difficult to select from the inexhaustible materials for our particular
object, and with reference to what has been already communicated in
other works. On the 10th of October we quitted Thebes. HERMONTHIS we saw
in passing. The great hall of ESNEH was several years ago excavated down
to the foundation by order of the Pascha, and afforded us a magnificent
spectacle. We remained three days in EL KAB, the ancient EILEITHYIA.
Still more wonderful than the different temples of this once mighty
place, are its rock-tombs, most of which date from the commencement of
the Egyptian War of Freedom against the Hyksos, and throw much light on
the relations between the Dynasties of that period. Several distinguished
persons, buried there, bear the strange title of Masculine Nurse of a
Royal Prince, by the well-known group _mena_, and the determinative of
the female breast, in the Coptic tongue expressed ⲙⲟⲡⲓ. The deceased is
represented with the prince upon his lap.
The Temple of EDFU is also among those which are in best preservation;
it was dedicated to Horus and to Hathor, the Egyptian Venus, who is here
in one place called “The Queen of Men and Women.” Horus, as a child,
is represented naked, as are all children on the monuments, and with
his finger on his mouth. I had before explained the name of HARPOKRATES
from it, which now I have found represented and written here complete,
as HAR-PE-CHROTI, _i. e._ “Horus the child.” The Romans misunderstood
the Egyptian gesture of the finger, and out of the child who cannot
yet speak, they made the God of Silence who will not speak. The most
interesting inscription, hitherto neither noticed nor mentioned by
any one, is on the outer eastern wall of the temple built by Ptolemy
Alexander I. It contains several dates, of the kings Darius, Nectanebus,
and of the falsely so-called Amyrtæus, and refers to the landed estates
which belonged to the temple. The intense heat of the day we spent
there caused me to postpone, till our return, a closer examination, and
taking the paper impression of this wall.[37] GEBEL SILSILIS is one of
the places most abundant in historical inscriptions, which are chiefly
connected with the vast workings of the sandstone quarries.
I was rejoiced to find a third _canon of the proportions_ of the human
body, in OMBOS, differing very distinctly from both the older Egyptian
canons which I had before met with in many examples. The second canon
is closely connected with the first, and oldest, of the time of the
Pyramids, from which it differs only in being brought to greater
perfection, and being differently applied. The foot, as the unit, is the
foundation of both, this taken six times, corresponded to the height of
the body when upright; but it must be observed, from the sole of the
foot, not as far as the crown of the head, but only to the top of the
forehead. That portion from where the hair begins to grow on the upper
part of the forehead, to the crown of the head, did not come into the
calculation at all, and occupies sometimes three-quarters, sometimes the
half, sometimes still less of a fresh square. The difference between the
first and the second canon chiefly rests on the position of the knee.
In the Ptolemaic canon, however, the division has itself been altered.
The body was no longer divided into 18 parts, as in the second canon,
but into 21¼ parts, to the top of the forehead, or into 23 parts, up to
the crown of the head. This is the division which DIODORUS gives, in
the last chapter of his first book. In the lower part of the body the
proportions of the second and third canon remain the same; on the other
hand, those of the upper part of the body are essentially altered, the
contours become altogether more extravagant, and the previous beautiful
simplicity and chasteness of the forms, in which consisted both its grand
and peculiarly Egyptian character, yielded to the imperfect imitation of
an uncomprehended foreign style of art. The proportion of the foot to the
length of the body remains the same, but the foot is no longer placed for
the basis as unit.
At ASSUAN we were obliged to change our boat, on account of the
Cataracts, and for the first time for six months past, or longer, we
had the home enjoyment of heavy rain, and a violent thunderstorm, which
gathered on the farther side of the Cataracts, crossed with a mighty
force the granite girdle, and then, amidst the most violent explosions,
rolled down the valley as far as Cairo, and (as we have since heard)
covered it with floods of water, such as had been scarcely remembered
before. So we may say, with Strabo and Champollion, “In our time it
rained in Upper Egypt.” Rain is, indeed, so rare here, that our guards
never remembered to have beheld such a spectacle, and our Turkish Kawass,
who is in all respects perfectly acquainted with the country, continued
to leave his own things untouched; while we long before had been carrying
our chests into the tents, and having them better secured, he quietly
repeated _abaden moie_, “never rain,” a word which since then he has
often been compelled to hear, as he was thoroughly drenched, and caught
a violent, feverish cold, for which he was obliged to wait patiently in
Philæ.
The situation of PHILÆ is as charming as it is interesting by its
monuments. Some of the most delightful recollections of our journey are
associated with our eight days’ residence on this holy island. We used
to assemble before dinner, after the scattered work of the day, on the
elevated temple terrace, which rises abruptly from the river, on the
eastern shore of the island; we there watched the shadow of the temple
(which is in good preservation, and built of sharply cut, deep-coloured
glowing blocks of sandstone) steal over the river, and mingle with the
black volcanic masses of rock, towering above each other, between which
the golden yellow sand pours into the valley like streams of fire. The
island appears only to have become holy to the Egyptians at a late
period, for the first time under the Ptolemies. Herodotus, who during
the rule of the Persians ascended as far as the Cataracts, does not
mention Philæ at all; it was at that time inhabited by the Ethiopians,
who were also in possession of half of the island of Elephantine. The
oldest buildings now to be found upon the island were erected on the
southern point by Nectanebus, the last king but two of Egyptian origin,
almost a hundred years after the journey of Herodotus. There are no
traces of earlier remains, not even of any that were destroyed or built
up into other buildings. Many older inscriptions are to be found upon
the large neighbouring island of Bigeh, named in hieroglyphics SENMUT.
As early as the Old Monarchy, it was adorned with Egyptian monuments;
for we have found a granite statue of King Sesurtesen III. from the 12th
Dynasty. The little rocky island KONOSSO, named in hieroglyphics KENES,
also contains very old inscriptions, engraved upon the rock, in which a
new and hitherto wholly unknown King of the Hyksos period is also named.
Hitherto the hieroglyphic name of the island of Philæ was read Manlak. I
have found the name undoubtedly more than once written Ilak; hence with
the article, PHILAK became in the mouth of the Greeks PHILAI. The sign
which Champollion read “man,” in other groups changes into _i_, thence
the expression I-lak, P-i-lak, Memphitic Ph-i-lak, is now established.
We have made a valuable discovery in the court of the great Temple of
Isis, of two _bilingual_ decrees of the Egyptian priests, that is to
say, drawn up in the Hieroglyphic and Demotic characters; they are
tolerably rich in words, and one of them contains the same text as the
decree of the Rosetta stone. I have, at least, up to the present moment,
compared the last seven lines, which correspond with the inscription
of Rosetta, not only in their contents, but also in the length of each
single line; the inscription must be copied before I can say more
about it; at all events, it is no inconsiderable advantage to Egyptian
philology, if only a portion of the fragmentary decree of Rosetta can,
through this, be completed. The whole of the first portion of the
Rosetta inscription which precedes the decree, is here wanting. Instead
of this, there is a second decree beside it, which refers to the same
Ptolemy Epiphanes; in the introduction, the “Fortress of Alexander,”
_i. e._ the town of Alexandria, is mentioned for the first time, on the
monuments which have hitherto become known. Both decrees conclude, like
the Rosetta inscription, with the intention to set up the inscription in
Hieroglyphic, Demotic, and Greek characters. Nevertheless, the Greek is
wanting here; unless, perhaps, it was written down in red, and rubbed out
when Ptolemy Lathyrus cut his hieroglyphic inscriptions over the earlier
ones.[38]
The hieroglyphic succession of the Ptolemies, which appears here, begins
again with Philadelphus; whereas, in the Greek text of the Rosetta
inscription, it begins with Soter. Another very remarkable fact is, that
Epiphanes is here called, the son of Ptolemy Philopator and _Cleopatra_,
while, by the historical accounts, the only wife of Philopator was
Arsinoë, and she is besides so named in the Rosetta inscription, and on
other monuments. She is also certainly called Cleopatra in one passage of
Pliny, but this might have been considered a mistake of the author, or of
the manuscript, if a hieroglyphic, and, indeed, an official document did
not even now present the same change of names. There are now, therefore,
no longer any grounds to place the mission by the Roman Senate of Marcus
Atilius, and Marcus Acilius to Egypt, to negotiate a new alliance on
account of the Queen Cleopatra, who is mentioned by Livy, under Ptolemy
Epiphanes, as is done by Champollion Figeac, instead of under Ptolemy
Philopator as other authors relate. We must rather assume now, either
that the wife and sister of Philopator bore both names, which, indeed,
even then would not quite remove the difficulties; or that the project
mentioned by Appian, of a marriage between Philopator and the Syrian
Cleopatra, who afterwards became the wife of Epiphanes, was carried into
effect after the murder of Arsinoë, though the authors give us no account
of it. Here, naturally, I am without the means of making this point
perfectly clear.[39]
The multitude of Greek inscriptions in Philæ is incalculable, and it will
interest Letronne to hear, that on the base of the second obelisk, which
still exists in its original place and position, of which only a portion
has travelled with the other obelisk to England, I have found the remains
of a Greek inscription, written in red, difficult indeed to decipher,
which, perhaps, was at one time also gilt, similar to the two last
discovered upon the base in England. I have already written to Letronne,
that the hieroglyphic inscriptions of the obelisk, which, together with
the Greek one of the base, I myself copied in Dorsetshire, and which I
afterwards published in my “Egyptian Atlas,” have nothing to do with the
Greek inscription, and were not even set up simultaneously; but it still
remains a question, whether the inscription of the second base was not in
connexion with that of the first; the correspondence of the three known
inscriptions certainly appears exclusively confined to themselves.
The chief temple of the island was dedicated to Isis. She is called by
preference “The Lady of Philek.” Osiris was only θεὸς σύνναος, which
has its peculiar hieroglyphic expression, and he is only sometimes
exceptionally called “Lord of Philek;” on the other hand, he was “Lord
of Ph-i-uêb,” _i. e._ Abaton, and Isis, who was there σύνναος, is only
exceptionally called “The Lady of Ph-i-uêb.” Even from this, we may
infer, that the famous tomb of Osiris, on his own island of Phiuêb,
was not upon Philek. Both places were expressly designated by their
determinatives as _Islands_. There is, therefore, no question that the
Abaton of inscriptions and authors was not a particular place upon the
island of Philæ; it was itself an island. Diodorus and Plutarch both say
so, in distinct terms, as they place it πρὸς Φιλαις. Diodorus expressly
designates the island with the tomb of Osiris, as a peculiar island,
which, on account of this tomb, was called ἱερὸν πεδίον, “the sacred
plain.” This is a translation of PH-I-UEB, or PH-IH-UEB (for the _h_
is also found in the hieroglyphics), in the Coptic tongue ⲫ-ⲓⲁϩ-ⲟⲩⲏⲃ,
PH-IAH-UEB, “the sacred field.” This sacred plain was an _Abaton_,
inaccessible except to the priests.
On the 6th of November we left the enchanting island, and began our
_Ethiopian_ journey. Even in DEBÔD, the next temple we came to towards
the south, in hieroglyphics called _Tabet_ (in Coptic, perhaps, ⲧⲁ ⲁⲃⲏⲧ),
we found the sculptures of an Ethiopian king, ARKAMEN the ERGAMENES,
of the authors, who reigned at the same time as Ptolemy Philadelphus,
and probably was in very friendly relations with Egypt. There is great
confusion in the French work on Champollion’s expedition (I have not got
Rosellini at hand). Many sheets which belong to Dakkeh are attributed to
Debôd, and _vice versâ_: we collected nearly sixty Greek inscriptions
in GERTASSI. Letronne, who knew them, through Gau, has perhaps already
published them; I am eager to learn what he has made out of γόμοι, whose
priests play an important part in these inscriptions, as also out of the
new gods, Σρούπτιχις and Πουρσεπμοῦνις.
The Inscriptions of TALMIS offer a new instance how incorrectly the
Egyptian names were often comprehended by the Greeks, who name the same
god MANDULIS, who in the hieroglyphic language was distinctly called
MERULI, and was the local god of Talmis. It is striking that the name
of Talmis, which is frequently found in this temple, never appears in
the rock-temple of Bet el Ualli, certainly of much older date, which
is situated in its immediate neighbourhood. DENDÛR also had a peculiar
protecting patron, the god PETISI, who never appears anywhere else, and
has also the surname of Peschir Tenthur; Champollion’s sheets are here,
also, in wonderful disorder, since the representations and inscriptions
are erroneously combined.
The Temples of GERF HUSSÊN and SEBÛA are especially worthy of notice,
because Ramses Sesostris, by whom they were built, appears here both as
a contemplative divinity and worshipping himself as such, with Phtha and
Ammon, the two chief divinities of this temple. In the first, he is even
one time called “Ruler of the Gods.”
Champollion has already remarked, with justice, that indeed all the
temples of the Ptolemies, and of the Roman emperors in Nubia, were only
restorations of former sanctuaries, which, in more ancient times, had
been erected by the Pharaohs of the 18th and 19th Dynasties, and had
been destroyed by the Persians. Thus also the Temple of PSELCHIS was
first built by Tuthmosis III. Besides the scattered fragments of stone
belonging to this first building, which, however, was not dedicated to
Thoth, as Champollion believes, but to Horus, and thus at a later period
altered its destination; we have found others, likewise, of Sethôs I.
and Menephthes. It also appears that the axis of the first plan was not
parallel with the river, like the later one, but similar to almost all
other temples, its entrance was towards the river.
At the Temple of KORTE the entrance door alone is inscribed with
hieroglyphics, and those of the worst style. Yet even this small amount
was sufficient to inform us that the sanctuary was dedicated to Isis, who
is named “The Lady of Kerte.” Here also we discovered some blocks that
had been used in later buildings, which had escaped the notice of former
travellers; they belonged to an ancient temple, erected by Tuthmosis
III., and the foundation walls may still be recognised.
In HIERASYKAMINOS we reaped the last harvest of Greek inscriptions.
As far as this place Greek and Roman travellers were protected by the
garrison of Pselchis, and by another strong position MEHENDI, which
is not given on the maps, but was situated some hours to the south of
Hierasykaminos. PRIMIS seems only to have had a temporary garrison
after the campaign of Petronius. MEHENDI, whose name, indeed, seems
only to designate in Arabic the buildings, the fortress, is the best
preserved Roman camp that I have ever seen. It lies upon a tolerably
steep eminence, and from that commands the river, and a small valley,
which passes upwards from the river, to the south side of the fortress;
the caravan road, also, here branches off into the desert, and does not
redescend to the river till near Medik. The wall of the town encloses a
square, which, towards the east, passes down the hill a short way, and
measures 175 paces from north to south, and 125 from east to west. Four
corner towers, and four central towers, spring up at regular intervals
from the walls; among the last, those lying to the north and south were
also the gates, which, for greater security, did not lead straight into
the town, but with a bend. The southern gate, and all the southern
portion of the fortress, which encompassed about 120 houses, are in
excellent preservation. Immediately behind the gate you enter a straight
street, sixty-seven paces long, which, with but little interruption,
is still completely arched over; several narrow side streets lead off
on both sides, and are also, as well as all the houses of that whole
portion of the town, covered over with arched roofs, made of Nile bricks.
The street leads to a somewhat large open place in the middle of the
town, near to which was situated, upon the highest point of the ridge
of the rock, the largest, and best built house, doubtless that of the
commander, with a semicircular niche at the eastern end. The walls of
the town are built out of unhewn stones; the gate alone, which supports
a well-constructed Roman arch, is built of sharply-cut square stones,
amongst which several built into it, have sculptures of the genuine
Egyptian style, although of late date; a proof that before the erection
of the fortress, there was an Egyptian or Ethiopian sanctuary, probably a
chapel to Isis. We discovered a head of Osiris, and two heads of Isis, in
one of which we could still recognise the red-marked proportion square of
the third canon.
The last monument that we visited, before our arrival in Korusko, was
the Temple of Ammon in WADI SEBÛA (the Lion Valley), so called from the
row of Sphinxes, which are now scarcely visible above the sea of sand
which has buried nearly the whole temple, as far as it stood out alone.
Even the western portion of the temple, hewn in the rock, is filled up
high with sand, and we were compelled to summon the whole crew of our
boat to open an entrance into this part of it. We here encountered a new
and very peculiar combination of divine and human nature, in a group of
four divinities. The first of which was called “PHTHA OF RAMSES, in the
house of Ammon;” the second, PHTHA, with other customary surnames; the
third, RAMSES, in the house of Ammon; the fourth, HATHOR. In another
inscription, “AMMON OF RAMSES, in the house of Ammon,” was named. It is
difficult to explain this combination.[40]
I was no less astonished to find a posterity of King Ramses-Miamun in
the outer court of this Temple of Ammon, consisting of a hundred and
sixty-two children, represented with their names and titles, most of
which, indeed, were scarcely legible, as they are very much destroyed;
others are covered with rubbish, and at present could only be estimated
by the distances of the spaces. Hitherto, only twenty-five sons and
ten daughters of this great king were known. He did not take the two
legitimate wives which appear upon the monuments simultaneously, but the
one after the death of the other. To-day we had a visit from the old,
blind, but powerful and rich Hassan Kaschef, of Derr, who formerly was
independent regent of Lower Nubia; he had no less than sixty-four wives,
of whom forty-two still remain; twenty-nine sons and seventeen daughters
are still living. He has, probably, never taken the trouble to reckon
how many of them he has lost, but by the usual proportion here, he must
have had about four times the number of those living, therefore about two
hundred children.
KORUSKO is an Arabian place, in the centre of the land of the NUBIANS, or
Barâbra (plural of Bérberi), which includes the Nile valley from Assuan
to beyond Dongola. They are an intelligent and honest race; peaceful, but
of a disposition anything but slavish, with well-formed bodies, and a
skin of a light, reddish-brown colour. The occupation of Korusko by the
Arabs of the race of the Ababde, who inhabit the whole of the eastern
desert from Assuan as far as Abu Hammed, is explained by the important
situation of the place, being the commencement of the great caravan
road, which leads direct to the province of Berber, and cuts off the
great-western curvature of the Nile.