BOOK I. THE ANCIENT HISTORY OF THE EGYPTIANS. PART I. Description of Egypt: with an Account of whatever is most curious and remarkable in that Country. a EGYPT comprehended anciently, within limits of no very great extent, a prodigious number of cities, and an incredible multitude of inhabitants. It is bounded on the east by the Red Sea and the Isthmus of Suez; on the south by Ethiopia, on the west by Libya, and on the north by the Mediterranean. The Nile runs from south to north, through the whole country, about two hundred leagues in length. This country is enclosed on each side with a ridge of mountains, which very often leave, between the foot of the hills and the river Nile, a tract of ground of not above half a day's journey in length, and sometimes less. On the west side, the plain grows wider in some places, and extends to twenty-five or thirty leagues. The greatest breadth of Egypt is from Alexandria to Damietta, being about fifty leagues. Ancient Egypt may be divided into three principal parts: a It is related that under Amasis, there were twenty thousand inhabited cities in Egypt. Herod. 1. . c. 177. b A day's journey is twenty-four eastern, or thirty-three English miles and a quarter. Upper Egypt, otherwise called Thebais, which was the most southern part; Middle Egypt, or Heptanomis, so called from the seven Nomi or districts it contained: Lower Egypt, which included what the Greeks called Delta, and all the country as far as the Red Sea, and along the Mediterranean to Rhinocolura, or mount Casius. Under Sesostris, all Egypt became one kingdom, and was divided into thirty-six governments or Nomi : ten in Thebais, ten in Delta, and sixteen in the country between both. с The cities of Syene and Elephantina divided Egypt from Ethiopia; and in the days of Augustus were the boundaries of the Roman empire: Claustra olim Romani Imperii, Tacit. Annal. lib. ii. cap. 61. CHAP. I. d THEBAIS. THEBES, from whence Thebais had its name, might vie with the noblest cities in the universe. Its hundred gates, celebrated by Homer, are universally known; and acquired it the surname of Hecatompylos, to distinguish it from the other Thebes in Boeotia. Its population was proportionate to its extent; and, according to history, it could send out at once two hundred chariots and ten thousand fighting men at each of its gates. The Greeks and Romans have celebrated its magnificence and grandeur, though they saw it only in its ruins; so august were the remains of this city. f In the Thebaid, now called Said, have been discovered temples and palaces which are still almost entire, adorned with innumerable columns and statues. One palace especially is admired, the remains whereof seem to have existed purely to eclipse the glory of the most pompous edifices. Four walks extending farther than the eye can see, and bounded on each side with sphinxes, composed of materials as rare and extraordinary as their size is remarkable, serve as avenues to four porticoes, whose height is amazing to behold. And even they who have given us the description of this wonderful edifice, had not time to go round it; and are not sure that they saw above half: however, what they had a sight of was astonishing. A hall, Strabo, 1. xvii. p. 787. d Hom. Il. i. ver. 381. Thevenot's Travels. which in all appearance stood in the middle of this stately palace, was supported by a hundred and twenty pillars six fathoms round, of a proportionable height, and intermixed with obelisks, which so many ages have not been able to demolish. Painting had displayed all her art and magnificence in this edifice. The colours themselves, which soonest feel the injury of time, still remain amidst the ruins of this wonderful structure, and preserve their beauty and lustre ; so happily could the Egyptians imprint a character of immortality on all their works. Strabo, who was on the spot, describes a temple he saw in Egypt, very much resembling that of which I have been speaking. The same author, describing the curiosities of Thebais, speaks of a very famous statue of Memnon, the remains whereof he had seen. It is said that this statue, when the beams of the rising sun first shone upon it in the morning, uttered an articulate sound. And indeed Strabo himself was an ear-witness of this; but then he doubts whether the sound came from the statue. CHAP. II. MIDDLE EGYPT, OR HEPTANOMIS. MEMPHIS was the capital of this part of Egypt. In this city were to be seen many stately temples; among them that of the god Apis, who was honoured here after a particular manner. I shall speak of it hereafter, as well as of the pyramids which stood in the neighbourhood of this place, and rendered it so famous. Memphis was situated on the west side of the Nile. Grand Cairo, which seems to have succeeded Memphis, is built on the other side of that river. The castle of Cairo is one of the greatest curiosities in Egypt. It stands on a hill without the city, has a rock for its foundation, and is surrounded with walls of a vast height and solidity. You go up to the castle by a way hewn out of the rock, and which is so easy of ascent, that loaded horses and camels get up without difficulty. The greatest rarity in this castle is Joseph's well, so called, either because the Egyptians are pleased with ascribing what is most remarkable among them to that great man, or because such a tradition has been preserved in the country. This is a proof, at least, that h Lib. xvu. p. 805. 1 P. 816. * Germanicus aliis quoque miraculis intendit animum, quorum præcipua fuere Memnonis saxea effigies, ubi radiis solis icta est, vocalem sonum reddens, &c. Tacit. Annal. 1. ii. c. 61. 1 Thevenot. the work in question is very ancient; and it is certainly wortay the magnificence of the most powerful kings of Egypt. This well has, as it were, two stories, cut out of the solid rock to a prodigious depth. The descent to the reservoir of water, between the two wells, is by a staircase seven or eight feet broad, consisting of two hundred and twenty steps, and so contrived, that the oxen employed to throw up the water, go down with all imaginable ease, the descent being scarcely perceptible. The well is supplied from a spring, which is almost the only one in the whole country. The oxen are continually turning a wheel with a rope, to which a number of buckets are fastened. The water thus drawn from the first and lowermost well is conveyed by a little canal into a reservoir, which forms the second well; from whence it is drawn to the top in the same manner, and then conveyed by pipes to all parts of the castle. As this well is supposed by the inhabitants of the country to be of great antiquity, and has indeed much of the antique manner of the Egyptians, I thought it might deserve a place among the curiosities of ancient Egypt. m Strabo speaks of a similar engine, which, by wheels and pulleys, threw up the water of the Nile to the top of a very high hill; with this difference, that, instead of oxen, a hundred and fifty slaves were employed to turn these wheels. The part of Egypt of which we now speak, is famous for several rarities, each of which deserves a particular examination. I shall mention only the principal, such as the obelisks, the pyramids, the labyrinth, the lake of Moris, and the Nile. SECT. I. THE OBELISKS. Egypt seemed to place its chief glory in raising monuments for posterity. Its obelisks form at this day, on account of their beauty as well as height, the principal ornament of Rome; and the Roman power, despairing to equal the Egyptians, thought it honour enough to borrow the monuments of their kings. An obelisk is a quadrangular, taper, high spire, or pyramid, raised perpendicularly, and terminating in a point, to serve as an ornament to some open square; and is very often covered with inscriptions or hieroglyphics, that is, with mystical characters or symbols used by the Egyptians to conceal and disguise their sacred things, and the mysteries of their theology. Sesostris erected in the city of Heliopolis two obelisks of extreme hard stone, brought from the quarries of Syene, at the extremity of Egypt." They were each one hundred and twenty cubits high, that is, thirty fathoms, or one hundred and eighty m Lib. xvii. p. 807. n Diod. lib. 1. p. 37. feet. The emperor Augustus, having made Egypt a province of the empire, caused these two obelisks to be transported to Rome, one whereof was afterwards broken to pieces. He dared not venture to make the same attempt upon a third, which was of a monstrous size. P It was made in the reign of Rameses it is said that twenty thousand men were employed in the cutting of it. Constantius, more daring than Augustus, caused it to be removed to Rome. Two of these obelisks are still to be seen there, as well as another a hundred cubits, or twenty-five fathoms high, and eight cubits, or two fathoms, in diameter. Caius Cæsar had it brought from Egypt in a ship of so odd a form, that, according to Pliny, the like had never been seen. Every part of Egypt abounded with this kind of obelisks; they were for the most part cut in the quarries of Upper Egypt, where some are now to be seen half finished. But the most wonderful circumstance is, that the ancient Egyptians should have had the art and contrivance to dig even in the very quarry a canal, through which the water of the Nile ran in the time of its inundation; from whence they afterwards raised up the columns, obelisks, and statues, on rafts proportioned to their weight, in order to convey them into Lower Egypt. And as the country was intersected every where with canals, there were few places to which those huge bodies might not be carried with ease; although their weight would have broken every other kind of engine. SECT. II. THE PYRAMIDS. S A pyramid is a solid or hollow body, having a large, and generally a square base, and terminating in a point. There were three pyramids in Egypt more famous than the rest, one whereof was justly ranked among the seven wonders of the world; they stood not very far from the city of Memphis. I shall take notice here only of the largest of the three. This pyramid, like the rest, was built on a rock, having a square base, cut on the outside as so many steps, and decreasing gradually quite to the summit. It was built with stones of a prodigious size, the least of which were thirty feet, wrought with wonderful art, and covered with hieroglyphics. According to several ancient authors, each side was eight hundred feet broad, and as many high. The summit of the pyramid, which to those who It is proper to observe once for all, that an Egyptian cubit, according to P Plin. l. xxxvi. c. 8, 9. |