
+-------------+----------------+----------------------+-------+--------+
|XIX. |Ramesses |Ramses | 1409 |c. 1440 |
| THEBAN. |Sethôs I. |Seti | | |
| |Ramesses II. |Sesostris | | |
| | Miamun | | | |
| |Menophthah |Menophres | 1322 | |
| |Sethôs II. |Seti | | |
Ramesses II. built many of the chief monuments now existing. Formed
the Cave Temples at Abu-Simbel.
His monument, the Colossus at Mitrahenny, on the site of Memphis.
Great extension of Thebes under Sethôs I.
+-------------+----------------+----------------------+-------+--------+
|XX. |Merr-Ra |Phuoro, Nilus | 1297 |c. 1270 |
| THEBAN. |Ramses III. | | | |
| | ” IV. | | | |
| | ” V. | | | |
| | ” VI. | | | |
| | ” VII. | | | |
| | ” VIII. | | | |
| | ” IX. | | | |
| | ” X. | | | |
| | ” XI. | | | |
| | ” XII. | | | |
| | ” XIII. | | | |
Ramses III. leads great armies into Asia, and is a conqueror nearly
equal in renown to Sethôs I. and his son Ramesses II. Built the
Temples of Medînet-Hâbu.
+-------------+----------------+----------------------+-------+--------+
|XXI. |Smendes |Smen-Titi | 1112 | |
| TANITE. |Phusemes |Pi-Scham | | |
| |Nephercheres |Nefru-ke-ra | | |
| |Menophthes |Menephthah | | |
| |Osochor |Peher-Se-Amen | | |
| |Phinaches |Pianch | | |
| |Phusemes |Pi-Scham-Miamn II. | | |
+-------------+----------------+----------------------+-------+--------+
|XXII. |Sheshonk I. |Sesonchis | 982 | |
| BUBASTITE. |Osorkon I. |Usuken, Userken, | | |
| | | Oserkan | | |
| |Peher | | | |
| |Osorkon II. | | | |
| |Sheshonk II. | | | |
| |Takelet I. |Takiloth | | |
| |Osorkon III. | | | |
| |Sheshonk III. | | | |
| |Takelet II. | | | |
Sheshonk I. takes Jerusalem about 970, and many cities in Judæa. He
is the Schischak of the Bible.
+-------------+----------------+----------------------+-------+--------+
|XXIII. |Petubastes |Pet-subast, Pet-Pacht | 832 | |
| TANITE. |Osorcho |Oserkna, Userken | | |
| |Osorcho |P-Si-Mut | | |
| |Zet, Sethôs | | | |
+-------------+----------------+----------------------+-------+--------+
|XXIV. |Bocchoris | | 743 | |
| SAITE. | | | | |
+-------------+----------------+----------------------+-------+--------+
|XXV. |Sevech I. |Shabak, Sabako | 737 | |
| ETHIOPIAN. |Sevech II. | | | |
| |Tirhaka |Tahraka, Taheika | | |
Schabak and Tahraka are the So and Tirhakah of the Bible.
+-------------+----------------+----------------------+-------+--------+
|XXVI. |Stephinales | | 687 | c. 680 |
| SAITE. |Nechepsos | | | |
| |Necho I. | | | |
| |Psammetik I. |Psammetichus | | |
| |Necho II. | | | |
| |Psammetik II. | | | |
| |Psammetik III. | | | |
Arches in the tombs near the Pyramids of Gizeh.
+-------------+----------------+----------------------+-------+--------+
|XXVII. |Cambyses | | 525 | 525 |
| PERSIAN. |Darius I. | | | |
| | Hystaspes | | | |
| |Xerxes I. | | | |
| |Artabanos | | | |
| |Artaxerxes | | | |
| |Xerxes II. | | | |
| |Sogdianos | | | |
| |Darius II. | | | |
| | Nothus | | | |
Conquest of Egypt by Cambyses.
+-------------+----------------+----------------------+-------+--------+
|XXVIII. |Amyrteos | | 414 | |
| SAITE. | | | | |
+-------------+----------------+----------------------+-------+--------+
|XXIX. |Nepherites | | 408 | 399 |
| MENDESIAN. |Achoris | | | |
| |Psammuthis | | | |
| |Nephorites | | | |
+-------------+----------------+----------------------+-------+--------+
|XXX. |Nectanebus I. | | 387 | 378 |
| SEBENNYTIC. |Teos | | | |
| |Nectanebus II., | | | |
| | last of the | | | |
| | Pharaohs | | | |
Nectanebus I. builds a temple at Philæ.
+-------------+----------------+----------------------+-------+--------+
| PERSIAN. |Alexander |Ochus | 340 | 340 |
| | conquers |Arses | 338 | 338 |
| | Egypt |Darius | 336 | 336 |
| | | | 332 | 332 |
+-------------+----------------+----------------------+-------+--------+
+---------------------------------------+----------+
| AGE OF THE PTOLEMIES. | Lepsius. |
+---------------------------------------+----------+
| I. Ptolemy Lagus, Soter I. | 305 |
| II. ” Philadelphus | 285 |
| III. ” Euergetes I. | 247 |
| IV. ” Philopator I. | 222 |
| V. ” Epiphanes | 205 |
| VI. ” Eupator | 181 |
| VII. ” Philometor | 181 |
| VIII. ” Philopator II. | 146 |
| IX. ” Euergetes | 146 |
| X. ” Soter II. | 117 |
| XI. ” Alexander I. | 107 |
| XII. ” Alexander II. | 81 |
| XIII. ” Neos Dionysos | 81 |
| Cleopatra VI. Philopator. | |
| With Ptolemy XIV. | 52 |
| With ” XV. | 48 |
| With ” XVI. Cæsar | 45 |
| With Mark Antony | 37 |
| Egypt a Roman province | 30 |
+---------------------------------------+----------+
APPENDIX.
(A, p. 239.)
_Observations on the Discovery, by_ Professor LEPSIUS, _of
Sculptured Marks on Rocks in the Nile Valley in Nubia; indicating
that, within the historical period, the river had flowed at a
higher level than has been known in Modern Times._ By LEONARD
HORNER, Esq., F.R.S.S. L. & E., F.G.S., &c. (_This paper is here
reprinted[376] at the request of_ Professor LEPSIUS.)
The recent archaiological researches of Professor Lepsius in Egypt,
and the Valley of the Nile, in Nubia, have given a deserved celebrity
and authority to his name, among all who take an interest in the early
history of that remarkable portion of the Old World. While examining
the ruins of a fortress, and of two temples of high antiquity at Semne,
in Nubia, he discovered marks cut in the solid rocks, and in the
foundation-stones of the fortress, indicating that, at a very remote
period in the annals of the country, the Nile must have flowed at a level
considerably above the highest point which it has ever reached during
the greatest inundations in modern times. This remarkable fact would
possess much geological interest with respect to any great river, but it
does so especially in the case of the Nile. Its annual inundations, and
the uniformity in the periods of its rise and fall, have been recorded
with considerable accuracy for many centuries; the solid matter held in
suspension in its waters, slowly deposited on the land overflowed, has
been productive of changes in the configuration of the country, not only
in times long antecedent to history, but throughout all history, down to
the present day. Of no other river on the earth’s surface do we possess
such or similar records; and, moreover, the Nile, and the changes it has
produced on the physical character of Egypt, are intimately associated
with the earliest records and traditions of the human race. Everything,
therefore, relating to the physical history of the Nile Valley must
always be an object of interest; but the discovery of Professor Lepsius
is one peculiarly deserving the attention of the geologist; for he does
not merely record the facts of the markings of the former high level of
the river, but he infers from these marks that since the reign of Mœris,
about 2200 years before our era, the entire bed of the Nile, in Lower
Nubia, must have been excavated to a depth of about 27 feet; and he
further speculates as to the process by which he believes the excavation
to have been effected.
It will be convenient, before entering upon the observations I have to
offer upon the cause assigned by Professor Lepsius for the former higher
levels of the Nile indicated by these marks, that I should give the
description of the discovery itself, by translating Dr. Lepsius’s own
account of it, in letters which he addressed to his friends, Professors
Ehrenberg and Böckh of Berlin, from the island of Philæ, in September,
1844[377].
“You may probably remember, when travelling to Dongola on the
Lybian side of the Nile, and in passing through the district
of Batn el hagér, that one of the most considerable of the
cataracts of the country occurs near Semne, a very old fortress,
with a handsome temple, built of sandstone, in a good state of
preservation; the track of the caravan passing close to it,
partly over the 4000-year-old artificial road. The track on the
eastern bank of the river is higher up, being carried through the
hills; and you must turn off from it at this point in order to
see the cataract. This Nile-pass, the narrowest with which I am
acquainted, according to the measurement of Hr. Erbkam, is 380
metres (1247 English feet) broad[378]; and both in itself, and
on account of the monuments existing there, is one of the most
interesting localities in the country, and we passed twelve days
in its examination.
“The river is here confined between steep rocky cliffs on both
sides, whose summits are occupied by two fortresses of the most
ancient and most massive construction, distinguishable at once
from the numerous other forts, which, in the time of the Nubian
power in this land of cliffs, were erected on most of the larger
islands, and on the hills commanding the river. The cataract
(or rapid) derives its name of Semne from that of the higher of
the two fortresses on the western bank; that on the opposite
bank, as well as a poor village lying somewhat south of it, is
called Kumme. In both fortresses the highest and best position is
occupied by a temple, built of huge blocks of sandstone, of two
kinds, which must have been brought from a great distance through
the rapids; for, southward, no sandstone is found nearer than
Gebel Abir, in the neighbourhood of Amara and the island of Sai
(between 80 and 90 English miles), and northward, there is none
nearer than the great division of the district at Wadi Halfa (30
miles distant).
“Both temples were built in the time of Tutmosis III., a king
of the 18th dynasty, about 1600 years before Christ; but the
fortresses in which they stand are of a more ancient date. The
foundations of these are granite blocks of Cyclopian dimensions,
resting on the rock, and scarcely inferior to the rock itself
in durability. They were erected by the first conqueror of the
country, King Sesurtesen III., of the 12th Dynasty, in order
to command the river, so easily done in so narrow a gorge. The
immediate successor of this king was Amenemha III., the Mœris of
the Greeks: he who accomplished the gigantic work of forming the
artificial lake of Mœris, in the Fayoum, and from whose time—the
most flourishing of the whole of the old Egyptian kingdom—the
risings of the Nile in successive years, doubtless by means of
regular markings, as indeed Diodorus tells, remained so well
known, that, according to Herodotus, they were recorded in
distinct numbers from the time of Mœris. It appears that this
provident king, occupied with great schemes for the welfare of
his country, considered it of great importance that the rising
of the Nile on the most southern border of his kingdom should be
observed, and the results forthwith communicated widely in other
parts of the land, to prepare the people for the inundations. The
gorge at Semne offered greater advantages for this object than
any other point; because the river was there securely confined
by precipitous rocky cliffs on each side. With the same view
he had doubtless caused Nilometers to be fixed at Assuan and
other suitable places; for without a comparison with these, the
observations at Semne could be of little use.
“The highest rise of the Nile in each year at Semne, was
registered by a mark, indicating the year of the king’s reign,
cut in the granite, either on one of the blocks forming the
foundation of the fortress, or on the cliff, and particularly
on the east or right bank, as best adapted for the purpose. Of
these markings eighteen still remain, thirteen of them having
been made in the reign of Mœris, and five in the time of his two
next successors. These last kings discontinued the observations;
for, in the mean time, the irruption of the Asiatic pastoral
tribes into Lower Egypt took place, and well-nigh brought the
whole kingdom to ruin. The record is almost always in the same
terms, short and simple: _Ra en Hapi en renpe_ ... mouth or gate
of the Nile in the year.... And then follows the year of the
reign, and the name of the king. It is written in a horizontal
row of hieroglyphics, included within two lines—the upper line
indicating the particular height of the water, as is often
specially stated—
[Illustration: 𓂋𓏤𓈖𓎛𓂝𓊪𓈘𓈖𓆳𓏏𓇳𓎆𓎆𓏽...]
“The earliest date preserved is that of the sixth year of the
king’s reign, and he reigned 42 years and some months. The next
following dates are, the years 9, 14, 15, 20, 22, 23, 24, 30, 32,
37, 40, 41, and 43; and include, therefore, under this king, a
period of 37 years. Of the remaining dates, that only of the 4th
year of his two successors is available; all the others, which
are on the west or left bank of the river, have been moved from
their original place by the rapid floods which have overthrown
and carried forward vast masses of rock. One single mark only,
that of the 9th year of Amenemha, has been preserved in its
original place on one of the building stones, but somewhat below
the principal rapid.
“We have now to consider the relation which these—the most
ancient of all existing marks of the risings of the Nile—bear to
the levels of the river in our own time. We have here presented
to us the remarkable facts, that the highest of the records now
legible, viz., that of the 30th year of the reign of Amenemha,
according to exact measurements which I made, is 8·17 metres (26
feet 8 inches) higher than the highest level to which the Nile
rises in years of the greatest floods; and further, that the
lowest mark, which is on the east bank, and indicated the 15th
year of the same king, is still 4·14 metres (13 feet 6½ inches):
and the single mark on the west bank, indicating the 9th year, is
2·77 metres (9 feet) above the same highest level.
“The mean rise of the river, recorded by the marks on the east
bank, during the reign of Mœris, is 19·14 metres (62 feet 6
inches) above the lowest level of the water in the present day,
which, according to the statements of the most experienced
boatmen, does not change from year to year, and therefore
represents the actual level of the Nile, independently of its
increase by the falls of rain, in the mountains in which its
sources are situated. The mean rise above the lowest level,
at the present time, is 11·84 metres (38 feet 8 inches); and,
therefore, in the time of Mœris, or about 2200 years before
Christ, the mean height of the river, at the cataract or rapid of
Semne, during the inundation, was 7·30 metres (23 feet 10 inches)
above the mean level in the present day.”
Such are the facts recorded by Dr. Lepsius; and then follow, in the same
letter, his views as to the cause of the remarkable lowering of the level
of the river.
“There is certainly no reason for believing,” he says, “that
there has been any diminution in the general volume of water
coming from the south. The great change in the level can,
therefore, only be accounted for by some changes in the land,
and these must also have altered the whole nature of the Nile
Valley. There seems to be but one cause for the very considerable
lowering of the Nile; namely, the washing out and excavations of
the catacombs (_Auswaschen und Aushölen der Katakomben_[379]);
and this is quite possible from the nature of the rocks
themselves, which, it is true, are of a quality that could not
well be rent asunder, and carried away by the mere force of the
water, but might be acted upon directly by the rising of the
water-level, and the consequent effects of the sun and air on
the places left dry, causing cracks, into which earth and sand
would penetrate, which would then give rise to still greater
rents, until, at last, the rocks would of themselves fall in, by
having been hollowed out, a process that would be hastened in
those parts of the hills where softer and earthy beds existed,
and which would be more easily washed away. But that, in
historical times, within a period of about 4000 years, so great
an alteration should take place in the hardest rocks, is a fact
of the most remarkable kind—one which may afford ground for many
other important considerations.
“The elevation of the water-level at Semne must necessarily have
affected all the lands above; and, it is to be presumed, that
the level of the province of Dongola was at one time higher, as
Semne cannot be the only place in the long tract of cliffs where
the bed of rock has been hollowed out. It is to be conceived,
therefore, that not only the widely-extended tracts in Dongola,
but those of all the higher country in Meröe, and as far up
as Fasogle, which, in the present day, are dry and barren on
both sides of the river, and are with difficulty irrigated
by artificial contrivances, must then have presented a very
different aspect, when the Nile overflowed them, and yearly
deposited its fertile mud to the limits of the sandy desert.
“Lower Nubia also, between Wadi Halfa and Assuan, is now arid
almost throughout its whole extent. The present land of the
valley, which is only partly irrigated by water-wheels, is, on
an average, from 6 to 12 feet higher than the level to which the
Nile now rises; and although the rise at Semne might have no
immediate influence upon it, yet what has occurred there makes
it more than probable that at Assuan there was formerly a very
different level of the river, and that the cataracts there, even
in the historical period, have been considerably worn down. The
continued impoverishment of Nubia is a proof of this. I have no
manner of doubt that the land in this lower part of the valley,
which, as already stated, is at present about 10 feet above the
highest rise of the Nile, was inundated by it within historical
time. Many marks are also met with here, that leave no doubt
regarding the condition of the Nile Valley antecedent to history,
when the river must have risen much higher; for it has left an
alluvial soil in almost all the considerable bays, at an average
height of 10 metres (32 feet 9 inches) above the present mean
rise of the river. That alluvial soil, since that period, has
doubtless been considerably diminished in extent by the action
of rain. On the 17th of August Hr. Erbkam and I measured the
nearest alluvial hillock in the neighbourhood of Korusko, and
found it 6·91 metres (22 feet 7 inches) above the general level
of the valley, and 10·26 metres (33 feet 7 inches) above the
present mean rise of the river. That rise, which at Semne, on
account of the greater confinement of the stream between the
rocks, varies as much as 2·40 metres (7 feet 10 inches) in
different years, varies at Korusko less than 1 metre (3 feet 3
inches).
“Near Abusimbel, on the west bank, I found the ground of
the temple 6·50 metres (21 feet 2 inches) above the highest
water-level. This temple, it is well known, was built under
Rameses the Great, between 1388 and 1322 years before Christ.
Near Ibrîm there are, on the east bank, four grottoes excavated
in the vertical rock that bounds the river, which belong partly
to the 18th and partly to the 19th Dynasties; the last, under
Rameses the Great, is also the lowest, and only 2·50 metres (8
feet 1 inch) above the highest inundation; the next in height is
2·70 metres (8 feet 9½ inches) above the former, and was made 250
years earlier, under Tutmes III. Although I only measured the
present level of the valley near Korusko, nevertheless it appears
to me that, during the whole of the new kingdom, that is, from
about 1700 years before Christ to this time, the Nile has not
reached to the full height of the low land of the valley.
“It is, however, conceivable that, at the time when the present
low land of the Nubian Valley was formed, the cataracts at Assuan
were in a totally different state; one that would, in some
degree, justify the overcharged descriptions of the ancients,
according to whom they made so great a noise that the dwellers
near them became deaf. The damming up of the inundation at Assuan
could have no material influence on Egypt, any more than that at
Semne, or the land from thence to Assuan.”
It appears, therefore, from the above statements, that at the time
mentioned, the Nile, during the inundations, stood 26 feet 8 inches
higher than the highest level to which it now rises in years of the
greatest floods; and that, to account for this, Professor Lepsius
conceives that, between the time of Mœris and the present day, the bed of
the Nile, from a considerable distance above Semne to Assuan, must have
been worn down to that extent. In the index to the volume of the Berlin
Monatsbericht, in which the letters of Professor Lepsius are inserted,
there is the following line:—
“NIL, _senkung seines Bettes um 25 Fuss seit 4000 Jahren_.”
“_Nile_, sinking of its bed about 25 feet (Paris) within the last
4000 years.”
Rivers are, undoubtedly, among the most active agents of change that are
operating on the earth’s surface; the solid matter which renders their
waters turbid, and which they unceasingly carry to the sea, afford
indisputable proof of this agency. But the power of rivers to abrade and
wear down the rocks over which they flow, and to form and deepen their
own bed, depends upon a variety of circumstances not always taken into
account; and although the great extent of that power, in both respects,
is shown in the case of many rivers, to conclude, as some have done,
from these instances, that all rivers have excavated the channels in
which they flow, is a generalisation that cannot be safely assented
to. The excavation of the bed of a river is one of those problems in
geological dynamics which can only be rightly solved by each particular
case being subjected to the rigorous examination of the mathematician
and the physicist. The solid matter which rivers carry forward is in
part only the produce of their own abrading power; and the amount of it
must be proportional to that power, which is mainly dependent on their
velocity; they are the recipients of the waste of the adjoining lands by
other combined agencies, and the carriers of it to the lower districts
and to the sea. They often afford the strongest evidence of the vast
lapse of time that must be included between the beginning and close of
a geological period; and, when they flow through countries whose remote
political history is known to us, they supply a scale by which we may
measure and estimate that lapse of time. This is especially so in the
case of the Nile.
When so startling an hypothesis as that now referred to, viz., that the
entire bed of so vast a river as the Nile, for more than 250 miles,
from Semne to Assuan, has been excavated, within historical time, to a
depth of 27 feet, is made by a person whose name carries so much weight
in one department of philosophical inquiry, the statement involves
such important geological considerations, that it becomes the duty of
the geologist to examine, and thoroughly test, the soundness of the
explanation, in order that the authority of Professor Lepsius for the
accuracy of the facts observed, may not be too readily admitted as
conclusive for the correctness of his theory of the cause to which they
owe their existence. That there has been such an undoubting admission,
appears from the following passage in the work of one of the latest
writers on Nubia:
“The translation of the name of this town (Aswán) is ‘the
opening;’ and a great opening this once was, before the Nile had
changed its character in Ethiopia, and when the more ancient
races made this rock (at the first cataract) their watch-tower
on the frontier between Egypt and the south. That the Nile has
changed its character, south of the first cataract, has been made
clear by some recent examinations of the shores and monuments
of Nubia. Dr. Lepsius has discovered water-marks so high on the
rocks and edifices, and so placed as to compel the conviction
that the bed of the Nile has sunk extraordinarily by some great
natural process, either of convulsion or wear. The apparent
exaggerations of some old writers about the cataracts at Syene
may thus be in some measure accounted for. If there really was
once a cataract here, instead of the rapids at the present day,
there is some excuse for the reports given from hearsay by Cicero
and Seneca. Cicero says, that ‘the river throws itself headlong
from the loftiest mountains, so that those who live nearest are
deprived of the sense of hearing, from the greatness of the
noise.’ Seneca’s account is: ‘When some people were stationed
there by the Persians, their ears were so stunned with the
constant roar, that it was found necessary to remove them to a
more quiet place[380].’”
The learned author of an article on Egyptian Chronology and History in
the “Prospective Review” for May, 1850, in referring to the contributions
of Professor Lepsius to Egyptian history, says: “He has discovered
undescribed pyramids, equal in number to those known before; has traced
the Labyrinth, and ascertained its founder. _He has detected inscriptions
on the banks of the Nile, which show that its bed has subsided many feet
in historic times._” _9th June, 1850._
In the assumption of an excavation of the bed of the river, we have no
small amount of wear to deal with, for the distance from Semne to Assuan,
following the course of the river, is not less than 250 miles; and if, as
Professor Lepsius supposes, the excavation extended to Meröe, we have a
distance, between that place and Assuan, of not less than 600 miles.
Although these records of a former high level of the Nile at Semne had
not been noticed by any traveller prior to Professor Lepsius, we may
rest fully assured of the accuracy of his statements, from the habitual
care and diligence, and the established character for fidelity, of the
observer. The silence of other travellers may be readily accounted for by
this, that none of them appear to have remained more than a very short
time at this spot—not even the diligent Russegger—whereas we have seen
that Professor Lepsius passed twelve days in the examination of this
gorge in the Nile Valley.
The theory of a lowering of the bed of the river by wearing, involves
two main considerations, viz., the power of the stream, and the degree
of hardness of the rocks acted upon. The power depends upon the volume
and velocity of the river—the velocity on its depth, and the degree of
inclination of the bed: the hardness of the rocks we can form a tolerable
estimate of when we know their nature. To judge, therefore, of the
probability of the hypothesis of Professor Lepsius, we must inquire into
the physical and geological features of the Nile Valley, in Nubia.
In the observations I have now to offer, my information has been derived
of course entirely from the works of other travellers, particularly those
of Burckhardt, Rüppell, and Russegger[381], and especially the latter,
who travelled in Nubia in 1837; for he not only enters far more into
the details of the natural history of the country, but he is the only
traveller in Nubia who appears, from previous acquirements, to have been
competent to describe its natural history with any degree of accuracy—I
refer more particularly to the physical and geological features of
the country. Besides full descriptions in his volumes, he has given a
geological map of Nubia, and also several sections, or what may more
properly be called _vertical sketches_—a term that would, perhaps, be
a more appropriate designation for all sections that are not drawn to
a true scale, or at least when the proportion of height to horizontal
distance is not stated.
_The Physical Geography of Lower Nubia[382]._
Russegger informs us[383], that he believes he was the first traveller
who had succeeded in making a series of barometrical measurements along
the Nile Valley, from the Mediterranean to Sennaar and Kordofan, and
thence to the 10th degree of north latitude. He gives the following
altitudes, above the sea:
Paris Feet. English Feet.
The upper part of the Cataract of Assuan 342 = 364·37
Korusko, on the right bank of the Nile, in Nubia 450 = 479·43
Wadi Halfa 490 = 522·00
New Dongola 757 = 806·52
Abu Hammed 963 = 1026·00
I shall now give the length of the Nile along its course from Abu
Hammed to the island of Philæ, at the head of the cataract of Assuan. I
employ for this purpose the map in the atlas which accompanies the work
of Russegger, which bears the date of 1846, and which, doubtless, was
constructed on the best authorities. He mentions a map of General von
Prokesch with great praise[384]. It flows:
German M. English M.
From NE. to SW., from Abu Hammed to Meröe, about 31 = 150
It makes a curve between Meröe and Old Dongola,
of about 16 = 77
It flows between Old and New Dongola, from SE.
to NW., about 16 = 77
Then, with some short windings, nearly due north
to the island of Sais, for about 30 = 145
And from Sais to the island of Philæ, from SW.
to NE., about 68 = 327
--- ---
Making the whole length of the course, from Abu
Hammed to Philæ, about 161 = 776
Ascending the river, we have, between Philæ and Korusko, a distance of
24 German, or 115½ English miles, and without any rapid, except one near
Kalabsche. Korusko being 115 feet above the head of the cataract of
Assuan, at Philæ, we have an average fall of the river between these two
places of a foot in a mile.
Between Korusko and Wadi Halfa there is no rapid. The distance being 20
German, or 96⅓ English miles, and the difference of altitude being 42½
feet, we have an average fall throughout that part of the river’s course
of not more than 5·3 inches in a mile.
This very inconsiderable fall need not surprise us; for the average
fall of the Nile in Lower Egypt, at the lowest water, is little more
than one-third of that now stated. At the time of the highest water the
surface of the Nile, at Boulak, near Cairo—that is, about 116 miles in a
direct line from the coast—is only 43·437 English feet above the level of
the Mediterranean, and at the time of the lowest water, only 17·33 feet.
Thus, in the first case, there is an average fall of about 5·00 inches;
in the second, of not more than 1·80 inches in a mile[385].
Between Wadi Halfa and Dale, a distance of about 94 miles, six cataracts,
or schellals, as they are called in the language of the country, are
marked in Russegger’s map. And here, it may be as well to notice, that
there are no cataracts, in the ordinary sense of the term, on the Nile;
no fall of the river over a precipice; all the so-called cataracts
are rapids, where the river rushes through rocks in its bed; the
rapids varying in their length and degrees of inclination. We have no
measurements of their lengths or of their falls, except as regards the
first and second cataracts. The former, according to Russegger, has a
fall of about 85 English feet in a distance of about 8 miles; and he
describes the latter as extending from 5 to 6 _stunden_; that is, from 12
to 14½ miles, but he does not give the height. Speaking of the schellals
above Semne, Russegger says, that all may be passed in boats without
difficulty for about six weeks, or two months in the year. This is the
case also at the cataract or rapid of Assuan. But between Wadi Halfa and
Dale, with some inconsiderable spaces of free navigable water, in the
ordinary state of the river, there is an almost uninterrupted series of
rapids. We have no measurement of the height of Dale above Wadi Halfa,
near to which the second great cataract of the Nile occurs; but this is
the part of the river’s course where the fall is greatest, and from Semne
to Dale there are about 45 miles of this more rapid fall.
From Dale to New Dongola, a distance of 35 German, or about 168 English
miles, only three rapids are marked on Russegger’s map—the highest being
at Hannek, about 26 English miles below New Dongola. New Dongola being
806 English feet above the sea, and the distance from that place to the
rapid of Hannek being 26 miles only, we may with probability estimate
the surface of the river at the rapid of Hannek at 780 feet above the
sea. Now, Wadi Halfa being 522 feet, we have a difference of height,
between these two last-named places, of 258 feet; and the length of the
river’s course between them being 236 miles, we have an average fall
of 13·12 inches in a mile; that is, in the part of the river’s course
where nine rapids occur, in the provinces of Batn-el-Hadjar, Sukkôt, and
Dar-el-Mahass, where the river flows over granite and other plutonic
rocks; gneiss, mica-schist, and other hard rocks, which Russegger
considers to be metamorphic. But between Semne and the head of the
second cataract at Wadi Halfa, there is not a continuous rapid stream;
for Hoskins says, that about two miles above that cataract, the river
has a width of a third of a mile, and, when he passed it, the water was
scarcely ruffled[386].
From the rapid of Hannek to Abu Hammed the distance is 329 English miles,
and the difference of altitude is 246 English feet. We have thus an
average fall in that distance of 9·00 inches in a mile.
Thus, in the 776 miles between Abu Hammed and Philæ, we have an average
fall of the Nile
Of 9·00 inches in a mile, for a distance of 329 miles.
Of 13·12 ” ” 236 ”
Of 5·30 ” ” 96 ”
Of 12·00 ” ” 115 ”
_Of the Breadth, Depth, and Velocity of the Nile, in Nubia._
Our information is very scanty respecting the breadth and depth of the
river, either at the time of lowest water or during the inundations.
About two miles above Philæ, it is stated by Jomard[387] to be 3000
metres, or nearly two English miles wide. At the second cataract, or
rapid of Wadi Halfa, it spreads over a rocky bed of nearly two miles and
a quarter in width (2000 klafter)[388], but contracts above the rapid to
a third of a mile. Russegger also states, that the Nile, near Boulak,
in Lower Egypt, is 2000 toises, nearly two-and-a-half English miles in
breadth, and yet that it is considerably wider in some parts of Southern
Nubia; but Burckhardt says that the bed of the Nile in Nubia is, in
general, much narrower than in any part of Egypt. Near Kalabsche, about
30 miles above Philæ, the river runs through a gorge not more than 300
paces wide, and its bed is full of granite blocks. It shortly afterwards
again widens for some distance; but near Sialla, 78 miles above Philæ,
it is contracted by the sandstone hills on both sides coming so near
each other, that the river’s bed is again not more than from 250 to 300
paces wide. It is about 600 yards broad about two miles above the second
cataract near Wadi Halfa, but is again very much contracted in the rocky
region of Batn-el-Hadjar. At Aulike it is only 200 paces broad[389].
I have not met with any measurements of the depth of the river in any
part of its course in Nubia; but Hoskins describes it as being so
shallow at the island of Sais, 327 miles above Philæ, on the 9th of June,
which would be before the commencement of the inundation, as only to
reach the knees of the camels[390]. Near Derr, about 86 miles below the
Cataract of Wadi Halfa, Norden, in January, found the river so shallow
that loaded camels waded through it, and his boat frequently struck the
ground. In May, Burckhardt found the river fordable at Kostamne, 53 miles
above Philæ; and Parthey states, that between Philæ and the island of
Bageh, to the west of it, the river is so shallow before the commencement
of the inundation, that it may be waded through[391]. Burckhardt says,
that from March to June the Nile-water, in Nubia, is quite limpid[392].
Miss Martineau, who visited Nubia in December and January, speaking of
the river above Philæ, says, that it “was divided into streamlets and
ponds by the black islets. Where it was overshadowed it was dark-grey or
deep blue, but when the light caught it rushing between a wooded island
and the shore, it was of the clearest green[393].” At the second cataract
she describes the river as “dashing and driving among its thousand
islets, and then gathering its thousand currents into one, proceeds
calmly in its course[394].”
Although we have no accurate measurements of the velocity of the Nile in
Nubia, we may arrive at an approximate estimate of it by comparing its
fall with that of a river well known to us.
I have stated the fall of the Nile in different parts of its course to
be 5·30, 9·00, 12·00, and 13·12 inches in a mile. The fall of the Thames
from Wallingford to Teddington Lock, where the influence of the tide
ends, is as follows:
+-----------------------------------+---------+----------+----------+
| | Length | | Fall in |
| | of | Fall. | Inches |
| | Course. | | per Mile.|
| +---------+----------+----------+
| |Miles. F.| Feet. in.| |
| | | | |
|From Wallingford to Reading Bridge | 18·0 | 24·1 | 15·72 |
|From Reading to Henley Bridge | 9·0 | 19·3 | 25·68 |
|From Henley to Marlow Bridge | 9·0 | 12·2 | 16·20 |
|From Marlow to Maidenhead Bridge | 8·0 | 15·1 | 22·32 |
|From Maidenhead to Windsor Bridge | 7·0 | 13·6 | 23·16 |
|From Windsor to Staines Bridge | 8·0 | 15·8 | 23·52 |
|From Staines to Chertsey Bridge | 4·6 | 6·6 | 17·28 |
|From Chertsey to Teddington Lock | 13·6 | 19·8 | 17·40 |
| +---------+----------+----------+
| | 77·4 | 125·11 | |
+-----------------------------------+---------+----------+----------+
“In general, the velocity may be estimated at from half a mile to two
miles and three-quarters per hour; but the mean velocity may be reckoned
at two miles per hour. In the year 1794, the late Mr. Rennie found the
velocity of the Thames at Windsor two miles and a half per hour[395].”
It will thus be seen that the velocity of the Nile is probably greatly
inferior to that of the Thames; for it appears that, except during the
inundation, for more than half the year the depth is inconsiderable.
The average fall when greatest, that is, including the province of
Batn-el-Hadjar, where the rapids chiefly occur, is considerably less than
that of any part of the above course of the Thames; so that there must
be long intervals between the rapids where the fall must be far less
than 13 inches in a mile. The breadth of the Nile is vastly greater; but
supposing the depth of the water to be the same as that of the Thames, on
account of the friction of the bed, the greater breadth would add very
little to the velocity. If we assume the average depth of the Thames
in the above distance to be 5 feet, and that it flows with an average
velocity of 2 miles in an hour, and if we assume the average depth of
the Nile in that part of its course where the fall is 13·12 inches to be
10 feet, when not swollen by the rise, the velocity would be 2⅘ miles
nearly in an hour[396], if the fall were equal to that of the Thames. We
shall probably come near the truth, by assuming the velocity of the Nile
on this part at 2 miles in an hour. That it must be considerably less in
the other divisions of the course I have named, and especially in that
part immediately below the second cataract, where the average fall is
only 5·30 inches for a distance of 96 miles, is quite evident.
The power of a river to abrade the soil over which it flows, so far as
water is by itself capable of doing so, must depend upon its volume and
velocity, and the degree of hardness of the material acted upon. The
power is increased when the water has force enough to transport hard
substances. But even transported gravel has little action on the rocks
with which it comes in contact, when it is free to move in running water,
unless the fall be considerable, and, consequently, the velocity and
force of the stream great. When stones are firmly set in moving ice, they
then acquire a great erosive power, cutting and wearing down the rocks
they are forcibly rubbed against; but this condition never obtains in
Lower Nubia, as ice is unknown there.
_Geological Structure of Lower Nubia._
One kind only of regularly stratified rock occurs in the 776 miles from
Abu Hammed to Philæ; viz., a silicious sandstone, similar to that which
occurs to a great extent on both sides of the Nile in Upper Egypt, and
which Russegger, after a very careful examination of it there, considers
to be an equivalent of the greensand of the cretaceous rocks of Europe.
The tertiary nummulite limestone, so abundant in Egypt, has not hitherto
been met with in Nubia.
The Nile flows over this sandstone for nearly 426 miles of the entire
distance, but not continuously. At Abu Hammed, it flows over granitic
rocks, and these continue from that place for about 120 miles. There is
then about 215 miles of the sandstone, which is succeeded by igneous and
metamorphic rocks, that continue for 195 miles without any interruption,
except a narrow stripe of sandstone of about 15 miles near Amara. It is
in this region of hard igneous rocks that nearly all the rapids occur,
between that of Hannek and the great or second cataract at Wadi Halfa.
From the latter place there is sandstone throughout a distance of about
196 miles, and then commences the granitic region of the Cataract of
Assuan, through which the Nile flows about 35 miles. Thus we have about
350 miles of igneous and metamorphic rocks, and about 426 of sandstone.
The general hard nature of the igneous and metamorphic rocks, over
which the Nile flows for about 155 miles above Semne, and for about
40 immediately below it, will be recognised by my naming some of the
varieties described by Russegger, viz., granites of various kinds, often
penetrated by greenstone dykes; sienite, diorite, and felspar porphyries;
gneiss, and clay slate, penetrated by numerous quartz veins.
The siliceous sandstone is very uniform in its character; and in Nubia,
as in Egypt, the only organic bodies which it has as yet been found
to contain, are silicified stems of wood. Occasionally, as in the
neighbourhood of Korusko, interstratified beds of marly clay are met
with[397].
When, therefore, we take into account the hard nature of the siliceous
sandstone, the durability of which is shown by the very ancient monuments
of Egypt and Nubia, that are formed of it, and the still greater hardness
of the granites and other crystalline rocks, it is manifest that the
wearing action of a river flowing over so gentle a fall, can scarcely
be appreciable. If the occasional beds of marly clay occur in the bank
of the river, they may be washed out, and blocks of the superincumbent
sandstones may fall down; but such an operation would have a tendency to
raise rather than deepen the bed of the river at those places; unless the
transporting power of the stream were far greater than can exist with so
moderate a fall, especially in that part of the river below Semne, where,
for 96 miles, it is not more than 5·3 inches, and for 115 miles below
that, not more than 12 inches in a mile. Even if we suppose the river to
have power to tear up its bed for some distance above Semne and below
it, as far as the rapid of Wadi Halfa, it is evident that the materials
brought down would be deposited, except the finest particles, in that
tranquil run of 96 miles, which may be almost compared to a canal. The
drains in Lincolnshire are inclined 5 inches to a mile[398]. When the
annual inundations commence, the water of the Nile comes down the rapid
at Assuan of a reddish colour loaded with sand and mud only; whatever
detrital matter of a larger and heavier kind the Nile may have brought
with it, is deposited before it reaches that point.
From all these considerations, therefore, I come to the conclusion, that
the bed of the Nile cannot have been excavated, as Professor Lepsius
supposes, since the date of the sculptured marks on the rock at Semne. He
says, “Es lässt sich kaum eine andere Ursache für das bedeutende Fallen
des Nils denken, als ein Auswaschen und Aushölen _der Katakomben_.” By
the word _Katakomben_[399] he can only mean natural caverns in the rock;
but such caverns are rarely, if ever, met with in sandstones, and only
occasionally in limestones. If the course of the Nile were over limestone
instead of sandstone, we could not for a moment entertain the idea of a
succession of caverns for 200 miles beneath its bed, sometimes two miles
in width, the roofs of which were to fall in; and where the igneous rocks
prevail, this explanation is wholly inapplicable.
But besides the objections arising from the nature of the rocks, and the
inconsiderable fall of the river, there is still another difficulty to
overcome. It is to be borne in mind, that this lowering of the bed of the
Nile, from Semne to Assuan, is supposed to have taken place within the
last 4000 years. Between the first cataract at Assuan and the second at
Wadi Halfa there are numerous remains of temples on both banks of the
Nile, some of very great antiquity. “From Wadi Halfa to Philæ,” says
Parthey, “there is a vast number of Egyptian monuments, almost all on the
left bank of the river, and so near the water that most of them are in
immediate contact with it[400].” We may rest assured that the builders of
these would place them out of the reach of the highest inundations then
known. Although we have many accurate descriptions of these monuments,
the heights of their foundations above the surface of the river are not
often given; they are, however, mentioned in some instances. I shall
describe the situations of some of these buildings relatively to the
present state of the river’s levels, and shall begin with those on the
island of Philæ.
This island, according to the measurements of General von Prokesch, is
1200 Paris feet (1278 English) in length, and 420 (447) in breadth, and
is composed of granite. Lancret informs us, that, “à l’époque des hautes
eaux, l’île de Philæ est peu élevée au-dessus de leur surface: mais,
lorsqu’elles sont abaissées, elle les surpasse de huit mètres.” It was
formerly surrounded by a quay of masonry, portions of which may be traced
at intervals, and in some places they are still in good preservation.
The south-west part of the island is occupied by temples. According
to Wilkinson, the principal building is a temple of Isis commenced by
Ptolemy Philadelphus, who reigned from 283 to 247 years before Christ;
and he adds, that it is evident an ancient building formerly stood
on the site of the present great temple. Lancret, in referring to
this more ancient building, says:—“Il y a des preuves certaines d’une
antiquité bien plus reculée encore, puisque des pierres qui entrent dans
la construction de ce même grand temple, sont des débris de quelque
construction antérieure.” Rosellini considers that it was built by
Nectanebus. The first king of Egypt, of the Sebennite Dynasty of that
name, ascended the throne 374 years B.C., the second and last ceased to
reign about 350 years B.C.[401]
Rosellini[402] informs us, that on the island of Bageh, opposite to
Philæ, there are the remains of a temple of the time of Amenophis II.,
and a sitting statue of granite representing him. He was a king in the
earlier years of the 18th Dynasty, which, according to the Chevalier
Bunsen[403], began in the year 1638, and ended in 1410 B.C.
GAU[404], in describing a temple at Debu, about 12 miles above Philæ,
which he visited in January, and consequently during the time of low
water, states that he discovered under the sand, at the edge of the
river, the remains of a terrace leading towards a temple.
A short distance north of Kalabsche, about 30 miles above Philæ, at
Beil-nalli, Rosellini[405] speaks of a small temple in the following
terms:—“Among the many memorials that still exist of Ramses II., the
most important, in a historical point of view, is a small temple or
grotto excavated in the rock!” and Wilkinson mentions it “as a small but
interesting temple excavated in the rock, of the time of Ramses II.,
whom Champollion supposes to be the father of Sesostris or Rameses the
Great[406].” He was the first king of the 19th Dynasty, which began in
the year 1409 B.C.[407]
Gau[408] thus describes a monument at Gerbé Dandour:—“La chaîne de
montagnes qui borde le Nil est, dans cet endroit, si approchée du lit de
ce fleuve, qu’il ne reste que très peu d’espace sur la rive. Cet espace
est presque entièrement occupé par le monument, et la rivière, dans ses
débordemens, arrive jusqu’au pied du mur de la terrasse.”
Parthey informs us that the temple of Sebûa is about 200 feet distant
from the river, in which distance there are two rows of sphinxes, and
that the road between them, from the temple, ends in wide steps at the
water’s edge; and he adds that Champollion refers this temple to the time
of Rameses the Great[409].
It thus appears that monuments exist close to the river, some of which
were constructed at least 1400 years before our era; so that taking the
time of Amenemha III. to be, as Professor Lepsius states, 2200 years
B.C., the excavation of the bed of the Nile which he supposes to have
taken place, must have been the work, not of 4000 years but of 800. If
the erosive power of the river was so active in that time, it cannot be
supposed that it then ceased; it would surely have continued to deepen
the bed during the following 3000 years.
At all events, the buildings on the island of Philæ demonstrate that the
bed of the Nile must have been very much the same as it is now, 2200
years ago; and even a thousand years earlier it must have been the same,
if the foundation of the temple on the island of Bageh, opposite to
Philæ, be near the limit of the highest rise of the Nile of the present
time; so that there could be no barrier at the Cataract of Assuan to dam
up the Nile when they were constructed; and thus the deafening sound of
the waterfall recorded by Cicero and Seneca must still be held to be an
exaggeration.
The existence of alluvial soil, apparently of the same kind as that
deposited by the Nile, in situations above the Cataract of Assuan, at
a level considerably above the highest point which the inundations of
the river have reached in modern times, to which allusion is made by
Professor Lepsius, has been noticed by other travellers, and even at
still higher levels than those he mentions. Whether that alluvial soil be
identical with, or only resembles the Nile deposit, would require to be
determined by a close examination, and especially with regard to organic
remains, if any can be found in it. There is no evidence to show that
it was deposited during the historical period, and it may be an evidence
of a depression and subsequent elevation of the land antecedent to that
period. It may not be of fresh-water origin, but the clay and sand, or
till, left by a drift while the land was under the sea. For remote as
is the antiquity of Nubia and Egypt, in relation to the existence of
the human race, it appears to be of very modern formation in geological
time. The greater part of Lower Egypt, probably all the Delta, is of
post-pliocene age, and even late in that age; and the very granite of
the Cataract of Assuan, that of which the oldest monuments in Egypt
are formed, and which, in the earlier days of geology, was looked upon
as the very type of the rock on which the oldest strata of the earth
were founded, is said to have burst forth during the later tertiary
period. We learn from Russegger, that the low land which lies between
the Mediterranean and the range of hills that extends from Cairo to the
Red Sea at Suez, and of which hills a nummulite limestone constitutes a
great part, is composed of a sandstone which he calls a “Meeresdiluvium,”
a marine diluvial formation, and considers to be of an age younger than
that of the sub-appennines[410]. This sandstone he found associated with
the granite above Assuan, and covering the cretaceous sandstone far into
Nubia. It appears, therefore, that, in the later ages of the tertiary
period, this north-eastern part of Africa must have been submerged, and
that very energetic plutonic action was going forward in the then bed of
the sea. The remarkable fact of the granite bursting through this modern
sandstone is thus described by Russegger:
“We arrived at a plateau of the Arabian Chain south-east of
Assuan. It is about 200 feet above the bed of the Nile, and
consists of the lower and upper sandstone, which are penetrated
by innumerable granite cones from 20 to 100 feet in height,
arranged over the plateau in parallel lines, very much resembling
volcanic cones rising from a great cleft. The sandstone is
totally altered in texture near the granite, and has all the
appearance as if it had been exposed to a great heat. ‘I cannot
refrain,’ he says, ‘from supposing that the granite must have
burst, like a volcanic product, through long wide rents in
the sandstone, and that, in this way, the conical hills were
formed[411].’”
An eruption of a true granite during the period of the sub-appennine
formations, one possessing the same mineral structure as that we know
to have been erupted during the period of the palæozoic rocks, would
be a fact of so extraordinary a kind, that its age would require to be
established on the clearest evidence, and especially by that of organic
remains in the sandstone.
Having thus ventured—I trust without any want of the respect due to so
eminent a person—to reject the hypothesis proposed by Professor Lepsius
for the high levels of the Nile at Semne, indicated by the sculptured
marks he discovered, it may perhaps be expected that I should offer
another more probable explanation. If in some narrow gorge of the river
below Semne, a place had been described by any traveller, where, from
the nature of the banks, a great landslip, or even an artificial dam,
could have raised the bed to an adequate height; that is, proportionate
to the fall of the river, as it was more distant from Semne, a bar that,
in the course of a few centuries, might have been gradually washed away,
I might have ventured to suggest such a solution of the problem. But
without any information of the existence of such a contraction of the
river’s channel, or any exact knowledge of the natural outlets and dams
to running water along the 250 miles of the Nile Valley, from Semne to
Assuan, it would be idle to offer even a conjecture. These marks are
unquestionably very difficult to account for, in the present imperfect
state of our knowledge of the structure of that portion of the Nile
Valley; and any competent geologist, well versed in the questions of
physical structure involved, who may hereafter visit Nubia, would have a
very interesting occupation in endeavouring to solve the difficulty.
_7th April, 1850._
_Translation of a Letter from Dr. Lepsius to Mr. Horner, dated Berlin
the 12th of April, 1853._
DEAR SIR,—I observe from a letter of your daughter, that she is
desirous of adding to her translation of my Letters a note upon
the height of the water of the Nile, with reference to your paper
in the “Edinburgh Philosophical Journal.” I wish that you would
get reprinted in that note the whole of the small memoir, as it
possesses great interest, and abounds in data not easily brought
together; for in that case the subject may probably be further
discussed.
I will, at all events, avail myself of this opportunity to
make some remarks, which you may, if you like, propose to have
introduced into the contemplated note.
I must first remark that the word _Katakomben_ was entirely a
typographical error for _Katarakten_, as was unfortunately the
case in many other instances in those things which were printed
during my absence.
But in respect of the explanation of the observed facts, my
views are perhaps less different from yours than you imagine.
You imagine a natural or artificial barrier which has broken
down, but this appears to me of insufficient magnitude; I too
imagine barriers to have existed, and natural ones, but that
there must have been several of them. I do not, moreover, regard
it as impossible, that at certain periods, when the country was
in its most flourishing condition, artificial dams may have been
constructed in order to obtain a higher rise of the water within
a particular space, such as was necessary for an overflowing. But
if we imagine an entire dam thrown across the river, this, if
I am not mistaken, could only hold back the current for a very
short way, namely, where there is a greater general fall. If,
for example, we imagine a barrier at Assuan, it would require to
be several hundred feet high to have any effect on the height
of the water at Semneh, and then the whole valley from Philæ to
Wadi Halfa would be a great lake, as it may indeed have been in
geological time.
If we imagine a succession of barriers which would be especially
formed where veins existed in the primitive rock, then the
present entire physiognomy of the Nile valley seems to be more
easily explained. The river-bed, amidst granitic or other
upheaved rock, is not level, like a chalk or sandstone channel,
but forms sometimes lakes, sometimes barriers. The force of
the swollen current at these last, of which there is one at
Semneh itself, does not act in the mean proportion of a space
of considerable extent, but with immense effects, exceeding all
calculation, especially when, in addition, there is a contraction
of the sides, as at Semneh. Immediately below this barrier the
bed again spreads out, and the rocks disappear in the current.
The colossal rock-fragments on that bank, whose inscriptions
sometimes show that above 4000 years ago they were still not
broken loose, display the Titan force of a current thus hemmed
in, and allow us to conceive how at that spot it gradually washed
out its bed, sometimes to a great depth, but sometimes also to
a greater breadth, which has the same effect, and how all that
is broken away, or that during the time of low water splits to
a considerable depth in the bed of the river from the summer
heat, rolls away, until arrested by falling into hollows. But
if these single barriers are only washed away in the course of
thousands of years, then the whole river must receive an equable
fall, and it will never rise in the very rocky districts, but can
only continue to be still more excavated, and will only again
deposit the heavier portions it bears along with it, below the
cataracts, where every obstruction disappears. The monuments can
hardly be cited in opposition to the view of a gradual sinking
of the bed of the river in the higher districts. All of them
lie tolerably far above the region of the rise of the Nile—for
example, the temple on the island of Bigeh, to which there is a
considerable ascent. Philæ has only been built upon since the
time of Nectanebus, and there is nothing to indicate buildings
of an earlier date. The sinking of the surface of the water even
at Philæ and Assuan must also have been far less than at Semneh.
Nevertheless, special researches with respect to the relative
condition of the ancient temple and rock-inscriptions to the
present surface of the water would certainly be of the greatest
utility.
Herr von Humboldt, after reading some observations on the same
subject by Wilkinson in the Nouv. Ann. des Voyages, i., without
recollecting my views, wrote to me as follows:
“Breaches in dams, I imagine, cause only temporary rises of
water, unless in earlier times (for which I see no reason)
there was a greater accumulation of water in the valley of the
river, from meteorological causes. Primeval conditions, where
broad valleys were filled with waters, are not applicable to
periods when there were inscriptions. Does it not seem to you
more probable, that the height of the water was at one time at a
greater elevation, on account of the bed of the river not having
been so much furrowed out, because at an earlier period the
bottom of the river was not at _c d_, but at _e f_.
[Illustration]
“There are rivers whose beds are elevated and rendered more
shallow by deposition, others which furrow out their bed _qui
creusent un lit plus profond_.”
With sincere respect, your faithful,
R. LEPSIUS.
APPENDIX B. (P. 303 and 318.)—The tradition of Gebel Mûsa being the Mount
of the Law, became gradually more decided and exclusive for this view
after the time of Procopius in the sixth century; mainly, no doubt, on
account of the church founded at that spot in the reign of Justinian. I
am not aware that there are any modern travellers and savants who have
thrown doubts on the correctness of this assumption. Not even Burckhardt,
although from the numerous inscriptions on Serbâl he was led to infer
that that mountain might have been at one time _incorrectly_ regarded
by the pilgrims as Sinai. The words of this distinguished traveller are
as follows: (Trav. in Syr. p. 609.) “It will be recollected that _no
inscriptions_ are found either _on the Mountain of Moses, or on Mount
St. Catherine_; and that those which are found in the Ledja valley at
the foot of Djebel Catherine, are not to be traced above the rock from
which the water is said to have issued, and appear only to be the work of
pilgrims who visited that rock. From these circumstances _I am persuaded
that Mount Serbâl was at one period the chief place of pilgrimage in
the Peninsula; and that it was then considered the mountain where Moses
received the tables of the law; though I am equally convinced, from a
perusal of the Scriptures, that the Israelites encamped in the Upper
Sinai_, and that either Djebel Mousa, or Mount St. Catherine, is the
real Horeb. It is not at all impossible that the proximity of Serbâl to
Egypt, may at one period have caused that mountain to be the Horeb of
the pilgrims, and that the establishment _of the convent_ in its present
situation, _which was probably chosen from motives of security, may have
led to the transferring of that honour to Djebel Mousa_. At present
neither the monks of Mount Sinai nor those of Cairo consider Mount
Serbâl as the scene of any of the events of sacred history; nor have the
Bedouins any tradition among them respecting it, but it is possible, that
if the Byzantine writers were thoroughly examined, some mention might be
found of this mountain, which I believe was never before visited by any
European traveller.”
More recently the remarkable book of travels by E. ROBINSON form a marked
epoch in our knowledge of the Peninsula as well as of Palestine. With
reference to the position of Sinai, he for the first time especially
urges the favourable vicinity of the great plain of RÂHA, to the north
of Gebel Mûsa, in which there was ample space for the encampment of the
people of Israel. (Palestine, vol. i., p. 144, &c.) In his determination,
however, of the actual Mount of the Law, he deviates from the previous
tradition, since he endeavours to prove that Moses did not ascend Gebel
Mûsa, but the mountain ridge jutting out from the south, above the
plain, which is now called HOREB by the monks, and whose highest point
is named Sefsâf. (Vol. i. p. 176.) Unfortunately he did not visit Wadi
Firân and the adjoining Serbâl. In a more recent treatise (Bibl. sacra.
vol. iv. No. xxii. May, 1849, p. 381, &c.) the learned author returns to
the question with reference to my view of it, with which he had become
acquainted, and in opposition he especially mentions the arguments which
he had formerly maintained in favour of Gebel Sefsâf. He comprehends
these under the three following heads, which he extracts from the Mosaic
narrative, as being eminently striking, and which must therefore also
now be pointed out: “1st. A mountain summit overlooking the place where
the people stood. 2nd. Space sufficient adjacent to the mountain for
so large a multitude to stand and behold the phenomena on the summit.
3rd. The relation between this space where the people stood and the
base of the mountain must be such that they could approach and stand at
‘the nether part of the mount,’ that they could also touch it; and that
further bounds could appropriately be set around the mount, lest they
should go up into it, or touch the border of it.” Of these three heads,
the first would speak against Gebel Mûsa, and not against Serbâl. This
last, says Robinson, is excluded by the second and third head. Now with
respect to the second, I must only call to mind that the encampment of
the people at Sinai is not related in a different manner from all the
previous stations. If, therefore, we take such a circumscribed view
of the encampment as to believe that we must provide for sufficient
_space_ for the settlement of such a great people, we should then have
to indicate a plain of Râha at all the previous stations, especially in
Raphidîm (which by almost unanimous opinion was situated at the foot of
the Serbâl), because here manifestly they remained for a considerable
time, Moses was visited by Jethro, by his advice divided the whole people
into tens, and organised them according to a form of law, from which we
should be compelled to conclude that there, for the first time, existed
a distinct locality for each individual. He who imagines a multitude
of two millions of men, about as many as the inhabitants of London, or
of the whole of Egypt at the present day, placed in an enclosed camp
composed of tents, of which they must have had two hundred thousand, if
we reckon one for every ten, like a huge, well-arranged military camp,
even to him the plain of Râha would appear too small; but he who assumes
that a comparatively small number could assemble round the chief quarters
of Moses, but that all the others must have sought for shady places,
caves in the rock-precipices, and the scanty herbage of the adjacent
valleys, can as easily imagine the camp to have been placed in Wadi
Firân, or at any other station. Wadi Firân besides, as far down as El
Hessue, even if we only take its most fertile portion (more inviting as
a settlement than any other spot), would offer, in combination with the
broad Wadi Aleyât, just as large, and at all events a far more habitable
space, for a combined encampment than the plain of Râha. Indeed, if it be
true that we can gain anything from such single facts, such an encampment
would render it still more comprehensible why the people were led _out of
the camp_ towards God at the foot of the mountain in the upper portion
of Wadi Aleyât, in order to have a complete survey of the mountain. To
obtain such a view would be impossible at Gebel Mûsa, and unnecessary
at Gebel Sefsâf. Finally, the command not to ascend the mountain, which
is expressed still more imperatively, that no one “should touch the
border of the mountain,” applies to every mountain, which rises simply
before the eyes, and whose means of access can be shut out by a fence.
Immediately beyond the fence lies the border of the mountain.
With reference to this last point, Robinson appeals to my own map of
Serbâl, and the description of Wadi Aleyât, by Bartlett (Forty Days in
the Desert, p. 54, 59). It would be difficult, however, to prove from my
map that the people could not have spread themselves out at the foot of
the mountain, and Bartlett seems to me rather to share my opinion. As
this traveller is so well known by his descriptions of countries, which
are both beautifully illustrated and clearly and graphically described,
and as he is just one of the few who have examined the localities with
his own eyes in reference to the question started by me without holding
any previous views on the subject, it may not be inappropriate to insert
here those words relating to it, from a book cited by Robinson in favour
of his own view; so much the rather, as I could not possibly have placed
the chief heads of the question in a more convincing point of view.
He says, p. 55[412]: “If we endeavour to reconcile ourselves to the
received but _questionable system_ which seeks to accommodate the
miraculous with the natural, _it is impossible_, I think, _not to close
with the reasoning advanced in favour of the Serbâl_. There can be no
doubt that Moses was personally well acquainted with the Peninsula,
and had even probably dwelt in the vicinity of Wadi Feirân during his
banishment from Egypt; but even common report as to the present day,
would point to this favoured locality AS THE ONLY FIT SPOT _in the whole
range of the desert for the supply, either with water or such provisions
as the country afforded_, of the Israelitish host: on this ground alone,
then, he would be led irresistibly to fix upon it, when meditating a
long sojourn for the purpose of compiling the law. This consideration
derives additional force when we consider the supply of wood and other
articles requisite for the construction of the tabernacles, and which
can only be found readily at Wadi Feirân, and of its being also, in all
probability, from early times a place visited by trading caravans. But
if Moses were even unacquainted previously with the resources of the
place, he must have passed it on his way from the sea-coast through the
interior of the mountains, and _it is inconceivable that he should have
refused to avail himself of its singular advantages for his purpose_,
or that the host would have consented, without a murmur, to quit, after
so much privation, this fertile and well-watered oasis for new perils
in the barren desert, or that he should, humanly speaking, have been
able either to compel them to do so, or afterwards to fix them in the
_inhospitable, unsheltered position of the monkish Mount Sinai, with
the fertile Feirân but one day’s long march in their rear_. Supplies of
_wood_, and perhaps of _water, must, in that case, have been brought
of necessity from the very spot they had but just abandoned_. We must
suppose that the _Amalekites_ would oppose the onward march of the
Israelites, _where they alone had a fertile territory_ worthy of being
disputed, and from which Moses must, of necessity, have sought to expel
them. If it be so, then in this vicinity, and no other, we must look for
Raphidîm, from whence the Mount of God was at a very short distance. We
seem thus to have a _combination of circumstances, which are met with
nowhere else_, to certify that it was here that Moses halted for the
great work he had in view, and that the scene of the law-giving is here
before our eyes in its wild and lonely majesty. The principal objection
to this is on the following ground, that there is no open space in the
immediate neighbourhood of the Serbâl suitable for the _encampment_ of
the vast multitude, and from which they could ALL OF THEM AT ONCE have
had a view of the mountain, as is the case at the plain Er Rahah at Mount
Sinai, where Robinson supposes, principally for that reason, the law to
have been given. _But is this objection conclusive_? We read, indeed,
that Israel ‘camped BEFORE THE MOUNT,’ and that ‘the Lord came down in
sight of all the people;’ moreover, that bounds were set to prevent the
people from breaking through and violating even the precincts of the
holy solitude. Although THESE conditions are more LITERALLY fulfilled
at Er Rahah, yet, if we understand them as couched in general terms,
_they apply perhaps well enough to the vicinity of the Serbâl_. A glance
at the view, and a reference to this small rough map[413], will show
the reader that the main encampment of the host must have been in Wadi
Feirân itself, from which the summit of the Serbâl is only here and
there visible, and that it is by the lateral Wadi Aleyât that the base
of the mountain itself, by a walk of about an hour, is to be reached.
It certainly struck me, in passing up this valley, as a very unfit, if
not impracticable spot for the encampment of any great number of people,
_if they were all in tents_; though well supplied with pure water, the
ground is rugged and rocky—towards the base of the mountain awfully
so; but still _it is quite possible that a certain number might have
established themselves there, as the Arabs do at present_, while, as on
other occasions, the principal masses were distributed in the surrounding
valleys. I do not know that there is any adequate ground for believing,
as Robinson does, that because the people were warned not to invade the
seclusion of the mount, and a guard was placed to prevent them from doing
so, that THEREFORE THE ENCAMPMENT ITSELF pressed closely on its borders.
Curiosity might possibly enough lead many to attempt this even from a
distance, to say nothing of those already _supposed to be located_ in the
Wadi Aleyât, near the base of the mountain, to whom the injunction would
more especially apply. Those, however, who press closely the literal
sense of one or two passages, should bear in mind all the difficulties
previously cited, and the _absolute destitution of verdure, cultivation,
running streams, and even of abundant springs, which characterise the
fearfully barren vicinity of the monkish Sinai_, where there is indeed
room and verge enough for encampment, BUT NO RESOURCES WHATEVER. If we
take up the ground of a CONTINUAL AND MIRACULOUS PROVISION _for all the
wants of two millions of people_, doubtless they may have been subsisted
there as well as in any other place; _otherwise it seems incredible_
that _Moses_ should ever have abandoned a spot, offering such _unique
advantages as Feirân_, to select instead _the most dreary and sterile
spot in its neighbourhood_.”
This was the distinct impression, and one frankly offered, after
comparing those localities with the Biblical narration, by a man
who nevertheless finally remains doubtful whether, in spite of all
the reasons cited, it would not be more advisable to follow “the
other system,” in accordance with which we must assume it to be an
uninterrupted miracle from the beginning to the end, even though this
is not expressed in the Bible (see p. 19 of the work cited), whereby,
assuredly, all considerations about the most probable _human_ course of
that great historical event become worthless. The author then passes
to some _individual points_, which he himself only calls attention to
as such; in which he deviates from my mode of comprehension, since,
for instance, he feels himself obliged to place the attack of the
Amalekites somewhat farther down the valley towards El Hessue. The
various possibilities in the explanation of the shorter marches oblige
us always to point out again, that it is only by taking a view of the
most essential points of the question, as a whole, that we can arrive
at a positive conviction; this would necessarily drive those objections
into the background, which might arise from regarding it only from any
individual point.
Shortly after Robinson, in the year 1843, Dr. John Wilson travelled
through Palestine and the Peninsula of Arabia Petræa; he published his
extensive travels (_The Lands of the Bible_, 2 vols. Edinburgh, 1847),
but did not by any means attain the high standing point held by his
learned predecessor. Nevertheless, I cannot but accord with some of the
objections which (vol. i. p. 222, &c.) he makes to Robinson’s assumption
that Sefsâf is the Mount of the Law. He coincides with the tradition
in recognising the Mount of the Law in Gebel Mûsa. In Serbâl, on the
contrary, he believes that he recognises the Mount Paran of the Bible
(p. 199), which we could only suppose, if we admit Mount Paran to be
another expression for Sinai, and if we identify the last with Serbâl.
At the close of the second volume (p. 764, &c.) the author adds a note
in the Appendix, in which he guards himself against my different view as
to the position of Sinai. He does not, however, here touch upon the most
essential arguments which I have everywhere placed in the foreground,
but only speaks of individual points, some of which can be easily
overcome, and of others which have no influence on the chief question.
He places DAPHKA, which is not once mentioned in the principal account,
and therefore assuredly must have been a subordinate spot, in Wadi
Firân, and Raphidîm, “the places for rest,” in the barren sandy Wadi e’
Scheikh, because there was _no_ water there. But, that I may use his own
weapons, what has become of the spring of Moses? “_Few in the kingdom
of Great Britain_ at least,” says the author, “will be disposed to
substitute the _Wadi Feirân_, with clear running water, for _Rephidim_,
where there was no water for the people to drink.” I think he wrongs
his countrymen in making them deviate so universally from the almost
unanimous tradition, and reject as a rationalistic explanation what is
admitted even by the learned Fathers of the Church, who place Raphidîm in
Firân, and consequently regard the spring there as belonging to Moses;
besides, independently of H. BARTLETT, many others of his countrymen
have distinctly declared themselves in favour of my view, which includes
this point, among whom I may mention Mr. HOGG (see below, concerning
his pamphlet about this particular point), the Rev. Dr. CROLY, and the
author of the Pictorial Bible. If he is of opinion that I had overlooked
the fact that the Wilderness of Sin and the Wilderness of Sinai had
different meanings, I refer him to my pamphlet, p. 47, where precisely
the opposite occurs; I have not either left unnoticed the words “_out_
of the Wilderness of Sin” (p. 39), which has not either been done by
Eusebius nor St. Jerome, who equally make the Wilderness of Sin extend as
far as the Wilderness of Sinai. The fight with Amalek, as it is related
in Exodus, presupposes a universal, obstinate, and probably a prepared
contest; that the principal attack of the front was immediately supported
by an attack of the rear-guard is not excepted, as it is added besides
in Deuteron. xxv. 18; the double attack besides appeared distinctly
indicated in the words קָרְךָ בַּדֶּרֶךְ וַיְזַנֵּב ἀντέστη σοι ἐν
τῇ ὁδῷ, καὶ ἔκοψέ σου τὴν οὐραγίαν. At Elim, certainly, twelve _springs_
עֵינֹת not _wells_ are mentioned; but this does not alter the
case, as nevertheless we cannot imagine twelve _rushing_ springs like
those in the Wadi Firân, but as the author (vol. i. p. 175) himself
observes, only _standing_ water underground, which must be specially dug
for—therefore, in fact, wells. Their great number alone remains worthy of
consideration, from which we may conclude that it was an important place.
I knew the Sheikh Abu Zelîmeh very well; but that would not prevent the
existence of a connection between the name and the locality, although I
do not lay the slightest weight on such accordance of names.
The author omits some other reasons, which he believes he can prove in
opposition to my views; these might perhaps have referred precisely to
the chief points of the whole question, which had hitherto remained
uncontested. The author now perhaps feels himself obliged to repeat
his arguments, with reference to the separate remarks of one of his
countrymen, Mr. John Hogg, who handled the subject in a very complete
manner, and worked it out still further, first in the _Gentleman’s
Magazine_, March, 1847, and afterwards in the _Transact. of the R. Soc.
of Literature_, 2 Ser. vol. iii. p. 183-236 (read May, 1847, Jan. 1848),
under the title: _Remarks and Additional Views on Dr. Lepsius’s Proofs
that Mount Serbâl is the true Mount Sinai; on the Wilderness of Sin; on
the Manna of the Israelites; and on the Sinaitic Inscriptions_. This
learned author combines the earliest testimonies about the tradition, and
from them endeavours to prove, that before the time of Justinian it was
in favour of Serbâl, and not of Gebel Mûsa. He seems, in fact, to have
succeeded in proving this, but we shall return, to this question below.
Since then the comprehensive work of my respected friend CARL RITTER
has appeared, which is executed with his usual mastery of the subject:
_Vergleichende Erdkunde der Sinai-Halbinsel, von Palästina und Syrien,
erster Band_, Berlin, 1848. Although he has employed and worked out
all imaginable authorities, from the most ancient to those of modern
date, and has formed a complete picture of the Peninsula as a whole
and in details, with a clear perception and steady hand, both in its
geographical bearing and in the historical relations of its population,
he has nevertheless not neglected the question now under consideration,
in which geography and history are more intimately connected than in any
other. Sinai is to the Peninsula of Sinai what Jerusalem is to Palestine,
and as it is certain that the erection of the church on Gebel Mûsa in
the sixth century, from a belief that it was founded on the spot of
the law-giving, caused the _historical_ centre of the Peninsula, which
previously coincided indisputably with the town of Pharan and its forest
of palms (the natural _geographical_ centre), to be sundered for the
first time, and gradually, since the tenth century, from this, and to
be removed several days’ journey farther to the south,—so it is equally
certain that the decision of the question, whether this was a _first_
or _second_ separation between the historical and geographical centre,
must bear most essentially on the comprehension and delineation of the
earliest history of the Peninsula, and might even exercise an influence
not only on the future form of Sinaitic literature, but even on many
relative conditions of the Peninsula itself, which are in no small degree
regulated by the objects aimed at by the constantly increasing number
of travellers. Ritter’s representation was compelled at the very outset
to decide for one of these two views. At the same time, the new view,
proffered at the latest termination of the preliminary works of merit,
and in opposition to what had been held with implicit faith for the last
thousand years, and maintained without exception by all recent writers of
travels, now first appeared in the form of an occasional and necessarily
imperfect traveller’s account, and might very naturally lay even less
claim to a favourable hearing, not having hitherto received critical
examination from any quarter, nor been noticed by later travellers.
For this reason I so much the more value the careful and impartial
examination of the grounds in favour of Serbâl being Mount Sinai, for
which Ritter has granted a place in his work.
He does this at p. 736, &c. He here rejects the opinion that the
tradition of the convent on Gebel Mûsa, known only since the sixth
century, could have any weight in forming a decision; “the tradition of
the still older convent of Serbâl, and of the town of Serbâl in Wadi
Firân, might be said to have existed just as truly, but has only been
lost _to us_.” Other reasons, therefore, derived from nature and history,
must speak in its favour. He then cites the view adopted by Robinson,
who places Raphidîm in the upper part of the Wadi e’ Scheikh; but with
justice he places in opposition to this, that it then encroaches upon the
farther march, and would be mentioned; and shortly afterwards he says,
in as convincing a manner, that we cannot then conceive how the people
could have murmured for want of water, already one day’s journey beyond
the Firân, which was so richly supplied with water, while this can be
easily explained on the long way from Elim, as far as the neighbourhood
of Firân. Ritter therefore agrees with me and the old tradition in
regarding the wonderful brook of Firân as the spring of Moses. He
only thinks, if Moses struck the spring out of the rock, it must then
have been at the beginning, and not at the termination of the present
brook, and he therefore transfers Raphidîm into the uppermost portion
of Wadi Firân, whose fertility did not exist before the appearance of
the spring. With respect to the position of the Mount of the Law, he
evades positive decision for the time. “Already,” he says, “in both the
almost contemporaneous narrators, Jerome (Procopius?) and Cosmas, we see
the division of the views entertained about these localities, neither
of which, even in the most recent double view, it appears by decisive
and sufficient grounds, can be preferred, by us at least, alone before
the others. Since each of these two modes of explanation of a text so
indeterminate in topographical respects, and of a locality still known
so imperfectly, can only serve as _hypothetical probabilities_ in a more
exact interpretation, allow me to point out cursorily our _hypothetical
view_ of this affair, which will perhaps never be placed in a perfectly
clear light.”
It amounts finally to this, that _the_ “Mount of God,” where Moses was
encamped when he was visited by Jethro in Raphidîm, _could have in
no case meant the convent mountain of Sinai_ (_i. e._ _Gebel Mûsa_),
although this, on a later occasion, is even thus called, as that of the
true God, _but from which they at that time under every supposition
were far removed_, though _probably_ it might have been a designation
for the overtowering and far nearer _Serbâl_ when they were still in
the camp at “Raphidîm.” He afterwards acknowledges that before the 19th
chapter there was an _interruption of the connection_ with the preceding
chapters, but seeks a reason for this in a _gap_ in the text, while I
would rather assume that there was a short _interpolation_. Let the
progress of the people from the Feirân valley into the upper valley of
the Scheikh, and to Gebel Mûsa, the true Sinai, be thrown into this gap.
This at first is only called “the Mount” (Exodus xix. 2), and becomes a
“Mount of God” for the first time _after_ the law-giving (which, however,
the following verse, xix. 3, contradicts), while Serbâl might have been
called “the Mount of God” from a heathen deity there worshipped. “Both
mounts, the Mount of God (Serbâl) in Raphidîm, and the mount in the
Wilderness of Sinai, are therefore just as different by name as they
appear removed from each other by the last day’s marches between both
places of encampment.” He regards the general natural conditions of the
country about Gebel Mûsa on account of the greater security and coolness,
and from the pasture-land bearing a greater resemblance to the Alps, as
more adapted for a longer sojourn of the people. The name of HOREB only,
which is already mentioned in Raphidîm, might serve as an objection, yet
he sees no sufficient ground not to extend this name to some of the lower
mountains attached to Serbâl itself, for already ROBINSON, HENGSTENBERG,
and others, comprehend it as a general designation.
So far as I know, this is the first time that it has been attempted to
prove that there were _two_ Mounts of God, Serbâl _and_ Gebel Mûsa. This,
however, certainly is the _necessary result, though not yet expressed by
others, which all must arrive at who place Raphidîm in Firân_. In this,
it appears to me, lies a main proof with reference to the criticism of
the text, that _both_ Mounts of God are to be recognised in _Serbâl_.
We must not lay too much stress on the greater security of the plain of
Râha for a “harnessed” (Exodus xiii. 18) army of 600,000 men, after it
had set firm footing in the land, besides Serbâl must have at all times
offered an admirable place of reserve. The cold in the high mountain
range, which, according to RÜPPELL and ROBINSON, freezes the water into
ice in the convent (5000 feet above the sea) even as late as February
(Ritter, p. 445, 630), would have alone rendered an open encampment on
the plain of Râha during the winter impossible, for a population lately
accustomed to the Egyptian climate. But with respect to the vegetation
in those districts, which has indeed been differently described by
different travellers, the idea that not the slightest doubt existed as
to this having been at one time the sojourn of the Israelites, may have
partly caused many to presuppose the existence of more herbs in the
neighbourhood than they momentarily saw; partly, no doubt, the season
of the year occasions some variations. I therefore only observe that I
visited the Peninsula about the same time of the year in which, according
to the Mosaic narration, the Israelites also went thither.
Ritter, finally, has expressed his views on the Sinai question on another
occasion in a popular essay, “The Peninsula of Sinai, and the Path of the
Children of Israel to Sinai,” in the “Evangelical Calendar,” Almanack for
1852, published _by F. Piper_, p. 31, &c. Here also he places Raphidîm
in Firân, and traces the _Mount of God_ at _Raphidîm_ in _Serbâl_. But
in opposition to the identity of Serbâl and Sinai, he here adduces
principally the two following reasons. As it has been now proved that
the so-called Sinaitic inscriptions have a Pagan origin, and that they
indicate that Serbâl, to which they principally refer, was the “centre
of an ancient worship,” then this remarkable mount, if already a holy
mount of the _idolater_, could not have been at the same time a “Mount
of _Jehovah_” (p. 51), and further (p. 52), “Israel’s holy Mount of God
was not situated in the territory of _Amalek_, like Serbâl, but in the
eastern and southern territory of _Midian_, for it is said expressly
(Exodus iv. 19), that the Lord commanded Moses in Midian to go to Egypt,
and to lead the people to sacrifice to him upon this Mount Horeb and
Sinai in Midian” (Exodus iii. 1-12). With respect to these two points
however, the first, namely that Serbâl was also a _holy_ mount for
the Semitic people ruling over the Peninsula at a later period, seems
to me a reason of great weight _in favour_ of Serbâl-Sinai, as indeed
also already, _before_ the law-giving, it was not called “Idol Mount,”
but _Mount of God_ (Exodus iii. 1, iv. 27, xviii. 5), just as much as
_after_ the law-giving (Exodus xxiv. 13, 1 Kings xix. 8), and a heathen
readoption at a later period of the worship of this mount must certainly
be less surprising. But that Moses dwelt with Jethro in MIDIAN, when
the Lord spoke to him, offers no ground to place the Mount of the Law
in Midian, for that is nowhere said. We only know that Raphidîm, where
Moses was visited by Jethro out of Midian, was situated in the territory
of the _Amalekites_, as these here made the attack. Eusebius, who (s.
v. Ῥαφιδίμ, see note, p. 313) expressly places Raphidîm and Choreb in
Pharan, says (s. v. Χωρήβ) that this Mount of God lay in MADIAN. In the
Itinerar. Antonini, c. 40, also, Pharan is placed in MADIAN.
I trust these remarks, in which I think I have touched upon all the
essential objections of the respected author, may prove to him how high a
value I place on each of his arguments, as being those of one who is more
competent to judge in this field than any other person. Ritter’s long
proved acuteness for tracing the correct view of such questions, would
have excited more consideration in me against my own view of the subject,
than all the reasons he has adduced, which, taken singly at least, seem
to me refutable, had I not in _this_ case, at any rate, had the advantage
of a personal view of the localities, without any preconceived influence;
this might render my judgment of earlier narrators more independent than
could be the case with him.
APPENDIX C. (P. 306.)—Robinson gives the distances from Ayûn Mûsa to the
point where Wadi Schebêkeh and Wadi Tâibeh meet, vol. iii. Div. ii. p.
804; these accord with BURCKHARDT, p. 624, 625, who also records the more
remote points as far as Wadi Firân; these last are confirmed by mine, if
we calculate his circuitous route by Dhafari. Robinson’s calculation, p.
196, does not, however, take into consideration the circuitous route,
from four to five hours longer from the Convent, through Wadi e’ Scheikh,
for Burckhardt passed over the Nakb el Haui in eleven hours to Firân,
while we occupied sixteen, without including the short way round through
the Kteffe valley. After this the distances stand thus: From Ayûn Mûsa
to Ain Hawâreh 18 hours 35 minutes; then to Wadi Gharandel, 2 hours
30 minutes (not from one hour and a half to two hours from Robinson’s
place of encampment as it is calculated above, p. 307); to the outlet
of the valley near Abu Zelîmeh, 7 hours 12 minutes; to the sea, 1 hour;
to Wadi Schellâl, 4 hours 15 minutes; to Firân, 13 hours 45 minutes;
to the Convent, 16 hours. Robinson cannot remove the encampment in the
Wilderness of SIN to a more southern point than the outlet of WADI
SCHELLÂL, because the people here, according to him, stept forth out of
the Wilderness of Sin. For the same reason he is compelled to place ALUS
in FIRÂN. On the other hand, in my opinion, not alone is the encampment
at the sea not different from that at the outlet of the valley at Abu
Zelîmeh, but the Wilderness of Sin mentioned in the Book of Exodus, which
extended as far as Sinai, and ended with Raphidîm, is also the same as
the two stations mentioned in the Book of Numbers, Daphka and Alus, and
therefore in the last passage should as little have been mentioned as
peculiar places of encampment, as the Red Sea. The Wilderness of Sin
accordingly, like the Wilderness of Sûr, embraced three days’ journey.
The stations, and their remoteness from each other, stand therefore as
follows:
According to ROBINSON.
HOURS. MIN.
I. 6 12 } three Stations from Ayûn Mûsa to Ain
II. 6 12 } Hawâreh = MARAH.
III. 6 12 }
IV. 2 30 to Wadi Gharandel = ELIM.
V. 8 12 to the Sea.
VI. 4 15 to Wadi Schellâl = Wilderness of SIN.
VII. 7 } two Stations to Firân = DAPHKA and ALUS.
VIII. 7 }
IX. 8 } two Stations to the Plain of Râha = Raphidîm
X. 8 } and SINAI.
According to _my_ assumption.
I. 7 } three Stations to Wadi Gharandel = MARAH.
II. 7 }
III. 7 }
IV. 7 12 to the Outlet of the Valley near Abu Zelîmeh = ELIM.
V. 6 } three Stations to Firân, _i. e._ by DAPHKA and
VI. 6 } ALUS to Raphidîm at SINAI.
VII. 6 }
It is easy to imagine why the latter stations are somewhat shorter than
the first, on account of the greater difficulty of the road. According to
Robinson, the fourth station would be scarcely explicable. Why did the
people murmur so near the twelve springs of Elim? How would precisely
that strikingly long journey of more than eight hours, from Elim to the
sea, not have been mentioned at all? And how was it possible that the
days’ marches should have constantly increased in length amidst the lofty
mountains and difficult ground?
APPENDIX D. (P. 314 and 318.)—The expounders of this passage take the
words: בַּחֹדֶשׁ הַשְׁלִישִׁ֔י “_In the third month_,” as if it were
written, “_On the first day of the third month_,” and therefore refer the
following “_the same day_,” equally to the _first_ day of the month. See
GESENIUS, Thesaur. p. 404, b: “tertiis calendis post exitum,” and p. 449,
b: tertio novilunio, _i. e._ calendis mensis tertii. Ewald, Gesch. des V.
Isr. ii. p. 189. “_The Day (?) of the third month_ (_i. e._ _however of
the new moon, therefore the first day_.”) But the Seventy at all events
have not understood it in this manner, as they translate: Τοῦ δὲ μηνὸς
τοῦ τρίτου τῇ ἡμέρᾳ ταύτῃ. It also appears that the Jewish tradition
have not comprehended it thus, as the LAW-GIVING, which according to
Exod. xix. 11, 15, occurred on the _third_ day after their arrival,
is even now solemnised by the Jews on the fifth or sixth day of the
third month, simultaneously with the appointed harvest-feast, on the
fiftieth day after the Exodus (Leviticus xxiii. 15, 16); in accordance
with this, the arrival at Sinai must have happened on the _third_ day
of the third month. We cannot, however, but perceive, how חֹדֶשׁ
without addition, might here be employed for _new moon’s day_, although
in all other passages of customary speech it had lost this etymological
signification, and only meant _month_; even in passages where the _new
moon’s day_ itself was spoken of, as in Exod. xl. 2, 17; Numb. i. 1;
xxxiii. 38, where everywhere בְּאֶחָד לַחֹדֶשׁ is especially added
to it, “on the _first_ (day) of the month,” whereas passages like Numb.
ix. 1, and xx. 1, cannot naturally be cited, because here, there lies as
little reason as in Exod. xix. 1, to understand _first_ of the month, and
the Seventy also do not translate, ἐν ἡμέρᾳ μιᾷ, or νουμηνίᾳ as in the
former passages, but only in the simple sense of the words ἐν τῷ μηνὶ τῷ
πρώτῳ. Our passage, Exod. xix. 1, therefore, would alone remain, from
which it would be possible to conclude that there was such a double and
equivocal employment of חֹדֶשׁ, because here certainly the following
words, “the same day,” indicate a particular single day, which particular
day, nevertheless, cannot be guessed from our present text. But in my
opinion this is exactly an additional and not unimportant reason, to
assume either a transposition or a later insertion of these two verses.
The last is also assumed by EWALD, in so far as he, indeed (Gesch. des
V. Isr. p. 75), ascribes the account, xix. 3-24, but not the two first
verses, to the oldest sources. I have already mentioned above (p. 316)
that JOSEPHUS (Ant. iii. 2, 5), who also does not understand the words
from the _first_ day of the month, transposes the passage, and indeed _to
that very place_ whither I, ignorant of this, had already placed it in my
earlier printed account, p. 48, namely, _immediately after the battle
of the Amalekites_, to which “the same day” most naturally refers. If
this is correct, then the original text ran thus: that the Israelites
at Raphidîm, in Wadi Firân, where they fought the battle, were not only
near Horeb, but also near Sinai, that is to say, that both Mounts of
God are one; and that, in fact, Moses first at Sinai received the visit
of Jethro, and, as appears most natural, first at Sinai organised his
people; but at the same time it must be allowed that Sinai, or Horeb, was
no other mountain than SERBÂL.
Supposing that, in this manner, we have correctly understood the original
connection, it did not first of all require any statement of the month;
this would probably be only added upon the isolation of the following
section referring to the law-giving. In this case, only three exact dates
for the journey could exist. The people pass out from Ramses in the first
year, the first month, on the fifteenth day; they proceed from Elim,
which is half-way, just one month after, in the first year, second month,
on the fifteenth day. The days of rest at the stations are unknown, but
if we assume that the people proceeded without sojourning, then they came
to Raphidîm on the third day from Elim; received the water, and were
attacked by Amalek on the fourth, fought on the fifth till after sunset
to the commencement of the sixth day, and on the same sixth day (for the
Hebrew day began in the evening) encamped at Sinai. This would have been
in the first year, in the second month, on the twentieth day. Now as the
retreat from Sinai followed in the second year, in the second month, the
twentieth day, then the sojourn at Sinai would have lasted exactly _one
year_. This coincidence was perhaps originally as little the result of
accident as the duration of just _one month_ between the first departure
from RAMSES and the second from ELIM.
APPENDIX E. (P. 319.)—Two inscriptions in marble, referring to the
foundation of the convent, still exist, which are let into the external
wall facing the convent-garden, one in _Greek_, the other in _Arabic_.
BURCKHARDT (Trav. p. 545) says: “An Arabic inscription _over the gate_,
in modern characters, says that Justinian built the convent in the
thirtieth year of his reign, as a memorial of himself and his wife
Theodora. It is curious to find a passage of the Koran introduced into
this inscription: it was probably done by a Moslem sculptor, without the
knowledge of the monks.” The Arabic inscription is certainly over the
small door leading into the garden. But if Burckhardt saw it here, it is
inconceivable that he did not see the _Greek_ inscription beside it, let
into the wall with a similar border and shelter. ROBINSON saw neither of
them (i. p. 205); RICCI caused the Greek inscription to be copied, and
from his copy this has been communicated and translated by LETRONNE in
the _Journ. des Sav._ 1836, p. 538, with some slight deviations. But as
early as 1823, another copy, which escaped Letronne, was published by Sir
Fr. Henniker (_Notes during a Visit to Egypt, &c._ p. 235, 236), which,
however, is very inaccurate, although it endeavours to render the written
characters themselves. The _Arabic_ inscription, as far as I am aware,
is still quite unknown. I have taken an impression of both on paper, and
offer a faithful representation of them here. The Greek runs thus:
Ἐκ βάθρων ἀνηγέρθη τὸ ἱερὸν τοῦτο μοναστήριον τοῦ Σιναίου ὄρους,
ἔνθα ἐλάλησεν ὁ θεὸς τῷ Μωυσῇ παρὰ τοῦ ταπεινοῦ βασιλέως Ῥωμαίων
Ἰουστινιανοῦ πρὸς ἀΐδιον μνημόσυνον αὐτοῦ καὶ τῆς συζύγου τοῦ
Θεοδώρας· ἔλαβε τέλος μετὰ τὸ τριακοστὸν ἔτος τῆς βασιλείας τοῦ,
καὶ κατέστησεν ἐν αὐτῷ ἡγούμενον ὀνόματι Δουλᾶ ἐν ἔτει ἀπὸ μὲν
Ἀδὰμ ͵ϛκαʹ ἀπὸ δὲ Χριστοῦ φκζʹ.
“This holy convent of Mount Sinai, where God spoke to Moses, was
built from the foundation by Justinian, the lowly king of the
Romans, in eternal remembrance of the same, and of his consort
Theodora; it was completed in the thirtieth year of his reign,
and he placed a chief in the same, one of the name of Dulas, in
the year 6021 since Adam, 527 since Christ.”
LETRONNE read in the second line ἐν ᾧ πρῶτον in place of ἔνθα, and in the
seventh line κατέστησε τὸν in place of κατέστησεν. The written characters
indicate about the twelfth or thirteenth century. As the Emperor
Justinian reigned from 527-565, it is assumed by the writer that the
determination to found the convent, and at the same time the appointment
of his abbot Dulas, occurred in the first year of the reign of the
emperor, although the completion of the edifice is not placed before
the thirtieth year of the same, _i. e._ 556 after Christ. The year 6021
from the creation of the world corresponds to the year 527 after Christ,
according to the Alexandrine era of PANODORUS and ANIANUS.
The Arabic inscription is this:
انثا دير طور سينا و كنيسة جبل المناجاة افقير لله الراجي
عفو مولاه الملك المهذب الرومي المذهب يوستيانس تذكارا لى
ولزوجته ثاوضوره علي سرور الزسان حني برث اللّه الارض ومن
عليها وهو خير الوارثين وتم بناوه بعد ثلاثين سنة من ملكة
ونصب له ريسا اسبه ذولاس جري ذلك سنا ٦٠٢١ لادم الوافق
لتاريخ السيد المسيح سنة ٥٢٧
“The convent of TÔR (Mount) Sina, and the Church of the Mount of
the Interview, was built by the dependent on God, and hoping in
the promise of his Lord, the pious King of the Greek Confession,
Justianus (for Justinian), in remembrance of himself and his
consort Theodora to last for all times, in order that God might
inherit the earth, and who upon it: for _he is the best of the
heirs_. And the building was completed after thirty years of his
reign. And he appointed it a chief, with the name of Dhulas. And
this happened after Adam 6021, which corresponds with the year
527 of the era of the Lord Christ.”
The written characters of the inscription, according to the learned
judgment of the consul, Dr. WETZSTEIN, who has also most kindly taken
upon himself the re-writing and translation of the inscription here
communicated, indicate that it did not exist before the year 550 of
the Mohammedan era, which thus refers to the period when the Greek
inscription was also composed. The passage in the Koran which BURCKHARDT
already mentions, is to be found, Sûr. 21, v. 18.
Another large stone is immured in the same wall, but much higher up, over
a far larger gate, now built up, at a spot behind which the kitchen is
at present situated, the ornamental part of which [Illustration] might
lead us to infer that another still older inscription might still exist
here. Unfortunately I was unable to bring a ladder to the spot to examine
the stone more accurately. It is to be hoped some future traveller may
accomplish this.
APPENDIX F. (P. 319.)—The history of the _Palm-wood of Pharan_ forms the
central point of the history of the whole Peninsula. The accounts of it
given by the Greeks and Romans furnish a new proof for this, although
their geographical determinations in great measure have not hitherto been
correctly comprehended. Thus the POSEIDION of Artemidorus, Diodorus, and
Strabo, is generally placed at the extremity of the Peninsula, which is
now called RÂS MOHAMMED; also by Gosselin, Letronne, and Grosskurd, who
nevertheless had already recognised the manifestly incorrect comment of
the Strabonic manuscripts (p. 776: τοῦ [Ἐλανίτου] μυχοῦ). As Poseidion
was situated _within_ (ἐνδοτέρω) the Gulf of Suez, and here the _west
coast_ of the Peninsula was to be described, this altar of Poseidion
therefore of necessity was situated either at RAS ABU ZELÎMEH, the
harbour of Faran, or at RAS GEHAN, whence there was a more southern and
shorter communication with Wadi Firân through Wadi Dhaghadeh. That the
_palm-grove_ (Φοινικών) of those authors is not to be sought at TÔR, but
in the Wadi Firân, has been already justly acknowledged by Tuch (Sinait.
Inschr. p. 35), although he still places Poseidion at Râs Mohammed (p.
37). It was the SERB BAL, the _palm-grove_ of Baal, from which the
mountain first received its name. It appears, in earlier times, while the
grove itself was still called by the inhabitants SERB BAL, that the name
of Faran was especially employed for the harbour at Abu Zelîmeh, and for
a Pharanitic settlement on the site of ancient ELIM, near the present
Gebel Hammâm Faraûn, still always called FARAN by the Arabic authors.
(See note, p. 307.) Here also, probably, was the spot where ARISTON
landed under Ptolemy Philadelphus, and founded POSEIDION.
Artemidorus (in Strabo, p. 776) and Diodorus (3, 42) mention Μαρανῖται,
in place of which Gosselin, Ritter, Tuch, and others, read Φαρανῖται. As
the MARANITES, however, inhabited the _eastern coast_ of the Peninsula,
and are said to have been totally destroyed by the Garindæes, I cannot
see any support for this supposition. The ravine of PHARA, mentioned by
JOSEPHUS (Bell. Jud. 4, 9, 4), in Judæa, does not belong hither.
The name of the PHARANITES on the western coast of the Peninsula first
appears in Pliny (H. N. 37, 40), for there is no reason to regard the
_Pharanitis gens_, whom he places in _Arabia Petræa_, as differing from
the _Pharanitai_ of Ptolemy. That the northern station PHARA (circa ten
hours west of Aila) has nothing to do on the tablet of Peutinger with the
Pharanitic palm-grove, is placed beyond a doubt by Ritter (p. 147, &c.).
Ptolemy, in the third century, is the first who mentions a _place_
called PHARAN (κώμη Φαράν); but on account of the detailed comparison
not agreeing, the basis and the connection of his statements deviating
widely from the true conditions, they have for that very reason hitherto
remained in obscurity. His construction of the Peninsula becomes clear
at once, when we take into account that he has evidently taken the blunt
angle of the coast at RAS GEHAN (whither by his latitude he removes Cape
Pharan, instead of to Hammâm Faraûn) to be the most southern point of
the Peninsula, from which the more remote coast runs up again towards
the north-east. Thereby the Peninsula, according to him, becomes about
50′ too short, although the longitude of his point corresponds with
the true one. The real extremity (Râs Mohammed) now corresponds with
the point whither he places the bend of the Elanitic Gulf (ἐπιστροφὴ
τοῦ Ἐλανίτου κόλπου). The whole of the Elanitic Gulf (Gulf of Akaba)
contracts with him into a small angle (μυχός) of 15′, because all is
pushed too far to the north. The coast from the “bend” as far as Ὄννη
in reality corresponds with that from RAS FURTAK (the άκρωτήριον τῆς
ἠπείρου of Diodorus and Artemidorus, in front of which was situated the
island of Phokes) to ʾAIN UNEH, and his Elanitic Gulf, the north part of
which (ἐπιστροφή) he places 66° lon., 29° lat., now assumes the form of
the gulf whose innermost point is now marked by ʾAIN UNEH. He imagines
the Bay of Pharan (μυχὸς κατὰ Φαράν) to be from Cape Faran (ἀκρωτήριον
Φαράν) to the inland town of the same name, as the angle of Elana, and
the innermost angle of Heroonpolis north of Arsinoë. From this same
construction of the Peninsula it followed that the RAITHENES, who were
situated below the Pharanites, on the same coast near Tôr (even now
called Ῥαιθοῦ), are now placed on the coast facing Arabia (παρὰ τὴν
ὀρεινὴν τῆς Εὐδαίμονος Ἀραβίας), therefore on the eastern, in place of
the western coast of the Peninsula; and finally, as the natural result
of this, he makes the primitive chain of mountains extending from Faran
to Râs Mohammed (ὄρη μέλανα) run towards Judæa, therefore up towards the
north-east, in place of down towards the south-east.
From all this, it is evident, that the place PHARAN of Ptolemy is
identical with the well-known Pharan in the Wadi Firân, and the Phœnikon
of Artemidorus and Strabo. Still less can we doubt that the PHARAN of
Eusebius also (s. v. Ῥαφιδίμ), and of Jerome, which is expressly (s.
v. Φαράν) called a _town_ (πόλις, _oppidum_), and situated (certainly
somewhat too near) three days’ journey from Aila, was the town in Wadi
Firân, although by a confusion with the Biblical wilderness of Paran, it
is added that the Israelites on their way back from Sinai went past this
Pharan. (Compare Ritter, p. 740.)
According to the manuscript of the monk AMMONIUS (Illustr. Chr. Martyr
lecti. triumphi ed. Combefis. Paris, 1660), the town of Pharan was
converted to Christianity in the middle of the fourth century by a monk
Moses, born in Pharan itself, but his narration, which is evidently an
invention, and belongs to about 370, must by no means be employed as
an historical authority for that period, and seems to rest chiefly on
some passages of a romance of Nilus, which was written for an edifying
object, and his seems to have been composed with a similar intention. In
NILUS, who is placed about 390, but over whose period and writings much
uncertainty still hangs, a Christian counsellor (βουλή) of the town of
Pharan is mentioned (Nili opp. quædam, 1539. 4ᵒ). Soon after this, since
the first half of the fifth century, Le Quien, from authorities of very
unequal value indeed (Oriens, Christ. vol. iii. p. 751), cites a list
of _bishops of_ PHARAN, who can be followed down to the middle of the
twelfth century. (See Reland, Palæst. vol. ii. p. 220.) All the monks of
the entire mountain range were subordinate to these bishops.
With reference to the foundation of the present convent on Gebel Mûsa,
it is indeed ascribed to the Emperor JUSTINIAN by SAÏD BEN BATRIK
(Eutychius), who wrote about 932-953 (D’Herbelot, s. v.), as well as in
the convent inscriptions of the twelfth or thirteenth centuries, which
have been communicated above; but this is most decidedly contradicted by
the far more reliable testimony, peculiarly valuable here, of PROCOPIUS,
who was the _cotemporary_ of Justinian. He says, in his special treatise
about the buildings founded by Justinian (Proc. ed. Dind. vol. iii. de
ædif. Just. p. 326), that the emperor built a _church_ to the mother of
God, “_not_ upon the summit of the mountain, but _a considerable way
below it_” (παρὰ πολὺ ἔνερθεν, in accordance with the locality, which can
only mean on the intermediate space of ground half-way up the mountain,
where the chapel to Elijah now stands). Separated from this he had also
erected a very strong castle (φρούριον) at the foot of the mountain
(ἐς τοῦ ὄρους πρόποδα), and provided it with a good military guard
to check the incursions of the Saracens into Palestine. As Procopius
directly before and afterwards, as well as throughout the whole paper,
distinguishes very exactly between the _convents_ and the _churches_,
and the military _guard-houses_, it is evident that, according to him,
Justinian did _not_ found the present convent together with his church.
The military castle was, however, probably at a later period employed,
and rebuilt into a convent. Besides, the church founded by Justinian
higher up the hill was not dedicated, like the present convent church,
to St. KATHARINE (see Le Quien, vol. iii. p. 1306), but to MARY. What
is said by Eutychius (who ROBINSON first cited, though he placed him
somewhat too early, still in the tenth century), both about the building
of the convent, and in still more direct contradiction with Procopius,
about a church built upon the _summit of the mountain_, deserves
therefore no more credit than the conversation between the emperor and
the architect, which is communicated. As little must we ascribe to
Justinian, on the statement of Ben Batrik, the foundation of the convents
of RAYEH (at Tôr) and of KOLZUM (a _bishop_ of Clysma, by name Poemes,
is inserted at the Constantinopolitan Council as early as 460; see Acta
Concil. ed. Harduin, ii. 696, 786), as in this case he would undoubtedly
have been mentioned by Procopius. PHARAN is not mentioned by Procopius.
On the contrary, he narrates (de bell. Pers. i. 19, 164; de ædif. 5,
8) the important fact, that the Saracen Prince Abocharagos, reigning
there, had presented the Emperor Justinian with a large palm-grove
(φοινικῶνα), situated in the centre of the land (ἐν τῇ μεσογαίᾳ). On
closer consideration of this account, scarcely a doubt can remain that
the palm-grove of PHARAN is here understood, not the place on the coast
Φοινίκων κώμη, mentioned by Ptolemy (vi. 7, 3), or a palm-grove totally
unknown to us, also situated in the midst of a solitary wilderness,
wholly unprovided with water. According to Ammonius and Nilus all the
inhabitants of Pharan had then become Christian, and a church at all
events existed there; thereby it is easier to understand the gift made
by Abocharagos, which Justinian himself presented to the Phylarch of the
Palestinian Saracens. No doubt the foundation of the castle in the higher
mountains, for watching over those Saracens, was in connection with this.
Next to Procopius, COSMAS INDICOPLEUSTES is by far the most authentic
authority of that period. He was not only both a _cotemporary_ of
Justinian, but likewise describes (about 540) what he himself saw upon
the Peninsula. His work is the only one containing detailed geography
belonging to that period, and his unassuming narration bears everywhere
the marks of unvarnished truth. It is so much the more remarkable that
he neither mentions a convent edifice, nor indeed the localities at
Gebel Mûsa, but only PHARAN, although he had the path of the Israelites
especially in view. (See below more of this.) That on the other hand
ANTONINUS PLACENTINUS, who is held by others to be the _b. Antoninus
Martyr_, nevertheless in his ITINERARIUM (_Acta Sanctor. May_, vol. ii.
p. x-xviii), which is placed by Ritter about 600, should again speak
of a convent at the thorn-bush (Procopius does not yet make mention
of the thorn-bush), between Horeb and Sinai, therefore on the site of
the present convent, appears rather to lead us back to the opinion so
decidedly expressed by PAPEBROCH, who first published the Itinerary, that
this narrative, which has excited such various considerations, though
so learnedly defended, does not belong to an earlier period than the
eleventh or twelfth centuries. At all events, it would be very desirable
if the writings of Ammonius, Nilus, and Antoninus, that have been cited,
and so many others attributed to the first Christian centuries, were
submitted to a more searching and connected criticism than has hitherto
been the case.
The earliest bishop of Mount Sinai to whom we can refer, is not to be
found before the eleventh century, Bishop Jorius, who dies 1033 (Le
Quien, iii. 754). The name in the second Constantinopolitan Council (a.
553), signed _Phronimus episc. Synnaii_ (Acta Concil. ed. Harduin, vol.
iii. p. 53), or SYNAITANORUM (p. 206), and in the fourth council (a.
870), the one named _Constantinus_ ep. SYNAI (Harduin, vol. v. p. 927),
have been incorrectly brought hither (Ritter, Abhandl. der Berl. Akad.
1824, p. 216. Halbinsel Sinai, p. 96), as they belong to SYNAUS, or
SYNNAUS, in Phrygia.
APPENDIX G. (P. 320.)—It must be most absolutely denied that an
interrupted and distinct tradition about the position of Sinai in the
Peninsula was preserved as late as the Christian times. The name Choreb,
or Sinai, appears even at a very early period to have been understood
for the whole of the lofty range in the Peninsula, which was constantly
regarded from a distance as one single mountain. No one before the time
of the Christian hermits attached any interest in connecting a fixed
geographical notion with the name that had been transmitted. We only
read of ELIJAH that he fled to the “Mount of God Choreb,” and there
(1 Kings xix. 9) went into the same cave (for it is presupposed that
it is known) in which the Lord had already appeared to Moses on Mount
Sinai (2 Exodus xxxiii. 22). The native Arab tribes by degrees became
so much changed, that not one of the Old Testament names remained in
its original position. The Greeks and Romans only knew _one_ spot on
the whole Peninsula, the _Palm-wood of Pharan_, because this spot only,
and the harbour leading to it, was of any importance since the mines
of that wilderness had been exhausted. Firân must of necessity have
been the earliest central point for the Christian hermits also; that
mountainous wilderness, affording necessary means of sustenance, in the
greatest retirement, must have appeared better adapted for them than any
other district, since here we also find the most _ancient church_ of the
Peninsula. When gradually the individual Biblical localities began to be
more accurately investigated, people had no other means for forming their
determinations than we possess now, and besides understood far less to
employ these means, since all acute criticism of the Biblical passages,
which could alone give them information, at that time lay far removed.
They understood the name SINAI as an indeterminate appellation for the
whole range; but when they searched for Sinai in a single mountain,
SERBÂL then must have immediately presented itself. Thither also points
all that we read about the matter in authentic writings during the first
centuries, but to these the writing of the monk Ammonius certainly does
not belong in the opinion of those who examine accurately, and hardly
the edifying romance of Nilus. What JOSEPHUS (Ant. iii. 5) says of Sinai
(τὸ Σιναῖον) may very well refer to Serbâl, at all events not to Gebel
Mûsa, as has been already shown by HOGG (in several passages, p. 207).
According to EUSEBIUS, Choreb and Raphidîm were situated _at_ PHARAN
(ἐγγὺς Φαράν, see note, p. 313), and Sinai near Choreb (παράκειται τῷ
ὄρει Σινᾶ, see above). JEROME (s. v. _Choreb_) regards both mounts as
one, which he likewise places _at_ PHARAN, and consequently recognises
in SERBÂL. The account by NILUS also, about the Saracenic attack at
Sinai, either does not belong to the time in which it is placed (c.
400), or refers to SERBÂL, for here a _church_ (ἐκκλησία) is frequently
(p. 38, 46) mentioned, which at that time did not exist at Gebel Mûsa,
and Nilus, that _very same_ night in which the scattered slain had been
buried, goes down to Pharan, which would have been impossible from Gebel
Mûsa. Finally, COSMAS INDICOPLEUSTES, who traversed the Peninsula about
the year 535, probably immediately before the building of the Justinian
church, passes through Raithu, _i. e._ Tôr, which he regards as Elim,
although he only found a few palm-trees there (the present considerable
plantations are, therefore, of more recent date), and across the present
Wadi Hebrân to Raphidîm, which is now called PHARAN. Here he was at the
termination of his Sinai journey. From this spot Moses went with the
elders “upon the Mount Choreb, _i. e._ Sinai, which is about 6000 paces
(one mile and a half) distant from Pharan,” and struck the water out of
the rock; here also the tabernacle of the congregation was built, and the
law was given; thereby the Israelites besides received the Scripture, and
had leisure to learn it for their application; thence we may date the
numerous rock-inscriptions which are still to be found in that wilderness
(especially at Serbâl). (Εἶτα πάλιν παρενέβαλον εἰς Ῥαφιδίν, εἰς τὴν νῦν
καλουμένην Φαράν· καὶ διψευσάντων αὐτῶν, πορεύεται κατὰ πρόσταξιν θεοῦ
ὁ Μωϋσῆς μετὰ τῶν πρεσβυτέρων καὶ ἡ ῥάβδὸς ἐν τῇ χειρὶ αὐτοῦ, εἰς Χωρὴβ
τὸ ὄρος, τουτέστιν ἐν τῷ Σιναΐῳ, ἐγγὺς ὄντι τῆς Φαρὰν ὡς ἀπό μιλίων ἕξ·
(Burckhardt, _Trav. in Syr._ p. 611, when he descended Serbâl, occupied
two hours and a half, from its base to Wadi Firân) καὶ ἐκεῖ πατάξαντος
τὴν πέτραν, ἐῤῥύησεν ὕδατα πολλὰ καὶ ἔπιεν ὁ λαός.—Λοιπὸν κατεληλυθότος
αὐτοῦ ἐκ τοῦ ὄρους προστάττεται ὑπὸ τοῦ θεοῦ ποιεῖν τὴν σκηνήν), etc.
(_Topograph. christ._ lib. v. in the _Coll. nova patr. ed. B. de
Montfaucon_, tom. ii. p. 195, _seq._)
This testimony of an unprejudiced traveller is expressed with as much
distinctness, as it is worthy of confidence and without suspicion. At
the commencement of the sixth century, therefore, according to this
eye-witness, it was believed that the law had been given on SERBÂL.
Cosmas has so little doubt about the matter, that he does not even
mention the southern range. Nevertheless, we must admit that the monkish
population had already spread over the whole of the mountain range,
especially among the districts in a sheltered situation about Gebel Mûsa;
and we need not be surprised that a different view was formed among the
monks there situated, according to which Moses turned to the south,
instead of towards the north, coming from the height of Wadi Hebrân (for
the idea that Elim was Raithu was a fixed conviction already cherished
by the convent, prematurely founded there). Such changes are of frequent
occurrence in Christian topography. But however closely Horeb and Sinai,
Raphidîm and the Mount of the Law, appear in the representation, it
follows again from this, that associated with Sinai, the rock from which
the water flowed was moved farther south. The monks were not deterred
by the verses at the commencement of the 19th chapter from transferring
the rock of Raphidîm, and consequently Raphidîm itself, as well as the
thorn-bush of Horeb, also to Gebel Mûsa, their new Sinai; there in Wadi
Leg´a (Robinson, i. p. 184) it is still shown for the admiration of
travellers. Thus the unlettered apprehension of the monks that Raphidîm
was situated at Sinai, approached nearer to the truth on this head than
the more recent verbal criticism.
The legate of Justinian now found it appropriate to found his castle
in that secure position, and to build a church at that very spot for
the hermits who were dwelling around it. It is quite conceivable that
this alone would have contributed to attract many new hermits thither,
and to originate a new view about the position of the Mount of the Law,
if this had not previously existed. But how both views accommodated
themselves to each other during the centuries immediately succeeding,
we have absolutely no distinct proofs. At all events, while Mount
SINAI is frequently mentioned after the foundation of the bishopric of
Pharan, we must be guarded not to understand it to be Gebel Mûsa, unless
something further is said. Ordinarily, the lofty range of the Peninsula
seems in general to be understood by it. When, for example, as early as
the year 536, therefore probably before the erection of the church, at
the _Concilium sub Mena_ at Constantinople, one _Theonas, presbyter et
legatus S. Montis Sinai et deserti Raithu et S. ecclesiæ Pharan_ (Θεωνᾶς
ἐλεῷ θεοῦ πρεσβύτερος καὶ ἀποκρισιάριος τοῦ ἁγίου ὄρούς Σινᾶ καὶ τῆς
ἐρήμου Ῥαιθοῦ καὶ τῆς κατὰ Φαρὰν ἁγίας ἐκκλησίας. Harduin, vol. ii. p.
1281) is named, the church of Pharan, at that time the still undoubted,
most important central point and bishopric would have been first
mentioned, if the monks scattered over the whole range and the plain of
Raithu had not been regarded more comprehensive, and on that account
placed first. LE QUIEN (iii. p. 753) mentions the _Episcopi Pharan
sivi Montis Sinai_ in succession, and, as the earliest with the last
designation, the above-mentioned Bishop Jorius († 1033). Since then, and
even since Eutychius (c. 940), the designation of the single Gebel Mûsa,
as Sinai, is indeed beyond all doubt.
FOOTNOTES
[1] Chronologie der Ægypter. Vol. i. Berlin, 1849.
[2] On the sudden death of Bishop Alexander, which happened shortly
after our departure from Palestine, Gobat, as is known, was selected
by H. M. the King of Prussia to be Bishop of the Evangelical Bishopric
of Jerusalem, which he has administered, by the blessing of God,
efficaciously ever since 1846.
[3] Previous to my departure from Alexandria, the firman of the
Viceroy was presented to me, with unlimited permission to make all the
excavations which I might think desirable, and with instructions to
the local authorities to render me assistance. All the workmen and aid
necessary for forming and transporting our collection of antiquities,
were demanded in return for money, through virtue of our firman, from the
Sheikhs of the neighbouring villages, or the Mudhirs of the provinces,
by the Kawass, who had been given us by the government, and they were
never refused. The monuments from the southern regions were transported
from Mount Barkal to Alexandria on government boats, and three sepulchral
chambers near the great Pyramids of Gizeh were also added, which were
carefully taken to pieces by the aid of four workmen, sent expressly for
the purpose from Berlin, and were put on board a vessel opposite Old
Cairo. I also received, before my departure from Egypt, a written permit
for the exportation of the collection; and the objects themselves were
presented from the Viceroy to H. M. the King of Prussia.
These peculiar favours, at a time when all private travellers,
antiquarian speculators, and even diplomatic persons, were expressly
forbidden by the Egyptian Government to make any collection, or to export
antiquities, have caused many unfavourable judgments to be passed on our
expedition. We have been chiefly accused of a thirst for destruction,
which, under the given circumstances, would presuppose a peculiarly
barbarous feeling to have existed in our party; for as we did not, like
many of our rivals, excavate and transport the monuments, the greater
part of which had previously been invisible, hurriedly and by night,
and with bribed assistance, but leisurely, and with open aid from the
authorities, and before the eyes of numerous travellers, all disregard in
our treatment of the remaining monuments, of which perhaps they formed a
part, would certainly have been so much the more blameable, since it was
so easy to avoid it. We might, however, trust to a more correct judgment
than what is usually possessed by the greater proportion of ordinary
travellers or collectors, with regard to the value of the individual
monuments; besides, we were not, after all, in danger of being deceived
in this matter by personal self-interest, as we made our selection of
the monuments not for ourselves, but commissioned by our government, for
the Royal Museum in Berlin, therefore for the benefit of science, and a
public eager after knowledge.
The collection, which chiefly on account of its historical value, may
be placed on an equal footing with the most important European museums,
was incorporated immediately on its arrival with the Royal collections,
without my remaining myself officially connected with it; and it is
already arranged and exhibited to the public. A more accurate examination
is best fitted to place the inconsiderate accusations of more recent, and
even German tourists, in their proper light, some of whom have gone so
far, for example, very recently, Herr Julius Braun, in the _Algemeiner
Augsburg Gazette_, as to charge us with the mutilation of the gods,
which happened more than 3000 years ago, in the temple of El Kab.
Besides, it would prove an entire ignorance of Egyptian affairs at the
present time, or of that which chiefly lends the monuments of antiquity
their real interest to us, if all were not desirous to preserve in the
public museums of Europe, as many as possible of the treasures of those
countries, which are really as valuable, as they are undervalued in their
own home, and numbers of which are still daily destroyed.
[4] The journal of this expedition up the Nile has been since published
under the title Expedition zur Entdeckung der Quellen des Weissen Nil,
1840-1841. By Ferd. Werne. With a Preface by Karl Ritter. A map and a
table of figures. Berlin: G. Reimer 1848. 8vo.
[5] Abbas Pascha has been Viceroy of Egypt since the death of Ibrahim
Pascha in 1848.
[6] This paper—An account of the river Goschop, and of the countries of
Enarea, Caffa, and Doko, given by a native of Enarea (with a map)—has
been translated by Ritter, and was communicated to the Geographical
Society at Berlin on the 7th January, 1843, and was printed in the
monthly reports of this society in the latter part of the year. P.
172-188.
[7] On our departure for Upper Egypt, we had minutely examined 130
private tombs, and had discovered the remains of 67 Pyramids.
[8] See my essay, _Sûr l’ordre des colonnes piliers en Egypte_ et ses
rapports avec le second ordre Egyptien et la colonne Grecque (avec deux
planches), in the ninth volume of the Annales de l’Institut. de Corresp.
Archéol. Rome, 1838.
[9] See p. 118.
[10] _Proskynemata._ “Sometimes travellers who happened to pass by a
temple inscribed a votive sentence on the walls, to indicate their
respect for the deity, and solicit his protection during their journey,
the complete formula of which contained the adoration (_proskunéma_) of
the writer, with the assurance that he had been mindful of his wife, his
family, and friends; and the reader of the inscription was sometimes
included in a share of the blessings it solicited. The date of the king’s
reign, and the day of the month, were also added, with the profession
and parentage of the writer.”—_Wilkinson’s Ancient Egypt_, vol. iii., p.
395.—TR.
[11] “Every Pharaoh was the Sun of Egypt, and over his name bore ‘Son of
the Sun;’ and as the sun was Phra, so each king was called Phra. Each
monarch by law inherited his father’s throne in lineal succession, so
that the incumbent was Phra son of Phra.”—_Gliddon’s Ancient Egypt_, p.
32.—TR.
[12] The colours have now, alas! almost entirely disappeared. Owing to
the unequal grain of the stone all the representations were prepared
with a thin layer of lime for the groundwork, before they were painted;
this lime has peeled off in the transport and by the action of the damp
sea air, so that the rough sculpture alone remains. In the Work on the
Monuments of the Prussian Expedition (Div. II., sheet 19-22), the colours
have been given faithfully, as they were preserved in their original
freshness when covered by the sand.
[13] After our return from the south, two entire sepulchral chambers,
besides the one here mentioned, were taken to pieces and brought to
Europe. All three are now reconstructed, with the other monuments, in the
New Museum at Berlin. _See_ Letter XXXV.
[14] A separate essay, Ueber den Bau der Pyramiden, was sent by me to the
Royal Academy of Sciences in 1843, and it was printed in consequence of
a resolution of the 3rd of August of that year. See the Monthly Report
(Monats Bericht) of the Academy, 1843, p. 177-203, with three Plates.
[15] I have spoken more at length on this in my Chronology of the
Egyptians, vol. i., p. 294.
[16] We have been told on good authority that this statue is not composed
of granite, but of limestone from the neighbouring hills.—TR.
[17] Compare my essay, _Ueber die ausgedehnte Anwendung des Spitzbogens
in Deutschland im 10 und 11 Jahrhundert_, as an Introduction to H. Gally
Knight’s Entwickelung der Architectur vom 10 bis 14 Jahrhundert unter den
Normannen, translated from the English; Leipzig, 1841, at G. Wigand’s;
and my father’s treatise, _Der Dom zu Naumburg_, by C. P. Lepsius;
Leipzig, 1840 (in Puttrich’s Denkm. der Bauk., ii., Lief. 3, 4)
[18] He among them blushes, who cannot show many strokes upon his body,
for non-payment of tribute.—TR.
[19] _Kaftan_, an open tunic.—TR.
[20] _Tarbusch_, red cap.—TR.
[21] The Germans generally calculate distance by the _hour_, which
corresponds to about three English miles, as this distance can be
traversed at a foot pace within that space of time.—TR.
[22] About twopence-halfpenny English money.
[23] Compare my Chronology of the Egyptians, i., p. 262, &c.
[24] According to Linant, the difference amounts to 22 metres, that
is, 70 feet Rheinland (72 English). In June, 1843, an engineer of the
Viceroy, Nascimbeni, who was engaged in making a new map, and levelling
the Faiûm, visited us in our camp, at the Pyramid of Mœris. He had only
found a descent of 2 metres (6 feet 6 inches English) from Illahûn to
Medînet, but from thence to Birqet-el-Qorn, 75 metres (246 feet English).
I am not aware that anything has been published about this considerable
difference of measurements. Sir G. Wilkinson, in his Mod. Eg. and Thebes,
vol. ii., 346, states the surface of the water to be about 125 English
feet below the bank of the Nile at Beni-suef.
[25] Mémoire sur le lac Mœris, presenté et lu à la Société Egyptienne le
5 Juillet, 1842, par Linant de Bellefonds, inspecteur-général des ponts,
et chaussées, publié par la Société Egyptienne. Alexandrie, 1843. 4to.
Compare my Chronology, vol. i., p. 262 &c.
[26] The same Domenico Lorda again travelled that year to Abyssinia, and
sent six other Abyssinian manuscripts to Herr Lieder from thence, who
showed them to me on my return to Cairo. These, also, on my suggestion,
were afterwards obtained for the Royal Library. By M. Lorda’s account
they contain:
A. ABUSCHER—Almanacco perpetuo Civile-Ecclesiastico-Storico.
B. SETTA NEGHEST—Codice dell’ Imperadore Eeschias.
C. JUSEPH—Storia Civile, ed Ecclesiastica. (?)
D. BERAAN—Storia Civile, ed Ecclesiastica.
E. PHILKISIUS E MARISAK—Due Opere, in un volume, che trattano della
Storia Civile.
F. SINODUS—Dritto Canonico.
[27] _Sont_, or Acacia, Mimosa Nilotica.—_Sir G. Wilkinson._—TR.
[28] This letter, addressed to Alexander von Humboldt, has been already
printed in the _Prussian Gazette_, Berlin, 9th Feb., 1844.
[29] “Dedicated to King Ptolemy and Cleopatra, his sister, benevolent
deities.”—TR.
[30] The emendation, ἀδελφῆς, in this inscription, which dates from the
thirty-fifth year of Euergetes (B.C. 136), is of importance in certain
chronological determinations of that period. Letronne (Rec. des Inscr.,
vol. i., p. 33-56) assumed that Cleopatra III., the niece and second
wife of Euergetes II., was here meant. Hence alone he concluded that
this king, in the official documents written before his expulsion, in
the year 132 B.C., only joined the name of his wife, Cleopatra III., to
his own, and therefore he fixed the date of all the inscriptions, in
which both the Cleopatras, the sister, and the (second) wife are named
after the king, in the period after the return of Euergetes (127-117),
_e. g._ the inscriptions on the obelisk of Philæ (Rec., vol. 1., p.
333). In this determination of the time, he is followed by Franz (Corp.
Inscr., vol. iii., p. 285), who, for the same reason, fixes the date of
the inscriptions (c. i., no. 4841, 4860, 4895, 4896) between B.C. 127 and
117, although he was already aware of my correction of the inscription of
Pselchis (c. i., no. 5073).
It is indeed singular that only _one_ Cleopatra is mentioned in the
inscription of Pselchis; but as it is Cleopatra II., the _first_ wife
of the king, who he always distinguishes from his second wife by the
appellation of _sister_; it cannot thence be concluded that from the very
commencement of his second marriage he expressly excluded all mention of
the latter in the documents. This also is confirmed in the most distinct
manner by two Demotic Papyri belonging to the royal museum, in which
_both_ Cleopatras are mentioned, although the one papyrus is as early as
the year B.C. 141, the other, a duplicate, is from the year B.C. 136. All
inscriptions which, according to Letronne (Rec. des Inscr., tome i., no.
7, 26, 27, 30, 31) and Franz (Corp. Inscr., vol. iii., no. 4841, 4860,
4895, 4896), from the reasons stated, date between the years B.C. 127
and 117, may, therefore, still be placed, with equal probability, in the
years 145 to 132.
[31] Compare Letronne, Recueil des Inscriptions Grecques de l’Egypte,
tome i., p. 365, &c. Ptolemy EUPATOR is not mentioned by authors. He was
introduced for the first time among the predecessors of Soter II., who
were worshipped as divinities, in a Greek papyrus [in Leyden[A]], which
was composed in the reign of Soter II., in the year B.C. 105, and he was
inserted between Philometor and Euergetes. Böckh, who published the
Papyrus (1821), referred the surname of Euergetes to Soter II. and his
wife, and considered EUPATOR to be a surname of the deified EUERGETES II.
In the same year, Champollion Figeac also wrote about this papyrus, and
endeavoured to prove that Eupator was the son of Philometor, who was
killed by Euergetes II., on his ascent to the throne. This view was
assented to at a later period by St. Martin, Böckh, and Letronne (Rech.
pour ser à l’Hist. de l’Eg., p. 124). Meanwhile, the name of EUPATOR was
discovered in a second papyrus from the reign of Soter II., as well as
in the letter of Numenius on the Philensic obelisk of H. Bankes, from
the time of Euergetes II. In both inscriptions the name of Eupator was
mentioned; it did not, however, follow, but preceded Philometor, and
therefore could not signify his son. Letronne now conjectured (Recueil des
Inscr., vol. i., p. 365) that EUPATOR was another surname of Philometor.
But then it would not have been καὶ θεοῦ Εὐπάτορος καὶ θεοῦ Φιλομήτορος,
but καὶ θεοῦ Εὐπάτορος τοῦ καὶ Φιλομήτορος. In a letter to Letronne, of
the 1st Dec., 1844, from Thebes, which is printed in the Révue Archéol.,
vol. i., p. 678, &c., I communicated to him that I had also found the
name of EUPATOR in several hieroglyphic inscriptions, and indeed always
_before_ Philometor. The same reason which I had employed against
Letronne’s explanation of the Greek name (the passage is not printed
along with it in the Révue), namely, the simple repetition of the θεοῦ,
did not even permit us in the hieroglyphic list to consider EUPATOR
another surname of Philopator. He must have been a Ptolemy who, for a
short time at least, was acknowledged as king, but who is not mentioned
by authors; and, indeed, according to Franz (Corp. Inscr., vol. iii., p.
285), and also by the acknowledgment of Letronne (Rec., vol. ii., p. 536),
he must have been an elder brother of Philometor, who died in a few
months, and therefore was omitted in the Ptolemaic canon.
But the son of Philometor, and of his sister, Cleopatra II., mentioned
by Justinus and Josephus, who was formerly believed to have been
re-discovered in the Eupator of the [Leyden] papyrus, is particularly
mentioned in the hieroglyphic inscriptions among the other Ptolemies,
in his place between Philometor and Euergetes, and we thence become
acquainted with his name, which had not been added by the authors. He
is sometimes named PHILOPATOR, sometimes NEOS PHILOPATOR, and he must
therefore also be placed in future as PHILOPATOR II. in the series of the
reigning Ptolemies. Among fourteen hieroglyphic lists of the Ptolemies,
which come down at least as far as the second Euergetes, seven of their
number give PHILOPATOR II.; in four other lists, in which his name
might appear, he is passed over, and these all seem to belong to the
first years of Euergetes II., his murderer, when the omission is easily
explained. It is natural that he does not appear in the canon, because
neither he nor Eupator lived to witness a change of the Egyptian year
during his reign; on the other hand, as was to be expected, he is also
named in the protocol of the _Demotic Papyrus_, in which the Ptolemies
who are worshipped as divinities are exhibited, and in which Young had
also already correctly acknowledged EUPATOR. In fact, he is here cited
in all the lists with which I am acquainted (five in Berlin, from the
years 114, 103, 99, 89, one in Turin from the year 89), which are of
more recent date than Euergetes II., as well as in a Berlin papyrus from
the fifty-second year of Euergetes himself (B.C. 118). A comparison
also of the demotic lists shows finally that the transposition of the
names EUPATOR and PHILOMETOR in the Greek papyrus from the year B.C.
105 (not 106, as Franz writes—Corp. Inscr., p. 285) is not alone an
error of the copyist in writing, as this, and other transpositions also,
are not unfrequent in the Demotic Papyrus. The different object of
the hieroglyphic and the demotic lists makes it conceivable that such
deviations were not admissible in the former, as in the latter lists.
[A] _Note._—_Leyden_ in place of _Berlin_, both here and below,
is a correction by the author, April, 1853.—TR.
[32] Wilkinson (Mod. Eg. and Th., vol. ii., p. 275) considers this
CLEOPATRA TRYPHÆNA to be the celebrated Cleopatra, the daughter of Neos
Dionysos; Champollion (Lettres d’Eg., p. 110) thinks she is the wife
of Philometor; but the Shields connected with her name belong neither
to Ptolemy XIV., the elder son of Neos Dionysos, nor to Ptolemy VI.
Philometor, but to Ptolemy XIII. Neos Dionysos, or Auletes, who is always
called on the monuments Philopator Philadelphus. CLEOPATRA TRYPHÆNA was,
consequently, the wife of PTOLEMY AULETES.
[33] The inscription alluded to is to be found in the rock-grotto of
ECHMIM, and was undoubtedly first engraved before the reign of Ptolemy
Philadelphus. He is also named with double shields and the usual royal
titles, but without the surname of Soter upon a _stele_ in Vienna,
which was erected in the reign of Philopator. Here, however, he bears
a different Throne-shield from that in Echmim, and certainly, strange
to say, it is the same which even before his time was borne by Philip
Aridæus, and Alexander II., under whom Ptolemy, son of Lagus, was
governor of Egypt. He is also mentioned upon a statue of the king in
the ruins of Memphis, on which the Horus name of the king also appears,
and which probably might have been engraved during his reign. Finally,
the SOTERS are also frequently mentioned by their surnames alone at
the head of the worshipped ancestors of later kings; as in the Rosetta
inscription, and in the bilingual decrees of Philæ (see below, p. 121),
𓊹𓊹, while SOTER II. is always written 𓊪𓊹𓏌𓏏𓏭𓈖𓈞𓂡 _p. nuter enti
nehem_, which would correspond to the Coptic ⲡ.ⲛⲟⲩⲧⲉ ⲉⲧ-ⲛⲉϩⲙ, _deus
servator_. In the _demotic_ inscriptions, the first Soters are also
designated by _nehem_, and in the singular by the Greek word, _p. suter_.
Although, therefore, it cannot be doubted that the SOTERS who, according
to the Demotic Papyrus, were especially worshipped along with the other
Ptolemies, not only in ALEXANDRIA and PTOLEMAIS, but also in THEBES,
were regarded as the head of the Ptolemaic Dynasty, it is nevertheless
so much the more remarkable, that hitherto not a single structure can be
pointed out which was erected under Ptolemy Soter when king, although
he ruled twenty years in this capacity. In addition to this, the
above-mentioned hieroglyphic lists of the Ptolemies commence the series
without exception, _not_ with the _Soters_, but with the _Adelphes_; and,
as was mentioned before, his shields in Echmim bear _no_ royal title;
and in Karnak under Euergetes II., in one and the same representation,
Philadelphus is designated as _king_, and the _Soter_, corresponding to
him in space, as _no king_. In the _demotic_ series of kings, also, of
the Papyrus, the Alexandrine series was wont to omit the Soters, till
the reign of Philometor, and to make the _Adelphes_ immediately succeed
Alexander the Great. The earliest period that I have met with the Soters
is in a Papyrus, from the 17th year of Philopator (B.C. 210), the oldest
of the Berlin collection; the Theban worship of the Ptolemies seems to
have wholly excluded the Soters. Although the commencement of the royal
government is therefore fixed in the year B.C. 305, as is specified
in the canon, and most undeniably confirmed by the above-mentioned
_hieroglyphic stele in Vienna_, which has been already cited for that
purpose by my friend, M. Pinder (Beitr. zur Aelterem Münzkunde, vol. i.,
p. 201) in his instructive essay, On the Era of Philip upon Coins, it
appears, however, to have offered another legitimate opinion, by which
not Ptolemy Lagus, but Philadelphus, the first son of the king (if not
Porphyrogenitus), was considered the head of the Ptolemies. It may thence
be also explained why we find an astronomical Era employed in the reign
of Euergetes, that of the otherwise unknown Dionysius, which began from
the year 285, the first year of the reign of Philadelphus, while the
coins of Philadelphus do not reckon as the commencement of a new era
from the beginning of his own reign, nor from the year 305, but from the
year of the death of Alexander the Great, or the commencement of the
governorship of Ptolemy. (_See_ Pinder, p. 205.)
[34] _See_ Denkmäler aus Aegypten und Aethiopien, Abth. II., Bl. 123-133.
[35] _See_ Denkmäl. Abth. II., Bl. 134.
[36] _Panegyrics_: public religious assemblies which were periodically
held in Egypt.—_Kenrick’s Ancient Egypt._—TR.
[37] _See_ Denkmäl. Abth. IV., Bl. 38, 39.—A special essay on these
inscriptions is prepared.
[38] The first news of the discovery of these important inscriptions,
which had not been noticed by the French-Tuscan expedition, excited some
surprise. Simultaneously with the more exact description of them in the
_Prussian Gazette_, a short English notice of them appeared, in which the
discovery of a second copy of the Rosetta inscription was mentioned, and,
indeed, in Meröe. More recently, when M. Ampère had brought an impression
of the inscription to Paris, the learned academician, M. de Saulcy,
denied that the decree had anything to do with the Rosetta inscription,
and felt himself obliged to ascribe it to Ptolemy Philometor. I therefore
took an opportunity to point out more accurately, in two letters to H.
Letronne (Rev. Archéol., vol. iv., p. i., &c., and p. 240, &c.), as well
as in an essay, in the Papers of the German Oriental Society (vol. i., p.
264, &c.), that the document in question had been drawn up in the 21st
year of Ptolemy Epiphanes, and that it contained a repetition of the
actual decree of the Rosetta inscription, which referred to Cleopatra,
who had meanwhile been elevated to the throne.
[39] The name Cleopatra, instead of Arsinoë, in the hieroglyphic
inscription, appears solely to rest on an error of the writer, which was
avoided in the demotic inscription, for here Arsinoë stands correctly.
The hieroglyphic text of the inscription of Rosetta is also less correct
than the demotic.
[40] Such designations appear even at an earlier period. Thus, in Thebes,
an “Ammon of Tuthmosis (III.)” is mentioned. It thereby appears that one
of the kings named was designated for the newly-established worship of
these gods. Ramses II. dedicated three great rock-temples in Lower Nubia,
at _Derr_, _Gerf Hussên_, and _Sebûa_, to the three greatest gods of
Egypt, _Ra_, _Phtha_, and _Ammon_ (See my Memoir on the earliest Cycle
of the Egyptian Gods, in the papers of the Academy of Berlin, 1851),
and named the places founded there simultaneously after the same gods,
accordingly in Greek HELIOPOLIS, HEPHAISTOPOLIS, and DIOSPOLIS. The same
Ramses founded a fourth powerful and fortified position, Abusimbel, and
called it after himself RAMESSOPOLIS, or the FORTRESS OF RAMESSOPOLIS,
as he also founded two towns in the Delta, and called them after his
own name. Now it is, undoubtedly, with reference to these new worships,
that the gods there adored were named Ammon of Ramses, and Phtha of
Ramses. The king himself was worshipped along with those gods, in these
particular rock-temples, especially in that of Abusimbel.
[41] Compare passages in Letters XXIV., XXVI., XXVII. A grammar and
vocabulary of the Nuba language, as well as a translation of the Gospel
of St. Mark into the Nubian tongue, is ready for publication.
[42] Dhorra. _Holcus sorghum._ Kenrick, Anc. Eg.—TR.
[43] I have since then received intelligence of the death of Herr Bauer,
which happened only the following year.
[44] Russegger (Reise, 2 Bd., 2 Thl., S. 125) found one specimen of this
tree, 95 feet in circumference. He is mistaken when he calls it GANGLES;
the tree is called HÓMARA, and the fruit GUNGULES.
[45] _Wakil_, or deputy.—TR.
[46] The poems contain many unusual grammatical forms and expressions,
and are composed in a very free, and, as it appears, in some measure,
incorrect style.
[47] About six English miles.—TR.
[48] These monuments are now placed in the Egyptian Museum (Berlin). See
the ram and sparrow-hawk in the _Denkmäler aus Egypt. und Ethiop., Abth.
III., Blatt 90_.
[49] By the pods and their kernels, which we brought away with us, Dr.
Klotsch has recognised the _Moringa Arabica Persoon_ (_Hyperanthera
peregrina Forskål_). It seems that this tree has hitherto only been known
in Arabia, and is indigenous there. The individual trees found near
Barkal, which are not mentioned by previous travellers, might perhaps
have been introduced from Arabia. This is the more probable, as the
immigration of those tribes of the Schaiqîeh Arabs from Heg’âz is still
testified in writing.
[50] The expression is, that he has built the Temple 𓂙𓈖𓏏𓆑𓋹𓁶𓇾𓈅𓏤𓇳𓎟𓁧
“to his living image on earth RA-NEB-MA.” The word _chent_ no longer
exists in the Coptic language, but is always translated in the Rosetta
inscription by εἰκών. The temple, and the locality belonging to it, was
also named after the king, but after his Horus name, “The Dwelling of
Scha-em-ma.” From this we may trace the origin of the Ram of Barkal and
the Lion in the British Museum.
[51] This theory of Dr. Lepsius, of the bed of the Nile having been
excavated to a depth of 25 feet in 4000 years, has been examined by
Leonard Horner, Esq., F.R.S., in a paper published in the _Edinburgh
Philosophical Journal_ for July, 1850. Dr. Lepsius having in a letter,
dated 12th April, 1853, addressed to Mr. Horner, expressed a wish that
that paper should be reprinted in the present volume, it will be found
accordingly in the Appendix.—TR.
[52] King of the Noubadœ and the Ethiopians.—TR.
[53] Denkmäl., Abth. II., Bl. 245, 246.
[54] They are called Salamât, “the Salutations,” by earlier travellers.
My attention was called to the correct pronunciation of this word by
our old intelligent guide, ʾAuad. The alteration is very great to the
Arabs, because سَلَامٌ _salàm_, _salus_, is pronounced with the
dental _sin_, صَنَمٌ _sʾanam_, _idolum_, with the lingual _sʾâd_.
The plural, which usually is expressed by أصْنامٌ _asʾnâm_, here
assumes the feminine form صَنَمَاتٌ _sʾanamât_. It is impossible now
to see by the mutilated heads whether they were masculine figures. The
stone of which the statues are composed is a particularly hard quartzose
friable sandstone conglomerate, which looks as if it was glazed, and had
innumerable cracks. The frequent crackling of small particles of stone
at sunrise, when the change of temperature is greatest, in my opinion
produced the tones of Memnon, far-famed in song, which were compared to
the breaking of a musical string.
[55] See note, p. 239.
[56] This King AI was previously a private individual, and afterwards
assumed the priest’s title into his Royal Shield. He not unfrequently
appears with his wife in the tombs of Amarna, as a distinguished
and peculiarly highly venerated officer of King Amenophis IV., that
puritanical worshipper of the Sun, who changed his name into that of
BECH-EN-ATEN.
[57] The dimensions here stated have been taken from Wilkinson, Mod. Eg.
and Thebes, vol. ii., p. 220.
[58] _Apuleii Asclepius sive dialogus Hermetis Trismegisti_, c. 24.—(“Oh
Egypt! Egypt! fables alone of thy religion will survive, equally
incomprehensible to thy descendants; and words cut into stone will alone
remain telling of thy pious deeds, and the Scythian, or one from the
Indus, or some such neighbouring barbarian, will inhabit Egypt.”)—TR.
[59] I did not imagine, when I wrote this down, that this crime of blood
would so speedily be avenged. See Letter XXXIV.
[60] I have since been informed (_Rév. Arch._, vol. iv. p. 82) that M.
Ampère had been expressly sent to Egypt by the Paris Academy, for the
purpose of copying the bilingual inscription at Philæ, which I have
noticed in my letters. See above, p. 121. The exceedingly abridged
representation of the Demotic text, which was communicated by M. de
Saulcy in the _Révue Archéologique_, is borrowed from the copy which was
taken back to Paris, in which, however, the commencement of the Demotic
lines, and along with them the date of the decree, are wanting.
[61] _Rhamnus nabeca_, Wilkinson, Mod. Eg. and Thebes.—TR.
[62] These places were described for the first time accurately, and in an
instructive manner, by Wilkinson. Journ. of the R. Geogr. Soc., vol. ii.,
p. 28, &c.
[63] “Medicine for the soul.”—TR.
[64] These are the exact words of my journal, and as they were understood
by Ritter, p. 578. In the printed report, p. 8, it might appear as if
Robinson had relinquished the ascent of the whole of this part of the
mountain; in the memoir of the Bibliotheca Sacra, this is mentioned as
a mistake. But I was only speaking of the actual brow of the mountain
which projects into the plain, contrasted with the loftier point, though
situated on one side, which was ascended by Robinson.
[65] This account, which I addressed to H.M. the King of Prussia, was
printed while I was still absent in 1846, under the title of “_Reise
des Prof. Lepsius von Theben nach der Halbinsel des Sinai, vom 4 März
bis zum 14 April, 1845_,” _Berlin_, with two maps—a general map of the
Peninsula, and a special map of Serbâl and Wadi Firân, which was drawn
by G. Erbkam, from my notes, or statements. This printed pamphlet has
not been published, but only distributed to a few persons. Its contents,
however, have become better known, by a translation into English by Ch.
H. Cottrell (“A Tour from Thebes to the Peninsula of Sinai,” &c. London,
1846), and into French by F. Pergameni (“Voyage dans la Presq’ile du
Sinai, etc., lu à la Société de Géographie, séances du 21 Avril et du 21
Mai. Extrait du Bulletin de la Soc. Géogr., Juin, 1847.” Paris).
[66] The Nakb el Haui, “the Saddle of Wind,” is an extremely wild and
narrow mountain ravine, the depths of which are impassable, on account
of its steep precipices. The road must have been constructed with great
skill along the western mountain precipice, and is in many places hewn
out of the rock; in others, the crumbling ground has been paved with
great flat stones. There can be no doubt that this daring path was only
made after the erection of the convent, to maintain closer connection
with the town of Pharan, which, till that time, could only be reached by
the long circuitous route through the Wadi e’ Scheikh.
[67] The _Tamarix Gallica mannifera_ of Ehrenberg. See Wilkinson, Mod.
Eg. and Thebes, ii., 401.—TR.
[68] The _Moringa aptera_. See Wilkinson’s Mod. Eg. and Thebes, ii.,
404.—TR.
[69] It seems that this convent has not been visited by any very recent
travellers. Even Burckhardt, who calls it Sigillye, did not descend to
it, but heard that it was well built, spacious, and also provided with a
well, plentifully supplied with water. (Trav. in Syria, p. 610.) It is
much to be desired that more exact accounts could be obtained of this
convent, situated in the middle of the basin of Serbâl, as it probably
is one of the oldest, at any rate one of the most important in the
Peninsula, as is proved by the rock-road to it from Pharan, constructed
with much skill and difficulty.
[70] Denkmäl., Abth. II., Bl. 2, 116, 137, 140, 152; III., 28.
[71] See Appendix B.
[72] I find all whose judgment is of any weight holding this same
opinion. Robinson, especially, has the merit of having cleared away many
old prejudices of this nature. But even Burckhardt so little allowed his
judgment to be guided by the authority of tradition, that he did not
scruple to place his reason for transposing the convent of Sinai to Gebel
Mûsa, rather on stratagetical considerations. (Trav. in Syria, p. 609.)
[73] 1 Kings xix. 8.—TR.
[74] The name of FIRÂN, formerly PHARAN, is, indeed, evidently the same
as PARAN in the Bible; but it is equally certain that this name has
altered its meaning with reference to the locality. All other comparisons
of names cannot be in the least depended on.
[75] The smaller of the two wells dates as far back as the time of the
foundation of the convent. The principal deep well, which supplies the
largest amount and the best water, is said to have been first dug by an
English nobleman in 1760. (Ritter, p. 610.)
[76] Burckhardt also (Trav., p. 554) observes distinctly that there were
no good pasture grounds near the convent, where nevertheless the somewhat
numerous small springs, might have led us to expect the ground to have
been in a moister condition. With respect to the impression made on
Bartlett: see Appendix B.
[77] I was assured of this unanimously by the Arabs. (Compare also
Burckhardt, p. 625, and Ritter, p. 769.) Lord Lindsay found “a small wood
of Tarfa-trees here, in which blackbirds were singing, and also some
plantations of Palm-trees.” It was at the entrance of the same valley
“where Seetzen had the pleasure of gathering for himself, and eating for
the first time, a great deal of _manna_ from the bushes of Tarfa; he
found the ripe produce of the wild Caper shrub growing here in profusion,
which was as palatable to the taste as table-fruit.”
[78] Numbers xxxiii. 10.—TR.
[79] Exodus xv. 27.—TR.
[80] See Appendix C.
[81] Exodus xvi. 1.—TR.
[82] These hot springs do not seem to have been originally named HAMMÂM
FARAÛN, of PHARAOH, but FARAN, from PHARAN. For EDRISI names those
places on the coast FARAN AHRUN, and ISTACHRI TARAN, which no doubt
ought to be called FARAN. (See Ritter, Asien, vol. viii., p. 170, &c.)
MACRIZI also calls the same spot BIRKET FARAN. (Ritter, Sinai-halbins, p.
64.) The harbour district of Pharan was probably called after the town
itself, though distant, and the tradition of Pharaoh’s destruction, so
inapplicable to this spot, was perhaps only connected with the alteration
of the name of Faran into Faraûn. It remains a striking fact that the
Arabian chroniclers, among whom Macrizi himself visited the spot, speak
of the town of Faran as of a town on the coast.
[83] That portion of the sandy sea-shore which Robinson regards as the
Wilderness of Sin, produces no TARFA shrubs, much less manna. Compare
Ritter, p. 665, &c., with respect to the tracts of country where manna
is found. It has been already mentioned that EUSEBIUS maintains that
the Wilderness of Sin extended as far as Sinai. (Σίν, ἔρημος ἡ μεταξὺ
παρατείνουσα τῆς Ἐρυθρᾶς θαλάσσης καὶ τῆς ἐρήμου Σινά.)
[84] Robinson, i., p. 173-196. In opposition to what Wilson adduces
with respect to the wide prospect from Gebel Mûsa, we must consider
that necessarily a great many places may be seen from a point so little
elevated above the immediately surrounding country; from which points,
however, the mountain cannot be traced independently and distinctly by
the eye.
[85] See Robinson, i., p. 118-196.
[86] Ewald—Gesch. des Volkes Israel, ii., p. 86—also assumes that Sinai
was held sacred “even before the time of Moses, as a place of oracles,
and the seat of the gods.” Ritter (see Appendix B) considered this to be
incompatible.
[87] Exodus iii. 1.—TR.
[88] Exodus iv. 27.—TR.
[89] This is even proved to exist now by Rüppell, who holds Gebel
Katherîn to be Sinai. On his journey to Abyssinia (vol. i., p. 127) he
relates, in the account of his ascent of Serbâl in the year 1831, as
follows:—“On the summit of Serbâl the Bedouins have collected small
stones, and placed them in the form of a circular enclosure, and other
stones are placed outside on the shelving rock-precipice, like steps,
to facilitate the ascent. When we arrived at the stony circle _my guide
drew off his sandals, and approached it with religious veneration; he
then recited a prayer within it_, and told me afterwards that he had
already slaughtered two sheep here as a _thank-offering_, one of them on
the occasion of the birth of a son, the other on regaining his health
after an illness. From a belief that Mount SERBÂL is connected with
such things, it is said _to have been held in great reverence by the
Arabs of the surrounding districts since time immemorial_; and it must
also at one time have been regarded as holy in certain respects by the
Christians, as, in the valley on the south-western side, there are the
ruins of a great convent, and of a great many small hermit’s cells. At
all events, the wild jagged masses of rock in Serbâl, and the _isolated
position of the mountain, is far more striking, and in a certain degree
more imposing, than any other mountain group in Arabia Petræa, and for
that reason was peculiarly calculated to be the object of religious
pilgrimages_. The highest point of the mountain, or the second pinnacle
of rock, proceeding from the west, on which the Arabs are in the habit of
sacrificing, by my barometrical measurements is 6342 French feet above
the level of the sea.”
[90] With reference to this, compare particularly the admirable pamphlet
by Tuch: _Ein und Zwanzig Sinaitische Inschriften_. _Leipzig_, 1849. This
scholar endeavours to prove from the names of the pilgrims that have been
deciphered, that the authors of the inscriptions were native heathen
Arabs, who wandered to Serbâl to some religious festivals. And he is of
opinion that pilgrimages ceased in the course of the third century at
latest. We may also mention that the name itself of Serbâl, which Rödiger
(in Wellsted’s Travels in Arabia, vol. ii., last page) derives, no doubt
correctly from the Arabic سرب _serb_, palmarum copia, and Baal, “the
Palm-grove (Φοινικών) of Baal,” refers to its heathen worship.
[91] Vol. i., p. 198. See Appendix B.
[92] I thought I might have been able to deduce this indirectly from his
narrative, _Antiqu._, iii., 2. Now it seems to me that there is nothing
that we can extract about his views from this; for which reason the above
name should be effaced. Abstractedly considered, it is very probable that
he entertained the same views as Eusebius and Jerome. Compare note, p.
316, and Appendix G.
[93] Eusebius, Περὶ τῶν τοπικῶν ὀνομ., etc., s. v. Ῥαφιδίμ, τόπος τῆς
ἐρήμου παρὰ τὸ Χωρὴβ ὄρος, ἐν ᾧ ἐκ τῆς πέτρας ἐρρύησε τὰ ὕδατα καὶ ἐκλήθη
ὁ τόπος πειρασμός. ἔνθα καὶ πολεμεῖ Ἰησοῦς τὸν Ἀμαλὴκ ἐγγὺς Φαράν.
[94] Hieronymus, de situ et nomin., etc., s. v. Raphidîm, locus
in deserto juxta montem Choreb, in quo de petra fluxere aquæ,
cognominatusque est tentatio, ubi et Jesus adversus Amalec dimicat _prope
Pharan_.
[95] Among the older authors, _Cosmas Indicopleustes_ must be especially
named here (about A.D. 535). (Topogr. Christ., lib. v., in the Coll.
nov. patr. ed. Montfaucon, tom. ii., fol. 195.) Εἶτα πάλιν παρενέβαλον
εἰς Ῥαφιδὶν εἰς τὴν νῦν λεγομένην Φαράν. _Antoninus Placentinus_, who is
placed about the year 600 (while the learned _Papebroch_, who published
his _Itinerarium_ in the Acta SS., month of May, vol. ii., p. x.-xviii.,
does not place him earlier than the eleventh or twelfth century), came,
as he says, _in civitatem_ (which can only be Pharan) _in qua pugnavit
Moyses cum Amalech: ubi est altare positum super lapides illos quos
posuerunt Moyse orante_. That the town was enclosed by a brick wall
and _valde sterilis_, instead of which Tuch (Sinait. Inschr., p. 38)
proposes to read _fertilis_. If Pharan is called an _Amalekitish_ town
by _Macrizi_ (Gesch. der Kopten, uebers. v. Wüstenfeld, p. 116), then
this can only indicate the same view that Moses was attacked near PHARAN
by the Amalekites, to whom this district belonged. Among more recent
scholars we must especially mention _Ritter_, as is mentioned in Appendix
B.
[96] Exodus xviii. 5.—TR.
[97] Exodus xvii. 6.—TR.
[98] See below, the complete passage by Cosmas. See Appendix G.
[99] Even the name itself, Raphidîm, _i. e._ the _places of repose_,
indicate that the place was adapted for rest of some duration.
[100] See Appendix D.
[101] For that reason Robinson and others, who do not allow that any
positions of the encampments were omitted, place Raphidîm beyond FIRÂN;
and although they make the march through the latter place, they leave
it either totally unmentioned, or place ALUS there. We have already
mentioned above the objections to this opinion, which have been partly
proved by Ritter. On the other hand, Ritter, to remove the difficulty,
distinctly admits of an omission in our present text. (P. 742.)
[102] Numbers xxxiii. 10-14.—TR.
[103] Ritter (see Appendix B) is consequently compelled to draw this
conclusion; which, in fact, seems to me the most doubtful of all. The
present tradition differs from this in holding Horeb and Sinai to be two
mounts, situated immediately beside each other but yet apart.
[104] The three possible ways of removing this difficulty have been
tried by ROBINSON, RITTER, and JOSEPHUS. The first, places Raphidîm near
Gebel Mûsa; the second, assumes there is an omission between Raphidîm
and Sinai, and retains _two_ Mounts of God; the third, transposes the
separating passage, and does not mention Horeb at all, only Sinai.
[105] See the manner in which Robinson combines, and weighs both views,
i., p. 197, &c. All those passages where precisely the same is said
concerning Horeb, as about Sinai, are opposed to the more recent opinion
that HOREB was the general designation for the mountain range, or for the
district, and that SINAI was the individual Mount, while not a single
passage requires us to think of a large extent of ground. No mention is
ever made of a “WILDERNESS OF HOREB,” as of the WILDERNESSES OF SÛR, SIN,
PARAN, and others. We might also cite in favour of the opposite opinion
Acts vii. 30 compared with Exodus iii. 1.
[106] This view is found already in the above-mentioned (note, p. 313)
ITINERARIUM OF ANTONINUS, who places the convent between Sinai and Horeb.
The monks’ tradition of the present day, that the rock projecting into
the plain of Râha was Horeb, is well known. The arbitrary character
of such assumptions is evident; nevertheless, the latter opinion is
maintained by Gesenius (Thesaur, p. 517, Wiener, and others).
[107] St. Jerome expressly says the same thing, since he adds to the
words of Eusebius s. v. _Choreb_: Mihi autem videtur quod duplici nomine
idem mons nunc _Sina_, nunc _Choreb_ vocetur. Even Josephus evidently
considered both mountains to be one, for wherever CHOREB is mentioned in
the Bible, he placed Sinai instead; the same is done by the author of
the Acts of the Apostles (vii. 30), and also by Syncellus (Chron., p.
190), who says of Elijah, ἐπορεύετο ἐν Χωρὴβ τῷ ὄρει ἤτοι Σιναίῳ. (The
following passage within brackets added by the author, April, 1853.—TR.)
[There has been an attempt to prove, from the Greek termination Σιναίῳ,
that Choreb is only meant to designate here part of the range of Sinai.
However, the word cannot be understood thus in the sense of an adjective,
as there was no other but the Sinaitic Choreb. Τὸ ὄρος Σιναῖον (Syncell.,
p. 122; Cosmas, p. 195; ἀνὰ μέσον Ἐλεὶμ καὶ τοῦ Σιναίου ὄρους. Joseph.
Ant. Jud. 3, 5: ἄνεισι (Μωυσῆς) πρὸς τὸ Σιναῖον; compare the inscription
on the convent, Appendix E) is used just as much as Τὸ ὄρος Σινᾶ. But
if, which is not the case, Choreb especially was only called Τὸ Σιναῖον,
not Τὸ Σινᾶ ὄρος, we could only infer the reverse, namely, that Sinai
must have meant a part of the range of Choreb.] Ewald, especially among
modern scholars, brings forward the same opinion of the similarity of
the two mounts. He says (Gesch. des. V. Isr., ii., p. 84) the two names,
SINAI and HOREB, do not change because they designated points in the
same range, situated beside each other; but the name of Sinai is clearly
the most ancient, for it was used also by Deborah, Judges v. 5, whereas
the name of Horeb cannot be pointed out before the period of the fourth
narrator (compare Exodus iii. 1; xvii. 6; xxxiii. 6); but it then becomes
very prevalent, as is proved in Deuteronomy, and in the passages of 1
Kings viii. 9; xix. 8; Mal. iv. 4; Psalms cvi. 19, while it says nothing
against this view when very late authors reintroduce the name of Sinai,
merely from their learned acquaintance with the old books.
[108] If we omit the two verses, Exodus xix. 1, 2, the account, xix. 3,
follows most naturally after xviii. 27. “And Moses let his father-in-law
depart, and he went away into his own land. And Moses went up unto God;
and the Lord called unto him out of the mountain.”
[109] See Appendix D.
[110] See Appendix B.
[111] See Appendix E.
[112] See Appendix F.
[113] See Appendix G.
[114] Ritter (p. 31), when he mentions that Sinai was almost
simultaneously regarded by the Egyptian, COSMAS, to be Serbâl; and by the
Byzantine, PROCOPIUS to be Gebel Mûsa; adds another supposition, which I
will mention here. “Might there not,” he says, “have, perhaps, existed a
different tradition or party-view on this matter in convents, and among
the monks at CONSTANTINOPLE and ALEXANDRIA, which might proceed from a
jealous feeling to vindicate the superior sanctity of one or the other
locality? It is remarkable that such different views of the matter should
be held simultaneously by the most learned theologians of their day.”
[115] This letter, which I have had printed here _verbatim_, was
addressed to the General Director of the Royal Prussian Museum, Privy
Counsellor of Legation von OLFERS. This communication may perhaps serve
to spread a correct estimation of the fundamental principles which has
guided the arrangement and decoration of the Egyptian Museum, one of the
grandest and latest works that have been executed in Berlin, and which
has just been rendered accessible to the public.
[116] Burckhardt must have been mistaken when (Trav. in Syr., p. 5) he
states that the tomb of Noah was only 10 feet long, although the same
statement is repeated by Schubert (Reise in das Morgenland, vol. iii.,
p. 340). It is well known how frequently the number 40 is found employed
by the Hebrews as an indeterminate multiple. The same custom seems to
have been peculiar to _all Semetic_ nations; it may at least be pointed
out frequently, and at all periods, among the Phœnicians and Arabians;
even the numerical words for 4 and 40 in these languages indicate the
universal idea of multitude. See my _Sprachvergleichenden Abhandlungen_,
Berlin, 1836, p. 104, 139, and the _Chronologie der Ægypter_, vol. i, p.
15.
[117] See V. Hammer, Geschichte des Osmanischen Reichs, Div. ii., p. 482.
[118] Compare Krafft, Topographie Jerusalems. Bonn, 1846. P. 269, and
Plate II., No. 33.
[119] The king here represented is explained by Rawlinson to be
the son of the builder of Khorsabad, Bel-Adonimscha. (A Commentary
on the Cuneiform Inscr. of Babylonia and Assyria. London, 1850, p.
70.) According to Layard, the same king is found on the buildings of
Kuyung´ik, Nebbi Yûnas, and Mossul (Nineveh, Lond., 1849, p. 142-144);
who (p. 400) supposes that the cypress monument now to be seen in Berlin
belongs to him. (Compare Bonomi, Nineveh and its Palaces. London, 1852,
p. 127.)
[120] _Ægyptens Stelle in der Weltgeschichte._ (_Egypt’s Place in
Universal History._ Trans. by C. H. Cottrell.)
[121] The great Book of the Dead, at Turin, is upon a single Roll, 57′ 3″
Rhineland feet in length.
[122] Ritschl. The Alexandrian Libraries. 1838. P. 32, &c.
[123] De Myster. viii. 1. According to Böckh, _Manetho_, p. 117. J.
Firmicus also speaks somewhere of 20,000 books of Hermes. Compare Fabr.
_Bib. gr._ ed. Harl. t. i. p. 85.
[124] 1 Kings iv. 30; Acts vii. 22.
[125] Herod. ii. 160.
[126] See the general accounts in Diodor. Sic. i. 69, 96-98; Plut. _de
Is. et Osir._ c. x.; Clem. Alex. Strom. p. 131; Sylb. Cedren. _Hist.
comp._ p. 94 B.
[127] Herod. ii. 91; vii. 94, &c. [Diod. i. 28.]
[128] Diod. i. 29.
[129] Diod. i. 69, 96; iv. 25. [Justin. Mart. ad Græc. c. xiv.]
[130] Diod. i. 96. [Clem. Protr. p. 12; Uireph. Synes, p. 421.]
[131] Ibid.
[132] Diod. i. 29.
[133] Diod. i. 69, 96. Heliodor. Aeth. iii. 14; Clem. Div. i. p. 130.
[Justin. Mart. c. xiv. 17.]
[134] Diod. i. 96.
[135] Diod. i. 98.
[136] Ibid.
[137] Diod. i. 96; Plut. _de Is. et Osir._ c. x. [Plut. Lyc. i. p. 41; F.
Isocr. Laud. Busir. p. 329.]
[138] Plato. _Tim._ p. 21; Diod. i. 69, 96; Plut. _de Is._ c. x.; _Vita
Solon_, c. xxvi. [Justin. Mart. c. xiv.; Cyrill. c. Julian. i. p. 15.]
[139] ii. 177.
[140] Diog. Laert. i. 89.
[141] Strab. xvii. p. 806, 807; Cic. _de fin._ v. 29; Diod. Sic. i. 96;
Plut. _de Is._ c. x.; _de genio Socr._ p. 578; Clem. Al. _Strom._ i. p.
131; Diog. Laert. iii. 6.
[142] Strab. ii. p. 119; xvii. p. 807.
[143] Plut. _de Is._ c. x.; _de placit. philos._ i. 3; Clem. i. p. 130;
Diog. Laert. i. 27. [Theod. Melit. Proem. in Astr. c. xii.; Cyrill. c.
Jul. i. p. 15.]
[144] Diog. Laert. i. 27; Plin. H. N. xxxvi. 17.
[145] Diod. v. 37.
[146] Cic. _de fin._ v. 29; Diod. i. 96; Strab. vii. p. 297; xiv. p. 638;
Plut. _de Is._ c. x.; Diog. Laert. viii. 3, 11; Clem. l. 1. [Justin.
Mart. c. xiv. 19; Isocr. Busir. p. 227.]
[147] Herod. ii. 81; Diog. Laert. viii. 24, 33, 34; Diog. Laert. viii. 4.
[148] Herod. ii. 123; Diog. Laert. viii. 14; Cic. Tusc. i. 16.
[149] Clem. Alex. i. p. 129; Cedren. p. 94, B. [Theod. Melit. Pr. in
Astr. c. 12.]
[150] See preface to the _Todtenbuche der Ægypter_, p. 13, &c.
[151] Cedren. p. 94, B.
[152] Diod. i. 96; Diog. L. IX. 35.
[153] Diog. L. VII. 177.
[154] Diod. i. 96.
[155] Diog. L. VII. 186; viii. 87.
[156] Strab. I. ii. p. 37.
[157] Diog. L. III. 6.
[158] Herod. ii. 143.
[159] Diod. i. 44.
[160] Diod. i. 69.
[161] Plut. _de Is._ c. x.; _de genio Socr._ p. 578, F; Clem. Al. Str. i.
p. 131.
[162] Diod. xvi. 51.
[163] Sync. p. 271, D.
[164] xvii. p. 806.
[165] See respecting this, Letronne. Translation of the 17th Book of
Strabo. (Géographie de Strabon. t. i. Paris, 1819. p. 390.) Compare
the passage in Herodot. ii. 123, where, though not by name, he accuses
Pythagoras and Pherecydes of having ascribed to themselves what they had
borrowed from the Egyptians. The same was related by some of Eudoxus.
Diog. Laert. viii. 89.
[166] _Strom._ vi. p. 260, ed. Sylb. See also Bunsen _Ægyptens Stelle in
der Weltgesch._, Bd. i. p. 34, &c. (_Egypt’s Place in Universal History_,
book i. p. 9.)
[167] Aelian. _Hist. var._ xiv. 34, says, that the Egyptians in ancient
times had priests as their judges.
[168] Clem. Strom. i. p. 131.
[169] [Sacred Scribe.]
[170] The Pastophori do not appear in the train of the priests, and are
expressly separated from the priests (ἱερεῖς) by _Porphyrius_. They were,
as their name implies, the bearers of the small sacred chapels of the
gods which formed the principal furniture of the temple. That is probably
the reason why they appear in the great processions, where the images of
the gods were carried about, not as priests, but as _under-officers_ of
the temple; and they are, therefore, rightly placed by Porphyrius along
with the νεωκόροι, the sweepers of the temple, and the other servants
of the temple (ὑπουργοί). As bearers of the sacred shrines they were
also their watchmen, and, therefore, especially the overseers of the
temple, the watchmen of the temple; therefore their hieroglyphical sign,
according to Horapollo, i. 41, is a house watchman, φύλαξ οἴκου, because
the temple is guarded by him, διὰ τὸ ὑπὸ τούτου φυλάττεσθαι τὸ ἱερόν. But
what could the temple watchmen have had to do with medicine? There is
nowhere even the most distant relation indicated between the pastophori
and the physicians; indeed, their occupations appear necessarily to
exclude them. I therefore believe that there is either some fundamental
error, or a false reading, in the passage of Clemens, which cannot yet be
solved. The pastophori were the principal under-officers, and therefore
were united by their rank with the chanter, the lowest class of the
priests. Was this possibly the reason why the books of medicine, which
succeeded those of the chanter in this canon, were ascribed to them?
There were many more than forty-two sacred books, and they must have all
been lodged among the archives of the temple, without, however, being
assigned to any particular class of priests.
[171] [Diod. i. 70, 73, 96.]
[172] I speak here of the first section of the Papyrus of Sallier, No. 2,
which is communicated in the _Select Papyri in the hieratic character,
from the collection of the British Museum_. London. 1844. Pl. x.-xii.
[173] I procured in Thebes a number of such hymns for the Royal Museum at
Berlin. Several of them were composed in the reign of King Ramses IX.,
in the 20th Dynasty. There was a hymn to Amen-Ra, upon a roll of eleven
pages, in the Egyptian collection of Mr. Sams in London, 1839.
[174] Upon a wooden tablet covered with fine white chalk, in the British
Museum.
[175] In the Book of the Dead, c. 128, 134, 139, &c. [Plut. _de Is._ c.
52.]
[176] Porphyr. _de abst._ iv. 8.
[177] Bunsen, Bd. i. p. 55. (_Eg.’s Pl. in Un. Hist._ bk. i. p. 28.)
[178] See my introduction to the _Todtenbuche der Ægypter_. Leipzig,
1842, p. 17.
[179] Bd. i. p. 47. (_Eg.’s Pl. in Un. Hist._ bk. i. p. 20.)
[180] i. 94, 95.
[181] [Tatian. _or. ad Græc._ c. 1.]
[182] _Annal._ ii. 60.
[183] Champollion, _Lettres écrites d’Egypte et de Nubie_, p. 21, 426.
After the death of Champollion, Salvolini made use of the privately
withheld papers of his master for a particular treatise: _Campagne de
Ramsès-le-Grand (Sésostris) contre les Schéta et leurs alliés. Manuscrit
hiératique appartenant à M. Sallier à Aix en Provence. Notice sur ce MS._
Paris, 1835, 8.
[184] I am indebted for this valuable present to an English lady, Miss
Westcar, who had deposited it a long time ago in the _Bodleian Library_,
Oxford. It contains nine sides, of which, unhappily, the first four are
very much destroyed. The remainder, also, is very hastily written, and
is therefore difficult to decipher. It appears to be poetical, and to be
addressed to a king, whose name unfortunately is lost; the example “of
his ancestors,” _Chufu_, _Snefru Ser_, &c. is held up to him.
[185] 1 Kings vi. 1.
[186] Exodus xii. 40.
[187] Ant. viii. 3, 1: 592; c. Ap. ii. 2: 612 years.
[188] Gen. xv. 13; compare Ap. Hist. 7, 6.
[189] Gal. iii. 17.
[190] Ant. ii. 15, 2; viii. 3, 1. Compare c. Ap. i. 33, where he
calculates 170 years from Joseph to Moses.
[191] Isaac was 40 years old when he married Rebecca; Moses is 40 years
old when he goes to Midian; at 80 years of age he leads the people out of
Egypt, and dies at the age of 120.
[192] Contra. Ap. i. 26.
[193] Manetho had only related that the Hyksos were expelled in the reign
of Tuthmosis. It is the opinion of Josephus alone that they were the Jews.
[194] Compare Exodus xxxiv. 12, 13.
[195] Gen. xvi. 3; xxi. 21.
[196] Gen. xli. 45.
[197] Numb. xii. 1.
[198] Exodus xii. 38. Compare Numbers xi. 4.
[199] p. 760, 824.
[200] C. Ap. ii. 3. Compare Tacit. _Hist._ v. 2. _Aethiopum prolem._
[201] Gen. xlvi. 34.
[202] Numbers xii. 10.
[203] Exodus iv. 6.
[204] Exodus ix. 3, 9.
[205] The Persians also knew no other way of protecting themselves
against this infectious disease of the λέπρη ἢ λεύκη than by driving
those who were attacked by it out of the town, and if they were
_strangers_, out of the country. _Herod._ i. 138.
[206] Plut. _de Is._ c. xxxiii.
[207] Champollion, _Panthéon_, pl. xxxviii.
[208] 1 Kings xii. 2, 28, 30, 32; 2 Kings x. 29.
[209] Exod. i. 11.
[210] Similar perhaps to the command of Pharaoh to drown the Hebrew boys.
[211] Exod. i. 10.
[212] This number, which differs from the one in the original, was
inserted by the Author, April, 1853.—TR.
[213] Bunsen. _Ægypten._ Bd. i. p. 227. (Tr. vol. i. p. 184.) But compare
Bd. iii. p. 109, where this opinion appears to be already modified.
[214] Tatian. _Paraen ad Græc._ p. 129 (Oxon). Clemens Alex. _Strom._ i
21, p. 138. Justin Martyr ad Græc. p. 10, E.
[215] Justin Martyr. Africanus in Eusebius. _Præp. Evang._ x. 10. Clemens
Alex.
[216] Compare the passages of Justin and Africanus.
[217] Contra. Ap. i. 15.
[218] p. 63, B; 123, D.
[219] Euseb. Armen. Canon, vol. ii. p. 105. Aucher.
[220] According to Gen. xii. 4.
[221] _Hist._ v. 2.
[222] Manetho, p. 192, 325.
[223] _Gesch. Isr._ ii. p. 69.
[224] _Ægypten_, i. p. 127, 234. (Tr. vol. i. p. 91.)
[225] _Anecd. græca_, Paris, ed. Cramer, vol. ii. p. 174.
[226] They are cited by Gesenius. _Thesaur. ling. hebr._ p. 1297.
[227] _De la géographie comparée et de l’ancien état des côtes de la mer
rouge_, in the _Description de l’Eg._ ed. Panckoucke, vol. vi. p. 316.
[228] _Mémoires sur l’Eg._ p. 126.
[229] _Gesch. d. V. Isr._ ii. p. 53.
[230] C. Apion. i. 14, 26.
[231] Joseph, c. Ap. i. 14.
[232] Euseb. _Chron._ in Aucher. vol. i. p. 224.
[233] Africanus in Syncellus, p. 61, B, &c.
[234] p. 804.
[235] iv. 5. 53.
[236] ii. 107.
[237] Jos. c. Ap. i. 15.
[238] i. 57.
[239] Diodor. i. 57.
[240] Herod. ii. 141.
[241] Herod. ii. 154. Compare Diod. i. 67.
[242] Herod. iii. 10, 11.
[243] Diod. xvii. 48. Arrian. iii. 1.
[244] Strab. p. 756, 760, 781.
[245] p. 803.
[246] _Gesch. des Volkes Isr._ i. p. 451.—עַבָרִים, _Abarim_, is also
a Palestinian name. Numb. xxvii. 12; Deut. xxxii. 47, 49, &c.
[247] The supposition of Larcher in Herd. t. viii. p. 62; Champollion,
_L’Eg. sous les Phar._ ii. p. 91; and Gesenius, _thes. l. hebr._ p. 1297,
that Αὔαρις is connected by its sound with Ἡρώ (see below on Heroonpolis)
has not even a semblance in itself, even if it were geographically
admissible.
[248] Bd. i. p. 328.
[249] Gesch. Isr. Bd. i. p. 290, 291.
[250] _Mém. sur l’Eg._ p. 124.
[251] Hérod. t. viii. p. 62, 429.
[252] _L’Eg. sous les Phar._ t. ii. p. 90.
[253] _Thes. l. hebr._ p. 1297.
[254] In his map of the Delta.
[255] Joseph. c. Ap. i. 26.
[256] Apollodor. i. 6, 3.
[257] Herod. iii. 5.
[258] Apollon. Rhod. ii. 1215.
[259] [This reading is now adopted also by the last eminent editor of
Stephanus, Meineke (tom. i. p. 559).]
[260] 𓊃𓏏𓁣, Set, is the common hieroglyphical name of Typhon.
[261] Joseph. c. Ap. i. c. 32.
[262] Gen. xlvi. 28.
[263] xvii. p. 804.
[264] Rozière, in the _Descr. de l’Eg._ vol. vi. p. 257, &c.
[265] Ptolem. V. 17. 1. Plin. H. N. V. 11, § 65.
[266] iv. 5. According to other manuscripts, 29° 50′.
[267] Wilkinson, _Modern Egypt and Thebes_, vol. i. p. 311, there only
heard the name of _E’ Saqieh_, “the Water-wheel;” but my friend and
fellow-traveller, H. Abeken, who was also on the spot, confirmed me in
the name which Robinson gives in his map (_Abu Keischeib_). The French
scholars, on the contrary, write _Abou Keycheyd_.
[268] _Mém. sur l’Eg._ i. p. 166.
[269] _L’Eg. sous les Phar._ ii. p. 89.
[270] _Descr. de l’Eg._ xi. p. 378.
[271] _Antiq. Jud._ ii. 7, 8.
[272] p. 75, ed. Parthey and Pinder (p. 170, Wess).
[273] _Mém. sur l’Eg._ t. i. p. 151, &c.
[274] Herod. ii. 158.
[275] Plin. H. N. V. ix. 9.
[276] S. Wilkinson, _Eg. and Thebes_, vol. i. p. 311.
[277] In his _Mémoire sur les anciennes limites de la mer rouge_, in the
_Descr. de l’Eg._ t. xi. (Panck.) p. 371, &c.; and in the _Notice sur le
séjour des Hébreux en Egypte_, t. viii. p. 112, &c.
[278] p. 768.
[279] p. 767.
[280] Strabo, ii. p. 85, 86, &c.
[281] The first imperfect copy is in the _Descr. de l’Eg. Antiq._ vol.
v. pl. 29, No. 6-8. The best is given by Wilkinson in his _Materia
Hieroglyphica_, Append. No. 4.
[282] King Ramses was therefore just as much the local god of the town
Ramses, as the god Hero of the town Hero.
[283] ii. 158. Compare iv. 42.
[284] _Meteorolog._ i. 14, p. 352, b (Bekk).
[285] i. 33.
[286] p. 38, p. 804. Compare p. 780.
[287] _Hist. Nat._ vi. 29, § 165-167.
[288] iv. 5.
[289] _L’Isthme de Suez_, in the _Révue des Deux Mondes_, _livr. du 15
Juill. 1841_.
[290] Herod. ii. 102.
[291] The height of the Red Sea was discovered to be 30 feet 6
inches above the level of the Mediterranean Sea. [By the very latest
investigations the difference of 30 feet, which was formerly accepted,
has been reduced to 3 feet.]
[292] _Descr. de l’Eg._ Atlas, pl. 23, 31.
[293] ii. 158, iv. 42.
[294] Herod. ii. 159.
[295] _Descr. de l’Eg._ (Panck.) _Ant._ vol. viii. p. 27, &c. Compare
vol. v. p. 451, and Jomard, _carte de la basse Egypte_. A copy of the
fragment is given in a copper-plate, _Ant._ vol. v. pl. 29.
[296] [The spot has now been re-discovered, and marked upon the map
of the Société d’Etudes de l’Isthme de Suez. _Travaux de la Brigade
Française._ Rapport de l’Ingénieur. 1847.]
[297] _Descr. de l’Eg._ Atlas, pl. 23, 31.
[298] Letronne was probably led to this opinion because, as above
mentioned, he thought that Heroonpolis was on the sea.
[299] Letronne, in this treatise mentioned, has further attempted to show
that the connecting canal between the Nile and the Red Sea continued till
about the third century after Christ, but was then interrupted until
it was re-opened by the Caliph ʾOmar in the year 639. Since that time
it continued till the year 762 or 767, when the canal was designedly
filled up by the Caliph El Mansur. The ingenious combinations by which
Letronne assumes that the canal was filled up with sand, about the time
of Septim. Severus, because at that time the Porphyry quarries of Gebel
Dochân appear to have been neglected, is not, however, a sufficient
reason for this conclusion. The canal might easily have been deepened
again, as in the time of ʾOmar, and many other reasons might be given
for the neglect of the stone-quarries in the Red Sea. But there is a
positive proof _against_ it in Ibn el Maqrizi (_Notices et Extr. des
MSS._ tom. vi. p. 337, 366), where it is said, according to Langlès:
_Hadrien dirigea ensuite sa marche vers l’Egypte, où il fit recreuser le
canal qui allait du Nil à la mer de Qolzoum; les vaisseaux y passaient
encore à l’apparition de l’islamisme: c’est le même que ʾAmrou ben
el-ʾAss fit nettoyer_; and farther on (p. 340), where Amru says: _Je sais
qu’avant l’islamisme, des vaisseaux amenaient chez nous des marchandises
de l’Egypte. Depuis que nous avons fait la conquête de ce pays, cette
communication est interrompue; le canal est encombré et les marchands en
ont abandonné la navigation._ It is evident from this, that the canal
during the rising of the Arabs, shortly before the Egyptian conquest, had
been designedly filled up by the Egyptians as an inimical and prudential
measure, for the same reason that it was afterwards again filled up by
the Caliph El Mansur, when Mohammet ben ʾAbdallah rose against him at
Medina, in the year 762 (according to others 767). The year also of its
restoration appears to me still doubtful. Maqrizi, indeed, says (p. 334):
_Lorsque le Très-Haut accorda l’islamisme aux hommes, et que ʾAmrou ben
el-ʾAss fit la conquête de l’Egypte, ce général, d’après l’ordre de ʾOmar
ben âl-Khaththâb, prince des fidèles, s’occupa de faire recreuser de
canal dans l’année de la mortalité._ This famine year was certainly the
year 18 after the flight of the prophet—_i. e._ A.D. 639. But in the same
year Egypt was also conquered, and it is not very probable that cutting
the canal, which would occupy six months, was the first and immediate
undertaking of the conqueror, although it was undoubtedly soon called for
by the famine in Arabia, which made it necessary to import provisions
from Egypt. From the words of Amru also, quoted above, there appears to
have been a longer period between the conquest and the cleaning out the
canal. I, therefore, think that we ought rather to follow the defined
statement of El-Kendi, who is cited by Maqrizi himself (p. 343), and
who wrote about 880. He places the restoration of the canal five years
later—namely, in the year 23; _i. e._ 644, the last year of Amru. For the
history of the canal, compare, besides the treatises of Letronne which we
have cited, what the same scholar said at a former time in his edition of
the _Dicuil._ 1814, 8vo, p. 10, &c., and in his translation of the 17th
book of Strabo, p. 382; also Mannert, _Geogr. von Africa_, Abth. i. p.
503, &c., and Weil, _Gesch. der Chalifen_, Bd. i. p. 119, &c.; the last
of whom likewise places the restoration of the canal after 641.
The result we have arrived at with regard to the whole history of this
remarkable connecting canal is, therefore, briefly, the following:
c. 1350 B.C. _Ramses II._ (_Sesostris_) digs the canal from Bubastis to
Heroonpolis (Mukfâr, near Seba-Biar), and with the assistance of the
Israelites builds near it the towns _Pithom_ and _Ramses_.
c. 600 B.C. _Nekô_ appears to have conducted the canal as far as the
Bitter lakes.
c. 500 B.C. _Darius_, for the first time, makes the whole connection,
since he cuts through the elevation between the Bitter lakes and the sea.
c. 350 B.C. In the time of Aristotle the canal appears to have fallen
into disuse.
c. 250 B.C. _Ptolemæus Philadelphus_ digs a wide canal, _amnis
Ptolemæus_, from the sea to the Bitter lakes, constructs an artificial
sluice, and builds Arsinoë on the sea.
c. 100 A.D. _Trajan_ opens a new canal, _amnis Traianus_, from Babylon to
Heroonpolis.
643 (644) A.D. _ʾOmar_ re-opens the interrupted connection.
762 (767) A.D. _Mohammet ben ʾAbdallah_ fills up the canal.
[300] Jomard, _carte de la basse Egypte. Wilkinson, Mod. Eg. and Thebes_,
i. p. 187.
[301] It is a great mistake if Champollion—_L’Eg. sous les Phar._ ii. p.
244—considers these the ruins of the town built by the Israelites.
[302] Wilkinson (_Mod. Eg._ p. 319) misunderstands the passage when he
supposes that _Patumos_ was situated at the other end of the canal, on
the Red Sea. He appears here to have followed Jomard, who, in his map
of the Delta, also places it at the head of the bay, although he places
Pithom in the right position.
[303] Compare Steph. Byz.
[304] Πά-τουμος, Pi-thom, ⲡⲓ-ⲑⲟⲙ, means “_the_ (namely the _Temple_,
the _Dwelling-place_) _of the Tum_” of the well-known Egyptian god
𓏏𓍃𓅓𓅱𓀭, who was much honoured exactly in this part of Egypt. He is
frequently found upon the Flaminian obelisks, which come from Heliopolis,
as well as upon the monuments of Ramses at Abu-Keshêb.
[305] iv. 5, 53.
[306] Compare Böckh, _Manetho_, p. 293 and p. 229.
[307] Exod. ii. 23.
[308] Ramses III., also, whose reign happened soon after the Exodus
of the Israelites, waged war with the northern nations, and therefore
undoubtedly passed through Syria and Palestine. But it is not probable
that his marches were ever of any considerable duration, or were
connected with long periods of possession, so that we may venture to
believe that these transitory marches against the _powerful_ nations of
this country, to whom the Jews did not at that time belong, could have as
yet little effect upon them, unless, indeed, it happened, perhaps, when
they were themselves subjugated by the Mesopotamians or the Moabites.
Such a supposition would be still less probable if the Jews had departed
as early as the reign of _Tuthmosis III._, or of _Amosis_, because in
that case that Egyptian occupation of the country would have happened
when the Jews had already become quite established, and masters of the
land.
[309] _Handb. d. Chron._ i. p. 569, 578, 580.
[310] Josephus, _Ant. Jud._ II. xv. 2, calculates 430 years from the
entrance of Abraham into Canaan to the Exodus of Moses. Compare VIII.
iii. 1.
[311] [Ideler, _Handbuch der Chron._ i. p. 507, 543.]
[312] Ideler, _Handb. d. Chron._ i. p. 531.
[313] Abraham ben David (about 1161) says, in his book Sepher
_hakabbala_, col. 33, b (Amsterd.): “The second period begins from the
great synagogue of Simeon the Just. The Persian empire was destroyed in
his time by Alexander, the King of Greece (Javan). He came to Jerusalem
... in the year 40 after the building of the temple ... and commanded
that they should commence the reckoning of their contract from this
year, which is the year 1000 since their Exodus from Egypt, and the year
3450 since the Creation.” But he placed the year of the Exodus at 2448;
therefore the year 3450 is properly the 1003rd, not the 1000th, since the
Exodus. R. Isaac Israëli (about 1250), in the book _Jesod Olam_. Bl. 84,
b, says, “And the Talmud was concluded in the year 3949, according to
the calculation of the world, which is the year 500 of the Contract.” We
thence obtain for the commencement of the era of the Contract the year
3450 = 312.
[314] _Semach David_ (written about 1592), p. 60-65, in the Latin
translation by Vorst (Lugd. Bat. 1644), cites several more authorities
for the year 3448; among them also Abraham ben David, but who, as we have
seen, expressly writes 3450, in spite of the mention of the 1000-yeared
period since the Exodus.
[315] Ant. XI. viii. 5.
[316] _Thesaur. tempp. Euseb._ 1658, tom. ii. p. 72.
[317] S. Ideler, _Handb._ i. p. 579.
[318] In the year 318 the determination of Easter, according to the
different Christian calendars, was transferred from the Nicene Council
to the Alexandrian chronologists. S. du Cange, _praef. ad Chron. pasch._
This difficult work at once presupposed a careful consideration and
investigation of the different eras still in use, but especially of the
Jewish computation of time, because the feast of Easter was connected
with the solemnisation of the Jewish Paschal feast, which was instituted
at the time of the _Exodus from Egypt_. Therefore in those days, when
chronological studies were more especially practised, there was a
particular cause for obtaining the true date of the Exodus, which, to
Egyptian scholars in particular, could not have been difficult.
[319] _Handb._ i. p. 581.
[320] It was also called “the Era of _Alexander_.” Ideler, _Chron._ i. p.
449.
[321] It would be important to inquire when the year 2448 is first
mentioned in Jewish literature as that of the Exodus, and which of the
Rabbis first clung to this epoch in the outline of history, which was at
first probably only marked in the calendar.
[322] We have already seen above, that neither the Apostle Paul nor
Josephus recognised the calculation of the 480 years. Africanus just as
little, who reckoned 748 years. (Routh, _Reliqu. sacræ_, vol. ii. p. 313,
ff.) Eusebius (reckons 600, or even 610 years; _Præp. Ev._ x. 14, compare
Routh elsewhere; but in his _Canon_ he calculates 480), Clemens Alexandr.
(_Strom._ p. 386, Pott. 567), Syncellus (p. 175, 659), and others. Among
modern scholars, Des Vignoles (_Chronol. de l’hist. sainte_, t. i. p.
172) has especially treated the question in detail. He finally decides
upon the acceptation, that the period consisted of 648 years, but that
the number 480 arose from a mistake in the text (p. 184), as others
before him had declared. Böckh lastly says, that the number appears to
him to have been _inserted at a later period_. (_Manetho_, p. 190.)
Several other numbers of the Old Testament, especially all indeterminate
numbers, as the 40 and its multiplicates, as well as the greater sums,
_e. g._ Exodus xii. 40; Judges xi. 26; 1 Kings vi. 1; and in other
places, and the whole uninterrupted chain of numbers, originating in
them, appear to me to have been for the first time adopted since that
early part of the Old Testament was last combined and revised, at all
events for the first time after the exile. The opinion also adopted by
Bertheau (_Richter_, p. 34), that this revision proceeds from Ezra,
appears to me to be very probable.
[323] Numb. i. 26.
[324] Ezra ii. 59; Nehemiah vii. 61.
[325] Ezra ii. 62; Neh. vii. 64.
[326] Contra. Ap. i. 7.
[327] Gospel Matth. i. 2, &c.; Luke iii. 23, &c. The great differences
between the two genealogies have been considered in a variety of ways,
but, as it appears, they have not yet been satisfactorily explained.
Therefore, they do not permit of any immediate chronological conclusions.
[328] The removal of some of the difficulties indicated in the following
table are obvious, and may, therefore, have been expressed long before
me, in the critical-biblical literature already published, although I
am unable to point it out. But the aim we have in view requires us to
examine this subject somewhat more accurately. I see, besides, that
Ewald also, _Gesch. Isr._ i. p. 31, ii. p. 433, and in other passages,
considers the two generations from Levi to Saul and to Heman, as the most
complete, and, therefore, all the others as incomplete.
[329] According to the Septuagint. In the Hebrew text, chap. v. & vi.
[330] [Hebrew text, 1 Chron. vii. 20, 21, 24-27.]
[331] It is impossible that the descendants of Ephraim, mentioned in
1 Chron. viii. 20, 21, could have been all killed at the same time by
the men of Gath (therefore, in Palestine), since they include eight
generations. The march to _Gath_ also, which is mentioned, could not have
been from Egypt (Bunsen, _Æg._ i. p. 220) (Tr. vol. i. p. 178), since
they went _down_. It is equally impossible that _Non_ and _Jehoshuah_ can
be rightly placed in v. 27, since the latter ought to stand in the ninth
in place of the third degree from Ephraim.
[332] _Gesch. Isr._ ii. p. 371.
[333] _Buch. d. Richt._ p. xix. xx.
[334] Heb. Text, 1 Chron. vi. 39, 43.
[335] Unless the name of _Jahath_, the son of Gershom, is to be
withdrawn, and Shimei put into its place, by which means this genealogy
also would only have eleven degrees from Moses to Solomon.
[336] See above, p. 402.
[337] De Wette, in his translation, makes no distinction in v. 22.
[338] See Luther’s German Trans. of Bible.—TR.
[339] The names of _Levi_, _Gershom_, _Jahath_, _Sima_ (_Zimmah_),
_Adaiah_ (_Iddo_), Zerah agree. It only differs in Ethan (Joah), and
_Ethni_ (Jeaterai). Shimei and Libni appear to be brothers. But, on that
account again, the name of Jahath, as above remarked, ought to be rubbed
out of both lists, and perhaps be considered as a common surname of the
brothers. For Jahath appears in the 1 Chron. vii. 43 as the father of
Shimei, xxiii. 10 as the son of Shimei, vii. 20 as the son of Libni,
but, xxiii. 8, not among the sons of Laadan, who nevertheless, xxiii. 7,
stands in the place of Libni.
[340] Gesen. Thes. l. Hebr. p. 1011.
[341] The omission may perhaps be explained by Exodus vi. 24, where
Assir, Elkanah, and Abiasaph literally appear beside one another as sons
of _Korah_, while it was probably intended that, as his sons, they should
succeed one another.
[342] We should, perhaps, also take into consideration the preference
which is given in the genealogical tables of the Old Testament to _three_
sons.
[343] The genealogy was certainly originally _brought down_ from father
to son; therefore the names _carried up_ from Elkanah to Heman precede
those from Kohath to Joel (and Heman), although Kohath is the _elder_
brother. We follow the correct order.
[344] _Azariah_ appears to have been the true father of _Joel_; Samuel
was, perhaps, his father-in-law, or his uncle, for although, 1 Sam. viii.
2, _Joel_ and _Abiah_ are also stated to be sons of Samuel, our fourth
genealogy, 1 Chron. vii. 28, calls them Vashni and Abiah.
[345] In the series of Eli, Ἀχίτωβος must stand in place of Ἰοχάβης, for
the ancestors of Zadok and Achimelech were both named Ahitub, which might
at all events easily produce confusion. The name Ἰοχάβης seems to be
founded upon Ichabod, the brother of Ahitub (1 Sam. iv. 21; xiv. 3).
[346] According to Eratosthenes, Apollodor., Diodor. &c.; see Larcher,
_Hérod._ tom. vii. p. 51, 53, 68, 395, 397.
[347] _Æg._ i. p. 209-214. (Tr. vol. i. p. 166-171.)
[348] Two points may, perhaps, strike the reader in the survey of the
different statements of numbers given here from the Book of Judges,
upon which I will subjoin what follows in explanation. I have placed
the 20 years under the Canaanites to the right, the 20 of Sampson and
Saul to the left; not arbitrarily, but from the following reason: In the
first section of this epoch, which ends with Gideon, all the numbers
are indeterminate except those exactly which relate to the oppressions
by other nations. This does not seem to me to be accidental; why
should not the times of the oppression have been firmer fixed in the
memory than the other divisions of time, the recollection of which is
principally connected only with celebrated persons? The number 20 does
not belong to the round numbers; it bears in itself, therefore, the
probability of being historical. On the other hand, the 20 years of
Sampson and Saul are in the third division, in which all the remaining
numbers are unhistorical, as the eight preceding are all historical.
The person of Sampson is especially so poetically represented, that
it is perfectly adapted to its unchronological neighbourhood. It is
possible, also, that it belonged entirely to the preceding Philistine
time of 40 years, and ought therefore to be quite omitted. But the 20
years of Saul was even received in the Acts of the Apostles, and by
Josephus, as a round number, and was therefore exchanged with 40. The
period of Saul also was certainly not better known than that of David
and Solomon. The second point is, that it might appear remarkable to see
the periods of oppression placed generally together with those of the
separate Judges, whilst both classes are however quite heterogeneous.
I would have separated them, if by that means the result would have
been very different. But it is so circumstanced, that the mean number
of the historical statements, if we separate the periods of oppression,
amounts to 11 years, in place of 12 years; therefore the total sum is 304
years, in place of 318 years. But this is the same result to us; as we
cannot look for an exact sum in the calculation, it therefore appeared
more suitable, because more prudent, to leave those statements in their
historical order.
[349] By the kind permission of Chevalier Bunsen we are enabled to give
the following note, which contains the result he has arrived at on this
subject:—Chevalier Bunsen agrees with Dr. Lepsius in the conviction that
the arrival of the Israelites cannot have taken place under the Hyksos.
On the question whether they arrived before or after them, Chevalier
Bunsen differs from Dr. Lepsius, since he believes that Jacob’s family
came to Egypt at a far earlier period, viz., in the reign of Sesurtesen
(Sesostris) the Second (or Third, according to some), in whose reign he
thinks the ancient writers place those changes in the tenure of land
which the Bible ascribes to Joseph’s advice as prime minister. This
Sesurtesen (Sesostris) reigned, according to the tables of Bunsen, about
2650 B.C., and since he agrees with Dr. Lepsius in placing the Exodus
in the reign of Menephthes, 1210 B.C., he allows an interval of 1440
years to elapse between Joseph and the Exodus, more than _fourteen_
centuries.—TR.
[350] They are called by Manetho Φοίνικες and Ποιμένες, and from the most
ancient times the north-eastern neighbours of the Egyptians were never
other than Semitic nations. The unfounded opinion that the Hyksos were
the Scythians has been long ago refuted.
[351] Evidently the same name as that of the Heliopolitan priest
פוטיפרע, which only, being more complete, has the ע at the end,
and which the Seventy likewise write Πετεφρῆ. In hieroglyphics the name
would be 𓊪𓂞𓁛 or 𓊪𓂞𓇳𓏤 Pet-Ra, or with the article, which can also be
written in hieroglyphics, Pet-Ph-Ra, _i. e._ “he who is consecrated to
the sun.”
[352] This was especially the dress of the Egyptian priests, as well as
of the king himself, whose transparent upper garments, of fine linen,
are known by the monuments. Compare Herod. ii. 37; Plin. H. N. xix. 2.
The elevation of Joseph into the most distinguished class, that of the
priests, is shown by this laying on of fine linen garments.
[353] Precious necklaces and chains were bestowed by the Egyptian
kings as particular marks of distinction. Several very illustrative
representations of this from Thebes and Tel-el-Amarna will be disclosed
in the work of the Prussian Expedition.
[354] At festive processions the chariot of the queen used to follow that
of the king, and after it the chariot of the princes. Joseph was thus
treated like the son of a king.
[355] For other points of comparison, see Hengstenberg, _Die Bücher Moses
und Ægypten_, p. 21-76.
[356] Jablonski, _Voc. Æg._ _s. v._ _Psonthomphanech_; Gesenius,
_Thesaur._ p. 1181.
[357] xvii. p. 788.
[358] Maqrizi in Quatremère. Mém. ii. 318, 401.
[359] ii. 37.
[360] i. 54.
[361] i. 72, 74. Compare c. 71.
[362] Compare also Strabo, xvii. p. 787, upon the taxes to the king.
[363] Exodus i. 8.
[364] Exodus ii. 23.
[365] Even if we take into account the months also, subtracting 80 years
and 8 months from 510 years and 10 months, we shall obtain 430 years and
2 months.
[366] I do not, however, lay more importance upon this agreement than
it deserves. The coincidence of this number with the Hebrew periods,
originating in a different manner, may certainly have first caused it
to be believed that the Hyksos were the Jews. I am the less inclined to
reject this opinion, as we shall see below that the Hebrew number may
also be explained in a different manner.
[367] Böckh is also of this opinion, _Manetho_, p. 227.
[368] Ps. xc. 10.
[369] So Ewald, _Gesch. d. Volks Israel_. Bd. i. p. 30, 339 &c. Bunsen,
_Ægypten_, i. p. 215, 225. (Trans. vol. i. p. 171, 181.)
[370] Ewald, i. p. 31. Compare Bunsen, i. p. 220.
[371] Ewald, i. p. 354, 387, &c.
[372] P. 204, 206. (Trans. by C. H. Cottrell, vol. i. p. 161-163.)
[373] Ægyptens Stelle in der Weltgeschichte. Hamburg, 1845.
[374] Die Chronologie der Ægypter. Berlin, 1849.
[375] These dates were obligingly supplied by Dr. Lepsius himself, in a
letter dated Berlin the 5th of July, 1853.
[376] From the Edinburgh Philosophical Journal for July, 1850.
[377] Bericht über die zur Bekanntmachung geeigneten Verhandlungen der
Königl. Preuss. Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Berlin. Aus dem Jahre,
1844.
[378] The breadth of the river itself. See Letter to Hr. Böckh, p. 27.
[379] Dr. Lepsius, after he had seen this paper, informed me that
Katakomben was a misprint for Katarakten.—L. H.
[380] Miss Martineau’s Eastern Life, vol. i. p. 99.
[381] Reisen in Europa, Asien und Afrika, in der Jahren 1835, bis 1841.
Stuttgart, 1841-1846.
[382] With reference to the object of this paper.
[383] Reisen, Bd. ii. 545.
[384] “Über den Stromlauf und das zunächst liegende Uferland des Nils,
von der zweiten Katarakte bis Assuan, besitzen wir eine vortreffliche
Karte nämlich:” “Land zwischen der kleinen und grossen Katarakten
des Nils. Astronomisch bestimmt und aufgenommen in J. 1827, durch v.
Prokesch. Nil Grundrisse der Monumente. Wien, 1831.”—Reisen, Bd. ii. Thl.
iii. 86.
[385] Russegger, Reisen, Bd. i. 258.
[386] Travels in Ethiopia, p. 272.
[387] Description de l’Egypte.—Separate Memoir, entitled “Description de
Syène et des Cataractes.”
[388] Russegger, Bd. ii. 3 Thl. 85.
[389] Russegger, Bd. ii. 3 Thl. 76.
[390] Travels, p. 257.
[391] Wanderungen durch das Nilthal, von G. Parthey, Berlin, 1840. 378.
[392] Travels, pp. 9 and 11.
[393] Eastern Life, i. 104.
[394] Ib. 144.
[395] Rennie, Report on Hydraulics, in the Fourth Report of the British
Association for the Advancement of Science, 1834, p. 487.
[396] I state this on the authority of my friend, W. Hopkins, Esq., of
Cambridge.
[397] Russegger, Bd. ii. 1 Thl. 569 to 584.
[398] Rennie, Report cited above, p. 422.
[399] See note, p. 511.
[400] Parthey, 318.
[401] Russegger, Reisen, Bd. ii. 300 and 320. Lancret, Description de
l’Egypte, Mémoire sur l’île de Philæ, 15-58. Rosellini, I Monumenti
dell’ Egitto e della Nubia. Monumenti del Culto, 187. Wilkinson’s Thebes
and General View of Egypt, 466. Smith’s Dictionary of Greek and Roman
Biography, Arts. Ptolemy, Ph. and Nectanebus.
[402] p. 187.
[403] Ægyptens Stelle in der Weltgeschichte.—Drittes Buch, 122.
[404] Antiquités de la Nubie, p. 6.
[405] Tome iii. parte ii. p. 6.
[406] Thebes, &c. p. 482.
[407] Bunsen, as above.
[408] p. 9.
[409] Wanderungen, &c. 334.
[410] Reisen, Bd. i. s. 273.
[411] Reisen, Bd. ii. 1 Thl. s. 328.
[412] The _italics_ in the above quotation are thus distinguished by Dr.
Lepsius, the CAPITALS by the author himself.
[413] Here follows a sketch of the plan.
INDEX.
A.
Aahmes-nufre-ari, mother of Amenophis I., 246
Ababde Arabs, 140, 154
Abahuda, village of, 240
Abaris, 406, 416, 426, 446
—— situation of, 426-434
—— same as Pelusium, 431-434
Abaton, island of, 123
Abbas Pascha, 45
Abdebab, Nubian Desert, 141
Abd el Qurna, hill of Thebes, 243, 271
Abdîn, or Blue Nile, 174
Abeken, H., 12, 55, 72, 94, 98, 132, 148, 153, 159, 160, 194, 237,
273, 346
Abel’s Tomb, Palestine, 340
Abke, Nubia, 239
Abir, or Qabir Mount, 237
Abocharagos, the Saracen Prince, 557
Abraham, 422, 485
—— ben David, cited, 452
Abu el Abas, village of, 172
—— Dôm, town of, 222, 229
—— Hammed, town of, 17, 141
—— —— arrival at, 143
—— Haras at mouth of Rahad, 148, 167
—— Haschin, province of Berber, 145
—— Keshêb, ruins of, 435, 438
—— Nugara, mountain chain in Nubian Desert, 141
—— Roasch, Pyramids of, 14, 59, 79
—— Schar, coast of Red Sea, 289
—— Senejat, mountain chain in Nubian Desert, 141
—— Sihha, mountain chain in Nubian Desert, 141
—— Simbel, temples of, 20, 240
—— Tlêh, Desert of Gilif, 214
—— Zelîmeh, Gulf of Suez, 22, 302, 365, 547
Abusir, Pyramids of, 13
—— stone inscribed at, 69
—— Sheikh of, 76
Abydos, 17, 23, 101, 116
Acca (Ptolemais), 336
Achencheres, Exodus was placed in reign of, 489
Achmed Pascha, 129, 147, 160, 163, 187, 191, 198
—— Pascha Menekle, 130, 147, 205, 190, 160
Adar Auîb, 141
Adererât, plain of, 141
Adulis, town of, 220
Aennum (Philotera), 22
Africa, certain nations in Central, 45
Africanus, Julius, cited, 419, 423, 487, 488
—— —— lists of, 418
—— —— preserved the works of Manetho, 499
Ag´aïze Arabs, 278
Agamîeh, the Faiûm, 97
Ahmet Pascha, 45
Ai, King, 261
Ain Gulut, Syria, 335
—— el Haramieh, Syria, 334
—— Hawâreh, Peninsula of Sinai, 547, 548
—— Uneh, Peninsula of Sinai, 555
Aithi, Syria, 336
Akaba, gulf of, 554
Akoris, position of town of, 105
Albert, Prince of Prussia, 70
Alabaster quarry, 101, 114
Alabastron, ancient, 115
Alexandria, 13, 41
—— obelisks in, corroded by weather, 42, 369
Alexander of Macedon, 252, 452, 456
Alexandrian library, 382, 496
—— critics, 487
Ali, a Bischâri, 241
Alluvial soil above Cataract of Assuan, 527
Aloa, kingdom of, 163
Altars at Wadi el Kirbegân, 194
Altar, Ethiopian, 223
Alus, Peninsula of Sinai, 547, 548
Amada, near Korusko, 20, 240
Amara, village of, 19, 237
Amarna, valley El, 101, 114, 115, 262, 322
Amasis I., 114
—— —— King, said to be buried in Sphinx, 67
Ambukôl, Nubia, 231
Amen-Ra, 382
—— hymn to, in Egyptian collection of Mr. Sams, London, 392
Amenemha I., 391, 395
—— III., 15, 20, 91, 239, 301, 527
Amenophis, 405, 408, 420, 497
—— I., 246, 248
—— II., 237
—— III., 19, 222, 236, 237, 253, 256, 261, 485
—— IV., 19, 27, 262, 278, 322
Ammon Ra, 126, 223, 248
Amharic language known by Isenberg, 39
Ammonius, the Monk, cited, 556, 557
Amnis Ptolemæus, a canal, 440, 444
Amosis, 424, 486, 488, 497
Ampère, M., cited, 121, 273
Amru entered Egypt with 4000 Arabs, 430
Anianos, 498
Anîbe, village of, 20, 240
Annals of the Monarchy as early as the first Dynasties, 380
Anti-Libanon, 338
Antinoe, ancient, 113
Antiochus Epiphanes, 409
Antoninus Placentinus, 558
Ants, large black, 138
Aphophis, King, 479, 487, 488
Apion, cited, 411, 421, 423
Apis, the, taken by Amenophis to Ethiopia, 407
Apries (Hophre), inscription belonging to Temple of, 43
Arab, Ababde, 140, 154
—— Ag´aïze, 278
—— ʾAuadîeh, 214
—— Schaiqîeh, 214, 229
—— carelessness in cookery, 280
—— discontented with pay for camels, 130
—— explanation of term, 76
—— family, manners of, 276
—— hospitality, 277
—— vengeance, 271, 321
Arabian Gulf, 434, 437, 441, 442
—— races orally transmit register of generations, 458
Arabic characters, 258, 311
—— inscription, 550-552
—— language, 228, 231
—— music, 182
Arbagi, village of, 166
Arch, pointed and round, 73, 74
Archæology of Egypt, 28
Archimedes invented water-screw in Egypt, 384
Architecture in Egypt, 388
Argo, island of, 17, 233
Argonsene, ruins of town at, 235
Ariston, cited, 554
Aristotle, cited, 439, 444
Arnaut soldiers, 198
Arsinoë II., 109
—— town of, 93, 435, 437, 440, 444
Art, canon of proportions in Egyptian, 21, 118, 383
—— Ethiopian more recent than Egyptian, 152
—— in Egypt and Ethiopia, 18
—— history of, in Egypt, 28
Artaxerxes, 279, 386
Artemidorus, 553, 554, 555
Artim Bey, 189
Artists of Greece, educated in Egypt, 383
Asasif, valley of, 254, 264
Asses in Berber, 157
Astronomy of Egyptian priests, 386
—— knowledge of, necessary to chronology, 396, 398
Assuan, 20, 104, 118
—— granite rocks of, 32, 371
Assur, plain of, 150
Astaboras river, 146
Atbara, province of Berber, 146
Atfeh, Nile at, 43
Athanasius in Theban desert, 266
Atrib (Athribis) in Nile Delta, 333
Atschan, range of, 158, 193
Auatêb, valley of, 156
ʾAuad, the guide, 271
ʾAuadîeh Arabs, 214
Axum, Abyssinia, 220
Ayûn Mûsa, Peninsula of Sinai, 547, 548
B.
Baal Zephon, 427
Bab Allah, gate of Damascus, 343
Bab el Meluk, Thebes, 244
Babylon, 437, 440, 445
Babylonian prisoners, 482
Bachît, village of, 230
Bageh, temple of, 526
Bahiuda, desert of, 213
Bahr-bela-mâ, the Faiûm, 95, 136
—— Jussuf, the Faiûm, 15, 92, 96
—— ʾHatab, Nubian desert, 137
—— Scheitan, or mirage, 142
—— Scherkîeh, the Faiûm, 94
—— Wardâni (the Faiûm), 94
Bâlbeck, 346
Ban-tree, 227
Baobab-trees, 166
Bárada river, 339
Barbarus of Scaliger, 453
Barkal, Mount, 18, 220, 222
Bartlett, H., cited, 535
Barquq, Sultan, 94
Batn el Hagér, province of, 237
Basilica in Wadi Gazâl, 218
Bauer, Herr, of Kamlîn, 189, 163
Bech-en-aten (King Amenophis IV.), 114, 262, 278
Bedouin, the, 86
—— explanation of term of, 76
Beg´a language, 31, 242, 244
—— plain of, 348
Begerauîeh, village of, 17, 150, 152, 195, 209, 212
Behbét el Hagér (Iseum), in Nile Delta, 23, 333
Berber, Mudhir of, 131
Bêida, village of, 198
Belbês, Israelites were settled near, 449
Beled Ellâqi, village of, 241
Belled e’ Nuba, village of, 228
Benihassan, tombs of, 16, 101, 110-113
Ben Naga, village of, 153, 154, 194
Beni-Suef, town of, 15, 100, 322
—— Kensi, tribe of, 241
Berscheh, village of, 16, 101, 113, 115
Bertheau, cited, 464
Bet el Ualli, temple of, 124
Berut (Berytos), Syria, 336, 356
Bethin (Bethel), Syria, 334
Bethmann, Dr., 23, 322
Biahmu, monuments of, 96
Bigeh, island of, 20, 120
—— temple of, 531
Bir Ambar, spring of, 277
Birds, collection of, 160
—— on Blue River, 168
Bîreh, village of, 334
Birket e’ temsah, 434
Birqet-el-Qorn, the Faiûm, 15, 92, 93, 95, 97
Biscay, Bay of, 37
Bischarîba people, 244
Bischâris, the, 140
Bischâri language, 241
Bitter lakes, 436, 440, 442, 444
Bischeh, the Faiûm, 97
Blemyes, the, 242
Blue River, 162
—— —— birds, trees, monkeys, &c., 168, 169
Bocchoris, King, 423
Böckh, cited, 107, 242, 424, 494
—— letter to, from Dr. Lepsius, 508
Boghos Bey, confidential minister of Mohammed Ali, 40, 46, 189
Bokty, the Prussian consul, 47
Bonomi, J., travelling companion, 12, 35, 45, 56, 57, 98
Book of the Dead, 381, 392
Braun, Herr Julius, 41
Bricks of Nile mud, 372
Bricks, burnt, of Babylon, 373
Brick-vaulted roofs, 373
Britan, Syria, 340
British Museum, 394
Bscherreh, Syria, reception at, 351
—— Sheikh of, 352
Bubastis, 369, 429, 436, 448, 449
Bubastic arm of Nile, 427, 428
Buêribs, the, 154, 157
Bulaq, harbour of Cairo, 44
Bunsen, Chev., cited, 387, 392, 420, 424, 471, 492, 499, 526
—— —— last friend seen in England, 35
Bujurldis. _See_ Firman
Burckhardt, cited, 338, 532, 551, 561
Burial near Blue River, 176
Burying alive in Fazoql, 202
Byblus (Gebel), 355
C.
Cailliaud, cited, 150, 154, 155, 209
Calippus, cycle of, 454
Cæsar, Augustus, 252, 266
Cairo, 23, 44-46, 80
—— festival in, 70
Cambyses, 251, 279
Camel, explanation of term, 81
—— drivers, imposition of, 216
Camels, want of, 130
Camp, attack on, at Saqâra, 75
—— life in the, 56, 87
—— night in the Egyptian military, 204
Canal between Nile and Red Sea, 441-445
—— Nile, 436
—— Rosetta, 43
Canals in Egypt, 482
Candace, Queen, 196
Canons of proportions, 28, 118, 383
Canopic arm of Nile, 447
Carians, the frontier guard near Pelusium, 429
Carmel, Mount, 336
Castle of Abd el Qurna, 243
—— Abke, 239
—— Hellet el Bib, 226
—— Sêse, 236
Cataract, second, 131
—— country, excursion to, 225
—— of Kalfa, 237
Cataracts in provinces of Schaiqîeh and Monassir, 228
—— 239
Cemetery of Meröe, 212
Cepheus, King, 423
Chafra (Chephyren), Pyramid of, 59
Chairemon, cited, 434
Champion, M., the Austrian consul, 45, 47
Champollion, Figeac, cited, 25, 51, 107, 110, 112, 119, 120, 124,
266, 527
—— —— cited, 381, 394, 431, 435
Chanter, the two books of, 388
Chartûm, 15, 130, 131, 158, 190, 193
Chemmis, 115
Chencheres, King, 422, 489
Cheops, writing on the monuments since the time of, 37
—— (Chufu), Pyramid of, 48, 59, 72, 372
—— —— —— —— —— tablet on, 57
—— King, 110, 114
Chephren. _See_ Schafra
Chôr el Ammer, desert of Gilif, 216
—— Bân, 227
Choreb. _See_ Horeb
—— 559
Chorography of Egypt, 29
Chôsch e’ Gurûf, Nuba village, 228
Christian chronologists on the period of the Exodus, 421
Christianity in Nubia, 231
Christmas at Pyramids, 55
—— —— Thebes, 273
Chronicle, old, 497, 498
Chronology, 396
—— Old Testament, 490, 492
—— Manethonic, 490
Chronological character of Jewish History, 401
Chronologists, Jewish and Christian, 421
Churches and convents, Christian, 230, 267
Church, Coptic, 237
—— of Magal, 231
Churshid Pascha, 163, 195
Civilisation of Egypt during the first Dynasties, 25
Clavis Nilotica, 210
Clemens of Alexandria, 387, 392, 398, 423
Cleobulus, sage of Lindus, 384
Cleopatra, Queen, 444
—— —— inscription referring to, 106
Cleopatra’s Needle, 42
Climate in Peninsula of Sinai, 545
—— 224
—— at Thebes, 103
Clot Bey, M., 32, 246
Clysma Poemes, bishop of, 557
Codex of Syncellus, 489
—— Mediceus, 437
Computation of time, Egyptian, 497
Contracts, era of the, 452
Convent at Gebel Mûsa, 291, 305, 556
—— in Wadi Gazâl, 218
Copper mines in Peninsula, 22, 300, 301
Coptic characters, 27, 94, 109, 117, 123, 158, 277, 394, 426
—— churches, 219, 237, 260
—— —— plan of, 219
—— inscription, 220
—— language encouraged by Lieder’s exertions, 36
—— population near Thebes, 268
—— school, 36
—— settlement, 278
Copts, the, 270
Corinth, Isthmus of, 442
Cosmas Indicopleustes, cited, 313, 320, 558, 560
Costume in Cairo, 80
—— worn by travellers in Thebes, 104
Crocodiles of Blue River, 169
—— eggs, 175
Crocodilopolis, remains of, 15, 97
Croly, Rev. Dr., 540
Cuneiform inscriptions, 443
Customs in southern provinces, 202
Cynocephalus, 172
D.
D’Abadie, cited, 99
Dáhela, village of, 175
Dakkeh (Pselchis), 17, 20, 242
Dal, frontier village, 237
—— Haui, island of, 149
Damascus, 340
—— journey to, 336-340
Damietta, 23
Dams of Lake Mœris, 95
D’Anastasi, M., the Swedish consul-general, 39, 394
Dâmer, village of, 133, 146, 147, 149
Danai, the flight of, 424
Danaus, 383, 408, 421
Danqeleh, village of, 209
D’Anville, cited, 427, 431, 433, 434
Daphka, Peninsula of Sinai, 540, 547, 548
Daphni of Pelusium, 429
Dara-buka kettle-drum, 184
Dar Fûr, 30, 234
—— —— language of, 244
Darius, 439, 440, 442
Darius II., 252, 279
Darmali, village of, 228
Daschûr, Pyramid of, 13, 79, 98
Dedications on Temples, 379
Date of the Exodus, 470-474, 449-457, 490
Debbet e’ Ramleh, plain of, 300
Debôd, 17, 20, 123, 242
Debu, temple at, 526
Decades, or Egyptian weeks, 398
Decius, Emp., 266
Defterdar Bey, 195
Defûfa, tomb of, 234
Delta of the Nile, 369, 483, 486
Dender River, 170
Dendera, temple of, 17, 23, 101, 110, 116, 322
Dendûr, temple of, 17, 20, 124, 242
Der el Ahmar, village in Syria, 348
—— Bachît, convent of, 267
—— Bahri, convent of, 267
—— Medînet, convent of, 267, 381
De Rozière, cited, 443
Derr, temple of, 126, 232, 240, 356
Desert, Nubian, 133, 143
—— journey through, 214
Derut-Scherif, 15
Dhafari, Peninsula of Sinai, 547
Dilêb-Palms, 171
Diméh, in the Faiûm, 15, 97
Dinka tribes, 149
—— language, 161
Diocletian, Emp., inscription in honour of, 42
Diodorus, cited, 123, 202, 260, 381, 383, 391, 408, 421, 429, 439,
480, 483, 553, 554
Diodorus, Exodus according to, 409
Division of time, 398
Doko, country of the, 46
Dongola, province of, 19, 458
—— new, 233
—— old, 232
Dôm-Palms, 137, 218
Doseh, the trampling, 71
Dromedary, explanation of term, 81
—— pace of, 139
Du Bois Aymé, cited, 435, 436
Durra grain, 143, 154
Dynasty, Elephantine, collateral, 60
Dynastic Lists, 497
Dynasties, tables of Egyptian, 499, 506
E.
Echmim, inscription in rock grotto of, 23, 109, 115
Edbai, country of Bischâri tribes, 242
Edfu, temple of, 17, 20, 117
Egypt, archæology of, 29
—— civilisation of, during first Dynasties, 25
—— climatal conditions of, 368, 369
—— famine in, 481
—— geography and chorography of, 29
—— history of, 367
—— history of art in, 27
—— mythology of, 26
—— philology of, 26
—— regarded as a university for philosophy, 384
Egyptian administration under the old kings of the country, 482
—— Museum in Berlin, views respecting its decoration, 324
—— gods, 381, 392
—— annals, King of the Exodus in, 417
—— canon of proportions, 383
—— chronologies not opposed to Hebrew, 457
—— collection of Mr. Sams, 392
—— prophets, 413
Ehden, village of, 353
Ehrenberg, his views respecting luminosity of sea, 37
—— cited, 234, 239, 290
Eileithyia, ancient, 117
El Ain in Libanon, 338
El Akarid, village of, 150
El Ammer, valley of, 216
Elanitic Gulf, 554
El Bosra, alabaster quarries at, 21, 31, 114, 115
El Buêb, hill of, Peninsula of Sinai, 298
El Chôr, province of Berber, 145
El Elâm, in the Faiûm, 95, 96
Elephantine, island of, 20
El Farût, hill of, Nubian Desert, 141
El G´eʾah, plain of, 290, 296
El Gôs, plain of, 215
El Guês, village of, 212
El Hai, well of, 291
El-Harib, tombs of, 16
El Hessue, valley of, 298, 318
El Hibe, monuments of, 23
El Kab, rock tombs of, 20, 117
El Kenissa, castle of, 239
El Orde (New Dongola), 233
El Qorn, mountains of, 277
Elim, 306, 307, 548, 551, 560
Elijah, 559
Eleians, their Olympian games, 383
Em Bey, 289
Emigrants from Semitic countries, 410
Emir Pascha, 131, 146, 159, 186, 189, 192
Enned Mountains, 288
Era of the Greeks adopted by the Jews, 452
—— Grecian, 456
—— of Contracts adopted by the Jews, 452
—— of the Seleucidæ adopted by the Jews, 452
Eratosthenes, cited, 437
Erbkam, G., member of the expedition, 12, 28, 39, 45, 53, 72, 74, 79,
81, 83, 97, 147, 153, 195, 230, 235, 243, 259
Erectheus, King of Athens, 383
Erment (Hermonthis), temple at, 17
E’ Seleha, valley of, 156
Esneh, temple of, 17, 20, 117
—— Mudhir of, 131
E’ Sofra, valley of, 156
E’ Sufr, valley of, 137
E’ Sûr, village of, 209
Ethiopian art more recent than Egyptian, 152
—— civilisation later than Egyptian, 244
—— demotic writing, 207
—— inscriptions, 31
Ethiopians of Meröe, 208
Ethiopia, flight to, 407, 416
Et. Quatremère, cited, 435
E’ Tih, descent of, 300
Eudoxus, 384, 386
Euergetes II., inscription referring to, 105
Eusebian canon, 489
Eusebius, cited, 313, 422, 453, 489, 498, 499, 555, 560
Eutychius. _See_ Saïd ben Batrik
Ewald, cited, 310, 424, 427, 430, 464, 548
Exodus, date of the, 449-457, 470-474
—— according to Diodorus, 409
—— according to Hecataeus, 408
—— according to Manetho, 405-407
—— of the Hyksos, preserved by Manetho, 410
—— of Israelites, 410, 411
—— —— —— same as expulsion of lepers related by Manetho, 404
—— of lepers same as of Israelites, 412-417
Expedition, chief purpose historical, 24
—— French-Tuscan, 24
Ezbe, roads of, 333
Ezbekîeh square, in Cairo, 80
F.
Fadniê village, 154
Fakir in Abu Dôm, 229
—— of Tâiba, 187
—— Daha, his sepulchre, 229
—— Fenti, castle of, 235
Faiûm, the, 14, 92-98
—— journey to, 83
Fall of Nile, 521
—— Thames, 520
Falmouth, scenery about, 36
Famine in Egypt, 481
Faran in Peninsula of Sinai, 31, 554
Fazoql, customs in, 202
Fellah, explanation of term of, 76
—— industrious, 260
Ferhât Pascha, 131
Ferlini, treasure found by, 151, 197
Fidimîn, village of, 97
Finisterre, cape, 37
Firân, in Peninsula of Sinai, 547, 559
Firman of Viceroy, with permit to the Prussian expedition to collect
Egyptian monuments, 40, 42
Fishes, Egyptian collection of, 32
Fortress at Bachît, 231
—— of Karat Negil, 230
—— at Tifar, 232
Franke, member of the expedition, 39, 53, 57, 75, 153, 198, 210
Franz, cited, 106
French-Tuscan expedition, 24
French expedition, 436, 438, 443
Frey, J., the painter, 12, 38, 98
Funeral ceremony in Wed Médineh, 183
G.
Ganz, cited, 452
Gabre Máriam, the Abyssinian boy, 181, 187, 275
Gabuschié, village of, 196, 198
Gaqedûl, in Desert of Gilif, 214
Garizim, Mount, 334
Gau, cited, 123, 526
Gauâta, village of, 101, 115
Galba, Emp., 266
Gaza, road into Egypt from, 429
G´eʾah, plain of, 290, 296
Gebel, village of, 209
—— Abrak, 217
—— Abu Gueh, 278
—— —— Schegere, 292
—— —— Senejat, 141
—— —— Sihha, 141
—— Adar Auîb, 141
—— Aschtân, 158
—— Barkal, 18, 220, 222
—— Barqugres, 215
—— Buêrib, 154
—— Dahʿi, 335
—— Dêqa, 231
—— Dochân, 32, 281, 286
—— —— red porphyry of, 288, 372
—— Dosche, 236
—— El Bab, 136
—— Enned, 289
—— Farût, 141
—— Fatireh, 31, 280
—— Graibât, 141
—— Hammâm, hot springs of, 291
—— Katherîn, 292, 293
—— Kongeli, 226
—— Lagâr, 156
—— Maáuad, 277
—— Maqál, 228
—— el Mágeqa, 216
—— Mograd, 141
—— Mûsa, 292, 303, 315, 532, 544, 562
—— —— Mount of the Law, 532
—— —— convent of, 556
—— e’ Naga, 155, 156
—— Nusf, 214
—— Omarda, 214
—— Qermana, 214
—— Qettâr, 292
—— Rauiân, 158
—— Roft, 138
—— Sefsâf, 293
—— Selîn, 115
—— Selseleh, 371
—— Sergen, 214
—— Silsilis, 117
—— e’ Tih, 300
—— e Tur, 335
—— Um Riglin, 292
—— Um Schômar, 292, 297
—— Zeït, 289
Gedîdeh, in Syria, 340
Geez inscription, 208
Geg, province of Berber, 145
Genealogies, registers of, 458, 460
Generations, register of, 458
Genna, village of, 150
Gennin (Egennin), Syria, 335
Geography of Egypt, 29
Geological structure of Lower Nubia, 522
Geometry, the knowledge of, 390
Georgi, O., the painter, 12, 222, 187
Georgius Syncellus, cited, 498
Geraschab, Schellâl of, 158
Gerbé Dandour, monument at, 526
Gerf Hussên, temples of, 20, 124, 126, 242, 356
Gerf e’ Schech, village of, 228
Germanicus, visit to remains of, ancient Thebes, 266, 393
Gertassi, in Ethiopia, 123
Gesch, reed grass, 213
Gesenius, cited, 431, 548
Gezîret-el-Qorn, island of, 97
Ghabîne, village of, 209
Gharaq Lake, 98
Gibba, in Syria, 343
Gibraltar, 38
Gilif, desert of, 213
Gimscheh, or Kebrit, Peninsula of, 289
Girsche, 242
Gism Halfa, 241
Gizeh, Pyramids of, 13, 47, 79
Gôba, in Syria, 344
Gobat, Bishop of Jerusalem, 39
Gods, Egyptian, 381, 392
Gomra, island of, 150
Gorata, near source of Blue Nile, 99
Gôs Basabir, village of, 158
—— Burri, village of, 214
Goshen, land of, 49, 410, 411, 414, 435, 448
Granite of Assuan, 371
Greek inscriptions, 31, 105, 122, 125, 220, 240, 550
—— philosophers, 385
Greeks, era of the, 452, 456
Gulf of Akaba, 554
—— Arabian, 434
Guneh, in Syria, 355
Gungules, fruit of Baobab-tree, 166
H.
Habak herb, 296
Hadrian, Emperor, 113, 288
Hager Mérui, white rock in Province of Robatat, 226
Haipha (Hepha), Syria, 336
Hair, Arab mode of greasing, 144
Halfaï, or Nile, 205
Haluf, Nuba village, 228
Hamâda-trees, 295
Hamdâb, district of, 225
Hamitic languages, 31
Hammâm Faraûn, in Peninsula of Sinai, 554
—— Seidna Solimân, tower of, 237
Hammamât, quarries of, 22, 32, 278, 321
Hammer, von, 341
Hannik, in province of Máhas, 235
Haram el Gizeh, Pyramids of, 47
Hay, cited, 271
Hassan Kaschef, of Derr, 127, 241
—— Pascha, 131, 146, 192, 218, 232, 235
Hathor, temple to, in Dendera, 116
Heathen temples mutilated by Christians, 267
Hebrew Chronologies not opposed to Egyptian, 457
—— commentators, 477
—— numbers, uncertainty of, 402
—— tradition, 401
Hecataeus, of Abdera, Exodus according to, 408
—— —— cited, 260, 408
Heglik-tree, 217
Heliopolis, 46, 369, 384, 406, 408, 413, 414, 448
—— priest of, Joseph marries the daughter of, 411
—— (Bâlbeck), 346
Hellet el Bib, ruins of, 226
—— e’ Solimân, village of, 188, 205
Hengstenberg, cited, 544
Henniker, Sir Fr., 551
Heracleopolis Parva, 429
Hererat, 297
Hermanovich, Dr., 160, 190
Hermes, Book of the Dead ascribed to, 392
—— Trismegistus, citation from, 270
Hermetic books, 382, 387, 391, 397
Hermonthis, ancient (Erment), near Thebes, 117
Hermopolis Parva (Damanhur), 447
Hero, same as Heroonpolis, 435
Herodotus, cited, 119, 383, 384, 429, 432, 439, 442, 447, 480, 481
Heroonpolis, 434, 435, 437, 445, 555
—— situation of, 434, 438
Hierasykaminos, inscriptions of, 125
Hieroglyphical inscriptions on rock, 458
Hieroglyphic writing, 377
Hieroglyphics, 27, 58, 59, 109, 196, 223, 236, 377, 381, 382, 413,
420, 426
Hierogrammatist, the, or Sacred Scribe, 387
Hiersolyma, built by Moses according to Hecataeus, 408
Hieratical, or Priest Books, 387
Hillel, the astronomer, 454
Hippopotamus, 158
—— on Blue River, 170
Historical book literature, 394
—— literature necessary to restoration of true history, 399
—— sense in the Egyptian character, 374
Hobi, island of, 153
Hogg, Mr. John, 540, 560
Hopkins, W., cited, 522
Horeb (Choreb), 293, 304, 314, 533
Horner, L., paper on bed of Nile, Appendix, 507
—— cited, 239
Horoscopi, the, or time-seers, 388
Horus, King, 259, 405, 420
Horus, the god at temple of Edfu, 117
Hospitality, Arabian, 277
Hospital in Wed Médineh, 185
Hoskins, 150, 154, 155
Howara, village of, 84
Humboldt, A. von, 105, 532
Hyksos, the, 395, 406, 421, 476, 479, 486
—— time of, 485
—— Exodus of the, 410
—— banishment of, 417
—— Dynasties of the, 488
—— invasion of the, 427
—— end of rule, 428
Hymn to Amen-Ra, in Egyptian collection of Mr. Sams, London, 392
Hymns to the God, 389, 392
I.
Iamblichus, concerning Hermetic books, 382
Ibrahim Aga (Kawass), 131, 198, 275
Ibrahim Chêr, a Syrian, house of, 160, 191
—— Hassan, death of, in Syria, 346
—— Pascha, 47, 101, 198
Ibrîm (ancient Primis), 20, 125, 240, 241
Ideler, cited, 450, 453
Illahûn, Pyramid of, 83, 93
Indigo factory in Kamlîn, 163
—— —— Tamaniât, 191
Inscription on temple of Begerauîeh, 151
—— on rock grotto of Echmim, 109
—— on obelisk of Heliopolis, 46
—— at Philæ, 120, 243
—— on temple of Pselchis, 105
—— —— of Edfu, 117
—— at Konosso, 120
—— at Naharieh, 43
—— on Pyramids of Gizeh, 52
—— —— of Meröe, 206
—— at Soba, 165
—— of Silco, 242
—— at Talmis, 123
—— Arabic, 232, 550, 552
—— Ethiopian demotic, 223, 237
—— Greek, 240
—— —— in Gertassi, 123
—— —— on Pompey’s pillar, 42
—— —— at Coptic church in Wadi Gazâl, 220
Inscriptions, 30, 245, 379
—— modern hieroglyphics commemorative of Prussian expedition, 57
—— Greek and Coptic, 220
—— Greek and Egyptian, 278
—— hieroglyphic, 114
—— Roman, 345
—— Sinaitic, 291, 294, 299, 311
—— Rock, 239, 560
—— in Untial characters, 267
Ischischi, Island of, 225, 231
Isenberg, missionary, 39, 47
Ishmael had an Egyptian mother, 410
Isis, chapel to, in Mehendi, 126
—— statue of, 223
—— temple to, at Philæ, 120
Ismael Pascha, 161, 195, 205
Israelites, the, 414, 446, 448, 458
—— Exodus of, 410, 411
—— not the only strangers in Egypt, 410
—— journey of the, 305
—— time occupied in journey to Sinai, 548-550
Israelitish people, destiny of the, 459
Isthmus of Suez, geographical conditions, 426
Itinerarium, Antonini, 317, 448, 449
—— situation of Heroonpolis given in, 435
J.
Jacob, meeting between Joseph and, 435
Jaffa, 23
Janni Nicola, 290
Jassur bush, 295
Jericho, 334
Jeroboam I., King, worship of sun-bull introduced into Palestine by,
413
Jerome, St., 313, 317, 555, 560
Jerusalem, 39, 334
Jesreel, plains of, 336
Jewish calendars, 453
—— chronology, 450
—— chronologists, 421
—— generations, 458-470
—— history, chronological character of, 401
—— list, 497
—— temple of Onias, 449
Jews, the account of, by Diodorus, 409
Jomard, 431
Jorius, bishop of Mount Sinai, 558, 562
Joseph, 410, 413, 435, 481, 483
—— in Egypt, 476-484
Josephus, cited, 313, 316, 416, 417, 418, 423, 424, 427, 433, 459,
460, 476, 487, 497, 548, 554, 560
—— lists of, 419
Joshua, book of, 450
Judæa, foreigners in Egypt fled to, 408
Judges, book of, 450
Jussuf, Dragoman, 133, 275
Justinian, convent built by Emperor, 319, 551, 556, 562
Justin Martyr, cited, 423
K.
Kafr el Batran, village of, 76
Kalabscheh, 17, 20, 192, 242, 526
Kalfa, cataract of, 237
Kamlîn, 163, 189
Karabel, rock-picture of, 24
Karat Negil, fortress of, 230
Karnak, 20, 102, 247, 248-253
Kasinqar, village of, 225, 227
Kasiun, Mount, 341
Katârif, village of, 186
Kawass, the, 87
—— Ibrahim, 149, 170
Kebrit, Peninsula of, 289
Keli, funeral ceremony in, 211
Kenes, island of, 120
Kerak, tomb of Noah at, 337
Kermân, village of, 233
Kings of Egypt, succession of, 26
Ki-si-Tuthotep, tomb of, 113
Kisch, or Kischiga, village of, 242
Klotsch, Dr., cited, 227
Klysma, at the head of Arabian Gulf, 435
Koch, Dr., 147, 160
Koï, remains of towns at, 235
Kolzum, convent of, 557
Kôm el Birât, village of, 271, 321
Kongára language, 30, 234
Konosso, island of, 20, 120
Koptos, ancient (Quft), 22
Kordofan, brother of Sultan of, 161
Korte, temple of, 124
Korusko, 17, 105, 127, 130, 240
Kossêr, 22, 279, 321
Kossêr road, hieroglyphical inscription on rock of, 458
Krapf, the missionary, 39, 45, 447
—— on certain nations in Central Africa, 45
Kteffe valley, 547
Kubán (Contra Pselchis), 20, 242
Kûʾeh, territory of, 225
Kûm-Ombo, temple of, 17
Kûm-Ahmar, rock-tombs of, 15
Kummeh, village of, 19, 238
Kumr betá Dáhela, village of, 175
Kungara language, 244
Kurru, Pyramids of, 229
L.
Labyrinth, arrangement of, 90
—— founder of, 15
—— ruins of the, 15, 83
—— payment of people for digging trenches at, 84
Lake of Serbon, 429
Lakes, bitter, 436, 440, 442, 444
Lancret, cited, 525
Language of Taka, 201
Languages, African, 31
Larcher, 431
Leake, 240
Leqêta, village of, 277
Le Quien, 556, 558, 562
Leontes, river, 336
Lepers, expulsion of, 404, 417
—— insurrection under Osarsiph, 416
—— Exodus of, same as of Israelites, 412-417
Leprosy, Egyptian, account of, 412
Letter to Mr. Horner from Dr. Lepsius, 530
Letronne, cited, 105, 107, 121, 123, 387, 440, 442, 444, 445
Levites, generations of, 460
Levi, tribe of, 459
L’Hôte, cited, 105
Libanon, view of, 349
—— war in, 352
Library at Thebes, 381, 397
—— Alexandrian, 382, 496
Lieder, Herr, German missionary, 36, 47, 74
Limestone, nummulitic, mountain range near Memphis composed of, 371
Linant, M., 14, 92, 94, 96
Lions in Berber, 157
Lion, young, 174
Lischt, Pyramid of, 64, 83
Lists, Jewish, 497
—— Dynastic of Manetho, 497
Literature of Egypt, 386, 390
Livy, fragment of a MS. of, 380
Locusts, swarm of, 68
Lorda, Domingo, 99
Loss of road, 282
Luqsor, temple of, 102, 247, 253
Lycopolis, 101
Lycurgus introduced Egyptian customs into Greece, 383
Lycus. _See_ Nahr el Kelb
Lysimachus, on the Exodus, 422, 424
M.
Maccabees, book of, 452
Madian, district of, 546
Magal, church of, 231
Mágeqa, well of, in Gilif mountains, 216
Máhas, province of, 235
—— dialect of, 232
Mahmûd Welled Schauîsch, 188, 205
Mahmudieh canal, 42
Makrizi, cited, 178
Maktaf, or basket, 84
Makrobioten Apappus Pepi, 110
Malta, 38
Mandera, in desert, 130, 162
Manetho, cited, 382, 405, 410, 412, 416, 417, 423, 427, 429, 433,
470, 480, 486, 487, 494, 496, 499
Manethonic chronology, 490, 493, 495
—— Dynastic lists, 498
—— Dynasties, 496
—— history, extent of, 493
—— list of Eusebius, 422
—— numbers, the genuine, 494-496, 498
Manuscripts, Ethiopian, 99
Mara, 307, 548
Maranites, the, 554
Marcellinus, Ammianus, cited, 79
Martineau, Miss, cited, 514, 520
Marûga, village of, 212, 209
Masr, or Cairo, 44
Massaui, island of, 228
Matarîeh, village of, 49
Mechêref, village of, 142, 144
Medamôt, village of, 247
Medik, village of, 125
Medînet el Faiûm, 93, 97
—— Hâbu, 102, 253, 256, 260
—— —— church at, 269
—— Mâdi, ruins of, 98
—— Nimrud, town of, 97
Mediterranean Sea, triremes on, 442
Megdel, in Syria, 336
Meharret. _See_ Hererat
Mehemet Ali, 441
Mehendi, Roman camp of, 125
Meidûm, Pyramid of, 64, 83
Mekseh, village of, 336
Meláh (Arabic for salt work), 194
Melek Idris Adlân, 177, 191
Memnon statue, 257
Memnonia at Thebes, 102, 248, 258
Memphis, 14, 49, 72, 81, 369, 427, 484
—— Pyramids of, 24, 44, 370
Menephthes king during the Exodus, 424, 430, 449, 451, 454, 470, 474,
480, 484
—— rock temple, at Surarieh, dedicated to Hathor by, 100
—— temple in Nubia erected by, 124
Menes, laws of, 392
—— epoch, or first historical year, 495
—— hieroglyphic writings invented in time of, 377
—— year of 3893, B.C., 494
Menkera (Mykerinos), Pyramid of, 59
Menzaleh Lake, 333
Merhet, priest of Chufu, tomb of, 61, 63
Méraui, town of, 194, 223
Meröe, derivation of term, 210
—— district between Nile and Astaboras, 17, 146
—— island of, 225
—— Pyramids of, 206
—— well of, 217
Mesaurât, monuments of, 156
—— el Kirbegân (Ben Naga), 156, 157
—— e’ Naga (Ben Naga), 156
—— e’ Sofra (Ben Naga), 156
Messâid, spring of water, 288
Messelemîeh, town of, 166, 189, 205
Metamme, village of, 154
Meton, the cycle of, 454
Mice in camp, 87
Miglik, in Gilif range, 216
Military band, 186
Minjan schtaroth, epoch of, 455
Mirage, in Nubian Desert, 141
Misphragmuthosis, end of rule of Hyksos, 428, 490
Mitrahinneh, 72
Mneuis, holy bull, 411, 413
Moʾallaqa, Syria, 337
Möris-Amenemha, 481
Mœris Lake, 92, 95
—— dams of lake, 95
Mœris, Pyramid of, 83
Mograd, mountain range of, 141
Mogrân River, 146
Mohammed Ali, 39, 40, 333
—— Saïd, 158
Moie Messâid, spring of, 288
Moleds, or new moons, 453
Molon, cited, 423
Monarchy, Old, 395, 414
Monassir, cataracts in province of, 228
Monkeys on Blue River, 169
Mons Casius, 429
—— Claudianus. _See_ Gebel Fatireh
—— Porphyrites. _See_ Gebel Dochân
Monuments, 368, 375
—— age of Egyptian, 16
—— in Old Monarchy, 414
—— of Biahmu, 96
—— granite, at Mount Barkal, 223
—— Pharaonic, 233
—— at Soba, 18
—— at Thebes, 20
Monumental nation, the Egyptian, 397
—— writing, hieroglyphics become, 379
Moqattam Hills, 47
Mosaic account of Exodus, 425
Mosch, town of, 235
Moses, 310, 408, 411, 449, 484, 486, 491, 546
Mosque at Damascus, 343
—— at Old Dongola, 232
Motmar, 150
Mountains of Nubian Desert, mineral character of, 136
Mud of Nile, bricks made of, 369
Mudhir of Berber, 131
—— Esneh, 131
Mühleisen, a missionary, 39, 47
Mukfâr, ruins of, 435, 436
Mulid e’ Nebbi, festival of, 70
Mummies, durability of, 370
Mundera, plain of, 141
Munfîeh range, 280
Mûsa Bey, 148
Music not considered by the Egyptians an independent art, 388
—— Eastern, 85
—— Arabic, 182
Mustaffa Pascha, 131
Mythology of Egypt, 25
Myos hormos, ruins of, 289
N.
Nablus (Sichem) Syria, 334
Naga in the desert, 17, 153, 156, 210
Naharieh, ruins of town near, 43
Nahr el Kelb (Lykos), 22, 355
Nakb el Egaui, Peninsula of Sinai, 291
—— Haui, Peninsula of Sinai, 291, 294, 547
Names, holy and popular, for towns, 115
Napoleon, Descrip. de l’Egypt, 376
Napata, town of, 18, 223
—— cemetery of, 220
Narrative, Mosaic, contradicts the idea that the Jews were the
Hyksos, 421
Nascimbeni, engineer of the Viceroy, 93
Nasr, Sultâna, 176
Natron, crust in desert of, 139
Natural history, collection by Ferd. Werne, bought for Prussia, 42
Nazareth, 335
Nebbi Habîl (tomb of Abel), 340
—— Schît, Syria, 345
Nebek-tree, 277, 298
Nebuchadnezzar, 455
Nechel Delfa, in Gebel Munfîeh, 281
Necropoli, Egyptian, 375
Necropolis of Thebes, 247
Nectanebus, 120, 243, 525, 531
—— II., 494
Negro soldiers, 186
Nehera-si-Numhotep, tomb of, 112
Nekleh, Rosetta arm of Nile, 43
Nekôs begins to cut canal between Nile and Red Sea, 439, 440, 441, 442
Neos Dionysos, Ptolemy XIII., 108
Neslet, village of, 98
Nesnas ape, 164
Neubauer, Herr, apothecary at Chartûm, 160
New Dongola, 233
Nile river, height of, at Semneh, 19, 20
—— gradual levelling of bed, 30
—— at Atfeh, 43
—— waters of, 44
—— crossing the, 211
—— observations on rise of, 239, 259
—— between Thebes and Qeneh, 275
—— narrow district of, 369
—— mud bricks of, 369
—— ease of transport on, 372
—— canal, 436, 448
—— upper districts of, 458
—— rise of, related by Strabo, 481
—— breadth, depth, and velocity in Nubia, 519
—— fall of, 521
Nilometer, 73
Nimr, palace of King, 195
Nilus, cited, 556, 557, 560
Noah’s tomb, 327
Nochol rock, 307
Nofratmu, an ancestor of Ranumhet, chief architect, 458
Nomarchs, who ruled in the Nomes, 482
Nomes, Egypt divided into, 482, 483
Nome, Sethroitic, Abaris situated in, 427, 431
Nuba language, 30, 128, 232, 234
—— dialect, 235
—— villages, 228
Nubia, Lower, phys. geog. of, _see_ Appendix, 516
—— Lower, geological structure of, Appendix, 522
—— breadth, depth, &c., of Nile, Appendix, 519
—— temples in, 124
Nubian language, 171
—— Sheikh, 30
Nubians, character of, 127
Numbers, genuine Manethonic, 494-496, 498
—— Hebrew, uncertainty of, 402
Nummulitic limestone near Memphis, 371
Numt Amen, temple of, 255
Nureddin Effendi, a Coptic Catholic Egyptian, 163, 189
Nuri, Pyramids of, 218, 221
Nus, hieroglyphic name of town, 112
O.
Obelisk at Heliopolis, 46
Obelisks in Alexandria, 369
Ochus, conquest of Egypt by, 494
Okmeh, sulphur-spring at, 237
Old Dongola, 232
Old Testament writings, 459
—— —— chronology, 490, 492
Old chronicle, 497, 498
Olympiad, the seventh, 423
—— calculation, 424
Olympian games, 383
Omar Aga, officer in Turkish army, 198
Omarâb mountains, 209
Ombos, canon of proportions found in, 20, 118
Om Saiale, well of, 218
Om Schebak, valley of, 218
On, same as Heliopolis, 113
Onias, temple of, 449
Osarsiph, priest of Heliopolis, 406, 408, 413, 416
Osiris, tomb of, 122
—— service of, 413
—— statue of, at Kamlîn, 164
Osman Bey, chief in command of army against Taka, 196
Osymandyas, King, 381
—— tomb of, 260
Otho, Emp., 266
P.
Paapis, son of Amenophis, 405
Palms, Dilêb, 171
—— Doum, 137, 218
Pachon, Papyri dated 13th of, 395
Painting on Pyramids, 52
—— Christian, over Heathen representations, 268
Paintings in Thebes, 246
—— on tomb in Benihassan, 111
Panodorus, 498
Panopolis (Chemmis), rock-grotto of, 115
Papyrus rolls, 391, 394, 395
—— of Sallier, 391
—— plant, 373, 380
—— roll on monuments, 374
Paran, 304, 539
Parthey, cited, 520, 525
Papebroch, cited, 558
Pastophori, the watchers of the temples, 389
Patriarchs, the three, 491
Paul, Apostle, on number, 403, 480
Pedigree of architect, 279
Peney, M., French surgeon, 196
Petamenap, tomb of the royal scribe, 265
Pelusaic arm of Nile, 429, 446
Pelusium, town of, 429, 430, 432
Peninsula of Sinai, climate of, 545
Periander, 442
Period from Abraham to Moses, 485-491
Perring, measurement of Pyramids by, 59
—— 13, 79, 114
Petronius, Prefect, 481
Phœnikon, Peninsula of Sinai, 555
Phœnix, period of 1500 years, 398
Phara ravine, 554
Pharan, 297, 304, 313, 546, 555, 557
—— church of, 562
—— palm-grove of, 553, 559
Pharaoh, 413, 480
—— of the Exodus, 421-425
—— the, of Joseph, 477
—— (Sethôsis I.), 484
Pharaonic history, restoration of the, 399
Philæ, island of, 20, 119, 242, 530, 531
—— name of, 120
—— inscriptions at, 107
—— temples on, 525
Philotera, ancient, 289
Philip Aridæus, 252
Philology, Egyptian, 26
Philosophers who visited Egypt, 385
Phokes, island of, 555
Physical Geography of Lower Nubia, Appendix, 516
Pilgrims, German, 302
Pipe, Turkish, pleasure of, 104
Pithom and Ramses, treasure cities, 426
—— situation of, 435, 447
Plague of the leprosy, Egyptian account of, 412
Plato, house he inhabited in Heliopolis, 384
Pliny, cited, 439, 444
—— fable by, of Sphinx, 67
Plutarch, cited, 123, 386
Poems, Arabic, 182
Polemon, cited, 422
Pompey’s Pillar, 42
Porphyry, Gebel Dochân, 372
Poseidion, town of, 553
Potiphar, an Egyptian name, 476
—— of Heliopolis, 411, 413
Priests in Egypt, 385, 386
—— books, the hieratical, 387
—— learned, 412
—— registers of their generations, 459
Primis, ancient, 125, 240
Procopius, cited, 320, 556
Prokesch, Gen. von, cited, 525
Proskynemata, 56, 279
Prophets, Egyptian, 413
—— the, 387
Prudhoe, Lion of Lord, 223, 236
Pruner, Dr., 47, 98
Psalmist, the, on length of life, 491
Psammeticus, 429, 440
—— I., 240, inscription belonging to temple of, at Naharieh, 43
Pselchis, inscription at temple of, 105
Ptah-nefru-be-u, tomb of, 63
Ptolemy Alexander I., temple built by, 117
—— 380, 429, 434, 437, 438
—— Mendesius, cited, 421, 424
—— Eupator, inscription referring to, 107
—— Philadelphus, 382, 439, 440, 444, 525
—— the geographer, 115, 429, 434, 437, 438, 554
Ptolemies, Greek inscription about the, 107
Publius, Prefect, 42
Pyramid of Cheops (Chufu), view from, 48, 49, 59, 72, 372
—— of Daschûr, 79, 98
—— of Gizeh, 47, 56, 79, 323
—— of Howara (Labyrinth), 83
—— of Labyrinth, 90
—— of Mencheres, 372
Pyramids, 47-65
—— age of, 13
—— ascent of, 48
—— view from summit of, 48
—— built of bricks, 372
—— first visit to, 47
—— remains of, 13
—— structure of, 65
—— supposed by Osman Bey to contain treasure, 197
—— of Abu Roasch, 59, 79
—— of Abusir, 69
—— of Beg´erauîeh, 195, 150
—— of Lischt and Meidûm, 64, 83
—— of Illahûn and Mœris, 83
—— of Meröe, 150-152, 206
—— of Memphis, 25, 44, 47-81, 375
—— of Nuri, 221
—— of Rigah, 79
—— of Saqâra, 64, 67
—— of Tanqassi and Kurru, 229
—— of Zauiet el Arrian, 59
—— of Zûma, 230
Pythagoras, cited, 385
Q.
Qala, village of, 209
Qantur, Pyramid of, at Kurru, 229
Qasr Qerûn, town of, 15, 98
—— e’ Saiat, tombs at, 16, 116
Qeneh, village of, 22, 275, 277, 321
Qirre, mountains of, 158, 193
Qirsch, village of, 242
Qsur el Benat, plain of, 278
Quarries, granite, 234
—— porphyry, 288
—— stone, 278
Qubbet e’ Nasr, view from, 340
Qurna, Thebes, 20, 102, 108, 254, 259
Qurnet Murrâi, hill of, 267
Queens preferred in Ethiopia, 178
Quft (Koptos), 277
Qulleh, clay water bottles, 103
—— manufactory of, 276
Qûs, Apollinopolis parva, 277
R.
Ra, figure of the god, 438
Rababa, musical instrument, 182
Rabbis, 453
Rabbinical chronology, 450-455
—— date of Exodus, 470
Rabbi Hillel Hanassi, 453, 450
Races intermingled, 411
Râha, plain of, 293, 545, 548, 553
Rahad river, 148, 167
Rain in Upper Egypt, 119
—— Nubian desert, 137
Raithenes, the, 555
Raithu. _See_ Tôr
Ramadan, Mussulmans’ holy month, 45
Ram of Barkal, 236, 245
Rams, granite, 223
Rauiân, mountains of, 158, 193
Rammius Martialis Eparch, 288
Ramses II. (Miamun), 249, 259, 333, 370, 381, 393, 395, 418, 420,
438, 441, 446, 447, 449, 481, 483, 484
—— his name inscribed on Cleopatra’s Needle, 42
—— statue of, 72
—— temple of, in Thebes, 102, 243, 259
—— temple of, near Kalabscheh, 526
—— bas-reliefs of, 355
—— memorial tablets of, 22
—— III., 250, 260, 450
—— IX., 395
—— town of, 426, 447
Rameseion, 381
Ranumhet, chief architect, 458
Raphia (Refah), 429
Raphidîm, Peninsula of Sinai, 312, 318, 540, 545, 548
Ras Furtak, Peninsula of Sinai, 555
—— Gehan, Peninsula of Sinai, 553, 554
—— Abu Zelîmeh, Peninsula of Sinai, 553
—— Mohammed, Peninsula of Sinai, 553, 554
—— e’ Schekab, in Syria, 355
Rayeh, convent of, at Tôr, 557
Red Sea, 437, 440
—— —— level higher than Mediterranean, 441
Register of generations, 458, 459
Rennie, Mr., cited, 521, 524
Representations at Naga in the desert, 210
Reschraschi, plain of, 278
Rhinokolura (El Arisch), 429
Ricci, cited, 551
Rigah, Pyramid of, 79
Ritter, Carl, 315, 316, 320, 541, 543, 554, 558
—— his views on position of Sinai, 545, 546
Ritschl, 382
Robatat, province of, 226
Robbery at Saqâra, 72, 75
Rock-chambers lined with brick, 373
—— temple at Abu Simbel, 240
—— inscriptions, 560
Robinson, E., measurements of distance in Peninsula of Sinai, 547, 548
—— cited, 308, 309, 315, 316, 533, 545, 551
Roda, island of, 73
Roft, mountain chain of, 138
Româli, village of, 175
Roman camp at Mehendi, 125
—— inscription, 345
Rossafa road, 321
Rosellini, cited, 29, 51, 108, 244, 266, 525
Rosetta canal, 43
—— inscription of, 121
Royal revenues, 482
Rozière, the traveller, 426
Ruins in Wadi el Kirbegân, 194
Rüppell, cited, 290, 310, 545
Russegger, cited, 166, 515, 519, 523, 528, 529
Rustan Effendi, 192
S.
Saba Doleb, village of, 171
Sabagûra, ruins of ancient city, 20, 242
Sacred Books, 391
Sa el Hager, ancient Sais, 43
Sacred Writings, 391
Saffi, island of, 227
Sagadi, village of, 150
Sai, island of, 19, 237
Saïd ben Batrik, cited, 556, 562
Saida (Sidon), 336
Sailors on Red Sea, 289
St. Athanasius in Theban desert, 266
St. George, tomb of, 356
St. Martin, cited, 107
Sais, ancient, 43, 369
Saladin’s tomb, 343
Salamât (Sanamât), 258
Sálame-tree, 217
—— village of, 228
Salatis, King, 486
Salhîeh, Syria, 344
Salmasius, cited, 433
Sallier, Papyrus of, 391, 394
Samanúd (Sebennytos), 23, 333
Sami Bey, 39
Sams’, Mr., Egyptian collection, 392
San (Tanis), 23, 333
Sanab, 221
Sand dunes in plain of El Gôs, 215
Sanherib, 429
Saqâra, 64, 72, 81, 86, 89, 103
—— Pyramids of, 10
—— Sheikhs of, 76
—— trial at, 77
Sarcophagus of white limestone in Thebes, 245
Sarcophagi, 376
Sarbut el Châdem, Egyptian monuments of, 22, 300, 305
Saulcy, M. de, 121, 273
Schabak (So), King of Ethiopia and Egypt, 251
Schaib el Benat, village of, 281
Schaiqîeh Arabs, 214, 229
—— cataracts in province of, 228
—— princes, 227
—— province of, 231
Schataui, village of, 240
Schech-Said, village of, 16
Schendi, town of, 17, 23, 153, 154, 195
Scherif Pascha, the minister, 77, 89
Scheschenk I., 250
Schilluk tribe, 149
Schoa, missionary station of, 39
Schômar. _See_ Gebel Um Schômar
Schôna government store-house, 237
Schafra (Chafra), King, whether represented by Sphinx, 66
—— Pyramid of, 59, 66
Scherif Pascha, 89, 45
Schulz, Dr., 334
Sculptures, Egyptian, 233
Sea, sensations at, 36
—— luminous appearance on, 37
Seba-Biar, valley of, 434, 438, 441, 445
Sebastieh (Samaria), 335
Sebekhoteps, the Kings, 239
Sebekhotep I., 20
Sebûa, temple of, 20, 124, 241, 242, 356, 527
Seder Olam Rabah, the, 456
Sedeïnga, temple of, 19, 237
Sehêl, island of, 20
Seïd Hussên, family of, 275
—— Haschim, 176, 180, 181
Selajîn, village of, 97
Selama, village of, 154
Seleucidæ, era of the, 452, 453, 455
Seleucus, 382
Selîm Pascha, governor of Upper Egypt, 101, 114, 191
Selîm of Assuan, cited, 162
—— guide, 280
Selun (Silo), Syria, 334
Selseleh, sandstone mountains of, 32
Semitic king, 478
—— countries, 410
—— court, 477
—— Hyksos, 476
Semneh, 19, 238, 529, 531
—— Nile at, 30, 239, 529, 531
Senmut, hieroglyphic name for island of Bigeh, 120
Sennâr, capital of the Sudan, 18, 173, 176
Septuagint, 413
Serapiu, 435
Serbâl, Mount, 22, 295, 298, 299, 303, 308, 532
Serha-tree, 217
Sero, on frontier of Sennâr and Fasokl, 148, 175
Sêse, Mount, 236
Sesebi, ruins of, 19, 236
Sesoosis, 482
Sesostris Sesoosis, 480, 483
—— 481, 394, 429, 439
Sesurtesen I., 248, 395
—— on Pyramids of Begerauîeh, 151
—— obelisk erected by, 46
—— Throne-shield of, at Naga, 155
—— II., 112
—— III., 120, 238
Sesurtesens, the, 111
Sethôs, also called Ramesses, 407
—— priest of Ptha, 429
—— I., 15, 48, 236, 249, 259, 394, 449, 481
—— remains of temple erected by, 124
Sethôsis, 418, 481
Sethroitic Nome, 427, 428, 431
Seventy, the, 402, 434, 435, 436, 438, 464, 476
Serbon, lake of, 429
Set-Necht, King, 395
Sheikh Achmed, sheikh of camels, 134
—— Ahmed Welled ʾAuad, in the train of Osman Bey, 196
—— Sandalôba, chief of the Arabian merchants, 173
—— Mohammed Welled Hammed, prisoner of Osman Bey, 201
—— Mûsa el Fakir, prisoner of Osman Bey, 200
—— prisoners, 200
—— Selâm, 280, 286
—— Jusef Hanna Dahir, of Bscherreh, 352
Sheikhs of Saqâra and Abusir, 76
Shields on Pyramids of Gizeh, 58
—— hieroglyphic, 58, 196
—— of the Pharaohs, 438
Sidereal year, 398
Silco, inscription of, 242
Sittere-trees, 295
Sin, wilderness of, 308, 540, 547, 548
Sinai, Mount, true position of, 22, 303-321, 542, 560, 562
—— Ritter’s views respecting, 541-546
—— departure for Peninsula of, 274
—— convent of, 291, 305
—— tradition of, 559
Sinaitic inscriptions, 31, 291, 294, 299, 311, 545
Siut, town of, 16, 101, 114, 115
Slave revolt, 190, 192, 193
Sluice at Arsinoë, 440
Soba, capital of, kingdom of Aloa, 18, 162, 189
Solb (Soleb), temple of, 19, 223, 236
Soldiers, negro, 186
—— under Osman Bey in good discipline, 205
Snefru, King, 396
Sphinx, excavation in front of, 66
Sphinxes at temple in Wadi Lebua, 126
Solimân Pascha, 191
Solon, 383
Solymites, the, 407
Somra-tree, 217
Sont-trees, 101, 213, 217
Sorîba, Sultâna Nasr resident in, 178
Soter I., 108
Sothis, the, a spurious work, 497, 498
—— periods, 398, 494, 495, 496
Statue of a Persian king, 443
Stele between paws of Sphinx, 59
Stephanus of Byzantium, 431, 433
Stolistes, the ten books of the, 387
Stone buildings, 371
Storm near Pyramids, 53
Strabo, cited, 119, 266, 384, 386, 411, 429, 430, 434, 437, 439, 444,
481
Structure of Pyramids, 221
Suez, town of, 434, 435, 436, 443
—— isthmus of, 426
Sugar factory in Kamlîn, 163
Suk el Bárada, village of, in Syria, 344
Sukkôt, province of, 237
Sulphur-spring of Okmeh, 237
Sûr (Tyrus), 336
—— wilderness of, 307, 547
Surarieh, rock temple near village of, 15, 100
Suri, beverage of, 199
Surîe, Abu Ramle, village of, 193
Syenite of Assuan, 371
Syncellus, cited, 489, 490, 494, 499
Syria, 430, 435, 449
T.
Table of Jewish generations, 461, 463
—— —— generations of Levi according to Josephus, 468
—— —— —— —— from Hebrew text, 467
—— —— undeterminate and historical numbers, 472
Tables of Egyptian Dynasties, 499
Tabor, Mount, 335
Tacitus, cited, 266, 393, 423
Tahraka (Tirhakah), King, 18, 222, 251
Tâiba, village inhabited by Fukara (Fakirs), 187
Taka, war in, 186, 199
—— language in, 201
—— tribes of, 201
Talmis (Kalabscheh), 123, 242
Talmud, few chronological dates, 454
Tamaniât, village of, 158, 193
Tamîeh, village of, 95, 98
Tanis (Tan), Nile Delta, 333
Tanqassi, Pyramids of, 229
Tarablus (Tripolis), Syria, 354
Tarfa shrubs, 294, 308
Tehneh, monuments near, 15
Teirieh, ruins near, 44
Tel Emdieh, village of, 338
Tel Jehudeh, 449
Tel-el-Amarna, 23, 27
Temple, building of first, 455
—— dedications, 379
—— at Amara, 237
—— on island of Bageh, 526
—— at Mount Barkal, erected by Ramses II., 222
—— at Bet el Ualli, 124
—— at Debu, 526
—— of Edfu, 117
—— near Kalabscheh, 526
—— at Karnak, 248
—— of Korte, 124
—— of Luqsor, 253
—— near Medînet Hâbu, erected by King Horus, 259
—— of Qurna, 259
—— at Sedeïnga, 237
—— of Sesebi, 236
—— in front of Sphinx, 52
—— at Solb, 236
—— rock at Surarieh, 100
Temples, Ethiopian drawings on, 195
—— erected by the Ptolemies, 266
—— rock at Abu Simbel, 240
—— of Bâlbeck, 346
—— at Ben Naga, 153
—— at Dendera, 116, 322
—— near Gebel Dochân, 287
—— of Gerf Hussên and Sebûa, 124
—— on Philæ, 120, 243, 525
—— at Naga, 154, 155
—— in Nubia, 124
—— at Thebes, 102, 116, 243, 255, 259
—— of Semneh, 238
Testament, Old, 402, 404, 438, 490
Tethmosis, King, 423
Thales instructed by Egyptian priests, 384
Thames, fall of, between Wallingford and Teddington, 520
Thâna, island of, near Gorata, in Ethiopia, 99
Thebes, 14, 102-104, 116, 243-274, 370, 371, 376, 381, 484
—— scenery about, 247
—— origin of name, 248
Theodosius, edict of, 266
Theophilus, Bishop of Antioch, 497
Theon of Alexandria, 453
Theory of excavation of bed of Nile, 530
Thinitic kings, 495
This, town of, 494
Thoum, _i. e._ Pithom, 435, 448
Thutmosis III., Cleopatra’s needle erected by, 42
Tii, wife of Amenophis III., 237
Tifar, village of, 231
Tiberias, on Lake Genezaret, 335
Tomb of Abel, 340
—— of King Bech-en-Aten, 114
—— of Ki-si-Tuthotep, 113
—— of Saladin, 343
—— of Prince Merhet, 61, 63
—— of Noah, 337
—— of Ramses Miamun, 244
—— of St. George, 356
—— at Saqâra, 72
Tombos, island of, 19, 234
Tombs in Thebes, 245, 254
—— in Zauiet el Meitîn, 110
—— removal of, 323
—— rock, of Amarna, 322
—— of Beni Hassan, 16, 111
—— near El Guês, 212
—— of the kings, 261-263
—— of the princesses, 264
—— of private persons, 264
—— round Pyramids, 13
—— at Saba Doleb, 171
Tondub-tree, 217
Tôd, temple of, 20
Tôr, Peninsula of Sinai, 22, 274, 290, 560
Tower of Hammâm Seidna Solimân, 237
Tosorthros, 2nd Dynasty, 375, 377
Tradition of Gebel Mûsa, 532
—— about position of Mount Sinai, 304, 559
Trajanic river, name of canal cut from Babylon, 437, 445
Transmigration of souls, 385
Travellers, visit from, 273
Trees near Gilif mountains, 217
—— on Blue River, 168
Tripolis (Tarablus), 354
Tuch, cited, 311
Tukele, straw huts, 162, 173
Tura, chalk mountains of, 32
Turin, royal annals of, 395
Turk, character of the, 88
Turkish breakfast, 159
—— soldiers, their uniform, 354
Tuthmosis I., 234, 248, 249
—— II., 19, 238
—— III., 24, 124, 236, 237, 238, 249, 256, 259, 300, 301, 486
—— IV., 66, 156, 259, 485
—— IV., stele of, between paws of Sphinx, 59
Tutmes III., conqueror of the Hyksos, 18th Dynasty, 395
Typhon, the god, 432
Typhonic town, 428
U.
Um Schebak, valley of, in desert of Gilif, 218
Um Schômar. _See_ Gebel
V.
Vase at Soba, 189
Venus, small statue of, in Soba, 190
Vermin, 104
Vicus Judæorum (Tel Jehudeh), 448, 449
Village scene in Ethiopia, 174
Visit from travellers, 273
Vyse, Colonel Howard, 13
W.
Wad Eraue, 189
—— Negudi, 171, 173
Wadi Auatêb, 154, 155, 156
—— Abu Dôm, 213, 218
—— Hammed, 214
—— Harod, 216
—— Aleyât, 297, 298, 318
—— el Arab, 241
—— Bahr ʾHatab, 137
—— Delah, 137
—— el Mehet, 216
—— Dhaghadeh, 553
—— e’ Scheikh, 22, 294, 547
—— e’ Siléha, 156
—— e’ Sofra, 152, 156
—— e’ Sufr, 137, 139
—— el Kirbegân, 154, 156, 157, 194
—— el Uer, 216
—— Ellâqi, 241
—— Firân, 20, 295, 297, 298, 299, 304, &c., 535
—— Gazâl, 218
—— Gaqedûl, 215
—— Gharandel, 306, 547, 548
—— Guah El ʾAlem, 215
—— Halfa, 17, 20, 131, 240, 241
—— Hebrân, 22, 290, 291, 312
—— Ibrîm, 241
—— Kalas, 217
—— Kenûs, 241
—— Leg´a, 561
—— Maghâra, 22, 300, 305
—— Mokatteb, 22, 31, 299
—— Murhad, 139
—— Nasb, 302, 305
—— Nuba, 241
—— Qeneh, 300
—— Rim, 295
—— Schebêkeh, 306, 547
—— Schellâl, 547, 548
—— Sebûa, temple in, 126
—— Selâf, 295, 297
—— Selîn, 16
—— Sich, 300
—— Siʾqelji, 296
—— Sittere, 300
—— Tâibeh, 312, 547
—— Teresib, 154
Wagner, von, the Prussian consul-general, 39
War in Taka, 186
Water, search in Nubian desert for, 137
—— search for, 281
Water-works in Egypt, 481
Wed Médineh, 176, 180
—— —— slave revolt in, 190
Weidenbach, Ernest, member of the expedition, 39, 54, 75, 83, 94,
114, 153
—— Max., 153, 275
—— Ernest and Max., 12, 21
Werne, Ferd., objects of natural history collected by, 42
—— H., 32
Wetzstein, Dr., 552
White River, 161
Wild, J., travelling companion, 12, 35, 56, 57
Wilkinson, Sir G., cited, 29, 93, 108, 112, 244, 266, 271, 282, 435,
448, 525, 532
Wilson, Dr. John, cited, 539
Wind, violent, in Chartûm, 191
Women, ancient Egyptian, painted yellow, 208
Wot Mahemût, 157
Writings, sacred, 391
X.
Xerxes, 279
Z.
Zachleh, town in Libanon, 336
Zahera, village of, 354
Zani, on the Nile, 98
Zauiet-el-Arrian, Pyramids of, 59, 79
—— Meitîn, rock-tombs of, 110
Zebedêni, village in Anti-Libanon, 338
Zeitieh, the naphtha pits, 289
Zerin, in Syria, 335
Zûma, village of, 230.
THE END.
C. WHITING, BEAUFORT HOUSE, STRAND.
AN ALPHABETICAL LIST OF BOOKS CONTAINED IN BOHN’S LIBRARIES.
_Detailed Catalogue, arranged according to the various Libraries, will be
sent on application._
=ADDISON’S Works.= With the Notes of Bishop Hurd, Portrait, and 8 Plates
of Medals and Coins. Edited by H. G. Bohn. 6 vols. 3_s._ 6_d._ each.
=ÆSCHYLUS, The Dramas of.= Translated into English Verse by Anna
Swanwick. 4th Edition, revised. 5_s._
=—— The Tragedies of.= Translated into Prose by T. A. Buckley, B.A. 3_s._
6_d._
=AGASSIZ and GOULD’S Outline of Comparative Physiology.= Enlarged by Dr.
Wright. With 390 Woodcuts. 5_s._
=ALFIERI’S Tragedies.= Translated into English Verse by Edgar A. Bowring,
C.B. 2 vols. 3_s._ 6_d._ each.
=ALLEN’S (Joseph, R.N.) Battles of the British Navy.= Revised Edition,
with 57 Steel Engravings. 2 vols. 5_s._ each.
=AMMIANUS MARCELLINUS. History of Rome= during the Reigns of Constantius,
Julian, Jovianus, Valentinian, and Valens. Translated by Prof. C. D.
Yonge, M.A. 7_s._ 6_d._
=ANDERSEN’S Danish Legends and Fairy Tales.= Translated by Caroline
Peachey. With 120 Wood Engravings. 5_s._
=ANTONINUS (M. Aurelius), The Thoughts of.= Trans. literally, with Notes
and Introduction by George Long, M.A. 3_s._ 6_d._
=APOLLONIUS RHODIUS. ‘The Argonautica.’= Translated by E. P. Coleridge,
B.A. 5_s._
=APPIAN’S Roman History.= Translated by Horace White, M.A., LL.D. With
Maps and Illustrations. 2 vols. 6_s._ each.
=APULEIUS, The Works.= Comprising the Golden Ass, God of Socrates,
Florida, and Discourse of Magic. 5_s._
=ARIOSTO’S Orlando Furioso.= Translated into English Verse by W. S. Rose.
With Portrait, and 24 Steel Engravings. 2 vols. 5_s._ each.
=ARISTOPHANES’ Comedies.= Translated by W. J. Hickie. 2 vols. 5_s._ each.
=ARISTOTLE’S Nicomachean Ethics.= Translated, with Introduction and
Notes, by the Venerable Archdeacon Browne. 5_s._
=ARISTOTLE’S Politics and Economics.= Translated by E. Walford, M.A.,
with Introduction by Dr. Gillies. 5_s._
=—— Metaphysics.= Translated by the Rev. John H. M’Mahon, M.A. 5_s._
=—— History of Animals.= Trans. by Richard Cresswell, M.A. 5_s._
=—— Organon=; or, Logical Treatises, and the Introduction of Porphyry.
Translated by the Rev. O. F. Owen, M.A. 2 vols. 3_s._ 6_d._ each.
=—— Rhetoric and Poetics.= Trans. by T. Buckley, B.A. 5_s._
=ARRIAN’S Anabasis of Alexander=, together with the =Indica=. Translated
by E. J. Chinnock, M.A., LL.D. With Maps and Plans. 5_s._
=ATHENÆUS. The Deipnosophists=; or, the Banquet of the Learned. Trans. by
Prof. C. D. Yonge, M.A. 3 vols. 5_s._ each.
=ATLAS of Classical Geography.= 22 Large Coloured Maps. With a Complete
Index. Imp. 8vo. 7_s._ 6_d._
=BACON’S Moral and Historical Works=, including the Essays, Apophthegms,
Wisdom of the Ancients, New Atlantis, Henry VII., Henry VIII., Elizabeth,
Henry Prince of Wales, History of Great Britain, Julius Cæsar, and
Augustus Cæsar. Edited by J. Devey, M.A. 3_s._ 6_d._
=—— Novum Organum and Advancement of Learning.= Edited by J. Devey, M.A.
5_s._
=BALLADS AND SONGS of the Peasantry of England.= Edited by Robert Bell.
3_s._ 6_d._
=BASS’S Lexicon to the Greek Testament.= 2_s._
=BAX’S Manual of the History of Philosophy=, for the use of Students. By
E. Belfort Bax. 5_s._
=BEAUMONT and FLETCHER=, their finest Scenes, Lyrics, and other Beauties,
selected from the whole of their works, and edited by Leigh Hunt. 3_s._
6_d._
=BECHSTEIN’S Cage and Chamber Birds=, their Natural History, Habits,
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additions on Structure, Migration, and Economy, by H. G. Adams. Together
with SWEET BRITISH WARBLERS. With 43 coloured Plates and Woodcut
Illustrations. 5_s._
=BECKMANN (J.) History of Inventions, Discoveries, and Origins.= 4th
edition, revised by W. Francis and J. W. Griffith. 2 vols. 3_s._ 6_d._
each.
=BEDE’S (Venerable) Ecclesiastical History of England.= Together with the
ANGLO-SAXON CHRONICLE. Edited by J. A. Giles, D.C.L. With Map. 5_s._
=BELL (Sir Charles). The Anatomy and Philosophy of Expression, as
connected with the Fine Arts.= By Sir Charles Bell, K.H. 7th edition,
revised. 5_s._
=BERKELEY (George), Bishop of Cloyne, The Works of.= Edited by George
Sampson. With Biographical Introduction by the Right Hon. A. J. Balfour,
M.P. 3 vols. 5_s._ each.
=BION.= _See_ THEOCRITUS.
=BJÖRNSON’S Arne and the Fisher Lassie.= Translated by W. H. Low, M.A.
3_s._ 6_d._
=BLAIR’S Chronological Tables.= Revised and Enlarged. Comprehending the
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10_s._
=BLAIR’S Index of Dates.= Comprehending the principal Facts in the
Chronology and History of the World, alphabetically arranged; being a
complete Index to Blair’s Chronological Tables. By J. W. Rosse. 2 vols.
5_s._ each.
=BLEEK, Introduction to the Old Testament.= By Friedrich Bleek. Edited by
Johann Bleek and Adolf Kamphausen. Translated by G. H. Venables, under
the supervision of the Rev. Canon Venables. 2 vols. 5_s._ each.
=BOETHIUS’S Consolation of Philosophy.= King Alfred’s Anglo-Saxon
Version of. With a literal English Translation on opposite pages, Notes,
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=BOHN’S Dictionary of Poetical Quotations.= 4th edition. 6_s._
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=BOND’S A Handy Book of Rules and Tables= for verifying Dates with the
Christian Era, &c. Giving an account of the Chief Eras and Systems
used by various Nations; with the easy Methods for determining the
Corresponding Dates. By J. J. Bond. 5_s._
=BONOMI’S Nineveh and its Palaces.= 7 Plates and 294 Woodcut
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=BOSWELL’S Life of Johnson=, with the TOUR IN THE HEBRIDES and
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vol. 6 vols. 3_s._ 6_d._ each.
=BRAND’S Popular Antiquities of England, Scotland, and Ireland.=
Arranged, revised, and greatly enlarged, by Sir Henry Ellis, K.H.,
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=BREMER’S (Frederika) Works.= Translated by Mary Howitt. 4 vols. 3_s._
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=BRIDGWATER TREATISES.=
=Bell (Sir Charles) on the Hand.= With numerous Woodcuts. 5_s._
=Kirby on the History, Habits, and Instincts of Animals.= Edited
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each.
=Kidd on the Adaptation of External Nature to the Physical
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=Chalmers on the Adaptation of External Nature to the Moral and
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=BRINK (B. ten). Early English Literature.= By Bernhard ten Brink. Vol.
I. To Wyclif. Translated by Horace M. Kennedy. 3_s._ 6_d._
=——= Vol. II. Wyclif, Chaucer, Earliest Drama, Renaissance. Translated by
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=——= Vol. III. From the Fourteenth Century to the Death of Surrey. Edited
by Dr. Alois Brandl. Trans. by L. Dora Schmitz. 3_s._ 6_d._
=—— Five Lectures on Shakespeare.= Trans. by Julia Franklin. 3_s._ 6_d._
=BROWNE’S (Sir Thomas) Works.= Edited by Simon Wilkin. 3 vols. 3_s._
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=BUCHANAN’S Dictionary of Science and Technical Terms= used in
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=BURKE’S Works.= 6 vols. 3_s._ 6_d._ each.
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IV.—Report on the Affairs of India, and Articles of Charge
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=—— Speeches on the Impeachment of Warren Hastings=; and Letters. With
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=—— Life.= By Sir J. Prior. 3_s._ 6_d._ each.
=BURNEY’S Evelina.= By Frances Burney (Mme. D’Arblay). With an
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=—— Cecilia.= With an Introduction and Notes by A. R. Ellis. 2 vols.
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=BURN (R.) Ancient Rome and its Neighbourhood.= An Illustrated Handbook
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Robert Burn, M.A. With numerous Illustrations, Maps, and Plans. 7_s._
6_d._
=BURNS (Robert), Life of.= By J. G. Lockhart, D.C.L. A new and enlarged
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=BURTON’S (Robert) Anatomy of Melancholy.= Edited by the Rev. A. R.
Shilleto, M.A. With Introduction by A. H. Bullen, and full Index. 3 vols.
3_s._ 6_d._ each.
=BURTON (Sir R. F.) Personal Narrative of a Pilgrimage to Al Madinah and
Meccah.= By Captain Sir Richard F. Burton, K.C.M.G. With an Introduction
by Stanley Lane-Poole, and all the original Illustrations. 2 vols. 3_s._
6_d._ each.
⁂ This is the copyright edition, containing the author’s latest
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=BUTLER’S (Bishop) Analogy of Religion=, Natural and Revealed, to the
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6_d._
=BUTLER’S (Samuel) Hudibras.= With Variorum Notes, a Biography, Portrait,
and 28 Illustrations. 5_s._
=——= or, further Illustrated with 60 Outline Portraits. 2 vols. 5_s._
each.
=CÆSAR. Commentaries on the Gallic and Civil Wars.= Translated by W. A.
McDevitte, B.A. 5_s._
=CAMOENS’ Lusiad=; or, the Discovery of India. An Epic Poem. Translated
by W. J. Mickle. 5th Edition, revised by E. R. Hodges, M.C.P. 3_s._ 6_d._
=CARAFAS (The) of Maddaloni.= Naples under Spanish Dominion. Translated
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=CARPENTER’S (Dr W. B.) Zoology.= Revised Edition, by W. S. Dallas,
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print._
=—— Mechanical Philosophy, Astronomy, and Horology.= 181 Woodcuts. 5_s._
=—— Vegetable Physiology and Systematic Botany.= Revised Edition, by E.
Lankester, M.D., &c. With very numerous Woodcuts. 6_s._
=—— Animal Physiology.= Revised Edition. With upwards of 300 Woodcuts.
6_s._
=CARREL. History of the Counter-Revolution in England= for the
Re-establishment of Popery under Charles II. and James II., by Armand
Carrel; together with Fox’s History of the Reign of James II. and Lord
Lonsdale’s Memoir of the Reign of James II. 3_s._ 6_d._
=CASTLE (E.) Schools and Masters of Fence=, from the Middle Ages to the
End of the Eighteenth Century. By Egerton Castle, M.A., F.S.A. With
a Complete Bibliography. Illustrated with 140 Reproductions of Old
Engravings and 6 Plates of Swords, showing 114 Examples. 6_s._
=CATTERMOLE’S Evenings at Haddon Hall.= With 24 Engravings on Steel from
designs by Cattermole, the Letterpress by the Baroness de Carabella. 5_s._
=CATULLUS, Tibullus, and the Vigil of Venus.= A Literal Prose
Translation. 5_s._
=CELLINI (Benvenuto). Memoirs of=, written by Himself. Translated by
Thomas Roscoe. 3_s._ 6_d._
=CERVANTES’ Don Quixote de la Mancha.= Motteux’s Translation revised. 2
vols. 3_s._ 6_d._ each.
=—— Galatea.= A Pastoral Romance. Translated by G. W. J. Gyll. 3_s._ 6_d._
=—— Exemplary Novels.= Translated by Walter K. Kelly. 3_s._ 6_d._
=CHAUCER’S Poetical Works.= Edited by Robert Bell. Revised Edition, with
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=CHESS CONGRESS of 1862.= A Collection of the Games played. Edited by J.
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=CHEVREUL on Colour.= Translated from the French by Charles Martel. Third
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Colours, 7_s._ 6_d._
=CHILLINGWORTH’S Religion of Protestants.= A Safe Way to Salvation. 3_s._
6_d._
=CHINA, Pictorial, Descriptive, and Historical.= With Map and nearly 100
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=CHRONICLES OF THE CRUSADES.= Contemporary Narratives of the Crusade of
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=CICERO’S Orations.= Translated by Prof. C. D. Yonge, M.A. 4 vols. 5_s._
each.
=—— Letters.= Translated by Evelyn S. Shuckburgh. 4 vols. 5s. each.
[_Vols. I. and II. ready._
=—— On Oratory and Orators.= With Letters to Quintus and Brutus.
Translated by the Rev. J. S. Watson, M.A. 5_s._
=—— On the Nature of the Gods=, Divination, Fate, Laws, a Republic,
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=—— Academics=, De Finibus, and Tusculan Questions. By Prof. C. D. Yonge,
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=CORNELIUS NEPOS.=—_See_ JUSTIN.
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=CLASSIC TALES=, containing Rasselas, Vicar of Wakefield, Gulliver’s
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=COLERIDGE’S (S. T.) Friend.= A Series of Essays on Morals, Politics, and
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=—— Aids to Reflection=, and the CONFESSIONS OF AN INQUIRING SPIRIT, to
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=LILLY’S Introduction to Astrology.= With a GRAMMAR OF ASTROLOGY and
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