IVth, and VIth dynasties, the kings of which sprang from Memphis, that city reached a height of splendour which was probably never excelled. The most celebrated building there was the temple of Ptaḥ, which was beautified and adorned by a number of kings, the last of whom reigned during the XXVIth dynasty. The Hyksos ravaged, but did not destroy, the city; under the rule of the Theban kings, who expelled the Hyksos, the city flourished for a time, although Thebes became the new capital. When Rameses II. returned from his wars in the east, he set up a statue of himself in front of the temple of Ptaḥ there; Pianchi the Ethiopian besieged it; the Assyrian kings Esarhaddon and Assurbanipal captured it; Cambyses the Persian, having wrought great damage there, killed the magistrates of the city and the priests of the temple of Apis, and smote the Apis bull so that he died ;* he established a Persian garrison there. After the founding of Alexandria, Memphis lost

*

"When Cambyses arrived at Memphis, Apis, whom the Greeks call Epaphus, appeared to the Egyptians; and when this manifestation took place, the Egyptians immediately put on their richest apparel, and kept festive holiday. Cambyses seeing them thus occupied, and concluding that they made their rejoicings on account of his ill success, summoned the magistrates to Memphis; and when they came into his presence, he asked, 'why the Egyptians had done nothing of the kind when he was at Memphis before, but did so now, when he had returned with the loss of a great part of his army.' They answered, that their god appeared to them, who was accustomed to manifest himself at distant intervals, and that when he did appear, then all the Egyptians were used to rejoice and keep a feast. Cambyses, having heard this, said they lied, and as liars he put them to death. Having slain them, he next summoned the priests into his presence; and when the priests gave the same account, he said, that he would find out whether a god so tractable had come among the Egyptians; and having said this, he commanded the priests to bring Apis to him; they therefore went away to fetch him. This Apis, or Epaphus, is the calf of a cow incapable of conceiving another offspring; and the Egyptians say, that lightning descends upon the cow from heaven, and that from thence it brings

whatever glory it then possessed, and became merely the chief provincial city of Egypt. During the reign of Theodosius, a savage attack, the result of his edict, was made upon its temples and buildings by the Christians, and a few hundred years later the Muḥammadans carried the stones, which once formed them, across the river to serve as building materials for their houses and mosques. The circuit of the ancient city, according to Diodorus, was 150 stadia, or about thirteen miles.

THE COLOSSAL STATUE OF RAMESES II.

This magnificent statue was discovered by Messrs. Caviglia and Sloane in 1820, and was presented by them to the British Museum. On account of its weight and the lack of public interest in such matters, it lay near the road leading from Bedrashên to Mît-Rahîneh, and little by little became nearly covered with the annual deposit of Nile mud; during the inundation the greater part of it was covered by the waters of the Nile. During the winter of 1886-87 Sir Frederick Stephenson collected a sum of money in Cairo for the purpose of lifting it out of the hollow in which it

forth Apis. This calf, which is called Apis, has the following marks; it is black, and has a square spot of white on the forehead; and on the back the figure of an eagle; and in the tail double hairs; and on the tongue a beetle. When the priests brought Apis, Cambyses, like one almost out of his senses, drew his dagger, meaning to strike the belly of Apis, but hit the thigh; then falling into a fit of laughter, he said to the priests, 'Ye blockheads, are there such gods as these, consisting of blood and flesh, and sensible to steel? This, truly, is a god worthy of the Egyptians. But you shall not mock me with impunity.' Having spoken thus, he commanded those whose business it was, to Scourge the priests, and to kill all the Egyptians whom they should find feasting. But Apis, being wounded in the thigh, lay and languished in the temple; and at length, when he had died of the wound, the priests buried him without the knowledge of Cambyses."-Herodotus, III. 27-29. (Cary's translation.)

...

lay, and the difficult engineering part of the task was ably accomplished by Major Arthur Bagnold, R.E. This statue is made of a fine hard limestone, and measures about fortytwo feet in height; it is probably one of the statues which stood in front of the temple of Ptah, mentioned by Herodotus and Diodorus. The prenomen of Rameses II. 어 Rā-usr-māt-setep-en-Rā, is inscribed on

the belt of the statue, and on the end of the roll which the king carries in his hand are the words "Rameses, beloved of Amen." By the side of the king are figures of a daughter and son of Rameses. The famous temple of Ptah founded by Menes was situated to the south of the statue.

SAKKÂRAH.

The name Sakkârah is probably derived from the name of the Egyptian god Seker who was connected with the resurrection of the dead. The tract of land at Sakkârah which formed the great burial ground of the ancient Egyptians of all periods, is about four and a half miles long and one mile wide; the most important antiquities there are I. the Step Pyramid; II. the Pyramids of Unås, Teta, and Pepi, kings of the Vth and VIth dynasties; III. the Serapeum; and IV. the Tomb of Thi. Admirers of M. Mariette will be interested to see the house in which this distinguished savant lived.

I. The STEP PYRAMID is generally thought to have been built by the fourth king of the Ist dynasty (called Uenephes by Manetho, and 4 Ata in the tablet of Abydos), who is said to have built a pyramid at Kochome (i.e., KaKam) near Sakkârah. Though the date of this pyramid is not known accurately, it is probably right to assume that it is older than the pyramids of Gizeh. The door which led into the pyramid was inscribed with the name of a king called Ra-nub, and M. Mariette found the same name on

R

one of the stele in the Serapeum. The steps of the pyramid are six in number, and are about 38, 36, 34, 32, 31 and 29 feet in height; the width of each step is from six to seven feet. The lengths of the sides at the base are: north and south 352 feet, east and west 396 feet, and the actual height is 197 feet. In shape this pyramid is oblong, and its sides do not exactly face the cardinal points. The arrangement of the chambers inside this pyramid is quite peculiar to itself.

40, called in Egyptian

II. The PYRAMID OF UNAS Nefer-ás-u, lies to the south-east of the Step Pyramid, and was reopened and cleared out in 1881 by M. Maspero, at the expense of Messrs. Thomas Cook and Son. Its original height was about 62 feet, and the length of its sides at the base 220 feet. Owing to the broken blocks and sand which lie round about it, Vyse was unable to give exact measurements. Several attempts had been made to break into it, and one of the Arabs who took part in one of these attempts, "Ahmed the Carpenter," seems to have left his name inside one of the chambers in red ink. It is probable that he is the same man who opened the Great Pyramid at Gizeh, A.D. 820. A black basalt sarcophagus, from which the cover had been dragged off, and an arm, a shin bone, some ribs and fragments of the skull from the mummy of Unås, were found in the sarcophagus chamber. The walls of the two largest chambers and two of the corridors are inscribed with ritual texts and prayers of a very interesting character. Unås, the last king of the Vth dynasty, reigned about thirty years. The Maṣṭabat el-Far'ûn was thought by Mariette to be the tomb of Unȧs, but some scholars thought that the 'blunted pyramid' at Dahshûr was his tomb, because his name was written upon the top of it.

The PYRAMID OF TETA ), called in Egyptian

Tet-ȧsu, lies to the north-east of the Step Pyramid, and was opened in 1881. The Arabs call it the "Prison Pyramid," because local tradition says that it is built near the ruins of the prison where Joseph the patriarch was confined. Its actual height is about 59 feet; the length of each side at the base is 210 feet, and the platform at the top is about 50 feet. The arrangement of the chambers and passages and the plan of construction followed is almost identical with that of the pyramid of Unås. This pyramid was broken into in ancient days, and two of the walls of the sarcophagus chamber have literally been smashed to pieces by the hammer blows of those who expected to find treasure inside them. The inscriptions, painted in green. upon the walls, have the same subject matter as those inscribed upon the walls of the chambers of the pyramid of Unás. According to Manetho, Tetȧ, the first king of the VIth dynasty, reigned about fifty years, and was murdered by one of his guards.

The PYRAMID OF PEPI I. or H

'Ra

south-east of the

central group of

meri, son of the Sun, Pepi,' lies to the Step Pyramid, and forms one of the pyramids at Sakkârah, where it is called the Pyramid of Shekh Abu Manșûr; it was opened in 1880. Its actual height is about 40 feet, and the length of the sides at the base is about 250 feet; the arrangement of the chambers, etc., inside is the same as in the pyramids of Unas and Tetȧ, but the ornamentation is slightly different. It is the worst preserved of these pyramids, and has suffered most at the hands of the spoilers, probably because having been constructed with stones which were taken from tombs ancient already in those days, instead of stones fresh from the quarry, it was more easily injured. The granite. sarcophagus was broken to take out the mummy, fragments of which were found lying about on the ground; the cover