DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.32079#0112
weak and corrupt rule of the later monarchs. It
sank into a Roman province, and its history ceases.
It is only at a comparatively late period that we
are able to fix the dates of Egyptian history. We
may indeed surmise that Abraham visited Egypt in
the latter part of the Memphite period; we may
evendeem it probable that Joseph was prime minis-
ter of one of the Hyksos kings, but the first paral-
lel event recorded in the history of another people
which we know of with any approach to certainty
is the construction of the treasure cities of Pithom and
Ramses, built by the enforced labor of the Israelites
under Rameses II, the mighty warrior known in
Greek tradition as Sesostris the Great. Solomon
was contemporary with the XXII dynasty. He-
rodotus visited Egypt about a hundred years after
the Persian conquest, so that the last of the twenty-
four native dynasties which ruled successively over
Egypt had passed away before the father of history
began to write.
It is only by such tentative methods of com-
parison that we can form some conception of the
remoteness and antiquity of Egyptian annals. If
we seek to measure the length of those annals
we find some approximate indications. The infer-
ences from Manetho’s list of kings, confirmed as
it is to a great extent by the tablets of Abydos and
of Karnak, and by other monumental inscriptions,
make it probable that Menes, the first recorded
monarch, lived not less than 3500 years before the
Christian Era. But it is also probable that Menes
found a civilization and a religion already advanced
to a high point. Of the antiquity of Egyptian civi-
lization even at that time, we have a curious scien-
tific testimony. A careful computation of the rate
at which the valley of the Nile increases in height
shows that a century’s deposit of mud raises the
ievel by five inches. Out of ninety-five different
borings in the valley of the Nile, seventy brought
to view examples of man’s handiwork, sculptured
granite, for instance, and fragments of colored
58
sank into a Roman province, and its history ceases.
It is only at a comparatively late period that we
are able to fix the dates of Egyptian history. We
may indeed surmise that Abraham visited Egypt in
the latter part of the Memphite period; we may
evendeem it probable that Joseph was prime minis-
ter of one of the Hyksos kings, but the first paral-
lel event recorded in the history of another people
which we know of with any approach to certainty
is the construction of the treasure cities of Pithom and
Ramses, built by the enforced labor of the Israelites
under Rameses II, the mighty warrior known in
Greek tradition as Sesostris the Great. Solomon
was contemporary with the XXII dynasty. He-
rodotus visited Egypt about a hundred years after
the Persian conquest, so that the last of the twenty-
four native dynasties which ruled successively over
Egypt had passed away before the father of history
began to write.
It is only by such tentative methods of com-
parison that we can form some conception of the
remoteness and antiquity of Egyptian annals. If
we seek to measure the length of those annals
we find some approximate indications. The infer-
ences from Manetho’s list of kings, confirmed as
it is to a great extent by the tablets of Abydos and
of Karnak, and by other monumental inscriptions,
make it probable that Menes, the first recorded
monarch, lived not less than 3500 years before the
Christian Era. But it is also probable that Menes
found a civilization and a religion already advanced
to a high point. Of the antiquity of Egyptian civi-
lization even at that time, we have a curious scien-
tific testimony. A careful computation of the rate
at which the valley of the Nile increases in height
shows that a century’s deposit of mud raises the
ievel by five inches. Out of ninety-five different
borings in the valley of the Nile, seventy brought
to view examples of man’s handiwork, sculptured
granite, for instance, and fragments of colored
58