AFRICA. Upper Ae Linant's discovery of a dyke enclosing the second terrace of Fayoum.— Identification of the enclosed site with that of Lake Moeris.-Further explanation of Linant's identification. His identification of the two pyramids described by Herodotus.-General remarks upon Linant's discovery.-Remaining topography of Middle Aegypt.-Erythreobolus.— Crocodilopolis. Hermopolis. - Docks in the Arabian Gulf. — Upper Aegypt Proper, not described by Herodotus.-Extreme paucity of his topographical notices.-His account of Thebes and temple of Zeus, or AmChemmis. - Temple of Perseus. Elephantine.-Crophi and Mophi. Southern boundary of Aegypt. mon. UPPER AEGYPT according to Herodotus included, CHAP. IV. as we have seen, the whole of the Nile valley from the apex of the Delta southwards to Elephantine. gypt of He- This region is usually divided into Middle Aegypt, cluded Hep- or Heptanomis, and Upper Aegypt, properly so calltanomis and ed, or the Thebais. Our author's account of both rodotus in Thebais. Memphis. site recover Nile. Middle and Upper Aegypt will therefore be developed in the present chapter: his topography of the former comprises a description of the city of Memphis, the pyramids of Gizeh, the great Labyrinth, and the Moeris lake; whilst that of Upper Aegypt only consists of a few notices of the cities of Thebes, Chemmis or Panopolis, and Elephantine. MEMPHIS was the great city of Middle Aegypt Menes on a described by Herodotus, and it was here that he ed from the obtained his principal information respecting the country.' Menes, the first king of Aegypt, built this city at a time when all the Delta was under water, and he obtained a site by the following contrivance. The Nile had previously flowed close by the sandy mountain of Libya on the eastern side. Menes dug a canal elbowing out more in the centre of the valley between the Libyan and Arabian mountains; and then, having dammed up the old channel of the Nile about 100 stadia to the south of the site of Memphis, he conducted the river into the canal. Upon the ground thus recovered Menes built the city of Memphis, and protected it by a mound; and in after-times the banks of the canal, which formed the new channel of the Nile, were carefully secured by the Persians, lest the river should break through and flood the city. Memphis was situated in the 1 ii. 3. narrow part of Aegypt where the valley is contract- AFRICA. ed between the Arabian and Libyan mountains. CHAP. IV. On the east was the river Nile, and on the north Lake excaand west Menes excavated a lake which was supplied vated by by the river. Menes. tion of He modern the Nile. of the Canal The foregoing description requires a few words of Explanaexplanation. That Menes excavated an entirely rodotus's new channel for the great body of water brought description down by the Nile, is evidently an exaggeration of the cient and priests of Memphis. The story however is based upon channels of fact. The Nile in reality has two channels. One, which Herodotus calls the ancient channel, and which he describes as flowing close to the Libyan mountains, was the northern part of the Bahr Yusuf, or Canal of Joseph; the other, which he supposed to have been dug by Menes, and which flowed more in the centre of the valley, is the present bed of the river. A brief description of the Canal of Joseph is here ne- Description cessary. It breaks off from the Nile at Farshout in of Joseph. Upper Aegypt, near the ancient city of Chemmis,2 and flows in a northerly direction, along the foot of the Libyan chain, and parallel with the Nile, until it finally joins the Bolbotine or Rosetta branch. Its average width is 170 feet. The northern part is evidently an ancient branch of the river, and not an artificial canal; for no mounds of excavated soil are to be seen along its banks like those which accompany the courses of all ancient canals; and the windings of its bed are alone almost sufficient to prove that it was not dug by the hand of man.3 There is no occasion however for believing that the change in the course of the Nile was effected It is now generally believed by scientific travellers, that the apex of the Delta was much farther to the south in ancient times than in the present. 2 The Bahr Yusuf is generally said to begin at Devint-el-Sherif, and the southern continuation of it, which extends to Farshout, is called Souhadj. But both the Bahr Yusuf and the Souhadj may be regarded as all one canal. 3 Memoire sur le Lac Moeris, par Linant de Bellefonds, etc. Alexandrie, 1843. This valuable tract may be found in Mr. Borrer's Journey to Naples and Jerusalem, etc. We shall have especial occasion to refer to it when developing our author's Son of Lake Moeris. AFRICA. by Menes, for it may have been brought about by CHAP. IV. natural causes; though it certainly was important Site of with that of for a city like Memphis to have such a barrier as the Nile on its eastern side. Aegypt was in no fear of invasion from scattered desert tribes on her west; but the nations beyond her eastern frontier, the Arab, the Syrian, the Mesopotamian, the Persian, and even the savage Scythian, frequently proved formidable and dangerous aggressors. The site of Memphis is identified with that of the identified modern village of Mitranieh, about ten miles to the Mitranih south of Cairo; and the district still bears amongst the Copts the traditional name of Mimf. The position of the village accords with the account of Herodotus that Memphis was situated in the narrow part of Aegypt, for it stands in the contracted part of the Nile valley, having the plain of the Delta on the north, and the expansion towards Fayoum on the south, thus commanding the communication between Upper and Lower Aegypt. Celebrated temple of Hephaes tus, or propylaca built by Moeris. Six colossal statues erected be Memphis was especially celebrated for its vast and wonderful temple of Hephaestus,' or Pthah. This Pthah, built was originally constructed by Menes, but many of by Menes. his successors contributed something towards its Northern enlargement and decoration. Moeris built the propylaea facing the north. Sesostris employed the multitude of captives which he had brought from the various countries he had subdued in conveying huge masses of stone to the temple; and he erected in front of the propylaca six colossal statues, namely, himself and his wife, each thirty cubits, or forty-five feet, high, and his four sons, twenty cubits, or thirty feet, high. Rhampsinitus built the propylaea facing propyl the west, and erected two statues before it, each tues of Sum- twenty-five cubits high. The one standing to the north, the Aegyptians called Summer, and wor fore it by Sesostris. Western and two sta mer and Winter, 1 ii. 99. See chap. v. 2 ii. 108. ii. 110. Sesostris corresponded most nearly with Rameses II. and III., and in the neighbourhood of Mitranieh there still lies a colossal statue of Rameses II. of crystalline limestone, mutilated at the upper and lower extremities, but which, when perfect, must have been nearly forty-three feet in height. Bonomi, quoted by Kenrick. 3 tus. built by Southern and court by Psam shipped and honoured; that on the south they called AFRICA Winter, and treated in quite a contrary manner.1 CHAP. IV. Asychis built the eastern propylaea, which was by erected by far the largest and most beautiful; for it was decor- Rhampsiniated with sculptured figures more than all the others, Eastern and exhibited the greatest variety of architecture. propyle Psammitichus erected the southern propylaea, and Asychis opposite to it he built a court for Apis. This court propylaea, was surrounded by a colonnade, supported by colos- for Apis, sal statues twelve cubits, or eighteen feet, high, in- constructed stead of pillars, and covered with sculptured figures. mitichus. Apis, the supposed manifestation of Osiris in the form of a calf, was entertained in this court whenever he appeared in Aegypt. A colossus, seventy-five feet Colossus high, was dedicated by Amasis, and in the time of 75 feet high Herodotus lay before the temple in a reclining by Amasis. posture. On the same base with it were two statues of Aethiopian stone twenty cubits, or thirty feet, high, standing one on each side of the temple. Finally, Stone statue there was standing in the time of Herodotus the with a stone statue of the priest-king Sethon, with a mouse in his hand, and bearing this inscription: "Whosoever looks on me, let him revere the gods!" 7 5 dedicated of Sethon mouse. Proteus, in (ieron) of On the south side of this splendid temple of Temenus of Hephaestus was a sacred enclosure, or temenus, of cluding the Proteus, very beautiful and richly decorated. With- temple in this temenus was a temple (ieron) of Aphrodite Aphrodite the stranger, which, according to Herodotus's conjecture, originated in Helen's sojourn in Aegypt, where she lived for some time under the protection 3 It will be seen from the foregoing description, that the temple of Pthah at Memphis presented many points of resemblance to the temple at Karnac, and was an illustration of the multiplication of propylaea and courts already noticed. ii. 153. 5 ii. 176. 6 This statue was erected to commemorate the destruction of the Assyrian army of Sennacherib. According to holy writ, the army was destroyed by an angel of Jehovah. Herodotus says that the destruction was occasioned by field-mice, who ate up the bowstrings, quivers, and shield-handles of the invaders. Our author was most probably misled by the sculptured mouse in the hand of the stone image of Sethon, for a mouse is the symbol in Aegyptian hieroglyphics for destruction and slaughter. 7 ii. 141. the stranger AFRICA. of Proteus; for no other temple was ever dedicated CHAP. IV. to this foreign Aphrodite. Around the temenus Phoenician dwelt the Phoenician settlers from Tyre, and the settlement tract was called the Tyrian camp. Amasis also Tyrian built in Memphis a large and curious temple of Temple of Isis.2 called the camp. Isis. White For tress. 3 Memphis was apparently surrounded by walls; a suburb also is mentioned, and the White Fortress, which was garrisoned by the Persians and their allies, who were annually supplied with 120,000 measures of corn by the satrapy of Aegypt and Temple of Libya.5 Twenty stadia from the city lay a temple of Demeter." Demeter. Pyramids described tus identified with those of Gizeh. their site position. 9 8 On the route from Memphis to Naucratis were by Herodo- the celebrated pyramids,' known in modern times as the PYRAMIDS OF GIZEH. They commence at Gizeh, nearly opposite to Cairo, and about five miles General de- westward of the Nile; and they extend for a conscription of siderable distance towards the south. Herodotus and relative describes them as standing upon a hill, about 100 feet high, and we still find them seated on a rocky platform, rising at its highest part about 100 feet above the plain, and forming the first step in the ascent of the Libyan mountains. This rocky range, which thus supports the pyramids, projects from Fayoum along the western border of the Nile valley, rising in height as it advances towards the north-east. Six pyramids are mentioned by Herodotus, three large and three small. Of the three large pyramids, the first, or Great Pyramid of Cheops, lies the nearest to the Nile, and the farthest towards the north; the second, or Pyramid of Chephren, is placed about as much more to the west as the breadth of the first; and the third, or Pyramid of Mycerinus, in like manner, retires towards the west by somewhat more than the breadth of the second.10 The three small pyra 7 ii. 97. 3 iii. 13. 4 iii. 14. 5 iii. 91. 6 ii. 122. 10 A fourth large pyramid is described by Herodotus as having been built of brick by king Asychis, but it is impossible to identify it with |