conception, and is sometimes preserved as fresh and perfect as if it had
been done yesterday. The representations on the walls chiefly contain
scenes from the life of the deceased, and appear especially intended
to place before the eyes of the spectator his wealth in cattle, fish,
game, boats, domestics, &c. We thus become familiar with all the details
of his private life. The numerous inscriptions describe or designate
these scenes, or they exhibit the often widely-branching family of the
deceased, and all his titles and offices, so that I could almost compose
a court and state calendar of King Cheops, or Chephren. The most splendid
tombs or rock-sepulchres belonged principally to the princes, their
relatives, or the highest official persons under the kings beside whose
Pyramids they are laid; and not unfrequently, I have found the tombs of
father, son, and grandson, even great grandson, so that whole pedigrees
of those distinguished families, who, above 5000 years ago, formed the
nobility of the land, are brought to light. The most beautiful of the
tombs, which, with many others, I myself discovered beneath the sand,
which here buries all things, belongs to a prince of the family of King
Cheops.
I am now employing daily from forty to sixty people in excavations and
similar works. I have also made them dig in front of the great Sphinx,
to disclose the small temple which is situated between its paws, and to
expose the colossal stele of a single block of granite, eleven feet high
and seven feet broad, which forms the back wall of the little temple,
and which is still covered up with sand to nearly its entire height. It
is one of the few monuments here from the times of the great Pharaohs of
the New Monarchy, after the expulsion of the Hyksos; I have had a plaster
cast taken of it.
The Egyptian winter is not always so spring-like as is sometimes imagined
in Europe. About sunrise, when all hasten to their work, we have already
had it +5° R. (43¼ Fahr.), so that the sketchers could hardly use their
fingers.
The winter season began here with a scene which will always be vividly
remembered by me. I had ridden out to the excavations, when seeing a
large black cloud approaching, I sent a servant to the tents, to take
care of them, but as it began to rain slightly, I soon rode after him
myself. Shortly after my arrival a storm of wind began; I therefore
ordered the cords of the tents to be secured, but soon a violent shower
of rain came in addition, which alarmed all our Arabs, and drove them
into the rock-tomb, in which is our kitchen. Erbkam and Franke were the
only ones of our own party here. Suddenly the storm became a regular
hurricane, such as I had never witnessed in Europe, and a hailstorm came
down on us, which almost turned the day into night. I had the greatest
trouble to drive our Arabs out of the grotto, that they might bring our
things to the rock-tombs, where it was dry, as every moment we might
expect the overthrow of the tents. And it was not long before first our
common tent fell down, and when I had hastened from that into my own, in
order to hold it from the inside, this also broke down above me. After I
had crawled out, I found that my things were tolerably well covered by
the tent, so that for the present I might leave them alone, to prevent
a still greater danger. Our tents, protected from the worst winds, the
north and west, lay in a depression of the valley, towards which the
plateau of the Pyramids inclines. From that place I suddenly saw a rapid
mountain torrent precipitating, like a gigantic serpent on its certain
prey, upon our encampment, already half destroyed and beaten into the
sand. The principal stream first dashed towards the great tent; another
arm threatened mine, but did not however quite reach it. Everything,
however, which had been floated out of our tents by the heavy rain was
carried off by both streams, which united below the tents, and was borne
a hundred steps farther into a deep hollow behind the Sphinx, where a
great lake, which fortunately had no outlet, formed itself in a moment.
Now picture to yourself this scene! Our tents shattered to the ground by
the storms of rain and hail, between two mountain torrents, which at once
dug out a channel for themselves in the sandy ground, in several places
six feet deep, and carried down with them into the muddy, foam-covered,
slimy lake, our books, drawings, sketches, linen, instruments of all
kinds, even our levers and iron crows, in short everything they laid hold
on. In addition to this, we ourselves, with dripping clothes, without
hats, securing the heavier articles, pursuing the lighter ones, wading
up to the waist in the stream or lake, to fish out what the sand had not
yet swallowed, and all this the work of a quarter of an hour, at whose
expiration the sun forthwith shone again, and proclaimed the end of this
deluge scene by a splendid and brilliant rainbow.
It was difficult to see at once what we had lost, and where we had to
begin, to bring things again into some order. Both the Weidenbachs and
Frey had gazed, from the tombs where they were working, upon the whole
scene, as a magnificent natural spectacle, not suspecting what we had
experienced here, till I sent for them to assist us immediately in
preparing for the approaching night. For several days we continued to
fish and dig for our things. Many were lost, much had become useless;
the greater part of what was not enclosed in chests and trunks bore more
or less traces of this flood. After all, however, nothing essential
was destroyed. I had first placed in safety the great portfolios, with
my manuscripts and books; in short, a few days afterwards, the whole
affair only seemed to me a remarkable picture, which I should be sorry to
forget, without leaving any disagreeable consequences behind it.
Since then, we have often had to suffer from violent winds, which
sometimes fill the air for several days together with sand, to such a
degree, as to be annoying to the lungs; it entirely prevents painting
with colours, and covers the drawing and writing-paper incessantly with
a most disagreeable and constantly renewed coat of dust. This fine sand
penetrates all our clothes, enters every box, even those which close most
perfectly, fills nose, ears, and hair, and is the unavoidable ingredient
of all food, solid and liquid.
_5th January._—On the evening of the first Christmas holiday, I surprised
my companions by a great fire, which I had caused to be lighted on the
summit of the highest Pyramid. The flame illuminated both the other
Pyramids splendidly, as well as the whole field of tombs, and shone quite
across the valley as far as Cairo. That was indeed a Christmas Pyramid!
I only let Abeken into the secret, who, with his constantly cheerful
temper, and his intellectual and instructive conversation, had happily
joined us on the 10th December. With his assistance I then prepared a
special Christmas-tree for the following day, in the King’s Chamber of
the Great Pyramid. We planted a young palm-tree in the sarcophagus of
the ancient king, and adorned it with lights, and small presents, which
I had ordered from the town for us children of the desert. St. Sylvester
must have his share of honours also. At twelve o’clock on New-year’s
Eve immense flames rose simultaneously at midnight from the three great
Pyramids, and proclaimed the changes of the Christian year, far and wide,
to the Islamite provinces at their base.
I consider it to be a useful mental regimen to our party that their
tedious and monotonous labours, more especially those of our artists,
should be relieved not by the weekly holiday of Sunday only, but also as
often as there are opportunities, by cheerful festivities and agreeable
diversions. Nor has the slightest discord hitherto disturbed the happy
disposition and the good-humour of our confederation, which daily
acquires fresh elasticity, both from the abundance of new impressions
that we receive, and from the mutual reciprocation of the different
natures and talents, as by overcoming the manifold difficulties and
hardships of this Bedouin life itself.
You may judge of the variety of the elements of which our assembled
party is composed, by the Babel of languages in which we continually
move; the English language is competently represented by our companions,
Wild and Bonomi; French and Italian serve for our intercourse with
the authorities, with strangers and Levantine interpreters. We give
orders, eat, and travel, in Arabic, and we reflect, talk, sing, and
live, in good German. But during the day we usually all live separate,
and uninterruptedly each at his own work. We take our coffee before
sunrise, and our dinner after sunset; and breakfast during work. Thus our
draughtsmen have already been enabled to supply our swelling portfolios
with a hundred great folio sheets, cleanly executed, partly in pencil,
partly in colours.
LETTER V.
_The Pyramids of Gizeh, 17th January, 1843._
The inscription which was composed in celebration of the king’s birthday
has now become a stone monumental tablet, in the fashion of the old
steles and Proskynemata,[10] and its contents are as follows; the nearer,
indeed, it approaches the manner of the Egyptians, the less appropriate
is it in German:
“Thus speak the servants of the King, whose name is the SUN AND ROCK
OF PRUSSIA, Lepsius the scribe, Erbkam the architect, the Brothers
Weidenbach the painters, Frey the painter, Franke the moulder, Bonomi
the sculptor, Wild the architect: All hail to the Eagle, THE PROTECTOR
OF THE CROSS, to the KING THE SUN AND ROCK OF PRUSSIA, to the Son of the
Sun,[11] who freed his Fatherland, Frederick William the Fourth, the
Philopator, the Father of his Country, the Gracious One, the Favourite
of Wisdom and History, the Guardian of the Rhine, whom Germany has
chosen, the Dispenser of Life. May the Most high God grant the King, and
his Consort, the Queen Elizabeth, the Rich in Life, the Philometor, the
Mother of her Country, the Gracious One, an ever new and long life on
Earth, and a blessed habitation in Heaven through all Eternity. In the
year of our Saviour, 1842, in the tenth month, on the fifteenth day, on
the forty-seventh Birthday of his Majesty, on the Pyramid of King Cheops;
in the third year, in the fifth month, on the ninth day of the reign of
his Majesty; in the year 3164 from the commencement of the Sothis period
under the King Menepthes.”
We left behind us the hieroglyphic inscription engraved on stone and
painted with oil colour, occupying a space five feet broad and four feet
high. The stone, specially polished and prepared for the purpose, is
placed at a considerable height near the entrance into the Pyramid of
Cheops.
It seemed to me fitting, that while the members of the Prussian
expedition dedicated this tablet to the much-honoured Prince by whom they
were sent hither, they should at the same time, for the sake of future
travellers, leave behind them some traces of their activity on this field
of Pyramids, where it was reserved for them to gather together the rich
materials for the first chapter of the Scientific History of Nations.
Do not, however, believe that these are the important works which detain
us here so long. Our journey has this advantage over previous ones—that
spots like this are entitled to occupy us until they have been thoroughly
ransacked. We already know that even the gigantic and magnificent ruins
of the Theban plain can reveal nothing which can equal in interest the
Memphitic times of the Old Monarchy.
We must, indeed, one day depart; but it will even then be with the
conviction that we leave an infinite amount of interesting materials
behind, which might still be obtained. I had already resolved on our
departure several days ago, when suddenly a series of tombs, different
in architecture, and in the style of the figures and hieroglyphics, with
other titles, and besides, as was to be expected, with other _kings’
names_, again disclosed a new epoch.
It is still by no means conclusive how much has been gained in an
historical point of view, or, at any rate, it is but dimly discerned,
I was, however, in the right when, even in Europe, I proposed to
reconstruct the 3rd Dynasty from the monuments. I have not yet found
a single Shield which could be safely placed before the 4th Dynasty.
It appears that the builders of the great Pyramids desired to assert
their rights, to having formed the commencement of monumental history,
although it is as clear as day that they were not the first to build and
to inscribe their monuments. We have even now found many kings’ names
hitherto unknown, and variations of other names; thus:
𓍹𓂓𓂓𓇋𓍺 KEKA.
𓍹𓅃𓇋𓂓𓅱𓍺 HERAKU.
𓍹𓅱𓄊𓋴𓂓𓆑𓍺 USESKEF.
𓍹𓆛𓈖𓇋𓍺 ANA.
The name which I had hitherto read AMCHURA, in the detailed and painted
inscriptions, which throw no inconsiderable light on the figurative
meaning of the hieroglyphical images, exhibits a decidedly different sign
from the well-known group 𓇋𓌳𓄪𓐍𓅱 AMCHU, namely [Illustration] about the
pronunciation of which I am still in the dark.
There is nothing to alter with respect to the assignment of the great
Pyramids. It cannot be doubted, after our researches, that the second
Pyramid really belongs to Schafra (more correctly Chafra, the Chephyren
of Herodotus), as the first does to Chufu (Cheops), and the third to
Menkera (Mykerinos, Mencherinos). I think I have now discovered the
pathway up from the valley to the second Pyramid; it led directly to
its temple, past the Sphinx, but it was probably destroyed at an early
period. The number also of the Pyramids continues to increase. I have
found three, in ABU ROASCH, in place of one hitherto known, and two
fields of tombs. Two Pyramids once stood also at ZAUIET EL ARRIAN, a
village which has now almost disappeared, and there is a great field of
ruins adjoining to it. The careful researches, measurements, and notes
of Perring, in his beautiful work on the Pyramids, save us much time and
trouble. We are thus the more able to direct our attention to the private
tombs, and their hieroglyphical representations, such as are wholly
wanting in the Pyramids. But nothing is yet determined, nothing is ripe
for definitive arrangement, though wide prospects open before us. Our
portfolios swell; many things have been cast in plaster, and among them
the great stele between the paws of the colossal Sphinx from the first
year of Tuthmosis IV.
LETTER VI.
_The Pyramids of Gizeh, 17th January, 1843._
I have ordered ten camels to be here to-morrow evening, that we may start
for Cairo the day after to-morrow, before sunrise, with the original
monuments and plaster casts, of which we have already collected a
considerable number, and we shall deposit them there, till our return
from the South. This will be the commencement of our departure for
Saqâra. A series of tombs, only recently discovered, belonging to the
Dynasties which immediately succeed that of Cheops, has already delayed
our departure once. The 5th Dynasty, which in Africanus appears as the
Elephantine Collateral Dynasty, and as such was not to be expected here,
now lies complete before us, and in substance such as I already had
constructed it in Europe. The gaps have been filled up with three kings,
whose names were hitherto unknown. At the same time, several kings,
who had hitherto been merely visionary, were added to the 7th and 8th
Dynasties, from which we had hitherto obtained no monumental names. The
reference to the 5th Dynasty as the immediate successor of the 4th, is
of invaluable importance, and would in itself alone richly repay us for
our residence of many months in this place. We are still always occupied
with buildings, sculptures, and inscriptions, which by the Royal Rings
being more exactly defined, will be placed in a flourishing epoch of
civilisation, between _three_ and _four thousand_ years before Christ.
These numbers, hitherto so incredible, cannot be too frequently called to
the remembrance of ourselves and others; the more criticism is thereby
challenged, and compelled to make earnest researches on the subject, so
much the better for the cause. Conviction will immediately follow in
the steps of stimulated criticism, and we shall then at length approach
the results which are connected with it in all branches of antiquarian
research.
A roll of papers will be sent to you along with this letter, which
contains several drawings, that we have taken from the sepulchral
chambers in this place. They are excellent samples of the oldest
Architecture, Sculpture, and Painting which the history of art can
produce, and the most beautiful and best preserved that we have found
on the whole field of tombs. I hope that we shall one day see these
sepulchral chambers arranged in perfect order in the New Museum in
Berlin. That indeed would be the fairest trophy that we could carry
out of Egypt. Their transport will certainly be attended with some
difficulties, for you will easily see by their dimensions that ordinary
means would not in this case be sufficient. I have, therefore, as a
preliminary step, written a letter direct to his Majesty the King,
and inquired whether it would not be possible to send a vessel here
expressly for this purpose, either next year, or at the conclusion of
our expedition, with workmen and implements, to take these monuments to
pieces in a more skilful manner than we are capable of doing, and to
bring them, with the other collections, to Berlin.
Six of the subjoined sheets contain drawings of a sepulchral chamber,
which I myself discovered beneath the sand, and whose colours are
preserved almost as fresh and perfect as you see them in the drawing.[12]
It belongs to a Prince Merhet, and as he was a priest of CHUFU (CHEOPS),
and as he had called one of his sons CHUFU-MER-NUTERU, and possessed
eight villages, the names of which are combined with that of Chufu, and
as the situation of the tomb is on the western side of the Pyramid of
Chufu, and the style of the representations are in perfect keeping with
it, it is more than probable that Merhet was a son of Chufu, from which
circumstance all the representations become still more interesting. This
prince was at the same time superintendent of all the royal buildings,
therefore he filled the office of “Chief of the Board of Works”
(Oberhofbaurath), a high and important position at that period of most
magnificent buildings, which we have frequently seen occupied by princes
and royal relatives. We may therefore conjecture, that he also himself
superintended the building of the largest Pyramid. Is not this alone
sufficient to justify the attempt to transfer the beautifully-constructed
sepulchral chamber of this princely architect to Berlin, which otherwise
will, sooner or later, be destroyed by the Arabs, and be used to build
their ovens, or be burnt in their lime-kilns? There, it would at least
be preserved, and be accessible to the admiration or the study of those
who are eager after knowledge, so long as European art and science teach
us to value such monuments. To reconstruct it, a space must be left
perfectly free of 6 m. 30, (19 feet 8 inches) in breadth, 4 m. 60, (15
feet) in height, and 3 m. 80, (12 feet 5½ inches) in depth, and this
might surely be reserved for it in the New Museum.[13]
I observe, that such chambers form only a small portion of the entire
structure of the tomb, and were not intended for the reception of the
mummy. The tomb of Prince Merhet is above 70 feet long, 45 broad, and 15
high. It is solidly constructed of great square stones, with slanting
outer surfaces. The chamber is alone left vacant, and one, or, as in
this instance, two square shafts, leads from the flat roof through the
building down to the living rock; at the bottom of which, about 60 feet
deep, rock-chambers open at the side, in which the sarcophagi were
deposited. I have carefully preserved the venerable remains of the skull
of the ancient prince of the house of Cheops, which I found in his mummy
chamber. We found, alas! little more, as this tomb also, like most of the
others, had been long ago broken open. The entrance originally was closed
by a slab of stone. The chamber above ground alone remained accessible
at all times, and was therefore ornamented with representations and
inscriptions. Here the sacrifices offered to the dead were brought to the
occupant of the tomb. It was generally dedicated to the worship of the
deceased, and so far corresponded to the temple that was erected before
every pyramid belonging to a king, for his worship. Like those temples,
these chambers have also their entrance always from the east. The shafts,
like the Pyramids, lie behind, to the west, because the deceased was
believed to be in the west, whither he had gone with the setting sun, to
the Osiris of Amente.
The seventh sheet finally, contains two pillars, and their architrave,
from the tomb of a royal relative, who was at the same time the prophet
of four kings, and whose name was Ptah-nefru-be-u. The tomb was
constructed later than that of Prince Merhet, in the fifth Manethonic
Dynasty. It belongs to an entire group of tombs, whose architectonic
plan and connection with one another is very remarkable, and which I
have, therefore, completely divested of sand, and brought to the light of
day, while previously neither the entrance, nor anything but the extreme
summit of the outermost encircling walls, were visible.
I also send you the whole plan of this tomb, besides one of those
contiguous to it, but I think I shall only bring away with me the
architrave, and the beautifully painted pillars of the most southern
chamber, which can be easily removed. On the architrave appears the name
and titles of the deceased, who is also represented at full length on
the four lateral faces of the pillars. AMI, the father of the deceased,
appears on the front sides of the northern pillars; ASESKEF-ANCH, his
grandfather, on that of the southern. The pillars are twelve feet high,
slender, and as usual, without capitals, but with the abacus.
I have entirely isolated the whole chamber at the tomb of Prince Merhet;
but for the present I have relinquished the idea of taking it to pieces,
as this is not the most favourable season for its removal. I have
therefore caused this tomb, as well as the other, to be refilled with
sand; and when I arrive at Cairo to-morrow, I shall obtain an order, to
prevent any of the tombs that have been opened by us, from being robbed
of their stones. It is really revolting to see how long lines of camels
from the neighbouring villages come here daily, and march off again,
loaded with building stones. Fortunately—for is not everything for the
best—the accommodating Fellahs are more attracted by the Psammetic tombs,
than by those belonging to the most ancient Dynasties, in which the great
blocks are not sufficiently manageable. I begin, however, to have more
serious fears for the tombs of the 5th and 7th Dynasties, which have been
built with stones of a more moderate size. Yesterday a beautiful standing
pillar, covered with inscriptions, which was just going to be sketched,
was overturned by the robbers behind our backs. They do not seem to have
succeeded in breaking it to pieces. The people here are so degenerate
that their strength is quite insufficient, with all their assiduity, to
destroy what their great predecessors have erected.
A few days ago, we found a small obelisk erect, in its original position,
in a tomb from the commencement of the 7th Dynasty. It is only a few feet
high, but in good preservation, and with the name of the occupant of the
tomb inscribed upon it. This form of monument, which is first conspicuous
in the New Monarchy, is thus removed several Dynasties farther back in
the Old Monarchy, even than the Obelisk of Heliopolis.
LETTER VII.
_Saqâra, the 18th March, 1843._