begin to bring things into order again. The two Weidenbachs and Frey had
observed the whole scene from the tombs where they were at work, as a
mighty drama of nature, and without even dreaming of the mischances that
had happened to us, until I sent for them to assist in preparing for the
quickly-approaching night. For several more days we fished and dug for
our things. Some things were lost, many were spoilt; the greater part of
all the things that were not locked up inside chests or trunks bore at
least more or fewer marks of this flood. After all, there was nothing of
much importance lost; I had first secured the great portfolios, together
with my manuscripts and books; in short, after a few days the whole
thing took the form of a remarkable picture, leaving no unpleasant
reminiscence, and of which I should grudge my memory the loss.
Since then, we have suffered much from violent gales, that occasionally
so fill the atmosphere with sand that respiration is rendered difficult,
painting with colours is totally precluded, and drawing and writing
paper is continually covered with a most disagreeable, ever-renewed
dust. This fine sand penetrates one’s clothes, enters all our boxes,
even when most closely shut, fills one’s nose, ears, hair, and is the
unavoidable pepper to every dish and drink.
_January 5._ On the evening of the first Christmas holiday, I surprised
my companions by a large bonfire, which I had lighted at the top of the
greatest pyramid. The flame shone magnificently upon the two other
pyramids, as well as on the Necropolis, and threw its light far over the
dale to Cairo. That was a Christmas pyramid! I had only confided the
secret to Abeken, who had arrived, with his ever merry humour and his
animated and instructive conversation, upon the 10th of December. With
his assistance I prepared something for the following night, in the
Royal Chamber of the Great Pyramid. We planted a young palm-tree in the
sarcophagus of the ancient king, and adorned it with lights and little
presents that I had sent for from the city for us children of the
wilderness. Saint Sylvester also must receive due honour. On New Year’s
eve, at midnight, there arose mighty flames from the heights of the
three great pyramids, and announced, far and wide in the regions of
Islâm, at their feet, the change of the Christian year.[12]
I consider it a proper mental diet for our company to break and
interrupt our laborious, and, for the artists, very monotonous
occupations, not only by the hebdomadal rest of Sunday, but also by
pleasant parties of pleasure and gay festivals, as often as opportunity
will admit. As yet, the harmony and good humour of our society have not
been disturbed by the slightest echo of discord; and they gain new
strength every day, as well by the fulness of our novel impressions and
the reciprocal tastes and natures of our companions, as by the obstacles
and hardships of this Bedouin life.
How manifold the elements of our community are, you may perceive by the
true Babel of languages in which we are ever moving. The English
language is sufficiently represented by our companions, Wild and Bonomi;
French and Italian serve as a medium of communication with the
authorities, our chance guests, and the Levantine merchants; in Arabic
we command, eat, and travel; and in very capital German we consult,
chatter, sing, and live. As long as it is day we are generally each
alone, and uninterruptedly at work. The morning coffee is drunk before
sunrise; after sunset, dinner is served; and we breakfast while at work.
Thus our artists have been already enabled to prepare a hundred great
folio leaves, partly executed in lead, partly finished off in colours,
for our swelling portfolios.
LETTER V.
PYRAMIDS OF GIZEH.
_January 17, 1843._
The inscription composed in commemoration of the birthday festival of
His Majesty has become a stone tablet, after the manner of the ancient
steles and proscynemata. Here it is:--
[Illustration]
and its contents, which, the more they assimilate with the Egyptian
style, become proportionately awkward in the German, are as follows:--
“Thus speak the servants of the King, whose name is the Sun and Rock of
Prussia, Lepsius the scribe, Erbkam the architect, the brothers
Weidenbach the painters, Frey the painter, Franke the former, Bonomi the
sculptor, Wild the architect:--Hail to the Eagle, Shelterer of the
Cross, the King, the Sun and Rock of Prussia, the son of the Sun, freer
of the land, Frederick William the Fourth, the Philopator, his country’s
father, the gracious, the favourite of wisdom and history, the guardian
of the Rhine stream, chosen by Germany, the giver of life. May the
highest God grant the King and his wife, the Queen Elisabeth, the
life-rich one, the Philometor, her country’s mother, the gracious, a
fresh-springing life on earth for long, and a blessed habitation in
Heaven for ever. In the year of our Saviour 1842, in the tenth month,
and the fifteenth day, on the seven and fortieth birthday of His
Majesty, on the pyramid of King Cheops; in the third year, the fifth
month, the ninth day of the Government of His Majesty; in the year 3164
from the commencement of the Sothis period under King Menephthes.”
Upon a large and expressly hewn and prepared stone, at some height, by
the entrance to the Pyramid of Cheops, we have left the hieroglyphical
inscription upon a space of five feet in breadth, and four feet in
height, painted in with oil-colours.
It seemed good to me, that the Prussian Expedition, while it dedicated
this tablet to the much-respected prince who had sent the Expedition
hither, should leave some trace of its activity in this field, where it
had been reserved for that enterprise to gather in the plenteous
materials for the first chapter of all scientific history.
Do not imagine, however, that these are the weighty labours that have
kept us so long here. It is from the advantage which we possess over
former travellers that places like these have the right to detain us
until we have exhausted them. We already know that the grand ruins of
the Thebaïc plain cannot discover anything to us of similar interest to
the Memphitic period of the Old Empire.
At some time we must of course leave off, and then always with the
certainty that we leave much behind us, of the greatest interest, that
has still to be won. I had already determined upon our departure some
days since, when a row of tombs were discovered of a new period, a new
architecture, a new style in the figures and hieroglyphics, with other
titles, and, as it might have been expected, with other royal names.
Our historical gain is by no means perfected, nor is it even general. I
was quite right in giving up the task of reconstructing the third
dynasty after monuments, while in Europe. Nor have I yet found a single
cartouche that can be safely assigned to a period previous to the fourth
dynasty. The builders of the Great Pyramid seem to assert their right to
form the commencement of monumental history, even if it be clear that
they were not the first builders and monumental writers. We have already
found some hitherto unknown cartouches and variants of others, such
as:--
[Illustration:
Keka.
Heraku.
Useskef.
Ana.
]
The name that I have hitherto treated as Amchura shows, in the complete
and painted inscriptions, which throw not a little light upon the
figurative meanings of the hieroglyphic writings, a totally different
sign, to the well-known group, [Illustration: hieroglyph] _amchu_, viz.:
[Illustration: hieroglyph], the pronunciation of which is yet uncertain
to me.[13]
In the classification of the pyramids there is nothing to be altered. It
cannot be doubted, after our researches, that the second pyramid really
is to be assigned to Shafra (more correctly Chafra the Chephren of
Herodotus), as the first to Chufu (Cheops), and the third to Menkera
(Mycerinos, Mencherinos). I think I have found the path from the valley
to the second pyramid; it leads right up to its temple, by the Sphinx,
but was probably destroyed at an early period. The number of pyramids,
too, is continually increasing. At Abu Roash I have found three pyramids
in the place of that single one already known, and two fields of tombs;
also near Zauiet el Arrian, an almost forgotten village, there once
stood two pyramids, and a great field of ruins is adjoining. The careful
researches and measurements of Perring, in his fine work upon the
pyramids, save us much time and trouble. Therefore we could give
ourselves more to the tombs and their hieroglyphical paintings, which
are altogether wanting in the pyramids. But nothing is yet completed,
nothing is ripe for definitive arrangement, though comprehensive views
are now opened. Our portfolios begin to swell; much has been cast in
gypsum; among other things, the great stele of the first year of
Tuthmosis IV. between the paws of the Sphinx.
LETTER VI.
PYRAMIDS OF GIZEH.
_January 28, 1843._
I have ordered ten camels to come here to-morrow night, that we may
depart early, before sunrise, the day after, with our already somewhat
extensive collection of original monuments and gypsum casts, for Cairo,
where we shall deposit them until our return from the south. This will
be the commencement of our movement toward Saqâra. A row of very
recently discovered tombs, of the dynasties immediately following that
of Cheops, has once retarded our departure. The fifth dynasty, which
appears as an Elephantine contemporaneous dynasty in Africanus,[14] and
was not at all to be expected as such here, now lies completed before
us, and in general precisely as I had constructed it in Europe. The gaps
have been filled up with three kings, whose names were then unknown.
Also some kings, formerly hanging in mid-air, have been won for the
seventh and eighth dynasties, of which we had previously no monumental
names whatever. The proof of the fifth dynasty following the fourth
immediately would in itself richly recompense us for our stay of several
months at this place; and besides this, we have still much to do with
structures, sculptures, and inscriptions, which, by the continually
increasing certitude of the royal names, are formed into one cultivated
epoch, dating about the year 4000 B.C. One can never recall these till
now incredible dates too often to the memory of one’s-self and others;
the more criticism is challenged, and obliged to give a serious
examination to the matter, the better for the cause. Conviction will
follow criticism, and then we shall arrive at the consequences that are
linked with it in every branch of archæology.
With this letter you will receive a roll containing several drawings
which have been copied from the tombs here. They are splendid specimens
of the oldest architecture, sculpture, and painting that art-history has
to show, and the most beautiful and best preserved of all those that we
have found in the Necropolis. I hope we shall some day see these
chambers fully erected in the New Museum at Berlin.[15] They would
certainly be the most beautiful trophy that we could bring with us from
Egypt. Their transportation would probably be attended with some
difficulty; for you may judge by the dimensions that ordinary means will
not suffice to do it. I have therefore asked, in a letter addressed
directly to His Majesty the King, whether it would not be possible to
send a vessel next year, or at the close of the expedition, with some
workpeople and tools, in order to take these monuments to pieces more
carefully than we can do, and bring them with the rest of the
collections to Berlin.
Six of the enclosed leaves are drawings of a tomb which I myself
discovered under the sand, and the paintings of which are almost as
fresh and perfect as you may perceive them in the drawing.[16] It was
the last resting-place of Prince Merhet, who, as he was a priest of
Chufu (Cheops), named one of his sons Chufu-mer-nuteru, and possessed
eight villages, the names of which were compounded with that of Chufu;
and the position of the grave on the west side of the pyramid of Chufu,
as well as perfect identity of style in the sculptures, renders it more
than probable that Merhet was the son of Chufu, by which the whole
representations are rendered more interesting. This prince was also
“Superintendent-General of the royal buildings,” and thus had the rank
of Ober-hof Baurath (High Court-architect), a great and important post
in these times of magnificent architecture, and which we have often
found under the direction of princes and members of the royal family. It
is therefore to be conjectured that he also over-looked the building of
the Great Pyramid. Would not this alone have justified the undertaking
of transporting to Berlin the well-joined grave-chamber of this princely
architect, which will otherwise be destroyed at a longer or shorter
period by the Arabs, and built into their ovens, or burnt in their
kilns! There, at least, it would be preserved, and accessible for the
admiration or scientific ardour of the curious, as indeed European art
and science teaches us to respect and value such monuments. For its
re-erection it would require a width of 6 métres 30´, a height of 4 m.
60’, and a depth of 3 m. 80´; and such a space can certainly be reserved
for it in the New Museum.[17]
I must remark, in addition, that such chambers form only a very small
portion of the tomb, and were not intended for the mummy. The tomb of
Prince Merhet is more than 70 feet long, 45 broad, and 15 high. It is
massively constructed of great blocks of freestone, with slanting outer
surfaces. The chamber only is covered with rafters, and one, or in this
case two, square shafts lead from the flat roof through the building
into living rock, at the bottom of which, sixty feet below,
rock-chambers open at each side, in which the sarcophagi were placed.
The remains of the reverend skull of the Cheoptic prince, which I found
in his mummy-chamber, I have carefully preserved. To my sorrow we found
but little more, because this grave, like most of the others, has long
been broken into. Originally the entrance was closed with a stone slab.
Only the supersurfacial chamber remained open always, and was therefore
adorned with representations and inscriptions. Thither were brought the
offerings to the departed. It was dedicated to the religious belief of
the dead person, and thus answered to the temple that was built before
each pyramid for the adoration of its royal inmate. In the same way as
those temples, so these chambers always open to the east. The shafts,
like the pyramids, lie behind to the west, because the departed was
supposed to be in the west, whither he had gone with the setting sun to
Osiris in Amente.
Finally, the seventh leaf contains two pillars and their architrave,
from the tomb of a royal relative, who was also the prophet of four
kings, named Ptah-nefru-be’u. The grave was constructed at a later
period than that of Prince Merhet, in the fifth dynasty of Manetho.[18]
It belongs to a whole group of tombs, the architectural disposition and
intercommunication of which are very curious, and which I have therefore
laid quite open to the daylight, while before neither the entrance nor
anything else but the crown of the outer wall was to be seen.
I also send you the complete plan of it, besides that of the
neighbouring graves, but only think of bringing the architrave and the
two finely-painted pillars of the southern space, which may be easily
removed. On the architrave the legend of the departed is inscribed, who
is also represented on the four sides of the pillars in full size. In
front, on the north pillar, is seen the father of the dead person, Ami;
on the southern one is his grandfather, Aseskef-anch. The pillars are
about twelve feet in height, are slim, and are always without capitals,
but with an abacus.
At the tomb of Prince Merhet I have had the whole chamber isolated, but
have given up the design of taking it down for the present, as the
season is not the most favourable for transporting it. I have therefore
filled this grave and the other with sand, and to-morrow, on my arrival
in Cairo, I shall obtain an order interdicting the removal of any of the
stones of those tombs which we had opened. For it is most annoying to
see great caravans of camels coming hither from the neighbouring
villages, and going off in long strings loaded with slabs for building.
Fortunately,--for what is not fortunate under circumstances!--the lazy
Fellahs are rather attracted by the tombs of the age of the Psammetici
than by those of the older dynasties, the great blocks of which are not
handy enough for them. I am more seriously alarmed, however, for the
tombs of the fifth and seventh dynasties, which are built of more
moderately sized stones. Yesterday the robbers threw down a fine,
steady, fully-inscribed pillar when our backs were turned. Their efforts
to break it up seem not to have been successful. The people have become
so feeble here, that, with all their mischievous industry, their powers
are not sufficient to destroy what their mighty ancestors had raised.
Some days ago, we found, standing in its original place in a grave of
the beginning of the seventh dynasty, an obelisk of but a few feet in
height, but well preserved, and bearing the name of the person to whom
the tomb was erected. This form of monument, which plays so conspicuous
a part in the New Empire, is thus thrown some dynasties farther back
into the Old Empire than even the obelisk of Heliopolis.
LETTER VII.
SAQÂRA.
_March 18, 1843._
A short time ago, I made a trip, in company with Abeken and Bonomi, to
the more distant pyramids of Lisht and Meidûm. The latter interested me
particularly, as it has solved for me the riddle of pyramidal
construction, on which I had long been employed.[19] It lies almost in
the valley of the plain, close by the Bahr Jussuf, and is only just
removed from the level of inundation, but it towers so loftily and
grandly from the low neighbourhood that it attracts attention from a
great distance. From a casing of rubbish that surrounds almost the half
of it, to the height of 120 feet, a square, sharp-edged centre rises
after the manner of a tower, which lessens but little at the top, _i.
e._ in an angle of 74°. At the elevation of another 100 feet there is a
platform on which, in the same angle, stands a slenderer tower of
moderate height, which again supports the remains of a third elevation
in the middle of its flat upper side. The walls of the principal tower
are mostly polished, flat, but are interrupted by rough bands, the
reason of which seems hardly comprehensible. On a closer examination,
however, I found also within the half-ruined building, round the foot,
smoothened walls rising at the same angle as the tower, before which
there lay other walls, following each other like shells. At last I
discovered that the whole structure had proceeded from a little pyramid,
which had been built in steps to about the height of 40 feet, and had
then been enlarged and raised in all directions by a stone casing of 15
to 20 feet in breadth, till at last the great steps were filled out to a
surface, and the whole received the usual pyramidal form.
This gradual accumulation explains the monstrous size of single pyramids
among so many smaller ones. Each king commenced the construction of his
pyramid at his accession; he made it but small at first, in order to
secure himself a perfect grave even if his reign should be but short.
With the passing years of his government, however, he enlarged it by
adding outer casings, until he thought himself near the end of his days.
If he died during the erection of it, the outermost casing only was
finished, and thus the size of the pyramid stood ever in proportion to
the length of the king’s reign. Had the other determinative relations
remained the same in the lapse of ages, one might have told off the
number of years of each monarch’s reign by the casings of the pyramids,
like the annual rings of trees.
Yet the great enigma of the bearded giant Sphinx remains unsolved! When
and by whom was this colossus raised, and what was its signification? We
must leave this question to be decided by our future and more fortunate
successors. It is almost half-buried in sand, and the granite stele of
eleven feet in height between his paws, forming alone the back wall of a
small temple erected here, was altogether concealed; for the immense
excavations which were undertaken by Caviglia, in 1818, have long since
tracelessly disappeared. By the labour of some sixty to eighty persons
for several days, we arrived almost at the base of the stele, which I
had immediately sketched, pressed in paper, and cast, in order to erect
it at Berlin. This stele, on which the Sphinx itself is represented, was
erected by Tuthmosis IV., and is dated in the first years of his
government; he must therefore have found the colossus there. We are
accustomed to find the Sphinx in Egypt used as the sign for a king, and,
indeed, usually as some particular king, whose features it would appear
to preserve, and therefore they are always Androsphinxes, with the
solitary exception of a female Sphinx, which represents the wife of King
Horus. In hieroglyphical writings the Sphinx is named Neb, “the Lord,”
and forms, among other instances, the middle syllable of the name of
King Necta-neb-us.
But what king is represented by the monster? It stands before the second
pyramid, that of Shafra (Chephren), not directly in the axis, but
parallel with the sides of the temple lying before it, and precisely as
if the northern rock by the Sphinx had been intended for a corresponding
sculpture; besides this, it was usual for Sphinxes, Rams, statues, and
obelisks, to be placed in pairs before the entrances of the temples.
What a mighty impression, however, would two such giant guardians,
between which the ancient pathway to the temple of Chephren led, have
made upon the approaching worshipper! They would have been worthy of
that age of colossal monuments, and in right proportions to the pyramid
behind. I cannot deny that this connection would best satisfy me. What
would have induced the Thebaïc kings of the eighteenth dynasty, the only
ones of the New Empire to be thought of, to adorn the Memphitic
Necropolis with such a world-wonder without any connection with its
surrounding objects? Add to this, that in an almost destroyed line of
the Tuthmosis stele, King Chephren is named; a portion of his royal
cartouche, unfortunately quite single, is yet preserved; it undoubtedly
had some reference to the builder of the pyramid lying behind it.
But the question again arises:--If King Chephren be here represented,
why does it not bear his name? On the contrary, it is named Har-em-chu,
“Horus in the horizon,” that is to say, the Sungod, the type of all
kings, and Harmachis, in a Greek inscription found before the Sphinx. It
does not seem at all unlikely to me, that upon this rests the fable of
Pliny, according to which a King Amasis (Armasis? Ἅρμαχις) lies interred
within the Sphinx;[20] for in a real burial there can be no belief.
Another consideration is that I have not found the representation of the
Sphinx in those most ancient times of the pyramid builders; but that
must not be accepted as conclusive, as the Sphinx is not often found in
the inscriptions and representations of the new empire.[21] In short,
the Œdipus for this king of all Sphinxes is yet wanting. Whoever would
drain the immeasurable sand-flood which buries the tombs themselves, and
lay open the base of the Sphinx, the ancient temple path, and the
surrounding hills, could easily decide it.
But with the enigmas of history there are joined many riddles and
wonders of nature, which I must not leave quite unnoticed. The newest of
all, at least, I must describe.