Page images
PDF
EPUB

there were formerly nomes. There are an equal number of aulæ, surrounded by pillars, and contiguous to one another, all in one line, and forming one building, like a long wall having the aulæ in front of it. The entrances into the aulæ are opposite to the wall. In front of the entrances there are long and numerous covered ways, with winding passages communicating with each other, so that no stranger could find his way into the aulæ or out of them without a guide. The surprising circumstance is that the roofs of these dwellings consist of a single stone each, and that the covered ways through their whole range were roofed in the same manner with single slabs of stone of extraordinary size, without the intermixture of timber or of any other material. On ascending the roof--which is not of great height, for it consists only of a single story-there may be seen a stone-field, thus composed of stones. Descending again and looking into the aulæ, these may be seen in a line supported by 27 pillars, each consisting of a single stone. The walls also are constructed of stones not inferior in size to them. At the end of this building, which occupies more than a stadium, is the tomb, which is a quadrangular pyramid, each side of which is about four plethra (i.e., about 404 feet) in length, and of equal height. The name of the person buried there is Imandes [Diodorus gives Mendes or Marrus]. They built, it is said, this number of aulæ, because it was the custom for all the nomes to assemble there according to their rank, with their own priests and priestesses, for the purpose of performing sacrifices and making offerings to the gods, and of administering justice in matters of great importance. Each of the nomes was conducted to the aula appointed for it."

The account given by Herodotus (II., 148, Cary's translation) is as follows:- :

"Yet the labyrinth surpasses even the pyramids. For it

has twelve courts enclosed with walls, with doors opposite each other, six facing the north, and six the south, contiguous to one another; and the same exterior wall encloses them. It contains two kinds of rooms, some under ground and some above ground over them, to the number of three thousand, fifteen hundred of each. The rooms above ground, I myself went through, and saw, and relate from personal inspection. But the underground rooms I only know from report; for the Egyptians who have charge of the building would, on no account, show me them, saying, that there were the sepulchres of the kings who originally built this labyrinth, and of the sacred crocodiles. I can therefore only relate what I have learnt by hearsay concerning the lower rooms; but the upper ones, which surpass all human works, I myself saw; for the passages through the corridors, and the windings through the courts, from their great variety, presented a thousand occasions of wonder, as I passed from a court to the rooms, and from the rooms to halls, and to other corridors from the halls, and to other courts from the rooms. The roofs of all these are of stone, as also are the walls; but the walls are full of sculptured figures. Each court is surrounded with a colonnade of white stone, closely fitted. And adjoining the extremity of the labyrinth is a pyramid, forty orgyæ (about 240 feet) in height, on which large figures are carved, and a way to it has been made under ground."

The whole district of the Fayyûm is one of considerable interest, and a careful examination of it would certainly result in the discovery of ruins now unknown. In recent years Messrs. Grenfell and Hunt have carried on excavations here with success, and they have recovered portions of the works of Greek authors of great value.

Beni Suwêf, 73 miles from Cairo, is the capital of the province bearing the same name, and is governed by a Mudir. In ancient days it was famous for its textile fabrics,

and supplied Akmim and other weaving cities of Upper Egypt with flax. A main road led from this town to the Fayyûm.

[ocr errors]

Egyptians m

[ocr errors]

About twelve miles to the north of Beni Suwêf the Bahr Yûsuf bends towards the east, and runs by the side of large mounds of ruins of houses, broken pottery, etc.; these mounds cover an area of 360 acres, and are commonly called Umm al-Ķûmân, or 'Mother of Heaps,' though the official name is Hanassîyah al-Madina or Ahnâs. They mark the site of the great city which was called by the www Het-Suten-henen, or Ḥenen-suten simply, from which the Copts made their name HC; the Greeks made the city the capital of the nome Herakleopolites, and called it Herakleopolis. No date can be assigned for the founding of the city, but it was certainly a famous place in the early empire, and in mytho logical texts great importance is ascribed to it. According to Manetho the kings of the IXth and Xth dynasties were Herakleopolitans, but in the the excavations which Prof. Naville and Prof. Petrie (1904) carried on at Hanassiyah, or Ahnâs, they found nothing there older than the XIIth dynasty. It has been maintained that Ahnâs represents the city of Hânês mentioned in Isaiah xxx. 4, but the city referred to by the prophet being coupled with Zoan was probably situated in the Delta. The gods worshipped by the Egyptians at Herakleopolis were Heru-shef, or Heru-shefit, who dwelt in the shrine of An-rut-f, Shu, Beb, Osiris, and Sekhet; at this place Osiris was first crowned, and Horus assumed the rank and dignity of his father, and the sky was separated from the earth, and from here Sekhet set out on her journey to destroy mankind because they had rebelled against Ra, the Sungod, who, they declared, had become old and incapable of ruling them rightly. The people of Herakleopolis used

to worship the ichneumon, a valuable animal which destroyed the eggs of crocodiles and asps, and even the asps themselves. Strabo declares that the ichneumons used to drop into the jaws of the crocodiles as they lay basking with their mouths open and, having eaten through their intestines, issue out of the dead body.

Maghaghah, 106 miles from Cairo, is now celebrated for its large sugar manufactory, which is lighted by gas, and is well worth a visit; the manufacturing of sugar begins here early in January.

About twenty-four miles farther south, lying inland, on the western side of the Nile, between the river and the Bahr Yûsuf, is the site of the town of Oxyrrhynchus, so called by the Greeks on account of the fish which they believed was worshipped there. The Egyptian name of the town was

, Per-matchet, from which came the Coptic

Рemge, ПЄxe, and the corrupt Arabic form Bahnasa. The excavations made in the neighbourhood of Bahnasa by Messrs. Grenfell and Hunt have produced important results.

The Oxyrrhynchus fish was esteemed so sacred that the people of the city were afraid to eat any fish which had been caught with a hook, lest the hook should have injured one of the sacred fish; the Oxyrrhynchus fish was thought to have been produced from the blood of the wounded Osiris (Aelian, De Nat. Animalium, x. 46). The Oasis of Baḥrîyah (Oasis Parva), which is called by Abû Şaliḥ 'the Oasis of Bahnasa,' is usually visited by the desert road which runs there from the city. The Arabic writer Al-Makrîzî says that there were once 360 churches in Bahnasa, but that the only one remaining in his time was that dedicated to the Virgin Mary. In recent years the excavations which have been carried on by Messrs. Grenfell and Hunt at Oxyrrhynchus have resulted in the discovery of numerous papyri of a late period.

A little above Abû Girgah, on the west bank of the Nile, is the town of Al-Kais, which marks the site of the ancient Cynopolis or 'Dog-city'; it was the seat of a Coptic bishop, and is called Kais, R&IC, in Coptic.

Thirteen miles from Abû Girgah, also on the west bank of the Nile, is the town of Kulûşna, 134 miles from Cairo, and a few miles south, lying inland, is Samallût.

Farther south, on the east bank of the Nile, is Gebel atTêr, or the Bird mountain,' so called because tradition says that all the birds of Egypt assemble here once a year, and that they leave behind them when departing one solitary bird, that remains there until they return the following year to relieve him of his watch, and to set another in his place. As there are mountains called Gebel at-Têr in all parts of Arabic-speaking countries, because of the number of birds. which frequent them, the story is only one which springs from the fertile Arab imagination. Gebel at-Têr rises above the river to a height of six or seven hundred feet, and upon its summit stands a Coptic convent dedicated to Mary the Virgin, Dêr al-'Adhrâ, but more commonly called Dêr al-Bakarah, or the Convent of the Pulley,' because the ascent to the convent is generally made by a rope and pulley.

Leaving the river and entering a fissure in the rocks, the traveller finds himself at the bottom of a natural shaft about 120 feet long. When Robert Curzon visited this convent, he had to climb up much in the same way as boys used to climb up inside chimneys. The convent stands about 400 feet from the top of the shaft, and is built of small square stones of Roman workmanship; the necessary repairs have, however, been made with mud or sundried brick. The outer walls of the enclosure form a square which measures about 200 feet each way; they are 20 feet high, and are perfectly unadorned. Tradition says that it

« PreviousContinue »