EGYPT, THE LAND OF TOMBS AND TEMPLES.
The _Maria Teresa_ landed me in Port Said, Egypt, Lord's day, October
twenty-third, and at seven o'clock that evening I took the train for
Cairo, arriving there about four hours later. I had no difficulty in
finding a hotel, where I took some rest, but was out very early the next
morning to see something of the largest city in Africa. The population
is a great mixture of French, Greeks, English, Austrians, Germans,
Egyptians, Arabians, Copts, Berbers, Turks, Jews, Negroes, Syrians,
Persians, and others. In Smyrna, Damascus, and Jerusalem, cities of the
Turkish empire, the streets are narrow, crooked, and dirty, but here
are many fine buildings, electric lights, electric cars, and good, wide
streets, over which vehicles with rubber tires roll noiselessly.
I first went out to the Mokattam Heights, lying back of the city, at an
elevation of six hundred and fifty feet. From the summit an extensive
view can be obtained, embracing not only the city of Cairo, with its
many mosques and minarets, but the river beyond, and still farther
beyond the Gizeh (Gezer) group of the pyramids. The side of the Heights
toward the city is a vast quarry, from which large quantities of rock
have been taken. An old fort and a mosque stand in solitude on the top.
I went out by the citadel and passed the mosque tombs of the Mamelukes,
who were originally brought into the country from the Caucasus as
slaves, but they became sufficiently powerful to make one of their
number Sultan in 1254. The tombs of the Caliphs, successors of Mohammed
in temporal and spiritual power, are not far from the Heights.
As I was returning to the city, a laborer followed me a little distance,
and indicated that he wanted my name written on a piece of paper he was
carrying. I accommodated him, but do not know for what purpose he wanted
it. I stopped at the Alabaster Mosque, built after the fashion of one of
the mosques of Constantinople, and decorated with alabaster. The outside
is full of little depressions, and has no special beauty, but the inside
is more attractive. The entrance is through a large court, paved with
squares of white marble. The floor of the mosque was nicely covered with
carpet, and the walls are coated for a few feet with alabaster, and
above that they are painted in imitation of the same material. The
numerous lamps do much towards making the place attractive. The
attendant said the central chandelier, fitted for three hundred and
sixty-six candles, was a present from Louis Philippe, of France. A clock
is also shown that came from the same source. The pulpit is a platform
at the head of a stairway, and the place for reading the Koran is a
small platform three or four feet high, also ascended by steps. Within
an inclosure in one corner of the building is the tomb of Mohammed Ali,
which, I was told, was visited by the Khedive the day before I was
there.
The most interesting part of the day was the afternoon trip to the nine
pyramids of the Gizeh group. They may be reached by a drive over the
excellent carriage road that leads out to them, or by taking one of the
electric cars that run along by this road. Three of the pyramids are
large and the others are small, but one, the pyramid of Cheops, is built
on such magnificent proportions that it is called "the great pyramid."
According to Baedeker, "the length of each side is now seven hundred and
fifty feet, but was formerly about seven hundred and sixty-eight feet;
the present perpendicular height is four hundred and fifty-one feet,
while originally, including the nucleus of the rock at the bottom and
the apex, which has now disappeared, it is said to have been four
hundred and eighty-two feet. * * * In round numbers, the stupendous
structure covers an area of nearly thirteen acres."
It is estimated that two million three hundred thousand blocks of stone,
each containing forty cubic feet, were required for building this
ancient and wonderful monument, upon which a hundred thousand men are
said to have been employed for twenty years. Nearly all of the material
was brought across from the east side of the Nile, but the granite that
entered into its construction was brought down from Syene, near Assouan,
five hundred miles distant. Two chambers are shown to visitors, one of
them containing an empty stone coffin. The passageway leading to these
chambers is not easily traversed, as it runs at an angle like a stairway
with no steps, for the old footholds have become so nearly worn out that
the tourist might slip and slide to the bottom were it not for his
Arab helpers. A fee of one dollar secures the right to walk about the
grounds, ascend the pyramid, and go down inside of it. Three Arabs go
with the ticket, and two of them are really needed. Those who went
with me performed their work in a satisfactory manner, and while not
permitted to ask for "backshish," they let me know that they would
accept anything I might have for them. The ascent was rather difficult,
as some of the stones are more than a yard high. It is estimated that
this mighty monument, which Abraham may have looked upon, contains
enough stone to build a wall around the frontier of France. Of the Seven
Wonders of the World, the Pyramid of Cheops alone remains. The other
attractions here are the Granite Temple, and some tombs, from one of
which a jackal ran away as we were approaching. I got back to Cairo
after dark, and took the eight o'clock train for Assouan.
This place is about seven hundred miles from Port Said by rail, and is
a good sized town. The main street, fronting the river, presents
a pleasing appearance with its hotels, Cook's tourist office, the
postoffice, and other buildings. Gas and electricity are used for
lighting, and the dust in the streets is laid by a real street
sprinkler, and not by throwing the water on from a leathern bag, as I
saw it in Damascus. The Cataract Hotel is a large place for tourists,
with a capacity of three hundred and fifty people. The Savoy Hotel is
beautifully located on Elephantine Island, in front of the town. To
the south of the town lie the ancient granite quarries of Syene, which
furnished the Egyptian workmen building material so long ago, and still
lack a great deal of being exhausted. I saw an obelisk lying here which
is said to be ninety-two feet long and ten and a half feet wide in the
broadest part, but both ends of it were covered. In this section there
is an English cemetery inclosed by a wall, and several tombs of the
natives, those of the sheiks being prominent.
Farther to the south is a great modern work, the Nile dam, a mile and a
quarter long, and built of solid masonry. In the deepest place it is one
hundred feet high, and the thickness at the bottom is eighty-eight feet.
It was begun in 1899, and at one time upwards of ten thousand men were
employed on the works. It seemed to be finished when I was there, but a
few workmen were still engaged about the place. The total cost has been
estimated at a sum probably exceeding ten millions of dollars. There are
one hundred and eighty sluices to regulate the out-flow of the water,
which is collected to a height of sixty-five feet during the inundation
of the Nile. The dam would have been made higher, but by so doing Philae
Island, a short distance up the river, would have been submerged.
The remains on this island are so well preserved that it is almost a
misnomer to call them ruins. The little island is only five hundred
yards long and sixty yards wide, and contains the Temple of Isis, Temple
of Hathor, a kiosk or pavilion, two colonnades, and a small Nilometer.
In the gateway to one of the temples is a French inscription concerning
Napoleon's campaign in Egypt in 1799. All the buildings are of stone,
and the outside walls are covered with figures and inscriptions. Some of
the figures are just cut in the rough, never having been finished. Here,
as elsewhere in Egypt, very delicate carvings are preserved almost as
distinct as though done but recently. The guard on the island was not
going to let me see the ruins because I held no ticket. After a little
delay, a small boat, carrying some diplomatic officers, came up. These
gentlemen, one of whom was a Russian, I think, tried to get the guard to
let me see the place with them, but he hesitated, and required them to
give him a paper stating that I was there with them. Later, when I got
to the place where the tickets were sold, I learned that Philae Island
was open for visitors without a ticket. Perhaps the guard thought he
would get some "backshish" from me.
I made an interesting visit to the Bisharin village, just outside of
Assouan, and near the railroad. The inhabitants are very dark-skinned,
and live in booths or tents, covered with something like straw matting.
I stopped at one of the lodges, which was probably six feet wide and
eight feet long, and high enough to enable the occupants to sit erect on
the floor. An old man, naked from the waist up, was sitting outside. A
young woman was operating a small hand mill, and one or two other women
were sitting there on the ground. They showed me some long strings of
beads, and I made a purchase at a low price. While at this lodge, for I
can not call it a house, and it is not altogether like a tent, about
a dozen of the native children gathered around me, and one, who could
speak some English, endeavored to draw out part of my cash by repeating
this speech: "Half a piaster, Mister; thank you very much." The girls
had their hair in small plaits, which seemed to be well waxed together.
One of the boys, about ten years of age, clothed in a peculiar manner,
was finely formed, and made a favorable impression on my mind. I would
like to see what could be made of him if he were taken entirely away
from his unfavorable surroundings and brought up with the care and
attention that many American boys receive. He and another lad went with
me to see the obelisk in the granite quarry, and I tried to teach them
to say: "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God." As I
was repeating the first word of the sentence and trying to induce one of
them to follow me, he said, "No blessed," and I failed to get either of
them to say these beautiful words. In Egypt and other countries there
are millions of persons just as ignorant of the gospel and just as much
in need of it as the curly-headed Bisharin lad who conducted me to the
granite quarry.
I took a pleasant boat ride across the river, past the beautiful grounds
of the Savoy Hotel, to the rock tombs of the great persons of ancient
Elephantine. I tarried a little too long at the tombs, or else did not
start soon enough, for darkness came upon us soon after leaving them.
For some distance the boatman walked on the shore and towed the boat
with a long rope, while I tried to keep it off of the rocks with the
rudder. There was not enough wind to make the sail useful, and as we
were passing around the end of Elephantine Island we drifted against
the rocks, but with no other loss than the loss of some time. It was my
desire to see the Nilometer on the island, and I did see it, but not
until after I had sent the boatman to buy a candle. This ancient
water-gauge was repaired in 1870, after a thousand years of neglect.
The following description by Strabo is taken from Baedeker's _Guide to
Egypt_: "The Nilometer is a well, built of regular hewn stones, on the
bank of the Nile, in which is recorded the rise of the stream--not only
the maximum, but also the minimum, and average rise, for the water in
the well rises and falls with the stream. On the side of the well are
marks measuring the height for the irrigation and other water levels.
These are published for general information. * * * This is of importance
to the peasants for the management of the water, the embankments, the
canals, etc., and to the officials on account of the taxes, for the
higher the rise of the water, the higher the taxes." It needs to be
said, however, that this "well" is not circular, but rectangular, and
has a flight of steps leading down to the water.
On the way back to Cairo I stopped at Luxor, on the site of the ancient
city of Thebes. The chief attraction here is the Temple of Luxor, six
hundred and twenty-one feet long and one hundred and eighty feet wide.
In recent times this temple was entirely buried, and a man told me he
owned a house on the spot which he sold to the government for about four
hundred and fifty dollars, not knowing of the existence of a temple
buried beneath his dwelling. Some of the original statues of Rameses II.
remain in front of the ruins. I measured the right arm of one of these
figures, from the pit where it touches the side to the same point in
front, a distance of about six feet, and that does not represent the
entire circumference, for the granite between the arm and the body was
never entirely cut away. Near by stands a large red granite obelisk,
with carvings from top to bottom. A companion to this one, for they were
always erected in pairs, has been removed. In ancient times a paved
street led from this temple to Karnak, which is reached by a short walk.
This ancient street was adorned by a row of ram-headed sphinxes on each
side. Toward Karnak many of them are yet to be seen in a badly mutilated
condition, but there is another avenue containing forty of these figures
in a good state of preservation.
The first of the Karnak temples reached is one dedicated to the Theban
moon god, Khons, reared by Rameses III. The Temple of Ammon, called "the
throne of the world," lies a little beyond. I spent half a day on the
west side of the river in what was the burial ground of ancient Thebes,
where also numerous temples were erected. My first stop was before the
ruins of Kurna. The Temple of Sethos I. originally had ten columns
before it, but one is now out of place. The Temple Der el Bahri bore an
English name, signifying "most splendid of all," and it may not have
been misnamed. It is situated at the base of a lofty barren cliff of a
yellowish cast, and has been partially restored.
In 1881 a French explorer discovered the mummies of several Egyptian
rulers in an inner chamber of this temple, that had probably been
removed to this place for security from robbers. In the number were the
remains of Rameses II., who was probably reigning in the boyhood days of
Moses, and the mummy of Set II., perhaps the Pharaoh of the Oppression,
and I saw both of them in the museum in Cairo.
The Ramasseum is another large temple, built by Rameses II., who is
said to have had sixty-nine sons and seventy daughters. There are also
extensive remains of another temple called Medinet Habu. About a half a
mile away from this ruin are the two colossal statues of Memnon,
which were surrounded by water, so I could not get close to them. The
following dimensions of one of them are given: "Height of the figure,
fifty-two feet; height of the pedestal on which the feet rest, thirteen
feet; height of the entire monument, sixty-five feet. But when the
figure was adorned with the long-since vanished crown, the original
height may have reached sixty-nine feet. * * * Each foot is ten and
one-half feet long. * * * The middle finger on one hand is four and a
half feet long, and the arm from the tip of the finger to the elbow
measures fifteen and one-half feet."
All about these temples are indications of ancient graves, from which
the Arabs have dug the mummies. As I rode out, a boy wanted to sell me a
mummy hand, and another had the mummy of a bird. They may both have been
counterfeits made especially for unsuspecting tourists. There are also
extensive rock-cut tombs of the ancient kings and queens, which are
lighted by electricity in the tourist season. I did not visit them on
account of the high price of admission. The government has very properly
taken charge of the antiquities, and a ticket is issued for six dollars
that admits to all these ruins in Upper Egypt. Tickets for any one
particular place were not sold last season, but tourists were allowed to
visit all places not inclosed without a ticket.
While in Luxor I visited the American Mission Boarding School for Girls,
conducted by Miss Buchanan, who was assisted by a Miss Gibson and five
native teachers. A new building, with a capacity for four hundred
boarders, was being erected at a cost of about thirty-five thousand
dollars. This would be the finest building for girls in Egypt when
finished, I was told, and most of the money for it had been given by
tourists. I spent a night in Luxor, staying in the home of Youssef Saïd,
a native connected with the mission work. His uncle, who could not speak
English, expressed himself as being glad to have "a preacher of Jesus
Christ" to stay in his house.
Leaving Luxor, I returned to Cairo for some more sight-seeing, and I had
a very interesting time of it. In Gen. 41:45 we read: "Pharaoh called
Joseph's name Zaphenath-paneah; and gave him to wife Asenath, the
daughter of Potipherah, priest of On." Heliopolis, meaning city of the
sun, is another name for this place, from whence the wife of Joseph
came. It is only a few miles from Cairo, and easily reached by railway.
All that I saw of the old city was a lonely obelisk, "probably the
oldest one in the world," standing in a cultivated field and surrounded
by the growing crop. It is sixty-six feet high, six feet square at the
base, and is well preserved.
The Ezbekiah Gardens are situated in the best portion of Cairo. This
beautiful park contains quite a variety of trees, including the banyan,
and is a resort of many of the people. Band concerts are held, and a
small entrance fee is taken at the gate.
On the thirtieth of the month I visited the Museum, which has been
moved to the city and installed in its own commodious and substantial
building. This vast collection of relics of this wonderful old country
affords great opportunities for study. I spent a good deal of time there
seeing the coffins of wood, white limestone, red granite, and alabaster;
sacrificial tables, mummies, ancient paintings, weights and measures,
bronze lamps, necklaces, stone and alabaster jars, bronze hinges,
articles of pottery, and many other things. It is remarkable how some
of the embalmed bodies, thousands of years old, are preserved. I looked
down upon the Pharaoh who is supposed to have oppressed Israel. The body
is well preserved, but it brought thoughts to me of the smallness of the
fleshly side of man. He who once ruled in royal splendor now lies there
in very humble silence. In some cases the cloths wrapped around these
mummies are preserved almost perfectly, and I remember a gilt mask that
was so bright that one might have taken it for a modern product. After
the body was securely wrapped, a picture was sometimes painted over the
face, and now, after the lapse of centuries, some of these are very
clear and distinct. I saw a collection of scarabaei, or beetles, which
were anciently worshiped in this country. Dealers offer figures of this
kind for sale, but the most of them are probably manufactured for the
tourist trade.
On Lord's day, October thirtieth, I attended the evening services at the
American Mission, and went to Bedrashen the following day. This is the
nearest railway station to Memphis, the ancient capital of Egypt, now an
irregular pile of ruined mud bricks. I secured a donkey, and a boy to
care for it and tell me where to go. We soon passed the dilapidated
ruins of the old capital. Two prostrate statues of great size were seen
on the way to the Step Pyramid of Sakkara, which is peculiar in that it
is built with great offsets or steps, still plainly visible, although
large quantities of the rock have crumbled and fallen down. The
Department of Antiquities has posted a notice in French, Arabic and
English, to the effect that it is dangerous to make the ascent, and that
the government will not be responsible for accidents to tourists who
undertake it. I soon reached the top without any special difficulty,
and with no more danger, so far as I could see, than one experiences
in climbing a steep hill strewn with rocks. I entered another pyramid,
which has a stone in one side of it twenty-five feet long and about five
and a half feet high. Some more tombs were visited, and the delicate
carving on the inner walls was observed. In one instance a harvest scene
was represented, in another the fish in a net could be discerned. The
Serapeum is an underground burial place for the sacred bull, discovered
by Mariette in 1850, after having been buried since about 1400 B.C. In
those times the bull was an object of worship in Egypt, and when one
died, he was carefully embalmed and put in a stone coffin in one of the
chambers of the Serapeum. Some of these coffins are twelve feet high and
fifteen feet long.
Before leaving Cairo, I went into the famous Shepheard's Hotel, where I
received some information about the place from the manager, who looked
like a well-salaried city pastor. The Grand Continental presents a
better appearance on the outside, but I do not believe it equals
Shepheard's on the inside. I was now ready to turn towards home, so I
dropped down to Port Said again, where there is little of interest to
the tourist except the ever-changing panorama of ships in the mouth of
the Suez Canal, and the study of the social condition of the people. My
delay in the city while waiting for a ship gave me a good deal of
time for writing and visiting the missionaries. The Seamen's Rest is
conducted by Mr. Locke, who goes out in the harbor and gathers up
sailors in his steam launch, and carries them back to their vessels
after the service. One night, after speaking in one of these meetings, I
rode out with him. The American Mission conducts a school for boys, and
Feltus Hanna, the native superintendent, kindly showed me around. The
Peniel Mission is conducted by two American ladies. The British and
Foreign Bible Society has a depot here, and keeps three men at work
visiting ships in the harbor all the time. I attended the services
in the chapel of the Church of England one morning. With all these
religious forces the city is very wicked. The street in which my hotel
was located was largely given up to drinking and harlotry.
On the ninth of November the French ship _Congo_ stopped in the harbor,
and I went down late in the evening to embark, but the authorities would
not permit me to go aboard, because I had not been examined by the
medical officer, who felt my pulse and signed a paper that was never
called for, and I went aboard all right. The ship stopped at Alexandria,
and I went around in the city, seeing nothing of equal interest to
Pompey's Pillar, a monument standing ninety-eight feet and nine inches
high. The main shaft is seventy-three feet high and nearly thirty feet
in circumference. We reached Marseilles in the evening of November
sixteenth, after experiencing some weather rough enough to make me
uncomfortable, and several of the others were really seasick. I had
several hours in Paris, which was reached early the next day, and the
United States consulate and the Louvre, the national museum of France,
were visited. From Paris I went to London by way of Dieppe and New
Haven. I left summer weather in Egypt, and found that winter was on hand
in France and England. London was shrouded in a fog. I went back to my
friends at Twynholm, and made three addresses on Lord's day, and spoke
again on Monday night. I sailed from Liverpool for New York on the _SS.
Cedric_ November twenty-third. We were in the harbor at Queenstown,
Ireland, the next day, and came ashore at the New York custom house on
the second of December. The _Cedric_ was then the second largest ship in
the world, being seven hundred feet long and seventy-five feet broad.
She carries a crew of three hundred and forty, and has a capacity for
over three thousand passengers. On this trip she carried one thousand
three hundred and thirty-six, and the following twenty classes of people
were represented: Americans, English, French, German, Danes, Norwegians,
Roumanians, Spanish, Arabs, Japanese, Negroes, Greeks, Russian Jews,
Fins, Swedes, Austrians, Armenians, Poles, Irish, and Scotch. A great
stream of immigrants is continually pouring into the country at this
point. Twelve thousand were reported as arriving in one day, and a
recent paper contains a note to the effect that the number arriving in
June will exceed eighty thousand, as against fifty thousand in June
of last year. "The character of the immigrants seems to grow steadily
worse."
My traveling companion from Port Said to Marseilles and from Liverpool
to New York was Solomon Elia, who had kindly shown me through the
Israelite Alliance School in Jerusalem. I reached Philadelphia the same
day the ship landed in New York, but was detained there with brethren
on account of a case of quinsy. I reached home on the fourteenth of
December, after an absence of five months and three days, in which
time I had seen something of fourteen foreign countries, having a very
enjoyable and profitable trip.