of a fortress. Our servant, Ahmed, from Derr, related to us that, at the
death of every king, his successor was led up to its summit, and there
adorned with a peculiar royal cap. Castles like that of Sêse, many of
which we saw, far and near, on the plateau beyond the river district,
indicate an early, numerous, and warlike population, which has now
almost entirely disappeared. The ruins, situated a quarter of an hour
south of Mount Sêse, are called SESEBI. Here stood an ancient temple, of
which only four columns stand erect, with palm capitals. They have the
Shields of SETHÔS I., the most southern we have met with belonging to
this king. Near these temple remains are the ruins of a large town, on
an artificially raised piece of ground, of which the regular encircling
walls may still be recognised.
On the 6th July we arrived at SOLB (Soleb), where a temple of
considerable importance, and still in good preservation, was erected by
Amenophis III. to his own genius, the deified RA-NEB-MA (Amenophis).[50]
The rich representations belonging to this temple—the same to which once
also belonged our own Ram from Barkal, and Lord Prudhoe’s Lion—gave us
materials for almost five days’ work. We did not again set off before the
11th July.
Scarcely one hour to the north of this is situated GEBEL DOSCHE, a
sandstone rock, projecting into the river, in which, on the river side, a
grotto is cut, which contains representations of the third TUTHMOSIS.
The very same evening we arrived at SEDEÏNGA, where AMENOPHIS III.
erected a small temple to his own wife, TII. In the midst of the
picturesque heap of ruins, thrown one above another, rises one single
column, which has remained standing. A great necropolis stretches out
towards the west.
On the 13th of July we halted near a Schôna (such is the name given to
the station store-houses maintained by government), opposite Mount ABIR
or QABIR, a little below the northern point of the island of SAI. On the
other side of the river, not exactly opposite, stands the village of
AMARA, and near it the ruins of a temple. I was not a little surprised
to recognise directly on the columns (six of which are still preserved)
the fat Queen of NAGA and MERÖE, with her husband. This temple was built
by them, an important testimony to the widely-extended dominion of
that Ethiopian Dynasty. In the necropolis to the south of the temple I
also observed fragments of inscriptions in the above-mentioned demotic
Ethiopian alphabetic writing, such as I had also found near Sedeïnga.
The following day, after having visited the island of SAI, where we had
found the scanty remains of a temple with inscriptions of Tuthmosis III.
and Amenophis II., besides the remains of a town and a Coptic church, we
proceeded farther, and on the 15th of July reached DAL, which forms the
frontier between the provinces of Sukkôt and Batn el hagér (Stone-belly);
at night we encamped at the Cataract of KALFA.
From this point our road passed near the hot sulphur spring of OKMEH, to
which I turned off from our caravan road with Abeken. It led us from the
Schôna, where we separated, along the rocky bank, above an hour backwards
to a square tower, which has been erected over the spring, and which is
now called after its builder, HAMMÂM SEIDNA SOLIMÂN. The tower, which is
9 feet in diameter, and in the inside 4 feet wide, is now half filled
with sand and earth; the stream of water, about the thickness of a man’s
wrist, issues from the eastern side of the tower; on the other side,
within the space of a square foot, sixteen little whirlpools rise out of
the sand, and here, where the water is hottest, it is not quite 44° R.
(131° Fahr.). It tastes sulphureous, and a white substance is deposited
on the earth round the spring. Every year the river rises above it, and
even over the tower, which stands half-way up the river bank. The surface
of the water had now only risen to about the height of a man, and had
not yet reached the spring. A rough hole is dug into the rubbish for the
sick who come here, and is covered with branches to keep back the stream.
Somewhat farther down the river another small spring of water appears,
which has a temperature of 40° R. (122° Fahr.) when it issues from the
ground. The saying goes, that OKASCHE, a friend of the Prophet’s, was
killed in a campaign in the south, his corpse floated down hither, and
then disappeared in the rock on the opposite bank; there, even now, at
some distance up the river, his grave is shown; a tree marks the spot.
On the 17th July we encamped at the temple of SEMNEH. The village
consists only of a few straw huts, which are shaded by some date palms,
but the number of potsherds in the neighbourhood prove that a place of
some importance stood here formerly. The temple is surrounded with very
ancient fortifications, of immense dimensions; its erection dates even
as far back as the Old Monarchy under Sesurtesen III., a king of the
12th Dynasty. It appears that this king first enlarged the limits of
the Egyptian Monarchy as far as this point; indeed it has been found
that at a later period he was himself worshipped in these districts as
a divinity of the country. The temple which Tuthmosis III. erected here
in the New Monarchy, is also dedicated to him, and to the god TETUN. On
the right bank, also, at the village of KUMMEH, there are still some old
fortifications, and within them a still larger temple, which was even
begun by Tuthmosis II.
The most important discovery which we made here, and which I shall only
mention briefly, because I am at this moment sending a more detailed
account of it to Ehrenberg, is a number of short rock inscriptions
which mark the highest rises of the Nile during a series of years
under the government of AMENEMHA III. (MŒRIS), and of his immediate
successors. These statements have in some measure a _historical_ value,
as they decidedly confirm my supposition that the SEBEKHOTEPS followed
immediately after the 12th Dynasty, and they are in some measure
peculiarly interesting for the geological history of the Nile valley;
because they prove that the river, above 4000 years ago, rose more than
24 feet higher than now, and thereby must have produced totally different
conditions in the inundation and in the whole surface of the ground both
above and below this spot. Our examination of this remarkable locality,
with its temples and rock-inscriptions, occupied us twelve whole days.[51]
On the 29th July we went from Semneh to ABKE, and the following day
visited the old castle situated to the north of it, which is called el
Kenissa, the church, and formerly therefore probably contained one. From
the top of this castle we had the most magnificent prospect of the chief
cataracts of the whole country. Three great falls could be distinguished
from the smaller ones in the broad, rocky island valley, and the eye
passed over several hundred islands, as far as the black mountain range
on the opposite bank. But towards the north the wide plain spread out,
which extends from Wadi Halfa to Philæ. The succession of the different
kinds of rock was most distinctly visible as we descended from the
last ridge of the rocks on the banks into the great plain, from which
some single cones of sandstone alone protruded, as if from the bed of
a primitive ocean. Here undoubtedly are the sources of the everlasting
sand, which, driven by the northern wind among the primitive mountains,
rendered our road to Semneh very difficult.
On the 1st of August we left WADI HALFA in three boats, and from
this point again sailed through a country with which we were already
acquainted. The following morning we came to ABU SIMBEL, where we spent
nine days, in order to become perfectly acquainted with the copious
representations on both the rock-temples. I long searched in vain for
the remarkable Greek inscription which Leake had found on one of the
four great Ramses Colossi, till I fortunately re-discovered it, buried
tolerably deep, on the left leg of the second Colossus from the south.
I was obliged to make a great excavation to obtain a perfect impression
of it on paper. I see no reason why we should not take this antique
inscription for what it states itself to be, namely, memoranda of the
Greek mercenaries, who came hither with PSAMMETICUS I. in pursuit of the
rebellious warriors. Beneath the other inscriptions on the Colossus, I
also found some Phœnician inscriptions.
After we had visited from this point some other rock-monuments on the
opposite bank at ABAHUDA and SCHATAUI, we quitted Abu Simbel on the 11th
of July, and next halted on the right bank near IBRÎM, ancient PRIMIS,
the name of which I have also found in hieroglyphics written P.R.M. Ibrîm
is situated on the left bank opposite ANÎBE, near which we discovered,
and made a drawing of, only one private tomb from the period of the 20th
Dynasty, but it was in good preservation. Thence we proceeded to DERR,
where we got the largest despatch of letters we have yet received, so
that it was a real holiday for us. With these treasures we hastened past
AMADA to this spot KORUSKO, whose delightful group of palms had won
our hearts during our long, though involuntary, detention there last
year. We have fixed upon the present Sunday to celebrate with pleasant
recollections the happy termination of our southern journey. Our boats
lie quietly beside the bank.
LETTER XXVII.
_Philæ, the 1st September, 1844._
I am only now able to finish my journal from Korusko, whence we set sail
on the evening of the 18th August for SEBÛA.
From this point, as far as Philæ, the valley is called WADI KENÛS, “the
valley of the BENI KENSI,” a tribe of which we read much in the Arabic
accounts. The upper valley of Korusko, as far as Wadi Halfa, is called
on all the maps WADI NUBA, a name which has indeed been already used by
Burckhardt, but which must originate in some mistake. Neither our Nubian
servant, Ahmed, a native of the district of Derr, nor the people who are
settled in the country, are acquainted with this name; and even Hassan
Kaschef, above seventy years of age, who governed the country before
the Egyptian conquest, could give no answers to my particular inquiries
about this name. They all agree in stating that the lower district has
always been called WADI KENÛS. Afterwards, near Korusko, follows the WADI
EL ARAB, so called from the Arabs of the desert, who have encroached as
far as this spot; then WADI IBRÎM; and lastly, WADI HALFA. But since
the conquest the official name for the whole province between the two
cataracts is GISM HALFA, the province of Halfa.
In Korusko I found a Bischâri, by name ALI, whose animated and pleasant
deportment determined me at once to make him my instructor in this
important language. He was quite satisfied with my invitation for him
to accompany us, and now every moment that is at liberty is employed in
preparing a grammar and vocabulary of this language. He comes from the
interior of the country, from Beled Ellâqi, which is eight days distant
from the Nile, and twenty from the Red Sea, and gives a name to the
remarkable Wadi Ellâqi, which extends, without interruption, through the
very midst of the extensive range of country between the Nile and the
Red Sea. He calls the country of the Bischâri tribes EDBAI, and their
language, _Midâb_ to _Beg´auîe_, the Beg´a language, from which may be
traced its identity with the language of the mighty Beg´a nations, so
often mentioned in the middle ages.
From Korusko we next sailed to SEBÛA, where we spent four days; then by
DAKKEH (Pselchis) and KUBÁN (Contra Pselchis) to GERF HUSSÊN, with its
rock-temple dedicated by Ramses to Ptah. This place is frequently called
by earlier travellers GIRSCHE, a confusion with the village situated on
the farther eastern bank, which is called by the Arabs QIRSCH, by the
Nubians KISCH or KISCHIGA, and which is situated near some considerable
ruins of an ancient city which bear the name of SABAGÛRA. The 25th August
we spent in the temple of DENDÛR, first built under the Roman dominion;
and the following day in KALABSCHEH, the ancient TALMIS, whose temple
likewise contains only the Shields of Cæsar (Augustus). Talmis was for
a long time a capital of the BLEMYES, whose inroads into Egypt gave the
Romans plenty of employment. On one of the columns of the great outer
court there is engraved the interesting inscription of Silco, who calls
himself a βασιλίσκος Νουβάδων καὶ ὅλων τῶν Αἰθιόπων.[52] In it he boasts
of his victories over the Blemyes, who I hold to be a branch of the
Meröitic Ethiopians, the Bischâri of the present day. It seems that the
demotic Ethiopian inscriptions, one of which is remarkable by its length,
and perhaps forms a counterpart to the Greek inscription of the Nubian
King, can only be ascribed to these Blemyes. I have discovered another
very late inscription on the wall to the back of the temple, but in such
barbarous Greek that it is almost inexplicable. I send it to Böckh for
him to decipher.
On the 30th August we reached DEBÔT, and the following day PHILÆ, where
we immediately took possession of the enchanting temple-terrace, which,
since that time, has been our chief quarters, and will remain so for
several weeks longer. The great temple-buildings, although the most
ancient of them date only as far back as NECTANEBUS, present an unusual
number of hieroglyphic, demotic, and Greek inscriptions, and, to my
surprise, I have also found here a whole chamber in one of the pylones
which contains nothing but ETHIOPIAN representations and inscriptions.
LETTER XXVIII.
_Thebes, Qurna, 24th November, 1844._
On the 4th of November we reached this last great station of our journey,
and feel that we have again reached much nearer home. We have selected a
charming castle on a rock for our residence here, which will certainly
be protracted for several months. It is situated on a hill called ABD EL
QURNA, and is an ancient tomb enlarged by brick buildings, from which we
overlook the whole Theban plain at one view. I should be afraid of being
almost oppressed by the overwhelming number of monuments, if the mighty
character of the ruins of this most royal city of all antiquity did not
maintain, and daily renew, our interest to the highest possible degree.
While our investigations of the numerous temples, from the Ptolemaic
and the Roman period, immediately preceding that, had in fact become
almost fatiguing, here, where the Homeric forms of the mighty Pharaohs
of the 18th and 19th Dynasties stand out before me in their dignity and
splendour, I feel as fresh again as at the commencement of our journey.
I first had excavations made in the renowned temple of Ramses Miamun,
lying at our feet, which have led to unexpected results. Erbkam has
superintended the work with the greatest care, and his ground plan which
is now finished of this most beautiful building of the Pharaonic times,
described by Diodorus as the tomb of Osymandyas, is the first which can
be called perfect, as it no longer rests on arbitrary restorations,
which are too long in the French descriptions and too short in those of
Wilkinson.
I have also had excavations made in the rock-tomb of the same RAMSES in
Bab el Meluk, which was covered over with rubbish, and which Rosellini
was mistaken in thinking unfinished; several chambers have already
been opened, and if fortune favours us we shall also still find the
sarcophagus, not indeed unopened—the Persians had already taken care of
that—but perhaps less mutilated than others, as the tomb has been closed
up by the river mud from very ancient times.
On our journey from Korusko hither, besides our antiquarian labours,
I was engaged with the languages of the southern countries, still so
little known. Amidst these, three may be selected as being the most
widely-distributed; the NUBA language, that of the Nuba or Berber nation;
the KUNGARA language, of the negroes of DAR FÛR; and the BEGA language,
that of the BISCHARÎBAS inhabiting the eastern portion of the Sudan.
I have prepared the grammar and vocabulary of all three, so fully,
that whenever they are published some notion of these languages may be
obtained. The most important of them is the one last mentioned, because,
both with reference to its grammatical construction and by its position
in the development of languages, it proves itself to be a very remarkable
member of the _Caucasian_ stock. It is spoken by the people, for which
reason I think I can perceive that they were once the inhabitants of the
flourishing city of Meröe, and thus have a peculiar claim, to be called
in a more exact sense the ETHIOPIAN people.
It has furthermore been proved, that nothing can be discovered of a
primitive Ethiopian civilisation, or indeed of an ancient Ethiopian
national civilisation, which is so much held up by modern erudition;
indeed, we have every reason to deny this completely. Whatever in the
accounts of the ancients does not rest on total misapprehension, only
refers to _Egyptian_ civilisation and art, which had fled in the time
of the Hyksos rule to ETHIOPIA. The irruption of Egyptian power from
Ethiopia, at the foundation of the new Egyptian Monarchy, and its
progress even far into Asia, was mentioned in the Asiatic, and afterwards
in the Greek traditions, as an event which was transferred from the
Ethiopian _country_ to the Ethiopian _nation_, for no knowledge of a
still older Egyptian Monarchy, and of its high but peaceful state of
civilisation, had penetrated to the northern nations. I have sent an
account of the results of our Ethiopian journey to the Academy, and in
it I give a cursory survey of the history of Ethiopia from the first
conquest of the country by Sesurtesen III. in the 12th Manethonic Dynasty
down to the most flourishing period of the Meröitic Monarchy in the
first centuries of our era, and then through the middle ages down to the
Bischarîbas of the present day, whose Sheikhs we saw in chains marching
over the ruins of what was once their capital, and passing in front of
the Pyramids of their ancient kings.
LETTER XXIX.
_Thebes, Qurna, 8th January, 1845._
A short time ago we received the joyful intelligence that our colossal
Ram and the other Ethiopian monuments had arrived safely in Alexandria.
We shall also bring away some valuable monuments from this spot, among
them a beautiful sarcophagus of fine white limestone, on parts of which
are some painted inscriptions, which go back as far as the Old Monarchy
in the first period of the increasing greatness of Thebes.[53]
I have made another conquest to-day, which gives me double pleasure,
as it was only effected with indescribable difficulty, and has brought
out a monument in the most perfect preservation, which will hardly
find its equal in our museums. A sepulchral chamber with interesting
representations of kings of which we have made drawings, opens out of a
deep pit which was excavated a short time ago; from this a narrow passage
leads still deeper into a second chamber, which is painted all over, just
like the other. The chambers are hewn out of an extremely friable rock,
which loosens from the ceiling in large fragments at the slightest touch;
the rock-caves were therefore vaulted in a circular form, with Nile
bricks, which were covered with stucco, and then painted. At the side of
the inner door, on the right hand, King AMENOPHIS I. is represented, and
on the left, his mother AAHMES-NUFRE-ARI, who even in later times was
much worshipped. Both are about four feet high, painted on the stucco,
and the colours preserved as fresh as possible. I was anxious to detach
these figures from the wall, which they entirely covered; but for this
purpose I was compelled to break through the brick walls all round, and
afterwards also to take out the bricks singly from behind the stucco
with the greatest care. This at length we have accomplished after great
labour. We have taken out the whole stucco, which is only the thickness
of a finger, with the figures completely uninjured, and, placing it on
two slabs composed of smooth boards covered with skins, linen, and paper,
we raised it from the narrow sepulchral cave, which is still half filled
with rubbish.
We have also, to my great delight, got a fresh supply for our plaster
casts. A short time ago 5 cwt. of plaster arrived, forwarded to us by
M. Clot Bey, for which we had sent an order to France, and I have found
an Arab here, and immediately taken him into my service, who has at
least sufficient knowledge to prepare the plaster and to make casts from
bas-reliefs.
LETTER XXX.
_Thebes, the 25th February, 1845._
We have now been inhabiting our Theban Acropolis, on the hill of Qurna,
above a quarter of a year, every one busily employed in his own way
from morning to evening, in investigating, describing, and drawing the
most valuable monuments, taking paper impressions of the inscriptions,
and in making plans of the buildings; we have not yet been able to
complete the Libyan side alone, where there are at least twelve temples,
five-and-twenty tombs of kings, fifteen belonging to the royal wives or
daughters, and a countless number belonging to private persons, still to
be examined. The eastern side, with its six-and-twenty sanctuaries, in
a certain degree of preservation, will however demand no less time, and
yet, more has been done by previous travellers and expeditions in Thebes
itself, especially by the French-Tuscan expedition, than in any other
spot, and we have everywhere only compared and completed their labours,
and not repeated them. We are also far from imagining that we have now
by any means exhausted the infinite number of monuments; whoever follows
us with new information, and with the results of more advanced science,
will also find fresh treasures, and gain fresh instruction from the same
monuments. I have always had a historical aim in view, and this has
especially determined my selection of the monuments. Whenever I believed
that I had attained what was most essential for this end I was satisfied.
The river here divides the broad valley into two unequal halves. On the
west side it approaches close to the precipitous Libyan range, which
there projects; on the eastern side it bounds a wide fruitful plain,
extending as far as Medamôt, a spot situated on the border of the Arabian
desert, several hours distant. On this side stood the actual town of
THEBES, which seems to have been chiefly grouped round the two great
temples of KARNAK and LUQSOR, situated above half an hour apart. Karnak
lies more to the north, and farther removed from the Nile; Luqsor is now
actually washed by the waves of the river, and may even formerly have
been the harbour of the city. The west side of the river contained the
necropolis of Thebes, and all the temples which stood here referred more
or less to the worship of the dead; indeed, all the inhabitants of this
part, which was afterwards comprehended by the Greeks under the name
of MEMNONIA, seem to have been principally occupied with the care of
the dead and their tombs. The former extent of the Memnonia may be now
distinguished by Qurna and Medînet Hâbu, places situated at the northern
and southern extremities.
A survey of the Theban monuments naturally begins with the ruins of
KARNAK. Here stood the great royal temple of the hundred-gated Thebes,
which was dedicated to Ammon-Ra, the King of the Gods, and to the
peculiar local god of the city of Ammon, so called after him (No-Ammon,
Diospolis). AP, along with the feminine article TAP, from which the
Greeks made THEBE, was the name of one particular sanctuary of Ammon.
It is also often employed in hieroglyphics in the singular, or still
more frequently in the plural (Napu), as the name of the town; for
which reason the Greeks naturally, without changing the article along
with it, generally used the plural Θῆβαι. The whole history of the
Egyptian Monarchy, after the city of Ammon was raised to be one of the
two royal residences in the land, is connected with this temple. All
Dynasties emulated in the glory of having contributed their share to the
enlargement, embellishment, or restoration of this national sanctuary.