THC NILe.
NOreS FOR TRAVSLLeRS
IN eGYPT.
^a
jj-M-'VA — W, lUu' ilu Klioiu
1 "L'i-iVNNK— 1, Hue I'lpiiut.
LUr km:.— Hotel Uu Cjrifnc.
liUl >>K1.S.— «1, Hue lie la Madeleine
I olAK'N K.— J. l>onikloster.
\ I KN N A — -, Steiihansplati .
Ill iIaVKST.— 3, Dorotlieenj-'asae.
KoMK— In, Piaira di SiMgna.
N M'l.KS.— I'iaiia del Martui.
M11.\N.— 15. Piax«a del Uuomo.
yUlKKNCK.— 10, Via Tomabuoni.
VKNICK.— 140, I'iazxa San Marco.
• TV lllX.— Hotel Tromhetta.
lilUNDISI.— Strsda Marina.
lU-.UGKS.— Torvet.
>1 VOKID —1, Can-era de S. Geronimo
\i.i;lERS.— «, Houlevard Republique.
M.\I.TA.— 308, Strada Keale
T\ 1 1 r I TA -1 ' ," "ow" •""'■t """»<= S'"'"'*
KAN(iOON.— Mcicliant Street.
AUSTRALASIA-.
RYDNKY.
AUCKLAND.
«.>. &c.
> Those mavkcd with an a.sterisk arc Suh^
A'cnts authorised only for the issue of
Travelling Tickets and Hotel Coupons.
* ADELAIDE.
MELBOURNE.
/^^
^Vt .
zA^
/^-<^^^
^£^e-^e-«-«=-'^^t^
^
\<^.Ct-^'<^'-^^
THE NILE.
Ilotes for Kriibflkrs in Cgpl.
-i^l^
THE NILE.
Jloks fnr ®rali£lkrs in Cl^giipt.
BY
E. A. WALLIS BUDGE, M.A., F.S.A.,
ASSISTANT IN THE DEPARTMENT OF EGYPTIAN AND ASSYRIAN ANTIQUITIES,
BRITISH MUSEUM.
WITH A MAP, PLANS, (5^-r.
DNIVEKS^li OF CALIFOU^Za
LONDON :
THO.S. COOK & SON, LUDGATE CIRCUS.
CAIRO :
COOK'S TOURIST OFFICE.
1S90.
\Entered at Stationers' Hall.]
HARRISON AND SONS,
I'RINTERS IN ORDINARY TO HER MAJESTY,
ST. MARTIN S LAKE, LONDON.
INTRODUCTION.
Having- for some years felt the insufficiency of
the information given by Dragomans to travellers
on the Nile, and finding with one or two striking
exceptions how limited is their knowledge of facts
relating to the history of the antiquities in Upper
Egypt, Messrs. Thos. Cook and Son have arranged
with Mr. E. A. Wallis Budge to compile the following
pages, which they have much pleasure in presenting
to every passenger under their Nile arrangements on
their Tourist Steamers and Dhahabiyyehs. In this
way passengers will no longer be liable to be misled
(unintentionally) by Dragomans, but will be able at
their leisure to prepare themselves for what they
have to see, and thus by an agreeable study add
to the interest with which their visits to the various
places are made.
20114S0
PREFACE.
The short descriptions of the principal Egyptian
monuments on each side of the Nile between Cairo
and the Second Cataract (Wadi Halfah), printed in
the following pages, are not in any way intended
to form a "Guide to Egypt": they are drawn up
for the use of those travellers who have a very few
weeks to spend in Egypt, and who wish to carry
in their memories some of the more important facts
connected with the fast-perishing remains of one of
the most interesting and ancient civilizations that
has been developed on the face of the earth. The
existing guide books are generally too voluminous
and diffuse for such travellers ; and are, moreover,
in many respects inaccurate. Experience has shown
that the greater number of travellers in that country
are more interested in history and matters connected
with Egyptian civilization from B.C. 4400 to B.C. 450,
than with Egypt under the rule of the Assyrians
and Persians, Greeks and Romans, Arabs and Turks.
It is for this reason that no attempt has been made
to describe, otherwise than in the briefest possible
manner, its history under these foreign rulers, and
Viii PREFACE.
only such facts connected with them as are absolutely-
necessary for a right understanding of its monuments
have been inserted. In addition to such descriptions,
a few chapters have been added on the history of
the country during the rule of the Pharaohs, its
people, the religion and method of writing. At the
end of the book a fairly full list of the most im-
portant Egyptian kings is appended, and in order
to make this list as useful as possible, a transliteration
of each name is printed beneath it, together with
the ordinary form of the name. The list of three
hundred hieroglyphic characters and their phonetic
values, printed on pp. 61-68, will, it is hoped, be useful
to those who may like to spell out the royal names
on tombs and temples and the commoner words which
occur in the inscriptions. For those who wish to
study independently the various branches of Egypto-
logy, a list of the more readily obtained books is given
in the " Programme " issued yearly by Thos. Cook
and Son.
In transcribing Arabic names of places the most
authoritative form.s have been followed, but such well-
known names as " Luxor," in Arabic El-Uks/ir or
El-kusHi; and " Cairo," in Arabic Kahira, have not
been altered. Similarly, the ordinary well-known
forms of the Egyptian proper names " Rameses,"
•' Thothmes," "Amenophis," "Amasis," " Psammeti-
chus," " Hophra " or " Apries," etc., etc., have been
PREFACE. IX
used in preference to the more correct transcriptions
" Ra-messu," " Tehuti-mes," " Amen-hetep," " Aah-
mes," "Psemthek," " Uah-ab-Ra."
The dates assigned to the Egyptian kings are
those of Dr. H. Brugsch, who bases his calculations
on the assumption that the average duration of a
generation was thirty-three years. Hence it will
be readily understood that the date assigned to
Rameses II. (B.C. 1333), for instance, is only ap-
proximately correct.
E. A. Wallis Budge.
Sei)icinl/er, 1890
CONTENTS.
PAGE
Introduction ... .. ... ... ••• •• v
Preface vii-ix
Egyptian History and its sources ... ... ... i
Historical Summary — ■
Ancient Empire ... ... ... •■• ••• 9
Middle Empire ■•• 12
New Empire ... ... ... .•• ••• 14
Persians ... ... ... ... ... ••• 17
Macedonians ... ... •• ••• ••■ 17
Ptolemies ... . . ... ... ... •■• 18
Romans ... ... ... .•• ••• ... 19
The Byzantines ... ... ... ... .-. 21
Muhammedans ... ... ... ... •■• 23
Dates assigned to the Egyptian Dynasties by Egypto-
logists 26
The Country of Egypt 27
The Nomes of Egypt 28
The Ancient Egyptians ... ... ••• .•• 3^
The Modern Egyptians 35
The Nile 44
Egyptian Writing ... ... ... •.. ••• 49
A list of some Hieroglyphic Signs 61
Arabic Alphabet 67
Coptic Alphabet 68
Egyptian Months ... ... ... ••• ■•• 69
The Religion and Gods of Egypt 71
I02
I02
I02
I02
T03
Ml CONTENTS.
PAfJR
Alexandria ... ... ... ... ... ... 97
The Pharos 98
Pompey's Pillar ... ... ... ... ... loi
Cleopatra's Needles ... ... ... ... 10 1
Catacombs ... ... ... ... ... 102
Damanhur
Kafr ez-Zaiyat
Tanta . . .
Benha el-'Asal
Rosetta Stone
Suez and the Suez Canal ... ... ... ... 104
Shibfn el-Kanatir . . . ... ... ... ... roS
Zakazik and Tell-Basta ... ... ... loS-iio
Abu Hammad ... ... ... ... ... 11
Tell el-Kebir ... ... ... ... ... 11
Mahsamah ... ... ... ... ... 11
Isma'iliya ... ... ... ... ... ... Ji
Nefisheh ... ... ... ... ... ... 11
Cairo ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 112
The Mu.seum at Gizeh ... ... ... ... 113
Coptic Churches ... ... ... ... ... 119
Mosques ... ... ... ... .. ... 123
Tombs of the Khalifs ... ... ... 127
Tombs of the iMamelukes ... ... ... 128
The Citadel 128
Joseph's Well ... ... ... ... ... 129
The Library ... ... ... ... ... 129
Ezbekiyeh Garden ... ... .. ... 129
The Kilometer at Roja ... ... ... ... 129
Heliopclis ... ... ... ... ... ... 131
The Pyramids of Gizeh ... ... ... ... 133
The Great Pyramid ... ... ... ... 135
The Second Pyramid ... ... ... ... 139
The Third Pyramid ... ... ... ... 141
The Sphinx ... ... ... ... ... ... 144
CONTENTS.
The Temple of the Sphinx
The Tomb of Numbers
Campbell's Tomb
The Pyramids of Abu-Roash ...
The Pyramids of Abusir
Bedrashen, Memphis, and Sakkarah
The Statue of Rameses II.
The Step Pyramid
Pyramid of Unas ...
Pyramid of Teta ...
Pyramid of Pepi I.
The Serapeum
The Tomb of Thi
Mariette's House
The Pyramids of Dahshur
The Quarries of Ma'.sara and I'urra
The Pyramid of Medum
Wasta and the Fayum ...
Beni Suef
Maghaghah
Cynopolis
Convent of the Pulley...
Minyeh...
Beni Hasan
Roda
Melawi ...
Haggi Kandil ...
Gebel Abu Fadah
ManfaKit
Asyut ...
Abu Tig
Tahtah
Siihak ...
The White and Red Monasteries
Ahmim, Menshiah, Girgeh ...
xui
PAGE
175-
CONTENTS.
Abydos ...
Temple of Seti I. . . .
Temple of Ramescs II.
Farshut ...
Kasr es-Sayyad
Keneh •...
The Temple of Denderah
Nakadah
Luxor and Thebes
The Temple of Luxor
The Temple at Karnak
The Temple at Kurnah
The Ramesseum ...
The Colossi of Amenophis III.
Medinet Habu
The Temple of Rameses III.
Der el-Medinct
Der el-Bahari
The Discovery of Royal Mummies at Der el-Bahari
The Tombs of the Kings —
Tomb of Seti I. ...
Tomb of Rameses III.
Tomb of Rameses IV.
Tomb of Rameses VI.
Tomb of Rameses IX.
Tomb of Rameses I.
Tomb of Rechma Ra
Erment . . .
Esneh . . .
El-Kab...
Edfu ...
Hagar Silsileh
Kom Ombo
Aswan . . .
Elephantine
CONTENTS.
The First Cataract
Philse
The Nile between the First and Second Cataracts
Dabod ...
Kardash
Wadi Tafah
Kalabshi
Bet el-Wali
Dendur ...
Gerf-Hussen
Dakkeh . . .
Wadi Sebila
Korosko
Amada ...
Derr
Abu-Simbel
Wadi Halfah
List of the Hieroglyphic Names of
Kings of Egypt
Index ...
the Principal
257-
293-
XV
PAGE
238
244
244
244
244
246
246
246
248
249
249
250
250
255
■292
311
to make use oi it in the perfect condition in which it was
MAP OF COOKS STEAMEIl,DAHABEAH.A>T) MAIL SERnCE OX THE NILE.
C
NOTES FOR TRAVELLERS IN EGYPT.
EGYPTIAN HISTORY.
The history of Egypt is the oldest history known to us.
It is true that the earhest of the Babylonian kings whose
names are known lived very little later than the earliest
kings of Egypt, nevertheless our knowledge of the early
Egyptian is greater than of the early Babylonian kings.
A large portion of Egyptian history can be constructed
from the native records of the Egyptians, and it is now
possible to correct and modify many of the statements
upon this subject made by Herodotus, Diodorus Siculus
and other classical authors. The native and other docu-
ments from which Egyptian history is obtained are : —
I. Lists of Kings found in the Turin Papyrus, the
Tablet of Abydos, the Tablet of Sakkarah, and the
Tablet of Karnak. The Turin papyrus contained a
complete list of kings beginning with the god-kings and
continuing down to the end of the rule of the Hyksos,
about B.C. 1700. The name of each king during this period,
together with the length of his reign in years, months and
days, was given, and it would have been, beyond all doubt,
the most valuable of all documents for the chronology of the
oldest period of Egyptian history, if scholars had been able
to make use of it in the perfect condition in which it was
B
2 NOTES FOR TRAVELLERS IN EGYPT.
discovered. When it arrived in Turin, liowever, it was
found to be broken into more than one liundred and fifty
fragments. So far back as 1824, ChampoHion recognized
the true value of the fragments, and placed some of them
in their clironological order. Its evidence is of the greatest
importance for the history of the Xlllth and XlVth dynas-
ties, because in this section the papyrus is tolerably perfect ;
for the earlier dynasties it is of very little use.
On the monuments each Egyptian king has usually two
names, the prcnomen and the nomen ; each of these
is contained in a cartouche.* Thus the prenonien of
Thothmes III. is ( © r*^"-^^ O | Ra-men-cheper, and his
nomen is
Tehuti-mes. Ra-men-cheper means
something like " Ra (the Sun-god) establishes becoming
or existence;" Tehuti-mes means "born of Thoth," or
" Thoth's son." These names are quite distinct from
his titles. Before the prenomen comes the title ^I^
su/eu net, "King of the North and South,"! and after it
comes "^^ se Ra, "son of the Sun," preceding the
nomen. Each prenomen has a meaning, but it is at times
difficult to render it exactly in English. Every king styled
himself king of "the North and South," and "son of the
Sun." The first title is sometimes varied by " Beautiful
* Cartouche is the name which is usually given to the oval f ~^, in
which the name of a royal person is enclosed.
t I.e., "the universe." " Whatever the .Sun passed over or through
was divided into two, and grammatically took the dual form ; as ^^r-n>
chiila, the horizon where the Sun rises or sets, >|< ^j-^ iibtd, the East,
7^2^> d'>'<^i>f'J, the West." Renouf, Proc. Soc. Bib. Arch., 1890,
EGYPTIAN HISTORY. 3
god, lord of the two earths." ■'' In the earHest times the
kings were named after some attribute possessed by thetn ;
thus Mena, the first king of Egypt, is the " firm " or " estab-
Hshed." In the Turin papyrus only the prenomens of
the kings are given, but its statements are confirmed and
amplified by the other lists.
The Tablet of Abydosf was discovered by Diimichen
in the temple of Osiris at Aljydos, during M. Mariette's
excavations there in 1864. This list gives us the names
of seventy-five kings, beginning with Mena or Menes, and
ending with Seti I., the father of Rameses II.; it is not a
complete list, and it would seem as if the scribe who drew
up the list only inserted such names as he considered
worthy of living for ever. The Tablet of Sakkarah was
discovered at Sakkarah by Mariette, in the grave of a digni-
tary who lived during the reign of Rameses II. In spite of
a break in it, and some orthographical errors, it is a valuable
list; it gives the names of forty-seven kings, and it agrees
very closely with the Abydos list. It is a curious fact that
it begins with the name of Mer-ba-pen, the sixth king of
the 1st dynasty. The Tablet of Karnak was discovered at
Karnak by Burton, and was taken to Paris by Prisse. It
* Some kings had a large number of titles. Thus Thothmes III. is
^^ styled " Ilorus, mighty l.nill, diademed with law, the lord,
maker of things, Ra-men-cheper," etc., etc. He is also called :
<>-=:> W\ (^ ^\ • ■■■ ■•. "KintT of the North and
5^
0
South, mighty in all lands"; '^^. /J Zl IT rJ) V^ > " tiod,
„ t\
exalted one of the w'hite crown, beloved of Ra ; ^f V/^"^^^^^
® □ Q I Q I I 1 . , .
r-TiJ' V f^H ^^5=7" , "Gulden Horus, mighty of
□a A ii 111 111
valour, smiter of the Nine Bows," etc.
t See page 184.
B 2
4 NOTIlS for TRAVKf.I.KRS IX EGYPT.
was drawn up in the time of Tliothnies III., and contains
the names of sixty-one of his ancestors. They are not
arranged in any chronological order, but the tablet is of the
highest historical importance, for it records the names of
some of the rulers from the Xlllth to the XVIIth
dynasties, and gives the names of those of the Xlth
dynasty more completely than any other list.
II. Annals of Egyptian Kings inscribed upon the
walls of temples, obelisks, and buildings. The narrative of
such inscriptions is very simple, and practically such records
merely represent itineraries in which the names of conquered
and tributary lands and people are given ; incidentally facts
of interest are noted down. As the day and month and
regnal years of the king by whom these expeditions were
undertaken are generally given, these inscriptions throw
much light on history. The lists of tribute are also useful,
for they show what the products of the various countries
were. The poetical version* of the history of the famous
battle of Rameses II. against the Cheta by the poet Pen-ta-urt
is a pleasant variety of historical narrative. The inscription
on the stele t of Pianchi, the Ethiopian conqueror of Egypt,
is decidedly remarkable for the minute details of his fights,
the speeches made by himself and his conquered foes, and
the mention of many facts:}: which are not commonly noticed
by Egyptian annalists. The vigour and poetical nature of
the narrative are also very striking.
* See the notice of the official Eg)'ptian account on page 253.
t Preserved at Gizeh.
J For example, it is stated that when I'ianchi had taken possession
of the storehouses and treasury of Ninirod his foe, he went afterwards
into the stables, and found that the horses there had been kept short 01
food. Bursting into a rage he turned to Nimrod and said, " By my
life, by my darling Ra, who revives my nostrils with life, to have kejA
my horses hungry is more heinous in my sight than any other offence
which thou hast committed against me."' Mariette, Monuments Divers,
pi. 2, 11. 65, 66.
EGYPTIAN HISTORY. 5
III. Historical Stelae and Papyri, which briefly relate
in chronological order the various expeditions undertaken
by the king for whom they were made. Egyptian kings
occasionally caused summaries of their principal conquests
and of the chief events of their reign to be drawn up ;
examples of these are (a) the stele of Thothnies III.,* and
(/') the last section of the great Harris Papyrus, in which
Rameses III. reviews all the good works which he has
brought to a successful issue to the glory of the gods of
Egypt and for the benefit of her inhabitants. This wonder-
ful papyrus measures 135 feet by 18 inches, and was found
in a box in the temple at Medinet Habu, built by Rameses
III. ; it is now in the British Museum.
IV. Decrees, Scarabs, Statues of Kings and
Private Persons are fruitful sources of information about
historical, religious, and chronological subjects.
V. Biblical notices about Egypt and allusions to events
of Egyptian history.
VI. The Cuneiform Inscriptions. Within the last
two years a number of tablets inscribed in cuneiform have
been found at Tell el-Amarna. The inscriptions relate to
a period of Egyptian history which falls in the sixteenth
century B.C., and they are letters from the kings of Babylon,
Nineveh, and other cities of Mesopotamia and of Phoenicia
relating to marriages, offensive and defensive alliances,
military matters, etc., etc., and reports on the rebellions
and wars which took place at that time, addressed to
Amenophis III. and to his sonChut-en-aten orAmenophisIV.
The Babylonian king who writes is called Kurigalzu.
Thothmes III. had carried his victorious arms into Meso-
potamia, and one of his successors, Amenophis III., delighted
to go there and shoot the lions with which the country
abounded. During one of these hunting expeditions he
fell in love with the daughter of Tushratta, the king of
■■'■ I'reserved at Gizeh.
6 NOTES FOR TRAVELLERS IN EGYPT.
Mitanni, and married her, and he brought her to Egypt,
accompanied by 317 of her attendants. It will be some
time before these inscriptions are fully made out, but the
examination of them has already been carried sufficiently
far to show that they will throw some valuable light upon
the social condition of Egypt and of the countries which
were subject to her at that time. Some of the tablets are
written with cuneiform characters in a language which is at
present unknown ; and some of them have dockets in
hieratic which state from what country they were brought.
The discovery of these tablets shows that there must
have been people at the court of Amenophis III. who
understood the cuneiform characters, and that the officers
in command over towns in Phoenicia subject to the rule of
Egypt could, when occasion required, write their despatches
in cuneiform. The greater part of these tablets are now in
the Museums of London and Berlin, some are at the Gizeh
Museum, and some are in private hands.
The Assyrian kings Sennacherib, Esarhaddon, and Assur-
banipal marched against Egypt ; Tirhakah defeated Sen-
nacherib at Eltekeh, but was defeated by Esarhaddon, the
son of Sennacherib, who drove him back into Ethiopia.
Esarhaddon's son, Assurbanipal, also attacked Tirhakah and
defeated him. Thebes was captured, and Egypt was divided
into twenty-two provinces, over some of which Assyrian
viceroys were placed. A fragment of a Babylonian tablet
states that Nebuchadnezzar II. marched into Egypt.
VII. The Greek and Roman writers u])on Egypt
are many; and of these the best known are Herodotus,
Manttho, and Diodorus Siculus. Herodotus devotes the
whole of the second and the beginning of the third book
of his work to a history of Egypt and the Egyptians, and his
is the oldest Greek treatise on the subject known to us.
In spite of the attacks made upon his work during the
last few years, the evidence of the hieroglyphic inscriptions
EGYPTIAN HISTORY.
which are being deciphered year after year shows that on
the whole his work is trustworthy. A work more vnluable
than that of Herodotus is the Egyptian history of Manetho
(still living in B.C. 271) of Sebennytus, who is said by
Plutarch to have been a contemporary of Ptolemy I. ; his
work, however, was written during the reign of Ptolemy II.
Philadelphus (b.c. 286-247). According to words put into
his mouth, he was chief priest and scribe in one of the
temples of Egypt, and he appears to have been perfectly
acquainted with the ancient Egyptian language and literature.
He had also had the benefit of a Greek education, and
was therefore peculiarly fitted to draw up in Greek for
Ptolemy Philadelphus a history of Egypt and her religion.
The remains of the great Egyptian history of Manetho are
preserved in the polemical treatise of Josephus against
Apion, in which a series of passages of Egyptian history
from the XVth to the XlXth dynasties is given, and in the
list of the dynasties, together with the number of years of
the reign of each king, given by Africanus and Eusebius
on his authority. At the beginning of his work Manetho
gives a list of gods and demi-gods who ruled over Egypt
before Menes, the first human king of Egypt ; the thirty
dynasties known to us he divides into three sections :—
I-XI, XII-XIX, and XX-XXX. Diodorus Siculus,
who visited Egypt B.C. 57, wrote a history of the country,
its people and its religion, based chiefly upon the works of
Herodotus and Hekatteus. He was not so able a writer
nor so accurate an observer as Herodotus, and his work
contains many blunders. Other important ancient writers
on Egypt are Strabo,* Chaeremon,+ Josephus,J Plutarch§
and Horapollo. 11
According to Manetho, there reigned over Egypt before
Mena, or Menes, the first human king of that country, a
* About A.D. 15. t About A.D. 50. X About A.D. 75.
§ About A.D. 100. (I About A.D. 4CO.
8 NOTES FOR TRAVELLERS IN EGYPT.
number of beings called Shesu Heru, or " followers of
Horus"; of their deeds and history nothing is known.
Some have believed that during their rule Egypt was
divided into two parts, each ruled by its own king ; and
others ha\e thought that the whole of Upper and Lower
Egypt was divided into a large series of small, independent
principalities, which were united under one head in the
person of Menes. There is, however, no support to be
obtained from the inscriptions for either of these theories.
The kings of Egypt following after the mythical period are
divided into thirty dynasties. For the sake of convenience,
Egyptian history is divided into three periods : — I, the
Ancient Empire, which includes the first eleven dynas-
ties; II, the Middle Empire, which includes the next
nine dynasties (Xilth-XXih); and. III, the New Empire,
which includes the remaining ten dynasties, one of which
was of Persian kings. The rule of the Saite kings was fol-
lowed by that of the Persians, Ptolemies and Romans.
The rule of the Muhammedans, which Ijcgan a.d. 641,
ended a.d. 15 17, when the country was conquered by the
Turks ; since this time Egypt has been nominally a pashalik
of Turkey.
The date assigned to the first dynasty is variously given
by different scholars : by Champollion-Figeac it is B.C. 5867,
by Bockh 5702, by Bunsen 3623, by Lepsius 3892, by
Lieblein 3893, by Mariette 5004, and by Brugsch 4400.
As far as can be seen, there is much to be said in favour
of that given by Brugsch, and his dates are adopted
throughout in this book.
HISTORICAL SUMMARY.
ANCIENT EMPIRE.
Dynasty I, from T/iis, or Thinis.
B.C.
4400. Mena, the first human king of Egypt, founded
Memphis, having turned aside the course of the
Nile, and estabUshed a temple service there.
4366. Teta, wrote a book on anatomy, and continued
buildings at Memphis.
4266. Hesep-ti. Some papyri state that the 64th Chapter
of the Book of the Dead was written in his time.
Dynasty 11^ from Memphis.
4133. Bet'au, in whose reign an earthquake swallowed up
many people at Bubastis.
4100. Kakau, in whose days the worship of Apis at
Memphis, and that of Mnevis at Heliopolis, was
continued.
4066. Ba-en-neter, in whose days, according to John of
Antioch, the Nile flowed with honey for eleven
days. During the reign of this king the suc-
cession of females to the throne of Egypt was
declared valid.
4000. Sent. The sepulchral stele of one of this king's
priests is preserved at Oxford.
Dynasty III, from Memphis.
■ — — . Nefer-ka-Seker, in whose reign an eclipse appears to
be mentioned.
lO NOTES FOR TRAVELLERS IN EGYPT.
Dynasty IV, from Memphis.
V..C.
3766. Sencferu. Important contemporaneous monuments ot
this king exist. During his reign the copper mints
of Wadi Ma'arah were worked.
3733. Chufu (Cheops),- who fought with the people of Sinai;
he built the first pyramid of Gizeh.
3666. Cha-f-Ra (Chephren), the builder of the second pyra-
mid at Gizeh.
3633. Men-kau-Ra (Mycerinus), the builder of the third
pyramid at Gizeh. The fragments of his coffin are
in the British Museum. Some copies of the Book
of the Dead say that the 64th chapter of that work
was compiled during the reign of this king.
Dynasty V, from Ekplianiint.
3366. Tet-ka-Ra. The Precepts of Ptah-hetep were written
during the reign of this king.
3333. Unas, whose pyramid at Sakkarah was expjored in
1881.
Dynasty VI, from Memphis.
3266. Teta, the builder of a pyramid at Sakkarah.
3233. Pepi-meri-Ra, the builder of a pyramid at Sakkarah.
3200. Mer-en-Ra.
3166. Nefer-ka-Ra.
3133 (?). Nit-aqert (Nitocris), "the beautiful woman with
rosy cheeks."
r Dynasties VII and VIII, from Memphis.
3 1 00. I Dynasties IX and X, from Heracleopolis.
Nefer-ka.
Nefer-Seh ....
Ab.
Nefer-kau-Ra.
Charthi.
HISTORICAL SUMMARY.
15. C.
3033. Nefer-ka-Ra.
3000. Nefer-ka-Ra-Nebi.
2966. Tet-ka-Ra-
2933. Nefer-ka-Ra-Chentu.
2900. Mer-en-Heru.
2866. Se-nefer-ka-Ra.
2833. Ka-en-Ra.
2800. Nefer-ka-Ra-Tererl.
2766. Nefer-ka-Ra-Heru.
2733. Nefer-ka-Ra Pepi Seneb.
2700. Nefer-ka-Ra- Annu.
2633. Nefer-kau-Ra.
2600. Nefer-kau-Heru.
2^T,T,. Nefer-ari-ka-Ra.*
Dynasty XI, from Diospolis, or Thebes.
From the time of Nitocris to Amenemhat I. Egyptian
history is nearly a blank. The names of a large
number of kings who ruled during this period are
known, but they cannot, at present, be arranged in
exact chronological order.
J500. Se-anch ka-Ra. This king is known to us through an
inscription at Hamamat, which states that he sent
an expedition to the land of Punt ; this shows
that at that early date an active trade must have
been carried on across the Arabian desert between
Egypt and Arabia. The other kings of the Xlth
dynasty bore the names of Antef-aa, An-antef,
Amentuf, An-aa, and Mentu-hetep. Se-ilnch-ka-Ra
appears to have been the immediate predecessor of
the Xllth dynasty.
* These names are obtained from the Tablet of Abydos.
12 NOTES FOR TRAVELLERS IN EGYPT.
MIDDLE EMPIRE.
Dynasty XII, from Dio spoils, or Thebes.
R.C.
2466. Amenemhat I. ascended the throne of Egypt after
hard fighting ; he conquered the Uaua, a Libyan
tribe that lived near Korosko in Nubia, and wrote
a series of instructions for his son Usertsen I. The
story of Senehet was written during this reign.
2433. Usertsen I. made war against the tribes of Ethiopia ;
he erected granite obehsks and built largely at
Heliopolis.
2400. Amenemhat II. Chnemu-hetep, son of Neheni,
whose tomb is at Beni-hasan, lived during the
reign of this king.
2366. Usertsen II.
2333. Usertsen III.
2300. Amenemhat III. During this king's reign special
attention was paid to the rise of the Nile, and
canals were dug and sluices made for irrigating the
country ; in this reign the famous Lake Moeris, in
the district called by the Arabs El-Fayijm,*was built.
The rise of the Nile was marked on the rocks at
Semneh, about thirty-five miles above the second
cataract, and the inscriptions are visible to this day.
2266. Amenemhat IV.
2233. Dynasties XIII-X VII. The Hyksos Period.
According toManetho these dynasties were as follows : —
Dynasty XIII, from Thebes, 60 kings
„ XIV, „ Chois,t 76 „
XV, Hyksos, 6 „
XVI, „ 10 „
,, X\TI, from Thebes, 10 „
I-runi the Coptic 4>IOJUL, " the lake." f A lo\>n in the Delta.
in 453
years
„ 4S4
■>i
„ 260
)j
„ 251
>>
„ 10
It
HISTORICAL SUMMARY. 1 3
Unfortunately there are no monuments whereby we can
correct or modify these figures. The Hyksos appear to
have made their way from the countries in and to the west
of Mesopotamia into Egypt. They joined with their
countrymen, who had already settled in the Delta, and
were able to defeat the native kings ; it is thought that
their rule lasted 500 years, and that Joseph arrived in
Egypt towards the end of this period. The principal
Hyksos kings of the XVIth dynasty are Apepi I. and
Apepi II. ; Nubti and the native Egyptian princes ruled
under them. Under Se-qenen-Ra, a Theban ruler of the
XVIIth dynasty, a war broke out between the Egyptians
and the Hyksos, which continued for many years, and
resulted in the expulsion of the foreign rulers.
Dynasty XVIII, fro in Thebes.
B.C.
1700. Ahmes, who re-established the independence of
_ Egypt.
1666. Amen-hetep (Amenophis) I.
1633. Tehuti-mes (Thothmes) I.
1600. ,, ,, 11.
f Hat-shepset, sister of Thothmes II. She sent an
I expedition to Punt.
1600. <{ Tehuti-mes (Thothmes) III. made victorious ex-
I peditions into Mesopotamia. He was one of
[_ the greatest kings that ever ruled over Egypt.
1566. Amen-hetep II.
1533. Tehuti-mes IV.
1500. Amen-hetep III. warred successfully in the lands to
the south of Egypt and in Asia. He made it a
custom to go into Mesopotamia to shoot lions, and,
while there he married the daughter of Tushratta,
the king of Mitanni. The correspondence and
despatches from kings of Babylon, Mesopotamia,
and Phoenicia have recently been found at Tell
14 NOTES FOR TRAVELLERS IN EGYPT.
el-Amarna, and large portions of them are now
preserved in the Museums of London and Berlin.
Amen-hetep IV. or Chu-en-Aten ("brilliance, or glory
of the solar disk "), the founder of the city Chu-
aten, the ruins of which are called Tell el-Amarna.
and of the heresy of the disk-worshippers. He
was succeeded by a few kings who held the same
religious opinions as himself.
Dynasty XIX^/?vm TJiehes.
1!.C.
1400. Rameses I.
1366. Seti I. conquered the rebellious tribes in Western
Asia, built the Memnonium at Abydos. He was
famous as a builder, and attended with great care
to the material welfare of his kingdom. He is
said to have built a canal from the Nile to the Red
Sea.
1333. Rameses H. undertookmany warlike expeditions, and
brought Nubia, Abyssinia, and Mesopotamia under
the rule of Egypt. He was a great builder, and a
liberal patron of the arts and sciences ; learned
men like Pentaurt were attached to his court. He
is famous as one of the oppressors of the
Israelites.
1300. Seti Meneptah II. is thought to have been the Pharaoh
of the Exodus.
NEW EMPIRE.
Dynasty XX, from Thebes.
1200. Rameses HI. was famous for his buildings, and for
the splendid gifts which he made to the temples of
Thebes, Abydos and Heliopolis. His reign repre-
sented an era of great commercial prosperity.
I 1 66-1 133. Rameses IV.-XII.
HISTORICAL SUMMARY.
Dynasty XXI, from Tunis and Thches.
15
1 100-
r I. I'ani.'-.
II. 'riiobfs.
Se-I\[entu.
Her-Heru.
1000. "
Pasehchfinu I.
Pi-anchi.
Amen-em-apt.
Pai-net'em I-III.
Pasebchanu II.
Dynasty XXII, from Bubastis (Tcll-Basta).
966. Shashanq (Shishak) I. (see 1 Kings, xiv. 25-28 :
2 Chron., xii. 2-13) besieged Jerusalem.
933. Uasarken I. "^
These kings appear to have been
of Semitic origin ; their names
are Semitic, as, tor example,
Uasarken = Babylonian Sar-
ginu (Sargon) ; Takeleth =
Tukulti (Tiglath).
900. Takeleth I.
866. Uasarken II
833. Shashanq II
Takeleth II. f
Shashanq III. j
Pamai |
Shashanq IV. J
800.
Dynasty XXIII, from Tanis.
766. Peta-Bast.
Uasarken III.
Dynasty XXIV, from Sais {Sd el-Hagcr).
733. Bak-en-ren-f (Bocchoris).
Dynasty XXV, from Ethiopia.
700. Shabaka (Sabaco).
Shabataka.
693. Taharqa (Tirhakah, 2 Kings, xix. 9) is famous for
having conquered Sennacherib and delivered Heze-
kiah ; he was, however, defeated by Esarhaddon
and Assurbanipal, the son and grandson respec-
tively of Sennacherib. Tirhakah's son-in-law,
Urdamanah, was also defeated by the Assyrians.
1 6 NOTES FOR TRAVELLERS IN EGYPT.
Dynasty XXVI, frofti Sais.
666. Pscmthek I. (Psammetichus) allowed Greeks to settle
in the Delta, and employed Greek soldiers to fight
for him.
612. Nekau II. (Necho) defeated Josiah, king of Judah,
and was defeated by Nebuchadnezzar II. son of
Nabopolassar, king of Babylon.
596. Psammetichus II.
591. Uah-ab-Ra (Hophrah of the Bible, Gr. Apries)
marched to the help of Zedekiah, king of Judah,
who was defeated by Nebuchadnezzar II. His
army rebelled against him, and he was dethroned ;
Amasis, a general in his arm\-, then succeeded to
the throne.
572. Ahmes II. favoured the Greeks, and granted them
many privileges ; in his reign Naucratis became a
great city.
528. Psammetichus III. was defeated at Pelusium by
Cambyses the Persian, and taken prisoner ; he
was afterwards slain for rebelling against the
Persians.
Dy7iasty XX VII, from Persia.
527. Cambyses marched against the Ethiopians and the
inhabitants of the Oases.
521. Darius Hystaspes endeavoured to open up the
ancient routes of commerce ; he established a
coinage, and adopted a conciliatory and tolerant
system of government, and favoured all attempts
to promote the welfare of Egypt.
486. Xerxes I.
465. Artaxerxes I., during whose reign the Egyptians re-
volted, headed by AmyrtKus.
HISTORICAL SUMMARY. I 7
B.C.
425. Darius Nothus, during whose reign the Egyptians
revolted successfully, and a second Amyrtasus
became king of Egypt.
^05. Artaxerxes II.
Dynasty XXVIII, from Sals.
Amen-rut (Amyrtaeus), reigned six years.
Dynasty XXIX, from Mendes.
399. Naifaaurut I.
393. Hakar.
380. P-se-mut.
379. Naifaaurut II.
Dynasty XXX, from Sebennytus.
378. Necht-Heru-heb (Nectanebus I.) defeated the Persians
at INIendes.
360. T'e-her surrendered to the Persians.
358. Necht-neb-f (Nectanebus II.) devoted himself to the
pursuit of magic, and neglected his empire ; when
Artaxerxes III. (Ochus) marched against him, he
fled from his kingdom, and the Persians again
ruled Egypt.
PERSIANS.
340. Artaxerxes III. (Ochus).
338. Arses.
336. Darius III. (Codomannus) conquered by Alexander
the Great at Issus.
MACEDONIANS.
332. Alexander the Great founded Alexandria. He
showed his toleration of the Egyptian religion,
by sacrificing to the god Amen of Libya.
c
1 8 NOTES FOR TRAVELLERS IN EGYPT.
PTOLEMIES.
B.C.
305. Ptolemy I. Soter, son of Lngus, became king of
Eg}pt after Alexander's death. He founded the
famous Alexandrian Library, and encouraged
learned Greeks to make Alexandria their home ;
he died B.C. 284.
2S6. Ptolemy II. Philadelphus built the Phavos, founded
Berenice and Arsinoe, caused Manetho's Egyptian
history to be compiled, and the Greek version
of the Old Testament (Septuagint) to be made.
247. Ptolemy III. Euergetes I. The stele of Canopus *
was set up in the ninth year of his reign; he
obtained possession of all Syria, and was a patron
of the arts and sciences.
222. Ptolemy IV. Philopator defeated Antiochus, and
founded the temple at Edfu.
205. Ptolemy V. Epiphanes. During his reign the help
of the Romans against Antiochus was asked for by
the Egyptians. Coelesyria and Palestine were lost
to Egypt. He was poisoned B.C. 182, and his son
Ptolemy VI. Eupator, died in that same y^ar. The
Rosetta Stone was set up in the eighth year of the
reign of this king.
182. Ptolemy VII. Philometor was taken prisoner at
Pelusium by Antiochus IV., B.C. 171, and died
B.C. 146. He reigned alone at first, then con-
jointly (e.g. 170 — 165) with Ptolemy IX. Euergetes
II. (also called Physcon), and finally having gone to
* This important stele, ]5reserved at Gizch, is inscriljed in hiero
glyphics, Greek and demotic with a decree made at Canopus by the
priesthood, assembled there from all parts of Egypt, in honour of
Ptolemy III. It mentions the great benefits which he had conferred
upon Egypt, and states what festivals are to be celebrated in his
honour and in that of Berenice, etc., and concludes with a resolution
ordering that a copy of this inscription in hieroglyphics, Greek and
demotic shall l)e placed in every large temple of Egypt. Two other
copies of this work are known.
B.C.
HISTORIC.\L SUMM.\RY. I9
Rome on account of his quarrel with Physcon, he
reignedsolemonarchof Egypt (B.C. 165). Physcon
was overthrown n.c. 132, reigned again B.C. 125,
and died b.c. 117.
170. Ptolemy VIII. is murdered by Physcon.
1 1 7. Ptolemy X. Soter II. Philometor II. (Lathyrus), reigns
jointly with Cleopatra III. Ptolemy X. is banished
(b.c. 106), his brother Ptolemy XI. Alexander I. is
made co-regent, but afterwards banished (b.c. 89)
and slain (b.c. 87) ; Ptolemy X. is recalled, and dies
B.C. 81.
81. Ptolemy XII. Alexander II. is slain.
81. Ptolemy XIII. Neos Dionysos (Auletes), ascends
the throne ; dies B.C. 52.
52. Ptolemy XIV. Dionysos II. and Cleopatra VII. are,
according to the will of Ptolemy XIII. to marry
each other ; the Roman senate to.be their guardian.
Ptolemy XIV. banishes Cleopatra, and is a party to
the murder of Pompey, their guardian, who visits
Egypt after his defeat at Pharsalia. Caesar arrives
in Egypt to support Cleopatra (b.c. 48) ; Ptolemy
XIV., is drowned ; Ptolemy XV., brother of
Cleopatra VII., appointed her co-regent by Caesar
(b.c. 47); he is murdered at her wish, and her son
by Caesar, Ptolemy XVI., Caesarion, is named
co-regent (b.c. 45).
42. Antony orders Cleopatra to appear before him, and
is seduced by her charms ; he kills himself,
and Cleopatra dies by the bite of an asp. Egypt
becomes a Roman province b.c. 30.
ROMANS.
27. Caesar Augustus becomes master of the Roman
Empire. Cornelius Gallus is the first prefect of
c 2
20 NOTES FOR TRAVELLERS IN EGYPT.
Egypt. Under the third prefect, Aelius Gallus,
Candace, queen of the Ethiopians, invades Egypt,
^ P but is defeated.
14. Tiberius. In his reign Germanicus visited Egypt.
37. CaHgula. In his reign a persecution of the Jews
took, place.
41. Claudius.
55. Nero. In his reign Christianity was first preached
in Egypt by Saint Mark. The Blemmyes made
raids upon the southern frontier of Egypt.
6g. A'espasian. Jerusalem destroyed a.d. 70.
/ 82. Domitian causes temples to Isis and Scrapis to be
built at Rome.
98. Trajan. The Nile and Red Sea Canal (Amnis
Trajanus) re-opened.
117. Hadrian. Visited Egypt twice.
161. Marcus Aurelius caused the famous Itinerary to be
made.
180. Commodus.
193. Septimus Severus.
211. Caracalla visited Egypt, and caused a large number
of young men to be massacred at Alexandria.
217. Macrinus.
218. Elagabalus.
249. Decius. Christians persecuted.
253. Valerianus. Christians persecuted.
260. Gallienus. Persecution of Christians stayed. Zenobia,
Queen of Palmyra, invades Egypt a.d. 268.
270. Aurclian. Zenobia becomes Queen of Egypt for a
short time, but is dethroned a.d. 273.
276. Probus.
284. Diocletian. " Pompey's Pillar" erected a.d, 302;
persecution of Christians a.d. 304. The Copts
date the era of the Martyrs from the day of
Diocletian's accession to the throne (August 29).
HISTORICAL SUMMARY. 21
A.D.
324. Constantinc the Great, the Christian Emperor, in
whose reign, a.d. 325, the Council of Nicoea was
held. At this council it was decided that Christ
and His Father were of one and the same nature,
as taught by Athanasius; and the doctrine of Arius,*
that Christ and God were only similar in nature,
was decreed heretical.
337. Constantius. George of Cappadocia, an Arian, is
made Bishop of Alexandria.
379. Theodosius I., the Great, proclaims Christianity the
religion of his empire. The Arians and followers
of the ancient Egyptian religion were persecuted.
THE BYZANTINES.
395. Arcadius, Emperor of the East. The Anthropomor-
phites,! who affirmed that God was of human form,
destroyed the greater number of their opponents.
408. Theodosius II. In his reign the doctrines of Nestor-
ius were condemned by Cyril of Alexandria.
Nestorius, from the two natures of Christ, inferred
also two persons, a human and a divine. " In the
Syrian school, Nestorius had been taught (a.d.
429-431) to abhor the confusion of the two natures,
* " He was a most expert logician, but perverted his talents to evil
pirposes, and had the audacity to preach what no one before him had
tver suggested, namely, that the Son of God was made out of that
which had no prior existence ; that there was a period of time in which
I le existed not ; that, as possessing free will. He was capable of
virtue, or of vice; and that He was created and made."- — Sozomen,
Eccles. Hist., Bk. I., ch. 15. For the statement of the views of Arius
by his opponent Alexander, Bishop of Alexandria, see his letter
addressed to the Catholic Church generally, in Socrates, Eccles. Hist. ,
Bk. I., ch. 6.
t The leader of this persecution was Theophilus, Bishop of Alex-
andria, who, before he discovered that the majority of the Egyptian
monks were Anthropomorphites, was himself opposed to this body.
22 NOTES FOR TRAVELLERS IN EGYPT.
and nicely to discriminate the humanity of his
master Christ from the Divinity of the Lord Jesus.
The Blessed Virgin he revered as the m.other of
Christ, but his ears were offended with the rash
and recent title of mother of God, which had been
insensibly adopted since the origin of the Arian
controversy. From the pulpit of Constantinople,
a friend of the patriarch,* and afterwards the
patriarch himself, repeatedly preached against the
use, or the abuse, of a word unknown to the
apostles, unauthorized by the church, and which
could only tend to alarm the timorous, to mislead
the simple, to amuse the profane, and to justify,
by a seeming resemblance, the old genealogy of
Olympus. In his calmer moments Nestorius con-
fessed, that it might be tolerated or excused by the
union of the two natures, and the communication
of their idioms {i.e., a transfer of properties of each
nature to the other — of infinity to man, passibility
to (Jod, etc.) : hut he was exasperated, by con-
tradiction, to disclaim the worship of a newborn,
an infant Deity, to draw his inadequate similes
from the conjugal or civil partnerships of life, and
to describe the manhood of Christ, as the robe,
the instrument, the tabernacle of his Godhead." —
A.D. Gibbon, Decline and Fall, chap. 47.
450. Marcianus. The Monophysite doctrine of Eutyches
was condemned at the Council of Chalcedon,
A.D. 451, Eutyches, from the one person of Christ,
inferred also one nature, viz., the Divine — the
human having been absorbed into it. Silco invaded
Egypt with his Nubian followers.
* Anastasius of Antioch, who saitl, " Let no one call Mary Theotokos;
for Mary was but a woman ; and it is impossible that God should be
born of a woman." — Socrates, Eccks. Hist., Bk. VII., chap, xxxii.
HISTORICAL SUMMARY. 23
A.n.
474. Zcno. He issued the Henoticon^ an. edict which,
while affirming the. Incarnation, made no attempt
to decide the difficult question whether Christ
possessed a single or a. double nature, .
481. Anastasius.
527. Justinian. The Monophysites separated from the
Melchites and chose . their owa. patriarch ; they
were afterwards called Copts, UjJiiU*
610, Heraclius. The Persians under Chosroes hold Egypt
for ten years ; they are expelled by Heraclius
A.D. 629.
MUHAMMEDANS.
638. 'Amr ibn el-'Asi conquers Egypt.
644. 'Othman. .
750. Merwan H., the last of the 'Omayyade dynasty, was
put to death in Egypt.
750-870. The 'Abbasides rule over Egypt.
786. Harun er-Rashid.
813. Mamiin visited Egypt, and opened the Great Pyramid.
JS70. Ahmed ibn-Tuliin governs Egypt.
884. Khamaruyeh enlarges Fostat.
969-1 1 7 1. The Fatimites govern Egypt, with Masr el-
Kahira f (Cairo) as their residence.
975. Aziz, son of Mu'izz, great grandson of 'Obedallah.
996. Hakim, son of 'Aziz, founder of the Druses. This
remarkable prince wnshed to be considered as God
incarnate.
* The name given to the native Christians of Egypt by the Arabs,
from K'Cm~^IOC for Klyyimoq.
24 NOTES FOR TRAVELLERS IN EGYPl .
A.D.
I020. Zahir, son of Hakim.
1036. Abu Tamim el-Mustansir.
1094. Musta'li, son of el-Mustansir, captured Jerusalem
(a.d. 1096), but Avas defeated by the Crusaders
under Godfrey de Bouillon.
1 160. 'Adid Ledinallah, the last of the Fatimites.
1171. Salaheddin (Saladin) defeated the Crusaders at
Hittin, and recaptured Jerusalem.
1 193. Melik el'-Adil.
1 2 18. Melik el-Kamil, the builder of Mansurah.
1240. Melik es-Saleh, the usurper, captured Jerusalem,
Damascus, and Ascalon. Louis IX., of France,
attacked and captured Damietta, but was made
prisoner at Mansurah, with all his army.
1 250-1380. The Bahrite Mamelukes.
1 260. Bebars.
1277. Kalaun.
1 291. El-Ashraf Khalil captured Acre.
1346. Hasan.
1382-1517. Burgite or Circassian Mamelukes.
1382. Barkuk.
1422. Bursbey.
1468. Kait Bey.
1 501. El-Ghuri,
15 1 7. Tuman Bey is deposed by Selim I. of Constanti-
nople, and Egypt becomes a Turkish Pashalik.
J 771. 'AH Bey sultan of Egypt.
1798. Napoleon Bonaparte stormed Alexandria ; battle of
the Pyramids ; and French fleet destroyed off
Abukir by the English.
1 801. French compelled by the English to evacuate Egypt.
1805. Muhammad 'Ali aj)pointed Pasha of Egypt.
]8ii. Assassination of the Mamelukes by him.
1831. Declares his independence.
HISTORICAL SUMMARY. 25
A.D.
1848. Ibrahim Pasha.
1849. Death of Muhammad 'Ah. 'Abbas Pasha was
strangled at Benha.
1854. Sa'id Pasha. The raihvay from Alexandria was
completed, and the making of the Suez Canal
begun in his reign. He founded the Bulak
Museum, and encouraged excavations on the sites
of the ancient cities of Egypt.
1863. Isma'il, son of Ibrahim Pasha, and grandson of
Muhammad 'Ali, was born in 1830. He was
made Khedive in 1867. He caused railways,
docks, and canals to be made, systems of tele-
graphs and postage to be established; he built
sugar factories, and endeavoured to advance the
material welfare of Egypt. The Suez Canal was
opened during his reign (1869). He greatly ex-
tended the boundaries of Egypt, and obtained
possession of Suakin (Sauakin), Masowa (Masau'a),
and two ports in the Gulf of Aden, a part of the
Somali coast, a large part of the frontier of Abys-
sinia, and the Province of Darfur. The tribute
paid by him to the Porte amounted to nearly
P^7oo,ooo. During his reign the national debt of
Egypt became so great, that a Commission was
appointed to enquire what steps should be taken
in the matter. In 1879, as a result of pressure
put upon the Porte, Isma'il was dethroned, and
Tewfik, his eldest son, was appointed to succeed
him.
1882. Massacre of Europeans in June; bombardment of
Alexandria by the English fleet in July ; occupation
of Egypt by English troops; defeat of 'Arabi Pasha.
1885. Murder of Gordon, and the abandonment of the
Sudan.
1886-1890. English troops continue to occupy Egypt.
26 notes for travellers in egypt.
Dates assigned to the Egyptian Dynasties by
Eg'
vptologists.
•nasly.
Chanipollion-
Lepsius
Brugsch
Mariette,
Fij;eac.
(in 1858).
(in 1877).
I.
B.C. 5,867
3,892
4,400
5,004
ir.
5,615
3,639
4,133
4,751
III.
5,3i«
3,338
3,966
4,449
IV.
5,I2T
3,124
3,733
4,235
V.
4,673
2,840
3,566
3,951
VI.
4,425
2,744
3,300
3,703
VII.
4,222
2,592
3,100.
3,500
VIII.
4,147
2,522
3-500
IX.
4,047
2,674.
3,358
X.
3,947
2,565
3,249
XL
3,762
2,423
3,064
XII.
3,703
2,380
2,466
2,851
XIII.
3,417
2,136
2,235
XIV.
3,004
2,267
2,398
XV.
2,520
2,101
2,214
XVI.
2,270
1,842
XVII.
2,082
1,684
XVIII.
1,822
1,591
1,700
1,703
XIX.
1,473
1,443
1,400
1,462
XX.
1,279
1,209
1,200
1,288
XXI.
1,101
1,091
1,100
1,110
XXII.
971
961
966
980
XXIII.
851
7S7
766
810
XXIV.
762
729
733
721
XXV.
718
716
700
715
XXVI.
674
6S5
666
665
XXVII.
524
525
527
527
XXVIII,
404
525
406
XXIX.
398
399
399
399
XXX.
377
378
37S
378
XXXI.
339
340
340
340
27
THE COUNTRY OF EGYPT.
The Ancient Egyptians called Egypt J Bag or
'^ ^ ® Baqet; ^^Ff "^^' (] ( ^ Ta-mera ; and ilZH ^
i^aw/. Baq seems to refer to Egypt as the olive-producing
country, and Ta-mera as the land of the inundation ; the
name by which it is most commonly called in the inscrip-
tions is Kam, Le., " Black," from the darkness of its soil.
It was also called the " land of the sycamore," and the land
of "the eye of Horus " [i.e., the Sun). It was divided by
the Egyptians into two parts : I. Upper Egypt 5^i=f X, ®
Ta-res or ^^f^^-L^@ Ta-qema, "the southern land •" and
II. Lower Egypt ^^^"¥5 Ta-meh, "the northern land."
The kings of Egypt styled themselves sutai jiet, " king of the
North and South," and 7ieb taiii, " lord of two earths." *
The country was divided into nomes, the number of which
is variously given ; the hst given by some of the classical
authorities contains thirty-six, but judging by the monu-
ments the number was nearer forty. The nome {Jiesp) was
divided into four parts ; i, the capital town {iiui) ; 2, the
cultivated land ; 3, the marshes, which could only at times
be used for purposes of cultivation ; and 4, the canals,
which had to be kept clear and provided with sluices, etc.,
* As ruler of the two countries, each king wore the crown t^ ^
which was make up of V , the teser, or red crown, representing the
northern part of Egypt, and Z^, the het' , or white crown, representing
the southern part of Egypt.
28
NOTES FOR TRAVELLERS IN EGYPT.
for irrigation purposes. During the rule of the Greeks
Eg}'pt was divided into three parts : Upper, Central, and
Lower Egypt ; Central Egypt consisted of seven nomes, and
was called Heptanomis.
List op^ Nomes of Egypt — Upper Egypt.
Nome.
1. Ta-Kens.
2. Tes-Heru.
3. Ten.
4. Uast.
5. Herui.
6. Aa-ti.
7. Sechem.
8. Abt.
9. Amsu.
10. Uat'et.
ir. Set.
12. Tuf.
13. Atefchent.
14. Atef-peh.
15. Un. .
16. Meh-mahet.
17
18. Sapet.
19. Uab.
Capital.
Abu (Elephantine), in later
times Nubt (Oinbos).
Teb (Apollinopolis magna,
Arab. Utfu or Edfu).
Necheb (Eileithyia),in later
times Sene (Latopolis),
Esneh.
Uast (Thebes), in later
times Hermonthis.
Kcbti (Coptos).
Taenterer (Denderah).
Ha (Diospolis parva).
Abtu (Abydos), in earlier
times Teni (This).
Apu (Panopolis).
Tebu (Aphroditopolis).
Shashetep (Hypsele).
Nen-ent-bak (Antaeopolis).
Saiut (Lycopolis, Arab.
Siut).
Kesi (Cusae).
Chemennu (Hermopolis).
Hebennu (Hipponon).
Kasa (Cynonpolis).
Ha-suten(/\labastronpolis).
Pa-mat'et (O.xyrhynchos).
Divinity.
Chnemu.
Heru - Bel. u-
tet.
Necheb.
Amen-Ra.
Amsu.
Hathor (Het
Hert). "
Hathor.
An bur.
Amsu.
Hathor.
Chnemu.
Horus.
Ap-uat.
Hathor.
Thoth.
Horus.
Anubis.
Anubis.
Set.
THE COUNTRY OF EGYPT.
Nome.
Cajiital.
Divinity.
20.
Am-chent.
Chenensu (Hcracleopolis
magna).
Heru-shcfi.
21.
Am-peh.
Se-men Heru.
Chnemu.
22.
Maten.
Tep-ahet (Aphroditopolis).
Lower Egypt.
Halhor.
I.
Anub-het'.
Men-nefer (Memphis).
Ptah.
2.
Aa.
Sechem (LetopoHs).
Heru-ur.
3-
Anient.
Nenten-Hapi (Apis).
Hathor-nub.
4-
Sepi-res.
T'eka (Canopus).
Amen-Ra.
5-
Sepi-emhet.
Sa (Sais).
Neit.
6.
Kaset
Chesun (Chois).
Amen-Ra.
7-
. . . Ament.
Sent-Nefer (Metehs).
Hu.
8.
. . . Abtet.
T'ukot (Sethroe).
Atmu.
9-
At'i.
Pa-Ausar (Busiris).
Osiris.
10.
Kakem.
Hataherab (Athribis).
Heru-chenti-
chati.
II.
Kahebes.
Kahebes (Kabasos).
Isis.
12.
Kat'eb.
T'eb-neter (Sebennythos).
Anhur.
13-
Hakat.
Annu (Hehopohs).
Ra.
14.
Chent-abet.
T'an (Tanis).
Horus.
15-
Tehuti.
Pa-Tehuti (HermopoHs).
Thoth.
16.
Char.
Pabaneb-tet (Mendes).
Ba-neb-tet
17-
Sam-behutet.
Pa chen-en-Amen (Dios-
poHs).
Amen-Ra.
18.
Amchent.
Pa-Bast (Bubastis),
Bast.
19.
Am-peh.
Pa Uat' (Buto).
Uat'.
20.
Sept.
Kesem (Phakussa).
Sept.
Egypt proper terminates at Aswan (Syene) ; the territory
south of that town for a certain distance on each side
of the river Nile is called Nubia. The races who lived
there in very early times caused the Egyptians much
trouble, and we know from the tomb-inscriptions at Aswan
that expeditions were sent against these peoples by the
30 NOTES FOR TRAVELLERS IN EGYPT.
Egyptians as far back as the Xllth dynasty. The area
of the land in Egypt i)roper available for cultivation is
about 11,500 square miles ; the Delta contains about 6,500
miles, and the Nile Valley with the P\ayum 5,000 miles.
The Oases of the Libyan Desert and the Peninsula of
Sinai are considered as parts of Egypt. Lower and
Upper Egypt are each divided into seven Provinces, the
names of which are as follows : —
Lower Eg)-pt. Upper Egypt.
Behereh (capital, Damanhur). Beni-Suef (capital, Beni-
Kalyub (capital, Benha). suef).
Sherkiyeh (capital, Zakazik). Minyeh (capital, Minyeh).
Dakhaliyeh (capital, Man- Siilt (capital, Asyut).
sura). Girgeh (capital, Suhag).
Menuf. Keneh (capital, Keneh).
Gharbiyeh (capital Tanta). Esneh (capital, Esneh).
Gizeh. Wadi Halfah.
Large towns like Alexandria, Port Sa'id, Suez, Cairo,
Damietta, and Isma'iliya are governed by native rulers.
In ancient days the population of Egypt proper is said to
have been from seven and a-half to nine niillions ; at the
present time it is probably well over eight millions. The
population of the provinces south of Egypt, and which
originally belonged to her, has never been accurately ascer-
tained. 'J'he country on each side of the Bahr el-Abyad is
very thickly peopled ; it is generally thought that the popu-
lation of this and the other provinces which belonged to
Egypt in the time of Isma'il amounts to about ten millions.
THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS.
The Egyptians, whom the sculptures and monuments
make known to us as being among the most ancient in-
habitants of the country, belong, beyond all doubt, to the
Caucasian race, and they seem to have migrated thither
from the East. The original home of the invaders was,
apparently, Asia, and they made their way across Mesopo-
tamia and Arabia, and across the Isthmus of Suez into
Egypt. It has been suggested that they sailed across the
Indian Ocean and up the Red Sea, on the western shore of
which they landed. It is, however, very doubtful if a
people who lived in the middle of a huge land like central
Asia, would have enough experience to make and handle
ships sufficiently large to cross such seas. Xo period can
be fixed for the arrival of the new-comers from the East
into Egypt ; we are, however, justified in assuming that it
took place before b.c. 5000.
When the people from the East had made their way
into Egypt, they found there an aboriginal race with a
dark skin and complexion. The Egyptians generally
called their land ^^ — 1 % Kamt, i.e., "black"; and if the
©
dark, rich colour of the cultivated land of Eg}-pt be
considered, the appropriateness of the term will be at
once evident. The hieroglyphic which is read Kam, is the
skin of a crocodile, and we know from Horapollo (ed. Cory,
p. 87), that this sign was used to express anything of a
dark colour.* The name " Ham " is given to Eg}pt by the
* "To denote darkness, they represent the Tail of a Crocodile,
for by no other means does the crocodile inflict death and destruction
on any animal which it may have caught than by first striking it with
its tail, and rendering it incapable of motion."
32 NOTES FOR TRAVELLERS IN EGYPT.
Bible ; this word may be compared with the Coptic
KHJULe, KHJULI or ^HJULI. 'i'he children of Ham are
said to be Cush, IMizraim, Put, and Canaan. The second
of these, Misraim, is the name given to Egypt by the
Hebrews. The dual form of the word, which means " the
double Misor," probably has reference to the " two lands "
(in Egypt. ^S)j over which the Egyptian kings, in their
inscriptions, proclaimed their rule. The descendants of
Cush are represented on the monuments by the inhabitants
of Nubia and the negro tribes which live to the south of
that country. In the earliest times the descendants of Cush
appear to have had the same religion as the Egyptians. The
Put of the Bible is thought by some to be represented by
the land of Punt, or spice-land, of the monuments. The
people of Punt appear to have dwelt on both sides of the
Red Sea to the south of Egypt and on the Somali coast,
and as far back as B.C. 2500 a large trade was carried
on between them and the Egyptians ; it is thought that the
Egyptians regarded them as kinsmen. The aljoriginal
inhabitants of Phoinicia were probably the kinsfolk of the
descendants of Misraim, called by the Bible Canaanites.
Diodorus and some other classical authorities tell us that
Egypt was colonized from Ethiopia ; for this view, however,
there is no support. The civilization, religion, arts of
building, etc., of the Ethiopians are all of Egyptian origin,
and in this, as in so many other points relating to the
history of Egypt, the Greeks were either misinformed, or
they misunderstood what they were told.
An examination of the painted representations of the
Egyptians by native artists, shows us that the pure Egyptian
was of slender make, with broad shoulders, long hands and
feet, and sinewy legs and arms. His forehead was high, his
chin square, his eyes large, his cheeks full, his mouth wide,
his lips full, and his nose short and rounded. His jaws did
not protrude, and his hair is smooth and fine. The evidence
THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS. 33
of the pictures on the tombs is supported and confirmed by
the skulls and bones of mummies which anthropologists have
examined and measured during the last few years ; hence
all attempts to prove that the Egyptian is of negro origin
are overthrown at the outset by facts which cannot be con-
troverted. In cases where the Egyptians intermarried with
people of Semitic origin, we find aquiline noses.* One of
the most remarkable things connected with the Egyptians of
to-day is the fact that a very large number of them have
reproduced, without the slightest alteration, many of the
personal features of their ancestors who lived seven
thousand years ago. The traveller is often accompanied
on a visit to a tomb of the Ancient Empire by a modern
Egyptian who, in his attitudes, form, and face, is a veritable
reproduction of the hereditary nobleman who built the tomb
which he is examining. It may be that no invading race
has ever found itself physically able to reproduce per-
sistently its own characteristics for any important length of
time, or it may be that the absorption of such races by
intermarriage with the natives, together with the influence
* A very good example of this is seen in the black granite head of
the statue of Osorkon II., presented to the British Museum (No. 1063)
by the Committee of the Eg>'pt Exploration Fund. The lower part
of the nose is broken away, but enough of the upper part remains to
show what was its original angle. It was confidently asserted that this
head belonged to a statue of a Hyksos king, but the assertion was not
supported by any trustworthy evidence. The face and features are
those of a man whose ancestors were Semites and Egyptians, and men
with similar countenances are to be seen in the desert to the south-east
of Palestine to this day. A clinching proof that the statue is not that
of a Hyksos king was brought forward by Prof. Lanzone of Turin,
who, in the earlier part of this year, showed Mr. Renouf a small statue
of Osorkon II., having precisely the same face and features. The
XXIInd dynasty, to which this king belonged, were Semites, as their
names show, and they were always regarded by the Egyptians as
foreigners, and A^, the determinative of a man from a foreign
country, was placed after each of their names.
D
34 NOTES FOR TRAVELLERS IN EGYPT.
of the climate, has made such characteristics disappear ; the
fact, however, remains, that the physical type of the Egyptian
fellah is exactly what it was in the earliest dynasties. The
invasions of the Babylonians, Hyksos, Ethiopians (including
negro races), Assyrians, Persians, Greeks, Romans, Arabs,
and Turks, have had no jjermanent effect either on their
physical or mental characteristics. The Egyptian has seen
the civilizations of all these nations rise up, progress
flourish, decay, and pass away ; he has been influenced
from time to time by their religious views and learning ; he
has been the servant of each of them in turn, and has paid
tribute to them all ; he has, nevertheless, survived all of
them save one. It will, of course, be understood that the
inhabitants of the towns form a class quite distinct from the
Egyptians of the country ; the townsfolk represent a mix-
ture of many nationalities, and their character and features
change according to the exigencies of the time and circum-
stances in which they live, and the influence of the ruling
power.
35
THE MODERN EGYPTIANS.
The total population of Egypt proper may be fixed
roughly at 8,000,000, of whom about 130,000 are foreigners.
Sir Francis Grenfell is of opinion that the population of
Egypt is now nearer nine than eight millions. In a country
where an increase in population always means an increase
in taxation, it is quite impossible to obtain an accurate
census. As far back as the time of David* the idea of
"numbering the people" has been unpopular in the East.
It is exceedingly difficult to obtain an exact idea of what
the population of Egypt actually was in Pharaonic times, for
the inscriptions tell us nothing. Herodotus gives us no
information on this matter, but Diodorus tells us that it
amounted to 7,000,000 in ancient times. The priests
at Thebes informed Germanicus in a.d. 19 that in the times
of Rameses II. the country contained 700,000 1 fighting
men ; it will also be remembered that the Bible states that
the " children of Israel journeyed from Rameses to Succoth,
about six hundred thousand on foot that were men, beside
children. And a mixed multitude went up also with them."
Exodus xii. 37, 38. In the time of Vespasian 7,500,000
persons paid poll-tax; we may assume that about 500,000
were exempt, and therefore there must have been at least
8,000,000 of people in Egypt, without reckoning slaves.
(Mommsen, Provinces of Rome, Vol. II., p. 258.) It is
probable, however, that the population of Egypt under the
* "And Satan stood up against Israel, and moved David to number
Israel." i Chronicles xxi. i.
t ''Septigenta milia aetate militari." Tacitus, Annals, Bk. ii., 60.
D 2
S6 NOTES FOR TRAVELLERS IN EGYPT.
rule of the Pharaohs has been greatly exaggerated, chiefly
because no accurate data were at hand whereby errors might
be corrected. During the occupation of the country by the
French in 1 798-1801 it was said to be 2,500,000; Sir
Gardner Wilkinson, however, set it down at as low a figure
as 1,500,000. In 1821 the population numbered 2,514,000,
and in 1846 it had risen to 4,456,186. The last census was
ordered by Khedival decree on December 2, 1881, and it
was completed in May 3, 1882. According to the official
statement published in the Rece7ise7nent General de VEgypte^
at Cairo, in 1884, it amounted in 1882 to 6,806,381 persons,
of whom 3,216,847 were men, and 3,252,869 were women.
Of the 6,806,381 persons, 6,708,185 were inhabitants of the
country, and 98,196 were nomads. It showed that there
were in the total 245,779 Beduin and 90,886 foreigners;
the number was made up in the following manner : —
Cairo, 374,838; Alexandria, 231,396; l^amietta, 43,616;
Rosetta, 19,378; Port Sa'id, 21,296, and Suez, 11,175. ^^
the provinces Behereh contained 398,856 ; Sherkiyeh,
464,655 ; Dakhaliyeh, 586,033 ; Gharbiych, 929,488 ; Kal-
yiib, 271,488; Menuf, 646,013; Asyut, 562,137; Beni-
Suef, 219,573; Fayijm, 228,709; Gizeh, 283,083; Minyeh,
314,818; Esneh, 237,961; Girgeh, 521,413; Keneh
406,858. The dwellers in the Oases* and the Peninsula of
Sinai were not reckoned in the total given above. The
annual increase in the population was estimated at 56,202,
but at this rate the population of Egypt would only number
a little over 7,000,000.
* The Egyptian Oases are five : Wah el-Khargcb, 90 miles from
Thebes ; Wah ed-Dakhaliyeh, or Oasis Minor with warm springs, to
the west of the city of Oxyrhynchos ; Farafra, about 80 miles north of
Oasis Minor ; Siwa, where there was a temple to Jui^iter Ammon, to
the south-west of Alexandria; and Wah el-Bahriyeh, to the north of
Wah el-Khargeh.
THE MODERN EGYPTIANS. 37
The population of Egypt to-day comprises the Fcllahin,
Copts, Beduin, Jews, Turks, Negroes, Nubians and people
from Abyssinia, Armenians and Europeans.
The Fellahin amount to about four-fifths of the entire
population of I'^gypt, and are chiefly employed in agricultural
pursuits. In physical type they greatly resemble the ancient
Egyptians as depicted on the monuments. Their com-
plexion is dark ; they have straight eyebrows, high cheek
bones, flat noses with low bridges, slightly protruding
jaws, broad shoulders, large mouths and full lips. The
colour of their skin becomes darker as the south is
approached. The whole of the cultivation of Egypt is
in the hands of the fellahin.
The Copts are also direct descendants from the ancient
Egyptians, and inhabit chiefly the cities of Upper Egypt,
such as Asyiit and Ahmim. The name Copt is derived
from kjj Knbt, the Arabic form of the Coptic form of the
Greek name for Egyptian, kl^ivmio^ ; it may be mentioned,
in passing, that A/^i'ttto?, Egypt, is thought by some to be
derived from an ancient Egyptian name for Memphis,
Het-ka-Ptah, " The house of the genius of Ptah." The
number of Copts in Egypt to-day is estimated at about
350,000, and the greater number of them are engaged in
the trades of goldsmiths, clothworkers, etc. ; a respectable
body of clerks and accountants in the postal, telegraph and
government offices in Egypt, is drawn from their community.
They are clever with their fingers, and are capable of rapid
education up to a certain point ; beyond this they rarely
go. Physically, they are of a finer type than the fellahin ;
their heads are longer and their features are more European.
The Copts are famous in ecclesiastical history for having
embraced with extraordinary zeal and rapidity the doctrines
of Christianity as preached by St. Mark at Alexandria.
Before the end of the third century a.d., Egypt was filled
with hundreds of thousands of ascetics, monks, recluses
38 NOTES FOR TRAVELLERS IN EGYPT.
and solitaries who had thrown over their own weird and
confused rehgious behefs and embraced Christianity ; they
then retired to the mountains and deserts of their country
to dedicate their hves to the service of the Christians' God.
The Egyptians, their ancestors, who hved sixteen hundred
years before Christ, had aheady arrived at the conception
of a god who was one in his person, but who manifested
himself in the world under many forms and many names.
The Greeks and the Romans, who successively held Egypt,
caused many changes to come over the native religion of
the country which they governed ; and since the conflicting
myths and theories taught to the people of Egypt under their
rule had bewildered their minds and confused their beliefs,
they gladly accepted the simple teaching of Christ's
Apostle as a veritable gift of God. Their religious belief
took the form of that of Eutyches (died after 451), who
sacrificed the "distinction of the two natures in Christ
to the unity of the person to such an extent as to make the
incarnation an absorption of the human nature by the
divine, or a deification of human nature, even of the body."
In other words, they believed that Christ had but one
composite nature, and for this reason they were called
Monophysites ; in their liturgies they stated that God had
been crucified. They formed a part of the Alexandrian
Church until the Council of Chalcedon, a.d. 451, when it
was laid down that Christ had a double nature — human and
divine, but after this date they separated themselves from
it, and were accounted heretics by it, because they obsti-
nately refused to give up their belief in the one divine
nature of Christ which embraced and included the human.
To the sect of Monophysites or Eutychians the Copts still
belong. The orthodox church of Alexandria and its hereti-
cal offshoot continued to discuss with anger and tumult the
subtle points of their different opinions, until the fifth
(Ecumenical Council, held at Constantinople a.d. 553,
THE MODERN EGYPTIANS, 39
made some concessions to the Monophysite party. Shortly
after, however, new dissensions arose which so weakened
the orthodox church that the Monophysite party hailed with
gladness the arrival of the arms of Muhammad the Prophet,
and joined its forces with his that they might destroy the
power of their theological opponents. After 'Amr had
made himself master of Egypt (a.d. 640), he appointed
the Copts to positions of dignity and wealth ; finding, how-
ever, that they were unworthy of his confidence, they were
reduced, and finally persecuted with vigour. From the time
of Cyril, Patriarch of Alexandria, a.d. 1235 onwards, but
little is known of the history of the Coptic Church. The
Copt of to-day usually troubles himself little about theological
matters ; in certain cases, however, he affirms with con-
siderable firmness the doctrine of the " one nature."
The knowledge of the Coptic language is, generally speak-
ing, extinct ; it is exceedingly doubtful if three Coptic
scholars, in the Western sense of the word, exist even among
the priests. The language spoken by them is Arabic, and
though copies of parts of the Bible are found in churches
and private houses, they are usually accompanied by an
Arabic version of the Coptic text, which is more usually
read than the Coptic. The Bible, in all or part, was trans-
lated from Greek into Coptic in the third century of our
era ; some, however, think that the translation was not
made until the eighth century. The versions of the princi-
pal books of the Old and the whole of the New Testament,
together with lives of saints, monks and martyrs, form the
greater part of Coptic literature. The Coptic language is,
at base, a dialect of ancient Egyptian ; many of the nouns
and verbs found in the hieroglyphic texts remain unchanged
in Coptic, and a large number of others can, by making proper
allowance for phonetic decay and dialectic differences, be
identified without difificulty. The Copts used the Greek
alphabet to write down their language, but found it neces-
40 NOTES FOR TRAVELLERS IN EGYPT.
sary to borrow six* signs from the demotic forms of
ancient Egyptian characters to express the sounds which
they found unrepresented in Greek. The dialect of Upper
Egypt is called "Sahidic"! or Theban, and that of Lower
Egypt " Memphitic." X During the last few years the study
of Coptic has revived among European scholars, but this is
partly owing to the fact that the importance of a knowledge
of the language, as a preliminary to the study of hieroglyphics,
has been at length recognized. The Roman Propagandist
Tuki§ published during the last century some valuable works ;
in spite, however, of the activity of scholars and the enter-
prise of publishers, it still costs nearly ^5 to purchase a
copy of as much of the Memphitic Coptic version of the
Bible as has come down to us.
The Beduin are represented by the various Arabic-
speaking and Muhammedan tribes, who live in the deserts
which lie on each side of the Nile ; they amount in number
to about 250,000. The Bisharin, Hadendoa, and Ababdeh
tribes, who speak a language (called 'to bedyhawiyeh') which
is like ancient Egyptian in some respects, and who live in
* These signs are : OJ = J«T^T s/i ; q = ^^^^ / ;
t This is the older and richer dialect of Coptic, it was spoken from
Minyeh to Aswan.
X More correctly called Boheiric, from the province of Boheira in the
Delta ; the name Bashmuric has been wrongly applied to this dialect,
but as it appears to have been exclusively the language of Memphis, it
may be styled "Middle Egyptian." The dialect of BushmCir on the
Lake of Menzaleh appears to have become extinct about A.D. 900, and
to have left no traces of itself behind. See .Stern, A'opt. Gram., p. i.
§ Among more recent scholars may be named Wilkins, Zoega,
Tattam, Ideler, Schwartze, Revilloul, llyvernat, Amclincau, Stern,
Guidi, Lagarde, etc.
THE MODERN EGYPTIANS. 4 1
the most southern part of Upper Egypt, Nubia, and
Abyssinia, are included among this number. Among these
three tribes the institutions of Muhammcd are not observed
with any great strictness. When the Beduin settle down
to village or town life, they appear to lose all the bravery and
fine qualities of independent manhood which characterize
them when they live in their home, the desert.
The inhabitants of Cairo, Alexandria, and other large
towns form a class of people quite distinct from the other
inhabitants of Egypt ; in Alexandria there is a very large
Greek element, and in Cairo the number of Turks is very
great. In the bazaars of Cairo one may see the offspring of
marriages between members of nearly every European
nation and Egyptian or Niibian women, the colour of their
skins varying from a dark brick-red to nearly white. The
shopkeepers are fully alive to their opportunities of making
money, and would, beyond doubt, become rich but for their
natural indolence and belief in fate. Whatever they appear
or however much they may mask their belief in the Muham-
medan religion, it must never be forgotten that they have
the greatest dislike to every religion but their own. The
love of gain alone causes them to submit to the remarks
made upon them by Europeans, and to submit to their
entrance and sojourning among them.
The Nubians or Berbers, as they are sometimes called,
inhabit the tract of land which extends from Aswan or
Syene to the fourth cataract. The word Nubia appears to
l)e derived from nub^ 'gold,' because Nubia was a gold-
producing country. The word Berber is considered to mean
' barbarian ' by some, and to be also of Egyptian origin.
They speak a language which is allied to some of the North
African tongues, and rarely speak Arabic well. The
Nubians found in Egypt are generally doorkeepers and
domestic servants, who can usually be depended upon for
their honesty and obedience.
42 NOTES FOR TRAVELLERS IN EGYPT.
The Negroes form a large part of the non-native
population of Egypt, and are employed by natives to
perform hard work, or are held by them as slaves. They
are Muhammedans by religion, and come from the countries
known by the name of Sudan. Negro women make good
and faithful servants.
The Syrian Christians who have settled down in Egypt
are generally known by the name of Levantines. They
are shrewd business men, and the facility and rapidity with
which they learn European languages places them in
positions of trust and emolument.
The Turks form a comparatively small portion of the
population of Egypt, but many civil and military appoint-
ments are, or were, in their hands. Many of them are the
children of Circassian slaves. The merchants are famous
for their civility to foreigners and their keen eye to
business.
The Armenians and Jews form a small but important
part of the inhabitants in the large towns of Egypt. The
former are famous for their linguistic attainments and
wealth ; the latter have blue eyes, fair hair and skin, and
busy themselves in mercantile pursuits and the business of
bankers and money-changing.
The European population in Egypt consists of Greeks
about 65,000, Italians 30,000, French 14,000, English 9,000,
Germans, Austrians, Russians, etc., etc., about 10,000. The
greater part of the business of Alexandria is in the hands of
the Greek merchants ; many of whom are famous for their
wealth. It is said that the Greek community contributes
most largely to the crime in the country, but when their
numbers are taken into consideration, it will be seen that
this is an exaggeration. The enterprise and good business
hal)its of the Greeks in Alexandria have made it the great
city that it is. The French, Austrian, German, and English
nations are likewise represented there, and in Cairo, by
THE MODERN EGYPTIANS.
43
several first-rate business houses. The destructive fanaticism
pecuHar to the Muhammedan mind, so common in the far
east parts of Mesopotamia, seems to be non-existent in
Egypt ; such fanaticism as exists is, no doubt, kept in check
by the presence of Europeans, and all the different peoples
live side by side in a most peaceable manner. The great
benefit derived by Egypt from the immigration of Europeans
during the last few years, is evident from the increased
material prosperity of the country, and the administration of
equitable laws which has obtained.
44 NOTES FOR TRAVELLERS IN EGYPT.
THE NILE.
The river Nile is one of the longest rivers in the world ;
its Egyptian name was Hapi, 9 ;^;;;:^ 3, and the Arabs
call it /)a//r, or 'sea.' It is formed by the junction, at
15" 34' N. lat., and 30° 30' 58" E. long., of two great
arms, the Ba/ir el-Azrak, i.e., the ' turbid,' or Blue Nile,
from the S.E., and the Bahr el-Abyad, i.e., the 'clear,' or
White Nile, from the S.W.* The eastern oranch rises in
Goyam, in Abyssinia, at an elevation of about 10,000 feet
above the level of the sea. Flowing through the lake of
Dembea it passes round the eastern frontier of Goyam, till,
when nearing the loth degree N. lat., it takes a north-
west direction, which it preserves until it reaches Khartum ;
here it unites with the Bahr el-Abyad, the other great arm,
which flows from the S.W. The Bahr el-Abyad, or \\'hite
Nile, is so called because of the fine whitish clay which
colours its waters. It is broader and deeper than the
eastern arm, and it brings down a much larger volume of
water ; the ancients appear to have regarded it as the true
Nile. There can, however, be no doubt that the Bahr el-
Azrak has the best right to be considered the true Nile,
for during the violent and rapid course which it takes from
the Abyssinian mountains, it carries down with it all the
rich mud which, during the lapse of ages, has been spread
* The While Nile rises in the mountainous districts a few degrees
north of the Equator, and the principal streams which flow into it
are those of the Sobat, Giraffe, and Gazelle rivers. It is not navitijable,
and its banks are so low that its whitish slimy deposit often extends
t'» a distance of two miles from the stream. For about a hundred
miles south of Khartum the river is little more than a marsh.
THE NILE. 45
over the land on each side of its course and formed the
land of Egypt. In truth, then, Egypt is the gift of the
Bahr el-Azrak. The course of the Bahr el-Ahyad was
traced by Linant in 1827 for about 160 miles from its con-
fluence with the Bahr el-Azrak. At the point of confluence
it measures about 600 yards across, a little farther up it is
from three to four miles wide, and during the inundation the
distance from side to side is twenty-one miles. In an ordinary
season it is about 24 feet deep.
The source of the Nile was not discovered by Bruce,
but by Captains Grant and Speke and Sir Samuel Baker.
Its parents are the Albert Nyanza and Victoria Nyanza
Lakes. The fountain-head of the Nile, Victoria Nyanza,
is a huge basin, far below the level of the country round
about, into which several streams empty themselves. About
200 miles below Khartiam the united river receives, on
the east side, the waters of the Atbara, which rises in the
mountains of Abyssinia, and from this point onwards to its
embouchure, a distance of about 1,750 miles, the Nile
receives no affluent whatever. From Khartum to Cairo the
Nile falls about 400 yards; its width is about 1,100 yards
in its widest part. The course of the Nile has been
explored to a length of about 3,500 miles. At Abu Hammed
the river turns suddenly to the south-west, and flows in this
direction until it reaches Donkola, where it again curves
to the north. The river enters Nubia, flowing over a ledge
of granite rocks which form the third cataract. Under the
22nd parallel N. lat. is the second cataract, which ends
a few miles above Wadi Halfah, and al)out iSo miles lower
down is the first cataract, which ends at Aswan, or Syene,
a little above the island of Elephantine. After entering
Egypt, the Nile flows in a steady stream, always to the
north, and deposits the mud which is the life of Egypt.
The breadth of the Nile valley varies from four to ten
miles in Nuljia, and from fifteen to thirty in Egypt. The
46 NOTES FOR TRAVELLERS IN EGYPT.
width of the strips of cultivated land on each bank of
the river in Egypt together is never more than eight or
nine miles.
In ancient days the Nile poured its waters into the
sea by seven mouths ; those of Damietta and Rosetta*
are now, however, the only two which remain. The Delta
is, in its widest part, about ninety miles across from east
to west, and the distance of the apex from the sea is
also about ninety miles. Many attempts have been made
to ascertain the age of Egypt by estimating the annual
alluvial deposit ; the results, however, cannot be implicitly
relied on.
The inundation is caused by the descent of the rain
which falls on the Abyssinian mountains. The indications
of the rise of the river may be seen at the cataracts as
early as the end of May, and a steady increase goes on until
the middle of July, when the increase of water becomes very
great. The Nile continues to rise until the middle of Sep-
tember, when it remains stationary for a period of about
three weeks, sometimes a little less. In October it rises
again, and attains its highest level. From this period it
begins to subside, and, though it rises yet once more, and
reaches occasionally its former highest point, it sinks steadily
until the month of June, when it is again at its lowest level.
The modern ceremony of ' Cutting the Dam ' of the river
takes place generally in the second or third week of August
at Fum el-Khalig, at Cairo. In ancient days the ceremony
of cutting the canals was accompanied with great festivities,
and great attention was paid to the height of the river
in various parts of Egypt, that the cutting might take place
at the most favourable time. We learn, on the authority
of Seneca, that offerings of gold and other gifts were thrown
* The seven mouths were called the Pelusiac, Tanitic, Mentlesian,
I'halnitic, Sebennylic, Lulbitic, and the Canopic.
THE NILE. 47
into the Nile at Philoe by the priests to propitiate the
divinity of the river.
If the height of the inundation is about forty-one feet
the best results from agricultural labour are obtained ;
a couple of feet of water, more or less, is always attended
with disastrous results either in the Delta or Upper Egypt.
The dykes, or embankments, which kept the waters of
the Nile in check, and regulated their distribution over
the lands, were, in Pharaonic days, maintained in a state of
efficiency by public funds, and, in the time of the Romans,
any person found destroying a dyke was either condemned
to hard labour in the public works or mines, or to be
branded and sent to the Oasis. If we accept the state
ments of Strabo, we may believe that the ancient system
of irrigation was so perfect that the varying height of the
inundation caused but little inconvenience to the inhabi-
tants of Egypt, as far as the results of agricultural labours
were concerned, though an unusually high Nile would,
of course, wash away whole villages and drown much
cattle. If the statements made by ancient writers be com-
pared, it will be seen that the actual height of the in-
undation is the same now as it always was, and that it
maintains the same proportion with the land it irrigates.
According to Sir Gardner Wilkinson {Ancient Egypt, II.,
431), the cubit measures of the Nilometers ought, after
certain periods, to be raised proportionately if we wish to
arrive at great accuracy in the measurement of the waters.
The level of the land, which always keeps pace with that of
the river, increases at the rate of six inches in a hundred years
in some places, and in others less. The proof of this is
that the highest scale in the Nilometer at the island of
Elephantine, which served to measure the inundation in
the reigns of the early Roman emperors, is now far below
the level of the ordinary high Nile ; and the obelisk of
Heliopolis, the colossi at Thebes, and other similarly situated
48 NOTES FOR TRAVELLERS IN EGYPT.
monuments, are now washed by the waters of the inundation
and imbedded to a certain height in a stratum of alluvial
soil which has been deposited around their base. The land
about Elephantine and at Thebes has been raised about
nine feet in 1,700 years. The usual rise of the river at
Cairo is twenty-five feet, at Thebes thirty-eight feet, and at
Aswan forty-nine feet. The average rate of the current is
about three miles per hour. As the river bed rises higher
and higher the amount of land covered by the waters of the
inundation grows more and more. It is estimated that, if
all the land thus watered were thoroughly cultivated, Egypt
would, for its size, be one of the richest countries in the
world.* The ancient Egyptians fully recognized how very
much they owed to the Nile, and, in their hymns, they
thank the Nile-god in appropriate and grateful terms.
Statues of the god are painted green and red, which
colours are supposed to represent i. the colour of the
river in June, when it is a bright green, before the inunda-
tion ; and 2. the ruddy hue which its waters have when
charged with the red mud brought down from the Abyssinian
mountains.
* It is greatly to be hoped that Sir Colin Scott Moncrieff will be
enabled to increase the scope of the valuable work which he has done
in the Irrigation Department, and to gradually carry out the works
necessary to bring into cultivation those districts which are now
a wilderness.
49
EGYPTIAN WRITING.
The system of writing employed by the earhest inhabi-
tants of the Valley of the Nile known to us was entirely
pictorial, and had much in common with the pictorial
writing of the Chinese and the ancient people who migrated
into Babylonia from the East. There appears to be no
inscription in which pictorial characters are used entirely,
for the earliest inscriptions now known to us contain
alphabetic characters. Inscriptions upon statues, coffins,
tombs, temples, etc., in which figures or representations of
objects are employed, are usually termed 'Hieroglyphic'
(from the Greek iepoyXv^tKov) ; for writing on papyri a
cursive form of hieroglyphic called 'Hieratic' (from the
Greek lepaTiK6<i), was employed by the priests, who, at
times, also used hieroglyphic ; a third kind of writing,
consisting of purely conventional modifications of hieratic
characters, which preserve little of the original form, was
employed for social and business purposes ; it is called
demotic (from the Greek ct]^ioTiic6%). The following will
show the different forms of the characters in the three
styles of writing —
I. Hieratic.
lU^U.
50 NOTES FOR TRAVELLERS IN EGYPT.
II. Hieroglyphic Transcript of No. I.
'0
III. Demotic.
IV. Hieroglyphic Transcript of No. III.
No. I is copied from the Prisse* papyrus (Maxims of
Ptah-hetep, p. V, 1. 1 ), and is transcribed and translated as
follows : —
dlf tenui an sex^ - nef sef
.... the heart fails, not remembers he yesterday.
qes me?i-f efi aim bu nefer ^^per em-
The body suffers it in [its] entirety, happiness becomes
bu \lm){\
wretchedness. t
No. Ill is copied from the demotic version inscribed
on the stele of Canopus (see p. 18), and No. IV. is the
corresponding passage in the hieroglyphic version of the
* This papyrus is the oldest in the world, and was written about
B.C. 2500 ; it was presented to the Bibliotheque Nationale by Prisse,
who acquired it at Thebes.
+ Ptah-hetep is lamenting the troubles of old age, and the complete
passage runs : " The understanding perisheth, an old man remembers
not yesterday. The body becometh altogether pain ; happiness
turnelh into wretchedness ; and taste vanishes away."
EGYPTIAN WRITING. 5 I
Decree. The transliteration of the Demotic, according to
Hess {Ro/nati von Sine Ha-m-us, p. 80), is : — p-hon
nuier ua n-n-iieb' ent sdtp er-p-ma ticb er-ul?e p-gi-ji-er
lunh 7i-n-imter\ "a prophet, or one of the priests who are
selected for the sanctuary to perform the dressing of the
gods." The transliteration of the hieroglyphic text is:
hen neter erpu ud dinO dbu sehp er db-iir du smd er vidret
neterii em satis en.
The earliest hieroglyphic inscription is that found on the
stele of Sent preserved at Oxford ; it dates from the second
dynasty. The oldest hieratic inscription is that contained
in the famous Prisse papyrus which records the advice
of Ptah-hetep to his son. It dates from the Xlth or
Xllth dynasty. The demotic writing appears to have
come into use about B.C. 900. Hieroglyphics were used
until the third century after Christ, and hieratic and
demotic for at least a century later. The inscriptions on
the Rosetta and Canopus stel^ are written in hieroglyphic,
demotic, and Greek characters. The Egyptians inscribed,
wrote, or painted inscriptions upon almost every kind of
substance, but the material most used by them for
their histories, and religious and other works was papyrus.
Sections from the stem of the papyrus plant were carefully
cut, and the layers were taken off, pressed flat, and several
of them gummed one over the other transversely; thus
almost any length of papyrus for writing upon could be
made. The longest known is the great Harris papyrus,
No. I ; it measures 135 feet by 18 inches. The scribe
wrote upon the papyrus with reeds, and the inks were
principally made of vegetable colour. Black and red are
the commonest colours used, but some papyri are painted
with as many as eleven or thirteen. The scribe's palette
was a rectangular piece of wood varying from six to thirteen
inches long by two, or two and a half, inches wide. In the
middle was a hollow for holding the reeds, and at one end
E 2
52 NOTES FOR TRAVELLERS IN EGYPT.
were the circular or oval cavities in which the colours were
placed.
At the beginning of the Greek rule over Egypt, the
knowledge of the use of the ancient Egyptian language
began to decline, and the language of Oreece began to
modify and eventually to supersede that of Egypt. When
we consider that Ptolemy I. Soter, succeeded in attracting
to Alexandria a large number of the greatest Greek scholars
of the day, such as Euclid the mathematician, Stilpo of
Megara, Theodorus of Cyrene and Diodorus Cronus, the
philosophers, Zenodotus the grammarian, Philctas the
poet, from Cos, and many others, this is not to be wondered
at. The founding of the great Alexandrian Library and
Museum, and the endowment of these institutions for the
support of a number of the most eminent Greek philo-
sophers and scholars, was an act of far-sighted policy on
the part of Ptolemy I., whose aim was to make the learning
and language of the Greeks to become dominant in Egypt.
Little by little the principal posts in the Government were
monopolised by the Greeks, and little by little the Egyptians
became servants and slaves to their intellectually superior
masters. In respect to their language, " the Egyptians
were not prohibited from making use, so far as it seemed
requisite according to ritual or otherwise appropriate, of the
native language and of its time-hallowed written signs ; in this
old home, moreover, of the use of writing in ordinary inter-
course the native language, alone familiar to the great public,
and the usual writing must necessarily have been allowed not
merely in the case of private contracts, but even as regards
tax-receipts and similar documents. But this was a conces-
sion, and the ruling Hellenism strove to enlarge its domain."
Mommsen, The Provinces of the Roman Empire, Vol. IL,
p. 243. It is true that Ptolemy II. Philadelphus, employed the
famous Manetho {i.e., . )^ , Mer-en-Tchuti, 'beloved
of Thoth ') to draw up a history of Egypt, and an account
EGYPTIAN WRITING. 53
of the ancient Egyptian religion from the papyri and other
native records ; but it is also true that during the reigns of
these two Ptolemies that the Egyptians were firmly kept in
obscurity, and that the ancient priest-college of Heliopolis
was suppressed. A century or two after the Christian era,
Greek had obtained such a hold upon the inhabitants of
Egypt that the Egyptian Christians, the followers and
disciples of St. Mark, were obliged to use the Greek
alphabet to write down the Egyptian, that is to say Coptic
translation of the books of the Old and New Testaments.
The letters OJ, sh, q, / 1), x, 2^, Jh <^ c, X, i, were
added from the demotic forms of hieratic characters to
represent sounds which were unknown in the Greek lan-
guage. During the Greek rule over Egypt many of the
hieroglyphic characters had new phonetic values given to
them ; by this time the knowledge of hieroglyphic writing
had practically died out. '
The history of the decipherment of hieroglyphics is of
great interest, but no thorough account of it can be
given here ; only the most important facts connected
with it can be mentioned. During the XVIth-XVIIIth
centuries many attempts were made by scholars to in-
terpret the hieroglyphic inscriptions then known to the
world, but they resulted in nothing useful. The fact is
they did not understand the nature of the problem to
be solved, and they failed to perceive the use of the
same hieroglyphic character as a phonetic or determinative
in the same inscription. In 1799, a French officer dis-
covered at Bolbitane or Rosetta a basalt slab inscribed in the
hieroglyphic, demotic, and Greek characters ; it was shortly
after captured by the English army, and taken to London,
where it was carefully examined by Dr. Thomas Young.*
* Thomas Young was born at Milverton, in Somersetshire, on the
13th of June, 1773; both his parents were Quakers. At the age of
fourteen he is said to have been versed in Greek, Latin, French,
54 NOTES FOR TRAVELLERS IN EGYPT.
The Society of Antiquaries published a fac-simile of the
inscription, which was distributed among scholars, and
Silvestre de Sacy and Akerblad made some useful dis
coveries about certain parts of the demotic version of the
inscription. Dr. Young was enabled, ten years after, to make
translations of the three inscriptions, and the results of his
studies were published in 1821. In 1822 M. Champollion *
(IvC Jeune) published a translation of the same inscriptions,
and was enabled to make out something like an alphabet.
There appears to be no doubt that he was greatly helped
by the publications and labours of Young, who had succeeded
in grouping certain words in demotic, and in assigning ac
curate values to some of the Egyptian characters used in
writing the names of the Greek rulers of Egypt. Young
made many mistakes, but some of his work was of value.
Champollion, to whom the credit of definitely settling the
phonetic values of several signs really belongs, had been
carefully grounded in the Coptic language, and was there-
fore enabled with little difficulty to recognize the hiero-
glyphic forms of the words which were familiar to him in
Coptic ; Young had no such advantage. Champollion's
system was subjected to many attacks, but little by little it
gained ground, and the labours of other scholars have
Italian, Hebrew, Persian and Arabic. He took his degree of M.D. in
July, 1796, in 1802 he was appointed professor of natural philosophy
at the Royal Institution, and in 1810 he was elected physician to
St. George's Hos])ital. He was not, however, a popular physician.
He died on the loth of May, 1829.
• Jean Fran9ois le Jeune Champollion was born at Figeac, depart-
ment Du Lot, in 1796. He was educated at Grenoble, and afterwards
at J'aris, where he devoted himself to the study of Coptic. In the
year 1824 he was ordered by Charles X. to visit all the important
cijlleclions of Egyptian antiquities in Europe. On his return he was
appointed Director of the Louvre. In 1828 he was sent on a scientific
mission to Egypt, and was afterwards made professor of Egyptian
antiquities at the College de France. He died in 1831.
EGYPTIAN WRITING. 55
proved that he was right. The other early workers in the
field of hieroglyphics were Dr. Samuel ]>irch in England ;
Dr. Lepsius in Germany, and MM. Rosellini and Salvolini
in Italy. The study of hieroglyphics has become compara-
tively general, and each year sees books of texts published,
learned pajjiers on Egyptian grammar written, and transla-
tions made into the various European languages.
In hieroglyphic inscriptions the signs are used in two
ways : I, Ideographic, II, Phonetic. In the ideographic
system a word is expressed by a picture or ideograph thus :
AAAA/vv mdu, water ; in the phonetic system the same word is
AAAA/V\
written V\^ ^ a (2 ^/i + a + ?/, no regard being paid to
the fact that ^^|\ represents an owl, ^ o a hand and fore-
arm, and '^ a rope. Similarly ^^^s^. emsuh is a 'crocodile' in
the ideographic system, but phonetically it is written
^\ I v\ ^ )n ■\- s -\- ti -\- h. The ideographic system is
probably older than the phonetic.
R n
Phonetic signs are : I, Alphabetic, as ¥\ /;/, I s,
^o u; or II, Syllabic, as*=::x. mer, O xepcr^ _- ^^ hetep.
Ihe sign \A x^per can be written i, \A ; 2, Tq-s ;
3, ^^ ; 4,^rt <cir> ; the sign T fiefer can be written
The scribes took pains to represent the exact value of
these syllabic signs in order that no mistake might be
made.
The ideographic signs are also used as determinatives,
and are placed after words written phonetically to de-
termine their meaning. For example, nef?i means ' to
sleep,' ' to walk,' 'to go back,' ' to become infirm,' 'tongue'
56 NOTES FOR TRAVELLERS IN EGYPT.
and ' again ' : without a determinative the meaning of
this word in a sentence would be easily mistaken.
Determinatives are of two kinds : I, ideographic, and II,
Thus after vO^ ^''"'"''» 'cat,' a rat, j\^, was
generic.
written ; this is an ideographic determinative. After
kerh, 'darkness,' the night sky with a star in it, ' n 4, was
written ; this is a generic determinative. A word has fre-
quently more than one determinative ; for example, in the
Jo '^^ AAAAA^ I 1
— °x
word
AAAA/^A E
Ihih, ' to overflow,'
a determinative of the sound oan ; aaaaaa is a determinative
AA/VNAA
of water, ' — > of a lake or collection of water, and "^ of
ground. The list of hieroglyphic signs with their phonetic
values given on pp. 61-68 will be of use in reading kings'
names, etc ; for convenience however the hieroglyphic
alphabet is added here. The system of transliteration of
Egyptian characters used in this book is that most generally
adopted.
1
, W
J
p
f
M'
ra
, _2s& r ox I
h
h
©
■P
C3CD
X (ch)
sh
EGYPTIAN WRITING.
57
A
c^ t
\ ^= 0{/h)
t' (like ch in child)
The number of hieroglyphic characters is about two
thousand.
NUINIBERS.
I ua, one
1 1 sen, tivo
('^^ III chemet, three
ftu, four
tua, five
sas (?), six
sechef, seven
A
chemennu, eight
heh, rt million
1 1 1 paut or pst, «///^
Ml
n met', ten
nn t'et, /ef/tv/Zy
nnn mab, thirty
(3 s'aa, a hundred
1 cha, « thousand
t'eba^ te?i thousand
0 (3
'^^^ hefnu, rt' hundred thou-
sand
The forms of the numbers 40, 50, 60, 70, So and 90 are
not known exactly.
Hieroglyphic inscriptions are usually to l)e read in the
opposite direction to which the characters face ; there is
however no hard and fast rule in this matter. On the
papyri they are read in various directions, and there are
instances in which the ancient copyist mistook the end of a
JlOdUUifM^
5S
NOTES FOR TRAVELLERS IN EGYPT.
chapter for its beginning, and copied the whole of it in the
reverse order Some inscriptions are to be read in perpen-
dicular lines.
The following transliterated and translated extract from
the first page of the "Tale of the Two Brothers" will
explain the foregoing statements.
AAAAAA
II
There were once on a time brothers two [the children]
eu
of
Kit
one
muOet
mother
en
and of
one
at/
father ;
Anpu ren pa a a an
Anubis was the name of the elder, was
D
Batau
Bata
ren
t
^^
pa
the name of the
Anpu
Anpu,
/I\
su
he
serdu
xcr
ar
younger.
Now
as regards
>:
1 LJ
^1
J 1
\\
^ ^.
ri
pa
■xeri
he 711 1
au
and was
possessed a house and had a wife,
paif sen seraii eiuma-f
his brother younger [living] with him
!\ p
EGYPTIAN WRITING
nzsa
^4 ^\ k
after the manner
a
who
aritu-iief
made
(2
^^
€71 serau an
of a servant, for it
5 111 1^.^ I
/ie^>sii aii-nef her
the clothes, it was he
59
einentuf
was he
JP
T
A
k^ xi::: vk^
ein-sa
after
7iai-f
his [Anpu's]
an
he
ementiif
he it was
e/iie/iii/f
it was
e
a
wlio
aaiit
cattle
^^
aritu
did
in
seiii
who followed
I
I
.\> I
sex^t
the fields,
the ploughing,
KCW
D 5
auuait
who laboured.
he
emenljif a
it was who
aritii'uef
performed
I
^ III
sex^t
the fields ;
aput
the duties
«f(^
€71 ti
as-tu
and behold
all which were [connected] with
1
4.^
hcTiuti iicfer
a farmer excellent,
au
was
(171
not
pa
the
serau
young man
un
existed
0 ^ *^.=_
qetmtiu-f
the like of him
6o NOTES FOR TRAVELLERS IN EGYPT
e//i ta t'er-f
in the land the whole of it
_ _ J\
yfr (ir emyet
Now thus it was during
hru
days
A X
0 (^ I I I
qe7mu
many
paif
was his
sen serau
brother younger
her-sa e?iefi au
upon those [days] that
einsa naif
following after his
ciaut
cattle
I
hru neb
every day,
em
according
paif
to his
sexeru
wont
enientuf her
and he
pai-f
his
I
pa er
house
udu (or he ha It)
returned
e ra
enti
of
to
tennu
every
^'t
o
riilia
evening, and
aiif atep
he .vas laden
k P^^l).'
I I I
em
with
simu
vegetables
neb
of all kinds
^ III
en
of the
se^et
fields.
EGYPTIAN WRITING.
6i
A List of
f^ an
^ ser
1% aau
SOME OF THE PRINCIPAL HIEROGLYPHIC SiGNS
AND THEIR PhONETIC VaLUES.
@ tep
■^ hrd
"11:1, anen
K^at
-^^ an
-<25^ ari
^ ar
Men AND Women.
ax
qa
qet
seller
tut
sa
fa
heh
hell
Limbs, Szc, of Men,
W^ ser
^= hu
--''"^ sept
U k^
xen
— n_o an, at
a_i]nia
i==/] next
^ D ta
xen
t
seps
amen
al)
^^ xer
#
mat
^^>^ sem
[^ sem
n ses
t'eba I ^Y^ tct
''=0) ka, met ! _| ret
^sem ! J b
aa, ail
~7T~ seb
62
_£^
notes for travellers in egypt.
Anhlvls.
'^^A neb
h
^
^
ser
peh
ha
at
ses
Heru,
bak
ba
aq
sera
ab
^ sab
Limbs, &c., of Animals.
^ ka
^ sef
I us
Sir) ba
^^ ur
"i^ ba
mut
se
mer
^ xent, fent
^ setem
V aP
j aau
Birds,
neh
^tg qem
ti
^
meh
<&< an
Parts of Birds.
K mat, su
Fish.
^ ab
^ ba
mau
\ ab
^_^ Peb
nem
\
o
u
pa
ten
^3' sent
se
betu
sebek
'^Si. hefen
serq
EGYPTIAN WRITING.
Reptiles.
t'
af, net, ^eb
se^et
kam
0 ^
^^^ xet
^ hen
uah
sek
bener
pet,
her
'jjjy' 0ehen
ta
Trees and Plants.
net'em I su
uat
xa
meh
ha
-L ne^eb
-|.-L enen
^ resu
(
qema
renp
sexet
Celestial Objects.
O ra
C^[Exu
y=^^ abet
Objects of Earth.
[^:Q tu ^^^^^ set
Water.
63
f
xepcr
fli
bet"
hen
as
ter
-k seb
cm aner
/vwvAA ni5u /v\^^/vA n
/VWW\
.-"O
r3a s
mer
ab
64 notes for travellers in egvpt.
Building.
':nii!:i a
per
^ tes,
■A tern
'""^^^ sem
nemmat
*\ =
seq
hetep
pet
semer
i qcl
Q '- : 0 ^^
I neter J7
seh
heb
ineb
i
tet
auset
Arms, etc.
°<^ meh
c*=^ set
A XU
ZV^ tern
us
sexem
xerp
men
ab
f
am, ta,
qem
net'
ab
1 set'ebl ^
]
xen
ut
t'et
0
t'a
men
1
T| 6?es, res
ab, qes,
ken
s
menx
xa
sa
sam
setp
ut'a
0
mer
seh
V
nefer
het'
net
^
qes, ses
5
sen
^
ret
i
sen
I
h
Vl
menx
^ X
©, ©, © Sep
0 paut
c^ t
^' D xemt
A q
egyptian writing.
Musical Instruments
^ sexem
i^:^ men
Crowns.
^^ meh
su
(^S
Cords.
o
ut,
heseb
(2
u
-<t-
set
f\
ua
^
net,
se^et
^
mer
n
nes
XZK at
net
sa
f\ aper
hni
Mathematical Figures.
\>
hu
h
sept
A
ta
i
P
A
hap
Xuu
ur, ses
ra h
LTl mer
; ' teben
teni,
pex
mat
sa
sexet
nP3>
:^
teb
f^S?^ nub
xaker
Q sen
^ sah
y anx ^iM *." .
—I— t'et
Sfh
,VJi
qen,
t'at'a
-=3°i>- amsu
(2 ap
66 notes for travellers in egypt.
Vases, etc.
D nu
Q xnem
O ab
hes
xent
xent
j5 qebh
hen
0 ta
D. ta
y ma =^ hetep
I
O au, ab • i^-°->J da
/L xer
V_y neb
^5^7 heb
0^ l)a
S
Ships, etc.
>-Jvi am
>^^V ua
1 xer,
0 hep
hem
i^ nef
Y aha
[fill xent
^ sesep
maten
tern
li amax
-|}- am
^"yl xesef
sext
1
to call
to pray
to rejoice
to dance
\^ to plough
A^ foes
Vv?^ of men
of gods
Determinatives.
of women
of birth
to see
L=/] of strength
□ c to give
Ji to walk, stand
9^ of flesh
0
to breathe,
smell
^kK^ of birds
jL of goddesses
Q of trees
QQQ of grain
I J of heaven
'^ of light
Ci^Ci:^ of country
^ of towns
EGYPTIAN WRITING.
Determinatives — cofiiinued.
67
D
of iron
0 0 0 of metals
Khy of festival
(Z-_l
of water
of houses
writing,
computation,
,—w^< knowledge,
and abstract
^ of unguents
£5:2 of roads
c=>^
of writing
(ideas
>=^
of ships
s
of ground
Q of fire
^
of winds
1
fHE Arabic
Alphabet.
Elif
\
a
Zad
cr
^/
aspirated
Ba
<__?
b
Ta
i.
/
palatal
Ta
CI?
t
Za
\:
s
palatal
Tha
^'
th =
: i
)
'Ain
'-
Gim
IZ
g(}^
ke
g in gin)*
Chain
c
A''
guttural :*:
Ha
Z.
h (a s
tura
mooth gut-
1 aspirate)
Fa
Kaf
(-J
/
guttural
Kha
z.
ch (hk
e c/i in lodi)
Kaf
k
Dal
Li
d
Lam
J
I
Zal
j
th (1
ik
e th in that)
Mim
r
in
Ra
J
r
Nun
n
Zay
J
z
Ha
J
h
Sin
u^
s
Waw
•
w
Shin
lP
shi^
ik
; sh in shjit)
Ya
y
Sad
^
s (U
ke
ss in hiss)
* Pronounced hard in Egj'pt.
t Usually unpronounceable by Europeans.
X Accompanied by a rattling sound.
F 2
6S
NOTES FOR TRAVELLERS IN EGYPT.
The Coptic Alphabet (31 letters).'
^-
a
XJL
in
^
ps
^
h
rt
n
U5
0
V
i
t
X or Z'v
a
sh
2^
d
0
0
q
f
e
e
n
P
^
X or r//
^
z
P
r
&
//
H
e
c
s
2^
i-
0
th
T
t
6^
c
I
i
T
y
tt
ti
K
k
^
ph
X
I
X
ch
* In the Boheiric dialect there are thirty-two.
f Six letters of the Coptic alphabet are modifications of the forms of
Egyptian characters in demotic. Sec p. 40. The names of the letters
in Coptic are ^.XcJ)^., B.I2^^., v^.JULJUL^., 2^^.X2^A., ei,
^IT"^-, K^-^-, eiT^., i^^nrx^-, K^-nn^., X^.'¥X^.,
juLi, rti, ^i, o, ni, po, ciJUL^-, t^-v, Te(2>e), c^i,
X5, ^i, ^T cLjei, qei, .6^1, &opi, x^^nxi^.,
EGYPTIAN WRITINO.
69
O
C/2 O
O
12;
w rz:
a; rt
3
cp
-4
i4
O
a, c
P :i
0 5
3 Ji
o
:!
a,
►9" "O"
i ^^il H3
X
3
:i
bfl tc tC ^
tj) bX) bO bfi .;::
oooo oooc o
O o
^ p
o B
^3
O
o
Ir c^ aj
ii oj ^
u xi.
•rt
Oj Z;^
ao ao 00 ao ^
Bi RJ ii
;^« ">-?
70 NOTES FOR TRAVELLERS IN EGYPT.
The ancient Egyptians had : I. the vague or civil year,
which consisted of 365 days ; it was divided into twelve
months of thirty days each, and five intercalary days were
added at the end ; II. the Sothic year of 365:^ days. The
first year of a Sothic period began with the rising of Sirius
or the dog-star, on the ist of the month Thoth, when it
coincided with the beginning of the inundation ; III. the
Egyptian solar year,* which was a quarter of a day shorter
than the Sothic year, an error which corrected itself in 1460
fixed years or 146 1 vague years. The true year was estimated
approximately by the conjunction of the sun with Sirius. Dr.
Brugsch thinks {Egypt under the Pharaohs^ \ o\. II., p. 176)
that as early as B.C. 2^00 four ditiferent forms of the year were
already in use, and that the "little year" corresponded with
the lunar year, and the "great year" with a lunar year
having intercalated days. Each month was dedicated to a
god.f The Egyptians dated their stete and documents by
the day of the month and the year of the king who was
reigning at tne time. The Copts first dated their documents
according to the years of the ixdictiox ; the indictions were
periods of fifteen years, and the first began .a.d. 312. In
later times the Copts made use of the era of the Martyrs,
which was reckoned from the 29th of August, .\.D. 28^.
About the ninth century after Christ they began to adopt
the Muhammedan era of the Hijrah or "flight," which was
reckoned from a.d. 622.
* It was practically the same as the civil year.
t .Sume of the Coptic names of the months show that they ha\c
een derived from the ancient Egyptian : thus Thoth is from ^5^ ,
Tt-hiUi, I'achon from ^ ^ ^ Chensu, Athor from ^y , Hd-Hcni,
-Mesore from [|j ^ ^^5^7 ines-Hcru, " the birth of Ilorus " festival,
etc. The Copts have I. an agricultural year, and II. an ecclesiastical
year ; the latter consists of twelve months of thirty days, with a
thirteenth nxtnili called Nissi of live or six intercalary dnys.
71
THE RELIGION AND GODS OF
EGYPT.
The religion of the ancient Egyptians is one of the most
difficult problems of Egyptology, and though a great deal has
been written about it during the last few years, and man\
difficulties have been satisfactorily explained, there still
remain unanswered a large number of questions connected
with it. In all religious texts the reader is always assumed
to have a knowledge of the subject treated of by the writer,
and no definite statement is made on the subject concerning
which very little, comparatively, is known by students to-
day. For example, in the texts inscribed inside the
pyramids of Unas, Pepi, and Teta (b.c. 3300-3233), we
are brought face to face with religious compositions which
mention the acts and relationships of the gods, and refer to
beliefs, and give instructions for the performance of certain
acts of ritual which are nowhere explained. It will be
remembered that Ptolemy II. Philadelphus instructed
Manetho to draw up a history of the religion of the ancient
Egyptians. If such a work was needed by the cultured
(keek who lived when the religion of ancient Egypt, though
much modified, was still in existence, how n.uch more is
it needed now ? The main beliefs of the Egyptian religion
were always the same. The attributes of one god might be
applied to another, or one god might be confused with
another ; the cult of one god might decline in favour of
another, or new gods might arise and become popular, but
the foundation of the religion of Egypt remained unchanged.
Still, it is asserted by some that the religion of the dynasties
of the Early Empire was simpler and more free from specu-
•J 2 NOTES FOR TRAVELLERS IN EGYPT.
lation than that of the Middle and New Empires, in which
the nature and mutual relationships of the gods were dis-
cussed and theogonies formulated. Speaking generally the
gods of Egypt were the everlasting and unalterable powers
of nature, i.e., 'day and night,' 'light and darkness,' etc.
The great god of the Egyptians, Ra, or Amen-Ra, as he was
called in the Middle Empire, was said to be the maker of
all things; the various gods Horus, Atmu, etc., were merely
forms of him. Ra was self-begotten, and hymns to him
never tire in declaring his absolute and perfect unity in
terms which resemble those of the Hebrew Scriptures. It
will be seen from the translation of a hymn given in the
following pages that he is made to possess every attribute,
natural and spiritual, which Christian peoples ascribe to God
Almighty. The one doctrine, however, which lived per-
sistently and unchanged in the Egyptian mind for five
thousand years, is that of a future life. During the
' earliest dynasties beautiful, and enduring tombs * were
built in order that the bodies which were placed in them
might be preserved until such time as the resurrection of
the body should take place. It is clear from the papyri that
man was supposed to possess a body, a soul, (^^^ />ci, a
' genius ' U ka, and an intelligence, ^^ x""- '^^'^^
body, freed from all its most corruptible portions, was
preserved by being filled with bitumen, spices, and
* " Les belles tombes que Ton admire dans les plaines de Thebes
et de Sakkarah ne sont done pas dues a I'orgueil de ceux qui les ont
erigees. Une pensee plus large a preside a leur construction. Plus
les materiaux sont enormes, plus on est sur que les promesses faites par
la religion recevront leur execution. En ces sens, les Pyramides ne
sont pas des monuments ' de la vaine ostentation des rois' ; elles sont
des obstacles impossibles i renverser, et les preuves gigantesques d'un
dogme consolant." (Marietle, Not ices dds Priiifipaiix Monuments,
p. 44.)
THE RELIGION AND GODS OF EGYPT. 73
aromatic drugs, and having been bandaged in many a
fold of linen, lay in its tomb, ready to lake part in the
life which was inherited by those who were deemed
worthy of it.
After the death of a man it was thought that he was
taken into the hall of the god Osiris, judge of the dead,
and that his conscience, symbolized by the heart, was
weighed in the balance before him. Thoth, the scribe
of the gods, stood there with his r.-ed and palette to write
down the result, while his associate, a cynocephalus ape
«^ , sat over the middle of the beam of the balance, and
watched the index pointer. The man's soul, and destiny,
and nurse, and cradle stood by, watching the weighing
of the heart by Anubis against a feather, K , emblematic of
Law. If the result were favourable, the dead man was
led by Horus into the presence of Osiris, where .stood
the four children of Horus, Amset, Ha]ji, Tuamautef,
and Kebhsenuf (to each of whom certain intestines were
dedicated), upon a lotus flower which sprung forth from
under the throne of Osiris ; and after making offerings to
the god, the dead man passed into everlasting life. If
the result were unfavourable, the Devourer, a beast part
lion, part hippopotamus, and part horse, stepped forward
and claimed the dead man as his. Annihilation was the
result.
After death the soul of the dead man was supposed to
have many enemies to combat, just as the sun was supposed
to spend the time between his rising and setting in fight-
ing the powers of mist, darkness, and night. These he
vanquished by the knowledge and use of certain "words
of power." The deceased was also sup[)osed to be ccjn-
demned to perform field labours in the nether-world, but
to avoid this, stone, wooden, or Egyptian porcelain figures
were placed in his tomb to do the work for him. After
;4 NOTES FOR TRAVELLERS IN EGYPT.
undergoing all these troubles and trials, the soul went into
the abode of beatified spirits, and there it did everything
wished by it, and remained in bliss until it rejoined its body
in the tomb. The soul of the dead man entered successively
into a phoenix (bennu), a heron, a swallow, a snake, a
crocodile, etc.
In the hall of Osiris the soul was supposed to affirm
before forty-two gods that it had not committed any of the
forty-two sins which are detailed in good papyri at full length
as follows : —
" I am not a doer of what is wrong, I am not a plunderer.
" I am not a robber, I am not a slayer of men, I do not
" stint the quantity of corn, I am not a niggard, I do not
" seize the property of the gods, I am not a teller of lies, I
'' am not a monopolizer of food, I am no extortioner, I am
' not unchaste, I am not the cause of others' tears, I am
" not a dissembler, I am not a doer of violence, I am not
" a domineering character, I do not pillage cultivated land,
" I am not an eavesdropper, I am not a chatterer, I do not
" dismiss a case through self-interest, I am not unchaste
" with women or men, I am not obscene, I am not an
" exciter of alarms, I am not hot in speech, I do not turn a
" deaf ear to the words of Tighteousness, I am not foul-
" mouthed, I am not a striker, I am not a quarreller, I do
" not revoke my purpose, I do not multiply clamour in
•' rei)ly to words, I am not evil-minded or a doer of evil, I
" am not a reviler of the king, I put no obstruction upon
" the water, I am not a bawler, I am not a reviler of
" the god, I am not fraudulent, I am not sparing in
" ofierings to the gods, I do not deprive the dead of the
" funereal cakes, I do not take away the cakes of the child
" or profane the god of my locality, I do not kill sacred
" animals." (Renouf, Introduction to Papyrus of Ani^ p. 17,
col. 2.)
It is tolerably evident then that grand tombs were not
THE RELIGION AND GODS Ol' EGYPT. 75
built as mere objects of pride, but as " everlasting habi-
tations " which would serve to preserve the body from
decay, and be ready to be re-inhabited by the soul at the
proper season. Greek authors have written much about
the beliefs of the Egyptians; but the greater number of
their statements are to be received with caution. The\-
wrote down what they were told, but were fre(iucntly mis-
informed.
The papyri which have come down to us show that the
moral conceptions of the Egyptians were of a very high
order : and works like the Maxims of Ptah-hetep and the
Maxims of Ani show clearly that a man's duty to his
god and to his fellow-man was laid down in a distinct
manner. Such works will compare very favourably with the
Proverbs of Solomon and the Wisdom of Jesus the son of
Sirach.
The religious literature of the Egyptians includes a large
number of works, of which the most important is the
collection of chapters generally called the Book of the
Dead ; in Egyptian its name is per evi hrii, " Coming forth
by day." Selections from this work were written in
the hieratic character upon coffins as early as the Xllth
dynasty (e.g. 2500), and this practice was continued down
to the time of the Roman Empire. The walls of tombs were
covered with extracts from it, and scribes and people of rank
had buried with them large rolls of papyrus inscribed with its
principal chapters, and ornamented with vignettes explana-
tory of the text which ran beneath. Some of the chapters in
the work are of very great antiquity ; and so far back as
B.C. 2500 the text was so old, and had been copied so often,
that it was already not to be understood. Many parts of it are
obscure, and many utterly corrupt ; but the discovery from
time to time of ancient papyri with accurate readings
tends to clear up many doubtful points, and to bring out
the right meaning of certain parts of the work.
76
NOTES FOR TRAVELLERS IN EGYPT.
The following is a list of the most important gods with
their names in hieroglyphs ; it will be readily seen how
very many of them are merely forms of the sun-god Ra,
and how many of them have the same attributes : —
Chnemu,* the 'Moulder,' y / Tjl, is represented
with the head of a ram, and is one of the oldest gods of
the Egyptian religion. He was thought
to possess some of the attributes of
Amen, Ra, and Ptah, and shared with
the last-named god the attribute of
" maker of mankind." At Philoe he is
represented making man out of clay on
a potter's wheel. Chnemu put together
the scattered limbs of the dead body of
Osiris, and it was he who constructed
the beautiful woman who became the
wife of Bata in the Tale of the Two
Brothers. Like Amen-Ra he is said to
be the father of the gods. His cult
had great vogue in the regions round
about the first cataract, where he was
always associated with Aneq and Sati.
In bas-reliefs he is usually coloured
green, and wears the atef crown with
uraei, etc.
* The authorities for the figures of the gods are given by L:inz)iu
in his Dizionario di Mitologia Egizia.
+ The following are the crowns most commonly met with on the
monuments : —
^. ^' Q' ^' J. y. ^. % |. ^
E- M-- &• «■ <!■ dj, 1^'
THE RELIGION AND GODS OF EGYPT. 77
Ptah I tj, the 'Opener,' perhaps the oldest of all the
gods of Egypt, was honoured with a temjjle and worshipped
at Memphis from the time of the 1st dynasty.
He is said to be the father of the gods, who
came forth from his eye, and of men, who
came forth from his mouth. He is repre-
sented in the form of a mummy, and he
holds a sceptre composed of 1 usr, 'strength,'
-¥- arich, 'life,' and |7 tef, 'stability.' With
reference to his connection with the resur-
rection and the nether-world, he is called
PTAH-SEKER-AUSAR, and is then repre-
sented as a little squat boy, at times wearing
a beetle on his head. He is at times repre-
sented with Isis and Nephthys, and then appears to be a
form of Osiris.
Tmu ^|^^|, or Atmu li<=^|^^^, was the
' Closer ' of the day or night.
7S
NOTES FOR TRAVELLERS IN EGYPT.
MuT \^ J) > the ' Mother,' was one of the divinities of
the Theban triad ; she was supposed to represent Nature,
the mother of all things.
Chepera ^ (J Jj) the 'Creator,' was associated with
Ptah, and was supposed to be the god who caused himself
to come into existence. He is represented with a beetle
for his head. In later days he was supposed to be the father
of the gods and creator of the. universe, and the attributes
which had been applied to Ra during the Middle Empire
were transferred to him.
Bast Urv^ j) ^^'^s principally worshipped in Lower Egypt
at Bubastis, where a magnificent temple was built in her
honour (see p. 109); she is represented with the head of a
cat, and was associated with Ptah. The correct reading of
her name appears to be Sechet, and she represents the flame
of the Sun.
XIK
HAST. NIT.
NiT, " J|, the 'Weaver,' was a counterpart of the
goddess Mut ; she is also identified with Hathor. She was
the goddess of hunting, and is represented holding bows
and arrows ; she is usually coloured green.
THE RELIGION AND GODS OF EGYPT.
79
Ra, O Jjj, the Sun-god, was the creator of gods and
men ; his emblem was the sun's disk. His worshif) was
very ancient, and he was said to be tlie offspring of Nut, or
the sky. He assumed the forms of several other gods, and
is at times represented by the lion, cat, and hawk. In
papyri and on bas-reliefs he is represented with the head of
a hawk and wears a disk, in front of which is a urxus j|.
He was particularly adored at Thebes. When he rose in the
morning he was called Heru-chuti or Harmachis ; and at
night, when he set, he was called Atmu, or 'the closer.'
During the night he was supposed to be engaged in fighting
Apepi, the serpent, who, at the head of a large army of
fiends, personifications of mist, darkness, and cloud, tried to
overthrow him. The battle was fought daily, but Ra always
conquered, and appeared day after day in the sky.
HoRUS, ^^Jf» Heru, is the morning sun, and is also
represented as having the head of a hawk ; he was said to
be son of Isis and Osiris, ajid is usually called the " avenger
of his father," in reference to his defeat of Set.
So NOTES FOR TRAVELLERS IX EGYPT.
Amex-Ra ()'^^^^^J)> ^lut, and Chonsu formed the
great triad* of Thel^es. Amen-Ra was said to be the son of
Ptah, and he seems to have usurped
the attributes of many of the gods.
The word Amen means 'hidden.' His
chief titles were " lord of the thrones
of the two lands," and " king of the
gods." He is represented as wearing
horns and feathers, and holding ,;^\
'rule,' I 'dominion,' 1 'power,' and
u 'stability.' The god Amsu
a form of Amen-Ra. The exalted
position which Amen-Ra, originally a
mere local deity, occuj^ed at Thebes,
will be best understood from the
translation of a hymn to him written
in hieratic during the XVHIth or
XlXth dynasty :— Amen-ra.
" Adoration of Amen-Ra, the bull in Heliopolis, president
of all the gods, beautiful god, beloved one, the giver of the
life of all warmth to all beautiful cattle !
" Hail to thee, Amen-Ra, lord of the thrones of the two
lands, at the head of the Apts.t The bull of his mother,
at the head of his fields, the extender of footsteps, at the
head of the " land of the South," | lord of the Mat'au, §
prince of Araby, lord of the sky, eldest son of earth, lord
• In the principal temple of each province the chief deity was
associated with other gods ; hence from an early period triads
(consisting of the principal god, a female deity and their offspring) or
cnneads consisting of nine gods. (Renouf, Ilibho-t Lectures, p. 83.)
t The great temple at Karnak.
X Ethiopia and Asia. § A country in Asia.
THE RELIGION AND GODS OF EGYPT. 8 1
of things which exist, establisher of things, cstabHsher of
all things.
"One in his times, as among the gods. Beautiful hull of
the cycle of the gods, president of all the gods, lord of Law,
father of the gods, maker of men, creator of beasts, lord
of things which exist, creator of the staff of life, maker of
the green food which makes cattle to live. Form made by
Ptah, beautiful child, beloved one. The gods make
adorations to him, the maker of things which are below, and
of things which are above. He shines on the two lands sailing
through the sky in peace. King of the South and. North,
the Sun (Ra), whose word is law, prince of the world !
The mighty of valour, the lord of terror, the chief who
makes the earth like unto himself. How very many more
are his forms than those of any (other) god ! The gods
rejoice in his beauties, and they make praises to him in the
two great horizons, at (his) risings in the double horizon of
flame. The gods love the smell of him when he, the eldest
born of the dew, comes from Araby, when he traverses
the land of the Mat'au, the beautiful face coming from
Neter-ta.t The gods cast themselves down before his feet
when they recognize their lord in his majesty, the lord of
fear, the mighty one of victory, the mighty of Will, the
master of diadems, the verdifier of offerings (?), the maker of
t'efaii food.
" Adorations to thee, O thou maker of the gods, who hast
stretched out the heavens and founded the earth ! The
untiring watcher, Amsu-Amen, lord of eternity, maker of
everlasting, to whom adorations are made (literally, lord of
adorations), at the head of the Apts, established with two
horns, beautiful of aspects ; the lord of the ui\tus crown,
* Compare Psalm ex. 3.
t Le., " Divine land," a name frequently given on the monuments
to indicate the lands which lie to the south of Eg>-pt between the Nile
and the Red Sea.
G
82 NOTES FOR TRAVEIJ-KKS IN EGYPT.
exalted of plumes, beautiful of tiara, exalted of the white
crown ; the serpent mehen, and the two urcei are the
(ornaments) of his face ; the double crown, helmet and
cap are his decorations in (his) temple. Beautiful of face
he receives the atef crown J^^f ; beloved of the south and
north is it, he is master of the sechtl crown YJ . He receives
the amsu sceptre ^, (and is) lord of the and of
the whip. Beautiful prince, rising with the white crown / ),
lord of rays, creator of light ! The gods give acclamations
to him, and he stretches out his hands to him that loves
him. The flame makes his enemies fall, his eye overthrows
the rebels, it thrusts its copper lance into the sky and
makes the serpent Nak* vomit what it has swallowed.
* Nak is one of the names of Apepi, the demon of mist, cloud, and
night, who was supposed to swallow up the sun daily; he was the
enemy, par excellence, whom the Sun-god Ra was supposed to fight
against and overcome. Apepi was represented under the form of a
serpent with knives stuck in his back Vihhh- Compare the following
extract from the service for his destruction which was recited daily in
the temple of Amen-Ra, at Thebes: "Fall down upon thy face, Apepi,
enemy of Ra ! The flame coming forth from the eye of Horus comes
against thee, a mighty flame which comes forth from the eye of Horus,
comes against thee. Thou art thrust down into the flame of fire which
rushes out against thee, a flame which is fatal to thy soul, thy intelli-
gence, thy words of power, thy body and thy shade. The flame prevails
over thee, it drives darts into thy soul, it makes an end of whatever thou
hast, and sends goads into thy form. Thou hast fallen by the eye of
H rus, which is mighty over its enemy, which devours thee, and which
leads on the mighty flame against thee ; the eye of Ra prevails over
thee, the flame tlcvours thee, and nothing of thee remains. Get thee
back, thou art hacked in pieces, thy soul is parched, thy name is buried
in oblivion, silence covers it, it is overthrown; thou art put an end to
and buried under threefold oblivion. Get thee back, retreat thou,
£hou art cut in pieces and removed from him that is in his shrine. O,
Apepi, thou doubly crushed one, an end to thee, an end to thee !
Mayest thou never rise up again ! The eye of Horus prevails over thee
THE RELIGION AND GODS OF EGYPT. St,
"Hail to thee, Ra, lord of Law, whose shrine is hidden,
master of the gods, the god Chepcra in his boat ; by the
sending forth of (his) word the gods spring into existence.
Hail god Atmu, maker of mortals. However many arc their
forms he causes them to live, he makes different the colour
of one man from another. He hears the prayer of him that
is oppressed, he is kind of heart to him that calls unto him,
he delivers him that is afraid from him that is strong of
heart, he judges between the mighty and the weak.
" The lord of intelligence, knowledge (?) is the utterance
of his mouth. The Nile cometh by his will, the greatly
beloved lord of the palm tree comes to make mortals live.
Making advance every work, acting in the sky, he makes to
come into existence the sweet things of the daylight ; the
gods rejoice in his beauties, and their hearts live when they
see him. O Ra, adored in the Apts, mighty one of risings
in the shrine; O Ani,*lord of the festival of the new moon,
who makest the six days festival and the festival of the last
quarter of the moon ; O prince, life, health, and strength !
lord of all the gods, whose appearances are in the horizon,
president of the ancestors of Auker ;t his name is hidden
from his children in his name 'Amen.'
" Hail to thee, O thou who art in peace, lord of dilation of
heart {i.e., joy), crowned form, lord of the ureref crown,
exalted of the plumes, beautiful of tiara, exalted of tlic
white crown, the gods love to look upon thee ; the double
crown of Upper and Lower Egypt is established upon thy
brow. Beloved art thou in passing through the two lands.
and devours thee daily, according to that which Ra decreed should be
done to thee. Thou art thrown down into the flame of fire which feeds
upon thee; thou art condemned to the fire of the eye of Horus which
devours thee, thy soul, thy body, thy inteUigence and thy shade."—
British Museum Papyrus, 10188, col. xxiv.
* I [|[j ^ , a form of Ra.
t A common name for a necropolis.
G 2
84 NOTES FOR TRAVELLERS IN EGYPT.
Thou sendest forth rays in rising from thy two beautiful
eyes. The pat (ancestors, i.e., the dead) are in raptures of
delight when ihou shincst, the cattle become languid when
thou shinest in full strength ; thou art loved when thou art
in the sky of the south, thou art esteemed pleasant in the
sky of the north. Thy beauties seize and carry away all
hearts, the love of thee makes the arms drop; thy beautiful
creation makes the hands tremble, and (all) hearts to melt
at the sight of thee.
"O Form, one, creator of all things, O one, only,
maker of existences ! Men came forth from his two eyes,
the gods sprang into existence at the utterance of his mouth.
He maketh the green herb to make cattle live, and the staff
of life for the (use of) man. He maketh the fishes to live
in the rivers, the winged fowl in the sky; he giveth the
breath of life to (the germ) in the egg, he maketh birds of
all kinds to live, and likewise the reptiles that creep and
fly; he causeth the rats to live in their holes, and the birds
that are on every green twig. Hail to thee, O maker of
all these things, thou only one.
" Is he of many forms in his might ! He watches all
people who sleep, he seeks the good for his brute creation.
O Amen, establisher of all things, Atmu and Harmachis,*
all people adore thee, saying, ' Praise to thee because of thy
resting among us ; homage to thee because thou hast
created us.' All creatures say ' Hail to thee,' and all
lands praise thee ; from the height of the sky, to the
breadth of the earth, and to the depths of the sea art thou
praised. The gods bow down before thy majesty to exalt
the Will of their creator ; they rejoice when they meet
their begetter, and say to thee. Come in peace, O father
of the fathers of all the gods, who hast spread out the sky
and hast founded the earth, maker of things which are,
* These three names arc the names of the Sun-god at mid-day,
evening, and morning respectively.
THE RELIGION AND GODS OF EGYPT. 85
creator of things which exist, prince, Hfe, health, strength I
president of the gods. We adore thy will, inasmuch as
thou hast made us, thou hast made (us) and given us birth,
and we give praises to thee by reason of thy resting with us.
"Hail to thee, maker of all things, lord of Law, father of
the gods, maker of men, creator of animals, lord of grain,
making to live the cattle of the hills ! Hail Amen, bull,
beautiful of face, beloved in the Apts, mighty of risings in
the shrine, doubly crowned in Heliopolis, thou judge of
Horus and Set in the great hall.* President of the great
cycle of the gods, only ONE,t without his second, at the
head of the Apts, Ani at the head of the cycle of his gods,
living in Law every day, the double horizoned Horus of the
East ! He has created the mountain (or earth), the silver,
the gold, and genuine lapis lazuli at his Will .... Incense
and fresh dnti\ are prepared for thy nostrils, O beautiful
face, coming from the land of the INLlt'au, Amen-Ra, lord of
the thrones of the two lands, at the head of the Apts, Ani
at the head of his shrine. King, one among the gods,
myriad are his names, how many are they is not known \
shining in the eastern horizon and setting in the western
horizon, overthrowing his enemies by his birth at dawn
every day. Thoth exalts his two eyes, and makes him to
set in his splendours ; the gods rejoice in his beauties
which those who are in his exalt. Lord of the
sekti% boat, and of the citet\\ boat, which travel over the
sky for thee in peace. Thy sailors rejoice when they see
Nak overthrown, his limbs stabbed with the knife, the
fire devouring him, his foul soul beaten out of his foul body,
and his feet carried away. The gods rejoice, Ra is satisfied,
* See page 92.
t Compare " The Lord our God is ONE," Deut. vi. 4.
X A perfume brought into Egypt from the East.
§ The boat in which Ra sailed to his place of setting in the West.
il The boat in which Ra sailed from his place of rising in the East.
86
NOTES FOR TRAVELLERS IN EGYPT.
Heliopolis is glad, the enemies of Atmu are overthrown,
and the heart of Nebt-anch * is happy because the enemies
of her lord are overthrown. The gods of Cher-aba are
rejoicing, those who dwell in the shrines are making
obeisance when they see him mighty in his strength (?)
Form (?) of the gods of law, lord of the Apts in thy name
of ' maker of Law.' Lord of t'efau food, bull in
thy name of 'Amen bull of his mother.' Maker of mortals,
making become, maker of all things that are in thy
name of Atmu Chepera. Mighty Law making the body
festal, beautiful of face, making festal the breast. Form of
attributes (.?), lofty of diadem, the two urcei fly by his
forehead. The hearts of the pdtu go forth to him, and
unborn generations turn to him ; by his coming he maketh
festal the two lands. Hail to thee, Amen-Ra, lord of the
thrones of the two lands ! his town loves his shining." t
Isis,
1^'
Auset, the mother of Horus and
wife of Osiris, rl J] , Ausar was the daughter
of Nut, or the sky ; she married her brother
Osiris. Her sister Nephthys 1] p^ J) ''^"d
her brother Set likewise married one another.
This last couple conspired against Isis and
Osiris, and Set having induced his brother
Osiris to enter a box, closed the lid down
and threw it into the Nile ; the box was
carried down by the river and finally cast
up on the sea shore. Set having found
the box once more, cut the body of Osiris
into fourteen pieces, which he cast over the
length and breadth of the land. As soon as
* I.e., " the lady of life," a name of !«!•;.
t See Records of the Past, Vol. II., i)]
llymtie a Atninou Rii.
127-136, and drcbaut.
THE RELIGION AND GODS OF EGYPT. 87
Isis heard what had happened, she went about seeking for
the pieces, and built a temple over each one ; she found all
save one. Osiris, however, had become king of the nether-
world, and vengeance was taken by his son Horus upon his
brother Set. Osiris is usually represented in the form of
a mummy, holding in his hands ( 'dominion,' •¥■ 'life,'
J\ 'rule,' and ] 'power.' He is called 'the lord of
Abydos,' 'lord of the holy land, lord of eternity and prince
of everlasting,' ' the president of the gods,' ' the head of
the corridor of the tomb,' ' bull of the west,' ' judge of tlie
dead,' etc., etc.
The writers of Egyptian mythological texts always assume
their readers to possess a knowledge of the history of the
murder of Osiris by Set, and of the wanderings and troubles
of his disconsolate wife Isis. The following extracts from
Plutarch's work on the subject will supply certain informa-
tion not given in the Egyptian texts.
"Osiris, being now become king of Egypt, applied him-
self towards civilizing his countrymen by turning them from
their former indigent and barbarous course
of life ; he moreover taught them how to
cultivate and improve the fruits of the
earth ; he gave them a body of laws to
regulate their conduct by, and instructed
them in that reverence and worship which
they were to pay to the gods; with the
same good disposition he afterwards tra-
velled over the rest of the world, inducing
the people everywhere to submit to his
discipline ; not indeed compelling them
by force of arms, but persuading them to
yield to the strength of his reasons, which
were conveyed to them in the most agree-
able manner, in hymns and songs accom-
panied with instruments of music ; from osiiui..
SS NOTES FOR TRAVELLERS IN EGYPT,
which last circumstance the Greeks conclude him to have
been the same person with their Dionysius or Bacchus.
During the absence of Osiris from his kingdom, Typhon
had no opportunity of making any innovations in the
State, Isis being extremely vigilant in the government,
and always upon her guard. After his return, however,
having first persuaded seventy-two other persons to join
with him in the conspiracy, together with a certain queen
of Ethiopia named Aso, who chanced to be in Egypt at
that time, he contrived a proper stratagem to execute his
base designs. For having privily taken the measure of
Osiris's body, he caused a chest to be made exactly of the
same size with it, as beautiful as might be, and set off with
all the ornaments of art. This chest he brought into his
banqueting room ; where after it had been much admired
by all who were present, Typhon, as it were in jest,
promised to give it to any one of them whose body upon
trial it might be found to fit. Upon this the whole
company, one after another, go into it. But as it did not
fit any of them, last of all Osiris lays himself down in it ;
upon which the conspirators immediately ran together,
clapped the cover upon it, then fastened it down on the
outside with nails, pouring likewise melted lead over it.
After this they carried it away to the river-side, and con-
veyed it to the sea by the Tanaitic mouth of the Nile ;
which, for this reason, is still held in the utmost abomina-
tion by the Egyptians, and never named by them but with
proper marks of detestation. These things, say they, were
thus executed upon the 17th day of the month Athor, when
the sun was in Scorpio, in the 28th year of Osiris's reign ;
though there are others who tell us that he was no more
tlian twenty-eight years old at this time.
" The first who knew of the accident which had befallen
their king, were the Pans and Satyrs who inhabited the
country round Chemmis (Panopolis or Ahmim); and they
THE RELIGION AND GODS OF EGYPT. 89
immediately actiuainting the people with the news, gave the
first occasion to the name of Panic Terrors, which has ever
since been made use of to signify any sudden affright or
amazement of a multitude. As to Isis, as soon as the
report reached her, she immediately cut off one of the locks
of her hair, and put on mourning apparel upon the very
spot where she then happened to be, which accordingly from
this accident has ever since been called Coptos, or the City
of Mourning, though some are of opinion that this word
rather signifies Deprivation. After this she wandered
everywhere about the country full of disquietude and per-
plexity in search of the chest, enquiring of every person she
met with, even of some children whom she chanced to see,
whether they knew what was become of it. Now it so
happened that these children had seen what Typhon's
accomplices had done with the body, and accordingly
acquainted her by what mouth of the Nile it had been con-
veyed into the sea
"At length she received more particular news of the chest,
that it had been carried by the waves of the sea to the coast
of Byblos, and there gently lodged in the branches of a bush
of Tamarisk, which in a short time had shot up into a large
and beautiful tree, growing round the chest and enclosing
it on every side, so that it was not to be seen ; and further,
that the king of the country, amazed at its unusual size, had
cut the tree down, and made that part of the trunk wherein
the chest was concealed a pillar to support the roof of his
house. These things, say they, being made known to Isis
in an extraordinary manner, by the report of demons, she
immediately went to Byblos ; * where, setting herself down
by the side of a fountain, she refused to speak to any body
excepting only to the queen's women who chanced to be
there ; these she saluted and caressed in the kindest manner
possible, plaiting their hair for them, and transmitting
* I.e., the papyrus swamps.
90 NOTES FOR TRAVELLERS IN EGYPT.
into them part of that wonderfully grateful odour which
issued from her own body The queen therefore
sent for her to court, and after a further acquaintance with
her, made her nurse to one of her sons The
goddess, discovering herself, requested that the pillar which
supported the roof of the king's house might be given to
her; which she accordingly took down, and then easily
cutting it open, after she had taken out what she wanted,
she wrapt up the remainder of the trunk in fine linen, and
l^ouring perfumed oil upon it, delivered it into the hands
of the king and (jueen When this was done, she
threw herself upon the chest, making at the same time such
a loud and terrible lamentation over it as frighted the
younger of the king's sons who heard her out of his life.
But the elder of them she took with her, and set sail with
the chest for Egypt
" No sooner was she arrived in a desert place, where she
imagined herself to be alone, but she presently opened the
chest, and laying her face upon her dead husband's,
embraced his corpse, and wept bitterly.
" Isis intending a visit to her son Horus, who was brought
up at Butus, deposited the chest in the meanwhile in a
remote and unfrequented place ; Typhon, however, as he
was one night hunting by the light of the moon accidentally
met with it ; and knowing the body which was enclosed in
it, tore it into several pieces, fourteen in all, dispersing them
up and down in different parts of the country. Upon being
made acquainted with this event, Isis once more sets out in
search of the scattered fragments of her husband's body,
making use of a boat made of the reed papyrus in order the
more easily to pass through the lower and fenny parts of
the country. For which reason, say they, the crocodile
never touches any persons who sail in this sort of vessel, as
cither fearing the anger of the goddess, or else respecting it
on account of its having once carried her. To this occasion,
THE RELIGION AND GODS OF EGVrT. 91
therefore, it is to be imputed that there are so many different
sepulchres of Osiris shewn in Egypt ; for we are told that
wherever Isis met with any of the scattered limbs of her
husband, she there buried it. There are others, how-
ever, who contradict this relation, and tell us that this
variety of sepulchres was owing rather to the policy of the
queen, who, instead of the real body, as was pretended,
presented these several cities with the image only of her
husband ; and that she did this not only to render the
honours which would by this means be paid to his memory
more extensive, but likewise that she might hereby elude
the malicious search of Typhon ; who, if he got the better
of Horus in the war wherein they were going to be engaged,
distracted by this multiplicity of sepulchres, might despair
of being able to find the true one
"After these things Osiris, returning from the other
world, appeared to his son Horus, encouraged him to the
battle, and at the same time instructed him in the exercise
of arms. He then asked him, ' what he thought the most
glorious action a man could perform ? ' to which Horus
replied, ' to revenge the injuries offered to his father and
mother.' This reply much rejoiced Osiris We
are moreover told that amongst the great numbers who
were continually deserting from Typhon's party was the
goddess Thoueris, and that a serpent pursuing her as she was
coming over to Horus, was slain by his soldiers. Afterwards
it came to a battle between them, which lasted many days ;
but victory at length inclined to Horus, Typhon himself
being taken prisoner. Isis, however, to whose custody he
was committed, was so far from putting him to death, that
she even loosed his bonds and set him at liberty. This
action of his mother so extremely incensed Horus, that be-
laid hands upon her and pulled off the ensign of royalty
which she wore on her head ; and instead thereof Hermes
clapt on an helmet made in the shape of an ox's head.
92 NOTES FOR TRAVELLERS IN EGVPT.
After this there were two other Ixittles fought be-
tween them, in both of which Typhon had the worst
"Such, then, are the principal circumstances of this
famous story, the more harsh and shocking parts of it, such
as the cutting in pieces of Horus and the beheading of Isis,
l)eing omitted." (Plutarch, De Iside et Osiride, xii-xx.
Squire's translation.)
In the calendar of the lucky and unlucky days of the
Egyptian year, the directions concerning the 26th day of
the month of Thoth, which is marked Q^CH^Q^, or
" thrice unlucky," say, " Do nothing at all on this day, for
it is the day on which Horus fought against Set. Standing
on the soles of their feet they aimed blows at each other
like men, and they became like two bears of hell, lords of
Cher-aba. They passed three days and three nights in this
manner, after which Isis made their weapons fall. Horus
fell down, crying out, ' I am thy son Horus,' and Isis cried
to the weapons, saying, ' Away, away, from my son Horus '
Her brother Set fell down, and cried out, saying,
' Help, help !' Isis cried out to the weapons, ' Fall down.'
Set cried out several times, ' Do I not wish to honour my
mother's brother? ' and Isis cried out to the weapons, ' Fall
down — set my elder brother free ' ; then the weapons fell
away from him. And Horus and Set stood up like two
men, and each paid no attention to what they had said.
And the majesty of Horus was enraged against his mother
Isis like a panther of the south, and she fled before him.
On that day a terrible struggle took place, and Horus cut
off the head of Isis ; and Thoth transformed this head by
his incantations, and put i^t on her again in the form of a
head of a cow." (Chabas, Le Calendner, p. 29.)
Nephthvs, T] p,^ J], Nebt-het, sister of Osiris and Isis, is
generally represented standing at the bier of Osiris lamenting
him. One myth relates that Osiris mistook her for Isis, and
THE RELIGION AND GODS OF EGVI'T.
93
that Anubis, the god of the dead, was the result of the
union.
Set, 'I^, the god of evil, appears to have been wor-
shipped in the earliest times. He was the opponent of
Horus in a three days' battle, at the end of which he was
defeated. He was worshipped by the Hyksos, and also by
the Cheta ; but in the later days of the Egyptian empire he
was supposed to be the god of evil, and was considered to
be the chief fiend and rebel against the sun-god Ra,
Anubis, (J |-, J, Anpu, the god of the dead, is
usually represented with the head of a jackal.
See, ^^ J Jy, was the husband of Nut, the sky, and
father of Osiris, Isis, and the other gods of that cycle.
NEBT-JIET.
Thoth, ^5^ , Tehuti, 'the measurer,' was the scribe of
the gods, and the measurer of time and inventor of numbers.
In the judgment hall of Osiris he stands by the side of the
balance holding a palette and reed ready to record the
94
NOTES FOR TRAVELLERS IN EGYPT.
result of the weighing as announced by the dog-headed
ape who sits on the middle of the beam of the scales. In
one aspect he is the god of the moon, and is represented
with the head of an ibis.
TEHUTI.
CHONSU.
Chonsu, 1 ^ ^ , was associated with Amen-Ra
AVVA^WA I _21 i — I
and Mut in the Theban triad. He was the god of the moon,
and is represented as hawk-headed and wearing the lunar
disk and crescent. His second name was Nefer-hetep, and
he was worshipped with great honour at Thebes.
Sebek, ^^, the crocodile-headed god, was worshipped
at Kom-Ombos and in the Fayijm.
i-EM-HETEP (Imouthis),
•tah.
D^
, was the son of
Shu, n<^3, and Tefnut, ^ ^ J\j ^^'ere the children
of Seb and Nut, and represented sunlight and moisture
respectively.
THE RELIGION AND GODS OF EGYPT.
95
Athor, or Hathor,
Hct-Hcru, 'the house of
Horus,' is identified with Nut, the sky, or place in which
she brought forth and suckled Horus. She was the wife of
Atmu, a form of Ra. She is represented as a woman
wearing a headdress in the shape of a vulture, and above it
a disk and horns. She is called ' mistress of the gods,'
'lady of the sycamore,' 'lady of the west,' and 'Hathor of
Thebes.' She is the female power of nature, and has soine
of the attributes of Isis, Nut, and Mut. She is often
represented under the form of a cow coming out of the
Theban hills.
Maat, ^^ ic^ (), the goddess of ' Law, was the
daughter of the Sun-god Ra ; she is represented as wearing
the feather [j, emblematic of law \f,.
Hapi, Q ^^ ^, the god of the Nile, is represented wear-
ing a cluster of flowers on his head BiH ; he is coloured red
96
NOTES FOR TRAVELLERS IN EGYPT.
and green, probably to represent the colours of the water of
the Nile immediately before and just after the beginning of
the inundation.
Ser.\pis, i.e., Osiris-Apis, ji^X ^5 was a god intro-
duced into Egypt during the reign of the Ptolemies ; *
he is represented with the head of a bull wearing a disk and
ur?eus. He is said to be the second son of Ptah. The
worship of Apis at Memphis goes back to the earliest times ;
the Serapeum, discovered there by M. Mariette, contained
the tombs of Apis bulls from the time of Amenophis III.
(about B.C. 1550) down to the time of the Roman Empire.
See page 155.
* " the Lagids, as well as the Seleucids, were careful of dis-
turbing the foundations of the old religion of the country ; they
introduced the Greek god of the lower world, Pluto, into the
native worship, under the hitherto little mentioned name of the
Egyptian god Serapis, and then gradually transferred to this the old
Osiris worship." Mommsen, Provinces of the Roman Etnpire, Vol. II.,
p. 265.
97
LOWER EGYPT.
ALEXANDRIA.
Alexandria was founded b.c. 332 by Alexander the Great
who began to build his city on the little town of Rakoti,
just opposite to the island of Pharos. King Ptolemy I. Soter
made this city his capital : and having founded the famous
library and museum, he tried to induce the most learned
men of his day to live there. His son and successor Ptolemy
II. Philadelphus, continued the wise policy of his father, and
Alexandria became famous as a seat of learning. The keeper
of the museum during the reign of Ptolemy III. Euergetes I.
was Aristophanes of Byzantium. During the siege of
the city by the Romans in the time of Cassar, b.c. 48,
the library of the museum was burnt ; * but Antony after-
wards gave Cleopatra a large collection of manuscripts
which formed the nucleus of a second library. In the early
centuries of our era the people of Alexandria quarrelled
perpetually among themselves ,f the subjects of dispute
* This collection numbered 200,000 MSS., and formed the famous
Pergamenian library founded by Eumenes II., king of Pergamus,
B.C. 197.
t " the Alexandrian rabble took on the slightest pretext to
stones and to cudgels. In street uproar, says an authority, himself
Alexandrian, the Egyptians are before all others ; the smallest spark
suffices here to kindle a tumult. On account of neglected visits, on
account of the confiscation of spoiled provisions, on account of ex-
clusion from a bathing establishment, on account of a dispute between
the slave of an Alexandrian of rank and a Roman foot-soldier as to
the value or non-value of their respective slippers, the legions were
under the necessity of charging among the citizens of Alexandria
In these riots the Greeks acted as instigators bat in the further
course of the matter the spite and savageness of the Eg)'ptian proper
came into the conflict. The Syrians were cowardly, and as soldiers
the Egyptians were so too ; but in a street tumult they were able to
develope a courage worthy of a better cause." (Mommsen, Provinces
of the Roman Empire, Vol. II., p. 265.)
H
98 NOTES FOR TRAVELLERS IN EGYPT.
being matters connected with Jews and religious questions.
St. Mark is said to have preached the Gospel here.
Meanwhile the prosperity of the town declined and the
treasury became empty.
Alexandria was captured by Chosroes (a.d. 619), and by
' Amr ibn el-'Asi, a general of 'Omar, a.d. 641. The decHne
of Alexandria went on steadily, until it became in the middle
ages litde more, comparatively, than a moderate sized sea-
port town, with a population of some thousands of people.
In the present century a little of its prosperity w^as restored
by Muhammad 'Ali, who in 1819 built the Mahmudiyeh
canal to bring fresh water to the town from the Rosetta arm
of the Nile. Its population to-day is about 300,000, and
includes large and wealthy colonies of Jews and Greeks.
The Christians were persecuted at Alexandria with great
severity by Decius (a.d. 250), by Valcrianus (a.d. 257),
and by Diocletian (a.d. 304). For a large number of years
the city was disturbed by the fierce discussions on religious
dogmas between Arius and Athanasius, George of Cappa-
docia and Athanasius, the Anthropomorphists and their
opponents, and Cyril and Nestorius. The Christian sects
supported their views by violence, and the ordinary heathen
population of the town rebelled whenever they could find
a favourable opportunity.
The most important ancient buildings of Alexandria
were : —
The Lighthouse or Pharos, one of the seven wonders
of the world, was built by Sostratus of Cnidus, for Ptolemy
Philadelphus, and is said to have been about 600 feet high.
All traces of this wonderful building have now disappeared.
The embankment or causeway called the Heptastadium *
(from its length of seven stades), was made either by Ptolemy
Philadelphus or his father Ptolemy Soter ; it divided the
* The Heptastadium joined the ancient town .and the Island of
Pharos ; a large part of the modern town is built upon it.
ALEXANDRIA. C)9
harbour into two parts. The ea.stern port is only used by
native craft, on account of its sandy shoals ; the western port
is the Eunostos Harbour, which at present is protected by a
breakwater about one mile and three-(]uarters along. The
Museum and Library of Alexandria were founded by
Ptolemy I., and greatly enlarged by his son Ptolemy Phija-
delphus. When this latter king died it was said to contain
100,000 manuscripts. These were classified, arranged, and
labelled by Callimachus ; when it was burnt down in
the time of Julius Caesar, it is thought that more than
750,000 works were lost. Copies of works of importance
were made at the expense of the State, and it is stated that
every book which came into the city was seized and kept,
and that a copy only of it was returned to the owner.
Antony handed over to Cleopatra about 200,000 manu-
scripts (the Pergamenian Library), and these were made the
foundation of a second library. Among the famous men
who lived and studied in this library were Eratosthenes,
Strabo, Hipparchus, Archimedes, and Euclid. The Sera-
peum was built by Ptolemy Soter, and was intended to hold
the statue of a god from Sinope, which was called by the
Egyptians ' Osiris-Apis,' or Serapis. It stood close by
Rakoti to the east of Alexandria near ' Pompey's Pillar,'
and is said to have been one of the most beautiful buildings
in the world ; it was filled with remarkable statues and
other works of art. It was destroyed by the Christian
fanatic Theophilus,* Patriarch of Alexandria, during the
reign of Theodosius II. The Library of the Serapeum
is said to have contained about 300,000 manuscripts, which
were burnt by 'Amr ibn el-'Asi at the command of the
Khalif 'Omar, a.d. 641 ; these were sufficiently numerous,
it is said, to heat the public baths of Alexandria for six
* ". . . the perpetual enemy of peace and virtue ; a bold, bad man,
whose hands were alternately polluted with gold and with blood."
(Gibbon, Decline, Chap, xxvii.)
H 2
lOO NOTES FOR TRAVELLERS IN EGYPT.
months.* The Soma formed a part of the Caesareum., and
contained the bodies of Alexander the Great and the
Ptolemies, his successors. The Theatre, which faced the
island of Antirhodus, the Soma, and the Museum and
Library, all stood in the royal buildings in the Bruchium
quarter of the town, between Lochias and the Heptastadium.
The stone sarcophagus (now in the British Museum, No. lo),
which was thought to have belonged to Alexander the Great,
was made for Nectanebus L, the first king of the XXXth
* "The spirit of Amrou ('Amr ilin el-'Asi) was more curious and
liberal than that of his brethren, and in his leisure hours the Arabian
chief was pleased with the conversation of John, the last disciple of
Ammonius, and who derived the surname of Pltilopomis from his
laborious studies of grammar and philosophy. Emboldened by this
familiar intercourse, Philoponus presumed to solicit a gift, inestimable
in his opinion, contemptible in that of the Barbarians : the royal
library, which alone, among the spoils of Alexandria, had not been
appropriated by the visit and the seal of the conqueror. Amrou was
inclined to gratify the wish of the grammarian, but his rigid integrity
refused to alienate the minutest object without the consent of the
caliph ; and the well-known answer of Omar was inspired by the
ignorance of a fanatic. ' If these writings of the Greeks agree with
the book of God, they are useless and need not be preserved : if they
disagree, they are pernicious and ought to be destroyed.' The sentence
was executed with blind obedience : the volumes of paper or parch-
ment were distributed to the 4,000 baths of the city ; and such was
their incredible multitude that six months were barely sufiicient for the
consumption of this precious fuel." (Gibbon, Decline and Fall,
chap, li.) The chief authority for this statement is Bar-Hebraeus
(born A.D. 1226, died at Maraghah in Adhurbaigan, July 30th, 1286),
and it has been repeated by several Arabic writers. Both Gibbon and
Renaudot thought the story incredible, but there is no reason why it
should be. Gibbon appears to have thought that the second Alexan-
drian library was pillaged or destroyed when Theophilus, Patriarch of
Alexandria, destroyed the image of Serapis ; there is, howe%'er, no
proof that it was, and it seems more probable that it remained com-
])aratively unhurt until the arrival of 'Amr ibn el-'Asi. See the
additional notes in Gibbon, ed. Smith, Vol. III., p. 419, and Vol. VI.,
P- 338.
ALEXANDRIA. lOI
dynasty, B.C. 378. The Paneum, or temple of Pan, is
probably represented by the modern Kom ed-I)ik. The
Jews' Quarter lay between the sea and the street, to the
east of Lochias. The Necropolis was situated at the
west of the city. The Gymnasium stood a litde to the east
of the Panemii, on the south side of the street which ends,
on the east, in the Canopic Gate.
Pompey's Pillar was erected by Pompey, a Roman
prefect, in honour of Diocletian, some little time after a.d.
302.* It is made of granite brought from Aswan ; the shaft
is about 70 feet, and the whole monument, including its
pedestal, is rather more than 100 feet high. The fragments
of the columns which lie around the base of this pillar are
thought to have belonged to the Serapeum.
A few years ago there were to be seen in Alexandria the
two famous granite obelisks called Cleopatra's Needles.
They were brought from Heliopolis during the reign of the
Roman Emperor Augustus, and set up before the Temple
of Ctesar. Until quite lately one of them remained up-
right ; the other had fallen. They are both made of Aswan
granite ; one measured 67 feet in height, the other 68^ feet ;
the diameter of each is about 7^ feet. The larger obelisk
was given by Muhammad 'Ali to the English early in this
century, but it was not removed until 1877, when it was
transported to England at the expense of Sir Erasmus
Wilson, and it now stands on the Thames Embankment.
The smaller obelisk was taken to New York a few years
later. The inscriptions show that both were made during the
reign ofThothmes TII.,about b.c. i6oo,andthat Rameses II.,
who lived about 250 years later, added lines of inscriptions
recording his titles of honour and greatness.
* The Greek inscription recording this fact is published in Boeckh,
Corpus Inscriptiomim Gracar 21111, t. iii., p. 329, where it is also thus
restored : Tov [offjiwraror KinoKpc'iTopa, t'ov ttoAioi'^oj' 'Wi'iarSpiiag,
AioK\r]Tiav6p tov aviKrjTOv 7ro[/i7r//t]oc iirupxoe AiyvirTOv
I02 NOTES FOR TRAVELLERS IN EGYPT.
The Catacombs, which were built early in the fourth
century of our era, are on the coast near the harbour and
on the coast near the new port.
The Walls of the city were built by Muhammad 'Ali,
andajjpear to have been laid upon the foundation of ancient
walls.
On the south side of Alexandria lies Lake Mareotis,
which in ancient days was fed by canals running from the
Nile. During the middle ages the lake nearly dried up, and
the land which became available for building purposes in
consequence was speedily covered with villages. In the
year 1801, the English dug a canal across the neck of land
between the lake and the sea, and flooded the whole district
thus occupied. During the last few years an attempt has
been made to pump the water out ; it would seem with con-
siderable success.
Between Alexandria and Cairo are the following important
towns : —
I. DAMANHUR*(Eg.,c:s:3y [j[j ^a/wv\ ^^\ Temaien-Heru,
' Town of Horus,' the capital of the Mudiriyeh of Behereh.
This was the Hermopolis Parva of the Romans.
II. Kafr ez-zaiv.JlT, on the east side of the river, situated
among beautiful and fertile fields.
III. Tanta, the capital of Gharbiyeh, situated between
the Rosetta and Damietta arms of the Nile. This town is
celebrated for three Fairs, which are held here in January,
April, and August, in honour of the Muhammedan saint
Seyyid el-Bedawi, who was born at Fez about a.d. 1200,
and who lived and died at Tanta. Each fair lasts eight
days, and the greatest day in each fair is the Friday ; the
most important fair is that held in August.
IV. Benha el-'Asal, ' Benha of the Honey,' the capital of
* II is callc-il -^JULm^OJp !)>■ the Copts.
ROSETTA. 103
KalyOb. It obtained this name because a Copt called
Makawkas * sent, among other gifts, a jar of honey to
Muhammad the Prophet. Quite close to this town are the
ruins of the ancient city of Athribis.
About forty miles to the east of Alexandria lies the town
of Rosetta, not far from the ancient Bolbitane. It was
founded towards the end of the ninth century, and was
once a flourishing seaport ; it has become famous in modern
times on account of the trilingual inscription, called the
'Rosetta Stone,' which was found here in 1799 by a
French officer called Boussard. This inscription was
inscribed on a block of basalt, and contained a decree by
the Egyptian priests in honour of Ptolemy V., Epiphanes,
dated in the eighth year of his reign (b.c. 196). The hiero-
glyphic, demotic, and Greek texts enabled Young and
ChampoUion to work out the phonetic values of a number
of the hieroglyphic characters employed to write the names
of the Greek rulers. The stone is preserved in the British
Museum.
"'• Makawkas was " Prince of the Copts," and " Governor of Alex-
andria and Egypt " ; he was a Jacobite, and a strong hater of the
Melchites ur "Royalists." He was invited to become a follower of
Muhammad the Prophet, but he declined. When Egypt was captured
by 'Amr ibn el-'Asi he betrayed the Copts, but by means of paying
tribute he secured to himself the liberty of professing the Christian
religion, and he asked that, after his death, his body might be buried
in the church of St. John at Alexandria. He sent, as gifts to the
Prophet, two Coptic young women, sisters, called Maryam and Shirin ;
two girls, one eunuch, a horse, a mule, an ass, a jar of honey, an
alabaster jar, a jar of oil, an ingot of gold, and some Egyptian linen.
(Gagnier, La vie de Mahomet, pp. 38, 73.) The Arabic geographers
state that the best honey in Egypt comes from Benha.
I04 NOTES FOR TRAVELLERS IN EGYPT.
SUEZ AND THE SUEZ CANAL.
The town of Suez practically sprang into existence during
the building of the Suez Canal, which w^as opened in 1869;
before that time it was an insignificant village with a
tew hundred inhabitants. Ancient history is almost silent
about it, even if it be identified with Clysma* Praesidium.
It is situated at the north end of the Gulf of Suez, and
is now important from its position at the south end of
the Suez Canal. A fresh-water canal from Cairo to Suez
was built in 1863, but before the cutting of this canal
the inhabitants obtained their water either from the
Wells of Moses (about eight miles from Suez) or Cairo.
It was at one time considered to be near the spot where
the Israelites crossed the ' Sea of Sedge ' ; there is little
doubt, however, that the passage was made much nearer the
Mediterranean.
The neck of land which joins Asia to Africa, or the
Isthmus of Suez, is nearly one hundred miles wide ; on the
south side is the Gulf of Suez, on the north the Medi-
terranean. The Red Sea and the Mediterranean appear
to have been united in ancient days. Modern investiga-
tions have proved that so far back as the time of
Rameses II. or earlier a canal was cut between Pelusium
and Lake Timsah, and it is almost certain that it was well
fortified. The Asiatics who wished to invade Egypt were
compelled to cross the Isthmus of Suez, and a canal would
not only serve as a water barrier against them, but be useful
* Clysma, in Arabic Kulzum, is said by the Arabic geographers lo
have been situated on the coast of the sea of Yemen, on the Egj'ptian
side, at the far end, three days from Cairo and four days from Pelusium.
(JuynboU, Lex. Geog. A>al>., t. ii., p. (~P.)
SUEZ AND THE SUEZ CANAL. 10$
as a means of transport for troops from one point to
another. The name of the place Kantara, 'a bridge,' a
Httle to the north of Isma'iliya, seems to point to the fact of
a ford existing here from very early times. Nekau (h.c. 6io)
began to make a canal at Bubastis, between the Nile and
the Red Sea, but never finished it ; it was continued in later
times by Darius, and Ptolemy Philadelphus made a lock
for it ; still later we know that the Mediterranean and Red
Seas were joined by a canal. The emperor Trajan made a
canal from Cairo to the Red Sea, which, having become
impassable, was re-opened by 'Omar's general, 'Amr ibn
el- 'A si, after his capture of Egypt.
In the Middle Ages various attempts were made in a
half-hearted manner to cut a new canal across the Isthmus,
but although several royal personages in and out of Egypt
were anxious to see the proposed work begun, nothing was
seriously attempted until 1798, when Napoleon Bonaparte
directed M. Lepere to survey the route of a canal across the
Isthmus. M. Lepere reported that the difference between
the levels of the Red Sea and Mediterranean was thirty-three
feet, and, that, therefore, the canal was impossible.* Although
several scientific men doubted the accuracy of M. Lepere's
conclusion, the fact that the level of the two seas is practically
the same was not proved until M. Linant Bey, Stephenson,
and others examined the matter in 1846. It was then at
once evident that a canal was possible. M. de Lesseps
laid the plans for a canal before Sa'id Pasha in 1854 ; two
years afterwards they were sanctioned, and two years later
the works began. The original plan proposed to make a
* This was the opinion of some classical writers : compare Aristotle,
Meteorologica, i. 14, 27; Diodorus, i. 23; and Strabo, xvii. i, 25.
The Arabic writer Mas'udi relates that a certain king tried to cut
a canal across this isthmus, but that on finding that the waters of the
Red Sea stood at a higher level than those of the Mediterranean, he
abandoned his project. {Les Prairies cTOr, t. iv. p. 97.)
Io6 NOTES FOR TRAVELLERS IN EGYPT.
canal from Suez to Pelusium, but it was afterwards modified,
and by bringing the northern end into the Mediterranean
at Port Sa'id, it was found possible to do away with the
lock at each end, which would have been necessary had it
embouched at Pelusium. The fresh-water canal from
Bulak to Suez, with an aqueduct to Port Sa'id, included in
the original plan, was completed in 1863. The filling of
the Bitter Lakes with sea-water from the Mediterranean
was begun on the 18th March, 1869, and the whole canal
was opened for trafiic on November i6th of the same year.
The cost of the canal was about ;!^ 19, 000, 000.
The buoyed channel which leads into the canal at the
Suez end is 300 yards across in the widest part. The
average width of the dredged channel is about 90 feet, and
the average depth about 28 feet. At Shaluf et-Terrabeh the
excavation was very difficult, for the ground rises about
twenty feet above the sea-level, and the elevation is five or
six miles long. A thick layer of hard rock ' cropped ' up in
the line of the canal, and the work of removing it was of
no slight nature. On a mound not quite half-way between
Suez and Shaliif are some granite blocks bearing traces of
cuneiform and hieroglyphic inscriptions recording the name
of Darius. They appear to be the remains of one of a
series of buildings erected along the line of the old canal
which was restored and probably completed by Darius.
At Shaluf the width of the canal is about 90 feet, and
shortly after leaving this place the canal enters the Small
Bitter Lake, which is about seven miles long. Before
reaching the end of it is, on the left, another mound on
which were found the ruins of a building which was exca-
vated by M. de Lesseps. Granite slabs were found there
inscribed with the name of Darius in Persian cuneiform
characters and in hieroglyphics. The canal next passes
through the Great Bitter Lake (about fifteen miles long),
and a few kilometres farther along it passes through the
SUEZ AND THE SUEZ CANAL. IO7
rock, upon which was built by Darius another monument to
tell passers-by that he it was who made the canal. The
track of the canal through the Bitter Lakes is marked by a
double row of buoys ; the distance between each buoy is
330 yards, and the space between the two rows is about
thirty yards. At a little distance to the north of the l'.ittcr
Lake is Tusan, which may be easily identified by means of
the tomb of the Muhammedan saint Ennedek. Shortly
after Lake Timsah, or the ' Crocodile Lake,' is reached, on
the north side of which is the town of Isma'iliya, formerly
the head-quarters of the staff in charge of the various
works connected with the construction of the canal. The
canal channel through the lake is marked by buoys as in
the Bitter Lakes. Soon after re-entering the canal the
plain of El-Gisr, or the 'bridge,' is entered; it is about
fifty -five feet above the level of the sea. Through this a
channel about eighty feet deep had to be cut. Passing
through Lake Balah, el-Kantara, 'the bridge,' a place
situated on a height between the Balah and Menzaleh
Lakes, is reached. It is by this natural bridge that every
invading army must have entered Egypt, and its appellation,
the ' Bridge of Nations,' is most appropriate. On the east
side of the canal, not far from el-Kantara, are some ruins
of a building which appears to have been built by
Rameses IL, and a little beyond Kantara begins Lake
Menzaleh. About twenty miles to the east are the ruins of
Pelusium. The canal is carried through Lake Menzaleh in
a perfectly straight line until it reaches Port Sa'id.
The town of Port Sa'id is the product of the Suez Canal,
and has a population of about (2,000. It stands on the
island which forms part of the narrow tract of land which
separates Lake Menzaleh from the Mediterranean. The
first body of workmen landed at the spot which afterwards
became Port Sa'id in 1859, and for many years the place
was nothing but a factory and a living-place for workmen.
Io8 NOTES FOR TRAVELLERS IN EGYPT.
The harbour and the two breakwaters which protect it are
remarkable pieces of work ; the breakwater on the east is
about one mile, and that on the west is about one and five-
eighths of a mile in length, and is being lengthened yearly to
protect the harbour from the mud-carrying current which
always flows from the west, and would block up the canal
but for the breakwater. Near the western breakwater is the
lighthouse, about 165 feet high ; the electric light is used in
it, and can be seen for a distance of twenty miles. The
port is called Sa'id in honour of Sa'id Pasha. The fresh
water used is brought in iron pipes laid along the western
side of the canal from Isma'iliya. The choice fell upon
this spot for the Mediterranean end of the canal because
water sufficiently deep for ocean-going ships was found
within two miles of the shore. The total length of the
canal, including the buoyed channel at the Suez end, is
about one hundred miles.
CAIRO TO SUEZ.
On the line between Cairo and Suez the following
important places are passed : —
I. Shibin el-Kanatir, the stopping place for those who
wish to visit the ' Jewish Hill ' or Tell el-Yahudiyyeh, where
Onia, the high priest of the Jews, built a temple by the
permission of Ptolemy Philometor, in which the Egyptian
Jews might worship. The site of the town was occupied in
very early times by a temple and other buildings which were
set up by Rameses II. and Rameses III. ; a large number of
the tiles which formed parts of the walls of these splendid
works are preserved in the British Museum.
II. Zakazik, the capital of the Sherkiyeh province, is a
town of about 40,000 inhabitants ; the railway station
stands about one mile from the mounds which mark the
CAIRO TO SUEZ.
109
site of the famous old city of Bubastis,* or Tell Basta.
The chief article of commerce here is cotton. Not far from
Zakazik flows the Fresh-water Canal from Cairo to Suez,
which in many places exactly follows the route of the old
canal which was dug during the XlXth dynasty.
Bubastis, Bubastus, or Tell Basta (the Pil)eseth=" House
of Bast " of Ezekiel xxx. 1 7), was the capital of the Bubastites
nome in the Delta, and was situated on the eastern side of
the Pelusiac arm of the Nile. The city was dedicated to the
goddess Bast, the animal sacred to whom was the cat, and
was famous for having given a dynasty of kings (the XXIInd)
to Egypt. To the south of the city were the lands which
Psammetichus I. gave to his Ionian and Carian mercenaries,
and on the north side was the canal which Nekau (Necho)
dug between the Nile and the Red Sea. The city was
captured by the Persians b.c. 352, and the walls, the entire
circuit of which was three miles, were dismantled. Recent
excavations have shown beyond doubt that the place was
inhabited during the earliest dynasties, and that many great
kings of Egypt delighted to build temples there. The
following description of the town and the festival celebrated
there will be found of interest : " Here is a temple of
Bubastis deserving of mention. Other temples are larger
and more magnificent, but none more beautiful than this.
The goddess Bubastis is the same as the Greek Diana.
Her temple stands in an island surrounded on all sides
by water, except at the entrance passage. Two separate
canals lead from the Nile to the entrance, which diverging
to the right and left, surround the temple. They are about
100 feet broad, and planted with trees. The vestibule is
60 feet high, and ornamented with very fine figures six
■•' From the hieroglyphic ^ ^^^/'^z-/>aV, Coptic noT^i-CJ";
il was the metropolis of the i8th nome of Lower Egypt, "where the
soul of Isis lived in [the form] of Bast."
no NOTES FOR TRAVELLERS IN EGYPT.
cubits in height. The temple stands in the centre of the
town, and in walking round the place you look down upon
it on every side, in consequence of the foundations of the
houses having been elevated, and the temple still continuing
on its original level. The sacred enclosure is encompassed
by a wall, on which a great number of figures are sculptured ;
and within it is a grove, planted round the shrine of the
temple, with trees of a considerable height. In the shrine is
the statue of the goddess. The sacred enclosure is 600 feet
in length by the same in breadth. The street which corre-
sponds with the entrance of the temple crosses the public
square, goes to the east, and leads to the temple of Mercury :
it is about 1,800 feet long and 400 feet wide, paved and
planted on each side with large trees."* The goddess
Bast who was worshipped there is represented as having the
head of a lioness or cat. She w^ore a disk, with a urceus,
and carried the sceptre | or I. She was the female counter-
part of Ptah, and was one of the triad of Memphis. Properly
speaking her name is Sechet y J4 . She is called
' Lady of Heaven,' and ' The great lady, beloved of Ptah.' f
The nature of the ceremony on the way to Bubastis, says
Herodotus, J is this: — "They go by water, and numerous
boats are crowded with persons of both sexes. During the
voyage several women strike cymbals and tambourines ;
some men play the flute ; the rest singing and clapping
their hands. As they pass near a town, they bring the boat
* Herodotus, ii. 137, 138, translated liy Wilkinson, "Ancient
Egyptians," iii. p. 35.
t She is a form of Hathor, and as wife of Ptah, was the mother of
Nefer-Atmu and I-em-hetep. She was the personification of the
power of light and of the burning heat of the sun ; it was her duty to
destroy the demons of night, mist and cloud, who fought against the
sun.
t 15ook II. 60.
CAIRO TO SUEZ. I I I
close to the bank. Some of the women continue to sing
and strike cymbals ; others cry out as long as they can, and
utter reproaches against the people of the town, who begin
to dance, while the former pull up their clothes before them
in a scoffing manner. The same is repeated at every
town they pass upon the river. Arrived at Bubastis,
they celebrate the festival, sacrificing a great number of
victims ; and on that occasion a greater consumption of
wine takes place than during the whole of the year ; for
according to the accounts of the people themselves, no less
than 700,000 persons of both sexes are present, besides
children."
The fertile country round about Zakazik is probably a
part of the Goshen of the Bible.
III. Abu Hammad, where the Arabian desert begins.
IV. Tell el-Kebir, a wretched village, now made famous
by the victory of Lord Wolseley over 'Arabi Pasha in 1882.
V. Mahsamah, which stands on the site of a town built
by Rameses II. Near this place is Tell el-Maskhuta, which
some have identified with the Pithom which the Israelites
built for the king of Egypt who oppressed them.
VI. Isma'iliya (see p. 107).
VII. Nefisheh. Here the fresh water canal divides into
two parts, the one going on to Suez, and the other to
Isma'iliya.
NOTES FOR TRAVELLERS IN EGYPT.
CAIRO.
Cairo (from the Arabic Kahira, ' the Victorious,' because
the planet Kahir or Mars was visible on the night of the
foundation of the city) is situated on the right or eastern
bank of the Nile, about ten miles south of the division of
the Nile into the Rosetta and Damietta branches. It is
called in Arabic Masr * : it is the largest city in Africa, and
its population must be now about half a million souls.
Josephus says that the fortress of the Babylon of Egypt,
which stood on the spot occupied by old Cairo or Fostat,
was founded by the Babylonian mercenary soldiers of
Cambyses, b.c. 525; Diodorus says that it was founded
by Assyrian captives in the time of Rameses II., and
Ctesias is inclined to think that it was built in the time
of Semiramis. The opinions of the two last mentioned
writers are valuable in one respect, for they show that it
was believed in their time that Babylon of Egypt was
a very ancient foundation. During the reign of Augustus
it was the headquarters of one of the legions that garrisoned
Egypt, and remains of the town and fortress which these
legionaries occupied are still to be seen a little to the
north of Fostat. The word Fostat f means a ' tent,' and
the place is so called from the tent of 'Amr ibn el-'Asi,
which was pitched there when he besieged Egypt, .-^.d. 638,
and to which he returned after his capture of Alexandria.
Around his tent lived a large number of his followers, and
* Masr is a form of the old name Misrl (Hebrew Misraint), by
which it is called in the cuneiform tablets, P.c. 1550.
t Arab. IrUs^, another form of 1^1.^, = Byzantine Greek
'I'offffdroi'.
CAIRO. iI3
these being joined by new comers, the city of Fostat at
length arose. It was enlarged by Ahmed ibn Tulttn,
who built a mosque there ; by KhamarCiyeh, who built a
palace there ; but when the Fatimite Khalif Mu'izz con-
quered Egypt (a.d. 969), he removed the seat of his
government from there, and founded Masr el-Kahira, "Masr
the Victorious," near Fostat. Fostat, which was also known
by the name of Masr, was henceforth called Masr cl-'Atika.
During the reign of Salaheddin the city was surrounded
with walls and the citadel was built. Sultan after Sultan
added handsome buildings to the town, and though it
suffered from plagues and fires, it gained the reputation of
being one of the most beautiful capitals in the Muham-
medan empire. In 15 17 it was captured by Selim I., and
Egypt became a pashalik of the Turkish empire, and
remained so until its conquest by Napoleon Bonaparte in
1798. Cairo was occupied by Muhammad 'Ali in 1805,
and the massacre of the Mamelukes took place March i.
1811.
THE MUSEUM AT GIZEH.
The Egyptian antiquities which are now exhibited at
Gizeh were, until the end of 1889, preserved at Bulak,
where they occupied the site of the old post-office. The
founding of the Bulak museum is due to the energy and
perseverance of Auguste Ferdinand Mariette. This dis-
tinguished Frenchman was born at Boulogne-sur-Mer on
February nth, 1821. His ancestors were not unknown in
the literary world. He was educated at Boulogne, and was
made professor there when he was twenty years of age.
He seems to have tried his hand at various professions, and
to have studied archaeological matters whenever he had a
little leisure. His attention was first drawn to the study
of Egyptian archseology by the examination of a collection
of Egyptian antiquities which had been made by Vivant
114 NOTES FOR TRAVELLERS IN EGYPT.
Denon, one of the artists attached to the French Expedi-
tion in Egypt. Soon after this he wrote a paper on the
Hst of kings which was found at Karnak and brought to
Paris by Prisse, and sent it to Charles Lenormant. This
gentleman, together with Maury, de Saulcy and Longperier,
advised him to come to Paris, where he soon obtained an
appointment on the staff of the Louvre. As the salary
paid to the young man was not sufficient to keep him, he
resolved to ask the French Government to provide him
with the necessary funds to go to Egypt, where he wished to
try his fortune. The plea urged by him was that he wished
to study the Coptic language and literature in the convents
of Egypt, and with his apphcation for funds he sent in a
treatise which he had drawn up on Coptic matters. The
petition was favourably received, and he set out for Egypt
in the summer of 1850. Having arrived in Egypt, he found
that it was not easy to obtain access to the libraries of the
convents, for the Patriarch had insisted that they should
be carefully guarded from strangers, ^\'hile at Sakkarah,
one day he discovered by accident a sphinx, which men-
tioned the names of Osiris-Hapi or Serapis, similar to
one that he had seen at Cairo. He remembered that the
Serapeum at Memphis was described by ancient authors as
standing on a sandy plain, and he believed that he had
really found the spot where it stood and its ruins. He
obtained labourers and set to work to dig, and discovered
about one hundred and fifty sphinxes and two chapels ;
these objects and many other indications caused him to
believe that he had actually found the Serapeum. The
excavations were stopped for a short time, but were
recommenced after a sum of money had been voted
by the French Government. At the end of 1851
Mariette entered the Serapeum, and found there sixty-four
Apis bulls, stelse, etc., etc. As the dates when the bulls
were placed in the Serapeum were stated, they afforded a
CAIRO — MUSEUM AT GI/KH. jje
valuable help in fixing the chronology of Egypt as far back
as the XVIIIth dynasty. In 1853 he discovered a granite
temple near Gizeh ; and shortly afterwards he was appointed
Assistant-Curator at the Louvre. In 1858 he was created
Bey by Sa'id Pasha, and the foundation of an Egyptian
museum at Bijlak was entrusted to him. About the same
time he began a large series of excavations in several places
at once, and the scene of his labours extended from one
end of Egypt to the other. At Abydos he cleared out the
temple of Seti I., two temples of Rameses II., and a large
number of tombs ; at Denderah, a temple of Hathor ;
at Thebes he removed whole villages and mountains of
earth from the temples at Karnak, Medinet-Habu and Der
el-Bahari ; and at Edfu he removed from the roof of the
temple a village of huts and cleared out its interior. He
was the author of several large works in which he gave
accounts of his different labours, and published fac-similes
of the texts on the monuments which he had discovered.
He died at Cairo on January 17th, 1881, and was entombed
in a sarcophagus which stood in the court-yard of Biilak
Museum ; his remains were removed to Gizeh with the
antiquities of the Museum. He was succeeded as Director
by M. Maspero, who has in turn been succeeded by
M. Grebaut.
The national Egyptian collection at Gizeh surpasses
every other collection in the world, by reason of the number
of the monuments in it which were made during the first
six dynasties, and by reason of the fact that the places from
which the greater number of the antiquities come are well
ascertained. Here may be seen stelas of nobles who lived
during the Ilird dynasty; of Ptah-heten of the Vth
dynasty ; monuments which belong to the little-known
period during which the kings of the Vllth to the Xlth
dynasty reigned ; a stele of the Theban king Antefaa (Xlth
dynasty) ; and a number of sphinxes and other objects
I 2
Tl6 NOTES FOR TRAVELLERS IN EGYPT.
which Marietta thought were executed under the rule of the
Hyksos kings. The statue of Chephren, the " Shekh el-
Beled," the jewellery of Queen Aah-Hetep, the mother of
Ahnies, the first king of the XVHIth dynasty; the Der el-
Bahari mummies, the list of kings from Sakkarah, the
Ethiopian monuments from Gebel Barkal, the stele of
Canopus, and other such unique objects, have given the
collection a world-wide reputation. The stele inscribed with
the decree of Canopus contains a hieroglyphic inscription
with translations of it into demotic and Greek. The subject-
matter is a decree of a body of priests who met together at
Canopus li.c. 238, in which they express their determination
to establish a new order of priesthood in the name of the
reigning king Ptolemy III. Euergetes I., in recognition of
the many benefits which he had conferred upon the country
of Egypt ; they also decide to erect statues of the dead
princess Berenice, and to put up copies of this trilingual
inscription inscribed on bronze slabs in every temple of the
first and second rank. This stone is as valuable as remark-
able, for the inscriptions prove beyond all doubt that the
method of decipherment employed by Champollion was
correct.
In former days the collection of scarabs at Bulak was
valuable and nearly complete.
Among the papyri is one, of great value, which is
inscribed with a work written by a scribe called Ani ;
containing advice to his son Chonsu-hetep as to judicious
behaviour in all the various scenes of life. In it he
exhorts him to avoid every vice and excess in anything,
to love and cherish his mother, not to cause her pain
by any unwise action, and to act as she would wish ; to
be submissive to his superiors and kind to his inferiors;
to behave with modesty and due regard to the feelings
of others ; and to remember that death will come. The
CAIRO — MUSEUM AT GIZEH. II7
work has much in common with the Maxims of Ptah-hetep*
and the Book of Proverbs. Another papyrus of great vahie
is the fragment which treats of the geography of the Fayum
and Lake Moeris. With the arrival of the Der el-Bahari mum-
mies there came some important copies of the Book of the
Dead belonging to the best period of the Theban recension
of that interesting work. It is much to be wished that the
Administration of the Museum would publish from time to
time fac-similes of the most important inscriptions which are
found, and if they could be accompanied with translations
or summaries of their contents the science of Egyptology
would be much advanced. It is understood that a scientific
classification of all the objects in the Museum according to
the period to which they belong is in contemplation ; if this
is ever carried out the Museum will become a valuable
school for students of Egyptian archaeology.
It had long been felt by scholars and others that the
old buildings at Biilak, where such valuable antiquities
were stored, were quite inadequate to the wants of the
Egyptian collection. There was no room whatever for
expansion, and each year the danger caused by the in-
undation grew more serious; in the year 1878 the Nile
waters actually entered the Museum. As the whole neigh-
bourhood round about was filled with granaries and ware-
houses packed with inflammable matter, the need for
removing the collection to a larger and a safer place became
very pressing. At the end of 1888 it was definitely decided
by the authorities to remove the antiquities from Bialak to
the palace at Gizeh. The work was begun in 1889, and
was continued throughout the summer and autumn of that
year; the opening of the new Museum to visitors took place
on January 12, 1890.
* The maxims of Ptah-hetep are inscribed upon the Prisse papyrus,
which was written about B.C. 2500; they were composed daring the
reign of Assa, the eighth king of the Vth dynasty, about B.C. 3366.
Il8 NOTES FOR TRAVELLERS IN EGYPT.
Briefly, the new arrangement is as follows —
In the First Room are to be found all the monuments
which belong to a period anterior to the pyramids of Gizeh,
that is to say, anterior to the IVth dynasty. Here too are
several objects which were discovered by Mariette at Sak-
karah and Medum, and a few which were excavated at
Mit Rahineh in i88S. The statue of the priest is perhaps
the oldest known.
In the Second Room is a selection from the most
beautiful and important of the monuments of the IVth, Vth
and Vlth dynasties, including the large statues of Ptah-hetep
and the Shekh el-Beled.
In the Third Room are the statues of Chephren,
Mycerinus, Usr-en-Ra and Men-kau-Heru.
The Fourth, Fifth, and Sixth Rooms contain stelse and
other objects inscribed with texts of the Ancient Empire.
The Seventh, Eighth, and Ninth Rooms contain
statues and bas-reliefs.
In the Tenth and Eleventh Rooms are, among other
objects, a tomb from Sakkarah and the mummy of Mentu-
em-saf, the fourth king of the Vlth dynasty.
The Twelfth Room is occupied with monuments of the
Ancient Empire brought from Upper Egypt.
Following on here, too, are the antiquities which belong
to the unknown period between the Vlth and the Xlth
dynasties ; and after these come the monuments of the
Xllth dynasty, and those which are thought to be the
product of the time when the Hyksos or Shepherd kings
ruled over Eg)'pt.
The galleries, which are close by, contain the stelK,
bas-reliefs, and statues of the New Empire, and the monu-
ments of the Ethiopian kings from Gebel Barkal. It is
intended to gather together in their proper order all the
antiquities which rL'i)resent the Greek, Roman, and Arabic
domination of Egypt.
CAIRO.
119
On the first floor are rooms for the exhibition of flowers
from the tombs, coins, figures of gods in bronze, and
Egyptian porcelain, scarabs, furniture, household goods,
arms, tools, papyri, wooden objects, etc., etc. In a large
room near at hand are the famous Der el-Bahari mummies,
among them being Ahmes (Amasis), Seti I., Rameses II., and
Rameses III.
COPTIC CHURCHES IN CAIRO.*
The Church of Mar Mina lies between P^ostat and
Cairo ; it was built in honour of St. Menas, an early
martyr, who is said to have been born at Mareotis, and
martyred during the persecution of Galerius Maximinus at
Alexandria. The name Mina, or Mena, probably represents
M I 1 t t I r\
the Coptic form of Mena, (I , the name of the first
historical king of Egypt. The church was probably
founded during the fourth century, and it seems to have
been restored in the eighth century ; the first church built
to Mar Mina was near Alexandria. The church measures
60 feet X 50 feet ; it contains some interesting pictures,
and a very ancient bronze candelabrum in the shape of two
winged dragons, with seventeen sockets for lighted tapers.
On the roof of the church is a small bell in a cupola.
About half-a-mile beyond the Derf containing the church
of St. Menas, lies the Der of Abu's Sefen, in which are
situated the churches al-'x\dra (the Virgin), Anba Shenuti,
and Abu's Sefen. The last-named church was built in the
tenth century, and is dedicated to St. Mercurius, who is
* The authorities for the following facts relating to Coptic Churches
are Butler's CoJ>^/c Clmrches of Eg)'pt, 2 vols., 1884 ; and Curzon, Visils
to Monasteries in the Levant.
t Arabic jj "convent, monastery."
I 20 NOTES FOR TRAVELLERS IN EGYPT.
called " Father of two swords," or Abu's Sefen. The church
measures 90 feet x 50 feet, and is built chiefly of brick ;
there are no pillars in it. It contains a fine ebony partition
dating from a.d. 927, some interesting pictures, an altar
casket dating from a.d. 1280, and a marble pulpit. In this
church are chapels dedicated to Saints Gabriel, John the
Baptist, James, Mar Buktor, Antony, Abba Nub, Michael,
and George. Within the Der of Abu's Sefen is the "Convent
of the Maidens;" the account of Mr. Butler's discovery of
this place is told by him in his Coptic Churches of Egypt,
Vol. I, p. 128. The church of the Virgin was founded
probably in the eighth century.
The church of Abu Sargah, or Abu Sergius, stands well
towards the middle of the Roman fortress of Babylon in
Egypt. Though nothing is known of the saint after whom
it was named, it is certain that in a.d. 859 Shenuti was
elected patriarch of Abu Sargah ; the church was most
probably built much earlier, and some go so far as to state
that the crypt (20 feet x 15 feet) was occupied by the
Virgin and her Son when they fled to Egypt to avoid the
wrath of Herod. "The general shape of the church is, or
was, a nearly regular oblong, and its general structure is
basilican. It consists of narthex, nave, north and south
aisle, choir, and three altars eastward each in its own
chapel : of these the central and southern chapels are
apsidal, the northern is square ended Over the
aisles and narthex runs a continuous gallery or triforium,
which originally served as the place for women at the
service. On the north side it stops short at the choir,
forming a kind of transept, which, however, does not project
beyond the north aisle On the south side of
the church the triforium is prolonged over the choir and over
the south side-chapel. The gallery is flat-roofed while
the nave is covered with a pointed roof with framed princi-
pals like that at Abu's Sefen Outside, the roof
CAIRO. 121
of Abu Sargah is plastered over with cement showing
the king-posts projecting above the ridge-picce. Over the
central part of the choir and over the haikal the roof
changes to a wagon-vaulting; it is flat over the north
transept, and a lofty dome overshadows the north aisle
chapel The twelve monolithic columns round
the nave are all, with one exception, of white marble
streaked with dusky lines The exceptional column
is of red Assuan granite, 22 inches in diameter
The wooden pulpit is of rosewood inlaid with
designs in ebony set with ivory edgings The
haikal-screen projects forward into the choir as at Al
'Adra is of very ancient and beautiful workman-
ship; pentagons and other shapes of solid ivory, carved
in relief with arabesques, being inlaid and set round
with rich mouldings The upper part of the screen
contains square panels of ebony set with large crosses of
solid ivory, most exquisitely chiselled with scrollwork, and
panels of ebony carved through in work of the most delicate
and skilful finish." (Butler, Coptic Churches, Vol. I., pp. 183-
190, ff.) The early carvings representing St. Demetrius,
Mar George, Abu's Sefen, the Nativity, and the Last Supper,
are worthy of careful examination.
The Jewish synagogue near Abu Sargah was originally a
Coptic church dedicated to St. Michael, which was sold to
the Jews by a patriarch called Michael towards the end of
the ninth century ; it measures 65 feet x 35 feet, and is
said to contain a copy of the Law written by Ezra.
A little to the south-east of Abu Sargah is the church
dedicated to the Virgin, more commonly called El-
Mu'allakah, or the ' hanging,' from the fact that it is sus-
pended between two bastions, and must be entered by a
staircase. The church is triapsal, and is of the basilican
order. It originally contained some very beautiful screens,
which have been removed from their original positions and
122 NOTES FOR TRAVELLERS IN EGYPT.
made into a sort of wall, and, unfortunately, modern
stained glass has been made to replace the old. The cedar
doors, sculptured in panels, are now in the British Museum.
The cedar and ivory screens are thought to belong to the
eleventh century. The church is remarkable in having no
choir, and Mr. Butler says it is "a double-aisled church, and
as such is remarkable in having no transepts." The pulpit
is one of the most valuable things left in the church, and
probably dates from the twelfth century ; in the wooden
coffer near it are the bones of four .saints. .Authorities
differ as to the date to be as.signed to the founding of this
church, but all the available evidence now known w.ould
seem to point to the sixth century as the most probable
period ; at any rate, it must have been before the betrayal
of the fortress of Babylon to 'Amr by the Monophysite
Copts in the seventh century.
A little to the north-east of Abu Sargah is the church of
St. Barbara, the daughter of a man of position in the East,
who was martyred during the persecution of Maximinus ; it
was built probably during the eighth century. In the
church is a picture of the saint, and a chapel in honour of
St. George. At the west end of the triforium are some
mural paintings of great interest.
Within the walls of the fortress of Babylon, lying due
north of Abu Sargah, are the two churches of Mar Girgis
and the Virgin.
To the south of the fortress of Babylon, beyond the
Muhammedan village on the rising ground, lie the Der of
Bablun and the Der of Tadrus. In Der el-Bablun is a
church to the Virgin, which is very difficult to see. It
contains some fine mural painting.s, and an unusual candle-
stick and lectern ; in it also are chapels dedicated to Saints
Michael and George. This little building is about fifty-
three feet square. Der el-Tadrus contains two churches
dedicated to Saints Cyrus and John of Damanhur in the
CAIRO. 123
Delta ; there are some fine specimens of vestments to he
seen there.
A short distance from tlie Muski is a Der containing the
churches of the Virgin, St. George, and the chapel of Abu's
Sefen. The church of the Virgin occupies the lower half of
the building, and is the oldest in Cairo. The chapel of Abu's
Sefen is reached through a door in the north-west corner of
the building, and contains a wooden pulpit inlaid with
ivory. The church of St. George occupies the upper part
of the building, and is over the church of the Virgin.
In the Greek (Byzantine) quarter of Cairo is the Der el-
Tadrus, which contains the churches of St. George and the
Virgin.
The Coptic churches of Cairo contain a great deal that is
interesting, and are well worth many visits. Though the
fabrics of many of them are not older than the sixth,
seventh, or eighth century of 'our era, it may well be
assumed that the sites were occupied by Coptic churches
long before this period.
The Mosques of Cairo.
Speaking generally there are three types of mosque * in
Cairo : i, the court-yard surrounded by colonnades, as the
Mosques of 'Amr and Tulun ; 2, the court yard surrounded
by four gigantic arches, as in the Mosque of Sultan Hasan,
etc. ; and 3, the covered yard beneath a dome, as in the
Mosque of Muhammad 'Ali.
The Mosque of 'AMR in Fostat, or Old Cairo, is the oldest
mosque in Egypt, its foundation having been laid a.h. 21 =
A.D. 643. The land upon which it was built was given
by 'Amr ibn el-'Asi and his friends after they had become
masters of the fortress of Babylon. Of 'Amr's edifice very
* The word "mosque" is derived from the Arabic ^Viy*^<
a " place of prayer. "
134 NOTES FOR TRAVELLERS IN EGYPT.
little remains, for nearly all the building \vas burnt down at
the end of the ninth century. Towards the end of the third
quarter of the tenth century the mosque was enlarged and
rebuilt, and it was subsequently decorated with paintings,
etc.; the splendour of the mosque is much dwelt upon by
Makrizi. The court measures 350 feet x 400 feet. The
building contains 366 pillars — one row on the west side,
three rows on the north and south sides, and six rows on the
east side; one of the pillars bears the name of Muhammad.
In the north-east corner is the tomb of 'Abdallah, the son
of 'Amr.
The Mosque of AHMED IBN TULUN (died a.d. SS4)
is the oldest in Masr el-Kahira or New Cairo, having been
built A.D. 879, under the rule of Khalif Mu'tamid (a.d. 87c-
892). It is said to be a copy of the Ka'ba at Mecca, and to
have taken two or three years to build. The open court is
square, and measures about 300 feet from side to side ; in
the centre is the Hanafiyyeh (i.L\sJsj>.) or fountain for the
Turks. On the north, west, and south side is an arcade
with walls pierced with arches ; on the east side are five
arcades divided by walls pierced with arches. The wooden
l)ulpit is a famous specimen of wood carving, and dates from
the thirteenth century. Around the outside of the minaret
of this mosque is a spiral staircase, which is said to have
been suggested by its founder. The mosque is called the
" Fortre.ss of the Goat," because it is said to mark the spot
where Abraham offered up the ram ; others say that the
ark rested here.
The Mosque of H.\KIM (a.d. 996-1020), the third
Fdtimite Khalif, was built on the plan of mosque of ibn
Tulijn (see above) ; the date over one of the gates is
•^•H- .393 = -^-r'- 1003. The Museum of Arab art is
located here.
The Moscjue KL-A/.M.\R is said to have been founded
CAIRO. 125
by Johar, the general of Mu'izz, al)out a.d. 980. The plan
of the principal part was the same as that of the nios(|ue of
'Amr, but very little of the original building remains. It
was made a university by the Khalif 'Aziz (a.d. 975-996),
and great alterations were made in the building by different
Sultans in the twelfth, thirteenth, fifteenth, sixteenth, and
eighteenth centuries; Sa'id Pasha made the last in A.n. 1848.
The minarets belong to different periods ; the mosque has six
gates, and at the principal of these, the " Gate of the Barbers,"
is the entrance. On three of the sides of the open court are
compartments, each of which is reserved for the worshippers
who belong to a certain countr)-. The Liwan of the mosque
is huge, and its ceiling is supported upon 380 ])illars of
various kinds of stone ; it is here that the greater part of
the students of the university carry on their studies. The
number of students varies from 10,000 to 13,000, and the
education, from the Muhammedan point of view, is perhaps
the most thorough in the whole world.
In the Citadel are: — i. The Mosque of Salaheddin
Yusuf, built A.D. 1171-1198; 2. The Mosque of Suleman
Pasha or Sultan Selim, built a.h. 391 =a.d iooi.
The Muristan Kalaun, originally a hospital, contains the
tomb of El-Mansur Kalaun (a.d. i 279-1 290), which is
decorated with marble mosaics.
The Mosque-tomb of Muhammad en-Nasir (a.d. 1293-
1341), son of Kalaian, stands near that of Kalailn.
The Mosque of SULTAN HASAN, built of stone taken
from the pyramids of Gizeh, is close to the citadel, and is
generally considered to be the grandest in Cairo. It was
built by Hasan, one of the younger sons of Sultan Nasir, and
its construction occupied three years, a.d. 1356-1358. It
is said that when the building was finished the architect's
hands were cut off to prevent his executing a similar work
again. This story, though probably false, shows that the
mosque was considered of great l)eauty, and the judgment
126 NOTES FOR TRAVELLERS IN EGYPT,
of competent critics of to-day endorses the opinion of it
which was prevalent in Hasan's time. Hasan's tomb is
situated on the east side of the building. The remaining
minaret* is about 280 feet high, the greatest length of the
mosque is about 320 feet, and the width about 200 feet. In
the open court are two fountains which were formerly used,
one by the Egyptians, and one by the Turks. On the
eastern side are still to be seen a few of the balls which
were fired at the mosque by the army of Napoleon.
The Mosque of Barkuk (a.d. i 382-1 399) contains the
tomb of the daughter of Barkuk.
The Mosque of MUAIYAD, one of the Circassian
Mamelukes, was founded between the years 1412-1420; it is
also known as the " Red Mosque," from the colour of the
walls outside. " Externally it measures about 300 feet by
250, and possesses an internal court, surrounded by double
colonnades on three sides, and a triple range of arches on
the side looking towards Mecca, where also are situated — as
in that of Barkuk — the tombs of the founder and his family.
A considerable number of ancient colinnns have been used
in the erection of the building, but the superstructure is so
light and elegant, that the effect is agreeable." f The bronze
gate in front belonged originally to the mosque of Sultan
Hasan.
The Mosque of KAIT Bey (a.d. 1468-1496), one of the
last independent Mameluke sultans of Egypt, is about eighty
feet long and seventy feet wide ; it has some fine mosaics,
and is usually considered the finest piece of architecture in
Cairo.
The Mosque el-Ghiiri was built by the Sultan Kansuweh
el-Ghuri early in the sixteenth century ; it is one of the
most Ijeautiful mosques in Cairo.
• Krom the Ar.ibic l" \\^ " place of light."
+ Fcrgusson, /fist, of ArchiUcttire, Vol. II., p. 516.
CAIRO. 127
The Mosque of Sittah Zenab was begun late in the last
century ; it contains the tomb of Zenab, the granddaughter
of the Prophet.
The Mosque begun by Muhammad 'Ali in the Citadel,
was finished in 1857 by Sa'id Pasha, after the death (in 1849)
of that ruler; it is built of alabaster from the quarries of
Beni Suef. As with nearly all mosques built by the Turks,
the church of the Hagia Sophia at Constantinople served as
the model, but the building is not considered of remarkable
beauty. The mosque is also a square covered by a large
dome and four small ones. In the south-east corner is
the tomb of Muhammad 'Ali, and close by is the mimbar
(^v,c) or pulpit; in the recess on the east side is the
Kibla (IbJj) or spot to which the Muhammedan turns
his face during his prayers. The court is square, with one
row of pillars on each of its four sides, and in the centre
is the fountain for the Turks ; the clock in the tower on
the western side was presented to Muhammad 'Ali by
Louis Philippe.
The Mosque of el-Hasanen, i.e., the mosque of Hasan
and Husen, the sons of 'Ali the son-in-law of the Prophet,
is said to contain the head of Husen who was slain at
Kerbela a.d. 680 ; the head was first sent to Damascus and
afterwards brought to Cairo.
In the Mosque of el-Akbar the dancing dervishes per-
form.
The Tombs of the Khalifs.*
These beautiful buildings are situated on the eastern side
of the city, and contain the tombs of the members of the
* The word " Khalif," Arabic iliA>- , Khalifah, means "suc-
cesssor " (of Muhammad) or " vicar " (of God upon earth), and was a
title applied to the head of the Muslim world. The last Khalifah died
in Egypt about A.T>. 1517.
I 28 NOTES FOR TRAVELLERS IN EGYPT.
families of the Circassian Mameluke Sultans who reigned
from A.D. 1 382-1 5 1 7. The tomb-mosques of Yusuf, el
Ashraf, and the toml) of el-Ghuri (a.d. 1501-1516) are to
the north-east of the Bab en-Nasr ; the tomb-mosques of
Yusuf and el-Ashraf are only to be seen by special per-
mission. In the tomb-mosque of Barkiik are buried that
sultan, his son the Sultan Farag (a.d, 1399-1412), and
various other members of the family. The limestone pulpit
and the two minarets are very beautiful specimens of stone
work. To the west of this tomb-mosque is the tomb of
Sultan Suleman, and near that are the tombs of the Seven
Women, the tomb-mosque of Bursbey (a.d. 1422-1438), the
Ma'bed er-Rifa'i, and the tomb of the mother of Bursbey.
The most beautiful of all these tombs is the tomb-mosque
of Kait Bey (a.d. 1468-1496), which is well worthy of more
than one visit.
The Tombs of the Mamelukes.*
Of the builders of these tombs no history has been pre-
served ; the ruins, however, show that they must have been
very beautiful objects. Some of the minarets are still very
fine.
The Citadel.
The Citadel was built by Salaheddin, a.d. 1166, and the
stones used were taken from the pyramids of Gizeh ; it
formed a part of the large system of the fortifications of
Cairo which this Sultan carried out so thoroughly. Though
admirably situated for commanding the whole city, and as a
fortress in the days before long range cannon were invented,
the site was shown in 1805 to be ill chosen for the purposes
* The woul "Mameluke" means a " slave," Arabic =1 \ , ,
I'lur. (Jjo>!l^<.
CAIRO. 129
of defence in modern times, by Muhammad 'AH, who, by
means of a battery placed on the Mokattam heights, com-
pelled Khurshid Pasha to surrender the citadel. In the
narrow way, with a high wall, through the Bab el-Azab,
which was formerly the most direct and most used means of
access to it, the massacre of the Mamelukes took place by
the orders of Muhammad 'Ali, a.d. 181 i. The single
Mameluke who escaped is said to have made his horse leap
down from one of the walls of the Citadel ; he refused to
enter the narrow way.
Joseph's Well.
This well is not called after Joseph the Patriarch, as is
usually supposed, but after the famous Salaheddin (Saladin),
whose second name was Yiasuf or Joseph. The shaft of
this well, in two parts, is about 280 feet deep, and was found
to be choked up with sand when the Citadel was built ;
Saladin caused it to be cleared out, and from his time until
1865 its water was regularly drawn up and used. This
well was probably sunk by the ancient Egyptians.
The Library.
This valuable institution was founded by Isma'il in 1870,
and contains the library of Mustafa Pasha; the number
of works in the whole collection is said to be about 24,000.
Some of the copies of the Koran preserved there are among
the oldest known.
EzBEKiYEH Garden.
This garden or "place," named after the Amir Ezbeki,
the general of Kait Bey (a.d. 1468 — 1496), was made in
1870 by M. Barillet, and has an area of about twenty acres.
The Nilometer in the Island of R6da.
The Nilometer here is a pillar, which is divided into
seventeen parts, each representing a cubit, i.e., 2\\ inches,
130 NOTES FOR TRAVELLERS IN EGYPT.
and each cubit is divided into twenty-four parts. This
pillar is placed in the centre of a well about sixteen feet
square ; the lower end is embedded in the foundations, and
the upper end is held in position by a beam built into the
side walls. The well is connected with the Nile by a
channel. The first Nilometer at Roda is said to have
been built by the Khalif Suleman (a.d. 715 — 717), and
about one hundred years later the building was restored
by Mamun (a.d. 813 — 833). At the end of the eleventh
century a dome resting upon columns was built over it.
When the Nile is at its lowest level it stands at the height
of seven cubits in the Nilometer well, and when it reaches
the height of 15! cubits, the shekh of the Nile proclaims
that sufficient water has come into the river to admit of the
cutting of the dam which prevents the water from flowing
over the country. The difference between the highest rise
and the lowest fall of the Nile at Cairo is about twenty-five
feet. The cutting of the dam takes place some time during
the second or third week in August, at which time there are
general rejoicings. When there happens to be an exceptionally
high Nile, the whole island of Roda is submerged, and the
waters flow over the Nilometer to a depth of two cubits, a
fact which proves that the bed of the Nile is steadily rising,
and one which shows how difficult it is to harmonize all the
statements made by Egyptian, Greek, and Arabic writers on
the subject. As the amount of taxation to be borne by the
people has always depended upon the height of the inun-
dation, attempts were formerly made by the governments of
Egypt to prove to the people that there never was a low
Nile.
131
HELIOPOLIS.*
About five miles to the north-east of Cairo stands the
little village of Matariyyeh f, built upon part of the site of
Heliopolis, where may be seen the sycamore tree, usually
called the " Virgin's Tree," under which tradition says that
the Virgin Mary sat and rested during her flight to Egypt ;
it was planted some time towards the end of the XVIIth
century, and was given to the Empress Eugenie by Isma'il
on the occasion of the opening of the Suez Canal. Beyond
the "Virgin's Tree" is the fine Aswan granite o])elisk which
marks the site of the ancient town of Heliopolis, called
" On " in Gen. xli. 45, " House of the Sun " in Jeremiah
* Called in Egyptian m W "^j Ainiu mcht, " Annu of the
North," to distinguish it from | -^ ^r" ® ' '^"'"^ Qe-ndu, "Annu
of the South," i.e., Hermonthis.
t 'Ij tj^^ Juynboll, (7/. cit., t. iii., p. no. At this place the balsam
trees, about which so many traditions are extant, were said to grow.
The balsam tree was about a cubit high, and had two barks ; the
outer red and fine, and the inner green and thick. ^Vhcn the
latter was macerated in the mouth, it left an oily taste and an
aromatic odour. Incisions were made in the barks, and the liquid
which flowed from them was carefully collected and treated ; the
amount of balsam oil obtained formed a tenth part of all the liquid
collected. The last balsam tree cultivated in Egypt died in 1615, but
two were seen alive in 161 2 ; it is said that they would grow nowhere
out of Egj'pt. They were watered with the water from the well at
Matariyyeh in which the Virgin Mary washed the clothes of our Lord
when she was in Egypt. The oil was much sought after by the
Christians of Abyssinia and other places, who thought it absolutely
necessary that one drop of this oil should be poured into the water in
which they were baptized. See Wansleben, V Histoire de C Eglise
i£ Akxandrie, pp. 88-93; Ahd-allatif {^ii.. de Sacy), p. 88.
K 2
132 NOTES FOR TRAVELLERS IN EGYPT.
xliii. 13. and "Eye or Fountain of the Sun" l)y the Arabs.
Heliopolis was about twelve miles from the fortress of
Babylon, and stood on the eastern side of the Pelusiac
arm of the Nile, near the right bank of the great canal
which passed through the Bitter Lakes and connected
the Nile with the sea. Its ruins cover an area three miles
square. The greatest and oldest Egyptian College or
University for the education of the priesthood and the laity
>lood here, and it was here that Ptolemy II. Philadelphus,
sent for Egyptian manuscripts when he wished to augment
the library which his father had founded.
The obelisk is sixty-six feet high, and was set up by
Usertsen I. LO ^ U] about B.C. 2433 ; a companion obelisk
remained standing in its place until the .seventh century of
our era, and both were covered with caps of smu (probably
copper) metal. During the XXth dynasty the temple of
Heliopolis was one of the largest and wealthiest in all Egypt,
and its staff was numbered by thousands. \\'hen Cambyses
visited Egypt the glory of Heliopolis was well on the wane,
and after the removal of the priesthood and sages of the
temple to .\lexandria by Ptolemy II. its downfall was well
assured. When Strabo visited it (b.c. 24), the greater part
of it was in ruins ; but we know from Arab writers that
many of the statues remained in situ at the end of the
twelfth century. Heliopolis had a large population of Jews,
and it will be remembered that Joseph married the daughter
of Pa-ta-pa-Ra (Potiphar) a priest of On (Annu) or Heliopolis.
It lay either in or very near the Goshen of the Bible. The
Mnevis bull, sacred to Ra, was worshipped at Heliopolis, and
it was here that the phoenix or palm-bird brought its ashes
after having raised itself to life at the end of each period of
five hundred years. Alexander the Great halted here on
his way from Pelusium to Memphis. Macrobius says that
the Heliopolis of Syria, or Baalbek, was founded by a body
(if priests who left the ancient city of Heliopolis of Egypt.
133
THE PYRAMIDS OF GIZEH.
On the western bank of the Nile, from Abu Roash on
the north to Medum on the south, is a shghtly elevated
tract of land, about twenty-five miles long, on the edge of
the Libyan desert, on which stand the pyramids of Abu
Roash, Gizeh, Zawyet el- 'Aryan, Abusir, Sakkarah, and
Dahshur. Other places in Egypt where pyramids are found
are El-lahiin in the Fayum, and Kullah near Esneh. The
pyramids built by the Ethiopians at Meroe and Gebel
Barkal are of a very late date (b.c. 600-100), and are
mere copies, in respect of form only, of the pyramids in
Egypt. It is well to state at once that the pyramids
were tombs and nothing else. There is no evidence
whatever to show that they were built for purposes of
astronomical observations, and the theory that the Great
Pyramid was built to serve as a standard of measurement is
ingenious but worthless. The significant fact, so ably
pointed out by Mariette, that pyramids are only found in
cemeteries, is an answer to all such theories. Tomb-pyramids
were built by kings and others until the Xllth dynasty.
The ancient writers who have described and treated of the
pyramids are given by Pliny (Nat. Hist., xxxvi. 12, 17). If
we may believe some of the writers on them during the
Middle Ages, their outsides must have been covered with
inscriptions ; these were probably of a religious nature.* In
modern times they have been examined by Shaw (1721),
* " their surfaces exhibit all kinds of inscriptions written in
the characters of ancient nations which no longer exist. No one
knows what this writing is or what it signifies." Mas'udi (ed. Barbier
de Meynard), t. ii., p. 404.
134 NOTES FOR TRAVELLERS IN EGYPT.
Pococke (1743), Niebuhr (1761), Davison (1763), Bruce
(1768), Denon and Jumard (1799), Hamilton (1801),
Caviglia (1817), Belzoni (1817), Wilkinson {1831J, Howard
Vyse and Perring (1837-38), Lepsius (1S42-45), and
Petrie (1881).
It appears that before the actual building of a pyramid was
begun a suitable rocky site was chosen and cleared, a mass
of rock if possible being left in the middle of the area to
form the core of the building. The chambers and the
galleries leading to them were next planned and excavated.
Around the core a truncated pyramid building was made,
the angles of which were filled up with blocks of stone.
Layer after layer of stone was then built around the work,
which grew larger and larger until it was finished. Dr.
Lepsius thought that when a king ascended the throne, he
built for himself a small but complete tomb-pyramid, and
that a fresh coating of stone was built around it every year
that he reigned ; and that when he died the sides of the
pyramids were like long flights of steps, which his successor
filled up with right-angled triangular blocks of stone. The
door of the pyramid was walled up after the body of its
builder had been laid in it, and thus remained a finished
tomb. The explanation of Dr. Lepsius may not be correct,
but at least it answers satisfactorily more objections than do
the views of other theorists on this matter. It has been
pointed out that near the core of the pyramid the work is
more carefully executed than near the exterior, that is to
say, as the time for the king's death approached the work
was more hurriedly performed.
During the investigations made by Lepsius in and about
the pyramid area, he found the remains of about seventy-
five pyramids, and noticed that they were always built in
groups.
The pyramids of Gizch were opened by the Persians
during the fifth and fourth centuries before Christ ; it is
THE PYRAMIDS OF OtZEH. I35
probable that they were also entered by the Romans. Khalif
Mamun (a.d. 813-833) entered the Great Pyramid, and
found that others had been there before him. The trea.sure
which is said to have been discovered there by him is
probably fictitious. Once opened, it must have been evident
to every one what splendid quarries the pyramids formed,
and very few hundred years after the con(iuest of Egypt
by the Arabs they were laid under contribution for stone
to build mosques, etc., in Cairo. Early in the thirteenth
century Melik el-Kamil made a mad attempt to destroy
the third pyramid built by Mycerinus ; but after months
of toil he only succeeded in stripping off the covering
from one of the sides. It is said that Muhammad 'Ali
was advised to undertake the senseless task of destroying
them all.
THE GREAT PYRAMID.
This, the largest of the three pyramids at Gizeh, was built
byChufuf ® p a:^ !!F I °'' Cheops, the second king of the
IVth dynasty, B.C. 3733, who called it ^^ , ^ ,/\^ C//ut. His
name wsls found written in red ink upon the blocks of stone
inside it. All four sides measure in greatest length about
755 feet each, but the length of each was originally
about 20 feet more ; its height now is 451 feet, but it
is said to have been originally about 481 feet. The stone
used in the construction of this pyramid was brought
from Turra and Mokattam, and the contents amount to
85,000,000 cubic feet. The flat space at the top of the
pyramid is about thirty feet square, and the view from it is
very fine.
The entrance (a) to this pyramid is, as with all pyramids,
on the north side, and is about 45 feet above the ground.
The passage a b c is 320 feet long, 3^ feet high, and 4 feet
136
NOTES FOR TRAVELLERS IN EGYPT.
\o
« 4
THE PYRAMIDS OF GIZKH.
'37
wide; at e is a granite door, round whicli the path at d
has been made. The passage at d e is 125 feet long, and
the large hall e f is 155 feet long and 28 feet high ; the
passage e g leads to the pointed-roofed Queen's Chamber m,
which measures about 17 x 19 X 20 feet. The roofing in
of this chamber is a beautiful piece of mason's work. From
the large hall e f there leads a passage 22 feet long, the ante-
chamber in which was originally closed by four granite
doors, remains of which are still visible, into the King's
Chamber, j, which is lined with granite, and measures about
35 X 17 X 19 feet. The five hollow chambers k, l, m,
N, o were built above the King's Chamber to lighten
the pressure of the superincumbent mass. In chamber
o the name Chufu was found written. The air shafts p
and Q measure 234 feet x 8 inches x 6 inches, and 174 feet
X 8 inches X 6 inches respectively. A shaft from e to r leads
down to the subterranean chamber s, which measures 46 x
27 X io| feet. The floor of the King's Chamber, j, is about
140 ft. from the level of the base of the pyramid, and the
chamber is a little to the south-east of the line drawn from
T to u. Inside the chamber lies the empt)', coverless,
broken red granite sarcophagus of Cheops, measuring "j^x
34 ^ 33 feet. The account of the building of this pyramid is
told by Herodotus* as follows: "Now, they told me, that
to the reign of Rhampsinitus there was a perfect distribution
of justice, and that all Egypt w^as in a high state of
prosperity ; but that after him Cheops, coming to reign over
them, plunged into every kind of wickedness. For that,
having shut up all the temples, he first of all forbade them
to offer sacrifice, and afterwards he ordered all the Egyptians
to w^ork for himself; some, accordingly, were appointed to
draw stones from the quarries in the Arabian mountain
down to the Nile, others he ordered to receive the stones
when transported in vessels across the river, and to drag
* Bk. ii. 124-126.
138 NOTF.S FOR TRAVELLERS IN EGYPT.
them to the mountain called the Libyan. And they worked
to the number of 100,000 men at a time, each party during
three months. The time during which the people were
thus harassed by toil, lasted ten years on the road which
they constructed, along which they drew the stones, a work
in my opinion, not much less than the pyramid; for its
length is five stades (3,051 feet), and its width ten orgyae
(60 feet), and its height, where it is the highest, eight orgyae
(48 feet) ; and it is of polished stone, with figures carved on
it : on this road these ten years were expended, and in
forming the subterraneous apartments on the hill, on which
the pyramids stand, which he had made as a burial vault for
himself, in an island, formed by draining a canal from the
Nile. Twenty years were spent in erecting the pyramid
itself: of this, which is square, each face is eight plethra
(820 feet), and the height is the same; it is composed of
])olished stones, and jointed with the greatest exactness;
none of the stones are less than thirty feet. This pyramid
was built thus ; in the form of steps, which some call
crossse, others bomides. When they had first built it in
this manner, they raised the remaining stones by machines
made of short pieces of wood : having lifted them from the
ground to the first range of steps, when the stone arrived
there, it was put on another machine that stood ready on
the first range; and from this it was drawn to the second
range on another machine ; for the machines were equal in
number to the ranges of steps ; or they removed the
machine, which was only one, and portable, to each range in
succession, whenever they wished to raise the stone higher ;
for I should relate it in both ways, as it is related. The
highest parts of it, therefore, were first finished, and after-
wards they completed the parts next following ; but last of
all they finished the parts on the ground and that were
lowest. On the pyramid is shown an inscription, in
Egyptian characters, how much was expended in radishes,
THE PYRAMIDS OF GIZEH. 1 39
onions, and garlic, for the workmen ; which the interpreter,*
as I well remember, reading the inscription, told me
amounted to i,6oo talents of silver. And if this be really
the case, how much more was probably expended in iron
tools, in bread, and in clothes for the labourers, since they
occupied in building the works the time which I mentioned,
and no short time besides, as I think, in cutting and drawing
the stones, and in forming the subterraneous excavation.
[It is related] that Cheops reached such a degree of infamy,
that being in want of money, he prostituted his own daughter
in a brothel, and ordered her to extort, they did not say
how much ; but she exacted a certain sum of money,
privately, as much as her father ordered her ; and contrived
to leave a monument of herself, and asked every one that
came in to her to give her a stone towards the edifice she
designed : of these stones they said the pyramid was built
that stands in the middle of the three, before the great
pyramid, each side of which is a plethron and a half in
length." (Gary's translation.)
THE SECOND PYRAMID.
The second pyramid at Gizeh was built by Cha-f-Ra,
[ Q Jiu==_ O J, or Chephren, the third king of the IVth dy-
nasty, B.C. 3666, who called it "^=f ,ZA, , Jtr. His name has
not been found inscribed upon any part of it, but the fragment
of a marble sphere inscribed with the name of Cha-f-Ra,
* Herodotus was deceived l)y his interpreter, who clearly made up a
translation of an inscription which he did not understand. William of
Baldensel, who lived in the fourteenth century, tells us that the outer
coating of the two largest pyramids was covered with a great number of
inscriptions arranged in lines. (Wiedemann, Aeg. Geschichte, p. 179.)
If the outsides were actually inscribed, the text must have been purely
religious, like those inscribed inside the pyramids of Pepi, Tela, and
Unas.
I40 NOTES FOR TRAVELLERS IN EGYPT.
which was found near the temple, close by this pyramid,
confirms the statements of Herodotus and Diodorus
Siculus, that Chephren built it. * A statue of this king, now
in the Gizeh Museum, was found in the granite temple
close by. This pyramid appears to be larger than the
Great Pyramid because it stands upon a higher level of
stone foundation ; it was cased with stone originally and
polished, but the greater part of the outer casing has
disappeared. An ascent of this pyramid can only be made
with difficulty. It was first explored in 1816 by Belzoni
(born 1778, died 1823), the discoverer of the tomb of
Seti I. and of the temple of Rameses II. at Abu Simbel.
In the north side of the pyramid are two openings, one at
the base and one about 50 feet above it. The upper
opening led into a corridor 105 feet long, which descends
into a chamber 46^ x 16^ x 22-^ feet, which held the
granite sarcophagus in which Chephren was buried. The
lower opening leads into a corridor about 100 feet long,
which, first descending and then ascending, ends in the
chamber mentioned above, which is usually called Belzoni's
Chamber. The actual height is about 450 feet, and the
length of each side at the base about 700 feet. The rock
upon which the pyramid stands has been scarped on the
north and west sides to make the foundation level. The
history of the building of the pyramid is thus stated by
Herodotus * : " The Egyptians say that this Cheops reigned
fifty years ; and when he died, his brother Chephren sue
ceeded to the kingdom : and he followed the same practices
as the other, both in other respects, and in building a pyramid;
which does not come up to the dimensions of his brother's,
for I myself measured them ; nor has it subterraneous
chambers ; nor does a channel from the Nile flow to it, as
to the other ; but this flows through an artificial aqueduct
round an island within, in which they say the body of
* Lk. ii. 127.
THE PYRAMIDS OF CtZEH. 141
Cheops is laid. Having laid the first course of variegated
Ethiopian stones, less in height than the other by forty
teet, he built it near the large pyramid. They both stand
on the same hill, which is about 100 feet high. Chephren,
they said, reigned fifty-six years. 'I'hus io6 years are
reckoned, during which the Egyptians suffered all kinds of
calamities, and for this length of time the temples were
closed and never opened. From the hatred they bear them,
the Egyptians are not very willing to mention their names ;
but call the pyramids after Philition, a shepherd, who at
that time kept his cattle in those parts." (Gary's translation.)
THE THIRD PYRAMID.
The third pyramid at Gizeh was built by Men-kau-Ra,
( O r^^^^^ uul' '■^"'^ fourth king of the IVth dynasty, about
B.C. 3633, who called it <-i->/A,, -^^^'- Herodotus and
other ancient authors tell us that Men-kau-Ra, or Mycerinus,
was buried in this pyramid, but Manetho states that
Nitocris, a queen of the VI th dynasty, was the builder.
There can be, however, but little doubt that it was built by
Mycerinus, for the sarcophagus and the remains of the
inscribed coffin of this king were found in one of its
chambers by Howard Vyse in 1837. The sarcophagus,
which measured 8x3x2^ feet, was lost through the wreck
of the ship in which it was sent to England, but the
venerable fragments of the coffin are preserved in the
British Museum, and form one of the most valuable objects
in the famous collection of that institution. The inscription
reads : " Osiris, king of the North and South, Men-kau-Ra,
living for ever ! The heavens have produced thee, thou wast
engendered by Nut (the sky), thou art the offspring of Seb
(the earth). Thy mother Nut spreads herself over thee in
her form as a divine mystery. She has granted thee to be a
142 NOTES FOR TRAVELLERS IN EGYPT.
god, thou shalt nevermore have enemies, O king of the
North and South, Men-kau-Ra, hving for ever." This
formula is one which is found upon coffins down to the
latest period, but as the date of Mycerinus is known, it is
possible to draw some interesting and valuable conclusions
from the fact that it is found upon his coffin. It proves
that as far back as 3,600 years before Christ the Egyptian
religion was established on a firm base, that the doctrine of
immortality was already deeply rooted in the human mind.
The art of preserving the human body by embalming was
also well understood and generally practised at that early
date.
The pyramid of Men-kau-Ra, like that of Chephren, is
built upon a rock with a sloping surface ; the inequality of
the surface in this case has been made level by build-
ing up courses of large blocks of stones. Around the
lower part the remains of the old granite covering are
visible to a depth of from 30 to 40 feet. It is unfortunate
that this pyramid has been so much damaged; its injuries,
however, enable the visitor to see exactly how it was built,
and it may be concluded that the pyramids of Cheops and
Chephren were built in the same manner. The length of
each side at the base is about 350 feet, and its height is
variously given as 210 and 215 feet. The entrance is on
the north side, about thirteen feet above the ground, and a
descending corridor about 104 feet long, passing through an
ante-chamber, having a series of three granite doors, leads
into one chamber about 40 feet long, and a second cham-
ber about 44 long. In this last chamber is a shaft
which leads down to the granite-lined chamber about
twenty feet below, in which was found the sarcophagus and
wooden coffin of Mycerinus, and the remains of a human
body. It is thought that, in spite of the body of Mycer-
inus being buried in this pyramid, it was left unfinished
at the death of this king, and that a succeeding ruler of
THE PYRAMIDS OF CfZEH. I43
Egypt finished the pyramid and made a second chamber to
hold his or her body. At a short distance to the cast of
this pyramid are the ruins of a temj^ile which was probably
used in connexion with the rites performed in honour of the
dead king. In a.d. 1196 a delii)erate and systematic
attempt was made to destroy this pyramid by the command
of the Muhammedan ruler of Egypt. The account of the
character of Mycerinus and of his pyramid as given by
Herodotus is as follows: "They said that after him,
Mycerinus,* son of Cheops, reigned over Egypt ; that the
conduct of his father was displeasing to him ; and that he
opened the temples, and permitted the people, who were
worn down to the last extremity, to return to their employ-
ments, and to sacrifices ; and that he made the most just
decisions of all their kings. On this account, of all the
kings that ever reigned in Egypt, they praise him most, for
he both judged well in other respects, and moreover, when
any man complained of his decision, he used to make him
some present out of his own treasury and pacify his anger.
This king also left a pyramid much less than that
of his father, being on each side twenty feet short of three
plethra ; it is quadrangular, and built half way up of Ethio-
pian stone. Some of the Grecians erroneously say that this
pyramid is the work of the courtesan Rhodopis ; but they
evidently appear to me ignorant who Rhodopis was ; for
they would not else have attributed to her the building such
a pyramid, on which, so to speak, numberless thousands
of talents were expended ; besides, Rhodopis flourished in
the reign of Amasis, and not at this time ; for she was very
many years later than those kings who left these pyramids."'
(Gary's translation.)
In one of the three small pyramids near that of Mycerinus
the name of this king is painted on the ceiling.
* Book ii., 129, 134.
144 NOTES FOR TRAVELLERS IN EGYPT,
THE SPHINX.
The age of the Sphinx is unknown, and few of the facts
connected with its history have come down to these days.
Some years ago it was generally believed to have been
made during the rule of the kings of the Middle Empire over
Egypt, but when the stele which recorded the repairs made
in the temple of the sphinx by Thothmes IV., B.C. 1533,
came to light, it became certain that it was the work of one
of the kings of the Ancient Empire. The stele records that
one day during an after-dinner sleep, Harmachis appeared to
Thothmes IV., and promised to bestow upon him the crown
of Egypt if he would dig his image, i.e., the Sphinx, out of
the sand. At the end of the inscription part of the name
of Cha-f-Ra or Chephren appears, and hence some have
thought that this king was the maker of the Sphinx ; as the
statue of Chephren was subsequently found in the temple
close by, this theory was generally adopted. An inscription
found by Mariette near one of the pyramids to the east of
the pyramid of Cheops shows that the Sphinx existed in
the time of Chufu or Cheops. The Egyptians called the
Sphinx /«/ 1 p Jbas, and he represented the god Harmachis,
i.e., Heru-em-chut ^^ / fOi, "Horus in the horizon," or
the rising sun, the conqueror of darkness, the god of the
morning. On the tablet erected by Thothmes IV., Harma-
chis says that he gave life and dominion to Thothmes III.,
and he promises to give the same good gifts to his suc-
cessor Thothmes IV. The discovery of the steps which led
up to the Sphinx, a smaller Sphinx, and an open temple,
etc., was made by Caviglia, who first excavated this monu-
ment ; within the last few years very extensive excavations
have been made round it by the Egyptian Government, and
several hitherto unseen parts of it have been brought to
view. The Sphinx is hewn out of the living rock, but pieces
of stone have been added where necessary ; the body is
THE PYRAMIDS OF GIZEH. I45
about 150 feet long, the paws are 50 feet long, the head is
30 feet long, the face is 14 feet wide, and from the top of
the head to the base of the monument the distance is about
70 feet. Originally there probably were ornaments on the
head, the whole of which was covered with a limestone
covering, and the face was coloured red; of these decorations
scarcely any traces now remain, though they were visible
towards the end of the last century. The condition in
which the monument now appears is due to the savage
destruction of its features by the Muhammedan rulers of
Egypt, some of whom caused it to be used for a target.
Around this imposing relic of antiquity, whose origin is
wrapped in mystery, a number of legends and superstitions
have clustered in all ages ; but Egyptology has shown
I. that it was a colossal image of Ra Harmachis, and
therefore of his human representative upon earth, the king
of Egypt who had it hewn, and II. that it was in existence
in the time of, and was probably repaired by, Cheops and
Chephren, who lived about three thousand seven hundred
years before Christ.
The Temple of the Sphinx.
A little to the south-east of the Sphinx lies the large
granite and limestone temple excavated by M. Mariette
in 1853; statues of Chephren (now at Gizeh) were found
in it, and hence it has been generally supposed that he
was the builder of it. It is a good specimen of the solid
simple buildings which the Egyptians built during the
Ancient Empire. In one chamber, and at the end of the
passage leading from it, are hewn in the wall niches which
were probably intended to hold mummies.
The Tomb of Numbers.
This tomb was made for Cha-f-Ra-anch, a "royal relative"
and priest of Chephren (Cha-f-Ra), the builder of the second
146 NOTES FOR TRAVELLERS IN EGYPT.
pyramid. It is called the " tomb of numbers " because
the numbers of the cattle possessed by Chaf-Ra-anch are
written upon its walls.
Campbell's Tomb.
This tomb, named after the British Consul-General of
Egypt at that time, was excavated by Howard Vyse in
1837; it is not older than the XXVIth dynasty. The shaft
is about 55 feet deep; at the bottom of it is a small chamber
in which were found three sarcophagi in niches.
The pyramids of Gizeh are surrounded by a large
number of tombs of high officials and others connected
with the services carried on in honour of the kings who
built the pyramids. Some few of them are of considerable
interest, and as they are perishing little by little, it is
advisable to see as many of the best specimens as possible.
The Pyramids of Abu Roash.
These pyramids lie about six miles north of the
Pyramids of Gizeh, and are thought to be older than they.
Nothing remains of one except five or six courses of
stone, which show that the length of each side at the base was
about 350 feet ; a passage about 160 feet long leading
down to a subterranean chamber about 43 feet long. A
pile of stones close by marks the site of another pyramid ;
the others have disappeared. Of the age of these pyramids
nothing certain is known. The remains of a causeway
about a mile long leading to them are still visible.
The Pyramids of Abusir.
These pyramids, originally fourteen in number, were
built by kings of the Vth dynasty, but only four of them
are now standing, probably because of the poorness of
the workmanship and the careless way in which they were
put together. The most northerly i^yramid was built by
THE PYRAMIDS OK GIZKH.
•47
ell
Sahu-Ra, the second kint^ of the Vth
dynasty, B.C. 3533; its actual height is about 120 feet, and
the length of each side at the base about 220 feet. The
blocks of stone in the sepulchral chamber are exceptionally
large. Sahu-Ra made war in the peninsula of Sinai, he
founded a town near Esneh, and he built a temple to Sechet
at Memphis.
The pyramid to the south of that of Sahu-Ra was built
by r ^^ p <::>1 '^. fl\ ^1 '' Usr-en-Rd, son of the
Sun, An." This king, like Sahu-Ra, also made war in Sinai.
The largest of these three pyramids is now about 165 feet
high and 330 feet square ; the name of its builder is
unknown. Abusir is the Busiris of Pliny.
L 2
148 NOTES FOR TRAVELLERS IN EGYPT.
bedrashen, memphis, and
sakkArah.
The ruins of Memphis and the antiquities at Sakkarah
are usually reached by steamers or train from Cairo to Bed-
rashen. Leaving the river or station the village of Bedrashen
is soon reached, and a short ride next brings the traveller to
the village of Mit-Rahineh. On the ground lying for some
distance round about these two villages once stood the city
of Memphis, though there is comparatively little left to show-
its limits. According to Herodotus (ii., 99), " Menes, who
first ruled over Egypt, in the first place protected Memphis
by a mound ; for the whole river formerly ran close to
the sandy mountain on the side of Libya ; but Menes,
beginning about a hundred stades above Memphis, filled in
the elbow towards the south, dried up the old channel, and
conducted the river into a canal, so as to make it flow
between the mountains : this bend of the Nile, which flows
excluded from its ayicient course, is still carefully upheld by
the Persians, being made secure every year ; for if the river
should break through and overflow in this part, there would
be danger lest all Memphis should be flooded. When the
part cut off had been made firm land by this Menes, who
was first king, he in the first place built on it the city that is
now called Memphis ; for Memphis is situate in the narrow
part of Egypt ; and outside of it he excavated a lake from
the river towards the north and the west ; for the Nile itself
bounds it towards the east. In the next place, they relate
that he built in it the temple of Vulcan, which is vast and
well worthy of mention." (Gary's translation.)
Whether Menes built the town or not, it is quite certain
tliat the city of Memphis was of most ancient foundation.
BEDRASHEN, MEMPHIS, AND SAKKaRAII. 149
The reason why the kings of Egypt established their capital
there is obvious. From the peoi)lcs that lived on the
western l)ank of the river they had little to fear, but on
the eastern side they were always subject to invasions of
the peoples who lived in Mesopotamia, Syria, and Arabia ;
with their capital on the western bank, and the broad
Nile as a barrier on the east of it, they were comparatively
safe. Added to this, its situation at the beginning of
the Delta enabled it to participate easily of the good
things of that rich country. The tract of land upon which
Memphis stood was also fertile and well wooded. Diodorus
speaks of its green meadows, intersected with canals, and
of their pavement of lotus flowers ; Pliny talks of trees
there of such girth that three men with extended arms
could not span them ; Martial praises the roses brought
from thence to Rome ; and its wine was celebrated in
lands remote from it. The site chosen was excellent, for
in addition to its natural advantages it was not far from the
sea-coast of the Delta, and holding as it were a middle
position in Egypt, its kings were able to hold and rule the
country from Philte on the south to the Mediterranean on
the north. In the inscriptions it is called 1^^^^ I ^S:r /\ ®
Men-nefer* "the beautiful dwelling," \^^^^^ Het-Ptah-
ka, "the temple of the double of Ptah,"and i LI Aneb-het',
" the white-walled city." The last name calls to mind the
" White Castle " spoken of by classical writers. Teta, son
of Menes, built his palace there, and Ka-Kau f | | 'f; — ifl 1 ,
the second king of the Ilnd dynasty, h.c. 4100, established
the worship of Apis there. During the rule of the Illrd,
* The name Memphis is a corruption of Men-nefer ; the city is called
by the Arabs Mcnuf, and 1jy the Copts Meniti, Menli (jULGJULCjI,
JULenqi).
ICO NOTES FOR TRAVELLERS IN EGYPT.
I\'th, and Vlth dynasties, the kings of which sprang from
Memphis, that city reached a height of splendour which
was probably never excelled. The most celebrated building
there was the temple of Ptah, which was beautified and
adorned by a number of kings, the last of whom reigned
during the XXVIth dynasty. The Hyksos ravaged, but did
not destroy, the city ; under the rule of the Theban kings,
who expelled the Hyksos, the city flourished for a time,
although Thebes became the new capital. When Rameses II.
returned from his wars in the east, he set up a statue of
himself in front of the temple of Ptah there ; Pianchi the
Ethiopian besieged it ; the Assyrian kings Esarhaddon and
Assurbanipal captured it; Cambyses the Persian, having
wrought great damage there, killed the magistrates of the
city and the priests of the temple of Apis, and smote the
Apis bull so that he died ;* he established a Persian garrison
there. After the founding of Alexandria, Memphis lost
* "When Cambyses arrived at Memphis, Apis, whom the Greeks call
Epaphus, appeared to the Egj'ptians ; and when this manifestation
took place, the Egyptians immediately put on their richest apparel, and
kept festive holiday. Cambyses seeing them thus occupied, and con-
cluding that they made iheir rejoicings on account of his ill success,
summoned the magistrates to Memphis ; and when they came into his
presence, he asked, ' why the Eg)'ptians had done nothing of the kind
when he was at Memphis before, but did .so now, when he had returned
with the loss of a great part of his army.' They answered, that their
god appeared to them, who was accustomed to manifest himself at
distant intervals, and that when he did appear, then all the Egyptians
were used to rejoice and keep a feast. Cambyses, having heard this,
said they lied, and as liars he put them to death. Having slain them,
he next summoned the priests into his presence ; and when the priests
gave the same account, he said, that he would find out whether a god
so tractable had come among the Egyptians ; and having said this, he
commanded the ])riests to liring Apis to him ; they therefore went away
to fetch him. This Ajiis, or Epaphus, is the calf of a cow incapable of
conceiving another offspring ; and the Eg}-ptians say, that lightning
descends upon the cow from heaven, and that from thence it brings
BEDRASHi;N, MEMPHIS, AND SAKKARAH. 15 1
whatever glory it then possessed, and became merely the
chief provincial city of Egypt. During the reign of 'I'heo-
dosius, a savage attack, the result of his edict, was made
upon its temples and buildings by the Christians, and a few
hundred years later the Muhammedanh carried the stones,
which once formed them, across the river to serve as i)uild-
ing materials for their houses and mosques. 'I'he circuit
of the ancient city, according to Diodorus, was 150 stadia,
or about thirteen miles.
The Colossal Statue of Ramhses II.
This magnificent statue was discovered by Messrs.
Caviglia and Sloane in 1820, and was presented by them to
the British Museum. On account of its weight and the
lack of public interest in such matters, it lay near the road
leading from Bedrashen to Mit-Rahineh, and little by little
became nearly covered with the annual deposit of Nile mud ;
during the inundation the greater part of it was covered
by the waters of the Nile. During the winter of 1886-87 Sir
Frederick Stephenson collected a sum of money in Cairo
for the purpose of lifting it out of the hollow in which it
forth Apis. This calf, which is called Apis, has the following marks :
it is black, and has a squaie spot of white on the forehead ; and on the
back the figure of an eagle ; and in the tail double hairs ; and on the
tongue a beetle. When the priests brought Apis, Cambyses, like one
almost out of his senses, drew his dagger, meaning to strike the belly of
Apis, but hit the thigh ; then falling into a fit of laughter, he said to
the priests, ' V'e blockheads, are there such gods as these, consisting
of blood and flesh, and sensible to steel ? This, truly, is a god worthy
of the Egyptians. But you shall not mock me with impunity.' Having
spoken thus, he commanded those whose business it was, to scourge the
priests, and to kill all the Egyptians whom they should find feasting.
. . . But Apis, being wounded in the thigh, lay and languished in the
temple ; and at length, when he had died of the wound, the priests
buried him without the knowledge of Cambyses." — Herodotus, H.
27-29. (Gary's translation.)
152 NOTES FOR TRAVELLERS IN EGYPT.
lay, and the difficult engineering part of the task was ably
accomplished by Major Arthur Bagnold, R.E. This statue
is made of a fine hard limestone, and measures about forty-
two feet in height ; it is probably one of the statues which
stood in front of the temple of Ptah, mentioned by
Herodotus and Diodorus. The prenomen of Rameses II.
r© "I ^ S>-p W.W. I Ra-usr-mat-setep-en-Ra, is inscribed on
the belt of tlie sTatue, and on the end of the roll which the
king carries in his hand are the words " Rameses, beloved
of Amen." By the side of the king are figures of a daughter
and son of Rameses. The famous temple of Ptah founded
by Menes was situated to the south of the statue.
SakkArah.
The name Sakkarah is probably derived from the name
of the Egyptian god Seker ^^n:^ jj, who was connected with
the resurrection of the dead. The tract of land at Sakkarah
which formed the great burial ground of the ancient
Egyptians of all periods, is about four and a half miles
long and one mile wide ; the most important antiquities
there are : I. the Step Pyramid ; II. the Pyramids of Unas,
Teta, and Pepi, kings of the Vth and Vlth dynasties ; III.
the Serapeum ; and IV. the Tomb of Thi. Admirers of
M. Marietta will be interested to see the house in which
this distinguished savant lived.
I. The Step Pyramid is generally thought to have been
built by the fourth king of the 1st dynasty (called Uenephes
by Manetho, and \\ ^ "^ 1 Ata in the tablet of Abydos),
who is said to have built a pyramid at Kochome {i.e., Ka-
Kam) near Sakkarah. Though the date of this pyramid is
not known accurately, it is probably right to assume that it
is older than the pyramids of Gizeh. The door which led
into the pyramid was inscribed with the name of a king
called Ra-nub, and M. Mariettc found the same name on
BEDRASH^N, MEMPHIS, AND SAKKARAll. 153
one of the stelse in the Serapeum. The steps of the
pyramid are six in number, and are about ^8, 36, 34^, 32, 31
and 29^ feet in height : the width of each step is from six to
seven feet. The lengths of the sides at the base are : north
and south 352 feet, east and west 396 feet, and the actual
height is 197 feet. In shape this pyramid is oblong, and its
sides do not exactly face the cardinal points. The ar-
rangement of the chambers inside this pyramid is quite
peculiar to itself.
II. The Pyramid of Unas ( ^^ (| fj, called in Egyptian
Nefer-as-u, lies to the south-east of the Step Pyramid, and
was reopened and cleared out in 1881 by M. Maspero,
at the expense of Messrs. Thomas Cook and Son. Its
original height was about 62 feet, and the length of its
sides at the base 220 feet. Owing to the broken blocks
of sand which lie round about it, Vyse was unable to
give exact measurements. Several attempts had been
made to break into it, and one of the Arabs wlio took
joart in one of these attempts, "Ahmed the Carpenter,"
seems to have left his name inside one of the chambers in
red ink. It is probable that he is the same man who
opened the Great Pyramid at Gizeh, a.d. 820. A black
basalt sarcophagus, from which the cover had been dragged
off, and an arm, a shin bone, some ribs and fragments of
the skull from the mummy of Unas, were found in the
sarcophagus chamber. The walls of the two largest cham-
bers and two of the corridors are inscribed with ritual texts
and prayers of a very interesting character. Unas, the last
king of the Vth dynasty, reigned about thirty years. The
Mastabat el-Far'un was thought by Mariette to be the tomb
of Unas, but some scholars thought that the 'blunted
pyramid ' at Dahshur was his tomb, because his name was
written upon the top of it.
The Pyramid of Teta f^fjl, called in Egyptian
154 NOTES FOR TRAVELLERS IN EGYPT.
Tct-asu, lies to the north-east of the Step Pyramid, and was
opened in iSSi. The Arabs call it the "Prison Pyramid,"
because local tradition says that it is l)uilt near the ruins of
the prison where Joseph the patriarch was confined. Its
actual height is about 59 feet; the length of its sides at the
base is 210 feet, and the platform at the top is about
50 feet. The arrangement of the chambers and passages
and the plan of construction followed is almost identical
with that of the pyramid of Unas. This pyramid was
broken into in ancient days, and two of the walls of the
sarcophagus chamber have literally been smashed to pieces
by the hammer blows of those who expected to find
treasure inside them. The inscriptions, painted in green
upon the walls have the same subject matter as those
inscribed upon the walls of the chambers of the pyramid of
Unas. According to Manetho, Teta, the first king of the
Vlth dynasty, reigned about fifty years, and was murdered
by one of his guards.
The Pyramid of Pepi I. or [^ (jflj "^ [gjl] ' Ra-
meri, son of the Sun, Pepi,' lies to the south-east of the
Step Pyramid, and forms one of the central group of
pyramids at Sakkarah, where it is called the Pyramid of
Shekh Abu Mansiir; it was opened in 1880. Its actual
height is about 40 feet, and the length of the sides at
the base is about 250 feet ; the arrangement of the
chambers, etc., inside is the same as in the pyramids of
Unas and Teta, but the ornamentation is slightly difiFerent.
It is the worst preserved of these pyramids, and has suffered
most at the lands of the spoilers, probably because having
been constructed with stones which were taken from tombs
ancient already in those days, instead of stones fresh from
the quarry, it was more easily injured. The granite
sarcophagus was broken to take out the mummy, fragments
of which were found lying about on the ground ; the cover
BEDRASHEN, MEMPHIS, AND SAKKARAH. 155
too, smashed in pieces, lay on ihc ground close ijy. A
small rose granite box, containing alabaster jars, was also
found in the sarcophagus chamber. The inscriptions are,
like those inscribed on the walls of the pyramids of Unas
and Teta, of a religious nature; some scholars see in them
evidence that the ijyramid was usurped by another Pepi,
who lived at a much later period than the Vlth dynasty.
The pyramid of Pepi I., the second king of the Vlth
dynasty, who reigned, according to Manetho, fifty-three
years, was called in Egyptian by the same name as Memphis,
i.e., Men-nefer, and numerous priests were attached to its
service. Pepi's kingdom embraced all Egypt, and he
waged war against the inhabitants of the peninsula of Sinai.
He is said to have set up an obelisk at Heliopolis, and to
have laid the foundation of the temple at Denderah.
His success as a conqueror was due in a great measure to
the splendid abilities of one of his chief officers called Una,
who warred successfully against the various hereditary foes
of Egypt on its southern and eastern borders.
IH. The Serapeum or Apis Mausoleum contained the
vaults in which all the Apis bulls that lived at Memphis
were buried. According to Herodotus, Apis " is the calf of
a cow incapable of conceiving another offspring ; and the
Egyptians say that lightning descends upon the cow from
heaven, and that from thence it brings forth Apis. This calf,
which is called Apis, has the following marks : it is black,
and has a square spot of white on the forehead, and on the
back the figure of an eagle ; and in the tail double hairs ;
and on the tongue a beetle." Above each tomb of an Apis
bull was built a chapel, and it was the series of chapels which
formed the Serapeum properl}- so called ; it was surrounded
by walls like the other Egyptian temples, and it had jjylons
to which an avenue of sphinxes led. This remarkable
place was excavated in 1850 by M. Mariette, who having
seen in various parts of Egypt sphinxes upon which were
156 NOTES FOR TRAVELLERS IN EGYPT.
written the names of Osiris-Apis, or Serapis, concluded
that they must have come from the Serapeum or temple of
Serapis spoken of by Strabo. Happening, by chance, to
discover one day at Sakkarah a sphinx having the same
characteristics, he made up his mind that he had lighted
upon the remains of the long sought for building. The
excavations which he immediately undertook, brought to
light the Avenue of Sphinxes, eleven statues of Greek
philosophers, and the vaults in which the Apis bulls were
buried. These vaults are of three kinds, and show that the
Apis bulls were buried in different ways at different periods:
the oldest Apis sarcophagus laid here belongs to the reign
of Amenophis III., about B.C. 1500. The parts of the Apis
Mausoleum in which the Apis bulls were buried from the
XVIIIth to the XXVIth dynasty are not visible ; but the new
gallery, which contains sixty-four vaults, the oldest of which
dates from the reign of Psammetichus I., and the most
modern from the time of the Ptolemies, can be seen on
application to the guardian of the tombs. The vaults are
excavated on each side of the gallery, and each was
intended to receive a granite sarcophagus. The names
of Amasis II., Cambyses, and Chabbesha are found
upon three of the sarcophagi, but most of them are un in-
scribed. Twenty-four granite sarcophagi still remain in posi-
tion, and they each measure about 13 x 8 x 11 feet. The
discovery of these tombs was of the greatest importance
historically, for on the walls were found thousands of dated
stete which gave accurate chronological data for the history
of Egypt. These votive tablets mention the years, months,
and days of the reign of the king in which the Apis bulls,
in whose honour the tablets were set up, were born and
buried. The Apis tombs had been rifled in ancient times,
and only two of them contained any relics when M. Mariette
opened them out.
IV. The ToMR or Thi lies to the north-east of the Apis
BEDRASHEN, MEMPHIS, AND SAKKARAH. 157
Mausoleum, and was built during the Vth dynast)-, ahout
B.C. 3500. Thi t=^ [](|, was a man who held the dignities
of smer, royal councillor, superintendent of works, scribe of
the court, confidant of the king, etc. ; he held also jjriestly
rank as prophet, and was attached to the service of the
pyramids of Abu.sir. He had sprung from a family of humble
origin, but his abilities were so esteemed by one of the
kings, whose faithful servant he was, that a princess called
Nefer-hetep-s was given him to wife, and his children Thi
and Tamut ranked as princes. Thi held several high offices
under Kakaa [uul] and User-en-Ra [^^J p^]
kings of the Vth dynasty. The tomb oi mastaba of Thi is now
nearly covered with sand, but in ancient days the whole
building was above the level of the ground. The chambers
of the tomb having been carefully cleared, it is possible to
enter them and examine the most beautiful sculptures and
paintings with which the walls are decorated. To describe
these wonderful works of art adequately would require more
space than can be given here ; it must be sufficient to say
that the scenes represent Thi superintending all the various
operations connected with the management of his large
agricultural estates and farmyard, together with illustrations
of his hunting and fishing expeditions.
The necropolis of Sakkarah contains chiefly tombs of the
Ancient Empire, that is to say, tombs that were l)uilt during
the first eleven dynasties ; many tombs of a later period are
found there, but they are of less interest and importance,
and in many cases small, but fine, ancient tomlxs have been
destroyed to make them. As our knowledge of Egyptian
architecture is derived principally from tombs and temples,
a brief description of the most ancient toml)s now known
will not be out of place here ; the following observations on
them are based upon the excellent articles of M. Mariette
in the J^ej'ue Archhlogique, S. a'^""^, t. xix. p. 8 ff The tombs
158 NOTES FOR TRAVELLERS IN EGYPT.
of the Ancient Empire found at Sakkarah belong to two
classes, in the commoner of which the naked body was
buried about three feet deep in the sand. When the
yellowish-white skeletons of such bodies are found to-day,
neither fragments of linen nor pieces of coffins are visible ;
occasionally one is found laid within four walls roughly
built of yellow bricks made of sand, lime, and small stones.
A vaulted brick roof covers the space between the walls ; it
is hardly necessary to say that such tombs represent the last
resting places of the poor, and that nothing of any value is
ever found inside them. The tombs of the better sort are
carefully built, and were made for the wealthy and the great;
such a tomb is usually called by the Arabs viastaba'^ (the
Arabic word for * bench '), because its length in proportion
to its height is great, and reminded them of the long, low
seat common in Oriental houses, and familiar to them.
The mastaba is a heavy, massive building, of rectangular
shape, the four sides of which are four walls symmetrically
inclined towards their common centre. Each course of
stones, formed by blocks laid upon each other, is carried
a little behind the other. The largest mastaba measures
about 170 feet long by 86 feet wide, and the smallest about
26 feet by 20 feet: they vary in height from 13 to 30 feet.
The ground on which the mastabas at Sakkarah are built
is composed of rock covered with sand to the depth of a
few feet ; their foundations are always on the rock. Near
the pyramids of Gizeh they are arranged in a symmetrical
manner ; they are oriented astronomically to the true north,
and their larger axes are always towards the north. Though
they have, at first sight, the appearance of unfinished
pyramids, still they have nothing in common with pyramids
except their orientation towards the true north. Mastabas
are built of two kinds of stone and of l)ricks, and they arc
* Pronouncc<l mastaba (.Vrabic tUdaoA/c/.
BEDRASHEN, MEMPHIS, AND SAKKARAH. 159
usually entered on the eastern side ; their tops are ([uitc flat.
The interior of a mastaba may he divided into three parts :
the chamber, the sirddb* or place of retreat, and the pit.
The entrance is made through a door in the middle of the
eastern or northern side, and though the interior may he
divided into many chambers, it is usual only to find one.
The walls of the interior are sometimes sculptured, and in
the lower part of the chamber, usually facing the east, is a
stele ; the stele alone may be inscribed and the walls un-
sculptured, but no case is known where the walls are
sculptured and the stele blank. A table of offerings is
often found on the ground at the foot of the stele. A little
distance from the chamber, built into the thickness of the
walls, more often to the south than the north, is a high,
narrow place of retreat or habitation, called by the Arabs a
sirdab. This place was walled up, and the only communi-
cation between it and the chamber was by means of a
narrow hole sufficiently large to admit of the entrance of the
hand. One or more statues of the dead man buried in the
mastaba were shut in here, and the small passage is said to
have been made for the escape of the fumes of incense
which was burnt in the chamber. The pit was a sc]uare
shaft varying in depth from 40 to 80 feet, sunk usuall}-
in the middle of the larger axis of the mastaba, rather
nearer the north than the south. There was neither ladder
nor staircase, either outside or inside, leading to the funereal
chamber at the bottom of the pit, hence the coffin and the
mummy when once there were inaccessible. This pit was
sunk through the mastaba into the rock beneath. At the
bottom of the pit, on the south side, is an opening into a
passage, about four feet high, which leads obliquely to the
south-east ; soon after the passage increases in size in all
directions, and becomes the sarcophagus chamber, which
* A sirdab, strictly speakly, is a lofty, vaulted, subterranean chamber,
with a large opening in the north side to admit air in the hot season.
l6o NOTES FOR TRAVELLERS IN EGYPT.
is thus exactly under the upper chamber. The sarcophagus,
rectangular in shape, is usually made of limestone, and
rests in a corner of the chamber ; at Sakkarah they are
found uninscribed. When the mummy had been laid in
the sarcophagus, and the other arrangements completed,
the end of the passage near the shaft leading to the
sarcophagus chamber was walled up, the shaft was filled
with stones, earth, and sand, and the friends of the
deceased might reasonably hope that he would rest there
for ever. When M. Mariette found a mastaba without
inscriptions he rarely excavated it entirely. He found
three belonging to one of the first three dynasties ; forty-
three of the IVth dynasty ; sixty-one of the Vth dynasty ;
twenty-three of the Vlth dynasty ; and nine of doubtful
date. The Egyptians called the tomb " the house of
eternity," S^ ^, /^ t'etta.
MARIETTE'S HOUSE.
This house was the headquarters of M. Mariette and
his staff" when employed in making excavations in the
Necropolis of Sakkarah. It is not easy to properly esti-
mate the value to science of the work of this distinguished
man. It is true that fortune gave him the opportunity of
excavating some of the most magnificent of the buildings
of the Pharaohs of all periods, and of hundreds of ancient
towns ; nevertheless it is equally true that his energy and
marvellous power of work enabled him to use to the fullest
extent the means for advancing the science of Egyptology
which had been put in his hands. It is to be hoped that his
house will be preserved on its present site as a remembrance
of a great man who did a great work.
The ToMiJ OK Ptah-hetep, a priest who lived during the
Vth century, is a short distance from Mariette's house, and
well worthy of more than one visit.
BEDRASHKN, MEMPHIS, AND SAKKAKAH. i6r
The Pyramids of Dahshur.
These pyramids, four of stone and two cjf hrick, lie about
three and a half miles to the south of Mastabat el-Far'un.
The largest stone pyramid is about 326 feet high, and the
length of each side at the base is about 700 feet ; beneath
it are three subterranean chambers. The second ston^
pyramid is about 321 feet high, and the length of its sides
at the base is 620 feet ; it is usually called the " Pilunted
Pyramid," because the lowest parts of its sides are built at
one angle, and the completing parts at another. The larger
of the two brick pyramids is about 90 feet high, and the
length of the sides at the base is about 350 feet; the smaller
is about 156 feet high, and the length of its sides at the base
is about 343 feet.
The Quarries of Ma'sara and Turra.
These quarries have supplied excellent stone for building
purposes for six thousand years at least. During the
Ancient Empire the architects of the pyramids made their
quarrymen tunnel into the mountains for hundreds of yards
until they found a bed of stone suitable for their work, and
traces of their excavations are plainly visible to-day. The
Egyptians called the Turra quarry , j'**^ _^ t^^^^
Re-au, or Ta-re-au, from which the Arabic name I'urra
is probably derived. An inscription in one of the chambers
tells us that during the reign of Amenophis III. a new part
of the quarry was opened. Una, an officer who lived in
the reign of Pepi I., was sent to Turra by this king to bring
back a white limestone sarcophagus with its cover, libation
stone, etc., etc.
The Pyramid of Medum.
This pyramid, called by the Arabs El Haram el-Kaddal>,
or "the False Pyramid," is probably so named because it is
1 62 NOTES FOR TRAVELLERS IN EGYPT.
unlike any of the other pyramids known to them ; it is said
to have been built by Seneferu f P J ^^ p 1 the first
king of the IVth dynasty, but there is no evidence proving
that he did. The pyramid is about 115 feet high, and consists
of three stages : the first is 70, the second 20, and the third
about 25 feet high. The stone for this building was brought
from the Mokattam hills, but it was never finished ; as in all
other p)Tamids, the entrance is on the north side. When
opened in modern times the sarcophagus chamber was found
empty, and it would seem that this pyramid had been
entered and rifled in ancient days. On the north of this
pyramid are a number of mastabas in which ' royal relatives '
of Seneferu are buried ; the most interesting of these are
those of Nefermat, one of his feudal chiefs ( n =^
\ fl fl
erpa hil), and Atet his widow. The sculptures and general
style of the work are similar to those found in the mastabas
of Sakkarah.
W.\STA.
At Wasta, a town 55 miles from Cairo, is the railway
junction for the Fayiim. The line from Wasta runs west-
wards, and its terminus is at Medinet el-Fayum, a large
Egyptian town situated a little distance from the site of
Arsinoe in the Heptanomis,* called Crocodilopolisf by the
(Ireeks, because the crocodile was here worshipped. The
Egyptians called the Fayum Ta-she ^^Ff x^ " ^^^ ^^^^
district," and the name Fayum is the Arabic form of the
* Heptanomis, or Middle Egypt, was the district which separated
the Thcbaid from the Delta ; the names of the seven nomes
were : Memphites, Heracleopolites, Crocodilopolites or Arsinoites,
Aphroditoix)lites, Oxyrhynchites, Cynopolites, and Hermopolites.
The greater and lesser Oases were always reckoned parts of the
Heptanomis.
t In Kjjjplian | [J "^^i ^\V/f/- he/ SebeJ:.
EL-FAYi)M. 163
Coptic <|>IOXt.,* "the water." The FayCmi district has an
area of about 850 square miles, and is watered by a branch
of the Nile called the Bahr-Yiisuf, which flows into it through
the Libyan mountains. On the west of it lies the Birket el-
Kurun. This now fertile land is thought to have been
reclaimed from the desert by Amenemhat III., a king of
the Xllth dynasty. The Birket el-Kurun was formerly
thought to have been a part of Lake Moeris,| but more
modern travellers place both it and the Labyrinth to the
east of the Fayiim district. The Bahr-Yusuf is said by
some to have been excavated under the direction of the
patriarch Joseph, but there is no satisfactory evidence for
this theory ; strictly speaking it is an arm of the Nile, which
has always needed cleaning out from time to time, and
the Yusuf, or Joseph, after whom it is named, was probably
one of the Muhammedan rulers of Egypt. Herodotus saysij:
of Lake Moeris, •' The water in this lake does not spring from
the soil, for these parts are excessively dry, but it is conveyed
through a channel from the Nile, and for six months it flows
into the lake, and six months out again into the Nile. And
during the six months that it flows out it yields a talent of
silver (;^24o) every day to the king's treasury from the fish ;
but when the water is flowing into it, twenty minse (j^8o)."
The Labyrinth § stood on the bank of Lake Moeris, and a
number of its ruined chambers are still visible.
* From the Egyptian JK; (J (J VS J^ '^SSSC^ , Pa-iumd.
t From the Egyptian Ma-iir, "great water."
t Bk. II., 149.
§ "Yet the labyrinth surpasses even the pyramids. For it has
twelve courts enclosed with walls, with doors opposite each other, six
facing the north, and six the south, contiguous to one another ; and
the same exterior wall encloses them. It contains two kinds of rooms,
some under ground and some above ground over them, to the number
of three thousand, fifteen hundred of each. The rooms above ground
I myself went through, and saw, and relate from personal inspection.
M 2
1 64 NOTES FOR TRAVELLERS IN EGYPT.
Beni Suef, 73 miles from Cairo, is the capital of the
province bearing the same name, and is governed by a
Mudir. In ancient days it was famous for its textile fabrics,
and supplied Ahmim and other weaving cities of Upper
Egypt with flax. A main road led from this town to the
Fay urn.
UPPER EGYPT.
Maghaghah, 106 miles from Cairo, is now celebrated for
its large sugar manufactory, which is lighted by gas, and is
well worth a visit ; the manufacturing of sugar begins here
early in January.
Al)0ut twenty-four miles farther south, lying inland, on
the western side of the Nile, between the river and the
Bahr Yiisuf, is the site of the town of Oxyrhyncus, so called
by the Greeks on account of the fish which they believed
was worshipped there. The Egyptian name of the town
^^'^s ^^vS? ^% J Pa-mat'et, from which came the Coptic
Pemge, neJULXe, and the corrupt Arabic form Behnesa.
A little above Abu Girgeh, on the west bank of the Nile,
But the underground rooms I only know from report ; for the Egyptians
who have charge of the building would on no account show me them,
saying, that they were the sepulchres of the kings who originally built
this labyrinth, and of the sacred crocodiles. I can therefore only
relate what I have learnt by hearsay concerning the lower rooms ; but
the upper ones, which surpass all human works, I myself saw ; for the
passage through the corridors, and the windings through the courts,
from their great variety, presented a thousand occasions of wonder as
I passed from a court to the rooms, and from the rooms to the hall,
and to the other corridors from the halls, and to other courts from the
rooms. The roofs of all these are of stone, as also are the walls ; but
the walls are full of sculptured figures. Each court is surrounded with
a colonnade of white stone, closely fitted. And adjoining the extremity
of the labyrinth is a pyramid, forty orgya; (about 240 feet) in height,
on which large figures are carved, and a way to it has been made under
ground." Herodotus, Bk. II., 148 (Gary's translation).
CYNOPOLIS, IHK CONVENT OK THK PUl.LKY. 165
is the town of El-Kais, which marks the site of the ancient
CynopoHs or "Dog-city;" it was the seat of a Coptic bishop,
and is called Kais, R^IC, in Coptic.
Thirteen miles from Abu Girgeh, also on the west bank
of the Nile, is the town of Klusanah, 134 miles from Cairo,
and a few miles south, lying inland, is Samallut.
Farther south, on the east bank of the Nile, is Gebel el-
Ter, or the " Bird mountain," so called because tradition
says that all the birds of Egypt assemble here once a year,
and that they leave behind them when departing one solitary
bird, that remains there until they return the following year
to relieve him of his watch, and to set another in his place.
As there are mountains called Gebel et-Ter in all parts of
Arabic-speaking countries, because of the number of birds
which frequent them, the story is only one which springs
from the fertile Arabic imagination. Gebel et-Ter rises
above the river to a height of six or seven hundred feet, and
upon its summit stands a Coptic convent dedicated to Mary
the Virgin, but called sometimes the " Convent of the
Pulley," because the ascent to the convent is generally made
by a rope and pulley. Leaving the river and entering a fissure
in the rocks, the traveller finds himself at the bottom of a
natural shaft about 120 feet long. When Robert Curzon
visited this convent, he had to climb up much in the same
way as boys used to climb up inside chimneys. The convent
stands about 400 feet from the top of the shaft, and is built
of small square stones of Roman workmanship ; the Jieces-
sary repairs have, however, been made with mud or sun-
dried brick. The outer walls of the enclosure form a scjuare
which measures about 200 feet each way; they are 20 feet
high, and are perfecdy unadorned. Tradition says that it
was founded by the Empress Helena,* and there is in this
case no reason to doubt it. The church " is partly subter-
ranean, being built in the recesses of an ancient stone
* Died about a.d, 328, aged 80. (Sozomen, Eccla. Hist., II., 2.)
1 66 NOTES FOR TRAVELLERS IN EGYPT.
cjuarry ; the other parts of it are of stone plastered over.
The roof is flat and is formed of horizontal beams of palm
trees, upon which a terrace of reeds and earth is laid. The
height of the interior is about 25 feet. On entering the
door we had to descend a flight of narrow steps, which led
into a side aisle about ten feet wide, which is divided from
the nave by octagon columns of great thickness supporting
the walls of a sort of clerestory. The columns were sur-
mounted by heavy square plinths almost in the Eg)'ptian
style. I consider this church to be interesting from its
being half a catacomb, or cave, and one of the earliest
Christian buildings which has preserved its originality
it will be seen that it is constructed on the principle of a
Latin basilica, as the buildings of the Empress Helena
usually were." (Curzon, Monasteries of the Levant, p. 109.)
In Curzon's time the convent possessed fifteen Coptic books
with Arabic translations, and eight Arabic MSS. As the
monks were, and are, dreadfully poor, they used to descend
the rock and swim out to any passing boat to beg for
charity ; the Patriarch has forbidden this practice, but it is
not entirely discontinued. Two or three miles from the
convent are some ancient quarries having rock bas-reliefs
representing Rameses III. making an offering to the croco-
dile god Sebek ^^ before Amen-Ra.
MiNYEH.
Minyeh, 156^ miles from Cairo, on the west bank of the
Nile, is the capital of the province of the same name ; its
Arabic name is derived from the Coptic Mone, JULOIte,
which in turn represents the Egyptian /wvw^ Me7it in its old
name Chufu-mcnilt. There is a large sugar factory here in
which about 2,000 men are employed. A few miles south,
on the eastern side of the river, are some tombs, which
appear to have been hewn during the Ilird or IVth dynasty.
REN I HASAN. 167
BENI HASAN.
Beni Hasan, 171 miles from Cairo, on the cast bank
of the Nile, is remarkable for the valuable historical tombs
which are situated at a short distance from the site of the
villages grouped under that name. The villages of the
" Children of Hasan " were destroyed by order of Muham-
mad 'Ali on account of the thievish propensities of their
inhabitants. The Speos Artemidos is the first rock exca-
vation visited here. The king who first caused this cavern
to be hewn out was Thothmes IH. ; about 250 years later
Seti I. made additions to it, but it seems never to have been
finished. The cavern was dedicated to the lion-goddess
Sechet, who was called Artemis by the Greeks ; hence the
name "cavern of Artemis." The portico had originally
two rows of columns, four in each ; the cavern is about
21 feet square, and the niche in the wall at the end was
probably intended to hold a statue of Sechet.
There are about fifteen rock-tombs at Beni Hasan, but
only two of them, those of Ameni and Chnemu-hetep, are
of interest generally speaking. They were all hewn during
the XHth dynasty, but have preserved the chief character-
istics of the mastabas of Sakkarah, that is to say, they
consist of a chamber and a shaft leading down to a corridor,
which ends in the chamber containing the sarcophagus and
the mummy. As in the tombs at Aswan, a suitable layer
of stone was sought for in the hill, and when found the
tombs were hewn out. The walls were partly smoothed,
and then covered with a thin layer of plaster upon which
the scenes in the lives of the people buried there might be
painted. The columns and the lower parts of some of the
tombs are coloured red to resemble granite. The northern
tomb is remarkable for columns somewhat resembling those
subsequently termed Doric. Each of the four columns in
the tomb is about 1 7 feet high, and has sixteen sides ; the
1 68 NOTES FOR TRAVELLKKS IN EGYPT.
ceiling between each connecting beam, which runs from
column to column, is vaulted. The columns in the
southern tombs have lotus capitals, and are exceedingly
graceful.
The Tomb of Ameni belongs to the northern group
of tombs ; he is not the head of the family which was buried
at Beni Hasan, as has been sometimes asserted, for he
had no children. {Recueil de Travaux^l.,-^. x']^.) Ameni-
Amenemhat lived during the reign of Usertsen I., the second
king of the Xllth dynasty ; he was one of the feudal lords
of Egypt, and chief of the nome of Meh or Antinoe, and
chief president of the prophets. When quite a young man
he was sent in the place of his father, who was too old for
such work, to Ethiopia at the head of an army ; he settled the
frontiers of the country there, and came back to the king
laden with spoil and tribute. In many other expeditions he
was also perfectly successful. In the inscription on the tomb
he says, " I have done all that 1 have said. I am a gracious
and a compassionate man, and a ruler who loves his town.
I have passed the course of years as the ruler of Meh, and
all the labours of the palace have been carried out by my
hands. I have given to the overseers of the temples of the
gods of Meh 3,000 bulls with their cows, and I was in
favour in the palace on account of it, for I carried all the
products of the milk-bearing cows to the palace, and no
contributions to the king's storehouses have been more than
mine. I have never made a child grieve, I have never robbed
the widow, I have never repulsed the labourer, I have never
shut up a herdsman, I have never impressed, for forced
labour, the labourers of a man who only employed five men ;
there was never a person miserable in my time, no one
went hungry during my rule, for if there were years of
scarcity I ploughed up all the arable land in the nome of
Meh, up to its very frontiers on the north and south. By
this means I made its people live and procured for them
TOMBS OF AiMENI AND CHNEMU-HIiTEI'. 169
provisions, so that there was not a hungry person among
them. I gave to the widow the same amount as 1 gave to
the married woman, and I made no distinction between the
great and the Httle in all that I gave. And, behold, when
the inundation was great, and the owners of the land
became rich thereby, I laid no additional tax upon the
fields." The pictures on the walls represent scenes on the
farm, the battle-field, the hunting ground and the river ; the
various domestic pursuits of women are portrayed witli
wonderful skill. Ameni-Amenemhat, O i^^^ OQ Q ^^^^ "^ ,.=-J^
was the son of the lady Hennu ; the name of his father is
not given.
The Tomb of Chnemu-Hetep also belongs to the
northern group of tombs. Chnemu-hetep y ^I3> ■ ^ ^ was
one of the feudal lords of Egypt, a " royal relative," and the
commandant of the land on the east side of the nome of
Meh as far as the Arabian mountains ; he lived during
the reign of (^JJUJj] ^ QSk^J " Nub^-
kau-Ra, son of the sun, Amenemhat," the third king of
the Xllth dynasty. Of the history of this Egyptian gentleman
the following facts are known. During one of the expeditions
which Amenemhat I. made through Egypt, he raised to the
rank of a feudal lord and " governor of the hilly land on the
east of the nome of Meh," or Antinoe, the maternal grand-
father of Chnemu-Hetep. In the reign of Usertsen I., the
son of Amenemhat I., the title of nobility conferred upon this
man in the preceding reign was confirmed, and a large tract of
land, lying between the Nile and the Libyan mountains, was
added to his estates ; higher titles v/ere also bestowed upon
him in addition to those which he already possessed. The
lands on the east side of the river, together with all his
titles, passed into the hands of his eldest son Nccht. Necht
had a sister called Beqt, who likewise had a right to inherit
all titles and property. She married a man called Nehera,
I 70 NOTES FOR TRAVELLERS IN EGYPT.
the son of Sebek-anch, and bore to him an only son called
Chnemuhetep ; it was for him that this tomb was built. After
a time, for some reason not stated, the inheritance of Menat-
Chufu,* which had been held by his uncle Necht, became
vacant, and Amenemhat II. handed it over to the young
man Chnemu-hetep, together with all the titles and honours
which his grandfather had enjoyed by the command of
Amenemhat I. and Usertsen I. Chnemu-hetep married a
lady called Chati, by whom he had seven children ; one of
whom, by the favour of Amenemhat II., became the ruler of
Menat-Chufu. It has been said that Chnemu-hetep's grand-
father was the Ameni-Amenemhat whose tomb lies close by ;
it is, however, distinctly said in the inscription on Chnemu-
hetep's tomb that he was called Sebek-anch. This tomb is
famous for a remarkable scene painted on the north wall,
which represents the arrival in Egypt of a family of thirty-
seven persons belonging to the Aamu, a Semitic race, who
appear to have come thither to settle. The first person in
the scene is the Egyptian " royal scribe, Nefer-hetep," who
holds in his hands a piece of writing which states that in
the sixth year of Usertsen II. thirty-seven people of the
Aamu brought to Chnemu-hetep, the son of a feudal lord,
paint for the eyes called [jl I ]1 a\ mest'emet.
Behind the scribe stands an Egyptian superintendent, and
behind him the Aamu chief Abesha, "the prince of the foreign
country," together with his fellow-countrymen and women,
who have come with him ; in addition to the eye-paint, they
bring a goat as a present for Chnemu-hetep. The men of
the Aamu wear beards, and carry bows and arrows ; both
men and women are dressed in garments of many colours.
The home of the Aamu lay to the east of Palestine. In
this picture some have seen a representation of the arrival
O-Sl
/www
RODA. 171
of Jacob's sons in Egypt to buy corn ; there is no evidence
for the support of this theory. That the ;\amu were
shepherds or Hyksos is another theory that has been put
forth. The paintings in Chnemu-hetep's tomb are if
anything more beautiful than those in that of Ameni, and
they represent with wonderful fidelity the spearing of fish,
the netting of birds, the hunting of wild animals, etc., etc.
In the other tombs are most interesting scenes connected
with the daily occupations and amusements of the ancient
Egyptians. It is much to be wished that copies of all these
could be taken, for year by year they are slowly but surely
disappearing.
RODA.
Roda, 182 miles from Cairo, and the seat of a large sugar
manufactory, lies on the west bank of the river, just opposite
Shekh 'Abadeh, or Antinoe, a town built by Hadrian, and
named by him after Antinous,* who was drowned here in the
Nile. To the south of Antinoe lies the convent of Abu
Honnes (Father John), and in the districts in the immediate
neighbourhood are the remains of several Coptic buildings
which date back to the fifth century of our era. A little to
the south-west of Roda, lying inland, are the remains of the
city of Hermopolis Magna, called in Egyptian ^3^5 (d'
or I I , Chemennu, in Coptic Shmun, CtJAXOTIt ,
and in Arabic Eshmiinen ; the tradition which attributes
the building of this city to Eshmian, son of Misr, is worth-
less. The Greeks called it Hermopolis, because the
Egyptians there worshipped Thoth, ^^^, the scriljc of the
gods, who was named by the Greeks Hermes. A little
distance from the town is the spot where large numbers of
the ibis, a bird sacred to Thoth, were buried.
* A Bathynian youth, a favourite of the Em})eior Hadrian.
172 notes for travellers in egypt.
Melawi.
Malawi, 188 miles from Cairo, is situated on the west
bank of the river.
Haggi KandIl.
Haggi Kandil, 195 miles from Cairo, lies on the east bank
of the river, about Ave miles from the ruins of the city built by
, or Amenophis IV., the
Chut-en-dten, ( ^ ^ /v^^ l] "^
famous "heretic" king of the XVIIIth dynasty, whose
prenomenwasQ ^ 1 O -^^ © J,Nefer-cheperu-Raua-en-Ra.
Amenophis IV. was the son of Amenophis III., by a Meso-
potamian princess called Thi, who came from the land of
Mitanni. When the young prince Amenophis IV. grew up,
it was found that he had conceived a rooted dislike to the
worship of Amen-Ra, the king of the gods and great lord of
Thebes, and that he preferred the worship of the disk of the
sun to that of Amen-Ra ; as a sign of his opinions he called
himself "beloved of the sun's disk," instead of the usual and
time-honoured "beloved of Amen." The native Egyptian
priesthood disliked the foreign queen, and the sight of her son
with his protruding chin, thick lips, and other characteristic
features of the negro race, found no favour in their sight ;
that such a man should openly despise the worship of
Amen-Ra was a thing intolerable to the priesthood, and angry
words and acts were, on their jiart, the result. In answer to
their objections the king ordered the name of Amen-Ra to
be chiselled out of all the monuments, even from his father's
names. Rebellion then broke out, and Chut-en-aten
thought it best to leave Thebes, and to found a new city for
himself at a place between Memphis and Thebes, now
called Tell el-Amarna. The famous architect Bek, whose
father, Men, served under Amenophis III., designed the
temple buildings, and in a very short time a splendid town
with beautiful granite sculptures sprang out of the desert.
ASYUT. 173
As an insult to the priests and people of Thebes, he built
a sandstone and granite temple at Thebes in honour of the
god Harmachis. When Chut-en-aten's new town, Chut-aten,
"the splendour of the sun's disk," was finished, his mother
Thi came to live there ; and here the king passed his life
quietly with his mother, wife, and seven daughters. He
died leaving no male issue, and each of the husbands of
his daughters became king. In 1887 a number of im-
portant cuneiform tablets, which confirmed in a remarkable
manner many facts connected with this period of Egyptian
history, were found at Tell el-Amarna (see page 13). The
tombs in the rocks near Tell el-Amarna are of considerable
interest.
Gebel Ap.u Fadah.
Seventeen miles south of Haggi Kandil, 212 miles from
Cairo, on the east side of the river, is the range of low
mountains about twelve miles long known by this name.
Towards the southern end of this range there are some
crocodile mummy pits.
Manfalut.
Manfalut, 2 23-|- miles from Cairo, on the west bank of
the Nile, occupies the site of an ancient Egyptian town ;
Leo Africanus says that the town was destroyed by the
Romans, and adds that it was rebuilt under Muhammedan
rule. In his time he says that huge columns and buildings
inscribed with hieroglyphs were still visible. The Coptic
name Manbalot, "place of the sack,"* is the original of its
Arabic name to-day.
ASYUT.
Asyut, 249I miles from Cairo, is the capital of the
province of the same noime, and the seat of the Inspector-
General of Upper Egypt; it stands on the site of the
* JUL.L it ft^-XoT-.
174 NOTES FOR TRAVELLERS IN EGYPT.
ancient Egyptian city called — «— ^ ^ g Sent, whence the
Arabic name Siut or Asyilt, and the Coptic CltWOTT.
The Greeks called the city Lycopolis, or "wolf city,"
probably because the jackal-headed Anubis was worshipped
there. Asyut is a large city, with spacious bazaars and fine
mosques ; it is famous for its red pottery and for its market,
held every Sunday, to which wares from Arabia and Upper
Egypt are brought. The American Missionaries have a
large establishment, and the practical, useful education of
the natives by these devoted men is carried on here, as well
as at Cairo, on a large scale. The Arabic geographers
described it as a town of considerable size, beauty, and
importance, and before the abandonment of the Sudan by
the Khedive, all caravans from that region stopped there.
In the hills to the west of the town are a number of ancient
Egyptian tombs, which date back as far as the Xlllth
dynasty. A large number have been destroyed during the
present century for the sake of the limestone which forms
the walls. When M. Denon stayed here he said that the
number of hieroglyphic inscriptions which cover the tombs
was so great that many months would be required to read,
and many years to copy them. The disfigurement of the
tombs dates from the time when the Christians took up
their abode in them.
Fifteen miles farther south is the Coptic town of Abu
Tig, the name of which appears to be derived from
AlloeHKH, a "granary;" and 14^ miles beyond, 279 miles
from Cairo, is Kau el-Kebir (the KUJOT of the Copts), which
marks the site of Antaeopolis, the capital of the Antaeopolite
nome in Upper Egypt. The temple which formerly existed
here was dedicated to Antaeus, the Libyan wrestler, who
fought with Hercules. In the plain close by it was thought
that the battle between Horus, the son of Osiris and Isis,
and Set or Tyjjhon, the murderer of Osiris, took place ;
WHITK AND RED MONASTERIES. 1 75
Typhon was overcome, and fled away in the form of a
crocodile. In Christian times Antaeopolis was the .seat of
a bishop.
Tahtah, 294 miles from Cairo, contains some interest-
ing mosques, and is the home of a large number of Copts,
in consequence of which, probably, the town is kept clean. '
SUHAK (SoHAG), and THE WhITE AND ReD
Monasteries.
Suhak, 317I miles from Cairo, is the capital of the
province of Girgeh ; near it are the White and Red
Monasteries.
The Der el-Abyad or "White Monastery," so-called
because of the colour of the stone of which it is built, but
better known by the name of Amba Shenudah, is situated
on the west bank of the river near Suhak, 317I miles from
Cairo. " The peculiarity of this monastery is that the in-
terior was once a magnificent basilica, while the exterior
was built by the Empress Helena, in the ancient Egyptian
style. The walls slope inwards towards the summit, where
they are crowned with a deep overhanging cornice. The
building is of an oblong shape, about 200 feet in length by
90 wide, very well built of fine blocks of stone ; it has no
windows outside larger than loopholes, and these are at a
great height from the ground. Of these there are twenty
on the south side and nine at the east end. The monas-
tery stands at the foot of the hill, on the edge of the
Libyan desert, where the sand encroaches on the plain. . .
.... The ancient doorway of red granite has been
partially closed up." (Curzon, Monasteries of the Lez'a/it,
p. 131.) There were formerly six gates- the single en-
trance now remaining is called the "mule gate," because
when a certain heathen princess came riding on a mule
to desecrate the church, the earth opened and swallowed
her up. The walls enclose a space measuring about 240
176 NOTES FOR TRAVELLERS IN EGYPT.
feet by 133 feet. The convent was dedicated to Shenuti,
a celebrated Coptic saint who hved in the fourth century
of our era.* Curzon says (^/. <://., p. 132) "The
tall granite columns of the ancient church reared themselves
like an avenue on either side of the desecrated nave, which
is now open to the sky, and is used as a promenade for a
host of chickens The principal entrance was
formerly at the west end, where there is a small vestibule,
immediately within the door of which, on the left hand, is
a small chapel, perhaps the baptistery, about twenty-five
feet long, and still in tolerable preservation. It is a
splendid specimen of the richest Roman architecture of the
latter empire, and is truly an imperial little room. The
arched ceiling is of stone ; and there are three beautifully
ornamented niches on each side. The upper end is semi-
circular, and has been entirely covered with a profusion of
sculpture in panels, cornices, and every kind of archi-
tectural enrichment. When it was entire, and covered
with gilding, painting, or mosaic, it must have been most
gorgeous. The altar on such a chapel as this was probably
of gold, set full of gems ; or if it was the bapistery, as I
suppose, it most likely contained a bath of the most
precious jasper, or of some of the more rare kinds of marble,
for the immersion of the converted heathen, whose entrance
into the church was not permitted until they had been
purified with the waters of baptism in a building without
the door of the house of God " (p. 135). The library once
contained over a hundred parchment books, but these were
destroyed by the Mamelukes when they last sacked the
convent.
The Der el-Ahmar or "Red Monastery," so-called be-
cause of the red colour of the bricks of which it is built,
was also built by the Empress Helena ; it is smaller and
* Sheniulah, Coptic CyertO'¥"| Shenuti, was born A. i). 333; he
died at midday on July 2, a.d. 451.
AHMIM, MENSHIAH, GIRGEH. 177
better preserved than the White Monastery, and was
dedicated to the Abba Besa, the disciple and friend of
Shenuti. The pillars of both churches were taken from
Athribis, which lay close by; the orientation of neither
church is exact, for their axes point between N.E. and
N.E. by E. The ruined church of Armant. near Thebes is
built on the same model..
Ahm!m.
A few miles south of Suhak, on the east bank ot the
river, lies the town of Ahmim, called Shmin or Chmim,
cyJULirt, ^JULIJUL, by the Copts, and Panopolis by the
Greeks ; Strabo and Leo Africanus say that it was one of the
most ancient cities- of Egypt. The ithyphallic god Amsu,
identified by the Greeks, with Pan, was worshipped here,
and the town was famous for its linen weavers and stone
cutters. Its Egyptian name was l] D p © Apu. In
ancient days it had a large population of Copts, and large
Coptic monasteries stood close by.
Menshiah, on the west bank of the river, 328^ miles from
Cairo, stands on the site of a city which is said to have been
the capital of the Panopolite nome ; its Coptic name was
Psoi, ■^''tAJI. In the time of Shenuti the Blemmyes, a nomad
warlike Ethiopian tribe, invaded Upper Egypt, and having
acquired much booty, they returned to Psoi or Alenshiah,
and settled dow^n there.
Girgeh, on the east bank of the river, 34 1| miles from
Cairo, has a large Christian population, and is said to
occupy the site of the ancient This, whence sprang the first
dynasty of historical Egyptian kings.
178 NOTES FOR TRAVELLERS IN EGYPT.
ABYDOS.*
Abyd0S,t in Egyptian 'fj¥' Abtu, Coptic e^03T,
Arabic Harabat el-Madfianah, on the west bank of the Nile,
was one of the most renowned cities of ancient Egypt ; it
was famous as the chief seat of the worship of Osiris in
Upper Egypt, because the head of this god was supposed to
be buried here. The town' itself was dedicated to Osiris,
and the temple in it, wherein the most solemn ceremonies
connected with the worship of this god were celebrated, was
more revered than any other in the land. The town and
its necropolis were built side by side, and the custom
usually followed by the Egyptians in ' burying their dead
away from the town in the mountains was not followed
in this case. Though the hills of fine white stone were
there ready, the people of Abydos did not make use of
them for funereal purposes ; the sandy plain interspersed
every here and there with rocks was the place chosen for
burial. The town of Abydos, a small town even in its best
time, was built upon a narrow tongue of land situated
between the canal, which lies inland some few miles, and
the desert. It owed its importance solely to the position it
held as a religious centre, and from this point of view it was
the second city in Egypt. Thebes, Abydos, and Heliopolis
practically represented the homes of religious thought and
learning in Egypt. The necropolis of Abydos is not much
older than the Vllh dynasty, and the tombs found there
* The Temples at Abydos are visited by Messrs. Cook's travellers
on the return journey to Cairo.
t Greek" AfSvSoi; ; see Pape, Worterbuch, p. 4. That the name was
pronounced Abydos, and not Abydos, is clear from : —
Kai ^iiaruv Kui' A fivCov ixov Kai Slav ' Apia^qv.
Iliad, ii., 836.
ABYDOS. i-jg
belonging to this period are of the mastaba class. During
the Xlth and Xllth dynasties the tomI)s took the form of
small pyramids, which were generally built of brick, and the
ancient rectangular form of tomb was revived during the
XVIIIth dynasty. Abydos attained its greatest splendour
under the monarchs of the Xlth and Xllth dynasties, and
though its plain was used as a burial ground as late as
Roman times, it became of little or no account as early as
the time of Psammetichus I, It has often been assumed
that the town of Abydos is to be identified with This, the
home of Menes, the first historical king of Egypt ; the
evidence derived from the exhaustive excavations made by
M. Mariette does not support this assumption. No trace of
the shrine of Osiris, which was as famous in Upper Egypt as
was the shrine of the same god at Busiris in Lower Egypt,
has been found in the temple ; neither can any trace be
discovered of the royal tombs which Rameses II. declares
he restored. Plutarch says that wealthy inhabitants of
Egypt were often brought to Abydos to be buried near the
mummy of Osiris, and curiously enough, the tombs close
to certain parts of the temple of Osiris are more carefully
executed than those elsewhere. Of Abydos Strabo says
(Bk. XVIL, cap. i., sec. 42), "Above this city (Ptolemais) is
Abydos, where is the palace of Memnon, constructed in a
singular manner, entirely of stone, and after the plan of the
Labyrinth, which we have described, but not composed of
many parts. It has a fountain situated at a great depth.
There is a descent to it through an arched passage built
with single stones of remarkable size and workmanship.
There is a canal which leads to this place from the great
river. About the canal is a grove of Egyptian acanthus,
dedicated to Apollo. Abydos seems once to have been a
large city, second to Thebes. At present it is a small town.
But if, as they say, Memnon is called Ismandes by the
Egyptians, the Labyrinth might be a Memnonium, and the
N 2
I So NOTES FOR TRAVELLERS IN EGYPT,
work of the same person who constructed those at Abydos
and at Thebes ; for in those places, it is said, are some
Memnonia. At Abydos Osiris is worshipped ; but in the
temple of Osiris no singer, nor player on the pipe, nor on
the cithara, is permitted to perform at the commencement
of the ceremonies celebrated in honour of the god, as !s
usual in rites celebrated in honour of the gods." (Bk. XVII.
I, 44, Falconer's translation.) The principal monuments
which have been brought to light by the excavations of
M. Mariette at Abydos are : —
I. The Temple of Seti I.,* and the Temple of
Rameses II.
The Temple of Seti I., better known as the Mem-
nonium, is built of fine white calcareous stone upon an
artificial foundation made of stone, earth and sand, which has
been laid upon a sloping piece of land ; it was called Mcn-
mat-Ra,t after the prenomen of its builder. The Phcenician
graffiti show that the temple must have ceased to be used
at a comparatively early period. It would seem that it was
nearly finished when Seti I. died, and that his son Rameses
II. only added the pillars in front and the decoration.
Its exterior consists of two courts, A and B, the wall which
divides them, and the facade ; all these parts were built by
Rameses II. The pillars are inscribed with religious scenes
and figures of the king and the god Osiris. On the large
wall to the south of the central door is an inscription in
which Rameses II. relates all that he has done for the
honour of his father's memory, how he erected statues of
* The plans of the principal temples of Egypt printed in this book
are copied from those which accompany the Kapport siir Us Temples
EfDptieus aJresse li S.E. Le Miuistre des Travaux Publics par Grand
Bey. This gentleman's plans were made as recently as l8i8, and arc
more complete than the more elaborate drawings given by Lepsius
in his Denkmiiler, and by other sat'anls.
ZL
Plan of the Temple of Seti I. at Abydo?.
l82 NOTES FOR TRAVELLERS IN EGYPT.
him at Thebes and Memphis, and how he built up the
sacred doors. At the end of it he gives a brief sketch of
his childhood, and the various grades of rank and dignities
which he held. In the interior the first hall, C, is of the
time of Rameses II., but it is possible to see under the
rough hieroglyphics of this king, the finer ones of Seti I.;
this hall contains twenty-four pillars arranged in two rows.
The scenes on the walls represent figures of the gods and of
the king offering to them, the names of the nomes, etc., etc.
The second hall, D, is larger than the first, the style and
finish of the sculptures are very fine, the hieroglyphics are
in relief, and it contains 36 columns^ arranged in three rows.
From this hall seven short naves dedicated to Horus, Isis,
Osiris, Amen, Harmachis, Ptah, and Seti I. respectively, lead
into seven vaulted chambers, E, F, G, H, I, J, K, beautifully
shaped and decorated, which are dedicated to the same
beings. The scenes on the walls of six of these chambers
represent the ceremonies which the king ought to perform
in them ; those in the seventh refer to the apotheosis of the
king. At the end of chamber G is a door which leads
into the sanctuary of Osiris, L, and in the corridor M is the
famous Tablet of Abydos, which gives the names of
seventy-six kings of Egypt, beginning with Menes and
ending with Seti I. The value of this most interesting
monument has been pointed out on p. 3.
The Temple of Rameses II. was dedicated by this king
to the god Osiris ; it lies a little to the north of the temple of
Seti I. Many distinguished scholars thought that this was
the famous shrine which all Egypt adored, but the ex-
cavations made there by M. Mariette proved that it was
not. It would seem that during the French occupation
of Egypt in the early part of this century this temple
stood almost intact; since that time, however, so much
damage has been wrought upon it, that the portions of
vail which now remain are only about eight or nine feet
Plan of the Temple of Rameses II. at Abydos.
184 NOTES FOR TRAVELLERS IN EGYPT.
high. The fragment of the second Tablet of Abydos, now
in the British Museum, came from this temple. The few
scenes and fragments of inscriptions which remain are
interesting but not important.
A little to t"he north of the temple of Rameses II. is
a Coptic monastery, the church of which is dedicated to
Amba Musas.
pARSHtjT AND KasR ES-SaYVAd.
Farshut, 368 miles from Cairo, on the west bank of
the river, called in Coptic Hep^^OTT, contains a sugar
factory.
Kasr es-S.\yyad, or "the hunter's castle," 376 miles
from Cairo, on the east bank of the river, marks the site
of the ancient Chenoboscion. The Copts call the town
cyeitecHT".
KENEH and the TEMPLE OF DENDERAH.*
Keneh, 405^ miles from Cairo, on the east bank of
the river, is the capital of the province of the same name.
This city is famous for its dates, and the trade which it
carries on with the Arabian peninsula.
A short distance from the river, on the west bank, a
little to the north of the village of Denderah, stands the
Temple of Denderah, which marks the site of the
classical Tentyra or Tentyris, called TertXOJpe by the
Copts, where the goddess Hathor was worshipped. During
the Middle Empire quantities of flax and linen fabrics
* The Greek Tentyra, or Tentyris, is derived from the Egj-ptian
e«CZ> © = <^^^ Tacn-ta-rert ; the name is
also written
^©
TEMPLE OF DENDERAH. I 85
were produced at Tentyra, and it gained some reputation
thereby. In very ancient times Chufu or Cheops, a king
of the IVth dynasty, founded a temple here, but it seems
never to have become of much importance,* probably
because it lay so close to the famous shrines of Abydos
and Thebes. The wonderfully preserved 'J'emple now
standing there is probably not older than the beginning
of our era ; indeed, it cannot, in any case, be older
than the time of the later Ptolemies : hence it must
be considered as the architectural product of a time when
the ancient Egyptian traditions of sculpture were already
dead and nearly forgotten. It is, however, a majestic
monument, and worthy of careful examination.! Strabo
says (Bk. xvii., ch. i. 44) of this town and its inhabitants :
" Next to Abydos is the city Tentyra, where the
crocodile is held in peculiar abhorrence, and is regarded as
the most odious of all animals. For the other Egyptians,
although acquainted with its mischievous disposition, and
hostility towards the human race, yet worship it, and abstain
from doing it harm. But the people of Tentyra track and
destroy it in every way. Some, however, as they say of
the Psyllians of Cyrensea, possess a certain natural anti-
pathy to snakes, and the people of Tentyra have the same
dislike to crocodiles, yet they suffer no injury from them,
but dive and cross the river when no other person ventures
to do so. When crocodiles were brought to Rome to
be exhibited, they were attended by some of the Tentyrit^e.
* M. Mariette thought that a temple to Hathor existed at Denderah
during the Xllth, XVIIIth and XlXth dynasties.
t "Accessible comme il Test aujourd'hui jusque dans la dernicre de
ses chanibres, il semble se presenter au visiteur comme un livre qu'il
n'a qu'a ouvrir at a consulter. Mais le temple de Denderah est, en
somme, un monument terriblement complexe. ... II faudrait plusieurs
annees pour copier tout ce vaste ensemble, et il faudrait vingt volumes
du format (folio !) de nos quatre volumes de planches pour le publier."
— Mariette, Dendhah, Description GcncraU, p. 10.
1 86 NOTES FOR TRAVELLERS IN EGVPT.
A reservoir was made for them with a sort of stage on
one of the sides, to form a basking place for them on
coming out of the water, and these persons went into
the water, drew them in a net to the place, where they
might sun themselves and be exhibited, and then dragged
them back again to the reservoir. The people of Tentyra
worship Venus. At the back of the fane of Venus is
a temple of Isis; then follow, what are called Typhoneia,
and the canal leading to Coptos, a city common both to
the Egyptians and Arabians." (Falconer's translation.)
It will be remembered that Juvenal witnessed a fight
between the crocodile worshippers of Kom Ombo and the
crocodile haters of Tentyra.
On the walls and on various other parts of the temples are
the names of several of the Roman Emperors ; the famous
portraits of Cleopatra and Caesarion her son are on the
end wall of the exterior. Passing along a dcomos for about
250 feet, the portico. A, open at the top, and supported
by twenty-four Hathor-headed columns, arranged in six rows,
is reached. Leaving this hall by the doorway facing the
entrance, the visitor arrives in a second hall, B, having six
columns and three small chambers on each side. The two
chambers C and D have smaller chambers on the right
and left, E was the so-called sanctuary, and in F the emblem
of the god worshipped in the temple was placed. f>om a
room on each side of C a staircase led up to the roof.
The purposes for which the chambers were used are stated
by M. Mariette in his Denderah, Descrip. Gen. du Grand
Temple de cette ville. On the ceiling of the portico is the
famous " Zodiac," which was thought to have been made in
ancient Egyptian times; the Greek inscription=.'\,D. 35,
written in the twenty-first year of Tiberius, and the names
of the Roman Emperors, have clearly proved that, like that
at Esneh, it belongs to the Roman time. The Zodiac
from Denderah, now at Paris, was cut out, with the permis-
Plan of the Temple at Denderah.
1 88 NOTES FOR TRAVELLERS IN EGYPT.
sion of Muhammad 'Ali, in 182 1, from the small temple of
Osiris, generally called the " Temple on the Roof."
The Iseium is situated to the south of the temple of
Hathor, and consists of three chambers and a corridor ;
near by is a pylon which was dedicated to Isis in the 31st
year of Caesar Augustus.
The Mammisi, "^^ m), Pa-mestu, or " house of giving
birth," also built by Augustus, is the name given to the
celestial dwelling where the goddess was supposed to have
brought forth the third person of the triad which was adored
in the temple close by.
The Typhonium stands to the north of the Temple
of Hathor, and was so named because the god Bes ^,
figures of whom occur on its walls, was confused with
Typhon ; it measures about 120 feet x 60 feet, and is sur-
rounded by a peristyle of twenty-two columns.
The Temple of Denderah was nearly buried among the
rubbish which centuries had accumulated round about it,
and a whole village of wretched mud-huts actually stood
upon the roof ! The excavation of this fine monument was
undertaken and completed by M. Mariette, who published
many of the texts and scenes inscribed upon its walls in
his work mentioned above.
The crocodile was worshipped at Kom Ombo, and
Juvenal gives an account of a fight which took place
between the people of this place and those of Denderah,
in which one of the former stumbled, while running along,
and was caught by his foes, cut up, and eaten.
A few miles beyond Denderah, on the east bank of the
river, lies the town of Koft, the zl J ® Qebt of the hiero-
glyphics, and KeqT of the Copts; it was the principal city
in the Coptites nome, and was the Thebais Secunda of the
Itineraries. From Koft the road which crossed the desert
NAKADAH (nAGADa). 1 89
to Berenice on the Red Sea started, and the merchandise
which passed through the town from the east, and the stone
from the famous porphyry quarries in the Arabian desert
must have made it wealthy and important. It held the
position of a port on the Nile for merchandise from a very
early period ; and there is no doubt that every Egyptian
king who sent expeditions to Punt, and the countries round
about, found Koft most usefully situated for this purpose.
A temple dedicated to the ithyphallic god Amsu, Isis and
Osiris, stood here. It was nearly destroyed by Diocle-
tian A.D. 292. A copy of a medical papyrus in the
British Museum states that the work was originally dis
covered at Coptos during the time of Cheops, a king of
the IVth dynasty ; it is certain then that the Egyptians
considered this city to be of very old foundation.
NAKADAH (nAGADA).
Nakadah, 428 miles from Cairo, on the west bank of
the river, nearly opposite the island of Matarah, was the
home of a large number of Copts in early Christian times,
and several monasteries were situated there. The four
which now remain are dedicated to the Cross, St. Michael,
St. Victor, and St. George respectively, and tradition says
that they were founded by the Empress Helena ; the most
important of them is that of St. Michael. The church in
this monastery "is one of the most remarkable Christian
structures in Egypt, possessing as it does some unique
peculiarities. There are four churches, of which three
stand side by side in such a manner that they have a single
continuous western wall. Two of the four have an apsidal
haikal with rectagular side chapels, while the other two are
entirely rectangular; but the two apses differ from all other
apses in Egyptian churches by projecting . . . beyond the
eastern wall and by showing an outward curvature. They
form a solitary exception to the rule that the Coptic apse is
190 NOTES FOR TRAVELLERS IN EGYPT.
merely internal, and so far belong rather to Syrian archi-
tecture than to Coptic. The principal church shows two
other features which do not occur elsewhere in the Christian
buildings of Egypt, namely, an external atrium surrounded
with a cloister, and a central tower with a clerestory
Possibly the same remark may apply to the structure of the
iconostasis, which has two side-doors- and no central
entrance, though this arrangement is not quite unparalleled
in the churches of Upper Egypt, and may be a later altera-
tion. It will be noticed that the church has a triple
western entrance from the cloisters." (Butler, Ancient Coptic
Churches of Egypt, Vol. I., p. 361.)
IQI
LUXOR (EL-KUSUR) AND THEBES.
Luxor, 450 miles from Cairo, on the east hank of the
river, is a small town with a few thousand inhabitants, and
owes its importance to the fact that it is situated close
to the ruins of the temples of the ancient city of Thebes.
The name Luxor is a corruption of the Arabic name of the
place, El-Kusiar, which means "the palaces." Ancient
Thebes stood on both sides of the Nile, and was generally
called in hieroglyphics ^ ^, Uast ; that part of the city
which was situated on the east bank of the river, and
included the temples of Karnak and Luxor, appears to have
been called (J (3 M 1 "^ Aptet, whence the Coptic T ^ lie
and the name Thebes have been derived. The cuneiform
inscriptions and Hebrew Scriptures call it No (Ezek. xxx. 14)
and No-Amon* (Nahum iii. 8), and the Greek and Roman
writers Diospolis Magna. When or by whom Thebes was
founded it is impossible to say. Diodorus says that it is the
most ancient city of Egypt ; some say that, like Memphis,
it was founded by Menes, and others, that it was a colony
from Memphis. It is certain, however, that it did not
become a city of the first importance until after the decay
of Memphis, and as the progress of Egyptian civilization
was from north to south, this is only what was to be expected.
During the early dynasties no mention is made of Thebes,
but we know that as early as the Xllth dynasty some
kings were buried there.
The spot on which ancient Thebes stood is so
admirably adapted for the site of a great city, that it
* No-amon in Revised Version.
192 NOTES FOR TRAVELLERS IN EGYPT.
would have been impossible for the Egyptians to over
look it. The mountains on the east and west side of
the river sweep away from it, and leave a broad plain on
each bank of several square miles in extent. It has been
calculated that modern Paris could stand on this space of
ground. We have, unfortunately, no Egyptian description
of Thebes, or any statement as to its size ; it may, how-
ever, be assumed from the remains of its buildings which
still exist, that the descriptions of the city as given by Strabo
and Diodorus are on the whole trustworthy. The fame ot
the greatness of Thebes had reached the Greeks of Homer's
age, and its "hundred gates" and 20,000 war chariots are
referred to in Iliad IX, 381. The city must have reached its
highest point of splendour during the rule of the XVIIIth
and XlXth dynasties over Egypt, and as little by little
the local god Amen-Ra became the great god of all Egypt,
his dwelling-place Thebes also gained in importance and
splendour. The city suffered severely at the hands of
Cambyses, who left nothing in it unburnt that fire would
consume. Herodotus appears never to have visited Thebes,
and the account he gives of it is not satisfactory; the account
of Diodorus, who saw it about B.C. 57, is as follows: "After-
wards reigned Busiris, and eight of his posterity after him ;
the last of which (of the same name with the first) built that
great city which the Egyptians call Diospolis, the Greeks
Thebes; it was in circuit 140 stades (about twelve
miles), adorned with stately public buildings, magnificent
temples, and rich donations and revenues to admiration ;
and that he built all the private houses, some four, some
five stories high. And to sum up all in a word, made it
not only the most beautiful and stateliest city of Egypt,
but of all others in the world. The fame therefore of the
riches and grandeur of this city was so noised abroad in
every place, that the poet Homer takes notice of it
.\lthough there are some that say it had not a hundred
LUXOR (el-kusur) and thkhes. 193
gates ; but that there were many large porches to the
temples, whence the city was called Hecatompylus, a hundred
gates, for many gates : yet that it was certain they had in it
20,000 chariots of war ; for there were a hundred stables all
along the river from Memphis to Thebes towards Lybia,
each of which was capable to hold two hundred horses, the
marks and signs of which are visible at this day. And we
have it related, that not only this king, but the succeeding
princes from time to time, made it their business to beautify
this city ; for that there was no city under the sun so
adorned with so many and stately monuments of gold, silver,
and ivory, and multitudes of colossi and obelisks, cut out of
one entire stone. For there were there four temples built,
for beauty and greatness to be admired, the most ancient of
which was in circuit thirteen furlongs (about two miles), and
five and forty cubits high, and had a wall twenty-four feet
broad. The ornaments of this temple were suitable to its
magnificence, both for cost and workmanship. The fabric
hath continued to our time, but the silver and the gold, and
ornaments of ivory and precious stones were carried away
by the Persians when Cambyses burnt the temples of
Egypt. . . . There, they say, are the wonderful sepulchres
of the ancient kings, which for state and grandeur far
exceed all that posterity can attain unto at this day. The
Egyptian priests say that in their sacred registers there are
47 of these sepulchres ; but in the reign of Ptolemy Lagus
there remained only 17, many of which were ruined and
destroyed when I myself came into those parts." (Bk. I.,
caps. 45, 46, Booth's translation, pp. 23, 24.)
Strabo, who visited Thebes about B.C. 24, says :— " Next
to the city of Apollo is Thebes, now called Diospolis, ' with
her hundred gates, through each of which issue 200 men,
with horses and chariots,' according to Homer, who
mentions also its wealth ; ' not all the wealth the palaces of
Egyptian Thebes contain.' Other writers use the same
194 NOTES FOR TRAVELLERS IN EGYPT.
language, and consider Thebes as the metropolis of Egypt.
Vestiges of its magnitude still exist, which extend So stadia
(about nine miles) in length. There are a great number
of temples, many of which Cambyses mutilated. The
spot is at present occupied by villages. One part of
it, in which is the city, lies in Arabia ; another is in the
country on the other side of the river, where is the Mem-
nonium. Here are two colossal figures near one another,
each consisting of a single stone. One is entire; the upper
parts of the other, from the chair, are fallen down, the
effect, it is said, of an earthquake. It is believed that
once a day a noise as of a slight blow issues from the part
of the statue which remains in the seat and on its base.
When I was at those places with ^'Elius Callus, and
numerous friends and soldiers about him, I heard a noise at
the first hour (of the day), but whether proceeding from the
base or from the colossus, or produced on purpose by some
of those standing around the base, I cannot confidently assert.
For from the uncertainty of the cause, I am disposed to
believe anything rather than that stones disposed in that
manner could send forth sound. Above the Memnonium
are tombs of kings in caves, and hewn out of the stone,
about forty in number ; they are executed with singular
skill, and are worthy of notice. Among the toml)s are
obelisks with inscriptions, denoting the wealth of the kings
of that time, and the extent of their empire, as reaching to
the Scythians, Bactrians, Indians, and the present Ionia ;
the amount of tribute also, and the numl:)cr of soldiers,
which composed an army of about a million of men.
The priests there are said to be, for the most part, astro-
nomers and philosophers. The former compute the days,
not by the moon, but by the sun, introducing into the
twelve months, of thirty days each, five days every year.
But in order to complete the whole year, because there is
(annually) an excess of a part of a day, they form a period
The Temple of Luxe
O 2
1 95 NOTES FOR TRAVELLERS IN EGYPT.
from out of whole days and whole years, the supernumerary
portions of which in that period, when collected together,
amount to a day.* They ascribe to Mercury (Thoth) all
knowledge of this kind. To Jupiter, whom they worship
above all other deities, a virgin of the greatest beauty and
of the most illustrious family (such persons the Greeks call
pallades) is dedicated " (Bk. XVII, chap, i, sec.
46, translated by Falconer.)
The principal objects of interest on the east or right bank
of the river are : —
I. The Temple of Luxor. Compared with Karnak
the temple of Luxor is not of any great interest. Until very
recently a large portion of the buildings, connected in
ancient days with the temple, were quite buried by the
accumulated rubbish and earth upon which a large number
of houses stood. During the last five years excavations
have been made by the Egyptian Government, and some
interesting results have been obtained. Among the antiqui-
ties thus brought to light may be mentioned a fine granite
statue of Rameses II., the existence of which was never
imagined. The temple of Luxor was built on an irregular
plan caused by following the course of the river, out of the
waters of which its walls, on one side, rose ; it was founded
by Amenophis III., about b.c. 1500. About forty years
after, Heru-em-heb added the great colonnade, and as the
name of Seti I., B.C. 1366, occurs in places, it is probable
that he executed some repairs to the temple. His son
Rameses II., b.c. 1333, set up two obelisks together with the
colossi and the large pylon ; the large court, nearly 200 feet
square, behind the pylon, was surrounded by a double row
of columns. The Obelisk now standing there records
the names, titles, etc., of Rameses II., and stands about
82 feet high ; it is one of the finest specimens of sculpture
* See page 70.
LUXOR (eL-KUSUR) and THEBES. Hj-J
known. Its fellow obelisk stands in the Place de la
Concorde, Paris.
After the burning and sacking of this tem{)lc by the
Persians, some slight repairs, and rebuilding of certain
chambers, were carried out by some of the Ptolemies, the
name of one of whom (Philopator) is found inscribed on
the temple. Certain parts of the temple appear to have
been used by the Copts as a church, for the ancient
sculptures have been plastered over and painted with
figures of saints, etc.
II. The Temple at Karnak. The ruins of the build-
ings at Karnak are perhaps the most wonderful of any in
Egypt, and they merit many visits from the traveller. It is
probable that this spot was " holy ground " from a very
early to a very late period, and we know that a number of
kings from Thothmes III. to Euergetes II. lavished much
wealth to make splendid the famous shrine of Amen in the
Apts, and other temples situated there. The temples of
Luxor and Karnak were united by an avenue about 6,500
feet long and 80 feet wide, on each side of which was
arranged a row of sphinxes ; from the fact that these monu-
ments are without names, M. Mariette thought that the
avenue was constructed at the expense of the priests or the
wealthy inhabitants of the town, just as in later days the
pronaos of the temple at Denderah was built by the people
of that town. At the end of this avenue, to the right, is a
road which leads to the so-called Temple of Mut, which
was also approached by an avenue of sphinxes. Within
' the enclosure there stood originally two temples, both of
which were dedicated to Amen, built during the reign of
Amenophis III. ; Rameses II. erected two obelisks in front
of the larger temple. To the north-west of these a smaller
temple was built in Ptolemaic times, and the ruins on one
side of it show that the small temples which stood there
were either founded or restored by Rameses II., Osorkon,
o O
H O'
-nnnnHj
1
W .tJ3
'53 '3
^/ ^ ^jj
LUXOR (EL-KUSUr) AND THEBES. 1 99
Thekeleth, Sabaco, Nectanebus I., and the Ptolemies. Be-
hind the temple enclosure are the remains of a temple
dedicated to Ptah of Memphis by Thothmes III. ; the three
doors behind it and the courts into which they lead were
added by Sabaco, Tirhakah, and the Ptolemies.
Returning to the end of the avenue of sphinxes which
leads from Luxor to Karnak, a second smaller avenue orna-
mented with a row of ram-headed sphinxes on each side is
entered ; at the end of it stands the splendid pylon built
by Ptolemy Euergetes II. Passing through the door, a
smaller avenue of sphinxes leading to the temple built by
Rameses III. is reached ; the small avenue of sphinxes and
eight of its columns were added by Rameses XIII. This
temple was dedicated to Chonsu, and appears to have
been built upon the site of an ancient temple of the time
of Amenophis III. To the west of this temple is a smaller
temple built by Ptolemy IX. Euergetes II.
The great Temple of Karnak fronted the Nile, and was
approached by means of a small avenue of ram-headed
sphinxes which were placed in position by Rameses II.
Passing through the first propylon, a court or hall, having
a double row of pillars down the centre, is entered; on
each side is a corridor with a row of columns. On the
right hand (south) side are the ruins of a temple built by
Rameses III., and on the left are those of another built by
Seti II. This court or hall was the work of Shashanq,
the first king of the XXIInd dynasty. On each side
of the steps leading through the second pylon was a colossal
statue of Rameses 11. ; that on the right hand has now
disappeared. Passing through this pylon, the famous " Hall
of Columns " is entered. The twelve columns forming the
double row in the middle are about sixty feet high and
about thirty-five feet in circumference ; the other columns,
122 in number, are about forty feet high and twenty-seven
feet in circumference. Rameses I. set up one column.
Plan of Karnak— 4.
THnU-biiJi
1
r
m::::i-;J
[int — -Hf^l'
t «
Karnak during the reign of Thothmes III., B.C. 1600.
From Mariette, Kantak, 1*1. VI.
LUXOR (eL-KUSUr) and THEP.F.S. ;>or
Seti I., the builder of this hall, set up seventy-nine, and
the remaining fifty-four were set up by Rameses II. It
is thought that this hall was originally roofed over. At
the end of it is the third propylon, which was built by
Amenophis III., and served as the entrance to the temple
until the time of Rameses I. Between this and the next
pylon is a narrow passage, in the middle of which stood two
obelisks which were set up by Thothmes I. ; the southern
one is still standing, and bears the names of this king, but
the northern one has fallen,* and its fragments show that
Thothmes III. caused his name to be carved on it. At the
southern end of this passage are the remains of a gate built
by Rameses IX. The fourth and fifth pylons were built by
Thothmes I. Between them stood fourteen columns, six of
which were set up by Thothmes I., and eight by Amenophis
IL, and two granite obelisks ; one of these still stands.
These obelisks were hewn out of the granite quarry by the
command of Hatshepset,t the daughter of Thothmes I., and
sister of Thothmes II. and Thothmes III. This able
woman set them up in honour of "father Amen," and
she relates in the inscriptions on the base of the standing
obelisk that she covered their tops with sniu metal, or copper,
that they could be seen from a very great distance, and that
she had them hewn and brought down to Thebes in about
seven months. These obelisks were brought into their
chamber from the south side, and were 98 and 105 feet high
respectively ; the masonry round their bases is of the time
of Thothmes III. The sixth pylon and the two walls which
* It was standing when Pococke visited Egypt in 1737-1739-
t " Scarcely had the royal brother and husband of Hashop {sU)
closed his eyes, when the proud queen threw aside her woman's veil,
and appeared in all the splendour of Pharaoh, as a born king. For she
laid aside her woman's dress, clothed herself in man's attire, anti
adorned herself with the crown and insignia of royalty." (Brugsch's
Egypt tender the Pharaohs, Vol. I., p. 349-)
Plan of Karnak — c.
■itfBr;;..;;;..ngp
Karnak during the reign of Amenophis III., B.C. 1500.
f"rom Mariette, Karnak, PI. VI.
LUXOR (eL-KUSL'r) and THEBES. 203
flank it on the north and south are the work of Thothmes III.,
but Seti II., Rameses III., and Rameses IV. have added
their cartouches to them. On this pylon are inscribed a
large number of geographical names of interest. Passing
through it, the visitor iinds himself in a vestibule which
leads into a red granite oblong chamber, inscribed with the
name of Philip III. of Macedon, which is often said to have
formed the sanctuary. In the chambers on each side of it
are found the names of Amenophis I., Thothmes I., Thothmes
W., Hatshepset, and Thothmes III. The sanctuary stood
in the centre of the large court beyond the two oblong red
granite pedestals. In ancient days, when Thebes was
pillaged by her conquerors, it would seem that special care
was taken to uproot not only the shrine, but the ver)'
foundations upon which it rested. Some fragments of
columns inscribed with the name of Usertsen I. found
there prove, however, that its foundation dates from
the reign of this king. Beyond the sanctuary court is
a large building of the time of Thothmes III. In it was
found the famous Tablet of Ancestors, now in Paris,
where this king is seen making oiTerings to a number of his
royal ancestors. On the north side of the building is
the chamber in which he made his offerings, and on the east
side is a chamber where he adored the hawk, the emblem
of the Sun-god Ra; this latter chamber was restored by
Alexander IV. Behind the great temple, and (juite distinct
from it, was another small temple. On the south side of
the great temple was a lake which was filled by infiltration
from the Nile ; it appears only to have been used for
processional purposes, as water for ablutionary and other
purposes was drawn from the well on the north side of the
interior of the temple. The lake was dug during the reign
of Thothmes III., and its stone quays probably belong to
the same period.
Passing through the gate at the southern end of the
Plan of Karnak— 6.
Karnak under Ranieses 11., li.c. 1333.
1-iciiii Mariette, Karnak, I'l. \'II.
LUXOR (kL-KUSUr) and THEBES. 205
passage in which stands the obeHsk of Hatshepset, a long
avenue with four pylons is entered ; the first was built l)y
Thothmes III., the second by Thothmes I., and the thiid
and fourth by Heru-em-heb. Between these last two, on the
east side stood a temple built by Amenophis II. On the
north side of the Great Temple are the ruins of two smaller
buildings which belong to the time of the XXVIth dynasty.
The outside of the north wall of the Great Hall of
Columns is ornamented with some interesting scenes from the
battles of Seti I. against the peoples who lived to the north-
east of Syria and in Mesopotamia, called Shasu, Rutennu,
and Charu. The king is represented as having conquered
all these people, and returning to Thebes laden with much
spoil and bringing many captives. It is doubtful if the
events really took place in the order in which they are
depicted ; but the fidelity to nature, and the spirit and skill
with which these bas-reliefs have been e.xecuted, make them
some of the most remarkable sculptures known. The
scene in which Seti I. is shown grasping the hair of the
heads of a number of people, in the act of slaying them, is
symbolic.
The outside of the south wall is ornamented with a large
scene in which Shashanq (Shishak), the first king of the
XXIInd dynasty, is represented smiting a group of kneeling
prisoners ; the god Amen, in the form of a woman, is
standing by presenting him with weapons of war. Here
also are 150 cartouches, surmounted with heads, in which
are written the names of the towns captured by Shishak.
The type of features given to these heads bv the sculptor
shows that the vanquished peoples belonged to a branch of
the great Semitic family. The hieroglyphics in one of the
cartouches were supposed to read "the king of Judah,"
and to represent Jeroboam, who was vanquished by Shishak ;
it has now been proved conclusively that they form the
name of a place called luta-melek. Passing along to the
Plan of Karnak— 7.
/P I
• • •• m:|m
Karnak under the Ptolemies. From Marietta, Kaniak, PI. VII.
A. Walls standing before the time of Thothmcs I.
B. Pylons built by Thothnies I.
C. Walls and obelisks of Hatshepset.
D. Walls, pylon, etc., of Thothines III.
E. Gateway of Tliothmes IV.
F. I'yionof AmenoplilsIII.
0. I'ylon of Rameses I.
M. Walls and . olniiins of Seti I.
1. Columns, walls, and statues of Ramcscs II.
J. Temple of Seti II.
K. Temple of Kameses III.
L. Ciatcway of Kameses IX.
M. Pillars and walls of the XXIInd dynasty.
N. Pillars of Tirhakah.
O. Corridor of I'hilip III. of Macedon.
P. Chamber and shrine of Alexander ll.
Q. Pylon built by the Ptolemies.
\
LUXOR (EL-KUS1)r) and THEBES.
20:
east, the visitor comes to a wall at right angles to the first,
upon which is inscribed a copy of the poem of Pen-ta-urt,
celebrating the victory of Rameses II, over the Cheta,
in the fifth year of his reign ; and on the west side of the
wall is a stele on which is set forth a copy of the offensive
and defensive treaty between this king and the prince of
the Cheta.
The inscriptions on the magnificent ruins at Karnak
show that from the time of Usertsen I., B.C. 2433, ^o that of
Alexander IV., b.c. 312 (?), the religious centre* of Upper
Egypt was at Thebes, and that the most powerful of the
kings of Egypt who reigned during this period spared neither
pains nor expense in adding to and beautifying the temples
there.
The fury of the elements, the attacks of Egypt's enemies,
and above all the annual inundation of the Nile, have
helped to throw down these splendid buildings. The
days are not far distant when, unless energetic measures
are taken meanwhile, a large number of the columns
in the wonderful hall of Seti I. must fall, and in their fall
will do irreparable damage to the other parts of the build-
ing. It is much to be hoped that the public opinion of the
civilized world will not allow these deeply interesting relics
of a mighty nation to ])erish before their eyes. Steps
should at once be taken to keep out the inundation, and
if possible the tottering columns and walls should be
strengthened.
* The short-lived heresy of the worship of the disk of the Sun
instead of that of Amen-Ra would not interfere with the general popu-
larity of Theban temples.
2oS NOTES FOR TRAVELLERS IN EGYPT.
On the west bank of the river the following are the
most interesting antiquities : —
I. The Temple of Kurnah. This temple was built
by Seti I. in memory of his father Rameses I.j it was
completed by Rameses II., by whom it was re-dedicated to
the memory of his father Seti I. Two pylons stood before
it, and between them was an avenue of sphinxes. This
temple was to all intents and purposes a cenotaph, and
as such its position on the edge of the desert, at the
entrance to a necropolis, is explained. In the temple
were six columns, and on each side were several small
chambers. The sculptures on the walls represent Rameses II.
making offerings to the gods, among whom are Rameses I.
and Seti I. According to an inscription there, it is said
that Seti I. went to heaven and was united with the Sun-god
before this temple was finished, and that Rameses II. made
and fixed the doors, finished the building of the walls,
and decorated the interior. The workmanship in certain
parts of this temple recalls that of certain parts of Abydos ;
it is probable that the same artists were employed.
II. The Ramesseum. This temple, called also the
Memnonium and the tomb of Osymandyas (Diodorus I.,
iv), was built by Rameses II., in honour of Amen-Ra.
As at Kurnah, two pylons stood in front of it. The
first court had a double row of pillars on each side of
it ; passing up a flight of steps, and through the second
pylon, is a second court, having a double row of round
columns on the east and west sides, and a row of pilasters,
to which large figures of Rameses II. under the form of
Osiris, are attached on the north and south sides. Eefore
the second pylon stood a colossal statue of Rameses II.,
at least sixty feet high, which has been thrown down (by
Cambyses ?), turned over on its back, and mutilated. In
the hall are twelve huge columns, arranged in two rows,
and thirty-six smaller ones arranged in six rows. On the
1
s> (S j ® « ® ®
mt'»m®\®mmm<
#(«;»§! .f) ^ (!§• * g: ® 1
# * « * • I '• S) # #i (
® ® ® ® ® S «) ® # (g)
® ® I i® ®
"m
n
TTuSjEf:
n
« « MBi»»»y«Tii»a»> •
A. Plan of the Temple at Kurnali.
B- Plan of the Ramesseuin at Kurnah.
2IO NOTES FOR TRAVELLERS IN EGYPT.
interior face of the second pylon are sculptured scenes in
the war of Rameses II. against the Cheta, which took place
in the fifth year of his reign ; in them he is represented
slaying the personal attendants of the prince of the Cheta.
Elsewhere is the famous scene in which Rameses, having
been forsaken by his army, is seen cutting his way through
the enemy, and hurling them one after the other into
the Orontes near Kadesh. The walls of the temple are
ornamented with small battle scenes and reliefs representing
the king making offerings to the gods of Thebes. On the
ceiling of one of the chambers is an interesting astronomical
piece on which the twelve Egyptian months are mentioned.
III. The Colossi. — These two interesting statues were
set up in honour of Amenoi)his III., whom they represent ;
they stood in front of the pylon of a calcareous stone temple
which was built by this king; this has now entirely dis-
appeared. They were hewn out of a hard grit-stone, and
the top of each was about sixty feet above the ground ;
originally each was monolithic. The statue on the north is
the famous Colossus of Memnon, from which a sound
was said to issue every morning when the sun rose. The
upper part of it was thrown down by an earthquake, it is
said, about n.c. 27 ; the damage was partially repaired
during the reign of Septimus Severus, who restored the
head and shoulders of the figure by adding to it five
layers of stone. When Strabo was at Thebes with ^Elius
Gallus he heard "a noise at the first hour of the day, but
whether proceeding from the base or from the colossus, or
produced on purpose by some of those standing round the
base, I cannot confidently assert." It is said that after the
colossus was repaired no sound issued from it. Some
think that the noise was caused by the sun's rays striking
upon the stone, while others believe that a priest hidden in
the colossus produced it by striking a stone. The inscrip-
tions show that many distinguished Romans visited the
LUXOR (EL-KUStjR) AND THKIiKS. 21 I
"vocal Memnon" and heard the sound; one Petronianus,
of a poetical turn of mind, stated that it made a sighing
sound in complaining to its mother, the dawn, of the injuries
inflicted upon it by Cambyses. The inscriptions on the
back of the colossi give the names of Amenophis III.
IV. Medinet Habii.— This village lies to the south of
the colossi, and its foundation dates from Coptic times. The
early Christians established themselves around the ancient
Egyptian temple there, and havmg carefully plastered over
the wall sculptures in one of its chambers, they used it as a
chapel. Round and about this temple many Greek and
Coptic inscriptions have been found, which prove that the
Coptic community here was one of the largest and most
important in Upper Egypt. The temple here is actually
composed of two temples ; the older was built by
Thothmes III., and the later by Rameses III. The first
court of the temple of Thothmes III. was built during the
time of the Roman occupation of Egypt, and the names of
Titus, Hadrian, Antoninus, etc., are found on various parts
of its walls. The half-built pylon at the end of this court
is of the same period, although the door between them
bears the names of Ptolemy X. Soter II. (Lathyrus) and
Ptolemy XIII., Neos Dionysos (Auletes). The little court
and pylon beyond are inscribed with the names of Tirhakah,
B.C. 693, and Nectanebus II., b.c. 358. Passing through
this last court and its pylon, the temple proper is reached.
The oldest name found here is that of Thothmes II. The
work begun by this king was completed by Thothmes III.,
and several subsequent kings restored or added new parts
to it.
Before the Temple of Rameses III. there stood originally
a building consisting of two square towers, the four sides of
which were symmetrically inclined to a common centre.
The interior chambers were ornamented with sculptures, on
which were depicted scenes in the domestic (?) life of the
p 2
The Temple of Thothmes II. at Medlnet Ilabu.
LUXOR (eL-KUSUr) AND TIIKliKS. 2 I 7,
king, and from this it has been concluded that the l)uilding
formed the Palace of Rameses III. Elsewhere the king
is shown smiting his enemies, and from the features and
dress of many of them it is possil)le to tell generally what
nations they represent ; it is quite clear that the sculptor
intended his figures to be typical portraits. It is a noticeable
fact that the cartouches of Rameses III. are the only ones
found in this building.
V. The Temple of Rameses III. is entered by pass-
ing through the first pylon, the front of which is ornamented
with scenes from the wars of this king against the people of
Arabia and Phoenicia. The weapons of the king are
presented to him by Amen-Ra the Sun-god. In the first
court is a row of seven pillars, to which are attached figures
of the king in the form of Osiris ; M. Mariette was of
opinion that these declared the funereal nature of the
building. The second pylon is built of red granite, and
the front is ornamented with scenes in which Rameses III.
is leading before the gods Amen and Mut a number of
prisoners, whom he has captured in Syria and along the
coasts of the Mediterranean ; from these scenes it is evident
that he was able to wage war by sea as well as land. The
second court, which, according to M. Mariette, is one of
the most precious which Egyptian antiquity has bequeathed
to us, has a portico running round its four sides; it is
supported on the north and south sides by eight Osiris
columns, and on the east and west by five circular columns.
The Copts disgraced this splendid court by building a
sandstone colonnade in the middle, and destroyed here, as
elsewhere, much else that would have been of priceless value.
Beyond the second court was a hall of columns, on each
side of which were several small chambers, and beyond
that were other chambers and corridors and the sanctuary.
The scenes sculptured on the inside of the second court
represent the wars of Rameses III. against the Libyans, in
The Great Temple of Rameses III. at Medinet Habii.
LUXOR (eI.-KUSUR) AND THKHF.S. 215
which the generals and officers of the Egyptian king lead
crowds of prisoners into his presence, whence they are
brought in triumph to Thebes to be offered to the gods of
that town. Elsewhere Rameses is making offerings to the
various gods of Thebes and performing certain ceremonies.
The procession, coronation of the king, musicians, and the
sending off of four birds to announce to the ends of the
world that Rameses III. was king, are among the many
interesting scenes depicted here.
Outside the building, on the south wall, is a list of
religious festivals, and on the north wall are ten scenes, of
which the following are the subjects : i. The king and his
army setting out to war. 2. Battle of the Egyptians against
the Libyans, and defeat of the latter. 3. Slaughter of the
enemy by thousands, and the prisoners led before the king.
4. The king addresses his victorious army, and an inventory
is made of the spoil captured. 5. The march continued.
6. Second encounter and defeat of the enemy called Takare ;
their camp is captured, and women and children flee away
in all directions. 7. The march continued. On the way
one lion is slain and another wounded. The country
passed through is probably northern Syria, 8. Naval battle
scene. The fight takes place near the sea-shore, and
Rameses and his archers distress the enemy by shooting at
them from the shore. 9. Return towards Egypt. The
number of the slain is arrived at by counting the hands
which have been cut off the bodies on the field of battle.
10. Return to Thebes. The king presents his prisoners
to the gods Amen-Ra, Mut, and Chonsu. Speech of the
prisoners, who beg the king to allow them to live that they
may proclaim his power and glory.
The temple of Rameses III. is one of the most interesting
of the Egyptian temples, and is worthy of several visits.
VI. Der el-Medinet. This small temple, which stands
between the Colossi and Medinet Habu, was begun by
2l6 NOTES FOR TRAVELLERS IN EGYPT.
Ptolemy IV. Philopator and finished by Ptolemy IX.
Euergetes II. ; in one of its chambers is the judgment
scene which forms the vignette of the 125th chapter of the
Book of the Dead, hence the funereal nature of the building
may be inferred.
VII. Der el-Bahari. This temple was built by Hatshep-
set, the sister and wife of Thothmes II., B.C. 1600. The
linest marble limestone was used in its construction, and its
architect seems to have been an able man called Senmut,
who was honoured with the friendship of the queen, and
promoted by her to be chief clerk of the works. Before the
temple was an avenue of sandstone sphinxes and two
obelisks. It was built in stages on the side of a hill, and
its courts were connected by means of flights of steps.
As early as the XXIInd dynasty the temple had fallen into
disuse, and soon after this time its chambers appear to have
been used for sepulchres. The wall sculptures are beautiful
specimens of art, and depict the return of Egyptian soldiers
from some military expedition, and the scenes which took
place during the expedition which the queen organized and
sent off to Punt. This latter expedition was most successful,
and returned to Egypt laden with things the " like of which
had never before been seen in that land." The prince ot
Punt came to Egypt with a large following, and became a
vassal of Hatshepset.
The Dlscovery of the Royal Mummies at
DI;r el-Bahari.*
In the summer of the year 187 1 an Arab, a native 01
Kurnah, discovered a large tomb filled with coffins heaped
one upon the other. On the greater number of them were
visible the cartouche and other signs which indicated that
* A minute and detailed account of this discovery is given by
Maspcro in " Lcs Momies Royales de Deir el Bahari " (Fasc. I.,
t. IV., of the Mi'moires of the French Archa.ological Mission at Cairo).
LUXOR (kL-KUSUK) AM) THKBES. 21 7
the inhabitants of the coffins were royal i)ersonages. The
native who was so fortunate as to have chanced upon this
remarkable " find," was sufficiently skilled in his trade of
antiquity hunter to know what a valuable discovery he had
made ; his joy must however have been turned into mourn-
ing, when it became evident that he would need the help of
many men even to move some of the large royal coffins
which he saw before him, and that he could not keej)
the knowledge of such treasures locked up in his own
breast. He revealed his secret to his two brothers and
to one of his sons, and they proceeded to spoil the
cofifins of ushabti* figures, papyri, scarabs and other
antiquities which could be taken away easily and con-
cealed in their abbas (ample outer garments) as they re-
turned to their houses. These precious ol)jects were for
several winters sold to chance tourists on the Nile, and the
lucky possessors of this mine of wealth replenished their
stores from time to time by visits made at night to the tomb.
As soon as the objects thus sold reached Euroi)e, it was at
once suspected that a " find " of more than ordinary
importance had been made. An English officer called
Campbell showed M. Maspero a hieratic Book of the Dead
written for Pi-net'em ; M. de Saulcy sent him photographs
of the hieroglyphic papyrus of Net'emet ; M. Mariette
bought at Suez a papyrus written for the Queen Hent-taiu,
and Rogers Bey exhibited at Paris a wooden tablet
upon which was written a hieratic text relating to the
ushabti figures which were to be buried with the prin-
cess Nesi-Chensu. All these interesting and most valuable
objects proved that the natives of Thebes had succeeded
* Ushabti figures made of stone, green or blue glazed Eg)'plian
porcelain, wood, &c., were deposited in the tombs with the dead, and
were supposed to perform for them any field labours which might be
decreed for them by Osiris, the king of the under-world, and judge of
the dead.
2lS NOTES FOR TRAVELLERS IN EGYPT.
in unearthing a veritable "Cave of Treasures," and
M. Maspero, the Director of the Billak Museum, straight-
way determined to visit Upper Egypt with a view of
discovering whence came all these antiquities. Three men
were implicated, whose names were learnt by M. Maspero
from the inquiries which he made of tourists who purchased
antiquities.
In 1 88 1 he proceeded to Thebes, and began his investiga-
tions by causing one of the dealers, 'Abd er-Rasul Ahmad,
to be arrested by the police, and an ofificial inquiry into the
matter was ordered by the Mudir of Keneh. In spite of
threats and persuasion, and many add tortures, the accused
denied any knowledge of the place whence the antiquities
came. The evidence of the witnesses who were called to
testify to the character of the accused, tended to show that
he was a man of amiable disposition, who would never
dream of pillaging a tomb, much less do it. Finally, after
two months' imprisonment, he was provisionally set at
liberty. The accused then began to discuss with his partners
in the secret what plans they should adopt, and how they
should act in the future. Some of them thought that all
trouble was over when 'Abd er-Rasul Ahmad was set at
liberty, but others thought, and they were right, that the
trial would be recommenced in the winter. Fortunately for
students of Egyptology, differences of opinion broke out
between the parties soon after, and 'Abd er-Rasul Ahmad
soon perceived that his brothers were determined to turn
King's evidence at a favourable opportunity. To prevent
their saving themselves at his expense, he quietly travelled
to Keneh, and there confessed to the Mudir that he was
able to reveal the place where the coffins and papyri were
found. Telegrams were sent to Cairo announcing the
confession of 'Abd er-Rasial Ahmad, and when his state-
ments had been verified, despatches containing fuller
particulars were sent to Cairo from Keneh. It was decided
LUXOR (EL-KUSUR) AND THICBES. 219
that a small expedition to Thebes should at once be made
to take possession of and bring to Cairo the anticiuilies
which were to be revealed to the world by 'Abd er-Rasui
Ahmad, and the charge of bringing this work to a suc-
cessful issue was placed in the hands of M. Kmil Brugsch.
Although the season was summer, and the heat very great,
the start for Thebes was made on July i. At Keneh M.
Brugsch found a number of papyri and other valuable
antiquities which 'Abd er-Rasul had sent there as an earnest
of the truth of his promise to reveal the hidden treasures.
A week later M. Brugsch and his companions were shown
the shaft of the tomb, which was most carefully hidden in
the north-west part of the natural circle which opens to the
south of the valley of Der el-Bahari, in the little row of
hills which separates the Biban el-Muluk from the Theban
plain. According to M. Maspero *, the royal mummies
were removed here from their tombs in the Biban el-Muliik
by Aauputh, the son of Shashanq, about h.c. 966, to prevent
them being destroyed by the thieves, who were sufficiently
numerous and powerful to defy the government of the day.
The pit which led to the tomb was about forty feet deep,
and the passage, of irregular level, which led to the tomb
was about 220 feet long ; at the end of this passage was a
nearly rectangular chamber about twenty-five feet long,
which was found to be literally filled with coffins, mummies,
funereal furniture, boxes, ushabti figures, Canopic jars, f
bronze vases, etc., etc. A large number of men were
* Histoire Aiicietme des Peuples de V Orient, 4'*™"= ed., p. 360.
t The principal intestines of a deceased person were placed in four
jars, which were placed in his tomb under the bier ; the jars were
dedicated to the four children of Horus, who were called Amset, Hapi,
Tuamautef and Qebhsenuf. The name "Canopic" is given to them
by those who follow the opinion of some ancient writers that Canopus,
the pilot of Menelaus, who is said to have been buried at Canopus
in Eg>'pt, was worshipped there under the form of a jar with small
feet, a thin neck, a swollen body, and a round back.
2 20 NOTES P'OR TRAVELLERS IN EGYPT.
at once employed to exhume these objects, and for eight
and forty hours M. Brugsch and Ahmad Effendi Kamal
stood at the mouth of the pit watching the things brought
up. The heavy coffins were carried on the shoulders of
men to the river, and in less than two weeks everything had
been sent over the river to Luxor. A few days after this
the whole collection of mummies of kings and royal per-
sonages was placed upon an Egyptian Government steamer
and taken to the Museum at Bulak.
When the mummies of the ancient kings of Egypt
arrived at Cairo, it was found that the Bulak Museum was
too small to contain them, and before they could be ex-
posed to the inspection of the world, it was necessary for
additional rooms to be built. Finally, however, M. Maspero
had glass cases made, and, with the help of some cabinets
borrowed from his private residence attached to the
Museum, he succeeded in exhibiting, in a comparatively
suitable way, the mummies in which such world-wide
interest had been taken. Soon after the arrival of the
mummies at Bulak M. Brugsch opened the mummy of
Thothmes III., when it was found that the Arabs had
attacked it and plundered whatever was valuable upon it.
In 1883 the mummy of Queen Mes-Hent-Themehu,
fl I <^m1 ^ i ^ ^1 ' S"''i"^<^ unpleasant odours, and by
M. Maspero 's orders it was unrolled. In 1885 the mumni)
of Queen Ahmes Nefertari, f i|i T<:i[, x\ 1
rolled by him, and as it pufrified rapidly and stank, it
had to be buried. Finally, when M. Maspero found that
the mummy of Seqenen-Ra, (oj^^], was also
decaying, he decided to unroll the whole collection, and
Rameses II. was the first of the great kings whose features
were shown again to the world after a lapse of 3,200 years.
Such are the outlines of the history of one of the
was un-
LUXOR (kL-KUSCr) and THEBES. 221
greatest discoveries ever made in Egyjit. It will ever he
regretted by the Egyptologist that this remarkable collection
of mummies was not discovered by some person who could
have used for the benefit of scholars the precious infor-
mation which this "find" would have yielded, before so
many of its objects were scattered ; as it is, however, it
would be difficult to over-estimate its historical value.
The following is a hst of the names of the principal kings
and royal personages which were found on coffins at Der
el-Bahari and of their mummies : —
XVIIth Dynasty, before B.C. 1700.
King Seqenen-Ra, coffin and mummy.
Nurse of Queen Nefertari Raa, coffin only. This coffin
contained the mummy of a queen whose name is read
An-Hapi.
XVIIIih Dynasty, n.c. 1 700-1400.
King Abmes (Amasis I.), coffin and mummy.
Queen Ahmes Nefertari, coffin.
King Amenhetep L, coffin and mummy.
The Prince Se-Amen, coffin and mummy.
The Princess Set-Amen, coffin and mummy.
The Scribe Senu, chief of the house of Nefertari, mumm\ .
Royal wife Set-ka-mes, mummy.
Royal daughter Meshentthemhu, coffin and mummy.
Royal mother Aah-hetep, coffin.
King Thothmes I., coffin usurped by Pi-net 'em.
King Thothmes II., coffin and mummy.
King Thothmes III., coffin and m.ummy.
Coffin and mummy of an unknown person.
XlXth Dynasty, B.C. 1400-1200.
King Rameses I., part of coffin.
King Seti I., coffin and mummy.
King Rameses II., coffin and mummy.
222 NOTES FOR TRAVELLERS IN EGYPT.
XXth Dynasty, B.C. 1200-T100.
King Rameses III., mummy found in the coffin of
Nefertari.
XXIst Dynas/y, B.C. 11 00-1000,
Royal mother Net'emet.
High-priest of Amen, Masahertha, coffin and mummy.
High-priest of Amen, Pai-net'em HI., coffin and mummy.
Priest of Amen, T'et-Ptah-auf-anch, coffin and mummy.
Scribe Nebseni, coffin and mummy.
Queen Mat-ka-Ra, coffin and mummy.
Princess Uast-em-chebit, coffin and mummy.
Princess Nesi-Chensu.
VIII. The Tombs of the Kings, called in Arabic
Biban el-Muluk, are hewn out of the living rock in a valley,
which is reached by passing the temple at Kurnah ; it
is situated about three or four miles from the river.
This valley contains the tombs of the kings of the XlXth
and XXth dynasties, and is generally known as the Eastern
Valley ; a smaller valley, the Western, contains the tombs
of the last kings of the XVIIIth dynasty. These tombs
consist of long inclined planes with a number of chambers
or halls receding into the mountain sometimes to a
distance of 500 feet. Strabo gives the number of these
royal tombs as 40, 17 of which were 0])en in the time
of Ptolemy Lagus ; in 1835 21 were known, but the
labours of M. Mariette were successful in bringing four
more to light. The most important of these tombs are : —
No, 17. Tomb of Seti I., b.c. 1366, commonly called
' Belzoni's Tomb," because it was discovered by that brave
traveller in the early part of this century ; it had already
been rifled, but the beautiful alabaster sarcophagus, which
is now preserved in the Soane Museum in London, was
still lying in its chamber at the bottom of the tomb, 'i'he
inscriptions and scenes sculptured on the walls form parts of
1 =
§•2
2 24 NOTES FOR TRAVELLERS IN EGYPT.
the " Book of being in the under-world ; " it is quite
impossible to describe them here, for a large number of
pages would be required for the purpose. It must be suffi-
cient to draw attention to the excellence and beauty of the
paintings and sculptures, and to point out that the whole
series refers to the life of the king in the under-world. The
tomb is entered by means of two flights of steps, at the bottom
of which is a passage terminating in a small chamber.
Beyond this are two halls having four and two pillars respec-
tively, and to the left are the passages and small chambers
which lead to the large six-pillared hall and vaulted chamber
in which stood the sarcophagus of Seti I. Here also is an
inclined plane which descends into the mountain for a con-
siderable distance ; from the level of the ground to the
bottom of this incline the depth is about 150 feet; the
length of the tomb is nearly 500 feet. The designs on
the walls were first sketched in outline in red, and the
alterations by the master designer or artist were made in
black ; it would seem that this tomb was never finished.
The mutilations and destruction which have been committed
here during the last twenty-five years are truly lamentable.
The mummy of Seti I., found at Der el-Bahari, is preserved
in the Gizeh Museum.
No. II. Tomb of Rameses III., b.c. 1200, commonly
called " Bruce's 'I omb," because it was discovered by this
traveller, and the " Tomb of the Harper," on account of the
scene in it in which men are reiircsentcd playing harps.
The architect did not leave sufficient space between this
and a neighbouring tomb, and hence after excavating pas-
sages and chambers to a distance of more than 100 feet, he
was obliged to turn to the right to avoid breaking into it.
The flight of steps leading into the tomb is not as steep as
that in No. 17, the paintings and sculptures are not so fine,
and the general plan of ornamentation differs. The scenes
on the walls of the first passage resemble those in the first
LUXOR (eL-KUSUR) and THEBES. 225
passage of No. 1 7, but in the other passages and chambers
warhke, domestic, and agricultural scenes and objects are
depicted. The body of the red granite sarcophagus of
Rameses III. is in Paris, the cover is in the Fitzwilliam
Museum, Cambridge, and. the mummy of this king is at
Gizeh. The length of. the tomb is about 400 feet.
No. 2. The Tomb of Rameses IV., about i;.c. 1166,
though smaller than the others, is of considerable interest ;
the granite sarcophagus, of colossal proportions, still stands
in situ at the bottom. Having seen the beautiful sculptures
and paintings in the Tomb of Seti I., the visitor will probably
not be disposed to spend much time in that of Rameses I\'.
No. 9. The Tomb of Rameses VI., or " Memnons
Tomb,' was considered of great interest by the Greeks and
Romans who visited it in ancient days ; the astronomical
designs on some of the ceilings, and the regular sequence
of its passages and rooms are interesting. The fragments
of the granite sarcophagus of this king lie at the bottom
of the tomb.
No. 6. The Tomb of Rameses IX., is remarkable for
the variety of sculptures and paintings of a nature entirely
different from those found in the other royal tombs ; they
appear to refer to the idea of resurrection after death and of
immortality, which is here symbolized by the jninciple of
generation.
The Tomb of Rameses I., father of Seti I., is the
oldest in this valley ; it was opened by Belzoni.
The Tomb* of Rechmara is situated in the hill
behind the Ramesseum called Shekh 'Abd el-KOrnah; it is
one of the most interesting of all the private tombs found at
Thebes. The scenes on the walls represent a procession
of tribute bearers from Punt carrying apes, ivory, etc.,
* No. 35, according to Wilkinson, and No. 15, according to
ChampoUion.
Q
2 26 NOTES FOR TRAVELLERS IN EGYPT.
and of people from parts of Syria and the shores of the
Mediterranean bringing to him gifts consisting of the choicest
products of their lands, which Rechmara receives for
Thothmes III. The countries can in many cases be iden-
tified by means of the articles depicted. The scenes in
the inner chamber represent brickmaking, ropemaking,
smiths' and masons' work, etc., etc., superintended by
Rechmara, prefect of Thebes ; elsewhere are domestic
scenes and a representation of Rechmara sailing in a
boat, lists of offerings, etc.
The most ancient necropolis at Thebes is Drah abu'l
Nekkah, where tombs of the Xlth, XVHth, and XVIIIth
dynasties are to be found. The coffins of the Antef kings
(Xlth dynasty), now in the Louvre and the British Museum,
were discovered here, and here was made the marvellous
"find" of the jewellery of Ah-hetep,* wife of Karnes, a king of
the XVlIth dynasty, about B.C. 1750. A little more to the
south is the necropolis of Assassif, where during the XlXth,
XXIInd, and XXVIth dynasties many beautiful tombs
were constructed. If the visitor has time, an attempt should
be made to see the fine tomb of Peta-Amen-apt.
Armant (Erment).
Armant, or Erment, 458^ miles from Cairo, on the west
bank of the river, was called in Egyptian ^^ ^^©^ Menth,
and m ^-^ Annu qemat, " Heliopolis of the South " ;
it marks the site of the ancient Hermonthis, where, accord-
ing to Strabo, "Apollo and Jupiter are both worshijjped."
The ruins which remain there belong to the Iseion built
during tlie reign of the last Cleopatra (h.c. 51-29). The
stone-lined tank which lies near this building was probably
used as a Kilometer.
* Now preserved at Gizeh.
^^BBauaBm^m
!^-|
1 Jl
A\
^S^SSSi iHhmmmhmI
•
•
•
i
« • • I ® ® ®
® • • I # • ®
m m^ \ m mm
Plan of the Temple of Esneh, with restorations by Cirand Ik-y.
2 28 NOTES FOR TRAVELLERS IN EGYPT.
ESNEH.
Esneh, or Asneh, 484^ miles from Cairo, on the west
bank of the river, was called in Egyptian ^ ^ § Senet ; it
marks the site of the ancient Latopolis, and was so called
by the Greeks, because its inhabitants worshipped the Latus
fish. Thothmes III. founded a temple here, but the interesting
building which now stands almost in the middle of the
modern town is of late date, and bears the names of several
of the Roman emperors. The portico is supported by
twenty-four columns, each of which is inscribed ; their
capitals are handsome. The Zodiac here, like that at
Denderah, belongs to a late period, but is interesting.
El-Kab.
El-Kab, 502 miles from Cairo, on the east bank of the
river, was called in Egyptian 4- 2 J ® Necheb; it marks
the site of the ancient Eileithyias. There was a city here
in very ancient days, and ruins of temples built by
Thothmes IV., Amenhetep III., Seti I., Rameses II.,
Rameses III., Ptolemy IX. Euergetes II. are still visible.
A little distance from the town, in the mountain, is the
tomb of Ahmes (Amasis), the son of Abana, an officer born
in the reign of Seqenen Ra, who fought against the Hyksos,
and who ser\ed under Amasis I., Amenophis I., and
Thothmes I. The inscription on the walls of his tomb
gives an account of the campaign against some Mesopota
mian enemies of Egypt and of the siege of their city.
Amasis was the "Captain-Cencral of Sailors." The tomb
of his daughter's son Pahir lies just above his.
UTFU (EDFU).
Edfu, 515^ miles from Cairo, on the west bank of the
river was called in Egyptian ^^ ® lichutct, and in
Coptic ^,£.^-CJD ; it was called by the Greeks Apollino-
mmm<Bm
m
m
'§
A m
m
m
m
m
;
Plan of the Great Temple of EdfO.
230 NOTES FOR TRAVELLERS IN EGYPT.
polis Magna, where the crocodile and its worshippers were
detested. The Temple of Edfu, for which alone both
the ancient and modern towns were famous, occupied
I So years three months and fourteen days, that is to
say it was begun during the reign of Ptolemy Euergetes I.,
B.C. 237, and finished B.C. 57. It resembles that ot
Denderah in many respects, but its complete condition
marks it out as one of the most remarkable buildings in
Egypt, and its si)lendid towers, about 1 1 2 feet high, make
its general magnificence very striking. The space enclosed
by the walls measures 450 x 120 feet; the front of the
propylon from side to side measures about 252 feet. Pass-
ing through the door the visitor enters a court, around three
sides of which runs a gallery supported on thirty-two pillars.
The first and second halls. A, B, have eighteen and twelve
pillars respectively; passing through chambers C and D, the
shrine E is reached, where stood a granite naos in which a
figure of Horus, to whom the temple is dedicated, was pre-
served. This naos was made by Nectanebus I., a king of
the XXXth dynasty, B.C. 378.
The pylons are covered with battle scenes, and the walls
are inscribed with the names and sizes of the various cham-
bers in the building, lists of names of places, etc. ; the name
of the architect, I-em-hetep, or Imouthis, has also been
inscribed. From the south side of the pylons, and from a
small chamber on each side of the chamber C, staircases
ascended to the roof.
The credit of clearing out the temple of Edfli belongs to
M. Mariette. Little more than twenty-five years ago the
mounds of rubbish outside reached to the top of its walls,
and certain parts of the roof were entirely covered over with
houses and stables.
HAGAR SILSILEH, KOM OMDO. 231
HAGAR SILSILLII.
Hagar (or Gebel) Silsileh, 541^ miles from Cairo, on
the east and west banks of the river, derives its name
probably not from the Arabic word of like sound meaning
"chain," but from th<e Coptic X(XiAX€A, meaning "stone
wall"; the place is usually called x'^D^'^F Chennu in
hieroglyphic texts.. The ancient Egyptians here quarried
the greater part of the sandstone used by them in their
buildings, and the names of the kings inscribed in the caves
here show that these quarries were used from the earliest to
the latest periods. The most extensive of these are to be
found on the east bank of the river, but those on the west
bank contain the interesting tablets of Amen-em-aeb, a king
of the XVIIIth dynasty, who is represented conquering the
Ethiopians, Seti I., Rameses 11. his son, Meneptah, etc.
At Silsileh the Nile was worshipped, and the little temple
which Rameses II. built in this place seems to have been
dedicated chiefly to it. At this point the Nile narrows very
much, and it is generally thought that a cataract once
existed here ; there is, however, no evidence to show when
the Nile broke through and swept such a barrier, if it ever
existed, away.
KOM OMBO.
Kom Ombo, 556^ miles from Cairo, on the east bank
of the Nile, was an important place at all periods ot
Egyptian history ; it was called by the Egyptians ^ ^g^ ,
Pa-Sebek, " the temple of Sebek " (the crocodile god), and
ri (1(1 g , Nubit, and JUL^CO by the Copts. The oldest
object here is a sandstone gateway which Thothmes III.
dedicated to the god Sebek. The larger temple was begun
by Ptolemy VII. Philometor, and the building was continued
by his immediate successors ; it has two entrances, and ir
232
NOTES FOR TRAVELLERS IN EGYPT.
dedicated to Horns and Sebek. Unlike other Egyptian
temples, it has neither dromos nor propylon ; the portico
was supported by hfteen pillars, thirteen of which are still
standing, and the hall contained ten. This temple measured
about 185 feet x 114 feet; all its walls and columns were
covered with coloured hieroglyphics, and the cornice which
ran round the portico and hall was exceedingly fine. To
the north-west of this temple is a smaller sandstone temple
which was dedicated to Isis (?) Both temples stood in an
enclosure which measured about 460 x 40c yards, on each
side of which was a thick crude brick wall ; on the south
and south-east sides there was a door.
2^:
ASWAN.
Aswan (or Uswan), the southern Hmit of Egypt proper,
583 miles from Cairo, on the east bank of the river, called
in Egyptian P ^^ g , Coptic CO^f^.It, \\'as called by the
Greeks Syene, which stood on the slope of a hill to the
south-west of the present town. Properly speaking Syene
was the island of Elephantine. In the earliest Egyptian
inscriptions it is called fj^^-o^^^^^'
Abu, i.e., " the district of the elephant," and it formed the
metropolis of the first nome of Upper Egypt. As we approach
the time of the Ptolemies, the name Sunnu, i.e., the town
on the east bank of the Nile, from whence comes the Arabic
name Aswan, takes the place of Abu. The town obtained
great notoriety among the ancients from the fact that
Eratosthenes and Ptolemy considered it to lie on the tropic
of Cancer, and to be the most northerly point where, at the
time of the summer solstice, the sun's rays fell vertically ;
as a matter of fact, however, the town lies o' 37' 23" north ot
the tropic of Cancer. There was a famous well there, into
which the sun was said to shine at the summer solstice, and
to illuminate it in every part. In the time of the Romans
three cohorts were stationed here,* and the town was of
considerable importance. In the twelfth century of our
era it was the seat of a bishop. Of its size in ancient days
* It is interesting to observe that the Romans, like the British, held
Egypt liy garrisoning three places, viz. Aswan, Babylon (Cairo), and
Alexandria. The garrison at Aswan defended Egypt from foes on the
south, and commanded the entrance of the Nile ; the garrison at
Babylon guarded the end of the Nile valley and the entrance to the
Delta ; and the garrison at Alexandria protected the country from
invasion by sea.
234 NOTES FOR TRAVELLERS IN EGYPT.
nothing definite can be said, but Arabic writers describe it as
a flourishing town, and they relate that a plague once swept
off 20,000 of its inhabitants. Aswan was famous for its
wine in Ptolemaic times. The town has suffered greatly at
the hands of the Persians, Arabs, and Turks on the north,
and the Nubians, ])y whom it was nearly destroyed in the
twelfth century, on the south. The oldest ruins in the town
are those of a Ptolemaic temple, which are still visible.
The island of Elephantine* lies a little to the north
of the cataract just opposite As\van, and has been famous
in all ages as the key of Egypt from the south ; the
Romans garrisoned it with numerous troops, and it repre-
sented the southern limit of their empire. The island
itself was very fertile, and it is said that its vines and
fig-trees retained their leaves throughout the year. The
kings of the Vth dynasty sprang from Elephantine. The
gods worshipped here by the Egyptians were called Chnemu,
Sati and Sept, and on this island Amenophis III. built
a temple, remains of which were visible in the early
part of this century. Of the famous Kilometer which
stood here, Strabo says : " The Nilometer is a well upon
the banks of the Nile, constructed of close-fitting stones,
on which are marked the greatest, least, and mean
risings of the Nile ; for the water in the well and in the
river rises and subsides simultaneously. Upon the wall
* " A little above Elephantine is the lesser cataract, where the
boatmen exhibit a sort of spectacle to the governors. The cataract is
in the middle of the river, and is formed by a ridge of rocks, the upper
part of which is level, and thus capable of receiving the river, but
terminating in a precipice, where the water dashes down. On each
side towards the land there is a stream, up which is the chief ascent for
vessels. The boatmen sail up by this stream, and, dropping down to
the cataract, are impelled with the boat to the precipice, the crew and
the boats escaping unhurt." (.Straljo, Bk. xvii. chap, i., 49, Falconer's
translation.) Thus it appears that " shooting the cataract " is a very
old amusement.
ASWAN.
of the well are lines, which indicate the com]jlcte rise of
the river, and other degrees of its rising. Those who
examine these marks communicate the result to the public
for their information. For it is known long before, by these
marks, and by the time elapsed from the commencement,
what the future rise of the river will be, and notice is given
of it. This information is of service to the husbandmen
with reference to the distribution of the water ; for the pur-
pose also of attending to the embankments, canals, and
other things of this kind. It is of use also to the governors,
who fix the revenue ; for the greater the rise of the river,
the greater it is expected will be the revenue." According
to Plutarch the Nile rose at Elephantine to the height of
28 cubits ; a very interesting text at Edfu states that if
the river rises 24 cubits 3^ hands at Elephantine, it wiil
water the country satisfactorily.
To the south-west of Atrun island, in a sandy valley, lie
the ruins of an ancient building of the sixth or seventh
century of our era, half convent, half fortress. A dome,
ornamented with coloured representations of Saints Michael,
George, and Gabriel, and the twelve Apostles, still remains in
a good state of preservation. To the east of the convent is
the cemetery, where some interesting stel^ and linen frag-
ments were found.
A mile or so to the north of the convent stands the bold
hill in the sides of which are hewn the tombs which General
Sir F. W. Grenfell excavated; this hill is situated in \Veste:n
Aswan, the COT4?..rt JUL neJULeitX of the Copts, and is
the Contra Syene of the classical authors. The tombs are
hewn out of the rock, tier above tier, and the most impor-
tant of these were reached by a stone staircase, which to
this day remains nearly complete, and is one of the most
interesting antiquities in Egypt. The tombs in this hill may
be roughly divided into three groups. The first group was
hewn in the best and thickest layer of stone in the lop of
236 NOTES FOR TRAVELLERS IN EGYPT.
the hill, and was made for the rulers of Elephantine who
hved during the Vlth and Xllth dynasties. The second group
is composed of tombs of different periods ; they are hewn out
of a lower layer of stone, and are not of so much importance.
The third group, made during the Roman occupation of
Egypt, lies a comparatively short height above the river. All
these tombs were broken into at a very early period, and
the largest of them formed a common sepulchre for people
of all classes from the XXVIth d\ nasty downwards. They
were found filled with broken coffins and mummies and
sepulchral stelce, etc., etc., and everything showed how
degraded Egyptian funereal art had become when these
bodies were buried there. The double tomb at the head of
the staircase was made for Sabben and Mechu ; the former
was a dignitary of high rank who lived during the reign of
Pepi II., a king of the Vlth dynasty, whose prenomen
Nefer-ka-Ra is inscribed on the left hand side of
the doorway ; the latter was a smer, prince and inspector,
who appears to have lived during the Xllth dynasty. The
paintings on the w^alls and the proto-Doric columns
which support the roof are interesting, and its fine state
of preservation and ])osition makes it one of the most
valuable monuments of that early period. A little further
northward is the small tomb of [ ^ y Heqab, and beyond
this is the fine, large tomb hewn originally for Se-Renput,
one of the old feudal hereditary governors of Elephantine,
but which was appropriated by Nub-kau-Ra-necht. He was
the governor of the district of the cataract, and the general
who commanded a lightly-armed body of soldiers called "run-
ners;" he lived during the reign of Usertsen I., the second
king of the Xllth dynasty, and his tomb must have been
one of the earliest hewn there during that period. Further
excavations in this hill will no doubt bring to light many
other interesting tombs now unknown ; it is much to be
ASWAN AND THE FIRST CATARACT. 237
hoped that Sir Francis (^renfcll will see his way to causing
his work to be continued.
Aswan was as famous for its granite, as Silsileh was for its
sandstone. The Egyptian kings were in the habit of sending
to Aswan for granite to make sarcophagi, temples, obelisks,
etc., and it will be remembeaed that Una was sent there to
bring back in barges granite for the use of Pepi II., a king
of the Vlth dynasty. It is probable that the granite
slabs which cover the pyramid of Mycerinus (IVth dynasty)
were brought from Aswan. The undetached obelisk, which
still lies in one of the quarries, is an interesting object.
Near the quarries are two ancient Arabic cemeteries, in
which are a number of sandstone grave-stones, many of them
formed from stones taken from Ptolemaic buildings, inscribed
in Cufic * characters with the names of the Muhammedans
buried there, and the year, month, and day on which they
died. We learn from them that natives of Edfu and other
parts of Egypt were sometimes brought here and buried.
The first Cataract, called Shellal by the Arabs, begins
a little to the south of Aswan, and ends a little to the north
of the island of Philae ; eight cataracts arc reckoned on the
Nile, but this is the most generally known. Here the Nile
becomes narrow and flows between two mountains, which
descend nearly perpendicularly to the river, the course of
which is obstructed by huge boulders and small rocky
islands and barriers, which stand on different levels, and
cause the falls of water which have given this part of the
river its name. On the west side the obstacles are not so
* A kind of Arabic writing in which very old copies of the Kor'an,
etc., are written: it takes its name from Kufah, ai»x]\ Ei-K'i'ifa, a
town on the Euphrates. Kufah was one of the chief cities of 'Irak,
and is famous in the Muhammedan world because Muhammad and his
immediate successors dwelt there. Enoch lived here, the ark was
built here, the boiling waters of the Flood first burst out here, and
Abraham had a place of prayer set apart here.
238 NOTES FOR TRAVELLERS IN EGYPT.
numerous as on the east, and sailing and rowing boats can
ascend the cataract on this side when the river is high.
The noise made by the water is at times very great, but it
has been greatly exaggerated by both ancient and niodern
travellers, some of whom ventured to assert that the " water
fell from several places in the mountain more than two
hundred feet." Some ancient writers asserted that the
fountains ef the Nile were in this cataract, and Herodotus
believed that the source of the Nile was here. Many of the
rocks here are inscribed with the names of kings who
reigned during the Middle Empire ; in many places on the
little islands in the cataract quarries were worked. The
island of Sehel should be visited on account of the numerous
inscriptions left there by princes, generals, and others who
passed by on their way to Nubia ; the village of Mahatah,
on the east bank of the river, is prettily situated, and worth a
visit.
PHIL.E.
Philae is the name given by the Greeks and Romans to
two islands situated at the head of the first cataract, about
six miles above Aswan; the larger one is called Biggeh, and
the smaller Philce. Inscriptions found on rocks in the larger
island show that as far back as the time of Amenophis II.
an Egyptian temple stood here ; the greater number of
these inscriptions were cut by Egyptian officials on their
way to and from Nubia. The smaller island, to which the
name Philae is generally confined, consists of a granite rock,
the sides of which, having been scarped, have had walls
built on them; it measures 417 yards long and 135 yards
wide. The name of this island in Egyptian was \^^^ ^ q
P-aa-lek, Coptic niX<i.K, z>., 'the frontier.' The monu-
ments on this island are numerous and interesting, but they
belong to a comparatively late date, none that have yet been
found being older than the time of Nectanebus, the last native
Plan of the Buildings on the Island of Philj.-.
240 NOTES FOR TRAVELLERS IN EGYPT.
king of Egypt. On the south-west corner are the remains
of the small temple which this king dedicated to Isis.
The most important ruins are those of the Temple of Isis,
which was begun by Ptolemy II. Philadelphus and Arsinoe,
and was added to and completed by the Ptolemies and
Roman emperors who came after. On each side of the
path which led to the temple is a corridor: that on the west
has thirty-two pillars and that on the east sixteen ; at
the north end of the east corridor is the so-called cha])el ot
^sculapius, which was built by Ptolemy V. Epii)hanes and
Cleopatra. The towers of the first propylon are about
65 feet high, and their southern faces are ornamented with
sculptures representing Ptolemy VII. Philometor triumphing
over his enemies. On the east side of the large court, which is
entered through the propylon, is a portico with ten columns,
and on the west side are the three chambers forming the
so-called mammisi, on the walls of which are representa-
tions of the birth of Horus. In this courtyard there is
a copy of the famous Rosetta Stone inscription, given,
unfortunately, without the Greek text. Passing through the
second propylon, a portico having ten beautifully painted
capitals is entered, and north of this are three chambers, in
the last of which is the monolith shrine. Round and about
are several small chambers and passages with secret openings.
When Strabo visited the island he saw the hawk which was
worshipped there, and which was said to have been brought
from Ethiopia ; it was very sick and nearly dead.*
* "A little above the cataract is Philre, a common settlement, like
Elephantina, of Ethiopians and Egyptians, and equal in size, containing
Egyptian temples, where a bird, which they call hierax (the hawk), is
worshipped ; but it did not appear to me to resemble in the least
ihe hawks of our country nor of Egypt, for it was larger, and very
different in the marks of its plumage. They said that the bird was
Ethiopian, and is brought from Ethiopia when its predecessor dies, or
l)efore its death. The one shown to us when we were there was sick
and nearly dead." — (Strabo, xvii., 1-49, Ealconer's translation.)
PHILTE, 241
On the western side of the island stands the beautiful little
temple usually called Pharaoh's bed, and a little to the norih
of it is a small temple built by Ptolemy IX. Euergetes II.;
the other ruins on the island are not of importance, but if
time permits, a visit should be paid to the Nilometer built
in a staircase leading down to the river. Philai was said
to be one of the burial places of Osiris, and as such was
held in the greatest esteem by both Egyptians and Ethio-
pians ; it was considered a most holy place, and only priests
were allowed to live there unmolested. An oath sworn by
Osiris of Philae was inviolable, and the worship of this god
flourished here until a.d. 453, that is to say, seventy years
after the proclamation of the famous edict of Theodosius
against the religion of Egypt. In the time of the Romans
a strong garrison was stationed here. In Coptic times a
Christian church, remains of which are still visible, was built
on the northern end of Philae. The picturesque scenery at
Philse is too well known to need comment.
242 NOTES FOR TRAVELLERS IN EGYPT.
THE NILE BETWEEN THE FIRST AND
SECOND CATARACTS.
The country which is entered on leaving Philae is gene-
rally known by the name of Ethiopia, or Nubia ; the latter
name has been derived by some from tuib, the Egyptian
word for gold, because in ancient days much gold was
brought into Egypt from that land. In the hieroglyphics,
Nubia or Ethiopia, is generally called j^'^, fx/\/^ Kesh (the
Cash of the Bible) and ^??^ p, ^.^rs^ Ta-kenset ; from the latter
name the Arabic El-kenlls is derived. It is known that
as far back as the Vith dynasty, the Egyptians sent to this
country for certain kinds of wood, and that all the chief
tribes which lived round about Korosko, hastened to help
the Egyptian officer Una in the mission which he undertook
for King Pepi II. It seems pretty certain too, if we may
trust Una's words, that the vvhole country was made to
acknowledge the sovereignty of the Egyptian king. From
the Vllth to the Xlth dynasty nothing is known of the
relations which existed between the two countries, but in
the time of Usertsen I., the second king of the Xllth
dynasty, an expedition was undertaken by the Egyptians for
the purpose of fixing the boundaries of the two countries,
and we know from a stele set up at \\'adi Halfah by this
king, that his rule extended as far south as this place. Two
reigns later the inhabitants of Nubia or Ethiopia had become
so troublesome, that Usertsen III. found it necessary to build
fortresses at Semneh and Kummeh, south of the second
cataract, and to make stringent laws forbidding the passage
of any negro ship unless it was laden with cattle or mer
chandise.
THE NILE BETWEEN FIRST AND SECOND CATARACTS. 243
The Hyksos kings appear not to have troubled greatly
about Nubia. When the XVIIIth dynasty had obtained
full power in Egypt, some of its greatest kings, such as
Thothmes III. and Amenhetep III., inarched into Nubia
and built temples there; under the rulers of the XlXth
dynasty, the country became to all intents and purposes a
part of Egypt. Subsequently the Nubians appear to have
acquired considerable power, and as Egypt became involved
in conflicts with more Northern countries, this power
increased until Nubia was able to declare itself independent.
For several hundreds of years the Nubians had the l)enefit
of Egyptian civilization, and all that it could teach them, and
they were soon able to organize war expeditions into Egypt
with success. As early as the XXVth dynasty, the territory
to the north of Syene or Aswan was a part of the Nubian
or Ethiopian kingdom, the second capital of which, towards
the north, was Thebes. About b.c. 730 a rebellion, headed by
Tafnecht, chief of Sais, broke out, and it was so successful,
that the rebels marched into middle Egypt, i.e., the tract of
land which lay between the Delta and the Ethiopian terri-
tory, and overthrew the Ethiopian governors. When Pianchi
king of Ethiopia heard this, he prepared an army, and
marching northwards captured the whole of Egypt as far
as Memphis. The kings of Egypt of the XXVth dynasty
were Ethiopians, and their capital city was Napata or Gebel
Barkal; Tirhakah, the last of the dynasty, is thought to
have built the pyramids at Meroe. Cambyses undertook an
ill-directed expedition into Ethiopia, but he met with no
success, and the result of his labour was only to open up
the country to travellers. Under the rule of the Ptolemies
many cities were founded in Ethiopia. In the reign of
Augustus, the Ethiopians, under their Queen Candace, were
repulsed, and their capital city destroyed by C. Petronius,
the successor of the prefect of Egypt, Aelius Callus, who
placed a Roman garrison in Ibrim, about b.c. 22. Candace
R 2
244 NOTES FOR TRAVELLERS IN EGYPT.
sued for peace. In the reign of Diocletian the greater part
of the country south of Phils was ceded to the Nubians or
Ethiopians. The principal tribes of the Ethiopians in
ancient days were i. Blemmyes and Megabari, 2. Icthyo-
phagi, 3. Macrobii, and 4. Troglodytae.
After leaving Philae, the first place of interest passed is
Dabod, on the west bank of the river, 599^ miles from
Cairo. At this place, called ^^ [\ © Ta-het in the
inscriptions, are the ruins of a temple founded by At'a-char-
Amen,* a king of Ethiopia, who reigned about the middle
of the third century b.c. The names of Ptolemy VII.
Philometor and Ptolemy IX. Physcon are found engraved
upon parts of the building. Dabod probably stands on the
site of the ancient Parembole, a port or castle on the borders
of Egypt and Ethiopia, and attached alternately to each
•kingdom. During the reign of Diocletian it was ceded to the
Nubae by the Romans, and it was frequently attacked by the
Blemmyes from the east bank of the river. At Kardash,
on the west bank of the river, 615 miles from Cairo, are the
ruins of a temple and a (juarry ; seven miles further south,
on the west bank of the river, is Wadi Tafah, where
there are also some ruins; they are however of little
interest.
kaeAbshI.
Kalabshi, on the west bank of the river, 629 miles from
Cairo, stands on the site of the classical Talmis, called in
hieroglyphics <c=> Thermeset, and || j ^ D^ J^
* QlSiSi^lJll] "^V'-^^--^"--^ Hving for
ever, beloved of Isis," with the prcnomen I q ^|V,^_5 | j 'w>'>^ 1} — • I
At-nii-Ra, setep-cn-uetcru.
THE NILE BETWEEN FIRST AND SECOND CATARACTS. 245
Ka-hefennu ; it stands immediately on the Tropic of
Cancer. The god of this town was called ^^ \ ',' S:^,
Merul or Melul, the Mandulis or Malulis of the Greeks.
At Kalabshi there are the ruins of two temjjles of consider-
able interest. The larger of these, which is one of the largest
temples in Nubia, appears to have been built upon the site
of an ancient Egyptian temple founded by Thothmes III.,
B.C. 1600, and Amenophis II., B.C. 1566, for on the pronaos
this latter monarch is representing offering to the god
Amsu and the Ethiopian god Merul or Melul. It seems
to have been restored in Ptolemaic times, and to have
been considerably added to by several of the Roman
emperors — Augustus, Caligula, Trajan, etc. From the
appearance of the ruins it would seem that the building
was wrecked either immediately before or soon after it was
completed ; some of the chambers were plastered over and
used for chapels by the early Christians. A large number of
Greek and Latin inscriptions have been found engraved on
the walls of this temple, and from one of them we learn
that the Blemmyes were frequently defeated by Silco, king
of the Nubre and Ethiopians, about the end of the third
century of our era.
At Bet el-Wali, a short distance from the larger temple,
is the interesting rock-hewn temple which was made to
commemorate the victories of Rameses II. over the
Ethiopians. On the walls of the court leading into the
small hall are some beautifully executed sculptures, repre-
senting the Ethiopians bringing before the king large
quantities of articles of value, together with gifts of wild
and tame animals, after their defeat. Many of the objects
depicted must have come from a considerable distance, and
it is evident that in those early times Talmis was the great
central market to which the products and wares of the
Sudan were brought for sale and barter. The sculptures
are executed with great freedom and spirit, and when the
246 NOTES FOR TRAVELLERS IN EGYPT.
colours upon them were fresh they must have formed one
of the most striking sights in Nubia. Some years ago
casts of these interesting sculptures were taken by Mr.
Bonomi, at the expense of Mr. Hay, and notes on the
colours were made ; these two casts, j^ainted according to
Mr. Bonomi's notes, are now set up on the walls in the
Fourth Egyptian Room in the British Museum (Northern
Gallery), and are the only evidences extant of the former
beauty of this little rock-hewn temple, for nearly every trace
of colour has vanished from the walls. The scenes on the
battle-field are of great interest.
Between Kalabshi and Dendur, on the west bank of the
river, 642 miles from Cairo, there is nothing of interest to
be seen j at Dendur are the remains of a temple built by
Augustus, f ^^ ^ I Pa-aa, where this emperor is shown
making offerings to Amen, Osiris, Isis, and Sati. At
Gerf Hussen, on the west bank of the river, 651 miles
from Cairo, are the remains of a rock-hewn temple built by
Rameses II. in honour of Ptah, Hathor, and Aneq ; the
work is poor and of little interest. This village marks the
site of the ancient Tutzis.
Dakkeh, on the west bank of the river, 662^ miles
from Cairo, marks the site of the classical Pselcis, the
D [1 ^^ Q P-sclket of the hieroglyphics. About B.C. 23
the Ethiopians attacked the Roman garrisons at Philae and
Syene, and having defeated them, overran Uj^per Egypt.
Petronius, the successor of ^Elius Callus, marching with less
than 10,000 infantry and 800 horse against the rebel army of
30,000 men, comj)clled them to retreat to Pselcis, which he
afterwards besieged and took. " Part of the insurgents were
driven into the city, others fled into the uninhabited
country ; and such as ventured upon the passage of the
river, escaned to a neighbouring island, where there were
not many crocodiles on account of the current. Among
THE NILE BETWEEN FIRST AND SECOND CATARACTS. 247
the fugitives were the generals of Candace,* queen of the
Ethiopians in our time, a mascuHne woman, and who had
lost an eye. Petronius, pursuing them in rafts and shijjs,
took them all, and despatched them immediately to
Alexandria." (Strabo, XVII., 1,54.) From Pselcis Petronius
advanced to Premnis (Ibrim), and afterwards to Napata, the
royal seat of Candace, which he razed to the ground. As
long as the Romans held Ethiopia, Pselcis was a garrison
town.
ThetempleatDakkehwasbuiltbyrq^l) = -f-^^1
Arq-Amen dnch t'etta mcr At/set, "Arq-Amen, living
for ever, beloved of Isis," having the prenomen
QS^-fT^K^Q] ''"^'"''^ ^'-^ ''''^/' ''^ ^'^•■' I"
the sculptures on the ruins which remain Arq-Amen is
shown standing between Menthu-Ra, lord of Thebes, and
Atmu the god of Heliopolis, and sacrificing to Thoth, who
promises to give him a long and prosperous life as king.
Arq-Amen is called the "beautiful god, son of Chnemu and
Osiris, born of Sati and Isis, nursed by Aneq and Nephthys,"
etc. According to Diodorus, the priests of Meroe in Ethiopia
were in the habit of sending, " whensoever they please, a
messenger to the king, commanding him to put himself to
death ; for that such is the pleasure of the gods ; . . . and
so in former ages, the kings without force or compulsion of
arms, but merely bewitched by a fond superstition, observed
the custom ; till Ergamenes (Arq-Amen), a king of Ethiopia,
who reigned in the time of Ptolemy II., bred up in the
Grecian discipline and philoso])hy, was the first that was so
bold as to reject and despise such commands. For this
prince . . . marched with a considerable body of men to
the sanctuary, where stood the golden temple of the
Ethiopians, and there cut the throats of all the priests."
* Candace was a title borne by all the queens of Meroe.
248 NOTES FOR TRAVELLERS IN EGYPT.
(Bk. III., chap, vi.) Many of the Ptolemies appear to have
made additions to the temple at Dakkeh.
On the east bank of the river opposite Dakkeh is Kuban,
called J ^ ^czizps ^ ^ Baka, in the hieroglyphics, a
village which is said to mark the site of Tachompso or
Metachompso, " the place of crocodiles." As Pselcis
increased, so Tachompso declined, and became finally
merely a suburb of that town ; it was generally called
Contra-Pselcis. During the XVIIIth and XlXth dynasties
this place was well fortified by the Egyptians, and on many
blocks of stone close byare found the names of Thothmes III.,
Heru-em-heb, and Rameses II. It appears to have been the
point from which the wretched people condemned to labour
in the gold mines in the desert of the land of Akita set out ;
and an interesting inscription on a stone found here relates
that Rameses II., having heard that much gold existed in
this land, which was inaccessible on account of the absolute
want of water, bored a well in the mountain, twelve cubits
deep, so that henceforth men could come and go by
this land. His father Seti I. had bored a well 120 cubits
deep, but no water appeared in it.
About 20 miles from Dakkeh, and 690 from Cairo, on the
west bank of the river, is Wadi Sebua, or the "Valley
of the Lions," where there are the remains of a temple
partly built of .sandstone, and partly excavated in the rock ;
the place is so called on account of the dromos of sixteen
sphinxes which led up to the temple. On the sculptures
which still remain here may be seen Rameses II., the
l)uildcr of the temple, " making an offering of incense to
father Amen, the king of the gods," who says to him, "I give
to thee all might, and I give the world to thee, in peace."
Elsewhere the king is making offerings to Tefnut, lady of
heaven Nebthetep, Horus and Thoth, each of whom
promises to bestow some blessing upon him. On another
l)art is a boat containing a ram-headed god, and Harmachis,
THE NILE BETWEEN FIRST AND SECOND CATARACTS. 2^19
seated in a shrine, accompanied by Horus, Thoth, Isis, and
Mat ; the king kneels before him in adoration, and the god
says that he will give him myriads of years and festivals ;
on each side is a figure of Rameses II. making an offering.
Beneath this scene is a figure of a Christian saint holding a
key, and an inscription on each side tells us that it is meant
to represent Peter the Apostle. This picture and the
remains of plaster on the walls show that the chambers of
the temple were used by the early Christians as chapels.
Korosko, on the east bank of the river, 703 miles from
Cairo, was from the earliest times the point of departure for
merchants and others going to and fro from the Sudan ;
from the western bank there was a caravan route across into
north Africa. In ancient days the land which lay to the
east of Korosko was called -^ | ^^. X ] V\ I Uaua,
and as early as the Vlth dynasty the officer Una visited it
in order to obtain blocks of acacia wood for his king
Pepi II. An inscription, found a few hundred yards to the
east of the town, records that the country round about was con-
quered intheXIIthdynastyby Amenemhat I- ( O [1 —^^-^ "O" ].
About seven miles off is the battle-field of Toski, on the
west bank of the Nile. A capital idea of the general
character of Nubian scenery can be ol)tained by ascending
the mountain, which is now, thanks to a good i)ath, easily
accessible.
At Amada, on the west bank of the river, 711 miles
from Cairo, is a small but interesting temple, which appears
to have been founded in the Xllth dynasty by Usertsen II.,
who conquered Nubia by setting fire to standing crops, by
carrying away the wives and cattle, and by cutting down the
men on their way to and from the wells. This temple was
repaired by Thothmes III. and other kings of the XVIlIth
dynasty.
250 NOTES FOR TRAVELLERS IN EGYPT.
At Derr, on the east bank of the river, 715 miles from
Cairo, is a small, badly executed rock-hewn temple of the
time of Rameses II., where the usual scenes representing
the defeat of the Ethiopians are depicted. The king is
accompanied by a tame " lion which follows after his
majesty, ^ (] ^ 5^ ^ ^ V ! ^ ''^ ' "'"'"' '"' '"
hen-f, to slay " Close to the temple is the rock
stele of the prince Amen-em-heb of the same period ; the
temple was dedicated to Amen-Ra. The Egyptian name of
the town was '' \ a^ <r-=^ y [1[| , Pa-Rd pa tetnai, " the
town of the temple of the sun."
Thirteen miles beyond Derr, 728 miles from Cairo, also
on the east bank of the river, stands Ibrim, which marks
the site of the ancient Primis, or Premnis, called in the
Egyptian inscriptions y [ / v^ I , Maamam. This
town was captured during the reign of Augustus by
Petronius on his victorious march upon Napata. In the
first and tliird naos at Primis are representations of Nehi,
the governor of Nubia, with other officers, bringing gifts
l^efore Thothmes III., which shows that these caves were
hewn during the reign of this king ; and in another,
Rameses II. is receiving adorations from Setau, prince ot
Ethiofjia, and a number of his officers. At Anibe, just
opposite Ibrim, is the grave of Penni, the governor of the
district, who died during the reign of Rameses VI.
ABIJ SIMBEL.*
Abfi Simbel, on the west bank of the river, 762 miles
from Cairo, is the classical Aboccis, and the place called
[] J ^^ r^/^^ Abshek in the Egyptian inscriptions.
Around, or near the temj)le, a town of considerable size
* The spelling of this nair.c is doubtful.
T. Plan of the Temple of Rameses II. at Abu Simbel.
II. The seated Colossi and front of the Temple at Abu Simbel.
From Lepsius' Denkindler, Bd. iii., Bi. 1S5.
252 NOTES FOR TRAVELLERS IN EGYPT.
once Stood; all traces of this have, however, disap-
peared. To the north of the great temple, hewn in ttie
living rock, is a smaller temple, about 84 feet long, which
was dedicated to the goddess Hathor by Rameses II. and
his wife Nefert-Ari. The front is ornamented with statues
of the king, his wife, and some of his children, and over
the door are his names and titles. In the hall inside are six
square Hathor-headed pillars also inscribed with the names
and titles of Rameses and his wife. In the small chamber
at the extreme end of the temple is an interesting scene in
which the king is making an offering to Hathor in the form
of a cow; she is called the "lady of Abshek," and is
standing behind a figure of the king.
The chief object of interest at AbH Simbel is the Great
Temple built by Rameses II. to commemorate his victory
over the Cheta in north-east Syria ; it is the largest and
finest Egyptian monument in Nubia, and for simple
grandeur and majesty is second to none in all Egypt. This
temple is hewn out of the solid grit-stone rock to a depth
of 185 feet, and the surface of the rock, which originally
sloped down to the river, was cut away for a space of about
90 feet square to form the front of the temple, which is
ornamented by four colossal statues of Rameses II., 66 feet
high, seated on thrones, hewn out of the living rock. The
cornice is, according to the drawing by Lepsius, decorated
with twentv-one cynocephali, and beneath it, in the middle,
is a line of hieroglyphics, ^ 'Y" ^ 1 1 ^=^ ' ^-^'''^ "^^
a7ich usr tieb, " I give to thee all life and strength," on the
right side of which are four figures of Ra, l||, and eight
cartouches containing the prenomen of Rameses II., with a
urgeus on each side ; on the left side are four figures of
Amen, ^ , and eight cartouches as on the right. The line
of boldly cut hieroglyphics below reads, " The living Horus,
the mighty bull, beloved of Mat, king of the North and
THE NILE BETWEEN FIRST AND SECOND CATARACTS. 253
South, Usr-Mat-Ra setep en-Ra, son of the Sun, Ramcses,
beloved of Amen, beloved of Harmachis the great god."
Over the door is a statue of Harmachis, "^ , and on each
side of him is a figure of the king offering a) . Each of
the four colossi had the name of Rameses II. inscribed
upon each shoulder and breast. On the leg of one of
these are several interesting Greek inscriptions, which were
thought to have been written by the Egyptian troojjs who
marched into Ethiopia in the days of Psammctichus I. '
The interior of the temple consists of a large hall, in
%vhich are eight columns with large figures of Osiris aijout
17 feet high upon them, and from which eight chambers
open ; a second hall having four square columns ; and a
third hall, without pillars, from which open three chambers.
In the centre chamber is an altar and four seated figures,
viz., Harmachis, Rameses II., Amen-Ra, and Ptah ; the
first two are coloured red, the third blue, and the fourth
white. In the sculptures on the walls Rameses is seen
offering to Amen-Ra, Sechet, Harmachis, Amsu, Thoth,
and other deities ; a list of his children occurs, and many
small scenes of considerable importance. The subjects
of the larger scenes are, as was to be expected, repre-
sentations of the principal events in the victorious battles
of the great king, in which he appears putting his foes
to death with the weapons which Harmachis has given
to him. The accompanying hieroglyphics describe these
scenes with terse accuracy.
One of the most interesting inscriptions at Al)Ci Simbcl is
that found on a slab, which states that in the fifth year
of the reign of Rameses II., his majesty was in the land of
T'ah, not far from Kadesh on the Orontes. The outposts
kept a sharp look-out, and when the army came to the south
of the town of Shabtun, two of the spies of the Shasu came
254 NOTES FOR TRAVELLERS IN EGYPT.
into the camp and pretended that they had been sent by the
chiefs of their tribe to inform Rameses II. that they had
forsaken the chief of the Cheta,* and that they wished to
make an alliance with his majesty and become vassals of
his. They then went on to say that the chief of the
Cheta was in the land of Chirebu to the north of Tunep,
some distance off, and that they were afraid to come near
the Egyptian king. These two men were giving false infor-
mation, and they had actually been sent by the Cheta chief
to find out where Rameses and his army was ; the Cheta
chief and his army were at that moment drawn up in
l)attle array behind Kadesh. Shortly after these men were
dismissed, an Egyptian scout came into the king's presence
bringing with him two spies from the army of the chief of the
Cheta; on being questioned, they informed Rameses that the
chief of the Cheta was encamped behind Kadesh, and that he
had succeeded in gathering together a multitude of soldiers
and chariots from the countries round about. Rameses
summoned his ofificers to his presence, and informed them of
the news which he had just heard ; they listened with sur-
])rise, and insisted that the newly-received information was
untrue. Rameses blamed the chiefs of the intelligence
department seriously for their neglect of duty, and they
admitted their fault. Orders were straightway issued for
the Egyptian army to march upon Kadesh, and as they
were crossing an arm of the river near that city the hostile
forces fell in with each other. When Rameses saw this, he
" growled at them like his father Menthu, lord of Thebes,"
and having hastily put on his full armour, he mounted his
chariot and drove into the battle. His onset was so
sudden and rapid that before he knew where he was he
* The Cheta have, during the last few years, been identified with the
Hittites of the Bible ; there is no ground for this identification beyond
the slight similarity of the names. The inscriptions upon the sculptures
found at Jerahis still remain undeciphered.
TTIE NILE BETWEEN FIRST AND SECOND CATARACTS. 255
found himself surrounded by the enemy, and completely
isolated from his own troops. He called upon his father
Amen-Ra to help him, and then addressed him.self to a
slaughter of all those that came in his way, and his prowess
was so great that the enemy fell in heaps, one over the
other, into the waters of the Orontes. He was quite alone,
and not one of his soldiers or horsemen came near him
to help him. It was only with great difficulty he succeeded
in cutting his way through the ranks of the enemy. At the
end of the inscription he says, "Every thing that my
majesty has stated, that did I in the presence of my
soldiers and horsemen." This event in the battle of the
Egyptians against the Cheta was made the subject of an
interesting poem by Pen-ta-urt; this composition was con-
sidered worthy to be inscribed upon papyri, and upon the
walls of the temples which Rameses built.
A little to the south of the (Jreat 'rcm[)le is a small
building of the same date, which was used in connexion
with the services, and on the walls of which are some
interesting scenes. It was re-opened a few years ago by
Miss Edwards and her party.
The village of Wadi Halfah, on the east bank of the Nile,
802 miles from Cairo, maiks the site of a part of the dis-
trict called J p ^j^^ © Buhen in the hieroglyphic inscrip-
tion, where, as at Derr and Ibrim, the god Harmachis was
worshipped. On the plain to the east of the village some
interesting flint weapons have been fountl, and a few miles
distant are the fossil remains of a forest. On the western
bank of the river, a little further south, are the remains of
a temple which, if not actually built, was certainly restored
by Thothmes III. It was repaired and added to by
later kings of Egypt, but it seems to have fallen into dis-
use soon after the Romans gained possession of Egypt.
A few miles south of Wadi Halfah begins the second cata-
256 NOTES FOR TRAVELLERS IN EGYPT.
ract, a splendid view of which can be obtained from the
now famous rock of Abusir on the west bank of the river.
Nearly every traveller who has visited Abii Simbel has been
to this rock and inscribed his name upon it ; the result is
an interesting collection of names and dates, the like of
which probably exists nowhere else.
A narrow gauge railway from Wadi Halfah to Sarras was
laid down by the EngHsh a few years ago to carry troops and
stores above the Second Cataract, and until quite recently
about eighteen miles of it, passing through wild scenery,
remained in situ. The other part of it had been torn up by
the dervishes, who threw the iron rails into the cataract,
used the sleepers to boil their kettles, and twisted lengths of
the telegraph wires rogether to form spears. This line has
again been restored by the Egyptian army.
The remains of Egyptian temples, etc., at Semneh above
the second cataract are of interest, but it is probable that
they would not repay the traveller who was not specially
concerned with archaeology, for the fatigue of the journey
and the expense which he must necessarily incur to reach
them.
LIST OF EGYPTIAN KINGS.
Dynasty I., from Thinis, b.c. 4400.
Mena.
Teta.
Ate^.
Ata.
Hesep-ti.
Mer-ba-pen.
Semen -Ptah.
Qebh.
Dynasty II., from Thinis, b.c. 4133.
Neter-baiu.
-M n
"^
Uat'-nes.
13-
Ka-kau.
^.
D
Senta.
M(^M3 j'4. ||(^¥g
Ba-en-neter.
Per-ab-sen,
* ^1^ = mten 7iet, " King of the North and Soutli."
2^8
NOTES FOR TRAVELLERS IN EGYPT,
IJ
^5. ^^^ 0
Nefer-ka-Ra.*
Uj,] -MCMi^]
Nefer-ka-seker.
Het'efa.
Dynasty III,, from Memphis, b.c. 3966.
18.
19.
MCMD
O tiiJ
T'at'ai.
U
Neb-ka.
■ m(E^O
Set'es.
^
y
Serteta.
Teta.
Ahtes.
Nub-ka-Ra.
Nefer-ka-Ra, son of the Sun, Huni.
Dynasty IV., from Memphis, b.c. 3766.
Seneferu.
X'ufu.
(Cheops.)
* Though O Ra is generally placed first in the cartouche, it is
generally to be read last.
t \;§ = se A'd, " son of the Sun."
MCZZ3
LIST OF EGYPTIAN KINGS
'7
^59
32
xa-f-Ra.
(Chephren.)
Ci ^Ti V
Men-kau-Ra.
(Mycerinus. )
]
Sht'pses-ka-f.
33- MCIMul]
Sebek-ka-Ra.
I-em-hetep.
Tet-f-Ra.
Dynasty V., from Elephantine, b.c. 3366.
Usr-ka-f.
1_llJ ^
uujj
Sah-u-Ra.
37. M ( 0
Nefer-ka-ari-Ra, son of the Sun, Kakaa.
38.Mf33 ^ Gfflu]
Nefer-f-Ra, son of the Sun, Shepses-ka-Ra.
-nGZD ^ (By
Nefer-xa-Ra, son of the Sun, Heru-a-ka-u
40. ^\^ C^MH
Usr-en-Ra, son of the Sun, An.
<e=<i
4. I
t^^
uu
u
Men-kau-Heru.
^
s 2
26o NOTES FOR TRAVELLERS IN EGYPT.
' O
42.
m(ZEU ^ 0 - 0
Tet-ka-Ra, son of the Sun, Assa.
Dynasty VI, from Memphis, b.c. 3266.
«■ m c^i] fei
D
Teta. or Teta-mer-en-Ptah.
(Teta beloved of Ptah.)
46. 4^
Usr-ka-Ra, son of the Sun, Ati.
-9 O
^]
47
• MCI
Meri-Ra, son of the Sun, Pepi (I.).
iJ
Mer-en-Ra, son of the Sun, Heru-em-sa-f.
^- m CSy]
Nefer-ka- Ra, son of the Sun, Pepi (L).
49. m fe^^r^g:] 50. M(^]
51-
Ra-mer-en-se (?)-em-sa-f
Neter-ka-Ra.
^ ^ V .
v..
^ I
^33
Men-ka-Ra, son of tlie Sun, Netaqerti.
(Nilocris. )
LIST OF EGYPTIAN KINGS.
261
Dynasties VII. and VIII., from Memphis; Dynasties
IX. and X., FROM HeRACLEOPOLIS, B.C. 3 1 oo.
52
Nefer-ka.
S3. I
54-
VzM
Nefer-seh
05]
Ab.
55-
MC3
Ncfcr-kau-Ra.
56. \
\
xartyi.
5^ M RU]
53. M Qui
Nefer-ka-Ra-Nebi.
59. M CIy^3]
Nefer-ka- Ra.
Tet-ka-Ra-maa
Nefer-ka-Ra-xentu. Mer-en-Heru.
Senefer-ka. Se-nefer-ka-Ra.
a-en-Ra. Nefer-ka- Heru.
Nefer-ka-Ra-t-rer-1 (?).
66. i\^f0lu°
Nefer-ka-Ra-Fcpi-scnb.
262
NOTES FOR TRAVELLERS IN EGYPT.
-Ra-annu.
Nefer-ka-Ra-annu.*
68. 1}
CO
Nefer-kau-Ra.
69.
Nefer-kau-Heru.
70.
C^Su]
Nefer-ka-ari-Ra.
Erpaf Antef.
72
Dynasty XL, from Thebes.
73- V^
^
Antef.
74-
75-
Men-[tu-hetep].
I
A
Antef.
Antef (?).
Neter nefer, Antef.
Beautiful god, Antef.
79- l^ [ CO S^
Son of the ^j^^gf_
bun
'4^CM1^]
Son of the ^j^.^
bun
t^t3 ^^ a
(s
^
.>
Nub-xeper-Ra, son of the Sun, Antuf.
* After this name the tablet of Abydos has ^\^ f © ^ \^l j
.... kau-Ra.
t Erpa, usually translated "hereditary prince" or "duke," is one
of the oldest titles of nobility in Egypt.
LIST OF EGYPTIAN KINGS.
36;
Aha-Heru-Ra-apu-maat, son of the Antuf-an.
.Sun,
8. ;\
<:2 <=k
0
V
D(2'
Aha-renpit-Ra-aput-maat, son of the Antef-aa.
.Sun,
8^. 1^ Q
«3. J
"^ rj\ ™i
Tet-Ra-her-her-maat, son of the Antef.
.Sun,
Hu
Senefer-ka-Ra.
84.
I
oWS^
Ra
85. M (T]]u^^
Usr-en-Ra.
m
CO
n
Neb-nem-Ra.
^AAAA^
^^]
87. M 1-
Son of the Sun, Men^u-hetep (I.).
Se-Ra-Men^-hetcp (II.).
89. m ( [o]
Neb-hetep-Ra, son of the Sun, Men0-hetep (III.)
jUMiX^
S^
a
Neb-taiu-Ra, son of the Sun, Mcnfl-hotcp (IV.).
264 NOTES FOR TRAVELLERS IN EGYPT.
Neb-xeru-Ra, son of the Sun, Men^-hetep (V.).
Se-anx-ka-Ra.
Dynasty XII., from Thebes, b.c. 2466.
Sehetep-ab-Ra, son of the Sun, Amen-em-hat (I.).
- m C^W^l ¥ (Ai
xeper-ka-Ra, son of the Sun, Usertsen (L),
Nub-kau-Ra, son of the Sun, Amen-em-hat (II.).
xeper-xa-Ra, son of the Sun, Usertsen (II.)-
-m(J^W) ¥ GE
xa-kau-Ra, son of the Sun, Usertsen (HI.).
Maat-en-Ra, son of the Amen-em-hat (III.).
Sun,
LIST OF EGYPTIAN KINGS.
265
- m (MM ¥ COvf ]
Maa-xeru-Ra, son of the Amen -em -hat (IV.)
Sun, ■ '
Sebek-neferu-Ra.
Dynasty XIIL, b.c. 2233.
.01. M (o^^l
XU-taiu-Ra,
Ol <^ V /I
xerp-ka-Ra.
.... em -hat.
.04. M C^PSo]
Sehctep-ab-Ra.
105-
Auf-na.
-M(?lilf^(5aM12]
Sean^-ab-Ra, son of the Sun, Ameni-Antef-Amen-em-hat.
,, ;\^ (oP = lj]
Semen -ka-Ra.
..0. M(efklo]
Net'em-ab-Ra.
Sehetep-ab-Ra.
III. '^\^ fo^s^lHn]
Sebek-[hete]p-Ra.
1 1 2. 4^\^ ( — '^ ? ---^
9. M (i^u]
ka.
Ren
..3. m fe
P^MJ
Se
t'ef Ra.
266
NOTES FOR TRAVELLERS IN EGYPT
114
H
Ra-xerp(?)-xu-taiu Sebek-hetep (I.).
Semenx-ka-Ra, son of the Sun, Mer-menfitu.
O
xerp-seuat'-taiu-Ra, son of the Sun, Sebek-hetep (II.).
xa-sexem-Ra, son of the Sun, Nefer-hetep.
118. 1^ { O
U3
IV] ¥ CSS]
Ra-het . . . . se, son of the Sun, Het-Heru-se.
.,9. ;\|(^j] ^ (MM
xa-nefer-Ra, son of the Sun, Sebek-hetep (III.).
>• l^ fea^l
TSi^ D
^
xa-hetep-Ra, son of the Sun, Sebek-hetep (IV.).
M(3iHMS]
Uah-ab-Ra-aa-ab.
;'
122. :i^\^ [ O
Q
ir
xaa-xeru-Ra.
M(2ISH3
Neb-f-a(?)a-mer-Ra.
-4. ^\^ (^
Nefer-ab-Ra.
LIST OF EGYPTIAN KI \r,S.
.67
127.
.. n (3]
xa-anx-Ra, son of the Sun, Sebek-hetep^V.)
Mer-xerp-Ra
G = ^
]
jMen-xau-Ra, son of the Sun, Anab.
(■^kgrl
129. ^
xerp-uat'-xau-Ra, son of the Sun, Sebek-em-sa-f (I.).
xerp-seset-taiu-Ra, son of the Sebek-em-sa-1 (II.).
Sun,
Sesusr-taiu-Ra, x^ip (?)-Uast-Ra.
xerp-uah-xa-Ra, son of the Sun, Ra-hetcp.
Dynasty XIV.
13
3-^(30
s
Mer-nefer-Ra, son of the Sun, Ai.
134
■I
^ ¥ OS]
Mer-hetep-Ra, son of the Sun, Ana.
■35.MfoP-fj:Plil .36. ;i| (osli^r]
Seanxensehtu - Ra.
Mer-xerp- Ra-an -rcn.
268
137-
139-
140.
NOTES FOR TRAVELLERS IN EGYPT,
Seuat'-en-Ra
I -.8.
xa-ka-Ra.
m(Mj 1 1
o
U
1 1 1
WAU
Ka-meri-Ra neter nefer Mer-kau-Ra.
141.
Seheb-Ra.
M(35S
Mer-t'efa-Ra.
42. ^A^ Ol-^UJ ^43- 4^ ( _^ "n M. ^J
Sta-ka-Ra.
44. m CiMED
Ubcn-Ra.
.45. m fo^i?!
Her-ab-Ra.
.46. |>^ (o^PTiiJ
Neb- sen -Ra.
Neb-t'efa-Ra Ra {sic).
147- ^\^ [o P HI j
Seuah-en-Ra.
48- M r^Ji^i
Sexeper-en-Ra.
1 £i V —
149
Tet-xeru-Ra.
Dynasty XV., " Shepherd Kings."
Aa-peh-peh-Set, son of the Sun, Nub-Set (?).
151-
MCiJ^
AAAAAA
Banan
LIST OF EGYPTIAN KINCS.
269
Abeh (?) - en - xepel
Apepa.
Dynasty XVI., "Shepherd Kings."
-^ 1 1 G^A] ^ CTITTI
Neter nefer Aa-ab-taiu-Ra, son of the
Beautiful god, Sun,
Apepa.
155-
,56. I
157. ^\
.58. I
neter nefer Aa-qenen-Ra.
Dynasty XVII., from Thebes.
mCEB]
I I I
a
o
Seqenen-Ra, son of the Sun, Tau-aa.
I I I c
ffl
Seqenen-Ra, son of the Sun, Tau-aa-aa,
O /VSftA/W
— H
Seqenen-Ra, son of the Sun, Tau-aa-qen.
u
Uat'-xeper-Ra, son of the Sun, Kamcs.
270 NOTES FOR TRAVELLERS IN EGYPT
159
^ g
Suten hemt Aah-hetep.
Royal wife.
"°- M Cm
I 1
Aah-mes-se-pa-ari.
5]
Dynasty XVIIL, from Thebes, b.c. 1700.
O
O
!]{]
IP
Neb-peh-peh-Ra, son of the Sun, Aahmes.
(Amasis I.)
162.
1
^
IPJ:
w
Neter hemt Aah-mes-nefert-ari.
Divine wife.
'^.^M(j^u) %^ G
Ser-ka-Ra, son of the Sun, Amen-hetep.
(Amenophis I.)
-^■m(ZS^ ^> C5BJ
Aa-xeper-ka-Ra, son of the Sun, Tehuti-nies.
(Thothmcs I.)
-s- m (313 ^ glnl
Aa-xcper-en-Ra, son of the Ncfer-;^aii-Tehuti-nics.
Sun, (Thothnies II.)
LIST OF EGYPTIAN KINGS.
271
Mat-ka-Ra, son of ihe Hat-sliepset-xnem-Amcn.
Sun, (Queen llalhlicpsu.)
... m (^^1 ^ CHEI
Men-xeper-Ra, son of the Sun, Tehuti-nies.
(Thothmes III.)
Aa-xeperu-Ra, son of the Amen-hetepneterheqAnnu.
Sun, (Amenophis II. )
Men-xeperu-Ra, son of the Tehuti-nies xa-x^u.
Sun, (Thothmes IV.)
170. ^\^
o
^A/^A^A
It
,~^
Neb-mat-Ra, son of the Amen-hetep heq-Uast.
.Sun, (Amenophis III.)
(^
Suten hemt
(The Mesopotamian wife of Amenophis III.).
17 2 -L Ve4
v. yI 0 v^ I /wvw\ y^ _/j \^ I ^AAAA^ '_}_iLy\
Nefer-xeperu-Ra- son of the Amen-hetep neter heq
ua-en-Ra,, Sun, Uast (Amenophis IV.).
o
or ^u-en-Aten.
272
173-
I
NOTES FOR TRAVELLERS IN EGYPT,
O
iiimM
■y
Suten hemt urt Nefer-neferu-aten Neferti-i0.
Royal wife, great lady.
-• m (3M
^u
^Vll
Anx-X^psru-Ra, son of the Seaa-ka-next-xeperu-Ra
Sun,
175. n.
o'
G
Neb-xeperu-Ra, son of the Tut-anx-Amen heq Annu
Sun, resu (?)
Xeper-xeperu-mat-ari-Ra, son of the Atf-neter Ai neter
Sun, heq Uast.
=>
■^^J
Ser-xeperu-Ra- son of the Amen-meri-en Heru-
setep-en-Ra, Sun, em-heb.
Dynasty XIX., from Thebes, b.c. 1400.
Men-pehtet-Ra, son of the Sun, Ra-messu.
(Ha mesas I.)
..jig^3 ¥ C5SB,
Men-mat-Ra, son of the Sun, Ptah-meri-en-Seti.
(Seii I.)
- M (3iS] ^ CiiiI!D
Usr-mat-Ra setep- son of the Ra-messu-meri-Amen.
cn-Ra, Sun, (Rameses II.)
LIST OF EGYPTIAN KINCS.
273
'^'- 1 ^ mn '''■ h"^ (-wm
Suten hemt Auset-nefert.
Royal wife.
Suten niut
Royal mother.
Tui.
i83. I
1844^
a
Ba-Ra-meri-en- son of the Ptah-meri-enhetep-
Amen, Sun, her-niat.
(Meneptah I.)
O I
mi III III '
¥
MM}
Men-ma-Ra setep- son of the Amen-meses-hcq-Uasl.
en-Ra, .Sun, (Amen-meses.)
-4^niFf°if-rpeii
Usr-xeperu-Ra-meri- son of the Seti-meri-en-Ptah.
Amen, Sun, (Scti II).
[86. ^1
'%.1
O O
¥ i/I
o I
Xu-en-Ra setep-en-Ra, son of the Ptah-meri-en-se-Ptali.
Sun, (Meneptah II.)
Usr-xau-Ra setep-en- son of the Ra-mcri Amcn-nierci
Ra meri-Amen, Sun, Scl-next.
(Set-Next- >
Dynasty XX., from Thebes, b.c. 1200.
Usr-mat-Ra-meri son of the Ra-meses-heq-Annu.
Amen, Sun, (Rameses III.)
274
NOTES FOR TRAVELLERS IN EGYPT.
Usr-mat-Ra setep- son of the Ra-nieses-meri-Amen-
en-Amen, Sun, Ra heq mat.
(Rameses IV.)
- m CiffiH ^ C WIH
Usr-mat-Ra s-xeper- son of the Ra-mes-meri-Amen-
en-Ra, Sun,- Amen suten-f.
(Rameses V.)
191
■MC^M^l¥Gi^-1II
Ra-Amen-mat- son of the Ra-Amen-meses neter
meri-neb. Sun, heq Annu.
(Rameses VI.)
Ra-usr-Amen-men- son of the Ra-Amen-meses-ta
setep-en-Ra, Sun, neter-heq-Annu.
(Rameses VII.)
193-
mGS
O'
im\^
Ra-mat-usr-xu-en- son of the Ra-Amen-meses-meri-
Amen, Sun, Amen.
(Rameses VIII.)
[^
Neb ta S-x^-en-Ra Meri- neb xau Rameses-se-Ptah.
Lord of the Amen, lord of crowns, (Rameses IX.)
land,
Ncfcr-kau-Ra son of the Ra-meses-merer-Amen-
sctcp-en-Ra, Sun, x^^Uast (?).
(Rameses X.)
LIST OF EGYPTIAN KINGS.
275
196.
197.
o
Md ¥ CMim
Ra-xeper-mat setcp- son of ihc Ka-mcs sutcn (?) Amen.
en-Ra, .Sun, (Ranicscs XI.)
0i>— O
I D I
i"N -90 /^f^r"^
r"^ G
AAAAAA
I
Usr-mat-Ra setep- son of the Amen mer-Ra-niescs.
nu- Ra, .Sun, ( Ramcscs .\ 1 1 . )
-4^(=#
ll3
Men-mat-Ra son of the Ra-meses-merer-Amen xa
setep-en-Ra, Sun, Uast (?) neter heq Annu.
(Rameses XIII.)
Dynasty XXL, from Tanis, b.c. iioo.
I.
199.
Ra-neter-xeper setep-en- son of tJie Se-Mentu meri-Ra.
Amen,. Sun, (Se-Mentu.)
Ra-aa-xeper setep- son of the Amen-meri Pa-seb-x^-nu.
en-Mentu, Sun, (Pasebxanu I.)
mCSS}
10 f
1
Aa-seh-Ra, son of the Sun,
■ O
"^
J
Setep-en-Mentu-Ra, son of the Meri-Mentu-Amen-
Sun, em-apt.
(Amenemapt.)
T 2
2-j6 NOTES FOR TRAVELLERS IN EGYPT.
Het' heq . . . ^ . . . son of the Meri-Amen Pa-seb-^^a-nu.
Sun, (Pasebxanu II.)
Dynasty XXL, from Thei^.es, b.c. iioo.
Neter-lien-hetep en- son of the Her-Heru-se-Amen.
Amen, Sun, (Her-Hcru.)
Prophet first of Amen,
^' I I D 1/vww. i/yh 1 ®
Neter hen hetep en Amen Pa - anx
Prophet first of Amen Pa - anx-
20
-^- m CM33
Pai-net'em (I).
^■mdMS) ^ 01S3
Xeper-xa-Rasetep- son of the Amen-meri-Pai-
en-Amen, .Sun, net'em (II).
Suten mut Hent-taiu.
Royal mother, Hcnt - taiu.
209. ^^S""^^
Prophet first of Amen, Masaher^.
Prophet first, Men-xcper-Ra, child Royal, .'\men-meri Pai-nei'em.
LIST OF EGYPTIAN KINGS.
-'77
-1 i
Si
n
Neter hen hetep en Amen-Ra, Pai-nct'em (III.)
Prophet first of Amcn-Ra.
Suten hemt Mat-ka-Ra.
Royal wife.
DyNASTV XXII., FROM BUBASTIS,. B.C. 966.
wrg
3
Xeper-sexet-Ra son of the Amen-meri-.Shashanfi.
setep-en-Ra, Sun, (Shashanq I.)
-MQlSf'GSMM
Xerp-^eper-Ra son of the Amen-meri Uasarken.
setep-en-Ra, Sun, (Osorkon I.)
Het'-Ra-setep-en-Amen son of the Amen-meri Auset-meri
neter heq Uast, Sun, flekeleO.
(Takdcthl.)
Ra-usr-mat setep-en- son of the -Vnien-meri Uasarken.
Amen, Sun, (Osorkon II.)
\':
217. ^^10
er]^°Gfimm]
Xeper-sexem-Ra son of the Amen-meri Shash[anc)].
setepen-Amen, Sun, (Shashanq II.)
•78
2:8
l^
o Q
NOTES FOR TRAVELLERS IN EGYPT.
O
O
AAAAAA
O
dMMJ
Het'-xeperu-Ra son of the Amen-Ra-meri Auset-meri
setep-en-Ra, Sun, flekeleO.
(Takeleth.)
219.
Usr-mat-Ra son of the Amen meri-se-Bast Shasha[n]q.
setep-en-Ra, Sun, (Shashanq III.)
Usr-mat-Ra setep- son of the Amen-meri Pa-mai.
en-Amen, Sun, (Pa-mai.)
Dynasty XXIIL, from Tanis, b.c. 766.
M(353 ^ CESU
Se-her-ab-Ra, son of the Sun, Peta-se-Bast
Aa-xeper-Ra son of the Ra-Amen-nieri Uasarkena.
setep- en-Amen, Sun, (Osorkon III.)
Dynasty XXIV., from Sais, b.c. 733.
a. £^ V
u
Uah-ka-Ra, son of the Sun, Bakenrenf.
Dynasty XXIV., from Ethiopl\, b.c. 733.
224. 1 " r^^^i
Suten Kasta.
King Kashta.
LIST OF EGYPTIAN KINGS.
279
225
■I
O diffii
1 ^ (H
Men-xeper-Ra, son of the Sun, P-anxi.
w
Amen-meri P-anxi, son of the Sun, P-anxi.
Dynasty XXV., from Ethiopia, b.c. 700.
G
Nefer-ka-Ra, son of the Sun, Shabaka.
(Sabaco.)
Tet-kau-Ra, son of the Sun, Shabataka.
Ra-nefer-tem-xu, son of the Sun, Tahrq.
(Tirhakah.)
:30. 1 T rc4>p--1 S fPSl
Neter nefer Usr-mat-Ra setep- lord of two Amenrut.
God beautiful, en-Amen, lands,
Dynasty XXVI., from Sais, b.c. 665.
J
\ Uah-ab-Ra, son of the Sun, Psem(?ek.
Uah-ab-Ra, son of the Sun, Psem(?ek.
(Psammetichus I.)
sSo
NOTES FOR TRAVELLERS IN EGYPT.
-i^GIMl
u
Nem-ab-Ra, son of the Sun, Nekau.
(Necho II.)
D
n
Nefer-ab-Ra, son of the Sun, Psem^ek.
(Psammetichus II.)
Haa-ab-Ra, son of the Sun, Uah-ab-Ra.
(Apries. )
■35-
M( o Q ^
' 12
xnem-ab-Ra, son of the Sun, Ahmes-se-net.
(Amasis II.)
Anx-ka-en-Ra, son of the Sun, Psem(?ek.
(Psammetichus III.)
Dynasty XXVII. (Persl\n), b.c. 527.
2.37-
McsuO-Ra, son of the Sun, Kemba<?et.
(Cambyses. )
Settu, son of tlic Sun, Antariusha.
(Darius Hystaspes. )
^
LIST OF EGYPTIAN KINCS. 28 I
■■39. g (i^KJ m]
Lord of two xshaiarsha.
1^"'^S' (Xerxes the Great.)
.40. m (%^mmmf\
Artaxshashas.
(Artaxerxes.)
Ra-meri-Amen, son of the Sun, An(?erirutsha.
(Darius Xerxes.)
Dynasty XXVIII., from Sais.
Senen-en-Ptah-Mentu- son of the (xabbesha.)
setep, Sun,
Dynasty XXIX., from Mendes, b.c. 399.
Ba-en-Ra neteru- son of the ^■iafaaurut.
meri, Sun,
xnem-mat-Ra, son of the Sun, Haker.
Ra-usr-Ptah-setep-en, son of ihc Sun, Psennil.
282 NOTES FOR TRAVELLERS IN EGYPT.
Dynasty XXX., from Sebennytus, b.c. 378.
^4^. ^
U=^.
a
S-net'em-ab-Ra son of the Next-Heru-bebt-meri-
setep-en-Amen, Sun, Amen.
(Nectanebus I.)
24
xeper-ka-Ra, son of the Sun, Next-neb-f.
(Nectanebus II.)
Dynasty XXXI.,* Persl\ns.
Dynasty XXXII., Macedonl-vns, b.c. 332.
-- m (MM ¥ CSS£i3
Setep-en-Ra-meri- son of the Aleksantres
Amen, sun, (Alexander the Great.)
249.
^
^
ra'
flV-1ft"fl|i
G
neb taiu Setep-en-i\a- son of the
meri-Amen, .Sun,
Phiuliupuas
(Philip Aridaeus.)
-Bi 55323 ^CEeI
Ra-qa-ab-setep-en-Amen, son of the Aleksantres.
Sun. (Alexander IV. )
* The word "dynasty" is retained here for convenience of classi-
ficaliun.
251-
LIST OF EGYPTIAN KINGS. 283
Dynasty XXXIII. , Ptolemies, r.c. 305.
Setep-en-Ra-meri- son of the Ptulmis
Amen, Sun, (Ptolemy I. .Soter I.)
Neter mut, Bareniket.
Divine Mother (Berenice I.)
■53. m Rupil
ID
Ra-usr-ka-meri Amen, son of the Sun, Ptulmis
(Ptolemy II. Philadelphus.)
Sutenet set suten sent suten hemt neb taiu Arsanat
Royal daughter, royal sister, royal wife, lady of the two lands (Arsinoe)
255-
\ lo C^fc^S]
Suten set suten sent
Royal daughter, royal sister
Pilatra.
(Philotera).
''■ i^ ( If
Neteru-senu-ua-en-Ra-setep-Amen-xerp (?)-en-anx, son of the Son,
Ptualmis anx t'etta Ptah meri
Ptolemy (III. Euergetes I.), living for ever, beloved of Ptah.
2S4
NOTES FOR TRAVELLERS IN EGYPT.
'I
o
(Ji
jg^QU
Heqt nebt taiu,
I'rincess, lady of the two lands,
Barenikat
(Berenice II.)
Jj
Neteru-menx-ua-[en]-Ptah-setep-en-Ra-usr-ka-Amen-xerp (?)anx,
son of the Sun Ptualmis an^ t'etta Auset meri
Ptolemy (IV. Philopator,) living for ever, beloved of Isis.
O 1
^ ^^
^59- 1 ^ +
Suten set suten sent hemt urt nebt taiu
Koyal daughter, royal sister, wife, great lady, lady of the two lands
Arsinai.
Arsinoe (III., wife of Philopator I.)
D
UMfi
MI1_U
Neteru-meri-ua-en-Ptah-setep-Ra-usr-ka-Amen-xerp-an;C,
son of the Sun Ptualmis anx t'etta Ptah meri.
Ptolemy (V. Epiphancs) living for ever, beloved nf Plah.
261. Ptolemy VI. Eupator, wanting.
Suten set sen hemt Qlauapetrat.
Royal daughter, sister, wife, (Cleopatra I).
LIST OF EGYPTIAN KINGS.
63.^111^:1
<=^ o
285
a
Neteru-xu (?)-ua-Ptah-xeper-setep-en-Ra-Amen-ari-mat (?)
son of the Sun. Ptualmis anx t'etta Ptah meri.
Ptolemy (VII. Philometor I.), living for ever, beloved of I'lal.i
264.
£=>C)
I- ^ \
Sutenet set suten sent hemt suten mut neb taiu
Royal daughter, royal sister, wife, royal mother, lady of the two lands,
fHii4A:]
Qlauapetrat.
(Cleopatra II. wife of Philometor I.).
265. Ptolemy VIII. Philopator II. wanting.
266. \\
m
m
Neteru-xu (?)-ua-en-Ptah-setep-en-Ra-Amen-ari-mat xerp anx
son of the Sun. Ptualmis anx t'etta Ptah meri.
Ptolemy (IX. Euergetes II.), living for ever, beloved of Ptah.
267. Os "^^ '"
Suten net
King of North and South, lord of two lands,
Cg3S3^3IESI
Neteru-menx-mat-s-meri-net-ua-Ptah-xerp(?)-setep-en-Ra-
Amen-ari-mat.
286 NOTES FOR TRAVELLERS IN EGYPT.
O O
III
Ra-se neb x^u
Son of the Sun, lord of
diadems,
Ptualmis anx t'etta Ptah meri.
Ptolemy X. (Soter II. Philometor II.).
-• o Oifi^°i!:-MRTIWl
Suten net, Neteru-menx-ua-Ptah-setep-en-Ra-Amen-arimat-
King of North and senen-Ptah-anx-en,
South,
^CIHEdllilH
son of the Ptualmis t'etu-nef Aleksentres anx t'etta Ptah meri
Sun. Ptolemy (XI.) called is he Alexander, living for ever,
beloved of Ptah.
269. j
D ^«
iUMitfl
O 511 "^ "^
Heqt neb taiu Erpa-ur-qebh-Baaarenekat.
Princess, lady of two lands, Berenice (III.)
270. Ptolemy XII. (Alexander II.), wanting.
271.
A(Wn^^ /VvW^
m
P-netcr-n-ua-enti-nthcm-Ptah-setep-en-ari-mat-en-
Ra-Amen-xerp-anx
¥ °f)^#f5i°y
o
son of the Sun. Ptualmis anx t'etta Ptah Auset meri.
Ptolemy (XIII.), living for ever, beloved of Isis and Ptah.
272.
C
D
^^(g<
D
.moo^
Neb taiu Qlapetrat t'ettu-nes Trapenet.
Lady of two lands, Cleopatra (V.), called is she Tryphaena.
'"• I,
o
LIST OF EGYPTIAN KINGS.
287
Heqt taiu
Queen of two lands,
Qluapeter.
Cleopatra (VI.)
!74- O
.^^
Suten net neb taiu
King of North and lord of two lands,
South,
Ptualmis.
Ptolemy (XIV.)
30 Q _2^
Q
J)
.^^^
Ra se neb ;(aa
son of the lord of
Sun, diadems,
liilfl
Kiseres an^ t'etta Ptah Auset meri
Caesar, living for ever, of Ptah and
Isis beloved.
Dynasty XXXIV. Roman Emperors. p..c. 27.
275- O5 ^37 ^ Q
v(?^ ^
Suten net neb taiu
King of North and lord of two lands,
South,
J
Auteqreter
Autocrator,
2Q Q
Ql
A^^f^lU
o
Ra se neb ;^au Kiseres an^ t'etta Piah Auset meri
Sun's son, lord of crowns. Ca;sar (Augustus), living for ever,
of Ptah and Isis beloved.
276. O ^ ^
Suten net neb taiu
(5^ ^
2Q
Sill
neb xii"
Auteqreter Ra se
Autocrator, son of the Sun, lonl of
diadem ,
C^MIl
^
Tebaris Kiseres an^ t'etta.
Tiberius Caesar living for ever.
288
NOTES FOR TRAVELLERS IN EGYPT.
:n. m Cli
:^'s*iii
Heq bt-'qu Autekreter Ptah Auset-meri son of the
King of kings, Autocrator, of Ptah and Isis beloved, Sun.
%1(lhMPr^--To1.i5
>
-^
Qais Kaiseres Kermeniqis.
Gaius (Caligula) Caesar Germanicus.
278. €^
Suten net neb taiu
^37 III
Auteqreter Kiseres
Autocrator Caesar,
'm^rl
Ra se neb x^^
Sun's son, lord of crowns,
Qlutes Tibaresa.
Claudius Tiberius.
279.
4 V
\> \>
I I AAA/VVV
^
^
neb taiu Heq hequ-selep-en-Auset meri Ptah
King of North and lord of Ruler of rulers, chosen one of Isis,
South, two lands, beloved of Ptah.
Q 111 V^^ p
se Ra neb x^u
Sun's son, lord of crowns,
D
Autekreter Anrani.
(Autocrator Nero).
^S w J
280
\Ds
%.^\^]\
7^
^^Z^ ill
Sun's son, lord cjf
crowns,
Merqes Au(?unes (Marcus Otho).
fTPr!^¥
Kiseres netx Autukretcr.
Ca.-sar .... Autocrator.
I,I.ST OF EGYPTIAN KINGS.
281. Vitellius (wanting).
289
282.
Suten net (?)
(3 (3
^ (S
ia
Autukretur Kisares
Autocrator Casar
^ H A^SAAAA ^
D W
D i^
Suten net (?)
283. O =^^^
Uspisines netx.
Vespasianus
]
-^^
i^(^
■1^1 ^_^ J
Autekretur Tetis Keseres
Autocrator Titus Caesar,
Sun's son, lord of
crowns.
(^
Uspesines netx
Vespasianus ....
284. ds
(3 a
lEI
Autukretur Kiseres
Autocrator Ca'sar,
5QO
Sun's son, lord of
crowns,
^^ul^'^lt^
Tumetines netx
Domitianus ....
^85. \
(0 c3^t:3 ■
_£^
-.A
Autukreter Kiseres
Autocrator Caesar,
1^
son of the Sun,
Neruas netx
Nerva
290 NOTES FOR TRAVELLERS IN EGYPT
286.
(a,
"^^Qd
p
Autukreter Kaiseres Neruaui
Autocrator Caesar Nerva,
,D ^
the Sun's Traianes netx Arsut Kermineqsa Ntekiqes.
son, lord Xraian (Autjustus) Germanicus. Dacicus.
of crowns, ■" vs.'
-'• s = QMSirait]
Autukreter Kiseres Trinus
Autocrator Coesar Trajan,
s
the Sun's son, lord of crowns.
C
Atrines netx-
Hadrian
^884'^|(^jWMI] r^JPsia"
289
Suten hemt
Royal wife,
CIS .=
Sabinat
Sabina,
Sebesta anx t'etta.
Sebaste living for ever.
King of the North and South, lord of the world,
(^^(g^^
frpr]HP:^qqp>cl
Autukreter Kiseres Gites Alls Atrins
Autocrator Ca.>sar Titus Aelius lladrianus.
?Q0 s
s
the Sun's son,
Irird of crowns.
O
■JPlFIid
Antunines Sebes(?esus Baus netixui.
Antoninus Augustus Pius
LIST OF EGYPTIAN KINGS.
291
•90.
€^
s
the Sun's son,
lord of crowns,
V « c^
^HH
Autekreter Kaiseres
Autocrator Caesar,
_2^
MiSSM]
Aurelais Antanines net^ iinx t'etta
Aurelius Antoninus, .... living for ever.
291.
Autekreter
Autocrator
(^
Aulli
Aelius
s
m
Kesers
Cajsar
Luki
Lucius
D
Uara anx 'tetta
Verus, living for ever.
cxws
292.
Cl5
QSMf^
2]
Autekretirs Kisaures
Autocrator Caesar,
5Q ^^Cv'
the Sun's son, lord of crowns, Kamtaus A-en-ta-nins netex-
Comraodus. Antoninus
CM JBs^ .^__^ r^^i^^ ^ ^
Sauris netx-
Severus . . . .
L" 2
2 02 NOTES FOR TRAVELLERS IN EGYPT.
Cr\ vwwv ^ ^ ^
Antanenes netx-
Antoninus [Caracalla] . .
295. Autocrator Caesar I kj
Kat netix-
Geta
296. Autocrator Csesar f Vrf ^ "^^ ^^^ a/
Taksas netx-
Decius
INDEX.
Aah-hetep ...
Aamu
Aauputh
Ab
Ababdeh
Abana
Abba Nub
'Abbasides ...
'Abbas Pasha
'Abd el-LatIf, quoted
Abesha
Aboccis
Abraham the Patriarch
Abshek
PAGE
Ii6, 226
... 170
... 219
... 10
... 40
... 228
... 120
... 23
... 25
... 131
... 170
... 250
... 124
250
Abu Girgeh ... ... 164, 165
Abu Hammed ... ... 45
Abu Honnes ... ... 171
AbuMr 24
Abu Roash 133
Abu Sargah 121, 122
Abu Simbel ... ... 140, 250
Abusir 133, 157
Abusir Rock 256
Abu's Sefen ... 119, 120, 121
Abu Tamim el-Mustansir ... 23
Abu Tig 174
Abydos ...87, 115, 152, 208
„ Tablet of i, 3, 11, 14,
182, 184
„ Temple of Seti I. 178, 180
,, Templeof Rameses II. 182
Abyssinia 14, 25, 37, 41, 45
,, Christians of ... 131
PACE
24
25
. ICX)
• 24
Acre ...
Allen, Gulf of
Adhurbaigan
'Adid Ledinallah
/Klius Callus 20, 194, 210,
243. 246
Africa 104, 112
Africanus ... ... ... 7
Ahmed ibn Tulun ... 23, 113
Ahmed the Carpenter ... 153
Ahmes 1 19
Ahmes, son of Abana ... 228
Ahmini ... 37, 88, 164, I77
Akerblad 54
Akita 248
Alexander, Bishop of Alexan-
dria 21
Alexander the Great 17, iS,
97, icxD, 132, 2S2
Alexander IV. ... 207, 2S2
Alexandria 17, 24, 30, 37,
41, 99, 102, 119, 150, 233
,, Founding and siege
of the city ... 97
,, Burning of the great
Library, the Pharos,
the Serapeum ... 99
,, Soma, Bruchium, Hep-
tastadium lOO
,, Paneum, Necropolis,
Gymnasium, Pom-
pey's Pillar ... lOI
„ Catacombs 102
294
NOTES FOR TRAVELLERS IN EGYPT.
PAGE
Alexandria, Bombarded
by
Apis ... 9, 114, 149, 150,
151
the Eng
ish
25
Apollinopolis Magna
230
Alexandrian Library i8
, 41.
52
Apollo 192,
226
'All Bey
24
Apostles, the Twelve
235
'Ali, son-in-law of the
Pro-
Aptet
191
phet
127
Apts ... 80, Si, S3, 85
86
Alphabet, Egyptian
56
Apu (Panoplis)
177
,, Arabic ...
67
Aral)ia ii, 31, 149, 194.
213
,, Coptic ...
68
Arabians
186
Amada
249
Arabi Pasha
III
Amen-em-lieb
231
Arabs 23, 33
44
Ameni, tomb of
167,
168
Araby 80
81
Amentuf, tomb of ...
226
Arcadius
21
Amir Ezbeki
129
Archimedes ...
99
Ammonius ...
100
Aristophanes
97
Amnis Trajanus
20
Aristotle
105
'Amr ibn el-'Asi 23, 39,
98,
Armant (Erment) ... 177,
226
99, 100, 103, 105,
112,
Armenians 37
42
122,
123,
125
Arius 21
98
Amset
73
Arq-Amen
247
Amyrtaeus ..
16
, 17
Arses
17
Anastasius
22
Arsinoe ... ... 18,
162
,, Emperor...
23
Artaxerxes I.
16
Ani, a scribe
75.
116
II
16
Ani, form of the Sun-god 83
, 85
Ill
16
Anibe
250
Artemis
167
Annu
132
Ascalon
24
Anpu...
52
Asia 13, 14, 31, 80, 104,
"7
Antaeopolis ...
174,
175
Aso
88
AntKus
174
Assassif
226
Antinoe ... 16S,
169,
171
Assurbanipal ...6, 15,
150
Antioch
9
, 22
Assyrians 15
. 34
Antiochus
18
Aswan 29, 40, 41, 45, 48,
„ IV.
18
loi, 131, 233-237,
243
Antinous
171
Asyfit ... 37, 173.
174
Anlirhodus
100
A'lachar-Amen
224
Antoninus ...
211
Atl>ara
45
Antony ... 19, 97,
99,
120
-\lct, widow of Nefcrmat ...
162
Anthropomorphites
21
, 98
Athanasius 21
, 98
Apcpi
79
, 82
Athnr
88
Apion
7
Alliribis
103
INDEX.
295
5, 13
, 12;,
16:
Atrun Island
Augustus CKsar 19, loi,
112, 188, 243, 246,
Auker
Aziz ... ... o-.
B
Baalbek
Bab el-Azab . . .
Babylon
" of Egypt ]
Babylonians . . .
Bacchus
Bactrians
Bagnold, Major A.
Bahr el-Abyad
Bahr el-Azrak
Bahr Yusiif ...
Baker, Sir S.
Balah Lake ...
Baldensel, William
Balsam trees...
Barbara, Saint
Bar-Hebrceus
Barkiik
Bata
Bebars
Bedrashen . . .
Beduin
Behnesa
Behutet
Bek
Belzoni
Benha el-'Asal
Beni hasan . . .
,, Suef ...
Beqt
Berbers
Berenice
Berlin
of
52,
147-
Z7, 40,
140,
25,
102,
167-
127,
18,
6,
235
250
83
45
132
129
16
132
34
88
194
152
45
45
164
45
107
139
131
122
100
24
76
24
160
41
164
22S
172
225
103
171
164
169
41
1 89
14
Besa Abba ...
Bet'au
Bet el- Wall ...
Biban el-Muhik
Biggeh
Birch, Dr. ...
Birket el-Kurun
Bisharin
Bitter Lakes
Blemmyes ...
Bocchoris
Boeckh, chronology of
Boheira
Bolbitane
Bonomi, Mr.
J77
9
245
222
238
55
163
40
106, 107, 132
20, 177, 243
'5
8, 26
... 40
53. 103
... 246
Book of the Dead 9, 10, 75,
117, 216
Boussard ... ... ■•• 103
British Museum 5, 10, 108,
122, 141, 151, 1S4, 246
Bruchium 100
Brugsch, his system of chro-
nology 8, 26, quoted 201
Bubastis 9, 15, 78, 105, 109-111
Bubastites nome
Buhen
Bi'ilak Museum 25, 106, 1 1
Bunsen, chronolog)' of
Biirsbey
Burton
Bushmur
Busiris ... I47, 1 79
Butler's "Coptic Churches,'
quoted ... 119, 121
Butus
Byzantine Emperors :
Byzantium ...
By bios
109
25s
115
S
24
3
40
192
191
90
1-23
97
89
Ca'sar
• •■ I9> 97, 99
296 NOTES FOR
TR.WELLERS IN EGYPT.
PAGE
I
'AGE
Csesareum
100
Chaeremon ...
7
Gesarion
186
Chaf-Ra-anch
I45»
146
Cairo : —
Chalcedon, Council of
22,
38
,, Egj'ptian Museum at
Champollion 2, 54, 103,
116,
225
Gizeh
"3
,, l-'iijcac
8
„ Coptic Churches of ...
119
Charthi
10
,, The Mosques of
123
Charu
205
„ The Tombs of
the
Chemmis
88
KhaUfs ...
127
Chmim
177
,, The Tombs of
the
Chnemu-Hetep
12
Mamelukes
128
,, tomb uf 167,
169,
170
,, The Citadel ...
128
Chenoboscion
184
„ Joseph's Well
129
Cher-aba
86
92
,, The Librarj' ...
129
Cheta 4, 93, 210, 252,
253,
254
,, Ezbekiyeh Garden ...
129
Chois
12
,, The Nilometer
129
Chonsu-hetep
46
„ 23, 30, 41, 46,
48,
Chosroes
23
98
102, 104, 105,
108,
Christ, His double nature 21
23
109, 113, 114,
119,
Christians persecuted
20
, 98
123, 125, 126,
127,
Chufu-menat
166
170
128, 131, 151,
162,
Chu-aten
14
163, 165, 166,
167,
Citadel, the ... 125,
128,
129
171, 172, 173,
174,
Claudius
20
175, 184, 189,
226,
Cleopatra ... 19, 97
99,
186
228,
231.
233
Cleopatra's Needles
lOI
Caligula
20,
245
Clysma Presidium ...
104
Callimachus...
99
Cnidus
98
Campbell, Tomb of
146
Crelesyria
18
Cambyses 16, 112, 132,
150.
Commodus ...
20
156, 192, 193,
208,
211
Constantine the Great
21
Canaan
32
Constantinople 22
24,
127
Canaanites ...
32
Constantius ...
21
Cancer, Tropic of ...
233.
245
Convent of the Maidens
120
Candace ... 20,
243.
247
Pulley
165,
166
Canopic jars...
219
Coptic langu.nge
37
, 38
Canopus, Stele of 18
, 50.
116
,, dialects of ...
40
Cappadocia
21,
98
„ months
70
Caracalla
20
Copts, the ... 23, 37
38,
122
Cataract, the first ...
237
Coptos
89.
186
Caviglia
144,
151
Cornelius Gailus
19
Chabas, quoted
92
Cos
52
INDEX,
Council, CEcumenical
Crocodilopolis
Crusaders
Ctesias
Curzon's " Monasteries in the
Levant," quoted 119, 165,
175.
Cush ...
Cynopolis
Cyrensea
Cyrene
Cyril of Alexandria... 21, 39,
Cyrus, Saint...
D
Dabod
Dahshur ... ... 133,
Dakkeh
Dam, cutting of the . . .
Damanhur ... ... 102,
Damascus ... ... 24,
Damietta 24, 30, 46, 102,
Darfur
Darius Hystaspes 16, 105,
106,
,, Nothus
,, Codomannus
David
Decius ... ... 20.
Delta, the 12, 13, 16, 30,
40, 109, 123,
Dembea
Demetrius, Saint
Demotic writing
Denderahii5, 155, 184-189,
Dendur
Denon ... ... 114,
Der el-Bahari 115, 116,
,, Royal mummies
of 217-
Der of Bablun, the
PAGE
38
162
24
112
176
32
165
185
52
244
153
246
46
123
127
112
25
107
17
17
35
. 98
149
44
121
49
228
246
174
117
-222
122
Der of Tadrus, the
Derr
Dervishes, dancing
Devourer, the
Diana
Diocletian ... 20, 98,
Diodorus Siculus i, 6, 7
35, 52, 105, 140,
151, 152, 192,
Dionysius
Diospolis II, 12, 191,
Domitian
Donkola
Drah abu '1 Nekkah
Druses
Diimichen, Dr.
297
I'ACiE
... 122
... 250
... 127
•■• 73
... 109
loi, 244
, 32,
149.
208, 247
... 88
192,
193. 194
... 20
... 45
... 226
... 23
■•■ 3
Edfu .. ... 18, 228, 229
Egypt, sources of history of 1-8
,, Summary of history of 9-25
,, Country of ... ... 27
,, Nomes of ... 28, 29
,, Modern divisions ... 30
„ Populationofinancienl
and modern times 36
Egypt, Gods of: —
Amen 17, 76, 80, S^, 84,
86, 152, 182, 205, 252, 253
Amen-Ra 72, 80, 82, 85,
86, 94, 166, 172, 192, 213
Amsu 80, 177, 189, 253
Am.su- Amen ... ... 81
Aneq ... ... ... 76
Anubis ... ... ■■■ 93
Apis ... 96, 15O' >5'
Atmu {see also Tmu) 72,
77, 83, 84, 86, 94
Atmu-Chepera ... ... 86
Bast ... 78, 109. HO
298
NOTES FOR TRAVELLERS IN EGYPT.
Eg)'pt, Gods of
Bes
Chepera
Chnem'u
Chonsu
Hapi
: PAGE
188
78, 83
76, 234
80, 94, 199, 215
95
Harniachis 78, 84, 144, 174
Hathor 95, 98, no, 115,
184, 185, 188
Horus 38, 72, 73, 79,
83, 85, 86, 89, 90,
91, 92, 93. 94, 174,
182, 230, 232, 240
I-em-hetep 94, no, 230
Isis 20, 77, 79, 86, 87,
88, 89, 90, 91, 92,
93, 96, 109, 174,
182, 186, 188, 189, 240
Maat 95
Mut 78, 80, 94, 95, 213, 215
Nefer-Atmu no
Nephthys ... 77, 86, 92
Nit (Neith) 78
Nut 79, 86, 93, 94, 95, 141
Osiris 3, 73, 74, 76, 77,
79, 86, 87, 88, 91,
93, 174, 178, 179,
180, 188, 189, 208, 241
Plah 76, 77, 78, 80,
150, 152, 182, 199
riah-Seker-Ausar 77, 96, 1 10
Ra 2, 4, 72, 76, 78, 79,
81, 82, 83, 93, 99, 132
Ra Harniachis ... ... 145
Sati 76, 234
Scb ... 93. 94, 141
Sebek 94, 1 66, 231, 232
Scchet 78, no, 147, 167
Seker 152
Sept 234
Scrapis 20, 96, 99, n4, 156
Eg}-pt, Gods of : —
'AGE
Set 79, 85, 86, 87,
92,
93,
174
Shu
94
Tefnut
94
Tlioth 2, 70, 85, 92
93,
171,
196
Tmu
77
Egypt, Kings of (arra
nged
chronologically) :-
-
Menes 3, 7, 9, 148,
149,
152, 179,
182,
257
Teta
257
Ate0
257
Ata
152,
257
Hesep-ti
9.
257
Merbapen
3.
257
Semen Ptah
257
Qebh
257
Neter-baiu
257
Ka-kau ... 9,
149,
257
Ba-en-neter
9.
257
Uat'-nes
257
Senta
257
Per-ab-sen
257
Nefer-ka-Ra
258
Nefer-ka-Seker ...
258
Het'cfa
258
T'at'ai
258
Neb-ka
258
Ser
258
Teta
258
Set'es
258
Serteta ...
258
Ahtes
258
Nub-ka-Ra
258
Huni
258
Senefcru ...
10,
162
Chufu (Cheops) 10,
138.
139, 140, 141, 142
,143.
144, 185, 186,
189,
258
INDEX.
299
Egypt, Kings of: —
Chaf Ra (Chephren) lo
Ii6, Ii8, 139, 140
141, 144, 145
Men-kau-Ra (Mycerinus
10, 118, 141, 142
143, 237
Tet-f-Ra
Shepses-ka-f
Sebek-ka-Ra
I-em-hetep
Usr-ka-f
Sahu-Ra... ... 147
Kakaa 157
Shepses-ka-Ra ...
Heiu-a-ka-u
An 40, 118, 147
Men-kau-Heiu 11, 118
Assa
Unas 10, 71, 139, 153
154, 155
Teta 9, 10, 71, 139, 149
153, 154, 155
Ati
Pepi I. 10, 71, 139, 154;
155, 161
Heru-em-sa-f
Pepi II. 236, 237, 242
Nitocris 10, 11, 141
Nefer-ka
Nefer-seh
Ab
Nefer-kau-Ra
Charthi . .
Nefer-ka- Ra
Nefer-ka-Ra-Nebi
Xet-ka-Ra-maa . .
Nefer-ka-Ra-Xentu
Mer-en-Heru
Senefer-ka
Ka-en-Ra
259
259
259
259
259
259
259
259
259
259
259
259
259
260
260
260
260
260
260
260
260
261
261
261
261
261
261
261
261
261
261
261
261
Egypt, Kings of: —
I'AGK
Nefer-ka- Ra-l-rcr-1 (?) 1 1
, 261
Nefer-ka - Ra - Pepi
senb
, 261
Nefer-ka- Ril-annu
, 262
Nefer-kau-Rii 10
262
Nefer-kau-Heru
262
Nefer-ka-ari-Ra
, 262
Antefl
262
Menthuhelep I.
, 262
Antefll.
. 262
Anteflll.
262
AnteflV.
262
AntefV
. 262
AntefVI.
. 262
An-aa
, 262
vVntuf
262
Antuf-aa ... 11,
115
263
Antcf-aa ...
. 263
AntefVII.
263
Sencfer-ka-Rii ...
,263
Ra
263
Usr-en-Ra
263
Menthu-hetei) II.
263
„ in.
263
i^'-
263
^'•
• 263
VI.
264
Se-an^-ka-Ra ...
264
Amenemliat I. il
) '-
169, 170,
249
, 264
Usertscn I. 12, 132,
169
170, 203, 207,
236
, 264
Amenemhat II. 12,
167
,
170
264
Usertsen 11. 12,
I/O
. 264
„ III. 12,
242
, 264
Amenenihai III.
12
, 264
„ " IV.
12
, 265
Sebek-neferu-Ra
. 265
Chu-taiu-Rii
. 265
300 NOTES FOR
TRAVELLERS IN EGYPT.
Egypt, Kings of: —
PAGE
Eg)-pt, Kings of :—
-
PAGE
Cherp-ka-Ra
265
Uben-Ra
... 268
em-hat ...
265
Her-ab-Ra
... 268
Sehetep-ab-Ra ...
265
Neb-sen- Ra
... 268
Anf-na ...
265
Seuah-en-Ra
... 268
Ameni Antef Amen-em
Sexeper-en-Ra
... 268
hat
265
Tet-cheru-Ra
... 268
Semen-ka-Ra ...
265
Nub-Set ...
... 268
Sehetep-ab-Ra ...
265
.... Banan
... 268
ka
265
Abeh-en-xepes'
... 269
Net'em ab-Ra
265
Apepa . . .
13, 269
Sebek-hetep-Ra . . .
265
Tau-aa (Seqenen-Ra
I.) 269
Ren
265
Tau-aa-aa (
J,
[I.) 269
Set'ef. . . . Ra
265
Tau-aa-qen (
,,
II.)
Sebek-hetep I. ...
266
13.
220,
228, 269
Mer-menfitu
266
Kames ...
226, 269
Sebek-hetep II
266
Aah-hetep
... 270
Nefer-hetep
. 266
'
Aah-mes-se-pa-
ari
... 270
Het-Heru-se
. 266
Sebek-hetep III.
. 266
Amasis I. 13
16,
116,
„ IV.
. 266
"9,
143, 270
Uah-ab-Ra-aa-ab
. 266
Amenophis I.
I3>
203,
Chaa-xeru-Ra ...
. 266
228, 270
. 266
Thothmesl. 13
, 201
203,
Nefer-ab-Ra
. 266
205,
208, 270
Sebek-hetep V.
. 267
„ n. 13
, 201
, 203,
Mer-xerp-Ra
. 267
211,
216, 270
Anab
. 267
Queen Hatshe
pset
201,
Sebek-em-sa-f I.
. 267
203,
205,
216, 271
II.
. 267
Thothmes III.
2,
3. 4.
Cherp-Uast-Ra ...
. 267
5, I3> loi.
III
167,
Ra-hetep
. 267
197. 199,
201,
203,
Ai
. 267
205, 211,
228,
231,
Ana
. 267
243,
245, 271
Mer-cherp-Ra-dn-ren .
. 267
Amenophis II
13.
205,
Seuat'-cn-Ra
. 268
238,
24s, 271
Cha-ka-Ra
. 268
Thothmes IV.
13
228, 271
Mer-kau-Ra
. 268
Amenophis III. 5,
6, 13,
Seheb-Ra
.. 268
156, 161,
172,
196,
Mer-t'efa-Ra
.. 268
197, 199,
210,
211,
Sta-ka-Ra
.. 268
228
243. 271
Neb-t'efa-Ra-Ra (?)
.. 268
Thi (Queen)
... 271
INDEX.
Egypt, Kings of: —
Amenophis (Chu-en-aten)
IV. ... 5, 13, 14,
Se-aa-ka-ka-neXt-;^eperu-
Ra
Tut-anx-Amen ...
Ai
Heru-em-heb ... 196,
Rameses I. 14, 199, 201,
208, 224,
Seti I. 3, 14, 115, 119,
140, 167, 182, 201,
205, 207, 208, 222,
224, 228, 231,
Rameses II. 3, 4, 14, 35,
104, 107, 108, III,
112, 115, 119, 140,
150, 152, 179, 180,
271
272
272
272
272
272
272
182,
184, 196,
197,
201
207, 208,
210,
228,
231,
272
Meneptah I.
273
Amen-meses
273
Seli II.
199,
203,
273
Meneptah II. ...
»4.
273
Set-Necht
273
Rameses III. 5, 14,
108,
119
166, 199,
203,
211, 213,
228,
273
IV. 14, 203
225,
274
V.
14.
274
VI. 14, 225
250,
274
VII. ...
14,
274
VIII. ...
14,
274
IX. 14, 201
,22s,
274
X.
14,
274
XI.
14,
275
XII. ...
14,
276
XIII. 14,
199,
277
Se-Mentu
IS.
275
Pasebchanu I. ...
15.
275
Amen-
;m-apt
15,
275
Egyjit, Kings of: —
Pasebchanu II. ... 15,
Her-Heru
Pa-anch (Pianclii I.) 4,
15, 150, 243,
Pai-net'em I. ... 15,
Hent-taiu ... 217,
Masaherlh
Pai-net'em II. ... 15,
III. ... 15.
Shashanq (Shishak) I. 15,
199. 205,
15.
I99>
15.
15.
IS,
IS.
15.
IS.
Osorkon I.
Thekeleth I. ...
Osorkon II.
Shashanq II.
Thekeleth II. ...
Shashantj III. ...
Pa-mai ..
Peta-se-Bast
Osorkon III.
Bakenrenf
Kashta ...
Pianchi II.
„ III. ...
Shabaka (Sabaco)
15.
199.
IS.
• IS.
17,
Shabataka
Tirhakah
Amenrut ...
P.sammetichus I. 16, 109,
156, 179. 253.
Nekaii II. 16, 105, 109,
Psammetichus II. 16,
Uah-ab-Ra (Ilophra,
Apries) ... 16,
Amasis II. 13, 16, 156,
Psammetichus III. 16,
Cambyses
Darius Ilystaspes
Xer-xes the Great
Artaxer.xes
301
I'ai;e
, 276
. 276
. 276
. 276
276
276
276
277
277
277
277
277
277
278
278
278
278
278
278
278
279
279
279
279
279
279
279
280
280
2S0
2S0
2S0
2S0
280
281
2S1
502
NOTES FOR TRAVELLERS IN EGYPT.
Egypt, Kings of :-
Darius Xerxes
Chabbesha
Niafaaurut I.
„ ■ II.
Haker
Psemut ...
Necfanebus I.
PAGE
281
... 156, 281
17, 281
17
17, 281
17, 281
17, 100,
230, 282
,, II. 17, 199,
211, 23S, 282
Egyptian dynasties ... 257-292
,, ,, summary of 9-25
,, Empire, Ancient... 8, 9
,, ,, Middle 8, 12
New 8, IS
,, Christians... ... 53
,, gods, nature of ... 72
,, months ... ... 69
,, religion ... 7i~96
„ writing ... 49-58
,, year 70
Egyptians 13, 16, 17, 18, 97
,, ancient, their origin ... 31
,, physical characteristics 32
,, modern ... 35-43
Eileithyias ... ... ... 222
Elagabalus ... ... ... 20
El-Ashraf Khalil 24
Elephantine 10, 45, 47, 48, 234
El-Fayum ... ... ... 12
El-Ghuri 24
El-Gisr 107
El-Kab 228
El-Kais 165
El-Kantara 107
El-kenus ... ... ... 242
Ellahim 133
El-Mu'allakah 121
El-Musiani<ir ... ... 24
Eltckch 6
Ennedek ... ... ... 107
PAGE
Enoch ... ... ... 237
Epaphus (.ft-'t; Apis) 150
Equator ... ... ... 44
Eratosthenes ... 99, 233
Ergamenes ... ... ... 247
Erment ... ... ... 226
Esarhaddon ... 6, 15, 150, 171
Eshmuncn ... ... ... 171
Esneh 133, 147, 186, 228
Ethiopia 6, 12, 15, 32, 80,
88, 169, 240, 242, 243
Ethiopians ... 16, 20, 34, 133
Euclid ... ... 52, 99
Eugenie, Empress ... ... 131
Eumenes II. ... •••97
Eunostos Harbour ... ... 99
Euphrates ... ... ... 237
Europeans ... ... ... 37
„ massacred at
Alexandria 25
Eutyches ... ... ... 22
Eutychians ... ... ... 38
Eusebius ... ... ... 7
Exodus, the ... ... ... 14
Ezra ... ... ... ... 121
Farshiit ... ... ... 184
Fatimites ... ... 23, 24
Fayum 30, 94, 117, 133,
162, 163
Fcllahin 37
Fostat 23, 112, 113, 119, 123
France ... ... ... 24
Fresh-water Canal 106, 109
P'um el-Khalig ... ... 46
G.
Gabriel, Saint ... ... 120
Gagnier, quoted ... ... 103
Galerius Maximinus ... 119
INDEX.
303
r.\r.E
I'AGK
Gallienus
20
HckatKu.s
7
Gazelle River
44
Helena, Empress 165,
175,
Gebel-Barkal
"3,
116,
243
176,
189
Gebel et-Ter
165
ricliopolis 9, 12, 14, 47
5,3,
George, Saint 21
78,
120,
80, 85, 86, loi,
131,
122,
123,
189,
235
132,
i55>
178
Gerf Hussen
246
,, of the South
226
Germanicus ...
20
, 35
Hennii
169
Gibbon, quoted
22
Henoticon ...
23
Giraffe River
44
Heptanomis
28,
162
Girgeh
177
Heptastadium
98,
100
Gizeh 4, 5, 6, 10, 18, 125,
133. 134. i35> 141,
145, 146, 152, 153,
159, 224, 225, 226
Gizeh Museum ... 11 3-1 19
Godfrey de Bouillon ... 24
Gordon ... ... ... 25
Goshen ... ... 1 11, 132
Goyam ... ... ... 144
Grant, Captain ... ... 45
Grebaut ... ... ... 115
Greeks 16, iS, 28, 32, 34,
38, 88, 97
Grenfell, Sir Francis ... 235
Gymnasium at Alexandria... loi
H.
Hadendoa . . .
Hadrian
Haggi Kandil
Hagia Sophia
Hakim
Hamamat
Hapi ...
Hariin er-Rashid
Harris papyrus
Hasan
Hatshepset . . .
Hebrews
... 40
171, 211
172, 173
... 127
... 23
... II
73
51
24
13
236
44>
Heq-ab
Heracleopoiis
Heraclius
Hercules
Het-Heru ...
Hermes
Hermonthis ...
Hermopolis Magna
,, Parva
Herod
Herodotus I, 6, 7,
137. 1.39, 141. 143.
14S, 151, 152, 155,
Heru-chuti ...
Het-ka-Ptah 37, 149
Hezekiah ... ... 15
Hieratic writing ... ... 49
Hieroglyphic decii)hermcnt
53; alphabet 53, numbers
91,
no,
10
23
174
15
171
131
171
102
120
163
79
57 ; characters
Hijrah, era of
Hipparchus ...
Hittin
Homer
HorapoUo ...
House of Bast
Hyksos I, 12, 13
I.
Ibrahim Pasha
33:
61-67
... 70
... 99
... 24
192, 193
7, 31
... 109
34, 93
24,
504
NOTES FOR TRAVELLERS IN EGYPT.
Ibrim 243, 247, 250,
Icthyophagi ■
Incarnation, the
Indian Ocean
Indians
Indiction
Ionia
Iseion
Iseium
Isma'il
Isma'iliya
Ismandes
Israel
Israelites
Issus ...
luta Melek ..,
■ •25, 30,
30. 105.
14, 104,
F.\GE
244
23
31
194
70
194
226
188
129
107
179
35
III
17
205
J.
Jacob the Patriarch...
Jeroboam
Jerusalem
Jesus, son of Sirach...
Jews ... 37, 42, 9'
,, persecuted
Johar
John of Alexandria ...
,, ,, Antioch
,, Baptist
,, Philoponus ...
,, Saint
Joseph ... 13
Joseph's Well
Josephus
Josiah
Judah
Jupiter
Justinian
Juvenal
Juynboll
Ka'ba
... 171
... 205
;5, 20, 24
■ ■• 75
108, 132
... 20
... 125
... 103
... 9
... 120
... ICMD
... 122
132, 154
... 129
7, 112
... 16
16, 205
196, 226
... 23
186, 188
... 104
... 124
Kadesh
Kafr ez-zaiyat
Kahir
Kait-Bey
Kakam
Kalabshi
Kalaun
Kantara
Kardash
Karnak
„ Tablet of
Kasr es-Sa)7ad
Kau el-Kebir
Kebhsenuf ...
Keneh
Kerbela
Khalifs, Tombs of
Kharmaruyeh
Khartum
Kibla
Kings, Tombs of
Klusanah
Kochome
Koft
Kom ed Dik
Kom Ombo 94,
Korosko
Kuban
Kufah
Kullah
Kulzum
Kummeh
Kurigalzu
Kurnah
L.
Labyrinth
Lagids
Lanzone
Latopolis
Leo Africanus
Lepere
80,
PAGE
253. 254
... 103
... 112
... 24
... 152
... 244
... 24
... los
... 244
"4, 115
I. 3
184
174
73
184
127
127
... 23, 113
44, 45
127
222-226
i6S
152
188
lOI
186, 188, 231
12, 249
248
237
133
104
242
5
208
163, 179
... 96
... 76
... 228
i73> 177
... 105
INDEX.
305
PAGE
Lepsius 8, 26, 55, 134, 252
Lesseps, M. de ... 105, 106
Levantines ... ... ... 42
Libya 17, 148
Libyan Desert ... ... 30
Lieblein ... ... ... 8
Linant Bey ... ... ... 105
Liwan ... ... ■•• 125
Lochias 100, loi
London ... ... 6, 14
Longperrier ... ... ... 114
Louis IX. of France ... 24
Louis Philippe ... ... 127
Louvre ... ... ... 114
Luxor ... 191, 194, 196
Lycopolis ... ... ... 174
M.
Maamam
Macedonians
Macrinus
Macrobii
Macrobius ..
Maghaghah ..
Mahalah
Mahmudiyeh
Mahsamah . .
Makawkas . .
Makrizi
Mamelukes ..
... 250
... 17
... 20
... 244
... 132
... 164
■•• 234
... 98
... Ill
.. 103
... 124
113. 176
The Bahrite ... 24
The Circassian 24, 126
,, Massacre of 24, 129
,, Tombs of ... 128
Mammisi ... •.■ ... 188
Mamun, opens Great Pyra-
mid .. .•■ ••■ 23
Mandulis 245
Manetho 6, 7, 12, 18, 52,
71, 141, 152, 154, 155. 156
Manfalut ••■ i73
Mansurah ... ... ••■ 24
PAGE
Maraghah ... 100
Mar Buktar 120
Marcianus ... ... ... 22
Marcus Aurelius 20
Mareotis, Lake ... 102, 119
Mar Girgis 122
Mariette 3, 4, 8
,, sketch of his life 113-
115, 116, 118, 144,
145, 152, 153, 155,
157, 160
,, his house 160, 179,
180, 182, 185, 186,
188, 213, 217, 222, 230
Mark, Saint, preaches Chris-
tianity
Mar Mina ...
Mars
Martial
Martyrs, Era of
Maryam
Mary Theotokos
,, the Virgin
Ma'sara
Masau'a
Masowa
Maspero, Prof. 115, 153, 216, 219
20, 37, gS
... 119
... 112
... 149
20, 70
... 103
... 22
131
161
25
25
120,
Masr 'Atika ...
Masr el-Kahira
Mas'iidi
Mastabas
Mastabaf Far'ui
Matarah
Matariyyeh . . .
Mat'au
Maximinus ...
Mecca
Mechu
Medinct Ilabu
Mediterranean
... 113
113. 1-4
105, 133
157-160
153. 161
... 1S9
.. 131
So, 81
... 122
124, 126
... 236
115, 211
105,
106, 107, 108
X
5>
104
3o6
NOTES FOR TRAVELLERS IN EGYPT.
Medum, pyramid of ... Ii8
Megabari ... ... ... 244
Meh, nome of ... 168, 169
Melawi 172
Melchites 23, 103
Melik el-'Adil 24
,, el-Kamil ... ... 24
,, es-Saleh ... ... 24
Memnon ... ... ... 179
,, Colossus of .. . ... 210
Mcmnonia ... ... ... 180
Memnon's Tomb 225
Memnonium 179, 180, 194, 208
Memphis 9, 10, 37, 77, 96,
no, 114, 132, 147, 160,
173, 182, 191, 193,
Men
Mena, Saint...
Menas, Saint
Mendes
Men-nefer ....
Menshiah
Menuf
Menzaleh, Lake
Mercurius
Mercury
Mer-en-Tebuti
Meroe ... 133, 243,
Merwan
Mes-hent-Tiiciioclui ...
Mesopotamia 5, 13, 14, 31,
43. 149.
Metachonip.su
Michael, Saint
Mimbar
Minyeh
Misor
Misraim
Mitanni
Mll-Rahineh
120, 121,
189,
40,
118,
199
172
119
119
17
149
177
149
40
119
no
52
247
23
220
205
248
235
127
1O6
32
32
13
148
Mizraim
Mnevis
Moeris, Lake of
I'AGF.
32
9, 132
12, 117,
163, 164
Mokattam ... 129, 135, 162
Mommsen, quoted 35, 52, 96, 97
Monaster}', the Red ... 176
„ White ... 175
Monophy.sites ... 23, 38
Moses' Wells 104
Mosques of Cairo ... 123-127
Muhammad 39, 41, 103,
124, 127
AH 24, 25, 98,
loi, 102, n3,
127, 129, 167
Muhammedans ... ... 8
Mu'izz ... 23, n3, 125
Musas, Amba ... ... 184
Museum of Alexandria ... 99
,, British ... 100, 103
Musta'li 24
Mustafa Pasha 129
N.
Nabopolassar ... ... 16
Nak 82, 85
Nakadah 189
Napata 243
Napoleon iJonaparle 105,
113, 126
Naucrali.s ... 160
Nebl-anch 86
Nebuchadnezzar II ... 16
Necht 169, 170
Nefer-as-u 153
Nefer-hetep 94
Nefer-hetep-s 157
Nefermat 162
Nefi.sheh ni
Negroes ... ... 37) 42
INDEX.
307
PAGE
i'A(,r.
Neher.-i
12,
169
'Omar ... 98, 99,
100,
105
Nchi
250
'Omayyade dynasty ...
23
Nero
20
On
'32
Ne-si-Chensu
217
Onia ...
loS
Nestorius 21, 2:
,98
Orontes ... 210,
253.
255
Net'eniet
217
Osiris- Apis ... 99,
114,
156
Neter-ta
81
Osorkon II., statue of
33
Nicsea, Council of ...
21
Osymandyas... . .
208
Nile 9, 12, 14, 20, 29
40,
'Othman
23
81, 83, 86, 88, 89,
95,
Oxyrhynchus . .
36,
164
96, 98, 102, 105,
109,
112, 117, 130, 132,
133,
P.
137, 138, 140, 148,
i5i>
Pa- Bast
109
163, 164, 166, 167,
169,
Pahir
228
189, 203,
231,
237
Palestine
18,
171
Nile, Blue, White, length, in-
Palmyra
20
undation of, mouths of 44-48
Pa-matet
164
Nile-god
48
Pan...
88,
lOI,
177
Nilometer at Elephantin
C47,
235
Paneum
lOI
Phila^...
240
Panopolis
88,
177
,, Roda ...
129,
130
Parembole ..
244
Nimrod
4
Paris
3'
104
Nine Bow.s ...
3
Pelusium 16, 18, 104,
106,
Nineveh
5
107,
132
No- Anion
191
Pemge
164
Nubse
244
Penni
250
Nubia 12, 14, 29, 32
41.
Pen-ta-urt ... ... 4
. 14,
207
45, 238, 242,
243.
249
Pergamcnian Library
97
, 99
Nubians
37
, 41
Pergamus
97
Nubti
13
Persians 8, 16, 17, 23
34.
Numbers, Tomb of...
145
109,
1 48,
197
Nyanza, Albert
45
Peta-Amcn-apt
226
,, Victoria ...
45
Peta-Bast
Peter the Apostle ...
15
249
0.
Pelronianus ...
211
Oases, the i
6, 30
, 36
Petronius 243, 246,
247,
250
Oasis Major
36
Pharos, the
iS
, 97
,, Minor
36
Pharsalia
19
'Obedallah
23
Phila; ... 47,
149.
238
Ochus
17
Philctas
52
Olympus
22
Philip III. of
Maccdon
203
3o8 NOTES FOR
TR.-WELLERS IN EGYPT.
PAGE
,
PAGE
Philition
141
1 Ptolemy X. .Soter II., Philo
Phcenicia ... 5, 6, 13, 32
213
metor II. 19,
211,
286
Pibeseth
109
,, XI.' Ale.xaiider I.
19
286
Pilhom
III
„ XII. „ II.
19.
286
Pliny 147,
149
,, XIII. Neos Diony.sos
Plutarch ... 89, 92,
235
19,
211,
286
Pluto
96
,, XIV. Dionysos 11
• 19,
287
Pococke
201
,, XV
19
Ponipey
19
,, XVI. Ccesarion
19
Pompey'.s Pillar ... 99,
lOI
,, the Geographer
233
Port Sa'id .. 30, 106,
107
Punt II, 13, 32, 189,
216,
225
Potiphar
132
Put
32
Premnis ... ... 247,
250
Pyramid of Cheops ...
135
Primis
250
,, Chephren
139
Prisse 3, 50, 51, 114,
117
,, Mycerinus
141
Probu.s
20
„ Unas
153
Pselcis ... 246,247
248
Tela
153
Psoi
177
Pepi I. ...
154
Psyllians
185
,, the Blunted,
153,
161
Ptah-hetep 10, 50, 75, 115,
,, False
161
116, 117,
118
,, Prison
154
Ptah-hetep, Tomb of
160
„ Shekh abu Mansur
154
Ptolemai's
179
„ .Step 152,
153.
154
Ptolemie.s ... ... J
, 18
Pyramids of Gizeh 133,
146,
147
Ptolemy I. Soter 7, 18, 52,
,, Abu Roash
146
97, 98, 99,
2S3
„ Abusir...
147
„ II. Philadelphus 7, 18,
,, Dahshur
161
52, 71, 97, 98, 99,
„ Medum
i6r
105, 240, 247,
283
Pyramids, battle of
24
„ III. Euergetes I. 18,
,, plan of ...
134
97, 116, 197,
283
,, use of
72
„ IV. Philojiator 18, 197,
,, opened by Persians
216, 230,
284
and Arajjs
134,
135
„ V. Epiphanes 18, 103,
240,
284
R.
„ VI. Eupator ... 18,
240
Rakoti
97
„ VII. Philomctor I. 18,
Ra-nub
152
108,
285
Rameses, city of
35
„ VIII. Philojiator II.
,, Colos.sal statue of...
151
18, 19,
285
Ramesseum
208
„ IX. Euergetes II. 18,
Re-au
161
199, 216, 228,
28s 1
Rcchma-Ra 226,
227
INDEX.
309
Red Sea 14, 31, 32, 81,
104, 105, 109
,, Canal ... ... 20
Renaudot .. 100
Renoiif, quoted ... 2, 74, 80
Rhampsinitu.s ... ... 137
Rhodopi.s ... ... ... 143
Roda 129, 171
Roman Emperors, names of,
in Egyptian 287, 292
Romans 8, 19, 34, 38, 97, 102
Rome 20, 185
Rosetta ... 46, 98, 112
,, Stone, the 18, 53,
54, 102, 103
Rosellini ... ... ... 55
Rutennu ... ... ... 205
Sa el-Hagar ...
Sabben
Sacy, Silvestre de ...
Sais ... ... ... I
Sa'id Pasha 25, 105,
Sakkdrah i, 3, 10, 72,
iiS, 133, 147-160,
Saladin
Salaheddin . . .
Salvolini
Samallut
Sarginu
Sargon
Sarras
Satyrs
Sauakin
Scorpio
.Scythians
.Sebek-anch ...
•Sebenny tus . . .
24,
•• 15
... 236
■•• 54
5. 16, 17
108,
I IS, 125
114,
152,
154, 167
24, 129
113, 128
... 55
... 165
... 15
... 15
... 256
... 88
... 25
... 88
... 194
... 170
7, 17
Sehel
Seleucids
Selim I,
.Semiramis ...
Semneh ... 12,
Sennacherib...
Senchct
Senmut
Sent ...
Septimus .Sevcrus ...
Septuagint ...
Serapeum 96, 99, loi,
153,
Speke, Captain
Sphinx
,, Temple of ...
Seyyid el-Bedavvi ..
Shabtun
Shaliif cl-Terral)eh ...
Shasu
Shekh 'Abadeh ...
,, 'abd el-Kurnah
,, el-Beled ...
Shenudah
Shenuti ... 119,
Shesu-Heru ..
Shibin el-Kanatir ...
Shirin
Silco ...
Silsileh
.Sinai ... ... 10,
,, Peninsula of ...
.Sinope
.Sirach
Sirdab
Sirius...
Sidt ...
Sloane
Sobat...
Socrates
Sohag
... 238
... 9G
24. 113
... 112
242, 256
6, 15
... 12
... 216
... 51
20, 210
... 18
114,
15s. 156
... 45
... 144
... 144
... 102
.•■ 253
... 106
... 205
... 171
... 225
116, 1 1 S
175. 176
176, 177
... 8
. . 108
.. 103
22, 245
... 24s
147, 155
30. 36
... 99
■■• 75
... 159
... 70
... 174
... 151
... 44
... 21
... 175
3 I O NOTES
FOR
TRAV
ELLERS IN EGYPT.
PAGE
lAGE
Solomon, Proverbs of
75
Temi en-Heru
102
Soma...
100
Tentyra ... 184,
185,
186
Somali
25
, 32
Tet-asu
154
Sostratus
98
Tewfik
25
Sozomen
21,
165
Thebais Secunda
188
Speos Artemidos
167
Thebes 6, li, 12, 13,
14,
Stephenson ...
los
35> 36, 47, 48,
72,
Sir F.
151
79, 80, 94, 95,
172,
Strabo 7, 47, 99,
105,
132,
173, 177, 17^,
180,
156, 177, 179,
185,
192,
182, 210,
215,
243
210, 222, 226,
234,
240,
247
,, Temple of Karnak
191
Suakin
25
,, ,, Luxor
196
Succoth
35
,, ,, Kurnah
...
208
Sudan 25, 42,
174,
245,
249
, , Ramesseum . . .
208
Suez 30, 106, 107,
108
109,
III
,, Medinet Habu
211
,, Canal 25,
104
-III,
131
,, Palace of Ranieses
in.
213
„ Gulf of...
104
,, Der el-Medinet
215
,, Isthmus of
31
,, Der el-Bahari
216
Suhak
175.
177
,, Tombs of the Kings ...
222
Syene ... 29
, 41
, 45.
233
Theodorus
52
Syria... ...18,
132,
149,
205
Theodosius ... 21, 99,
151,
241
Syrian Christians
42
Theophilus, Bishop...
,, Patriarch
21
99
T
Thi, wife of Amenophis
172
Tachompso ...
248
„ tomb of 153,
156,
157
Tafnecht
243
This (Thinis) 9,
177,
179
T'ah
253
Thoueris
91
Taharqa
IS
Tiberius Cresar
20
Tahtah
175
Tiglnth
15
Takenset
242
Timsah, Lake
104
Talmis
244,
245
Titus ...
211
Tamut
157
Toski
249
Tanis...
15
Trajan
20,
105
Tanta
102
Troglodyte ...
244
Ta-re-au
161
Tuamautef
73
Tekeleth ...
15
Tuman Bey .
24
Tell-Basta ...
15.
109
Tunep
254
Tell el-Amarna
5. 13. 14,
172
Turkey
8
Tell el-Kebir
II I
Turks 34, 37, 42, 124,
126,
127
Tell el-Maskhuta
1 1 1
Turin...
2
Tell el-Vahudiyyeh
...
loS
,, pajjyrus
I,
2. 3
INDEX.
I'AGE
Turra 135, 161
Tusan ... ... ... 107
Tushratta ... ... 5, 13
Two Brothers, Talc of 58, 76
Typhon 88, 89, 90, 91, 92, 188
Typhoniuni ... ... ... 1 88
U.
Uaua... ... ... ... 12
Uenephes ... ... ••• 152
Una ... 155, 161, 237, 249
Urdamanah ... ... ... 15
V.
Valerianus ...
Venus
Vespasian
Virgin's Tree
Vulcan
Vyse, Howard
20, 98
... 186
7, 20, 35
... 131
... 149
141, 146, 153
W.
Wah el-Khargeh
,, el-Dakhaliyeh
,, el-Farafra
,, cl-Siva
,, el-Bahriyeh ..
36
36
36
36
Wadi Halfah
„ Ma'arah
, , Scbua . . .
,, Tafah ...
Wansleben . . .
Wasta
Wiedemann ..
Wilson, Sir K.
Wisdom, Book of
X.
Xerxes I.
45, 242, 255
10
248
244
131
162
139
lOI
75
16
\ emen
104
Young
Z.
53. 54,
103
Zahir ...
23
Zakazik
108,
III
Zawyet el-
Aryan .
133
Zedekiah
16
Zeno ...
23
Zenobia
20
Zenodotus
52
Zodiac
. 1S6,
228
Harrison and Sons, Printers in Ordinary to Her Majesty, St. Martin's Lane, London.
\::\
University of California
SOUTHERN REGIONAL LIBRARY FACILITY
405 Hilgard Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90024-1388
Return this material to the library
from which it was borrowed.
mf;
V:0yfl
^^
0,
i
w
"^
Live Music Archive
Librivox Free Audio
Metropolitan Museum
Cleveland Museum of Art
Internet Arcade
Console Living Room
Books to Borrow
Open Library
TV News
Understanding 9/11