ifornia )Dal

ijJiJ

f *' ?'

arf-^-i

1* t i^MKAA^.

THC NILe.

NOreS FOR TRAVSLLeRS IN eGYPT.

^a

jj-M-'VA — W, lUu' ilu Klioiu

1 "L'i-iVNNK— 1, Hue I'lpiiut.

LUr km:.— Hotel Uu Cjrifnc.

liUl >>K1.S.— «1, Hue lie la Madeleine

I olAK'N K.— J. l>onikloster.

\ I KN N A — -, Steiihansplati .

Ill iIaVKST.— 3, Dorotlieenj-'asae.

KoMK— In, Piaira di SiMgna.

N M'l.KS.— I'iaiia del Martui.

M11.\N.— 15. Piax«a del Uuomo.

yUlKKNCK.— 10, Via Tomabuoni.

VKNICK.— 140, I'iazxa San Marco.

• TV lllX.— Hotel Tromhetta.

lilUNDISI.— Strsda Marina.

lU-.UGKS.— Torvet.

>1 VOKID —1, Can-era de S. Geronimo

\i.i;lERS.— «, Houlevard Republique.

M.\I.TA.— 308, Strada Keale

T\ 1 1 r I TA -1 ' ," "ow" •""'■t """»<= S'"'"'*

KAN(iOON.— Mcicliant Street.

AUSTRALASIA-.

RYDNKY. AUCKLAND. «.>. &c.

> Those mavkcd with an a.sterisk arc Suh^ A'cnts authorised only for the issue of Travelling Tickets and Hotel Coupons.

* ADELAIDE. MELBOURNE.

/^^

^Vt .

zA^

/^-<^^^

^£^e-^e-«-«=-'^^t^

^

\<^.Ct-^'<^'-^^

THE NILE.

Ilotes for Kriibflkrs in Cgpl.

-i^l^

THE NILE.

Jloks fnr ®rali£lkrs in Cl^giipt.

BY

E. A. WALLIS BUDGE, M.A., F.S.A.,

ASSISTANT IN THE DEPARTMENT OF EGYPTIAN AND ASSYRIAN ANTIQUITIES, BRITISH MUSEUM.

WITH A MAP, PLANS, (5^-r.

DNIVEKS^li OF CALIFOU^Za

LONDON :

THO.S. COOK & SON, LUDGATE CIRCUS.

CAIRO :

COOK'S TOURIST OFFICE.

1S90. \Entered at Stationers' Hall.]

HARRISON AND SONS,

I'RINTERS IN ORDINARY TO HER MAJESTY,

ST. MARTIN S LAKE, LONDON.

INTRODUCTION.

Having- for some years felt the insufficiency of the information given by Dragomans to travellers on the Nile, and finding with one or two striking exceptions how limited is their knowledge of facts relating to the history of the antiquities in Upper Egypt, Messrs. Thos. Cook and Son have arranged with Mr. E. A. Wallis Budge to compile the following pages, which they have much pleasure in presenting to every passenger under their Nile arrangements on their Tourist Steamers and Dhahabiyyehs. In this way passengers will no longer be liable to be misled (unintentionally) by Dragomans, but will be able at their leisure to prepare themselves for what they have to see, and thus by an agreeable study add to the interest with which their visits to the various places are made.

20114S0

PREFACE.

The short descriptions of the principal Egyptian monuments on each side of the Nile between Cairo and the Second Cataract (Wadi Halfah), printed in the following pages, are not in any way intended to form a "Guide to Egypt": they are drawn up for the use of those travellers who have a very few weeks to spend in Egypt, and who wish to carry in their memories some of the more important facts connected with the fast-perishing remains of one of the most interesting and ancient civilizations that has been developed on the face of the earth. The existing guide books are generally too voluminous and diffuse for such travellers ; and are, moreover, in many respects inaccurate. Experience has shown that the greater number of travellers in that country are more interested in history and matters connected with Egyptian civilization from B.C. 4400 to B.C. 450, than with Egypt under the rule of the Assyrians and Persians, Greeks and Romans, Arabs and Turks. It is for this reason that no attempt has been made to describe, otherwise than in the briefest possible manner, its history under these foreign rulers, and

Viii PREFACE.

only such facts connected with them as are absolutely- necessary for a right understanding of its monuments have been inserted. In addition to such descriptions, a few chapters have been added on the history of the country during the rule of the Pharaohs, its people, the religion and method of writing. At the end of the book a fairly full list of the most im- portant Egyptian kings is appended, and in order to make this list as useful as possible, a transliteration of each name is printed beneath it, together with the ordinary form of the name. The list of three hundred hieroglyphic characters and their phonetic values, printed on pp. 61-68, will, it is hoped, be useful to those who may like to spell out the royal names on tombs and temples and the commoner words which occur in the inscriptions. For those who wish to study independently the various branches of Egypto- logy, a list of the more readily obtained books is given in the " Programme " issued yearly by Thos. Cook and Son.

In transcribing Arabic names of places the most authoritative form.s have been followed, but such well- known names as " Luxor," in Arabic El-Uks/ir or El-kusHi; and " Cairo," in Arabic Kahira, have not been altered. Similarly, the ordinary well-known forms of the Egyptian proper names " Rameses," •' Thothmes," "Amenophis," "Amasis," " Psammeti- chus," " Hophra " or " Apries," etc., etc., have been

PREFACE. IX

used in preference to the more correct transcriptions " Ra-messu," " Tehuti-mes," " Amen-hetep," " Aah- mes," "Psemthek," " Uah-ab-Ra."

The dates assigned to the Egyptian kings are those of Dr. H. Brugsch, who bases his calculations on the assumption that the average duration of a generation was thirty-three years. Hence it will be readily understood that the date assigned to Rameses II. (B.C. 1333), for instance, is only ap- proximately correct.

E. A. Wallis Budge.

Sei)icinl/er, 1890

CONTENTS.

PAGE

Introduction ... .. ... ... ••• •• v

Preface vii-ix

Egyptian History and its sources ... ... ... i

Historical Summary — ■

Ancient Empire ... ... ... •■• ••• 9

Middle Empire ■•• 12

New Empire ... ... ... .•• ••• 14

Persians ... ... ... ... ... ••• 17

Macedonians ... ... •• ••• ••■ 17

Ptolemies ... . . ... ... ... •■• 18

Romans ... ... ... .•• ••• ... 19

The Byzantines ... ... ... ... .-. 21

Muhammedans ... ... ... ... •■• 23

Dates assigned to the Egyptian Dynasties by Egypto- logists 26

The Country of Egypt 27

The Nomes of Egypt 28

The Ancient Egyptians ... ... ••• .•• 3^

The Modern Egyptians 35

The Nile 44

Egyptian Writing ... ... ... •.. ••• 49

A list of some Hieroglyphic Signs 61

Arabic Alphabet 67

Coptic Alphabet 68

Egyptian Months ... ... ... ••• ■•• 69

The Religion and Gods of Egypt 71

I02 I02 I02 I02 T03

Ml CONTENTS.

PAfJR

Alexandria ... ... ... ... ... ... 97

The Pharos 98

Pompey's Pillar ... ... ... ... ... loi

Cleopatra's Needles ... ... ... ... 10 1

Catacombs ... ... ... ... ... 102

Damanhur

Kafr ez-Zaiyat

Tanta . . .

Benha el-'Asal

Rosetta Stone

Suez and the Suez Canal ... ... ... ... 104

Shibfn el-Kanatir . . . ... ... ... ... roS

Zakazik and Tell-Basta ... ... ... loS-iio

Abu Hammad ... ... ... ... ... 11

Tell el-Kebir ... ... ... ... ... 11

Mahsamah ... ... ... ... ... 11

Isma'iliya ... ... ... ... ... ... Ji

Nefisheh ... ... ... ... ... ... 11

Cairo ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 112

The Mu.seum at Gizeh ... ... ... ... 113

Coptic Churches ... ... ... ... ... 119

Mosques ... ... ... ... .. ... 123

Tombs of the Khalifs ... ... ... 127

Tombs of the iMamelukes ... ... ... 128

The Citadel 128

Joseph's Well ... ... ... ... ... 129

The Library ... ... ... ... ... 129

Ezbekiyeh Garden ... ... .. ... 129

The Kilometer at Roja ... ... ... ... 129

Heliopclis ... ... ... ... ... ... 131

The Pyramids of Gizeh ... ... ... ... 133

The Great Pyramid ... ... ... ... 135

The Second Pyramid ... ... ... ... 139

The Third Pyramid ... ... ... ... 141

The Sphinx ... ... ... ... ... ... 144

CONTENTS.

The Temple of the Sphinx The Tomb of Numbers Campbell's Tomb The Pyramids of Abu-Roash ... The Pyramids of Abusir Bedrashen, Memphis, and Sakkarah The Statue of Rameses II. The Step Pyramid

Pyramid of Unas ...

Pyramid of Teta ...

Pyramid of Pepi I.

The Serapeum The Tomb of Thi Mariette's House The Pyramids of Dahshur The Quarries of Ma'.sara and I'urra The Pyramid of Medum Wasta and the Fayum ... Beni Suef Maghaghah Cynopolis

Convent of the Pulley... Minyeh... Beni Hasan

Roda

Melawi ... Haggi Kandil ...

Gebel Abu Fadah

ManfaKit

Asyut ...

Abu Tig

Tahtah

Siihak ...

The White and Red Monasteries

Ahmim, Menshiah, Girgeh ...

xui

PAGE

175-

CONTENTS.

Abydos ...

Temple of Seti I. . . .

Temple of Ramescs II. Farshut ...

Kasr es-Sayyad

Keneh •...

The Temple of Denderah

Nakadah

Luxor and Thebes

The Temple of Luxor

The Temple at Karnak

The Temple at Kurnah

The Ramesseum ...

The Colossi of Amenophis III.

Medinet Habu

The Temple of Rameses III. Der el-Medinct Der el-Bahari The Discovery of Royal Mummies at Der el-Bahari The Tombs of the Kings —

Tomb of Seti I. ...

Tomb of Rameses III.

Tomb of Rameses IV.

Tomb of Rameses VI.

Tomb of Rameses IX.

Tomb of Rameses I.

Tomb of Rechma Ra Erment . . . Esneh . . . El-Kab... Edfu ... Hagar Silsileh Kom Ombo Aswan . . . Elephantine

CONTENTS.

The First Cataract

Philse

The Nile between the First and Second Cataracts

Dabod ...

Kardash

Wadi Tafah

Kalabshi

Bet el-Wali

Dendur ...

Gerf-Hussen

Dakkeh . . .

Wadi Sebila

Korosko

Amada ...

Derr

Abu-Simbel

Wadi Halfah

List of the Hieroglyphic Names of

Kings of Egypt Index ...

the Principal

257- 293-

XV

PAGE 238

244 244 244 244

246 246 246

248

249 249 250 250 255

■292 311

to make use oi it in the perfect condition in which it was

MAP OF COOKS STEAMEIl,DAHABEAH.A>T) MAIL SERnCE OX THE NILE.

C

NOTES FOR TRAVELLERS IN EGYPT.

EGYPTIAN HISTORY.

The history of Egypt is the oldest history known to us. It is true that the earhest of the Babylonian kings whose names are known lived very little later than the earliest kings of Egypt, nevertheless our knowledge of the early Egyptian is greater than of the early Babylonian kings. A large portion of Egyptian history can be constructed from the native records of the Egyptians, and it is now possible to correct and modify many of the statements upon this subject made by Herodotus, Diodorus Siculus and other classical authors. The native and other docu- ments from which Egyptian history is obtained are : —

I. Lists of Kings found in the Turin Papyrus, the Tablet of Abydos, the Tablet of Sakkarah, and the Tablet of Karnak. The Turin papyrus contained a complete list of kings beginning with the god-kings and continuing down to the end of the rule of the Hyksos, about B.C. 1700. The name of each king during this period, together with the length of his reign in years, months and days, was given, and it would have been, beyond all doubt, the most valuable of all documents for the chronology of the oldest period of Egyptian history, if scholars had been able to make use of it in the perfect condition in which it was

B

2 NOTES FOR TRAVELLERS IN EGYPT.

discovered. When it arrived in Turin, liowever, it was found to be broken into more than one liundred and fifty fragments. So far back as 1824, ChampoHion recognized the true value of the fragments, and placed some of them in their clironological order. Its evidence is of the greatest importance for the history of the Xlllth and XlVth dynas- ties, because in this section the papyrus is tolerably perfect ; for the earlier dynasties it is of very little use.

On the monuments each Egyptian king has usually two names, the prcnomen and the nomen ; each of these is contained in a cartouche.* Thus the prenonien of

Thothmes III. is ( © r*^"-^^ O | Ra-men-cheper, and his

nomen is

Tehuti-mes. Ra-men-cheper means

something like " Ra (the Sun-god) establishes becoming or existence;" Tehuti-mes means "born of Thoth," or " Thoth's son." These names are quite distinct from

his titles. Before the prenomen comes the title ^I^

su/eu net, "King of the North and South,"! and after it

comes "^^ se Ra, "son of the Sun," preceding the

nomen. Each prenomen has a meaning, but it is at times difficult to render it exactly in English. Every king styled himself king of "the North and South," and "son of the Sun." The first title is sometimes varied by " Beautiful

* Cartouche is the name which is usually given to the oval f ~^, in which the name of a royal person is enclosed.

t I.e., "the universe." " Whatever the .Sun passed over or through was divided into two, and grammatically took the dual form ; as ^^r-n> chiila, the horizon where the Sun rises or sets, >|< ^j-^ iibtd, the East, 7^2^> d'>'<^i>f'J, the West." Renouf, Proc. Soc. Bib. Arch., 1890,

EGYPTIAN HISTORY. 3

god, lord of the two earths." ■'' In the earHest times the kings were named after some attribute possessed by thetn ; thus Mena, the first king of Egypt, is the " firm " or " estab- Hshed." In the Turin papyrus only the prenomens of the kings are given, but its statements are confirmed and amplified by the other lists.

The Tablet of Abydosf was discovered by Diimichen in the temple of Osiris at Aljydos, during M. Mariette's excavations there in 1864. This list gives us the names of seventy-five kings, beginning with Mena or Menes, and ending with Seti I., the father of Rameses II.; it is not a complete list, and it would seem as if the scribe who drew up the list only inserted such names as he considered worthy of living for ever. The Tablet of Sakkarah was discovered at Sakkarah by Mariette, in the grave of a digni- tary who lived during the reign of Rameses II. In spite of a break in it, and some orthographical errors, it is a valuable list; it gives the names of forty-seven kings, and it agrees very closely with the Abydos list. It is a curious fact that it begins with the name of Mer-ba-pen, the sixth king of the 1st dynasty. The Tablet of Karnak was discovered at Karnak by Burton, and was taken to Paris by Prisse. It

* Some kings had a large number of titles. Thus Thothmes III. is ^^ styled " Ilorus, mighty l.nill, diademed with law, the lord, maker of things, Ra-men-cheper," etc., etc. He is also called :

<>-=:> W\ (^ ^\ • ■■■ ■•. "KintT of the North and

5^

0

South, mighty in all lands"; '^^. /J Zl IT rJ) V^ > " tiod,

„ t\

exalted one of the w'hite crown, beloved of Ra ; ^f V/^"^^^^^

® □ Q I Q I I 1 . , . r-TiJ' V f^H ^^5=7" , "Gulden Horus, mighty of □a A ii 111 111 valour, smiter of the Nine Bows," etc.

t See page 184.

B 2

4 NOTIlS for TRAVKf.I.KRS IX EGYPT.

was drawn up in the time of Tliothnies III., and contains the names of sixty-one of his ancestors. They are not arranged in any chronological order, but the tablet is of the highest historical importance, for it records the names of some of the rulers from the Xlllth to the XVIIth dynasties, and gives the names of those of the Xlth dynasty more completely than any other list.

II. Annals of Egyptian Kings inscribed upon the walls of temples, obelisks, and buildings. The narrative of such inscriptions is very simple, and practically such records merely represent itineraries in which the names of conquered and tributary lands and people are given ; incidentally facts of interest are noted down. As the day and month and regnal years of the king by whom these expeditions were undertaken are generally given, these inscriptions throw much light on history. The lists of tribute are also useful, for they show what the products of the various countries were. The poetical version* of the history of the famous battle of Rameses II. against the Cheta by the poet Pen-ta-urt is a pleasant variety of historical narrative. The inscription on the stele t of Pianchi, the Ethiopian conqueror of Egypt, is decidedly remarkable for the minute details of his fights, the speeches made by himself and his conquered foes, and the mention of many facts:}: which are not commonly noticed by Egyptian annalists. The vigour and poetical nature of the narrative are also very striking.

* See the notice of the official Eg)'ptian account on page 253.

t Preserved at Gizeh.

J For example, it is stated that when I'ianchi had taken possession of the storehouses and treasury of Ninirod his foe, he went afterwards into the stables, and found that the horses there had been kept short 01 food. Bursting into a rage he turned to Nimrod and said, " By my life, by my darling Ra, who revives my nostrils with life, to have kejA my horses hungry is more heinous in my sight than any other offence which thou hast committed against me."' Mariette, Monuments Divers, pi. 2, 11. 65, 66.

EGYPTIAN HISTORY. 5

III. Historical Stelae and Papyri, which briefly relate in chronological order the various expeditions undertaken by the king for whom they were made. Egyptian kings occasionally caused summaries of their principal conquests and of the chief events of their reign to be drawn up ; examples of these are (a) the stele of Thothnies III.,* and (/') the last section of the great Harris Papyrus, in which Rameses III. reviews all the good works which he has brought to a successful issue to the glory of the gods of Egypt and for the benefit of her inhabitants. This wonder- ful papyrus measures 135 feet by 18 inches, and was found in a box in the temple at Medinet Habu, built by Rameses III. ; it is now in the British Museum.

IV. Decrees, Scarabs, Statues of Kings and Private Persons are fruitful sources of information about historical, religious, and chronological subjects.

V. Biblical notices about Egypt and allusions to events of Egyptian history.

VI. The Cuneiform Inscriptions. Within the last two years a number of tablets inscribed in cuneiform have been found at Tell el-Amarna. The inscriptions relate to a period of Egyptian history which falls in the sixteenth century B.C., and they are letters from the kings of Babylon, Nineveh, and other cities of Mesopotamia and of Phoenicia relating to marriages, offensive and defensive alliances, military matters, etc., etc., and reports on the rebellions and wars which took place at that time, addressed to Amenophis III. and to his sonChut-en-aten orAmenophisIV. The Babylonian king who writes is called Kurigalzu. Thothmes III. had carried his victorious arms into Meso- potamia, and one of his successors, Amenophis III., delighted to go there and shoot the lions with which the country abounded. During one of these hunting expeditions he fell in love with the daughter of Tushratta, the king of

■■'■ I'reserved at Gizeh.

6 NOTES FOR TRAVELLERS IN EGYPT.

Mitanni, and married her, and he brought her to Egypt, accompanied by 317 of her attendants. It will be some time before these inscriptions are fully made out, but the examination of them has already been carried sufficiently far to show that they will throw some valuable light upon the social condition of Egypt and of the countries which were subject to her at that time. Some of the tablets are written with cuneiform characters in a language which is at present unknown ; and some of them have dockets in hieratic which state from what country they were brought. The discovery of these tablets shows that there must have been people at the court of Amenophis III. who understood the cuneiform characters, and that the officers in command over towns in Phoenicia subject to the rule of Egypt could, when occasion required, write their despatches in cuneiform. The greater part of these tablets are now in the Museums of London and Berlin, some are at the Gizeh Museum, and some are in private hands.

The Assyrian kings Sennacherib, Esarhaddon, and Assur- banipal marched against Egypt ; Tirhakah defeated Sen- nacherib at Eltekeh, but was defeated by Esarhaddon, the son of Sennacherib, who drove him back into Ethiopia. Esarhaddon's son, Assurbanipal, also attacked Tirhakah and defeated him. Thebes was captured, and Egypt was divided into twenty-two provinces, over some of which Assyrian viceroys were placed. A fragment of a Babylonian tablet states that Nebuchadnezzar II. marched into Egypt.

VII. The Greek and Roman writers u])on Egypt are many; and of these the best known are Herodotus, Manttho, and Diodorus Siculus. Herodotus devotes the whole of the second and the beginning of the third book of his work to a history of Egypt and the Egyptians, and his is the oldest Greek treatise on the subject known to us. In spite of the attacks made upon his work during the last few years, the evidence of the hieroglyphic inscriptions

EGYPTIAN HISTORY.

which are being deciphered year after year shows that on the whole his work is trustworthy. A work more vnluable than that of Herodotus is the Egyptian history of Manetho (still living in B.C. 271) of Sebennytus, who is said by Plutarch to have been a contemporary of Ptolemy I. ; his work, however, was written during the reign of Ptolemy II. Philadelphus (b.c. 286-247). According to words put into his mouth, he was chief priest and scribe in one of the temples of Egypt, and he appears to have been perfectly acquainted with the ancient Egyptian language and literature. He had also had the benefit of a Greek education, and was therefore peculiarly fitted to draw up in Greek for Ptolemy Philadelphus a history of Egypt and her religion. The remains of the great Egyptian history of Manetho are preserved in the polemical treatise of Josephus against Apion, in which a series of passages of Egyptian history from the XVth to the XlXth dynasties is given, and in the list of the dynasties, together with the number of years of the reign of each king, given by Africanus and Eusebius on his authority. At the beginning of his work Manetho gives a list of gods and demi-gods who ruled over Egypt before Menes, the first human king of Egypt ; the thirty dynasties known to us he divides into three sections :— I-XI, XII-XIX, and XX-XXX. Diodorus Siculus, who visited Egypt B.C. 57, wrote a history of the country, its people and its religion, based chiefly upon the works of Herodotus and Hekatteus. He was not so able a writer nor so accurate an observer as Herodotus, and his work contains many blunders. Other important ancient writers on Egypt are Strabo,* Chaeremon,+ Josephus,J Plutarch§ and Horapollo. 11

According to Manetho, there reigned over Egypt before Mena, or Menes, the first human king of that country, a

* About A.D. 15. t About A.D. 50. X About A.D. 75.

§ About A.D. 100. (I About A.D. 4CO.

8 NOTES FOR TRAVELLERS IN EGYPT.

number of beings called Shesu Heru, or " followers of Horus"; of their deeds and history nothing is known. Some have believed that during their rule Egypt was divided into two parts, each ruled by its own king ; and others ha\e thought that the whole of Upper and Lower Egypt was divided into a large series of small, independent principalities, which were united under one head in the person of Menes. There is, however, no support to be obtained from the inscriptions for either of these theories. The kings of Egypt following after the mythical period are divided into thirty dynasties. For the sake of convenience, Egyptian history is divided into three periods : — I, the Ancient Empire, which includes the first eleven dynas- ties; II, the Middle Empire, which includes the next nine dynasties (Xilth-XXih); and. III, the New Empire, which includes the remaining ten dynasties, one of which was of Persian kings. The rule of the Saite kings was fol- lowed by that of the Persians, Ptolemies and Romans. The rule of the Muhammedans, which Ijcgan a.d. 641, ended a.d. 15 17, when the country was conquered by the Turks ; since this time Egypt has been nominally a pashalik of Turkey.

The date assigned to the first dynasty is variously given by different scholars : by Champollion-Figeac it is B.C. 5867, by Bockh 5702, by Bunsen 3623, by Lepsius 3892, by Lieblein 3893, by Mariette 5004, and by Brugsch 4400. As far as can be seen, there is much to be said in favour of that given by Brugsch, and his dates are adopted throughout in this book.

HISTORICAL SUMMARY.

ANCIENT EMPIRE.

Dynasty I, from T/iis, or Thinis.

B.C.

4400. Mena, the first human king of Egypt, founded Memphis, having turned aside the course of the Nile, and estabUshed a temple service there.

4366. Teta, wrote a book on anatomy, and continued buildings at Memphis.

4266. Hesep-ti. Some papyri state that the 64th Chapter of the Book of the Dead was written in his time.

Dynasty 11^ from Memphis.

4133. Bet'au, in whose reign an earthquake swallowed up many people at Bubastis.

4100. Kakau, in whose days the worship of Apis at Memphis, and that of Mnevis at Heliopolis, was continued.

4066. Ba-en-neter, in whose days, according to John of Antioch, the Nile flowed with honey for eleven days. During the reign of this king the suc- cession of females to the throne of Egypt was declared valid.

4000. Sent. The sepulchral stele of one of this king's priests is preserved at Oxford.

Dynasty III, from Memphis. ■ — — . Nefer-ka-Seker, in whose reign an eclipse appears to be mentioned.

lO NOTES FOR TRAVELLERS IN EGYPT.

Dynasty IV, from Memphis.

V..C.

3766. Sencferu. Important contemporaneous monuments ot this king exist. During his reign the copper mints of Wadi Ma'arah were worked.

3733. Chufu (Cheops),- who fought with the people of Sinai; he built the first pyramid of Gizeh.

3666. Cha-f-Ra (Chephren), the builder of the second pyra- mid at Gizeh.

3633. Men-kau-Ra (Mycerinus), the builder of the third pyramid at Gizeh. The fragments of his coffin are in the British Museum. Some copies of the Book of the Dead say that the 64th chapter of that work was compiled during the reign of this king.

Dynasty V, from Ekplianiint. 3366. Tet-ka-Ra. The Precepts of Ptah-hetep were written

during the reign of this king. 3333. Unas, whose pyramid at Sakkarah was expjored in

1881.

Dynasty VI, from Memphis. 3266. Teta, the builder of a pyramid at Sakkarah. 3233. Pepi-meri-Ra, the builder of a pyramid at Sakkarah. 3200. Mer-en-Ra. 3166. Nefer-ka-Ra.

3133 (?). Nit-aqert (Nitocris), "the beautiful woman with rosy cheeks."

r Dynasties VII and VIII, from Memphis. 3 1 00. I Dynasties IX and X, from Heracleopolis.

Nefer-ka. Nefer-Seh .... Ab.

Nefer-kau-Ra. Charthi.

HISTORICAL SUMMARY. 15. C.

3033. Nefer-ka-Ra.

3000. Nefer-ka-Ra-Nebi.

2966. Tet-ka-Ra-

2933. Nefer-ka-Ra-Chentu.

2900. Mer-en-Heru.

2866. Se-nefer-ka-Ra.

2833. Ka-en-Ra.

2800. Nefer-ka-Ra-Tererl.

2766. Nefer-ka-Ra-Heru.

2733. Nefer-ka-Ra Pepi Seneb.

2700. Nefer-ka-Ra- Annu.

2633. Nefer-kau-Ra.

2600. Nefer-kau-Heru.

2^T,T,. Nefer-ari-ka-Ra.*

Dynasty XI, from Diospolis, or Thebes.

From the time of Nitocris to Amenemhat I. Egyptian history is nearly a blank. The names of a large number of kings who ruled during this period are known, but they cannot, at present, be arranged in exact chronological order.

J500. Se-anch ka-Ra. This king is known to us through an inscription at Hamamat, which states that he sent an expedition to the land of Punt ; this shows that at that early date an active trade must have been carried on across the Arabian desert between Egypt and Arabia. The other kings of the Xlth dynasty bore the names of Antef-aa, An-antef, Amentuf, An-aa, and Mentu-hetep. Se-ilnch-ka-Ra appears to have been the immediate predecessor of the Xllth dynasty.

* These names are obtained from the Tablet of Abydos.

12 NOTES FOR TRAVELLERS IN EGYPT.

MIDDLE EMPIRE. Dynasty XII, from Dio spoils, or Thebes.

R.C.

2466. Amenemhat I. ascended the throne of Egypt after hard fighting ; he conquered the Uaua, a Libyan tribe that lived near Korosko in Nubia, and wrote a series of instructions for his son Usertsen I. The story of Senehet was written during this reign.

2433. Usertsen I. made war against the tribes of Ethiopia ; he erected granite obehsks and built largely at Heliopolis.

2400. Amenemhat II. Chnemu-hetep, son of Neheni, whose tomb is at Beni-hasan, lived during the reign of this king.

2366. Usertsen II.

2333. Usertsen III.

2300. Amenemhat III. During this king's reign special attention was paid to the rise of the Nile, and canals were dug and sluices made for irrigating the country ; in this reign the famous Lake Moeris, in the district called by the Arabs El-Fayijm,*was built. The rise of the Nile was marked on the rocks at Semneh, about thirty-five miles above the second cataract, and the inscriptions are visible to this day.

2266. Amenemhat IV.

2233. Dynasties XIII-X VII. The Hyksos Period.

According toManetho these dynasties were as follows : — Dynasty XIII, from Thebes, 60 kings „ XIV, „ Chois,t 76 „

XV, Hyksos, 6 „

XVI, „ 10 „ ,, X\TI, from Thebes, 10 „

I-runi the Coptic 4>IOJUL, " the lake." f A lo\>n in the Delta.

in 453

years

„ 4S4

■>i

„ 260

)j

„ 251

>>

„ 10

It

HISTORICAL SUMMARY. 1 3

Unfortunately there are no monuments whereby we can correct or modify these figures. The Hyksos appear to have made their way from the countries in and to the west of Mesopotamia into Egypt. They joined with their countrymen, who had already settled in the Delta, and were able to defeat the native kings ; it is thought that their rule lasted 500 years, and that Joseph arrived in Egypt towards the end of this period. The principal Hyksos kings of the XVIth dynasty are Apepi I. and Apepi II. ; Nubti and the native Egyptian princes ruled under them. Under Se-qenen-Ra, a Theban ruler of the XVIIth dynasty, a war broke out between the Egyptians and the Hyksos, which continued for many years, and resulted in the expulsion of the foreign rulers.

Dynasty XVIII, fro in Thebes.

B.C.

1700. Ahmes, who re-established the independence of

_ Egypt. 1666. Amen-hetep (Amenophis) I. 1633. Tehuti-mes (Thothmes) I. 1600. ,, ,, 11.

f Hat-shepset, sister of Thothmes II. She sent an I expedition to Punt. 1600. <{ Tehuti-mes (Thothmes) III. made victorious ex- I peditions into Mesopotamia. He was one of [_ the greatest kings that ever ruled over Egypt. 1566. Amen-hetep II. 1533. Tehuti-mes IV.

1500. Amen-hetep III. warred successfully in the lands to the south of Egypt and in Asia. He made it a custom to go into Mesopotamia to shoot lions, and, while there he married the daughter of Tushratta, the king of Mitanni. The correspondence and despatches from kings of Babylon, Mesopotamia, and Phoenicia have recently been found at Tell

14 NOTES FOR TRAVELLERS IN EGYPT.

el-Amarna, and large portions of them are now preserved in the Museums of London and Berlin. Amen-hetep IV. or Chu-en-Aten ("brilliance, or glory of the solar disk "), the founder of the city Chu- aten, the ruins of which are called Tell el-Amarna. and of the heresy of the disk-worshippers. He was succeeded by a few kings who held the same religious opinions as himself.

Dynasty XIX^/?vm TJiehes.

1!.C.

1400. Rameses I.

1366. Seti I. conquered the rebellious tribes in Western Asia, built the Memnonium at Abydos. He was famous as a builder, and attended with great care to the material welfare of his kingdom. He is said to have built a canal from the Nile to the Red Sea.

1333. Rameses H. undertookmany warlike expeditions, and brought Nubia, Abyssinia, and Mesopotamia under the rule of Egypt. He was a great builder, and a liberal patron of the arts and sciences ; learned men like Pentaurt were attached to his court. He is famous as one of the oppressors of the Israelites.

1300. Seti Meneptah II. is thought to have been the Pharaoh of the Exodus.

NEW EMPIRE. Dynasty XX, from Thebes.

1200. Rameses HI. was famous for his buildings, and for the splendid gifts which he made to the temples of Thebes, Abydos and Heliopolis. His reign repre- sented an era of great commercial prosperity.

I 1 66-1 133. Rameses IV.-XII.

HISTORICAL SUMMARY.

Dynasty XXI, from Tunis and Thches.

15

1 100-

r I. I'ani.'-.

II. 'riiobfs.

Se-I\[entu.

Her-Heru.

1000. "

Pasehchfinu I.

Pi-anchi.

Amen-em-apt.

Pai-net'em I-III.

Pasebchanu II.

Dynasty XXII, from Bubastis (Tcll-Basta).

966. Shashanq (Shishak) I. (see 1 Kings, xiv. 25-28 :

2 Chron., xii. 2-13) besieged Jerusalem. 933. Uasarken I. "^

These kings appear to have been of Semitic origin ; their names are Semitic, as, tor example, Uasarken = Babylonian Sar- ginu (Sargon) ; Takeleth = Tukulti (Tiglath).

900. Takeleth I. 866. Uasarken II 833. Shashanq II

Takeleth II. f Shashanq III. j Pamai |

Shashanq IV. J

800.

Dynasty XXIII, from Tanis.

766. Peta-Bast.

Uasarken III.

Dynasty XXIV, from Sais {Sd el-Hagcr). 733. Bak-en-ren-f (Bocchoris).

Dynasty XXV, from Ethiopia.

700. Shabaka (Sabaco). Shabataka.

693. Taharqa (Tirhakah, 2 Kings, xix. 9) is famous for having conquered Sennacherib and delivered Heze- kiah ; he was, however, defeated by Esarhaddon and Assurbanipal, the son and grandson respec- tively of Sennacherib. Tirhakah's son-in-law, Urdamanah, was also defeated by the Assyrians.

1 6 NOTES FOR TRAVELLERS IN EGYPT.

Dynasty XXVI, frofti Sais. 666. Pscmthek I. (Psammetichus) allowed Greeks to settle

in the Delta, and employed Greek soldiers to fight

for him. 612. Nekau II. (Necho) defeated Josiah, king of Judah,

and was defeated by Nebuchadnezzar II. son of

Nabopolassar, king of Babylon. 596. Psammetichus II. 591. Uah-ab-Ra (Hophrah of the Bible, Gr. Apries)

marched to the help of Zedekiah, king of Judah,

who was defeated by Nebuchadnezzar II. His

army rebelled against him, and he was dethroned ;

Amasis, a general in his arm\-, then succeeded to

the throne. 572. Ahmes II. favoured the Greeks, and granted them

many privileges ; in his reign Naucratis became a

great city. 528. Psammetichus III. was defeated at Pelusium by

Cambyses the Persian, and taken prisoner ; he

was afterwards slain for rebelling against the

Persians.

Dy7iasty XX VII, from Persia.

527. Cambyses marched against the Ethiopians and the inhabitants of the Oases.

521. Darius Hystaspes endeavoured to open up the ancient routes of commerce ; he established a coinage, and adopted a conciliatory and tolerant system of government, and favoured all attempts to promote the welfare of Egypt.

486. Xerxes I.

465. Artaxerxes I., during whose reign the Egyptians re- volted, headed by AmyrtKus.

HISTORICAL SUMMARY. I 7

B.C.

425. Darius Nothus, during whose reign the Egyptians revolted successfully, and a second Amyrtasus became king of Egypt.

^05. Artaxerxes II.

Dynasty XXVIII, from Sals. Amen-rut (Amyrtaeus), reigned six years.

Dynasty XXIX, from Mendes. 399. Naifaaurut I. 393. Hakar. 380. P-se-mut. 379. Naifaaurut II.

Dynasty XXX, from Sebennytus.

378. Necht-Heru-heb (Nectanebus I.) defeated the Persians at INIendes.

360. T'e-her surrendered to the Persians.

358. Necht-neb-f (Nectanebus II.) devoted himself to the pursuit of magic, and neglected his empire ; when Artaxerxes III. (Ochus) marched against him, he fled from his kingdom, and the Persians again ruled Egypt.

PERSIANS.

340. Artaxerxes III. (Ochus). 338. Arses.

336. Darius III. (Codomannus) conquered by Alexander the Great at Issus.

MACEDONIANS.

332. Alexander the Great founded Alexandria. He showed his toleration of the Egyptian religion, by sacrificing to the god Amen of Libya.

c

1 8 NOTES FOR TRAVELLERS IN EGYPT.

PTOLEMIES.

B.C.

305. Ptolemy I. Soter, son of Lngus, became king of Eg}pt after Alexander's death. He founded the famous Alexandrian Library, and encouraged learned Greeks to make Alexandria their home ; he died B.C. 284.

2S6. Ptolemy II. Philadelphus built the Phavos, founded Berenice and Arsinoe, caused Manetho's Egyptian history to be compiled, and the Greek version of the Old Testament (Septuagint) to be made.

247. Ptolemy III. Euergetes I. The stele of Canopus * was set up in the ninth year of his reign; he obtained possession of all Syria, and was a patron of the arts and sciences.

222. Ptolemy IV. Philopator defeated Antiochus, and founded the temple at Edfu.

205. Ptolemy V. Epiphanes. During his reign the help of the Romans against Antiochus was asked for by the Egyptians. Coelesyria and Palestine were lost to Egypt. He was poisoned B.C. 182, and his son Ptolemy VI. Eupator, died in that same y^ar. The Rosetta Stone was set up in the eighth year of the reign of this king.

182. Ptolemy VII. Philometor was taken prisoner at Pelusium by Antiochus IV., B.C. 171, and died B.C. 146. He reigned alone at first, then con- jointly (e.g. 170 — 165) with Ptolemy IX. Euergetes II. (also called Physcon), and finally having gone to

* This important stele, ]5reserved at Gizch, is inscriljed in hiero glyphics, Greek and demotic with a decree made at Canopus by the priesthood, assembled there from all parts of Egypt, in honour of Ptolemy III. It mentions the great benefits which he had conferred upon Egypt, and states what festivals are to be celebrated in his honour and in that of Berenice, etc., and concludes with a resolution ordering that a copy of this inscription in hieroglyphics, Greek and demotic shall l)e placed in every large temple of Egypt. Two other copies of this work are known.

B.C.

HISTORIC.\L SUMM.\RY. I9

Rome on account of his quarrel with Physcon, he reignedsolemonarchof Egypt (B.C. 165). Physcon was overthrown n.c. 132, reigned again B.C. 125, and died b.c. 117. 170. Ptolemy VIII. is murdered by Physcon. 1 1 7. Ptolemy X. Soter II. Philometor II. (Lathyrus), reigns jointly with Cleopatra III. Ptolemy X. is banished (b.c. 106), his brother Ptolemy XI. Alexander I. is made co-regent, but afterwards banished (b.c. 89) and slain (b.c. 87) ; Ptolemy X. is recalled, and dies B.C. 81.

81. Ptolemy XII. Alexander II. is slain.

81. Ptolemy XIII. Neos Dionysos (Auletes), ascends the throne ; dies B.C. 52.

52. Ptolemy XIV. Dionysos II. and Cleopatra VII. are, according to the will of Ptolemy XIII. to marry each other ; the Roman senate to.be their guardian. Ptolemy XIV. banishes Cleopatra, and is a party to the murder of Pompey, their guardian, who visits Egypt after his defeat at Pharsalia. Caesar arrives in Egypt to support Cleopatra (b.c. 48) ; Ptolemy XIV., is drowned ; Ptolemy XV., brother of Cleopatra VII., appointed her co-regent by Caesar (b.c. 47); he is murdered at her wish, and her son by Caesar, Ptolemy XVI., Caesarion, is named co-regent (b.c. 45).

42. Antony orders Cleopatra to appear before him, and is seduced by her charms ; he kills himself, and Cleopatra dies by the bite of an asp. Egypt becomes a Roman province b.c. 30.

ROMANS.

27. Caesar Augustus becomes master of the Roman Empire. Cornelius Gallus is the first prefect of

c 2

20 NOTES FOR TRAVELLERS IN EGYPT.

Egypt. Under the third prefect, Aelius Gallus, Candace, queen of the Ethiopians, invades Egypt, ^ P but is defeated.

14. Tiberius. In his reign Germanicus visited Egypt. 37. CaHgula. In his reign a persecution of the Jews

took, place. 41. Claudius.

55. Nero. In his reign Christianity was first preached in Egypt by Saint Mark. The Blemmyes made raids upon the southern frontier of Egypt. 6g. A'espasian. Jerusalem destroyed a.d. 70. / 82. Domitian causes temples to Isis and Scrapis to be built at Rome. 98. Trajan. The Nile and Red Sea Canal (Amnis

Trajanus) re-opened. 117. Hadrian. Visited Egypt twice. 161. Marcus Aurelius caused the famous Itinerary to be

made. 180. Commodus. 193. Septimus Severus.

211. Caracalla visited Egypt, and caused a large number of young men to be massacred at Alexandria.

217. Macrinus.

218. Elagabalus.

249. Decius. Christians persecuted.

253. Valerianus. Christians persecuted.

260. Gallienus. Persecution of Christians stayed. Zenobia, Queen of Palmyra, invades Egypt a.d. 268.

270. Aurclian. Zenobia becomes Queen of Egypt for a short time, but is dethroned a.d. 273.

276. Probus.

284. Diocletian. " Pompey's Pillar" erected a.d, 302; persecution of Christians a.d. 304. The Copts date the era of the Martyrs from the day of Diocletian's accession to the throne (August 29).

HISTORICAL SUMMARY. 21

A.D.

324. Constantinc the Great, the Christian Emperor, in whose reign, a.d. 325, the Council of Nicoea was held. At this council it was decided that Christ and His Father were of one and the same nature, as taught by Athanasius; and the doctrine of Arius,* that Christ and God were only similar in nature, was decreed heretical.

337. Constantius. George of Cappadocia, an Arian, is made Bishop of Alexandria.

379. Theodosius I., the Great, proclaims Christianity the religion of his empire. The Arians and followers of the ancient Egyptian religion were persecuted.

THE BYZANTINES.

395. Arcadius, Emperor of the East. The Anthropomor- phites,! who affirmed that God was of human form, destroyed the greater number of their opponents.

408. Theodosius II. In his reign the doctrines of Nestor- ius were condemned by Cyril of Alexandria. Nestorius, from the two natures of Christ, inferred also two persons, a human and a divine. " In the Syrian school, Nestorius had been taught (a.d. 429-431) to abhor the confusion of the two natures,

* " He was a most expert logician, but perverted his talents to evil pirposes, and had the audacity to preach what no one before him had tver suggested, namely, that the Son of God was made out of that which had no prior existence ; that there was a period of time in which I le existed not ; that, as possessing free will. He was capable of virtue, or of vice; and that He was created and made."- — Sozomen, Eccles. Hist., Bk. I., ch. 15. For the statement of the views of Arius by his opponent Alexander, Bishop of Alexandria, see his letter addressed to the Catholic Church generally, in Socrates, Eccles. Hist. , Bk. I., ch. 6.

t The leader of this persecution was Theophilus, Bishop of Alex- andria, who, before he discovered that the majority of the Egyptian monks were Anthropomorphites, was himself opposed to this body.

22 NOTES FOR TRAVELLERS IN EGYPT.

and nicely to discriminate the humanity of his master Christ from the Divinity of the Lord Jesus. The Blessed Virgin he revered as the m.other of Christ, but his ears were offended with the rash and recent title of mother of God, which had been insensibly adopted since the origin of the Arian controversy. From the pulpit of Constantinople, a friend of the patriarch,* and afterwards the patriarch himself, repeatedly preached against the use, or the abuse, of a word unknown to the apostles, unauthorized by the church, and which could only tend to alarm the timorous, to mislead the simple, to amuse the profane, and to justify, by a seeming resemblance, the old genealogy of Olympus. In his calmer moments Nestorius con- fessed, that it might be tolerated or excused by the union of the two natures, and the communication of their idioms {i.e., a transfer of properties of each nature to the other — of infinity to man, passibility to (Jod, etc.) : hut he was exasperated, by con- tradiction, to disclaim the worship of a newborn, an infant Deity, to draw his inadequate similes from the conjugal or civil partnerships of life, and to describe the manhood of Christ, as the robe, the instrument, the tabernacle of his Godhead." —

A.D. Gibbon, Decline and Fall, chap. 47.

450. Marcianus. The Monophysite doctrine of Eutyches was condemned at the Council of Chalcedon, A.D. 451, Eutyches, from the one person of Christ, inferred also one nature, viz., the Divine — the human having been absorbed into it. Silco invaded Egypt with his Nubian followers.

* Anastasius of Antioch, who saitl, " Let no one call Mary Theotokos; for Mary was but a woman ; and it is impossible that God should be born of a woman." — Socrates, Eccks. Hist., Bk. VII., chap, xxxii.

HISTORICAL SUMMARY. 23

A.n.

474. Zcno. He issued the Henoticon^ an. edict which, while affirming the. Incarnation, made no attempt to decide the difficult question whether Christ possessed a single or a. double nature, .

481. Anastasius.

527. Justinian. The Monophysites separated from the Melchites and chose . their owa. patriarch ; they

were afterwards called Copts, UjJiiU* 610, Heraclius. The Persians under Chosroes hold Egypt for ten years ; they are expelled by Heraclius

A.D. 629.

MUHAMMEDANS.

638. 'Amr ibn el-'Asi conquers Egypt.

644. 'Othman. .

750. Merwan H., the last of the 'Omayyade dynasty, was

put to death in Egypt. 750-870. The 'Abbasides rule over Egypt. 786. Harun er-Rashid.

813. Mamiin visited Egypt, and opened the Great Pyramid. JS70. Ahmed ibn-Tuliin governs Egypt. 884. Khamaruyeh enlarges Fostat. 969-1 1 7 1. The Fatimites govern Egypt, with Masr el-

Kahira f (Cairo) as their residence. 975. Aziz, son of Mu'izz, great grandson of 'Obedallah. 996. Hakim, son of 'Aziz, founder of the Druses. This

remarkable prince wnshed to be considered as God

incarnate.

* The name given to the native Christians of Egypt by the Arabs, from K'Cm~^IOC for Klyyimoq.

24 NOTES FOR TRAVELLERS IN EGYPl .

A.D.

I020. Zahir, son of Hakim.

1036. Abu Tamim el-Mustansir.

1094. Musta'li, son of el-Mustansir, captured Jerusalem (a.d. 1096), but Avas defeated by the Crusaders under Godfrey de Bouillon.

1 160. 'Adid Ledinallah, the last of the Fatimites.

1171. Salaheddin (Saladin) defeated the Crusaders at Hittin, and recaptured Jerusalem.

1 193. Melik el'-Adil.

1 2 18. Melik el-Kamil, the builder of Mansurah.

1240. Melik es-Saleh, the usurper, captured Jerusalem, Damascus, and Ascalon. Louis IX., of France, attacked and captured Damietta, but was made prisoner at Mansurah, with all his army.

1 250-1380. The Bahrite Mamelukes.

1 260. Bebars.

1277. Kalaun.

1 291. El-Ashraf Khalil captured Acre.

1346. Hasan.

1382-1517. Burgite or Circassian Mamelukes.

1382. Barkuk.

1422. Bursbey.

1468. Kait Bey.

1 501. El-Ghuri,

15 1 7. Tuman Bey is deposed by Selim I. of Constanti- nople, and Egypt becomes a Turkish Pashalik.

J 771. 'AH Bey sultan of Egypt.

1798. Napoleon Bonaparte stormed Alexandria ; battle of the Pyramids ; and French fleet destroyed off Abukir by the English.

1 801. French compelled by the English to evacuate Egypt.

1805. Muhammad 'Ali aj)pointed Pasha of Egypt.

]8ii. Assassination of the Mamelukes by him.

1831. Declares his independence.

HISTORICAL SUMMARY. 25

A.D.

1848. Ibrahim Pasha.

1849. Death of Muhammad 'Ah. 'Abbas Pasha was

strangled at Benha.

1854. Sa'id Pasha. The raihvay from Alexandria was completed, and the making of the Suez Canal begun in his reign. He founded the Bulak Museum, and encouraged excavations on the sites of the ancient cities of Egypt.

1863. Isma'il, son of Ibrahim Pasha, and grandson of Muhammad 'Ali, was born in 1830. He was made Khedive in 1867. He caused railways, docks, and canals to be made, systems of tele- graphs and postage to be established; he built sugar factories, and endeavoured to advance the material welfare of Egypt. The Suez Canal was opened during his reign (1869). He greatly ex- tended the boundaries of Egypt, and obtained possession of Suakin (Sauakin), Masowa (Masau'a), and two ports in the Gulf of Aden, a part of the Somali coast, a large part of the frontier of Abys- sinia, and the Province of Darfur. The tribute paid by him to the Porte amounted to nearly P^7oo,ooo. During his reign the national debt of Egypt became so great, that a Commission was appointed to enquire what steps should be taken in the matter. In 1879, as a result of pressure put upon the Porte, Isma'il was dethroned, and Tewfik, his eldest son, was appointed to succeed him.

1882. Massacre of Europeans in June; bombardment of Alexandria by the English fleet in July ; occupation of Egypt by English troops; defeat of 'Arabi Pasha.

1885. Murder of Gordon, and the abandonment of the Sudan.

1886-1890. English troops continue to occupy Egypt.

26 notes for travellers in egypt.

Dates assigned to the Egyptian Dynasties by

Eg'

vptologists.

•nasly.

Chanipollion-

Lepsius

Brugsch

Mariette,

Fij;eac.

(in 1858).

(in 1877).

I.

B.C. 5,867

3,892

4,400

5,004

ir.

5,615

3,639

4,133

4,751

III.

5,3i«

3,338

3,966

4,449

IV.

5,I2T

3,124

3,733

4,235

V.

4,673

2,840

3,566

3,951

VI.

4,425

2,744

3,300

3,703

VII.

4,222

2,592

3,100.

3,500

VIII.

4,147

2,522

3-500

IX.

4,047

2,674.

3,358

X.

3,947

2,565

3,249

XL

3,762

2,423

3,064

XII.

3,703

2,380

2,466

2,851

XIII.

3,417

2,136

2,235

XIV.

3,004

2,267

2,398

XV.

2,520

2,101

2,214

XVI.

2,270

1,842

XVII.

2,082

1,684

XVIII.

1,822

1,591

1,700

1,703

XIX.

1,473

1,443

1,400

1,462

XX.

1,279

1,209

1,200

1,288

XXI.

1,101

1,091

1,100

1,110

XXII.

971

961

966

980

XXIII.

851

7S7

766

810

XXIV.

762

729

733

721

XXV.

718

716

700

715

XXVI.

674

6S5

666

665

XXVII.

524

525

527

527

XXVIII,

404

525

406

XXIX.

398

399

399

399

XXX.

377

378

37S

378

XXXI.

339

340

340

340

27

THE COUNTRY OF EGYPT.

The Ancient Egyptians called Egypt J Bag or

'^ ^ ® Baqet; ^^Ff "^^' (] ( ^ Ta-mera ; and ilZH ^

i^aw/. Baq seems to refer to Egypt as the olive-producing country, and Ta-mera as the land of the inundation ; the name by which it is most commonly called in the inscrip- tions is Kam, Le., " Black," from the darkness of its soil. It was also called the " land of the sycamore," and the land of "the eye of Horus " [i.e., the Sun). It was divided by

the Egyptians into two parts : I. Upper Egypt 5^i=f X, ®

Ta-res or ^^f^^-L^@ Ta-qema, "the southern land •" and

II. Lower Egypt ^^^"¥5 Ta-meh, "the northern land."

The kings of Egypt styled themselves sutai jiet, " king of the North and South," and 7ieb taiii, " lord of two earths." * The country was divided into nomes, the number of which is variously given ; the hst given by some of the classical authorities contains thirty-six, but judging by the monu- ments the number was nearer forty. The nome {Jiesp) was divided into four parts ; i, the capital town {iiui) ; 2, the cultivated land ; 3, the marshes, which could only at times be used for purposes of cultivation ; and 4, the canals, which had to be kept clear and provided with sluices, etc.,

* As ruler of the two countries, each king wore the crown t^ ^ which was make up of V , the teser, or red crown, representing the northern part of Egypt, and Z^, the het' , or white crown, representing the southern part of Egypt.

28

NOTES FOR TRAVELLERS IN EGYPT.

for irrigation purposes. During the rule of the Greeks Eg}'pt was divided into three parts : Upper, Central, and Lower Egypt ; Central Egypt consisted of seven nomes, and was called Heptanomis.

List op^ Nomes of Egypt — Upper Egypt.

Nome.

1. Ta-Kens.

2. Tes-Heru.

3. Ten.

4. Uast.

5. Herui.

6. Aa-ti.

7. Sechem.

8. Abt.

9. Amsu. 10. Uat'et. ir. Set.

12. Tuf.

13. Atefchent.

14. Atef-peh.

15. Un. .

16. Meh-mahet.

17

18. Sapet.

19. Uab.

Capital.

Abu (Elephantine), in later

times Nubt (Oinbos). Teb (Apollinopolis magna,

Arab. Utfu or Edfu). Necheb (Eileithyia),in later

times Sene (Latopolis),

Esneh. Uast (Thebes), in later

times Hermonthis. Kcbti (Coptos). Taenterer (Denderah).

Ha (Diospolis parva). Abtu (Abydos), in earlier

times Teni (This). Apu (Panopolis). Tebu (Aphroditopolis). Shashetep (Hypsele). Nen-ent-bak (Antaeopolis). Saiut (Lycopolis, Arab.

Siut). Kesi (Cusae). Chemennu (Hermopolis). Hebennu (Hipponon). Kasa (Cynonpolis). Ha-suten(/\labastronpolis). Pa-mat'et (O.xyrhynchos).

Divinity. Chnemu.

Heru - Bel. u-

tet. Necheb.

Amen-Ra.

Amsu. Hathor (Het

Hert). " Hathor. An bur.

Amsu.

Hathor.

Chnemu.

Horus.

Ap-uat.

Hathor.

Thoth.

Horus.

Anubis.

Anubis.

Set.

THE COUNTRY OF EGYPT.

Nome.

Cajiital.

Divinity.

20.

Am-chent.

Chenensu (Hcracleopolis magna).

Heru-shcfi.

21.

Am-peh.

Se-men Heru.

Chnemu.

22.

Maten.

Tep-ahet (Aphroditopolis). Lower Egypt.

Halhor.

I.

Anub-het'.

Men-nefer (Memphis).

Ptah.

2.

Aa.

Sechem (LetopoHs).

Heru-ur.

3-

Anient.

Nenten-Hapi (Apis).

Hathor-nub.

4-

Sepi-res.

T'eka (Canopus).

Amen-Ra.

5-

Sepi-emhet.

Sa (Sais).

Neit.

6.

Kaset

Chesun (Chois).

Amen-Ra.

7-

. . . Ament.

Sent-Nefer (Metehs).

Hu.

8.

. . . Abtet.

T'ukot (Sethroe).

Atmu.

9-

At'i.

Pa-Ausar (Busiris).

Osiris.

10.

Kakem.

Hataherab (Athribis).

Heru-chenti- chati.

II.

Kahebes.

Kahebes (Kabasos).

Isis.

12.

Kat'eb.

T'eb-neter (Sebennythos).

Anhur.

13-

Hakat.

Annu (Hehopohs).

Ra.

14.

Chent-abet.

T'an (Tanis).

Horus.

15-

Tehuti.

Pa-Tehuti (HermopoHs).

Thoth.

16.

Char.

Pabaneb-tet (Mendes).

Ba-neb-tet

17-

Sam-behutet.

Pa chen-en-Amen (Dios- poHs).

Amen-Ra.

18.

Amchent.

Pa-Bast (Bubastis),

Bast.

19.

Am-peh.

Pa Uat' (Buto).

Uat'.

20.

Sept.

Kesem (Phakussa).

Sept.

Egypt proper terminates at Aswan (Syene) ; the territory south of that town for a certain distance on each side of the river Nile is called Nubia. The races who lived there in very early times caused the Egyptians much trouble, and we know from the tomb-inscriptions at Aswan that expeditions were sent against these peoples by the

30 NOTES FOR TRAVELLERS IN EGYPT.

Egyptians as far back as the Xllth dynasty. The area of the land in Egypt i)roper available for cultivation is about 11,500 square miles ; the Delta contains about 6,500 miles, and the Nile Valley with the P\ayum 5,000 miles. The Oases of the Libyan Desert and the Peninsula of Sinai are considered as parts of Egypt. Lower and Upper Egypt are each divided into seven Provinces, the names of which are as follows : —

Lower Eg)-pt. Upper Egypt.

Behereh (capital, Damanhur). Beni-Suef (capital, Beni- Kalyub (capital, Benha). suef).

Sherkiyeh (capital, Zakazik). Minyeh (capital, Minyeh). Dakhaliyeh (capital, Man- Siilt (capital, Asyut).

sura). Girgeh (capital, Suhag).

Menuf. Keneh (capital, Keneh).

Gharbiyeh (capital Tanta). Esneh (capital, Esneh). Gizeh. Wadi Halfah.

Large towns like Alexandria, Port Sa'id, Suez, Cairo, Damietta, and Isma'iliya are governed by native rulers.

In ancient days the population of Egypt proper is said to have been from seven and a-half to nine niillions ; at the present time it is probably well over eight millions. The population of the provinces south of Egypt, and which originally belonged to her, has never been accurately ascer- tained. 'J'he country on each side of the Bahr el-Abyad is very thickly peopled ; it is generally thought that the popu- lation of this and the other provinces which belonged to Egypt in the time of Isma'il amounts to about ten millions.

THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS.

The Egyptians, whom the sculptures and monuments make known to us as being among the most ancient in- habitants of the country, belong, beyond all doubt, to the Caucasian race, and they seem to have migrated thither from the East. The original home of the invaders was, apparently, Asia, and they made their way across Mesopo- tamia and Arabia, and across the Isthmus of Suez into Egypt. It has been suggested that they sailed across the Indian Ocean and up the Red Sea, on the western shore of which they landed. It is, however, very doubtful if a people who lived in the middle of a huge land like central Asia, would have enough experience to make and handle ships sufficiently large to cross such seas. Xo period can be fixed for the arrival of the new-comers from the East into Egypt ; we are, however, justified in assuming that it took place before b.c. 5000.

When the people from the East had made their way

into Egypt, they found there an aboriginal race with a

dark skin and complexion. The Egyptians generally

called their land ^^ — 1 % Kamt, i.e., "black"; and if the ©

dark, rich colour of the cultivated land of Eg}-pt be considered, the appropriateness of the term will be at once evident. The hieroglyphic which is read Kam, is the skin of a crocodile, and we know from Horapollo (ed. Cory, p. 87), that this sign was used to express anything of a dark colour.* The name " Ham " is given to Eg}pt by the

* "To denote darkness, they represent the Tail of a Crocodile, for by no other means does the crocodile inflict death and destruction on any animal which it may have caught than by first striking it with its tail, and rendering it incapable of motion."

32 NOTES FOR TRAVELLERS IN EGYPT.

Bible ; this word may be compared with the Coptic KHJULe, KHJULI or ^HJULI. 'i'he children of Ham are said to be Cush, IMizraim, Put, and Canaan. The second of these, Misraim, is the name given to Egypt by the Hebrews. The dual form of the word, which means " the double Misor," probably has reference to the " two lands " (in Egypt. ^S)j over which the Egyptian kings, in their inscriptions, proclaimed their rule. The descendants of Cush are represented on the monuments by the inhabitants of Nubia and the negro tribes which live to the south of that country. In the earliest times the descendants of Cush appear to have had the same religion as the Egyptians. The Put of the Bible is thought by some to be represented by the land of Punt, or spice-land, of the monuments. The people of Punt appear to have dwelt on both sides of the Red Sea to the south of Egypt and on the Somali coast, and as far back as B.C. 2500 a large trade was carried on between them and the Egyptians ; it is thought that the Egyptians regarded them as kinsmen. The aljoriginal inhabitants of Phoinicia were probably the kinsfolk of the descendants of Misraim, called by the Bible Canaanites. Diodorus and some other classical authorities tell us that Egypt was colonized from Ethiopia ; for this view, however, there is no support. The civilization, religion, arts of building, etc., of the Ethiopians are all of Egyptian origin, and in this, as in so many other points relating to the history of Egypt, the Greeks were either misinformed, or they misunderstood what they were told.

An examination of the painted representations of the Egyptians by native artists, shows us that the pure Egyptian was of slender make, with broad shoulders, long hands and feet, and sinewy legs and arms. His forehead was high, his chin square, his eyes large, his cheeks full, his mouth wide, his lips full, and his nose short and rounded. His jaws did not protrude, and his hair is smooth and fine. The evidence

THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS. 33

of the pictures on the tombs is supported and confirmed by the skulls and bones of mummies which anthropologists have examined and measured during the last few years ; hence all attempts to prove that the Egyptian is of negro origin are overthrown at the outset by facts which cannot be con- troverted. In cases where the Egyptians intermarried with people of Semitic origin, we find aquiline noses.* One of the most remarkable things connected with the Egyptians of to-day is the fact that a very large number of them have reproduced, without the slightest alteration, many of the personal features of their ancestors who lived seven thousand years ago. The traveller is often accompanied on a visit to a tomb of the Ancient Empire by a modern Egyptian who, in his attitudes, form, and face, is a veritable reproduction of the hereditary nobleman who built the tomb which he is examining. It may be that no invading race has ever found itself physically able to reproduce per- sistently its own characteristics for any important length of time, or it may be that the absorption of such races by intermarriage with the natives, together with the influence

* A very good example of this is seen in the black granite head of the statue of Osorkon II., presented to the British Museum (No. 1063) by the Committee of the Eg>'pt Exploration Fund. The lower part of the nose is broken away, but enough of the upper part remains to show what was its original angle. It was confidently asserted that this head belonged to a statue of a Hyksos king, but the assertion was not supported by any trustworthy evidence. The face and features are those of a man whose ancestors were Semites and Egyptians, and men with similar countenances are to be seen in the desert to the south-east of Palestine to this day. A clinching proof that the statue is not that of a Hyksos king was brought forward by Prof. Lanzone of Turin, who, in the earlier part of this year, showed Mr. Renouf a small statue of Osorkon II., having precisely the same face and features. The XXIInd dynasty, to which this king belonged, were Semites, as their names show, and they were always regarded by the Egyptians as foreigners, and A^, the determinative of a man from a foreign country, was placed after each of their names.

D

34 NOTES FOR TRAVELLERS IN EGYPT.

of the climate, has made such characteristics disappear ; the fact, however, remains, that the physical type of the Egyptian fellah is exactly what it was in the earliest dynasties. The invasions of the Babylonians, Hyksos, Ethiopians (including negro races), Assyrians, Persians, Greeks, Romans, Arabs, and Turks, have had no jjermanent effect either on their physical or mental characteristics. The Egyptian has seen the civilizations of all these nations rise up, progress flourish, decay, and pass away ; he has been influenced from time to time by their religious views and learning ; he has been the servant of each of them in turn, and has paid tribute to them all ; he has, nevertheless, survived all of them save one. It will, of course, be understood that the inhabitants of the towns form a class quite distinct from the Egyptians of the country ; the townsfolk represent a mix- ture of many nationalities, and their character and features change according to the exigencies of the time and circum- stances in which they live, and the influence of the ruling power.

35

THE MODERN EGYPTIANS.

The total population of Egypt proper may be fixed roughly at 8,000,000, of whom about 130,000 are foreigners.

Sir Francis Grenfell is of opinion that the population of Egypt is now nearer nine than eight millions. In a country where an increase in population always means an increase in taxation, it is quite impossible to obtain an accurate census. As far back as the time of David* the idea of "numbering the people" has been unpopular in the East.

It is exceedingly difficult to obtain an exact idea of what the population of Egypt actually was in Pharaonic times, for the inscriptions tell us nothing. Herodotus gives us no information on this matter, but Diodorus tells us that it amounted to 7,000,000 in ancient times. The priests at Thebes informed Germanicus in a.d. 19 that in the times of Rameses II. the country contained 700,000 1 fighting men ; it will also be remembered that the Bible states that the " children of Israel journeyed from Rameses to Succoth, about six hundred thousand on foot that were men, beside children. And a mixed multitude went up also with them." Exodus xii. 37, 38. In the time of Vespasian 7,500,000 persons paid poll-tax; we may assume that about 500,000 were exempt, and therefore there must have been at least 8,000,000 of people in Egypt, without reckoning slaves. (Mommsen, Provinces of Rome, Vol. II., p. 258.) It is probable, however, that the population of Egypt under the

* "And Satan stood up against Israel, and moved David to number Israel." i Chronicles xxi. i. t ''Septigenta milia aetate militari." Tacitus, Annals, Bk. ii., 60.

D 2

S6 NOTES FOR TRAVELLERS IN EGYPT.

rule of the Pharaohs has been greatly exaggerated, chiefly because no accurate data were at hand whereby errors might be corrected. During the occupation of the country by the French in 1 798-1801 it was said to be 2,500,000; Sir Gardner Wilkinson, however, set it down at as low a figure as 1,500,000. In 1821 the population numbered 2,514,000, and in 1846 it had risen to 4,456,186. The last census was ordered by Khedival decree on December 2, 1881, and it was completed in May 3, 1882. According to the official statement published in the Rece7ise7nent General de VEgypte^ at Cairo, in 1884, it amounted in 1882 to 6,806,381 persons, of whom 3,216,847 were men, and 3,252,869 were women. Of the 6,806,381 persons, 6,708,185 were inhabitants of the country, and 98,196 were nomads. It showed that there were in the total 245,779 Beduin and 90,886 foreigners; the number was made up in the following manner : —

Cairo, 374,838; Alexandria, 231,396; l^amietta, 43,616; Rosetta, 19,378; Port Sa'id, 21,296, and Suez, 11,175. ^^ the provinces Behereh contained 398,856 ; Sherkiyeh, 464,655 ; Dakhaliyeh, 586,033 ; Gharbiych, 929,488 ; Kal- yiib, 271,488; Menuf, 646,013; Asyut, 562,137; Beni- Suef, 219,573; Fayijm, 228,709; Gizeh, 283,083; Minyeh, 314,818; Esneh, 237,961; Girgeh, 521,413; Keneh 406,858. The dwellers in the Oases* and the Peninsula of Sinai were not reckoned in the total given above. The annual increase in the population was estimated at 56,202, but at this rate the population of Egypt would only number a little over 7,000,000.

* The Egyptian Oases are five : Wah el-Khargcb, 90 miles from Thebes ; Wah ed-Dakhaliyeh, or Oasis Minor with warm springs, to the west of the city of Oxyrhynchos ; Farafra, about 80 miles north of Oasis Minor ; Siwa, where there was a temple to Jui^iter Ammon, to the south-west of Alexandria; and Wah el-Bahriyeh, to the north of Wah el-Khargeh.

THE MODERN EGYPTIANS. 37

The population of Egypt to-day comprises the Fcllahin, Copts, Beduin, Jews, Turks, Negroes, Nubians and people from Abyssinia, Armenians and Europeans.

The Fellahin amount to about four-fifths of the entire population of I'^gypt, and are chiefly employed in agricultural pursuits. In physical type they greatly resemble the ancient Egyptians as depicted on the monuments. Their com- plexion is dark ; they have straight eyebrows, high cheek bones, flat noses with low bridges, slightly protruding jaws, broad shoulders, large mouths and full lips. The colour of their skin becomes darker as the south is approached. The whole of the cultivation of Egypt is in the hands of the fellahin.

The Copts are also direct descendants from the ancient Egyptians, and inhabit chiefly the cities of Upper Egypt, such as Asyiit and Ahmim. The name Copt is derived from kjj Knbt, the Arabic form of the Coptic form of the Greek name for Egyptian, kl^ivmio^ ; it may be mentioned, in passing, that A/^i'ttto?, Egypt, is thought by some to be derived from an ancient Egyptian name for Memphis, Het-ka-Ptah, " The house of the genius of Ptah." The number of Copts in Egypt to-day is estimated at about 350,000, and the greater number of them are engaged in the trades of goldsmiths, clothworkers, etc. ; a respectable body of clerks and accountants in the postal, telegraph and government offices in Egypt, is drawn from their community. They are clever with their fingers, and are capable of rapid education up to a certain point ; beyond this they rarely go. Physically, they are of a finer type than the fellahin ; their heads are longer and their features are more European.

The Copts are famous in ecclesiastical history for having embraced with extraordinary zeal and rapidity the doctrines of Christianity as preached by St. Mark at Alexandria. Before the end of the third century a.d., Egypt was filled with hundreds of thousands of ascetics, monks, recluses

38 NOTES FOR TRAVELLERS IN EGYPT.

and solitaries who had thrown over their own weird and confused rehgious behefs and embraced Christianity ; they then retired to the mountains and deserts of their country to dedicate their hves to the service of the Christians' God. The Egyptians, their ancestors, who hved sixteen hundred years before Christ, had aheady arrived at the conception of a god who was one in his person, but who manifested himself in the world under many forms and many names. The Greeks and the Romans, who successively held Egypt, caused many changes to come over the native religion of the country which they governed ; and since the conflicting myths and theories taught to the people of Egypt under their rule had bewildered their minds and confused their beliefs, they gladly accepted the simple teaching of Christ's Apostle as a veritable gift of God. Their religious belief took the form of that of Eutyches (died after 451), who sacrificed the "distinction of the two natures in Christ to the unity of the person to such an extent as to make the incarnation an absorption of the human nature by the divine, or a deification of human nature, even of the body." In other words, they believed that Christ had but one composite nature, and for this reason they were called Monophysites ; in their liturgies they stated that God had been crucified. They formed a part of the Alexandrian Church until the Council of Chalcedon, a.d. 451, when it was laid down that Christ had a double nature — human and divine, but after this date they separated themselves from it, and were accounted heretics by it, because they obsti- nately refused to give up their belief in the one divine nature of Christ which embraced and included the human. To the sect of Monophysites or Eutychians the Copts still belong. The orthodox church of Alexandria and its hereti- cal offshoot continued to discuss with anger and tumult the subtle points of their different opinions, until the fifth (Ecumenical Council, held at Constantinople a.d. 553,

THE MODERN EGYPTIANS, 39

made some concessions to the Monophysite party. Shortly after, however, new dissensions arose which so weakened the orthodox church that the Monophysite party hailed with gladness the arrival of the arms of Muhammad the Prophet, and joined its forces with his that they might destroy the power of their theological opponents. After 'Amr had made himself master of Egypt (a.d. 640), he appointed the Copts to positions of dignity and wealth ; finding, how- ever, that they were unworthy of his confidence, they were reduced, and finally persecuted with vigour. From the time of Cyril, Patriarch of Alexandria, a.d. 1235 onwards, but little is known of the history of the Coptic Church. The Copt of to-day usually troubles himself little about theological matters ; in certain cases, however, he affirms with con- siderable firmness the doctrine of the " one nature."

The knowledge of the Coptic language is, generally speak- ing, extinct ; it is exceedingly doubtful if three Coptic scholars, in the Western sense of the word, exist even among the priests. The language spoken by them is Arabic, and though copies of parts of the Bible are found in churches and private houses, they are usually accompanied by an Arabic version of the Coptic text, which is more usually read than the Coptic. The Bible, in all or part, was trans- lated from Greek into Coptic in the third century of our era ; some, however, think that the translation was not made until the eighth century. The versions of the princi- pal books of the Old and the whole of the New Testament, together with lives of saints, monks and martyrs, form the greater part of Coptic literature. The Coptic language is, at base, a dialect of ancient Egyptian ; many of the nouns and verbs found in the hieroglyphic texts remain unchanged in Coptic, and a large number of others can, by making proper allowance for phonetic decay and dialectic differences, be identified without difificulty. The Copts used the Greek alphabet to write down their language, but found it neces-

40 NOTES FOR TRAVELLERS IN EGYPT.

sary to borrow six* signs from the demotic forms of ancient Egyptian characters to express the sounds which they found unrepresented in Greek. The dialect of Upper Egypt is called "Sahidic"! or Theban, and that of Lower Egypt " Memphitic." X During the last few years the study of Coptic has revived among European scholars, but this is partly owing to the fact that the importance of a knowledge of the language, as a preliminary to the study of hieroglyphics, has been at length recognized. The Roman Propagandist Tuki§ published during the last century some valuable works ; in spite, however, of the activity of scholars and the enter- prise of publishers, it still costs nearly ^5 to purchase a copy of as much of the Memphitic Coptic version of the Bible as has come down to us.

The Beduin are represented by the various Arabic- speaking and Muhammedan tribes, who live in the deserts which lie on each side of the Nile ; they amount in number to about 250,000. The Bisharin, Hadendoa, and Ababdeh tribes, who speak a language (called 'to bedyhawiyeh') which is like ancient Egyptian in some respects, and who live in

* These signs are : OJ = J«T^T s/i ; q = ^^^^ / ;

t This is the older and richer dialect of Coptic, it was spoken from Minyeh to Aswan.

X More correctly called Boheiric, from the province of Boheira in the Delta ; the name Bashmuric has been wrongly applied to this dialect, but as it appears to have been exclusively the language of Memphis, it may be styled "Middle Egyptian." The dialect of BushmCir on the Lake of Menzaleh appears to have become extinct about A.D. 900, and to have left no traces of itself behind. See .Stern, A'opt. Gram., p. i.

§ Among more recent scholars may be named Wilkins, Zoega, Tattam, Ideler, Schwartze, Revilloul, llyvernat, Amclincau, Stern, Guidi, Lagarde, etc.

THE MODERN EGYPTIANS. 4 1

the most southern part of Upper Egypt, Nubia, and Abyssinia, are included among this number. Among these three tribes the institutions of Muhammcd are not observed with any great strictness. When the Beduin settle down to village or town life, they appear to lose all the bravery and fine qualities of independent manhood which characterize them when they live in their home, the desert.

The inhabitants of Cairo, Alexandria, and other large towns form a class of people quite distinct from the other inhabitants of Egypt ; in Alexandria there is a very large Greek element, and in Cairo the number of Turks is very great. In the bazaars of Cairo one may see the offspring of marriages between members of nearly every European nation and Egyptian or Niibian women, the colour of their skins varying from a dark brick-red to nearly white. The shopkeepers are fully alive to their opportunities of making money, and would, beyond doubt, become rich but for their natural indolence and belief in fate. Whatever they appear or however much they may mask their belief in the Muham- medan religion, it must never be forgotten that they have the greatest dislike to every religion but their own. The love of gain alone causes them to submit to the remarks made upon them by Europeans, and to submit to their entrance and sojourning among them.

The Nubians or Berbers, as they are sometimes called, inhabit the tract of land which extends from Aswan or Syene to the fourth cataract. The word Nubia appears to l)e derived from nub^ 'gold,' because Nubia was a gold- producing country. The word Berber is considered to mean ' barbarian ' by some, and to be also of Egyptian origin. They speak a language which is allied to some of the North African tongues, and rarely speak Arabic well. The Nubians found in Egypt are generally doorkeepers and domestic servants, who can usually be depended upon for their honesty and obedience.

42 NOTES FOR TRAVELLERS IN EGYPT.

The Negroes form a large part of the non-native population of Egypt, and are employed by natives to perform hard work, or are held by them as slaves. They are Muhammedans by religion, and come from the countries known by the name of Sudan. Negro women make good and faithful servants.

The Syrian Christians who have settled down in Egypt are generally known by the name of Levantines. They are shrewd business men, and the facility and rapidity with which they learn European languages places them in positions of trust and emolument.

The Turks form a comparatively small portion of the population of Egypt, but many civil and military appoint- ments are, or were, in their hands. Many of them are the children of Circassian slaves. The merchants are famous for their civility to foreigners and their keen eye to business.

The Armenians and Jews form a small but important part of the inhabitants in the large towns of Egypt. The former are famous for their linguistic attainments and wealth ; the latter have blue eyes, fair hair and skin, and busy themselves in mercantile pursuits and the business of bankers and money-changing.

The European population in Egypt consists of Greeks about 65,000, Italians 30,000, French 14,000, English 9,000, Germans, Austrians, Russians, etc., etc., about 10,000. The greater part of the business of Alexandria is in the hands of the Greek merchants ; many of whom are famous for their wealth. It is said that the Greek community contributes most largely to the crime in the country, but when their numbers are taken into consideration, it will be seen that this is an exaggeration. The enterprise and good business hal)its of the Greeks in Alexandria have made it the great city that it is. The French, Austrian, German, and English nations are likewise represented there, and in Cairo, by

THE MODERN EGYPTIANS.

43

several first-rate business houses. The destructive fanaticism pecuHar to the Muhammedan mind, so common in the far east parts of Mesopotamia, seems to be non-existent in Egypt ; such fanaticism as exists is, no doubt, kept in check by the presence of Europeans, and all the different peoples live side by side in a most peaceable manner. The great benefit derived by Egypt from the immigration of Europeans during the last few years, is evident from the increased material prosperity of the country, and the administration of equitable laws which has obtained.

44 NOTES FOR TRAVELLERS IN EGYPT.

THE NILE.

The river Nile is one of the longest rivers in the world ;

its Egyptian name was Hapi, 9 ;^;;;:^ 3, and the Arabs

call it /)a//r, or 'sea.' It is formed by the junction, at 15" 34' N. lat., and 30° 30' 58" E. long., of two great arms, the Ba/ir el-Azrak, i.e., the ' turbid,' or Blue Nile, from the S.E., and the Bahr el-Abyad, i.e., the 'clear,' or White Nile, from the S.W.* The eastern oranch rises in Goyam, in Abyssinia, at an elevation of about 10,000 feet above the level of the sea. Flowing through the lake of Dembea it passes round the eastern frontier of Goyam, till, when nearing the loth degree N. lat., it takes a north- west direction, which it preserves until it reaches Khartum ; here it unites with the Bahr el-Abyad, the other great arm, which flows from the S.W. The Bahr el-Abyad, or \\'hite Nile, is so called because of the fine whitish clay which colours its waters. It is broader and deeper than the eastern arm, and it brings down a much larger volume of water ; the ancients appear to have regarded it as the true Nile. There can, however, be no doubt that the Bahr el- Azrak has the best right to be considered the true Nile, for during the violent and rapid course which it takes from the Abyssinian mountains, it carries down with it all the rich mud which, during the lapse of ages, has been spread

* The While Nile rises in the mountainous districts a few degrees north of the Equator, and the principal streams which flow into it are those of the Sobat, Giraffe, and Gazelle rivers. It is not navitijable, and its banks are so low that its whitish slimy deposit often extends t'» a distance of two miles from the stream. For about a hundred miles south of Khartum the river is little more than a marsh.

THE NILE. 45

over the land on each side of its course and formed the land of Egypt. In truth, then, Egypt is the gift of the Bahr el-Azrak. The course of the Bahr el-Ahyad was traced by Linant in 1827 for about 160 miles from its con- fluence with the Bahr el-Azrak. At the point of confluence it measures about 600 yards across, a little farther up it is from three to four miles wide, and during the inundation the distance from side to side is twenty-one miles. In an ordinary season it is about 24 feet deep.

The source of the Nile was not discovered by Bruce, but by Captains Grant and Speke and Sir Samuel Baker. Its parents are the Albert Nyanza and Victoria Nyanza Lakes. The fountain-head of the Nile, Victoria Nyanza, is a huge basin, far below the level of the country round about, into which several streams empty themselves. About 200 miles below Khartiam the united river receives, on the east side, the waters of the Atbara, which rises in the mountains of Abyssinia, and from this point onwards to its embouchure, a distance of about 1,750 miles, the Nile receives no affluent whatever. From Khartum to Cairo the Nile falls about 400 yards; its width is about 1,100 yards in its widest part. The course of the Nile has been explored to a length of about 3,500 miles. At Abu Hammed the river turns suddenly to the south-west, and flows in this direction until it reaches Donkola, where it again curves to the north. The river enters Nubia, flowing over a ledge of granite rocks which form the third cataract. Under the 22nd parallel N. lat. is the second cataract, which ends a few miles above Wadi Halfah, and al)out iSo miles lower down is the first cataract, which ends at Aswan, or Syene, a little above the island of Elephantine. After entering Egypt, the Nile flows in a steady stream, always to the north, and deposits the mud which is the life of Egypt. The breadth of the Nile valley varies from four to ten miles in Nuljia, and from fifteen to thirty in Egypt. The

46 NOTES FOR TRAVELLERS IN EGYPT.

width of the strips of cultivated land on each bank of the river in Egypt together is never more than eight or nine miles.

In ancient days the Nile poured its waters into the sea by seven mouths ; those of Damietta and Rosetta* are now, however, the only two which remain. The Delta is, in its widest part, about ninety miles across from east to west, and the distance of the apex from the sea is also about ninety miles. Many attempts have been made to ascertain the age of Egypt by estimating the annual alluvial deposit ; the results, however, cannot be implicitly relied on.

The inundation is caused by the descent of the rain which falls on the Abyssinian mountains. The indications of the rise of the river may be seen at the cataracts as early as the end of May, and a steady increase goes on until the middle of July, when the increase of water becomes very great. The Nile continues to rise until the middle of Sep- tember, when it remains stationary for a period of about three weeks, sometimes a little less. In October it rises again, and attains its highest level. From this period it begins to subside, and, though it rises yet once more, and reaches occasionally its former highest point, it sinks steadily until the month of June, when it is again at its lowest level. The modern ceremony of ' Cutting the Dam ' of the river takes place generally in the second or third week of August at Fum el-Khalig, at Cairo. In ancient days the ceremony of cutting the canals was accompanied with great festivities, and great attention was paid to the height of the river in various parts of Egypt, that the cutting might take place at the most favourable time. We learn, on the authority of Seneca, that offerings of gold and other gifts were thrown

* The seven mouths were called the Pelusiac, Tanitic, Mentlesian, I'halnitic, Sebennylic, Lulbitic, and the Canopic.

THE NILE. 47

into the Nile at Philoe by the priests to propitiate the divinity of the river.

If the height of the inundation is about forty-one feet the best results from agricultural labour are obtained ; a couple of feet of water, more or less, is always attended with disastrous results either in the Delta or Upper Egypt. The dykes, or embankments, which kept the waters of the Nile in check, and regulated their distribution over the lands, were, in Pharaonic days, maintained in a state of efficiency by public funds, and, in the time of the Romans, any person found destroying a dyke was either condemned to hard labour in the public works or mines, or to be branded and sent to the Oasis. If we accept the state ments of Strabo, we may believe that the ancient system of irrigation was so perfect that the varying height of the inundation caused but little inconvenience to the inhabi- tants of Egypt, as far as the results of agricultural labours were concerned, though an unusually high Nile would, of course, wash away whole villages and drown much cattle. If the statements made by ancient writers be com- pared, it will be seen that the actual height of the in- undation is the same now as it always was, and that it maintains the same proportion with the land it irrigates. According to Sir Gardner Wilkinson {Ancient Egypt, II., 431), the cubit measures of the Nilometers ought, after certain periods, to be raised proportionately if we wish to arrive at great accuracy in the measurement of the waters. The level of the land, which always keeps pace with that of the river, increases at the rate of six inches in a hundred years in some places, and in others less. The proof of this is that the highest scale in the Nilometer at the island of Elephantine, which served to measure the inundation in the reigns of the early Roman emperors, is now far below the level of the ordinary high Nile ; and the obelisk of Heliopolis, the colossi at Thebes, and other similarly situated

48 NOTES FOR TRAVELLERS IN EGYPT.

monuments, are now washed by the waters of the inundation and imbedded to a certain height in a stratum of alluvial soil which has been deposited around their base. The land about Elephantine and at Thebes has been raised about nine feet in 1,700 years. The usual rise of the river at Cairo is twenty-five feet, at Thebes thirty-eight feet, and at Aswan forty-nine feet. The average rate of the current is about three miles per hour. As the river bed rises higher and higher the amount of land covered by the waters of the inundation grows more and more. It is estimated that, if all the land thus watered were thoroughly cultivated, Egypt would, for its size, be one of the richest countries in the world.* The ancient Egyptians fully recognized how very much they owed to the Nile, and, in their hymns, they thank the Nile-god in appropriate and grateful terms. Statues of the god are painted green and red, which colours are supposed to represent i. the colour of the river in June, when it is a bright green, before the inunda- tion ; and 2. the ruddy hue which its waters have when charged with the red mud brought down from the Abyssinian mountains.

* It is greatly to be hoped that Sir Colin Scott Moncrieff will be enabled to increase the scope of the valuable work which he has done in the Irrigation Department, and to gradually carry out the works necessary to bring into cultivation those districts which are now a wilderness.

49

EGYPTIAN WRITING.

The system of writing employed by the earhest inhabi- tants of the Valley of the Nile known to us was entirely pictorial, and had much in common with the pictorial writing of the Chinese and the ancient people who migrated into Babylonia from the East. There appears to be no inscription in which pictorial characters are used entirely, for the earliest inscriptions now known to us contain alphabetic characters. Inscriptions upon statues, coffins, tombs, temples, etc., in which figures or representations of objects are employed, are usually termed 'Hieroglyphic' (from the Greek iepoyXv^tKov) ; for writing on papyri a cursive form of hieroglyphic called 'Hieratic' (from the Greek lepaTiK6<i), was employed by the priests, who, at times, also used hieroglyphic ; a third kind of writing, consisting of purely conventional modifications of hieratic characters, which preserve little of the original form, was employed for social and business purposes ; it is called demotic (from the Greek ct]^ioTiic6%). The following will show the different forms of the characters in the three styles of writing —

I. Hieratic.

lU^U.

50 NOTES FOR TRAVELLERS IN EGYPT.

II. Hieroglyphic Transcript of No. I.

'0

III. Demotic. IV. Hieroglyphic Transcript of No. III.

No. I is copied from the Prisse* papyrus (Maxims of Ptah-hetep, p. V, 1. 1 ), and is transcribed and translated as follows : —

dlf tenui an sex^ - nef sef

.... the heart fails, not remembers he yesterday.

qes me?i-f efi aim bu nefer ^^per em-

The body suffers it in [its] entirety, happiness becomes

bu \lm){\ wretchedness. t

No. Ill is copied from the demotic version inscribed on the stele of Canopus (see p. 18), and No. IV. is the corresponding passage in the hieroglyphic version of the

* This papyrus is the oldest in the world, and was written about B.C. 2500 ; it was presented to the Bibliotheque Nationale by Prisse, who acquired it at Thebes.

+ Ptah-hetep is lamenting the troubles of old age, and the complete passage runs : " The understanding perisheth, an old man remembers not yesterday. The body becometh altogether pain ; happiness turnelh into wretchedness ; and taste vanishes away."

EGYPTIAN WRITING. 5 I

Decree. The transliteration of the Demotic, according to Hess {Ro/nati von Sine Ha-m-us, p. 80), is : — p-hon

nuier ua n-n-iieb' ent sdtp er-p-ma ticb er-ul?e p-gi-ji-er

lunh 7i-n-imter\ "a prophet, or one of the priests who are selected for the sanctuary to perform the dressing of the gods." The transliteration of the hieroglyphic text is: hen neter erpu ud dinO dbu sehp er db-iir du smd er vidret neterii em satis en.

The earliest hieroglyphic inscription is that found on the stele of Sent preserved at Oxford ; it dates from the second dynasty. The oldest hieratic inscription is that contained in the famous Prisse papyrus which records the advice of Ptah-hetep to his son. It dates from the Xlth or Xllth dynasty. The demotic writing appears to have come into use about B.C. 900. Hieroglyphics were used until the third century after Christ, and hieratic and demotic for at least a century later. The inscriptions on the Rosetta and Canopus stel^ are written in hieroglyphic, demotic, and Greek characters. The Egyptians inscribed, wrote, or painted inscriptions upon almost every kind of substance, but the material most used by them for their histories, and religious and other works was papyrus. Sections from the stem of the papyrus plant were carefully cut, and the layers were taken off, pressed flat, and several of them gummed one over the other transversely; thus almost any length of papyrus for writing upon could be made. The longest known is the great Harris papyrus, No. I ; it measures 135 feet by 18 inches. The scribe wrote upon the papyrus with reeds, and the inks were principally made of vegetable colour. Black and red are the commonest colours used, but some papyri are painted with as many as eleven or thirteen. The scribe's palette was a rectangular piece of wood varying from six to thirteen inches long by two, or two and a half, inches wide. In the middle was a hollow for holding the reeds, and at one end

E 2

52 NOTES FOR TRAVELLERS IN EGYPT.

were the circular or oval cavities in which the colours were placed.

At the beginning of the Greek rule over Egypt, the knowledge of the use of the ancient Egyptian language began to decline, and the language of Oreece began to modify and eventually to supersede that of Egypt. When we consider that Ptolemy I. Soter, succeeded in attracting to Alexandria a large number of the greatest Greek scholars of the day, such as Euclid the mathematician, Stilpo of Megara, Theodorus of Cyrene and Diodorus Cronus, the philosophers, Zenodotus the grammarian, Philctas the poet, from Cos, and many others, this is not to be wondered at. The founding of the great Alexandrian Library and Museum, and the endowment of these institutions for the support of a number of the most eminent Greek philo- sophers and scholars, was an act of far-sighted policy on the part of Ptolemy I., whose aim was to make the learning and language of the Greeks to become dominant in Egypt. Little by little the principal posts in the Government were monopolised by the Greeks, and little by little the Egyptians became servants and slaves to their intellectually superior masters. In respect to their language, " the Egyptians were not prohibited from making use, so far as it seemed requisite according to ritual or otherwise appropriate, of the native language and of its time-hallowed written signs ; in this old home, moreover, of the use of writing in ordinary inter- course the native language, alone familiar to the great public, and the usual writing must necessarily have been allowed not merely in the case of private contracts, but even as regards tax-receipts and similar documents. But this was a conces- sion, and the ruling Hellenism strove to enlarge its domain." Mommsen, The Provinces of the Roman Empire, Vol. IL, p. 243. It is true that Ptolemy II. Philadelphus, employed the famous Manetho {i.e., . )^ , Mer-en-Tchuti, 'beloved

of Thoth ') to draw up a history of Egypt, and an account

EGYPTIAN WRITING. 53

of the ancient Egyptian religion from the papyri and other native records ; but it is also true that during the reigns of these two Ptolemies that the Egyptians were firmly kept in obscurity, and that the ancient priest-college of Heliopolis was suppressed. A century or two after the Christian era, Greek had obtained such a hold upon the inhabitants of Egypt that the Egyptian Christians, the followers and disciples of St. Mark, were obliged to use the Greek alphabet to write down the Egyptian, that is to say Coptic translation of the books of the Old and New Testaments. The letters OJ, sh, q, / 1), x, 2^, Jh <^ c, X, i, were added from the demotic forms of hieratic characters to represent sounds which were unknown in the Greek lan- guage. During the Greek rule over Egypt many of the hieroglyphic characters had new phonetic values given to them ; by this time the knowledge of hieroglyphic writing had practically died out. '

The history of the decipherment of hieroglyphics is of great interest, but no thorough account of it can be given here ; only the most important facts connected with it can be mentioned. During the XVIth-XVIIIth centuries many attempts were made by scholars to in- terpret the hieroglyphic inscriptions then known to the world, but they resulted in nothing useful. The fact is they did not understand the nature of the problem to be solved, and they failed to perceive the use of the same hieroglyphic character as a phonetic or determinative in the same inscription. In 1799, a French officer dis- covered at Bolbitane or Rosetta a basalt slab inscribed in the hieroglyphic, demotic, and Greek characters ; it was shortly after captured by the English army, and taken to London, where it was carefully examined by Dr. Thomas Young.*

* Thomas Young was born at Milverton, in Somersetshire, on the 13th of June, 1773; both his parents were Quakers. At the age of fourteen he is said to have been versed in Greek, Latin, French,

54 NOTES FOR TRAVELLERS IN EGYPT.

The Society of Antiquaries published a fac-simile of the inscription, which was distributed among scholars, and Silvestre de Sacy and Akerblad made some useful dis coveries about certain parts of the demotic version of the inscription. Dr. Young was enabled, ten years after, to make translations of the three inscriptions, and the results of his studies were published in 1821. In 1822 M. Champollion * (IvC Jeune) published a translation of the same inscriptions, and was enabled to make out something like an alphabet. There appears to be no doubt that he was greatly helped by the publications and labours of Young, who had succeeded in grouping certain words in demotic, and in assigning ac curate values to some of the Egyptian characters used in writing the names of the Greek rulers of Egypt. Young made many mistakes, but some of his work was of value. Champollion, to whom the credit of definitely settling the phonetic values of several signs really belongs, had been carefully grounded in the Coptic language, and was there- fore enabled with little difficulty to recognize the hiero- glyphic forms of the words which were familiar to him in Coptic ; Young had no such advantage. Champollion's system was subjected to many attacks, but little by little it gained ground, and the labours of other scholars have

Italian, Hebrew, Persian and Arabic. He took his degree of M.D. in July, 1796, in 1802 he was appointed professor of natural philosophy at the Royal Institution, and in 1810 he was elected physician to St. George's Hos])ital. He was not, however, a popular physician. He died on the loth of May, 1829.

• Jean Fran9ois le Jeune Champollion was born at Figeac, depart- ment Du Lot, in 1796. He was educated at Grenoble, and afterwards at J'aris, where he devoted himself to the study of Coptic. In the year 1824 he was ordered by Charles X. to visit all the important cijlleclions of Egyptian antiquities in Europe. On his return he was appointed Director of the Louvre. In 1828 he was sent on a scientific mission to Egypt, and was afterwards made professor of Egyptian antiquities at the College de France. He died in 1831.

EGYPTIAN WRITING. 55

proved that he was right. The other early workers in the field of hieroglyphics were Dr. Samuel ]>irch in England ; Dr. Lepsius in Germany, and MM. Rosellini and Salvolini in Italy. The study of hieroglyphics has become compara- tively general, and each year sees books of texts published, learned pajjiers on Egyptian grammar written, and transla- tions made into the various European languages.

In hieroglyphic inscriptions the signs are used in two ways : I, Ideographic, II, Phonetic. In the ideographic system a word is expressed by a picture or ideograph thus :

AAAA/vv mdu, water ; in the phonetic system the same word is

AAAA/V\

written V\^ ^ a (2 ^/i + a + ?/, no regard being paid to

the fact that ^^|\ represents an owl, ^ o a hand and fore- arm, and '^ a rope. Similarly ^^^s^. emsuh is a 'crocodile' in the ideographic system, but phonetically it is written

^\ I v\ ^ )n ■\- s -\- ti -\- h. The ideographic system is

probably older than the phonetic.

R n

Phonetic signs are : I, Alphabetic, as ¥\ /;/, I s,

^o u; or II, Syllabic, as*=::x. mer, O xepcr^ _- ^^ hetep.

Ihe sign \A x^per can be written i, \A ; 2, Tq-s ;

3, ^^ ; 4,^rt <cir> ; the sign T fiefer can be written

The scribes took pains to represent the exact value of these syllabic signs in order that no mistake might be made.

The ideographic signs are also used as determinatives, and are placed after words written phonetically to de- termine their meaning. For example, nef?i means ' to sleep,' ' to walk,' 'to go back,' ' to become infirm,' 'tongue'

56 NOTES FOR TRAVELLERS IN EGYPT.

and ' again ' : without a determinative the meaning of this word in a sentence would be easily mistaken. Determinatives are of two kinds : I, ideographic, and II,

Thus after vO^ ^''"'"''» 'cat,' a rat, j\^, was

generic.

written ; this is an ideographic determinative. After

kerh, 'darkness,' the night sky with a star in it, ' n 4, was written ; this is a generic determinative. A word has fre- quently more than one determinative ; for example, in the

Jo '^^ AAAAA^ I 1 — °x

word

AAAA/^A E

Ihih, ' to overflow,'

a determinative of the sound oan ; aaaaaa is a determinative

AA/VNAA

of water, ' — > of a lake or collection of water, and "^ of ground. The list of hieroglyphic signs with their phonetic values given on pp. 61-68 will be of use in reading kings' names, etc ; for convenience however the hieroglyphic alphabet is added here. The system of transliteration of Egyptian characters used in this book is that most generally adopted.

1

, W

J

p f

M'

ra

, _2s& r ox I h h

©

■P

C3CD

X (ch)

sh

EGYPTIAN WRITING.

57

A

c^ t

\ ^= 0{/h) t' (like ch in child)

The number of hieroglyphic characters is about two thousand.

NUINIBERS.

I ua, one

1 1 sen, tivo ('^^ III chemet, three ftu, four tua, five sas (?), six

sechef, seven

A

chemennu, eight

heh, rt million

1 1 1 paut or pst, «///^

Ml

n met', ten nn t'et, /ef/tv/Zy nnn mab, thirty (3 s'aa, a hundred 1 cha, « thousand t'eba^ te?i thousand

0 (3

'^^^ hefnu, rt' hundred thou- sand

The forms of the numbers 40, 50, 60, 70, So and 90 are not known exactly.

Hieroglyphic inscriptions are usually to l)e read in the opposite direction to which the characters face ; there is however no hard and fast rule in this matter. On the papyri they are read in various directions, and there are instances in which the ancient copyist mistook the end of a

JlOdUUifM^

5S

NOTES FOR TRAVELLERS IN EGYPT.

chapter for its beginning, and copied the whole of it in the reverse order Some inscriptions are to be read in perpen- dicular lines.

The following transliterated and translated extract from the first page of the "Tale of the Two Brothers" will explain the foregoing statements.

AAAAAA

II

There were once on a time brothers two [the children]

eu of

Kit

one

muOet mother

en

and of

one

at/ father ;

Anpu ren pa a a an

Anubis was the name of the elder, was

D

Batau Bata

ren

t

^^

pa

the name of the

Anpu Anpu,

/I\

su he

serdu

xcr

ar

younger.

Now

as regards

>:

1 LJ

^1

J 1

\\

^ ^.

ri

pa

■xeri

he 711 1

au and was

possessed a house and had a wife,

paif sen seraii eiuma-f

his brother younger [living] with him

!\ p

EGYPTIAN WRITING

nzsa

^4 ^\ k

after the manner

a who

aritu-iief made

(2 ^^

€71 serau an

of a servant, for it

5 111 1^.^ I

/ie^>sii aii-nef her

the clothes, it was he

59

einentuf was he

JP

T

A

k^ xi::: vk^

ein-sa after

7iai-f his [Anpu's]

an he

ementiif he it was

e/iie/iii/f it was

e

a

wlio

aaiit cattle

^^ aritu

did

in

seiii who followed

I I

.\> I

sex^t the fields,

the ploughing,

KCW

D 5

auuait who laboured.

he

emenljif a it was who

aritii'uef performed

I ^ III

sex^t the fields ;

aput the duties

«f(^

€71 ti

as-tu and behold

all which were [connected] with

1

4.^

hcTiuti iicfer

a farmer excellent,

au was

(171

not

pa the

serau young man

un

existed

0 ^ *^.=_ qetmtiu-f

the like of him

6o NOTES FOR TRAVELLERS IN EGYPT

e//i ta t'er-f

in the land the whole of it

_ _ J\

yfr (ir emyet

Now thus it was during

hru

days

A X

0 (^ I I I

qe7mu

many

paif was his

sen serau

brother younger

her-sa e?iefi au

upon those [days] that

einsa naif

following after his

ciaut cattle

I hru neb every day,

em according

paif to his

sexeru wont

enientuf her and he

pai-f his

I

pa er house

udu (or he ha It) returned

e ra

enti of

to

tennu every

^'t

o

riilia evening, and

aiif atep

he .vas laden

k P^^l).'

I I I

em with

simu vegetables

neb of all kinds

^ III

en of the

se^et fields.

EGYPTIAN WRITING.

6i

A List of

f^ an

^ ser 1% aau

SOME OF THE PRINCIPAL HIEROGLYPHIC SiGNS AND THEIR PhONETIC VaLUES.

@ tep ■^ hrd "11:1, anen

K^at -^^ an -<25^ ari

^ ar

Men AND Women.

ax qa

qet

seller

tut

sa fa

heh hell

Limbs, Szc, of Men, W^ ser

^= hu --''"^ sept

U k^ xen

— n_o an, at

a_i]nia i==/] next ^ D ta

xen t

seps

amen

al)

^^ xer

#

mat

^^>^ sem [^ sem

n ses t'eba I ^Y^ tct ''=0) ka, met ! _| ret ^sem ! J b

aa, ail

~7T~ seb

62

_£^

notes for travellers in egypt. Anhlvls.

'^^A neb

h

^

^

ser

peh ha at ses

Heru, bak

ba

aq sera

ab

^ sab

Limbs, &c., of Animals.

^ ka

^ sef I us

Sir) ba

^^ ur "i^ ba mut se mer

^ xent, fent ^ setem

V aP j aau

Birds,

neh ^tg qem ti

^

meh

<&< an

Parts of Birds. K mat, su

Fish.

^ ab

^ ba

mau

\ ab

^_^ Peb nem

\

o

u pa

ten

^3' sent se

betu

sebek '^Si. hefen serq

EGYPTIAN WRITING.

Reptiles.

t'

af, net, ^eb se^et

kam

0 ^

^^^ xet

^ hen

uah sek bener

pet, her

'jjjy' 0ehen

ta

Trees and Plants. net'em I su

uat

xa

meh ha

-L ne^eb

-|.-L enen

^ resu

(

qema

renp

sexet

Celestial Objects.

O ra C^[Exu

y=^^ abet

Objects of Earth. [^:Q tu ^^^^^ set

Water.

63

f xepcr

fli

bet"

hen

as

ter

-k seb

cm aner

/vwvAA ni5u /v\^^/vA n

/VWW\

.-"O

r3a s

mer

ab

64 notes for travellers in egvpt.

Building.

':nii!:i a

per

^ tes, ■A tern

'""^^^ sem

nemmat

*\ =

seq hetep

pet

semer

i qcl

Q '- : 0 ^^

I neter J7

seh heb ineb

i

tet auset

Arms, etc.

°<^ meh

c*=^ set A XU

ZV^ tern

us

sexem

xerp

men

ab

f

am, ta, qem

net' ab

1 set'ebl ^

]

xen

ut

t'et

0

t'a

men

1

T| 6?es, res

ab, qes, ken

s

menx

xa

sa

sam

setp

ut'a

0

mer

seh

V

nefer

het' net

^

qes, ses

5

sen

^

ret

i

sen

I

h

Vl

menx

^ X

©, ©, © Sep

0 paut

c^ t

^' D xemt A q

egyptian writing. Musical Instruments ^ sexem i^:^ men

Crowns. ^^ meh

su

(^S

Cords.

o

ut, heseb

(2

u

-<t-

set

f\

ua

^

net, se^et

^

mer

n

nes XZK at

net sa

f\ aper

hni

Mathematical Figures.

\>

hu

h

sept

A

ta

i

P

A

hap

Xuu

ur, ses

ra h

LTl mer ; ' teben

teni, pex

mat sa

sexet

nP3>

:^

teb f^S?^ nub

xaker Q sen

^ sah

y anx ^iM *." .

—I— t'et

Sfh

,VJi

qen, t'at'a

-=3°i>- amsu (2 ap

66 notes for travellers in egypt.

Vases, etc.

D nu

Q xnem

O ab hes xent

xent

j5 qebh

hen

0 ta

D. ta

y ma =^ hetep

I

O au, ab • i^-°->J da

/L xer

V_y neb ^5^7 heb

0^ l)a

S

Ships, etc.

>-Jvi am

>^^V ua

1 xer, 0 hep

hem i^ nef Y aha [fill xent

^ sesep

maten tern

li amax -|}- am ^"yl xesef sext

1

to call to pray to rejoice to dance \^ to plough A^ foes Vv?^ of men of gods

Determinatives. of women

of birth

to see L=/] of strength

□ c to give

Ji to walk, stand 9^ of flesh

0

to breathe, smell

^kK^ of birds jL of goddesses Q of trees QQQ of grain

I J of heaven

'^ of light Ci^Ci:^ of country ^ of towns

EGYPTIAN WRITING.

Determinatives — cofiiinued.

67

D

of iron

0 0 0 of metals

Khy of festival

(Z-_l

of water of houses

writing, computation, ,—w^< knowledge, and abstract

^ of unguents £5:2 of roads

c=>^

of writing

(ideas

>=^

of ships

s

of ground

Q of fire

^

of winds

1

fHE Arabic

Alphabet.

Elif

\

a

Zad

cr

^/

aspirated

Ba

<__?

b

Ta

i.

/

palatal

Ta

CI?

t

Za

\:

s

palatal

Tha

^'

th =

: i

)

'Ain

'-

Gim

IZ

g(}^

ke

g in gin)*

Chain

c

A''

guttural :*:

Ha

Z.

h (a s tura

mooth gut- 1 aspirate)

Fa Kaf

(-J

/

guttural

Kha

z.

ch (hk

e c/i in lodi)

Kaf

k

Dal

Li

d

Lam

J

I

Zal

j

th (1

ik

e th in that)

Mim

r

in

Ra

J

r

Nun

n

Zay

J

z

Ha

J

h

Sin

u^

s

Waw

•

w

Shin

lP

shi^

ik

; sh in shjit)

Ya

y

Sad

^

s (U

ke

ss in hiss)

* Pronounced hard in Egj'pt.

t Usually unpronounceable by Europeans.

X Accompanied by a rattling sound.

F 2

6S

NOTES FOR TRAVELLERS IN EGYPT.

The Coptic Alphabet (31 letters).'

^-

a

XJL

in

^

ps

^

h

rt

n

U5

0

V

i

t

X or Z'v

a

sh

2^

d

0

0

q

f

e

e

n

P

^

X or r//

^

z

P

r

&

//

H

e

c

s

2^

i-

0

th

T

t

6^

c

I

i

T

y

tt

ti

K

k

^

ph

X

I

X

ch

* In the Boheiric dialect there are thirty-two.

f Six letters of the Coptic alphabet are modifications of the forms of Egyptian characters in demotic. Sec p. 40. The names of the letters

in Coptic are ^.XcJ)^., B.I2^^., v^.JULJUL^., 2^^.X2^A., ei, ^IT"^-, K^-^-, eiT^., i^^nrx^-, K^-nn^., X^.'¥X^., juLi, rti, ^i, o, ni, po, ciJUL^-, t^-v, Te(2>e), c^i, X5, ^i, ^T cLjei, qei, .6^1, &opi, x^^nxi^.,

EGYPTIAN WRITINO.

69

O

C/2 O

O

12;

w rz:

a; rt

3

cp -4

i4

O

a, c

P :i

0 5

3 Ji

o

:!

a, ►9" "O"

i ^^il H3

X

3

:i

bfl tc tC ^

tj) bX) bO bfi .;::

oooo oooc o

O o

^ p o B

^3

O

o

Ir c^ aj

ii oj ^

u xi.

•rt

Oj Z;^

ao ao 00 ao ^

Bi RJ ii

;^« ">-?

70 NOTES FOR TRAVELLERS IN EGYPT.

The ancient Egyptians had : I. the vague or civil year, which consisted of 365 days ; it was divided into twelve months of thirty days each, and five intercalary days were added at the end ; II. the Sothic year of 365:^ days. The first year of a Sothic period began with the rising of Sirius or the dog-star, on the ist of the month Thoth, when it coincided with the beginning of the inundation ; III. the Egyptian solar year,* which was a quarter of a day shorter than the Sothic year, an error which corrected itself in 1460 fixed years or 146 1 vague years. The true year was estimated approximately by the conjunction of the sun with Sirius. Dr. Brugsch thinks {Egypt under the Pharaohs^ \ o\. II., p. 176) that as early as B.C. 2^00 four ditiferent forms of the year were already in use, and that the "little year" corresponded with the lunar year, and the "great year" with a lunar year having intercalated days. Each month was dedicated to a god.f The Egyptians dated their stete and documents by the day of the month and the year of the king who was reigning at tne time. The Copts first dated their documents according to the years of the ixdictiox ; the indictions were periods of fifteen years, and the first began .a.d. 312. In later times the Copts made use of the era of the Martyrs, which was reckoned from the 29th of August, .\.D. 28^. About the ninth century after Christ they began to adopt the Muhammedan era of the Hijrah or "flight," which was reckoned from a.d. 622.

* It was practically the same as the civil year.

t .Sume of the Coptic names of the months show that they ha\c een derived from the ancient Egyptian : thus Thoth is from ^5^ , Tt-hiUi, I'achon from ^ ^ ^ Chensu, Athor from ^y , Hd-Hcni, -Mesore from [|j ^ ^^5^7 ines-Hcru, " the birth of Ilorus " festival, etc. The Copts have I. an agricultural year, and II. an ecclesiastical year ; the latter consists of twelve months of thirty days, with a thirteenth nxtnili called Nissi of live or six intercalary dnys.

71

THE RELIGION AND GODS OF EGYPT.

The religion of the ancient Egyptians is one of the most difficult problems of Egyptology, and though a great deal has been written about it during the last few years, and man\ difficulties have been satisfactorily explained, there still remain unanswered a large number of questions connected with it. In all religious texts the reader is always assumed to have a knowledge of the subject treated of by the writer, and no definite statement is made on the subject concerning which very little, comparatively, is known by students to- day. For example, in the texts inscribed inside the pyramids of Unas, Pepi, and Teta (b.c. 3300-3233), we are brought face to face with religious compositions which mention the acts and relationships of the gods, and refer to beliefs, and give instructions for the performance of certain acts of ritual which are nowhere explained. It will be remembered that Ptolemy II. Philadelphus instructed Manetho to draw up a history of the religion of the ancient Egyptians. If such a work was needed by the cultured (keek who lived when the religion of ancient Egypt, though much modified, was still in existence, how n.uch more is it needed now ? The main beliefs of the Egyptian religion were always the same. The attributes of one god might be applied to another, or one god might be confused with another ; the cult of one god might decline in favour of another, or new gods might arise and become popular, but the foundation of the religion of Egypt remained unchanged. Still, it is asserted by some that the religion of the dynasties of the Early Empire was simpler and more free from specu-

•J 2 NOTES FOR TRAVELLERS IN EGYPT.

lation than that of the Middle and New Empires, in which the nature and mutual relationships of the gods were dis- cussed and theogonies formulated. Speaking generally the gods of Egypt were the everlasting and unalterable powers of nature, i.e., 'day and night,' 'light and darkness,' etc. The great god of the Egyptians, Ra, or Amen-Ra, as he was called in the Middle Empire, was said to be the maker of all things; the various gods Horus, Atmu, etc., were merely forms of him. Ra was self-begotten, and hymns to him never tire in declaring his absolute and perfect unity in terms which resemble those of the Hebrew Scriptures. It will be seen from the translation of a hymn given in the following pages that he is made to possess every attribute, natural and spiritual, which Christian peoples ascribe to God Almighty. The one doctrine, however, which lived per- sistently and unchanged in the Egyptian mind for five thousand years, is that of a future life. During the ' earliest dynasties beautiful, and enduring tombs * were built in order that the bodies which were placed in them might be preserved until such time as the resurrection of the body should take place. It is clear from the papyri that man was supposed to possess a body, a soul, (^^^ />ci, a

' genius ' U ka, and an intelligence, ^^ x""- '^^'^^

body, freed from all its most corruptible portions, was preserved by being filled with bitumen, spices, and

* " Les belles tombes que Ton admire dans les plaines de Thebes et de Sakkarah ne sont done pas dues a I'orgueil de ceux qui les ont erigees. Une pensee plus large a preside a leur construction. Plus les materiaux sont enormes, plus on est sur que les promesses faites par la religion recevront leur execution. En ces sens, les Pyramides ne sont pas des monuments ' de la vaine ostentation des rois' ; elles sont des obstacles impossibles i renverser, et les preuves gigantesques d'un dogme consolant." (Marietle, Not ices dds Priiifipaiix Monuments, p. 44.)

THE RELIGION AND GODS OF EGYPT. 73

aromatic drugs, and having been bandaged in many a fold of linen, lay in its tomb, ready to lake part in the life which was inherited by those who were deemed worthy of it.

After the death of a man it was thought that he was taken into the hall of the god Osiris, judge of the dead, and that his conscience, symbolized by the heart, was weighed in the balance before him. Thoth, the scribe of the gods, stood there with his r.-ed and palette to write down the result, while his associate, a cynocephalus ape «^ , sat over the middle of the beam of the balance, and watched the index pointer. The man's soul, and destiny, and nurse, and cradle stood by, watching the weighing of the heart by Anubis against a feather, K , emblematic of Law. If the result were favourable, the dead man was led by Horus into the presence of Osiris, where .stood the four children of Horus, Amset, Ha]ji, Tuamautef, and Kebhsenuf (to each of whom certain intestines were dedicated), upon a lotus flower which sprung forth from under the throne of Osiris ; and after making offerings to the god, the dead man passed into everlasting life. If the result were unfavourable, the Devourer, a beast part lion, part hippopotamus, and part horse, stepped forward and claimed the dead man as his. Annihilation was the result.

After death the soul of the dead man was supposed to have many enemies to combat, just as the sun was supposed to spend the time between his rising and setting in fight- ing the powers of mist, darkness, and night. These he vanquished by the knowledge and use of certain "words of power." The deceased was also sup[)osed to be ccjn- demned to perform field labours in the nether-world, but to avoid this, stone, wooden, or Egyptian porcelain figures were placed in his tomb to do the work for him. After

;4 NOTES FOR TRAVELLERS IN EGYPT.

undergoing all these troubles and trials, the soul went into the abode of beatified spirits, and there it did everything wished by it, and remained in bliss until it rejoined its body in the tomb. The soul of the dead man entered successively into a phoenix (bennu), a heron, a swallow, a snake, a crocodile, etc.

In the hall of Osiris the soul was supposed to affirm before forty-two gods that it had not committed any of the forty-two sins which are detailed in good papyri at full length as follows : —

" I am not a doer of what is wrong, I am not a plunderer. " I am not a robber, I am not a slayer of men, I do not " stint the quantity of corn, I am not a niggard, I do not " seize the property of the gods, I am not a teller of lies, I '' am not a monopolizer of food, I am no extortioner, I am ' not unchaste, I am not the cause of others' tears, I am " not a dissembler, I am not a doer of violence, I am not " a domineering character, I do not pillage cultivated land, " I am not an eavesdropper, I am not a chatterer, I do not " dismiss a case through self-interest, I am not unchaste " with women or men, I am not obscene, I am not an " exciter of alarms, I am not hot in speech, I do not turn a " deaf ear to the words of Tighteousness, I am not foul- " mouthed, I am not a striker, I am not a quarreller, I do " not revoke my purpose, I do not multiply clamour in •' rei)ly to words, I am not evil-minded or a doer of evil, I " am not a reviler of the king, I put no obstruction upon " the water, I am not a bawler, I am not a reviler of " the god, I am not fraudulent, I am not sparing in " ofierings to the gods, I do not deprive the dead of the " funereal cakes, I do not take away the cakes of the child " or profane the god of my locality, I do not kill sacred " animals." (Renouf, Introduction to Papyrus of Ani^ p. 17, col. 2.)

It is tolerably evident then that grand tombs were not

THE RELIGION AND GODS Ol' EGYPT. 75

built as mere objects of pride, but as " everlasting habi- tations " which would serve to preserve the body from decay, and be ready to be re-inhabited by the soul at the proper season. Greek authors have written much about the beliefs of the Egyptians; but the greater number of their statements are to be received with caution. The\- wrote down what they were told, but were fre(iucntly mis- informed.

The papyri which have come down to us show that the moral conceptions of the Egyptians were of a very high order : and works like the Maxims of Ptah-hetep and the Maxims of Ani show clearly that a man's duty to his god and to his fellow-man was laid down in a distinct manner. Such works will compare very favourably with the Proverbs of Solomon and the Wisdom of Jesus the son of Sirach.

The religious literature of the Egyptians includes a large number of works, of which the most important is the collection of chapters generally called the Book of the Dead ; in Egyptian its name is per evi hrii, " Coming forth by day." Selections from this work were written in the hieratic character upon coffins as early as the Xllth dynasty (e.g. 2500), and this practice was continued down to the time of the Roman Empire. The walls of tombs were covered with extracts from it, and scribes and people of rank had buried with them large rolls of papyrus inscribed with its principal chapters, and ornamented with vignettes explana- tory of the text which ran beneath. Some of the chapters in the work are of very great antiquity ; and so far back as B.C. 2500 the text was so old, and had been copied so often, that it was already not to be understood. Many parts of it are obscure, and many utterly corrupt ; but the discovery from time to time of ancient papyri with accurate readings tends to clear up many doubtful points, and to bring out the right meaning of certain parts of the work.

76

NOTES FOR TRAVELLERS IN EGYPT.

The following is a list of the most important gods with their names in hieroglyphs ; it will be readily seen how very many of them are merely forms of the sun-god Ra, and how many of them have the same attributes : —

Chnemu,* the 'Moulder,' y / Tjl, is represented

with the head of a ram, and is one of the oldest gods of

the Egyptian religion. He was thought

to possess some of the attributes of

Amen, Ra, and Ptah, and shared with

the last-named god the attribute of

" maker of mankind." At Philoe he is

represented making man out of clay on

a potter's wheel. Chnemu put together

the scattered limbs of the dead body of

Osiris, and it was he who constructed

the beautiful woman who became the

wife of Bata in the Tale of the Two

Brothers. Like Amen-Ra he is said to

be the father of the gods. His cult

had great vogue in the regions round

about the first cataract, where he was

always associated with Aneq and Sati.

In bas-reliefs he is usually coloured

green, and wears the atef crown with

uraei, etc.

* The authorities for the figures of the gods are given by L:inz)iu in his Dizionario di Mitologia Egizia.

+ The following are the crowns most commonly met with on the monuments : —

^. ^' Q' ^' J. y. ^. % |. ^

E- M-- &• «■ <!■ dj, 1^'

THE RELIGION AND GODS OF EGYPT. 77

Ptah I tj, the 'Opener,' perhaps the oldest of all the gods of Egypt, was honoured with a temjjle and worshipped at Memphis from the time of the 1st dynasty. He is said to be the father of the gods, who came forth from his eye, and of men, who came forth from his mouth. He is repre- sented in the form of a mummy, and he holds a sceptre composed of 1 usr, 'strength,'

-¥- arich, 'life,' and |7 tef, 'stability.' With reference to his connection with the resur- rection and the nether-world, he is called PTAH-SEKER-AUSAR, and is then repre- sented as a little squat boy, at times wearing

a beetle on his head. He is at times repre-

sented with Isis and Nephthys, and then appears to be a form of Osiris.

Tmu ^|^^|, or Atmu li<=^|^^^, was the ' Closer ' of the day or night.

7S

NOTES FOR TRAVELLERS IN EGYPT.

MuT \^ J) > the ' Mother,' was one of the divinities of the Theban triad ; she was supposed to represent Nature, the mother of all things.

Chepera ^ (J Jj) the 'Creator,' was associated with Ptah, and was supposed to be the god who caused himself to come into existence. He is represented with a beetle for his head. In later days he was supposed to be the father of the gods and creator of the. universe, and the attributes which had been applied to Ra during the Middle Empire were transferred to him.

Bast Urv^ j) ^^'^s principally worshipped in Lower Egypt at Bubastis, where a magnificent temple was built in her honour (see p. 109); she is represented with the head of a cat, and was associated with Ptah. The correct reading of her name appears to be Sechet, and she represents the flame of the Sun.

XIK

HAST. NIT.

NiT, " J|, the 'Weaver,' was a counterpart of the

goddess Mut ; she is also identified with Hathor. She was the goddess of hunting, and is represented holding bows and arrows ; she is usually coloured green.

THE RELIGION AND GODS OF EGYPT.

79

Ra, O Jjj, the Sun-god, was the creator of gods and

men ; his emblem was the sun's disk. His worshif) was very ancient, and he was said to be tlie offspring of Nut, or the sky. He assumed the forms of several other gods, and is at times represented by the lion, cat, and hawk. In papyri and on bas-reliefs he is represented with the head of a hawk and wears a disk, in front of which is a urxus j|. He was particularly adored at Thebes. When he rose in the morning he was called Heru-chuti or Harmachis ; and at night, when he set, he was called Atmu, or 'the closer.' During the night he was supposed to be engaged in fighting Apepi, the serpent, who, at the head of a large army of fiends, personifications of mist, darkness, and cloud, tried to overthrow him. The battle was fought daily, but Ra always conquered, and appeared day after day in the sky.

HoRUS, ^^Jf» Heru, is the morning sun, and is also represented as having the head of a hawk ; he was said to be son of Isis and Osiris, ajid is usually called the " avenger of his father," in reference to his defeat of Set.

So NOTES FOR TRAVELLERS IX EGYPT.

Amex-Ra ()'^^^^^J)> ^lut, and Chonsu formed the

great triad* of Thel^es. Amen-Ra was said to be the son of

Ptah, and he seems to have usurped

the attributes of many of the gods.

The word Amen means 'hidden.' His

chief titles were " lord of the thrones

of the two lands," and " king of the

gods." He is represented as wearing

horns and feathers, and holding ,;^\

'rule,' I 'dominion,' 1 'power,' and

u 'stability.' The god Amsu

a form of Amen-Ra. The exalted position which Amen-Ra, originally a mere local deity, occuj^ed at Thebes, will be best understood from the translation of a hymn to him written in hieratic during the XVHIth or XlXth dynasty :— Amen-ra.

" Adoration of Amen-Ra, the bull in Heliopolis, president of all the gods, beautiful god, beloved one, the giver of the life of all warmth to all beautiful cattle !

" Hail to thee, Amen-Ra, lord of the thrones of the two lands, at the head of the Apts.t The bull of his mother, at the head of his fields, the extender of footsteps, at the head of the " land of the South," | lord of the Mat'au, § prince of Araby, lord of the sky, eldest son of earth, lord

• In the principal temple of each province the chief deity was

associated with other gods ; hence from an early period triads

(consisting of the principal god, a female deity and their offspring) or cnneads consisting of nine gods. (Renouf, Ilibho-t Lectures, p. 83.)

t The great temple at Karnak.

X Ethiopia and Asia. § A country in Asia.

THE RELIGION AND GODS OF EGYPT. 8 1

of things which exist, establisher of things, cstabHsher of all things.

"One in his times, as among the gods. Beautiful hull of the cycle of the gods, president of all the gods, lord of Law, father of the gods, maker of men, creator of beasts, lord of things which exist, creator of the staff of life, maker of the green food which makes cattle to live. Form made by Ptah, beautiful child, beloved one. The gods make adorations to him, the maker of things which are below, and of things which are above. He shines on the two lands sailing through the sky in peace. King of the South and. North, the Sun (Ra), whose word is law, prince of the world ! The mighty of valour, the lord of terror, the chief who makes the earth like unto himself. How very many more are his forms than those of any (other) god ! The gods rejoice in his beauties, and they make praises to him in the two great horizons, at (his) risings in the double horizon of flame. The gods love the smell of him when he, the eldest born of the dew, comes from Araby, when he traverses the land of the Mat'au, the beautiful face coming from Neter-ta.t The gods cast themselves down before his feet when they recognize their lord in his majesty, the lord of fear, the mighty one of victory, the mighty of Will, the master of diadems, the verdifier of offerings (?), the maker of t'efaii food.

" Adorations to thee, O thou maker of the gods, who hast stretched out the heavens and founded the earth ! The untiring watcher, Amsu-Amen, lord of eternity, maker of everlasting, to whom adorations are made (literally, lord of adorations), at the head of the Apts, established with two horns, beautiful of aspects ; the lord of the ui\tus crown,

* Compare Psalm ex. 3.

t Le., " Divine land," a name frequently given on the monuments to indicate the lands which lie to the south of Eg>-pt between the Nile and the Red Sea.

G

82 NOTES FOR TRAVEIJ-KKS IN EGYPT.

exalted of plumes, beautiful of tiara, exalted of the white crown ; the serpent mehen, and the two urcei are the (ornaments) of his face ; the double crown, helmet and cap are his decorations in (his) temple. Beautiful of face

he receives the atef crown J^^f ; beloved of the south and

north is it, he is master of the sechtl crown YJ . He receives

the amsu sceptre ^, (and is) lord of the and of

the whip. Beautiful prince, rising with the white crown / ),

lord of rays, creator of light ! The gods give acclamations to him, and he stretches out his hands to him that loves him. The flame makes his enemies fall, his eye overthrows the rebels, it thrusts its copper lance into the sky and makes the serpent Nak* vomit what it has swallowed.

* Nak is one of the names of Apepi, the demon of mist, cloud, and night, who was supposed to swallow up the sun daily; he was the enemy, par excellence, whom the Sun-god Ra was supposed to fight against and overcome. Apepi was represented under the form of a serpent with knives stuck in his back Vihhh- Compare the following extract from the service for his destruction which was recited daily in the temple of Amen-Ra, at Thebes: "Fall down upon thy face, Apepi, enemy of Ra ! The flame coming forth from the eye of Horus comes against thee, a mighty flame which comes forth from the eye of Horus, comes against thee. Thou art thrust down into the flame of fire which rushes out against thee, a flame which is fatal to thy soul, thy intelli- gence, thy words of power, thy body and thy shade. The flame prevails over thee, it drives darts into thy soul, it makes an end of whatever thou hast, and sends goads into thy form. Thou hast fallen by the eye of H rus, which is mighty over its enemy, which devours thee, and which leads on the mighty flame against thee ; the eye of Ra prevails over thee, the flame tlcvours thee, and nothing of thee remains. Get thee back, thou art hacked in pieces, thy soul is parched, thy name is buried in oblivion, silence covers it, it is overthrown; thou art put an end to and buried under threefold oblivion. Get thee back, retreat thou, £hou art cut in pieces and removed from him that is in his shrine. O, Apepi, thou doubly crushed one, an end to thee, an end to thee ! Mayest thou never rise up again ! The eye of Horus prevails over thee

THE RELIGION AND GODS OF EGYPT. St,

"Hail to thee, Ra, lord of Law, whose shrine is hidden, master of the gods, the god Chepcra in his boat ; by the sending forth of (his) word the gods spring into existence. Hail god Atmu, maker of mortals. However many arc their forms he causes them to live, he makes different the colour of one man from another. He hears the prayer of him that is oppressed, he is kind of heart to him that calls unto him, he delivers him that is afraid from him that is strong of heart, he judges between the mighty and the weak.

" The lord of intelligence, knowledge (?) is the utterance of his mouth. The Nile cometh by his will, the greatly beloved lord of the palm tree comes to make mortals live. Making advance every work, acting in the sky, he makes to come into existence the sweet things of the daylight ; the gods rejoice in his beauties, and their hearts live when they see him. O Ra, adored in the Apts, mighty one of risings in the shrine; O Ani,*lord of the festival of the new moon, who makest the six days festival and the festival of the last quarter of the moon ; O prince, life, health, and strength ! lord of all the gods, whose appearances are in the horizon, president of the ancestors of Auker ;t his name is hidden from his children in his name 'Amen.'

" Hail to thee, O thou who art in peace, lord of dilation of heart {i.e., joy), crowned form, lord of the ureref crown, exalted of the plumes, beautiful of tiara, exalted of tlic white crown, the gods love to look upon thee ; the double crown of Upper and Lower Egypt is established upon thy brow. Beloved art thou in passing through the two lands.

and devours thee daily, according to that which Ra decreed should be done to thee. Thou art thrown down into the flame of fire which feeds upon thee; thou art condemned to the fire of the eye of Horus which devours thee, thy soul, thy body, thy inteUigence and thy shade."— British Museum Papyrus, 10188, col. xxiv.

* I [|[j ^ , a form of Ra.

t A common name for a necropolis.

G 2

84 NOTES FOR TRAVELLERS IN EGYPT.

Thou sendest forth rays in rising from thy two beautiful eyes. The pat (ancestors, i.e., the dead) are in raptures of delight when ihou shincst, the cattle become languid when thou shinest in full strength ; thou art loved when thou art in the sky of the south, thou art esteemed pleasant in the sky of the north. Thy beauties seize and carry away all hearts, the love of thee makes the arms drop; thy beautiful creation makes the hands tremble, and (all) hearts to melt at the sight of thee.

"O Form, one, creator of all things, O one, only, maker of existences ! Men came forth from his two eyes, the gods sprang into existence at the utterance of his mouth. He maketh the green herb to make cattle live, and the staff of life for the (use of) man. He maketh the fishes to live in the rivers, the winged fowl in the sky; he giveth the breath of life to (the germ) in the egg, he maketh birds of all kinds to live, and likewise the reptiles that creep and fly; he causeth the rats to live in their holes, and the birds that are on every green twig. Hail to thee, O maker of all these things, thou only one.

" Is he of many forms in his might ! He watches all people who sleep, he seeks the good for his brute creation. O Amen, establisher of all things, Atmu and Harmachis,* all people adore thee, saying, ' Praise to thee because of thy resting among us ; homage to thee because thou hast created us.' All creatures say ' Hail to thee,' and all lands praise thee ; from the height of the sky, to the breadth of the earth, and to the depths of the sea art thou praised. The gods bow down before thy majesty to exalt the Will of their creator ; they rejoice when they meet their begetter, and say to thee. Come in peace, O father of the fathers of all the gods, who hast spread out the sky and hast founded the earth, maker of things which are,

* These three names arc the names of the Sun-god at mid-day, evening, and morning respectively.

THE RELIGION AND GODS OF EGYPT. 85

creator of things which exist, prince, Hfe, health, strength I president of the gods. We adore thy will, inasmuch as thou hast made us, thou hast made (us) and given us birth, and we give praises to thee by reason of thy resting with us. "Hail to thee, maker of all things, lord of Law, father of the gods, maker of men, creator of animals, lord of grain, making to live the cattle of the hills ! Hail Amen, bull, beautiful of face, beloved in the Apts, mighty of risings in the shrine, doubly crowned in Heliopolis, thou judge of Horus and Set in the great hall.* President of the great cycle of the gods, only ONE,t without his second, at the head of the Apts, Ani at the head of the cycle of his gods, living in Law every day, the double horizoned Horus of the East ! He has created the mountain (or earth), the silver, the gold, and genuine lapis lazuli at his Will .... Incense and fresh dnti\ are prepared for thy nostrils, O beautiful face, coming from the land of the INLlt'au, Amen-Ra, lord of the thrones of the two lands, at the head of the Apts, Ani at the head of his shrine. King, one among the gods, myriad are his names, how many are they is not known \ shining in the eastern horizon and setting in the western horizon, overthrowing his enemies by his birth at dawn every day. Thoth exalts his two eyes, and makes him to set in his splendours ; the gods rejoice in his beauties

which those who are in his exalt. Lord of the

sekti% boat, and of the citet\\ boat, which travel over the sky for thee in peace. Thy sailors rejoice when they see Nak overthrown, his limbs stabbed with the knife, the fire devouring him, his foul soul beaten out of his foul body, and his feet carried away. The gods rejoice, Ra is satisfied,

* See page 92.

t Compare " The Lord our God is ONE," Deut. vi. 4.

X A perfume brought into Egypt from the East.

§ The boat in which Ra sailed to his place of setting in the West.

il The boat in which Ra sailed from his place of rising in the East.

86

NOTES FOR TRAVELLERS IN EGYPT.

Heliopolis is glad, the enemies of Atmu are overthrown, and the heart of Nebt-anch * is happy because the enemies of her lord are overthrown. The gods of Cher-aba are rejoicing, those who dwell in the shrines are making obeisance when they see him mighty in his strength (?) Form (?) of the gods of law, lord of the Apts in thy name

of ' maker of Law.' Lord of t'efau food, bull in

thy name of 'Amen bull of his mother.' Maker of mortals,

making become, maker of all things that are in thy

name of Atmu Chepera. Mighty Law making the body festal, beautiful of face, making festal the breast. Form of attributes (.?), lofty of diadem, the two urcei fly by his forehead. The hearts of the pdtu go forth to him, and unborn generations turn to him ; by his coming he maketh festal the two lands. Hail to thee, Amen-Ra, lord of the thrones of the two lands ! his town loves his shining." t

Isis,

1^'

Auset, the mother of Horus and

wife of Osiris, rl J] , Ausar was the daughter of Nut, or the sky ; she married her brother Osiris. Her sister Nephthys 1] p^ J) ''^"d her brother Set likewise married one another. This last couple conspired against Isis and Osiris, and Set having induced his brother Osiris to enter a box, closed the lid down and threw it into the Nile ; the box was carried down by the river and finally cast up on the sea shore. Set having found the box once more, cut the body of Osiris into fourteen pieces, which he cast over the length and breadth of the land. As soon as

* I.e., " the lady of life," a name of !«!•;. t See Records of the Past, Vol. II., i)] llymtie a Atninou Rii.

127-136, and drcbaut.

THE RELIGION AND GODS OF EGYPT. 87

Isis heard what had happened, she went about seeking for the pieces, and built a temple over each one ; she found all save one. Osiris, however, had become king of the nether- world, and vengeance was taken by his son Horus upon his brother Set. Osiris is usually represented in the form of a mummy, holding in his hands ( 'dominion,' •¥■ 'life,' J\ 'rule,' and ] 'power.' He is called 'the lord of Abydos,' 'lord of the holy land, lord of eternity and prince of everlasting,' ' the president of the gods,' ' the head of the corridor of the tomb,' ' bull of the west,' ' judge of tlie dead,' etc., etc.

The writers of Egyptian mythological texts always assume their readers to possess a knowledge of the history of the murder of Osiris by Set, and of the wanderings and troubles of his disconsolate wife Isis. The following extracts from Plutarch's work on the subject will supply certain informa- tion not given in the Egyptian texts.

"Osiris, being now become king of Egypt, applied him- self towards civilizing his countrymen by turning them from their former indigent and barbarous course of life ; he moreover taught them how to cultivate and improve the fruits of the earth ; he gave them a body of laws to regulate their conduct by, and instructed them in that reverence and worship which they were to pay to the gods; with the same good disposition he afterwards tra- velled over the rest of the world, inducing the people everywhere to submit to his discipline ; not indeed compelling them by force of arms, but persuading them to yield to the strength of his reasons, which were conveyed to them in the most agree- able manner, in hymns and songs accom- panied with instruments of music ; from osiiui..

SS NOTES FOR TRAVELLERS IN EGYPT,

which last circumstance the Greeks conclude him to have been the same person with their Dionysius or Bacchus. During the absence of Osiris from his kingdom, Typhon had no opportunity of making any innovations in the State, Isis being extremely vigilant in the government, and always upon her guard. After his return, however, having first persuaded seventy-two other persons to join with him in the conspiracy, together with a certain queen of Ethiopia named Aso, who chanced to be in Egypt at that time, he contrived a proper stratagem to execute his base designs. For having privily taken the measure of Osiris's body, he caused a chest to be made exactly of the same size with it, as beautiful as might be, and set off with all the ornaments of art. This chest he brought into his banqueting room ; where after it had been much admired by all who were present, Typhon, as it were in jest, promised to give it to any one of them whose body upon trial it might be found to fit. Upon this the whole company, one after another, go into it. But as it did not fit any of them, last of all Osiris lays himself down in it ; upon which the conspirators immediately ran together, clapped the cover upon it, then fastened it down on the outside with nails, pouring likewise melted lead over it. After this they carried it away to the river-side, and con- veyed it to the sea by the Tanaitic mouth of the Nile ; which, for this reason, is still held in the utmost abomina- tion by the Egyptians, and never named by them but with proper marks of detestation. These things, say they, were thus executed upon the 17th day of the month Athor, when the sun was in Scorpio, in the 28th year of Osiris's reign ; though there are others who tell us that he was no more tlian twenty-eight years old at this time.

" The first who knew of the accident which had befallen their king, were the Pans and Satyrs who inhabited the country round Chemmis (Panopolis or Ahmim); and they

THE RELIGION AND GODS OF EGYPT. 89

immediately actiuainting the people with the news, gave the first occasion to the name of Panic Terrors, which has ever since been made use of to signify any sudden affright or amazement of a multitude. As to Isis, as soon as the report reached her, she immediately cut off one of the locks of her hair, and put on mourning apparel upon the very spot where she then happened to be, which accordingly from this accident has ever since been called Coptos, or the City of Mourning, though some are of opinion that this word rather signifies Deprivation. After this she wandered everywhere about the country full of disquietude and per- plexity in search of the chest, enquiring of every person she met with, even of some children whom she chanced to see, whether they knew what was become of it. Now it so happened that these children had seen what Typhon's accomplices had done with the body, and accordingly acquainted her by what mouth of the Nile it had been con- veyed into the sea

"At length she received more particular news of the chest, that it had been carried by the waves of the sea to the coast of Byblos, and there gently lodged in the branches of a bush of Tamarisk, which in a short time had shot up into a large and beautiful tree, growing round the chest and enclosing it on every side, so that it was not to be seen ; and further, that the king of the country, amazed at its unusual size, had cut the tree down, and made that part of the trunk wherein the chest was concealed a pillar to support the roof of his house. These things, say they, being made known to Isis in an extraordinary manner, by the report of demons, she immediately went to Byblos ; * where, setting herself down by the side of a fountain, she refused to speak to any body excepting only to the queen's women who chanced to be there ; these she saluted and caressed in the kindest manner possible, plaiting their hair for them, and transmitting * I.e., the papyrus swamps.

90 NOTES FOR TRAVELLERS IN EGYPT.

into them part of that wonderfully grateful odour which

issued from her own body The queen therefore

sent for her to court, and after a further acquaintance with

her, made her nurse to one of her sons The

goddess, discovering herself, requested that the pillar which supported the roof of the king's house might be given to her; which she accordingly took down, and then easily cutting it open, after she had taken out what she wanted, she wrapt up the remainder of the trunk in fine linen, and l^ouring perfumed oil upon it, delivered it into the hands

of the king and (jueen When this was done, she

threw herself upon the chest, making at the same time such a loud and terrible lamentation over it as frighted the younger of the king's sons who heard her out of his life. But the elder of them she took with her, and set sail with the chest for Egypt

" No sooner was she arrived in a desert place, where she imagined herself to be alone, but she presently opened the chest, and laying her face upon her dead husband's, embraced his corpse, and wept bitterly.

" Isis intending a visit to her son Horus, who was brought up at Butus, deposited the chest in the meanwhile in a remote and unfrequented place ; Typhon, however, as he was one night hunting by the light of the moon accidentally met with it ; and knowing the body which was enclosed in it, tore it into several pieces, fourteen in all, dispersing them up and down in different parts of the country. Upon being made acquainted with this event, Isis once more sets out in search of the scattered fragments of her husband's body, making use of a boat made of the reed papyrus in order the more easily to pass through the lower and fenny parts of the country. For which reason, say they, the crocodile never touches any persons who sail in this sort of vessel, as cither fearing the anger of the goddess, or else respecting it on account of its having once carried her. To this occasion,

THE RELIGION AND GODS OF EGVrT. 91

therefore, it is to be imputed that there are so many different sepulchres of Osiris shewn in Egypt ; for we are told that wherever Isis met with any of the scattered limbs of her husband, she there buried it. There are others, how- ever, who contradict this relation, and tell us that this variety of sepulchres was owing rather to the policy of the queen, who, instead of the real body, as was pretended, presented these several cities with the image only of her husband ; and that she did this not only to render the honours which would by this means be paid to his memory more extensive, but likewise that she might hereby elude the malicious search of Typhon ; who, if he got the better of Horus in the war wherein they were going to be engaged, distracted by this multiplicity of sepulchres, might despair

of being able to find the true one

"After these things Osiris, returning from the other world, appeared to his son Horus, encouraged him to the battle, and at the same time instructed him in the exercise of arms. He then asked him, ' what he thought the most glorious action a man could perform ? ' to which Horus replied, ' to revenge the injuries offered to his father and

mother.' This reply much rejoiced Osiris We

are moreover told that amongst the great numbers who were continually deserting from Typhon's party was the goddess Thoueris, and that a serpent pursuing her as she was coming over to Horus, was slain by his soldiers. Afterwards it came to a battle between them, which lasted many days ; but victory at length inclined to Horus, Typhon himself being taken prisoner. Isis, however, to whose custody he was committed, was so far from putting him to death, that she even loosed his bonds and set him at liberty. This action of his mother so extremely incensed Horus, that be- laid hands upon her and pulled off the ensign of royalty which she wore on her head ; and instead thereof Hermes clapt on an helmet made in the shape of an ox's head.

92 NOTES FOR TRAVELLERS IN EGVPT.

After this there were two other Ixittles fought be- tween them, in both of which Typhon had the worst

"Such, then, are the principal circumstances of this famous story, the more harsh and shocking parts of it, such as the cutting in pieces of Horus and the beheading of Isis, l)eing omitted." (Plutarch, De Iside et Osiride, xii-xx. Squire's translation.)

In the calendar of the lucky and unlucky days of the Egyptian year, the directions concerning the 26th day of the month of Thoth, which is marked Q^CH^Q^, or " thrice unlucky," say, " Do nothing at all on this day, for it is the day on which Horus fought against Set. Standing on the soles of their feet they aimed blows at each other like men, and they became like two bears of hell, lords of Cher-aba. They passed three days and three nights in this manner, after which Isis made their weapons fall. Horus fell down, crying out, ' I am thy son Horus,' and Isis cried to the weapons, saying, ' Away, away, from my son Horus '

Her brother Set fell down, and cried out, saying,

' Help, help !' Isis cried out to the weapons, ' Fall down.' Set cried out several times, ' Do I not wish to honour my mother's brother? ' and Isis cried out to the weapons, ' Fall down — set my elder brother free ' ; then the weapons fell away from him. And Horus and Set stood up like two men, and each paid no attention to what they had said. And the majesty of Horus was enraged against his mother Isis like a panther of the south, and she fled before him. On that day a terrible struggle took place, and Horus cut off the head of Isis ; and Thoth transformed this head by his incantations, and put i^t on her again in the form of a head of a cow." (Chabas, Le Calendner, p. 29.)

Nephthvs, T] p,^ J], Nebt-het, sister of Osiris and Isis, is

generally represented standing at the bier of Osiris lamenting him. One myth relates that Osiris mistook her for Isis, and

THE RELIGION AND GODS OF EGVI'T.

93

that Anubis, the god of the dead, was the result of the union.

Set, 'I^, the god of evil, appears to have been wor- shipped in the earliest times. He was the opponent of Horus in a three days' battle, at the end of which he was defeated. He was worshipped by the Hyksos, and also by the Cheta ; but in the later days of the Egyptian empire he was supposed to be the god of evil, and was considered to be the chief fiend and rebel against the sun-god Ra,

Anubis, (J |-, J, Anpu, the god of the dead, is usually represented with the head of a jackal.

See, ^^ J Jy, was the husband of Nut, the sky, and father of Osiris, Isis, and the other gods of that cycle.

NEBT-JIET.

Thoth, ^5^ , Tehuti, 'the measurer,' was the scribe of

the gods, and the measurer of time and inventor of numbers. In the judgment hall of Osiris he stands by the side of the balance holding a palette and reed ready to record the

94

NOTES FOR TRAVELLERS IN EGYPT.

result of the weighing as announced by the dog-headed ape who sits on the middle of the beam of the scales. In one aspect he is the god of the moon, and is represented with the head of an ibis.

TEHUTI.

CHONSU.

Chonsu, 1 ^ ^ , was associated with Amen-Ra

AVVA^WA I _21 i — I

and Mut in the Theban triad. He was the god of the moon, and is represented as hawk-headed and wearing the lunar disk and crescent. His second name was Nefer-hetep, and he was worshipped with great honour at Thebes.

Sebek, ^^, the crocodile-headed god, was worshipped at Kom-Ombos and in the Fayijm.

i-EM-HETEP (Imouthis), •tah.

D^

, was the son of

Shu, n<^3, and Tefnut, ^ ^ J\j ^^'ere the children

of Seb and Nut, and represented sunlight and moisture respectively.

THE RELIGION AND GODS OF EGYPT.

95

Athor, or Hathor,

Hct-Hcru, 'the house of

Horus,' is identified with Nut, the sky, or place in which she brought forth and suckled Horus. She was the wife of Atmu, a form of Ra. She is represented as a woman wearing a headdress in the shape of a vulture, and above it a disk and horns. She is called ' mistress of the gods,' 'lady of the sycamore,' 'lady of the west,' and 'Hathor of Thebes.' She is the female power of nature, and has soine of the attributes of Isis, Nut, and Mut. She is often represented under the form of a cow coming out of the Theban hills.

Maat, ^^ ic^ (), the goddess of ' Law, was the daughter of the Sun-god Ra ; she is represented as wearing the feather [j, emblematic of law \f,.

Hapi, Q ^^ ^, the god of the Nile, is represented wear- ing a cluster of flowers on his head BiH ; he is coloured red

96

NOTES FOR TRAVELLERS IN EGYPT.

and green, probably to represent the colours of the water of the Nile immediately before and just after the beginning of the inundation.

Ser.\pis, i.e., Osiris-Apis, ji^X ^5 was a god intro- duced into Egypt during the reign of the Ptolemies ; * he is represented with the head of a bull wearing a disk and ur?eus. He is said to be the second son of Ptah. The worship of Apis at Memphis goes back to the earliest times ; the Serapeum, discovered there by M. Mariette, contained the tombs of Apis bulls from the time of Amenophis III. (about B.C. 1550) down to the time of the Roman Empire. See page 155.

* " the Lagids, as well as the Seleucids, were careful of dis- turbing the foundations of the old religion of the country ; they

introduced the Greek god of the lower world, Pluto, into the

native worship, under the hitherto little mentioned name of the Egyptian god Serapis, and then gradually transferred to this the old Osiris worship." Mommsen, Provinces of the Roman Etnpire, Vol. II., p. 265.

97 LOWER EGYPT.

ALEXANDRIA.

Alexandria was founded b.c. 332 by Alexander the Great who began to build his city on the little town of Rakoti, just opposite to the island of Pharos. King Ptolemy I. Soter made this city his capital : and having founded the famous library and museum, he tried to induce the most learned men of his day to live there. His son and successor Ptolemy II. Philadelphus, continued the wise policy of his father, and Alexandria became famous as a seat of learning. The keeper of the museum during the reign of Ptolemy III. Euergetes I. was Aristophanes of Byzantium. During the siege of the city by the Romans in the time of Cassar, b.c. 48, the library of the museum was burnt ; * but Antony after- wards gave Cleopatra a large collection of manuscripts which formed the nucleus of a second library. In the early centuries of our era the people of Alexandria quarrelled perpetually among themselves ,f the subjects of dispute

* This collection numbered 200,000 MSS., and formed the famous Pergamenian library founded by Eumenes II., king of Pergamus, B.C. 197.

t " the Alexandrian rabble took on the slightest pretext to

stones and to cudgels. In street uproar, says an authority, himself Alexandrian, the Egyptians are before all others ; the smallest spark suffices here to kindle a tumult. On account of neglected visits, on account of the confiscation of spoiled provisions, on account of ex- clusion from a bathing establishment, on account of a dispute between the slave of an Alexandrian of rank and a Roman foot-soldier as to the value or non-value of their respective slippers, the legions were

under the necessity of charging among the citizens of Alexandria

In these riots the Greeks acted as instigators bat in the further

course of the matter the spite and savageness of the Eg)'ptian proper came into the conflict. The Syrians were cowardly, and as soldiers the Egyptians were so too ; but in a street tumult they were able to develope a courage worthy of a better cause." (Mommsen, Provinces of the Roman Empire, Vol. II., p. 265.)

H

98 NOTES FOR TRAVELLERS IN EGYPT.

being matters connected with Jews and religious questions. St. Mark is said to have preached the Gospel here. Meanwhile the prosperity of the town declined and the treasury became empty.

Alexandria was captured by Chosroes (a.d. 619), and by ' Amr ibn el-'Asi, a general of 'Omar, a.d. 641. The decHne of Alexandria went on steadily, until it became in the middle ages litde more, comparatively, than a moderate sized sea- port town, with a population of some thousands of people. In the present century a little of its prosperity w^as restored by Muhammad 'Ali, who in 1819 built the Mahmudiyeh canal to bring fresh water to the town from the Rosetta arm of the Nile. Its population to-day is about 300,000, and includes large and wealthy colonies of Jews and Greeks.

The Christians were persecuted at Alexandria with great severity by Decius (a.d. 250), by Valcrianus (a.d. 257), and by Diocletian (a.d. 304). For a large number of years the city was disturbed by the fierce discussions on religious dogmas between Arius and Athanasius, George of Cappa- docia and Athanasius, the Anthropomorphists and their opponents, and Cyril and Nestorius. The Christian sects supported their views by violence, and the ordinary heathen population of the town rebelled whenever they could find a favourable opportunity.

The most important ancient buildings of Alexandria were : —

The Lighthouse or Pharos, one of the seven wonders of the world, was built by Sostratus of Cnidus, for Ptolemy Philadelphus, and is said to have been about 600 feet high. All traces of this wonderful building have now disappeared. The embankment or causeway called the Heptastadium * (from its length of seven stades), was made either by Ptolemy Philadelphus or his father Ptolemy Soter ; it divided the

* The Heptastadium joined the ancient town .and the Island of Pharos ; a large part of the modern town is built upon it.

ALEXANDRIA. C)9

harbour into two parts. The ea.stern port is only used by native craft, on account of its sandy shoals ; the western port is the Eunostos Harbour, which at present is protected by a breakwater about one mile and three-(]uarters along. The Museum and Library of Alexandria were founded by Ptolemy I., and greatly enlarged by his son Ptolemy Phija- delphus. When this latter king died it was said to contain 100,000 manuscripts. These were classified, arranged, and labelled by Callimachus ; when it was burnt down in the time of Julius Caesar, it is thought that more than 750,000 works were lost. Copies of works of importance were made at the expense of the State, and it is stated that every book which came into the city was seized and kept, and that a copy only of it was returned to the owner. Antony handed over to Cleopatra about 200,000 manu- scripts (the Pergamenian Library), and these were made the foundation of a second library. Among the famous men who lived and studied in this library were Eratosthenes, Strabo, Hipparchus, Archimedes, and Euclid. The Sera- peum was built by Ptolemy Soter, and was intended to hold the statue of a god from Sinope, which was called by the Egyptians ' Osiris-Apis,' or Serapis. It stood close by Rakoti to the east of Alexandria near ' Pompey's Pillar,' and is said to have been one of the most beautiful buildings in the world ; it was filled with remarkable statues and other works of art. It was destroyed by the Christian fanatic Theophilus,* Patriarch of Alexandria, during the reign of Theodosius II. The Library of the Serapeum is said to have contained about 300,000 manuscripts, which were burnt by 'Amr ibn el-'Asi at the command of the Khalif 'Omar, a.d. 641 ; these were sufficiently numerous, it is said, to heat the public baths of Alexandria for six

* ". . . the perpetual enemy of peace and virtue ; a bold, bad man, whose hands were alternately polluted with gold and with blood." (Gibbon, Decline, Chap, xxvii.)

H 2

lOO NOTES FOR TRAVELLERS IN EGYPT.

months.* The Soma formed a part of the Caesareum., and contained the bodies of Alexander the Great and the Ptolemies, his successors. The Theatre, which faced the island of Antirhodus, the Soma, and the Museum and Library, all stood in the royal buildings in the Bruchium quarter of the town, between Lochias and the Heptastadium. The stone sarcophagus (now in the British Museum, No. lo), which was thought to have belonged to Alexander the Great, was made for Nectanebus L, the first king of the XXXth

* "The spirit of Amrou ('Amr ilin el-'Asi) was more curious and liberal than that of his brethren, and in his leisure hours the Arabian chief was pleased with the conversation of John, the last disciple of Ammonius, and who derived the surname of Pltilopomis from his laborious studies of grammar and philosophy. Emboldened by this familiar intercourse, Philoponus presumed to solicit a gift, inestimable in his opinion, contemptible in that of the Barbarians : the royal library, which alone, among the spoils of Alexandria, had not been appropriated by the visit and the seal of the conqueror. Amrou was inclined to gratify the wish of the grammarian, but his rigid integrity refused to alienate the minutest object without the consent of the caliph ; and the well-known answer of Omar was inspired by the ignorance of a fanatic. ' If these writings of the Greeks agree with the book of God, they are useless and need not be preserved : if they disagree, they are pernicious and ought to be destroyed.' The sentence was executed with blind obedience : the volumes of paper or parch- ment were distributed to the 4,000 baths of the city ; and such was their incredible multitude that six months were barely sufiicient for the consumption of this precious fuel." (Gibbon, Decline and Fall, chap, li.) The chief authority for this statement is Bar-Hebraeus (born A.D. 1226, died at Maraghah in Adhurbaigan, July 30th, 1286), and it has been repeated by several Arabic writers. Both Gibbon and Renaudot thought the story incredible, but there is no reason why it should be. Gibbon appears to have thought that the second Alexan- drian library was pillaged or destroyed when Theophilus, Patriarch of Alexandria, destroyed the image of Serapis ; there is, howe%'er, no proof that it was, and it seems more probable that it remained com- ])aratively unhurt until the arrival of 'Amr ibn el-'Asi. See the additional notes in Gibbon, ed. Smith, Vol. III., p. 419, and Vol. VI., P- 338.

ALEXANDRIA. lOI

dynasty, B.C. 378. The Paneum, or temple of Pan, is probably represented by the modern Kom ed-I)ik. The Jews' Quarter lay between the sea and the street, to the east of Lochias. The Necropolis was situated at the west of the city. The Gymnasium stood a litde to the east of the Panemii, on the south side of the street which ends, on the east, in the Canopic Gate.

Pompey's Pillar was erected by Pompey, a Roman prefect, in honour of Diocletian, some little time after a.d. 302.* It is made of granite brought from Aswan ; the shaft is about 70 feet, and the whole monument, including its pedestal, is rather more than 100 feet high. The fragments of the columns which lie around the base of this pillar are thought to have belonged to the Serapeum.

A few years ago there were to be seen in Alexandria the two famous granite obelisks called Cleopatra's Needles. They were brought from Heliopolis during the reign of the Roman Emperor Augustus, and set up before the Temple of Ctesar. Until quite lately one of them remained up- right ; the other had fallen. They are both made of Aswan granite ; one measured 67 feet in height, the other 68^ feet ; the diameter of each is about 7^ feet. The larger obelisk was given by Muhammad 'Ali to the English early in this century, but it was not removed until 1877, when it was transported to England at the expense of Sir Erasmus Wilson, and it now stands on the Thames Embankment. The smaller obelisk was taken to New York a few years later. The inscriptions show that both were made during the reign ofThothmes TII.,about b.c. i6oo,andthat Rameses II., who lived about 250 years later, added lines of inscriptions recording his titles of honour and greatness.

* The Greek inscription recording this fact is published in Boeckh, Corpus Inscriptiomim Gracar 21111, t. iii., p. 329, where it is also thus restored : Tov [offjiwraror KinoKpc'iTopa, t'ov ttoAioi'^oj' 'Wi'iarSpiiag, AioK\r]Tiav6p tov aviKrjTOv 7ro[/i7r//t]oc iirupxoe AiyvirTOv

I02 NOTES FOR TRAVELLERS IN EGYPT.

The Catacombs, which were built early in the fourth century of our era, are on the coast near the harbour and on the coast near the new port.

The Walls of the city were built by Muhammad 'Ali, andajjpear to have been laid upon the foundation of ancient walls.

On the south side of Alexandria lies Lake Mareotis, which in ancient days was fed by canals running from the Nile. During the middle ages the lake nearly dried up, and the land which became available for building purposes in consequence was speedily covered with villages. In the year 1801, the English dug a canal across the neck of land between the lake and the sea, and flooded the whole district thus occupied. During the last few years an attempt has been made to pump the water out ; it would seem with con- siderable success.

Between Alexandria and Cairo are the following important towns : —

I. DAMANHUR*(Eg.,c:s:3y [j[j ^a/wv\ ^^\ Temaien-Heru,

' Town of Horus,' the capital of the Mudiriyeh of Behereh. This was the Hermopolis Parva of the Romans.

II. Kafr ez-zaiv.JlT, on the east side of the river, situated among beautiful and fertile fields.

III. Tanta, the capital of Gharbiyeh, situated between the Rosetta and Damietta arms of the Nile. This town is celebrated for three Fairs, which are held here in January, April, and August, in honour of the Muhammedan saint Seyyid el-Bedawi, who was born at Fez about a.d. 1200, and who lived and died at Tanta. Each fair lasts eight days, and the greatest day in each fair is the Friday ; the most important fair is that held in August.

IV. Benha el-'Asal, ' Benha of the Honey,' the capital of

* II is callc-il -^JULm^OJp !)>■ the Copts.

ROSETTA. 103

KalyOb. It obtained this name because a Copt called Makawkas * sent, among other gifts, a jar of honey to Muhammad the Prophet. Quite close to this town are the ruins of the ancient city of Athribis.

About forty miles to the east of Alexandria lies the town of Rosetta, not far from the ancient Bolbitane. It was founded towards the end of the ninth century, and was once a flourishing seaport ; it has become famous in modern times on account of the trilingual inscription, called the 'Rosetta Stone,' which was found here in 1799 by a French officer called Boussard. This inscription was inscribed on a block of basalt, and contained a decree by the Egyptian priests in honour of Ptolemy V., Epiphanes, dated in the eighth year of his reign (b.c. 196). The hiero- glyphic, demotic, and Greek texts enabled Young and ChampoUion to work out the phonetic values of a number of the hieroglyphic characters employed to write the names of the Greek rulers. The stone is preserved in the British Museum.

"'• Makawkas was " Prince of the Copts," and " Governor of Alex- andria and Egypt " ; he was a Jacobite, and a strong hater of the Melchites ur "Royalists." He was invited to become a follower of Muhammad the Prophet, but he declined. When Egypt was captured by 'Amr ibn el-'Asi he betrayed the Copts, but by means of paying tribute he secured to himself the liberty of professing the Christian religion, and he asked that, after his death, his body might be buried in the church of St. John at Alexandria. He sent, as gifts to the Prophet, two Coptic young women, sisters, called Maryam and Shirin ; two girls, one eunuch, a horse, a mule, an ass, a jar of honey, an alabaster jar, a jar of oil, an ingot of gold, and some Egyptian linen. (Gagnier, La vie de Mahomet, pp. 38, 73.) The Arabic geographers state that the best honey in Egypt comes from Benha.

I04 NOTES FOR TRAVELLERS IN EGYPT.

SUEZ AND THE SUEZ CANAL.

The town of Suez practically sprang into existence during the building of the Suez Canal, which w^as opened in 1869; before that time it was an insignificant village with a tew hundred inhabitants. Ancient history is almost silent about it, even if it be identified with Clysma* Praesidium. It is situated at the north end of the Gulf of Suez, and is now important from its position at the south end of the Suez Canal. A fresh-water canal from Cairo to Suez was built in 1863, but before the cutting of this canal the inhabitants obtained their water either from the Wells of Moses (about eight miles from Suez) or Cairo. It was at one time considered to be near the spot where the Israelites crossed the ' Sea of Sedge ' ; there is little doubt, however, that the passage was made much nearer the Mediterranean.

The neck of land which joins Asia to Africa, or the Isthmus of Suez, is nearly one hundred miles wide ; on the south side is the Gulf of Suez, on the north the Medi- terranean. The Red Sea and the Mediterranean appear to have been united in ancient days. Modern investiga- tions have proved that so far back as the time of Rameses II. or earlier a canal was cut between Pelusium and Lake Timsah, and it is almost certain that it was well fortified. The Asiatics who wished to invade Egypt were compelled to cross the Isthmus of Suez, and a canal would not only serve as a water barrier against them, but be useful

* Clysma, in Arabic Kulzum, is said by the Arabic geographers lo have been situated on the coast of the sea of Yemen, on the Egj'ptian side, at the far end, three days from Cairo and four days from Pelusium. (JuynboU, Lex. Geog. A>al>., t. ii., p. (~P.)

SUEZ AND THE SUEZ CANAL. 10$

as a means of transport for troops from one point to another. The name of the place Kantara, 'a bridge,' a Httle to the north of Isma'iliya, seems to point to the fact of a ford existing here from very early times. Nekau (h.c. 6io) began to make a canal at Bubastis, between the Nile and the Red Sea, but never finished it ; it was continued in later times by Darius, and Ptolemy Philadelphus made a lock for it ; still later we know that the Mediterranean and Red Seas were joined by a canal. The emperor Trajan made a canal from Cairo to the Red Sea, which, having become impassable, was re-opened by 'Omar's general, 'Amr ibn el- 'A si, after his capture of Egypt.

In the Middle Ages various attempts were made in a half-hearted manner to cut a new canal across the Isthmus, but although several royal personages in and out of Egypt were anxious to see the proposed work begun, nothing was seriously attempted until 1798, when Napoleon Bonaparte directed M. Lepere to survey the route of a canal across the Isthmus. M. Lepere reported that the difference between the levels of the Red Sea and Mediterranean was thirty-three feet, and, that, therefore, the canal was impossible.* Although several scientific men doubted the accuracy of M. Lepere's conclusion, the fact that the level of the two seas is practically the same was not proved until M. Linant Bey, Stephenson, and others examined the matter in 1846. It was then at once evident that a canal was possible. M. de Lesseps laid the plans for a canal before Sa'id Pasha in 1854 ; two years afterwards they were sanctioned, and two years later the works began. The original plan proposed to make a

* This was the opinion of some classical writers : compare Aristotle, Meteorologica, i. 14, 27; Diodorus, i. 23; and Strabo, xvii. i, 25. The Arabic writer Mas'udi relates that a certain king tried to cut a canal across this isthmus, but that on finding that the waters of the Red Sea stood at a higher level than those of the Mediterranean, he abandoned his project. {Les Prairies cTOr, t. iv. p. 97.)

Io6 NOTES FOR TRAVELLERS IN EGYPT.

canal from Suez to Pelusium, but it was afterwards modified, and by bringing the northern end into the Mediterranean at Port Sa'id, it was found possible to do away with the lock at each end, which would have been necessary had it embouched at Pelusium. The fresh-water canal from Bulak to Suez, with an aqueduct to Port Sa'id, included in the original plan, was completed in 1863. The filling of the Bitter Lakes with sea-water from the Mediterranean was begun on the 18th March, 1869, and the whole canal was opened for trafiic on November i6th of the same year. The cost of the canal was about ;!^ 19, 000, 000.

The buoyed channel which leads into the canal at the Suez end is 300 yards across in the widest part. The average width of the dredged channel is about 90 feet, and the average depth about 28 feet. At Shaluf et-Terrabeh the excavation was very difficult, for the ground rises about twenty feet above the sea-level, and the elevation is five or six miles long. A thick layer of hard rock ' cropped ' up in the line of the canal, and the work of removing it was of no slight nature. On a mound not quite half-way between Suez and Shaliif are some granite blocks bearing traces of cuneiform and hieroglyphic inscriptions recording the name of Darius. They appear to be the remains of one of a series of buildings erected along the line of the old canal which was restored and probably completed by Darius. At Shaluf the width of the canal is about 90 feet, and shortly after leaving this place the canal enters the Small Bitter Lake, which is about seven miles long. Before reaching the end of it is, on the left, another mound on which were found the ruins of a building which was exca- vated by M. de Lesseps. Granite slabs were found there inscribed with the name of Darius in Persian cuneiform characters and in hieroglyphics. The canal next passes through the Great Bitter Lake (about fifteen miles long), and a few kilometres farther along it passes through the

SUEZ AND THE SUEZ CANAL. IO7

rock, upon which was built by Darius another monument to tell passers-by that he it was who made the canal. The track of the canal through the Bitter Lakes is marked by a double row of buoys ; the distance between each buoy is 330 yards, and the space between the two rows is about thirty yards. At a little distance to the north of the l'.ittcr Lake is Tusan, which may be easily identified by means of the tomb of the Muhammedan saint Ennedek. Shortly after Lake Timsah, or the ' Crocodile Lake,' is reached, on the north side of which is the town of Isma'iliya, formerly the head-quarters of the staff in charge of the various works connected with the construction of the canal. The canal channel through the lake is marked by buoys as in the Bitter Lakes. Soon after re-entering the canal the plain of El-Gisr, or the 'bridge,' is entered; it is about fifty -five feet above the level of the sea. Through this a channel about eighty feet deep had to be cut. Passing through Lake Balah, el-Kantara, 'the bridge,' a place situated on a height between the Balah and Menzaleh Lakes, is reached. It is by this natural bridge that every invading army must have entered Egypt, and its appellation, the ' Bridge of Nations,' is most appropriate. On the east side of the canal, not far from el-Kantara, are some ruins of a building which appears to have been built by Rameses IL, and a little beyond Kantara begins Lake Menzaleh. About twenty miles to the east are the ruins of Pelusium. The canal is carried through Lake Menzaleh in a perfectly straight line until it reaches Port Sa'id.

The town of Port Sa'id is the product of the Suez Canal, and has a population of about (2,000. It stands on the island which forms part of the narrow tract of land which separates Lake Menzaleh from the Mediterranean. The first body of workmen landed at the spot which afterwards became Port Sa'id in 1859, and for many years the place was nothing but a factory and a living-place for workmen.

Io8 NOTES FOR TRAVELLERS IN EGYPT.

The harbour and the two breakwaters which protect it are remarkable pieces of work ; the breakwater on the east is about one mile, and that on the west is about one and five- eighths of a mile in length, and is being lengthened yearly to protect the harbour from the mud-carrying current which always flows from the west, and would block up the canal but for the breakwater. Near the western breakwater is the lighthouse, about 165 feet high ; the electric light is used in it, and can be seen for a distance of twenty miles. The port is called Sa'id in honour of Sa'id Pasha. The fresh water used is brought in iron pipes laid along the western side of the canal from Isma'iliya. The choice fell upon this spot for the Mediterranean end of the canal because water sufficiently deep for ocean-going ships was found within two miles of the shore. The total length of the canal, including the buoyed channel at the Suez end, is about one hundred miles.

CAIRO TO SUEZ.

On the line between Cairo and Suez the following important places are passed : —

I. Shibin el-Kanatir, the stopping place for those who wish to visit the ' Jewish Hill ' or Tell el-Yahudiyyeh, where Onia, the high priest of the Jews, built a temple by the permission of Ptolemy Philometor, in which the Egyptian Jews might worship. The site of the town was occupied in very early times by a temple and other buildings which were set up by Rameses II. and Rameses III. ; a large number of the tiles which formed parts of the walls of these splendid works are preserved in the British Museum.

II. Zakazik, the capital of the Sherkiyeh province, is a town of about 40,000 inhabitants ; the railway station stands about one mile from the mounds which mark the

CAIRO TO SUEZ.

109

site of the famous old city of Bubastis,* or Tell Basta. The chief article of commerce here is cotton. Not far from Zakazik flows the Fresh-water Canal from Cairo to Suez, which in many places exactly follows the route of the old canal which was dug during the XlXth dynasty.

Bubastis, Bubastus, or Tell Basta (the Pil)eseth=" House of Bast " of Ezekiel xxx. 1 7), was the capital of the Bubastites nome in the Delta, and was situated on the eastern side of the Pelusiac arm of the Nile. The city was dedicated to the goddess Bast, the animal sacred to whom was the cat, and was famous for having given a dynasty of kings (the XXIInd) to Egypt. To the south of the city were the lands which Psammetichus I. gave to his Ionian and Carian mercenaries, and on the north side was the canal which Nekau (Necho) dug between the Nile and the Red Sea. The city was captured by the Persians b.c. 352, and the walls, the entire circuit of which was three miles, were dismantled. Recent excavations have shown beyond doubt that the place was inhabited during the earliest dynasties, and that many great kings of Egypt delighted to build temples there. The following description of the town and the festival celebrated there will be found of interest : " Here is a temple of Bubastis deserving of mention. Other temples are larger and more magnificent, but none more beautiful than this. The goddess Bubastis is the same as the Greek Diana. Her temple stands in an island surrounded on all sides by water, except at the entrance passage. Two separate canals lead from the Nile to the entrance, which diverging to the right and left, surround the temple. They are about 100 feet broad, and planted with trees. The vestibule is 60 feet high, and ornamented with very fine figures six

■•' From the hieroglyphic ^ ^^^/'^z-/>aV, Coptic noT^i-CJ"; il was the metropolis of the i8th nome of Lower Egypt, "where the soul of Isis lived in [the form] of Bast."

no NOTES FOR TRAVELLERS IN EGYPT.

cubits in height. The temple stands in the centre of the town, and in walking round the place you look down upon it on every side, in consequence of the foundations of the houses having been elevated, and the temple still continuing on its original level. The sacred enclosure is encompassed by a wall, on which a great number of figures are sculptured ; and within it is a grove, planted round the shrine of the temple, with trees of a considerable height. In the shrine is the statue of the goddess. The sacred enclosure is 600 feet in length by the same in breadth. The street which corre- sponds with the entrance of the temple crosses the public square, goes to the east, and leads to the temple of Mercury : it is about 1,800 feet long and 400 feet wide, paved and planted on each side with large trees."* The goddess Bast who was worshipped there is represented as having the head of a lioness or cat. She w^ore a disk, with a urceus, and carried the sceptre | or I. She was the female counter- part of Ptah, and was one of the triad of Memphis. Properly

speaking her name is Sechet y J4 . She is called

' Lady of Heaven,' and ' The great lady, beloved of Ptah.' f The nature of the ceremony on the way to Bubastis, says Herodotus, J is this: — "They go by water, and numerous boats are crowded with persons of both sexes. During the voyage several women strike cymbals and tambourines ; some men play the flute ; the rest singing and clapping their hands. As they pass near a town, they bring the boat

* Herodotus, ii. 137, 138, translated liy Wilkinson, "Ancient Egyptians," iii. p. 35.

t She is a form of Hathor, and as wife of Ptah, was the mother of Nefer-Atmu and I-em-hetep. She was the personification of the power of light and of the burning heat of the sun ; it was her duty to destroy the demons of night, mist and cloud, who fought against the sun.

t 15ook II. 60.

CAIRO TO SUEZ. I I I

close to the bank. Some of the women continue to sing and strike cymbals ; others cry out as long as they can, and utter reproaches against the people of the town, who begin to dance, while the former pull up their clothes before them in a scoffing manner. The same is repeated at every town they pass upon the river. Arrived at Bubastis, they celebrate the festival, sacrificing a great number of victims ; and on that occasion a greater consumption of wine takes place than during the whole of the year ; for according to the accounts of the people themselves, no less than 700,000 persons of both sexes are present, besides children."

The fertile country round about Zakazik is probably a part of the Goshen of the Bible.

III. Abu Hammad, where the Arabian desert begins.

IV. Tell el-Kebir, a wretched village, now made famous by the victory of Lord Wolseley over 'Arabi Pasha in 1882.

V. Mahsamah, which stands on the site of a town built by Rameses II. Near this place is Tell el-Maskhuta, which some have identified with the Pithom which the Israelites built for the king of Egypt who oppressed them.

VI. Isma'iliya (see p. 107).

VII. Nefisheh. Here the fresh water canal divides into two parts, the one going on to Suez, and the other to Isma'iliya.

NOTES FOR TRAVELLERS IN EGYPT.

CAIRO.

Cairo (from the Arabic Kahira, ' the Victorious,' because the planet Kahir or Mars was visible on the night of the foundation of the city) is situated on the right or eastern bank of the Nile, about ten miles south of the division of the Nile into the Rosetta and Damietta branches. It is called in Arabic Masr * : it is the largest city in Africa, and its population must be now about half a million souls. Josephus says that the fortress of the Babylon of Egypt, which stood on the spot occupied by old Cairo or Fostat, was founded by the Babylonian mercenary soldiers of Cambyses, b.c. 525; Diodorus says that it was founded by Assyrian captives in the time of Rameses II., and Ctesias is inclined to think that it was built in the time of Semiramis. The opinions of the two last mentioned writers are valuable in one respect, for they show that it was believed in their time that Babylon of Egypt was a very ancient foundation. During the reign of Augustus it was the headquarters of one of the legions that garrisoned Egypt, and remains of the town and fortress which these legionaries occupied are still to be seen a little to the north of Fostat. The word Fostat f means a ' tent,' and the place is so called from the tent of 'Amr ibn el-'Asi, which was pitched there when he besieged Egypt, .-^.d. 638, and to which he returned after his capture of Alexandria. Around his tent lived a large number of his followers, and

* Masr is a form of the old name Misrl (Hebrew Misraint), by which it is called in the cuneiform tablets, P.c. 1550.

t Arab. IrUs^, another form of 1^1.^, = Byzantine Greek 'I'offffdroi'.

CAIRO. iI3

these being joined by new comers, the city of Fostat at length arose. It was enlarged by Ahmed ibn Tulttn, who built a mosque there ; by KhamarCiyeh, who built a palace there ; but when the Fatimite Khalif Mu'izz con- quered Egypt (a.d. 969), he removed the seat of his government from there, and founded Masr el-Kahira, "Masr the Victorious," near Fostat. Fostat, which was also known by the name of Masr, was henceforth called Masr cl-'Atika. During the reign of Salaheddin the city was surrounded with walls and the citadel was built. Sultan after Sultan added handsome buildings to the town, and though it suffered from plagues and fires, it gained the reputation of being one of the most beautiful capitals in the Muham- medan empire. In 15 17 it was captured by Selim I., and Egypt became a pashalik of the Turkish empire, and remained so until its conquest by Napoleon Bonaparte in 1798. Cairo was occupied by Muhammad 'Ali in 1805, and the massacre of the Mamelukes took place March i. 1811.

THE MUSEUM AT GIZEH.

The Egyptian antiquities which are now exhibited at Gizeh were, until the end of 1889, preserved at Bulak, where they occupied the site of the old post-office. The founding of the Bulak museum is due to the energy and perseverance of Auguste Ferdinand Mariette. This dis- tinguished Frenchman was born at Boulogne-sur-Mer on February nth, 1821. His ancestors were not unknown in the literary world. He was educated at Boulogne, and was made professor there when he was twenty years of age. He seems to have tried his hand at various professions, and to have studied archaeological matters whenever he had a little leisure. His attention was first drawn to the study of Egyptian archseology by the examination of a collection of Egyptian antiquities which had been made by Vivant

114 NOTES FOR TRAVELLERS IN EGYPT.

Denon, one of the artists attached to the French Expedi- tion in Egypt. Soon after this he wrote a paper on the Hst of kings which was found at Karnak and brought to Paris by Prisse, and sent it to Charles Lenormant. This gentleman, together with Maury, de Saulcy and Longperier, advised him to come to Paris, where he soon obtained an appointment on the staff of the Louvre. As the salary paid to the young man was not sufficient to keep him, he resolved to ask the French Government to provide him with the necessary funds to go to Egypt, where he wished to try his fortune. The plea urged by him was that he wished to study the Coptic language and literature in the convents of Egypt, and with his apphcation for funds he sent in a treatise which he had drawn up on Coptic matters. The petition was favourably received, and he set out for Egypt in the summer of 1850. Having arrived in Egypt, he found that it was not easy to obtain access to the libraries of the convents, for the Patriarch had insisted that they should be carefully guarded from strangers, ^\'hile at Sakkarah, one day he discovered by accident a sphinx, which men- tioned the names of Osiris-Hapi or Serapis, similar to one that he had seen at Cairo. He remembered that the Serapeum at Memphis was described by ancient authors as standing on a sandy plain, and he believed that he had really found the spot where it stood and its ruins. He obtained labourers and set to work to dig, and discovered about one hundred and fifty sphinxes and two chapels ; these objects and many other indications caused him to believe that he had actually found the Serapeum. The excavations were stopped for a short time, but were recommenced after a sum of money had been voted by the French Government. At the end of 1851 Mariette entered the Serapeum, and found there sixty-four Apis bulls, stelse, etc., etc. As the dates when the bulls were placed in the Serapeum were stated, they afforded a

CAIRO — MUSEUM AT GI/KH. jje

valuable help in fixing the chronology of Egypt as far back as the XVIIIth dynasty. In 1853 he discovered a granite temple near Gizeh ; and shortly afterwards he was appointed Assistant-Curator at the Louvre. In 1858 he was created Bey by Sa'id Pasha, and the foundation of an Egyptian museum at Bijlak was entrusted to him. About the same time he began a large series of excavations in several places at once, and the scene of his labours extended from one end of Egypt to the other. At Abydos he cleared out the temple of Seti I., two temples of Rameses II., and a large number of tombs ; at Denderah, a temple of Hathor ; at Thebes he removed whole villages and mountains of earth from the temples at Karnak, Medinet-Habu and Der el-Bahari ; and at Edfu he removed from the roof of the temple a village of huts and cleared out its interior. He was the author of several large works in which he gave accounts of his different labours, and published fac-similes of the texts on the monuments which he had discovered. He died at Cairo on January 17th, 1881, and was entombed in a sarcophagus which stood in the court-yard of Biilak Museum ; his remains were removed to Gizeh with the antiquities of the Museum. He was succeeded as Director by M. Maspero, who has in turn been succeeded by M. Grebaut.

The national Egyptian collection at Gizeh surpasses every other collection in the world, by reason of the number of the monuments in it which were made during the first six dynasties, and by reason of the fact that the places from which the greater number of the antiquities come are well ascertained. Here may be seen stelas of nobles who lived during the Ilird dynasty; of Ptah-heten of the Vth dynasty ; monuments which belong to the little-known period during which the kings of the Vllth to the Xlth dynasty reigned ; a stele of the Theban king Antefaa (Xlth dynasty) ; and a number of sphinxes and other objects

I 2

Tl6 NOTES FOR TRAVELLERS IN EGYPT.

which Marietta thought were executed under the rule of the Hyksos kings. The statue of Chephren, the " Shekh el- Beled," the jewellery of Queen Aah-Hetep, the mother of Ahnies, the first king of the XVHIth dynasty; the Der el- Bahari mummies, the list of kings from Sakkarah, the Ethiopian monuments from Gebel Barkal, the stele of Canopus, and other such unique objects, have given the collection a world-wide reputation. The stele inscribed with the decree of Canopus contains a hieroglyphic inscription with translations of it into demotic and Greek. The subject- matter is a decree of a body of priests who met together at Canopus li.c. 238, in which they express their determination to establish a new order of priesthood in the name of the reigning king Ptolemy III. Euergetes I., in recognition of the many benefits which he had conferred upon the country of Egypt ; they also decide to erect statues of the dead princess Berenice, and to put up copies of this trilingual inscription inscribed on bronze slabs in every temple of the first and second rank. This stone is as valuable as remark- able, for the inscriptions prove beyond