Obrázky na stránke
PDF
ePub

LETTER VI.

Thebes-Temples-Sculptures - Tombs - Fulfilment of

the Prophecies.

Esneh -Edfou- Essouan- Ascent of the Cataracts Nubia-Upper Cataracts-Wellee Kiashef-Disaster and detention at Essouan.

Temples of Herment-Dendera-Ombos-Tombs of Benihassan-Memphis-Pyramids of Saccara and Dashour

- Cairo.

February 3, 1837.

Returning down the Nile.

FAR have we wandered, and much have we seen, dearest mother, during the last month and a half. We arrived at Thebes, glorious Thebes! the day after I despatched my letter from Kenneh, and fired our cannon in triumph; we always do so on reaching any place which forms an epoch in our voyage; it astonishes the natives. We saluted a Turkish Kiashef, or governor, the other evening, as he left our boat, after dining and chatting with us for three

hours; the poor man tottered with astonishment, he took it in very good part, howevermore of him anon.

Colonel Vyse, whose boat was moored alongside of our's, paid us a visit the evening we arrived at Thebes. He advised our taking advantage of the favourable wind, and proceeding direct to Nubia before it changed. It was impossible absolutely to turn our backs on Thebes without one glance at her, yet the advice was not to be rejected in toto, and we therefore took a hurried look only at the ruins, merely to familiarise ourselves with their plan; on our return, we examined them minutely, but I will say now all that I think will interest you on the subject.

For a glance at the principal objects, two days suffice; the first we devoted to the western or Libyan suburb, for the Nile divides the City of Ammon into two portions, of which the Eastern is the most considerable. Mounting,

therefore, a couple of Arab steeds, we started for the ruins, Ali Massaoud, the guardiano, leading the way, with a long spear on his

shoulder.

We soon came in sight of

"Memnon's statue which at sunrise played,"

and his companion, and in about half an hour dismounted at Gournou, to visit the temple of Ammon, the Theban Jupiter, begun by Osirei, and finished, with the palace contiguous to it, by his illustrious son, Rameses the second. It is small comparatively, but very interesting, the columns of the portico, lotus-stalks bound together evidently the prototype of the Doric. The Eastern court was the hall of assembly of ancient Thebes. A royal palace was attached to most of the great temples; the priests were equally well lodged in the lateral apartments.

Do you remember the discovery struck out some years ago by Dr. Young, and perfected by

Champollion, of a hieroglyphical alphabet, by which they were enabled to read the names of all the kings who have recorded themselves on the ancient monuments of Egypt? It is to this discovery that we now owe the exact knowledge when, and by whom, every temple was built and tomb excavated. This alphabet gives us no insight into the wisdom concealed under the abstruser hieroglyphics, yet we owe to it many gleams of history, not the least interesting of which is the confirmation of all that ancient historians have told us so long discredited-of the glory of Sesostris.

Memnon's statue is indeed a marvel-between fifty and sixty feet high, and originally of one block of stone; he fell asunder before our Saviour's time, but was rebuilt soon afterwards; his companion is still entire as a whole, though the features are much defaced. The name of

*

Memnon is a misnomer; they represent

Corrupted from Mi-ammon, "the beloved of Ammon," the favourite title of Rameses the Great, con

Amunoph the third, who flourished about a century before Sesostris. Hadrian and his illfated queen Sabina stood and gazed up at them just where we did, and, among the numerous inscriptions that prove Memnon's identity, we read, with no small interest, the names of the Roman ladies who accompanied their imperial mistress, and heard (as an inscription which I could not find testifies), the "unseen melody" salute the ill-assorted pair twice, the morning they were there. And there they will sit, probably, to the end of time; looking down in the same silent austere majesty on pilgrims from lands unheard of when they were born-peoples even yet uninscribed in the muster-roll of nations. These statues marked the termination of a noble avenue, which led to the temple and palace of Amufounded by the Greeks with the Memnon of Homer; and applied by them indifferently to all the Pharaohs so surnamed. See an interesting note, p. 9, of Mr. Wilkinson's Topography of Thebes."

66

« PredošláPokračovať »