* means the "fair site"; the sacred name of the place is 8 Het-Ptah-ka, and means "the temple of the genius of Ptaḥ"; from this name it seems that the Greek name for Egypt Alyvπтos is derived. The worship of the gods, the temple services, and the cult of Apis were introduced by Menes, who is said to have been devoured by a crocodile. Tetȧ wrote a book on anatomy, and continued building at Memphis. Áta. In the reign of this king a great famine happened. He is said to have built pyramids at Kochome near Ṣakkarah, but there is no evidence that he built the famous Step Pyramid' there. Hesep-ti. The 64th chapter of the Book of the Dead is said to have been found at Denderah during his reign, and the 130th chapter also dates from that period. Mer-ba-pen. With this king's name the Tablet of Ṣakkârah begins. B.C. 4366 4300 Famine in 4266 Antiquity of Book of the Dead. 4233 4000 During the second dynasty an earthquake swallowed up a great many people at Bubastis, and the succession of females to the throne of Egypt was declared valid. Sent, the last king of this dynasty, revised a work on medicine, and he Early appears to be the first king of whom contemporaneous monu- knowledge ments remain. in Egypt. medical During the rule of Nefer-ka-Seker, the first king of the IIIrd dynasty, the tribes of the land to the north-west of the Delta rebelled: according to Manetho's statement, the moon Eclipse of first grew very large and bright, and then became dark, and the rebels were so terrified that they fled away in terror. The monuments of the IVth dynasty are numerous, and the tombs of this period, particularly, show to what a high state of culture and civilization the Egyptians had attained. Of the first king, Seneferu, very little is known he invaded The steps are six in number, and are about 38, 36, 341, 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, 596 feet, and the actual height is 197 feet. The shape of the pyramid is oblong, and the arrangement of the chambers inside is peculiar to itself. the moon. 3766 Copper mines worked in Sinai. the peninsula of Sinai, and having conquered the hostile tribes there, established copper mining at Wâdy Ma'ârah. He dug wells, and built forts and temples there for the use of the miners and overseers, and from the remains of the working of his mines, which may be seen there to this day, it is clear that the copper industry must have been very large at that period in Egypt. Sinai was called Mafkata, "the land of the bluish-green stone." Seneferu is Pyramid of said to have built the Pyramid of Mêdûm, called in Egyptian Cha, and in Arabic El-Haram el-Kaddab, “the false Mêdûm. B.C. 3733 The Pyramid of Mêdûm. pyramid." This pyramid is about 115 feet high, and is built in three stages; the first is 70, the second 20, and the third about 25 feet high. It was never completed. Chufu, or Cheops, the next king of Egypt, is more famous as the builder of the great pyramid of Gizeh than as a warrior, and little more is known of his military expeditions than that he continued the wars against the tribes of Sinai which his predecessor Seneferu had so ably begun. He appears to have built many towns, and the famous temple of Denderah is said to have been founded during his reign. As Denderah the pyramids were tombs, they will be described in the chapter relating to tombs. Great pyramid built and founded. B.C. 3666 The Sphinx. Repairs to the Sphinx. Caviglia excavates Sphinx. Chāfrā, or Chephren, is also more famous as the builder of the second pyramid than as a warrior, and with his name is coupled that of the Sphinx. The age of the Sphinx is unknown, and few of the facts connected with its history have come down to these days. Some years ago it was generally believed to have been made during the rule of the kings of the Middle Empire over Egypt, but when the stele which recorded the repairs made in the temple of the sphinx by Thothmes IV., B.C. 1533, came to light, it became certain that it was the work of one of the kings of the Ancient Empire. The stele records that one day during an after-dinner sleep, Harmachis appeared to Thothmes IV., and promised to bestow upon him the crown of Egypt if he would dig his image, i.e., the Sphinx, out of the sand. At the end of the inscription part of the name of Chā-f-Ra or Chephren appears, and hence some have thought that this king was the maker of the Sphinx; and as the statue of Chephren was subsequently found in the temple close by, this theory was generally adopted. An inscription found by Mariette near one of the pyramids to the east of the pyramid of Cheops shows that the Sphinx existed in the time of Chu-fu or Cheops. The Egyptians called the Sphinx hu , and he represented the god Harmachis, i.e., Ḥeruem-chut —, "Horus in the horizon," or the rising sun, the conqueror of darkness, the god of the morning. On the tablet erected by Thothmes IV., Harmachis says that he gave life and dominion to Thothmes III., and he promises to give the same good gifts to his successor Thothmes IV. The discovery of the steps which led up to the Sphinx, a smaller Sphinx, and an open temple, etc., was made by Caviglia, who first excavated this monument; within the last few years very extensive excavations have been made round it by the Egyptian Government, and several hitherto unseen parts of it have been brought to view. The Sphinx is hewn out of the living rock, but pieces of stone have been added where necessary; the body is about 150 feet long, the paws are 50 feet long, the head is 30 feet long, the face is 14 feet wide, and from the top of the head to the base of the monument the distance is about 70 feet. Originally there probably were ornaments on the head, the whole of which was covered with a limestone covering, and the face was coloured red; of these decorations scarcely any traces now remain, though they were visible towards the end of the last century. The condition in which the monument now appears is due to the savage destruction of its features by the Muḥammadan rulers of Egypt, some of whom caused it to be used for a target. Around this imposing relic of antiquity, whose origin is wrapped in mystery, a number of legends and The superstitions have clustered in all ages; but Egyptology has Sphinx shown, I., that it was a colossal image of Ra-Harmachis, and blem of therefore of his human representative upon earth, the king machis. of Egypt who had it hewn, and II., that it was in existence in the time of, and was probably repaired by, Cheops and Chephren, who lived about three thousand seven hundred years before Christ.1 Menkaurā or Mykerinos is famous as the builder of the third pyramid at Gîzeh. The fragments of his inner wooden coffin and a small fragment of his basalt sarcophagus are preserved in the British Museum, together with the remains of a human body which were found with them in the third pyramid at Gizeh. The reputation which this king left. behind him is that of a good and just ruler. the em Ra-Har B.C. 3633 The oldest coffin in the world. 3566 3400 mines The kings of the Vth like those of the IVth dynasty are famous rather as builders than as warriors. The rule of the first king, Userkaf, extended as far as Elephantine. Saḥurā, the second king, suppressed revolts in the Sinaitic peninsula and founded a town near Esneh. An, Ḥeru-men-kau, and Tet-ka-Ra also made expeditions into Sinai, and caused Copper reliefs to be cut on the rocks with the usual inscriptions in worked in which they are called the conquerors of the land. In the Sinai. reign of this last named king Ṭet-ka-Rā or Assȧ was written the famous work entitled the "Precepts of Ptaḥ-Hetep." A single complete copy of this work, dating from the XIth or XIIth dynasty, is extant; it is preserved in the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris, where it was brought by Prisse." If all 1 Budge, The Nile, Notes for Travellers in Egypt, 2nd ed., pp. 194, 195. 3366 |