DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4393#0078
CO A THOUSAND MILES UP THE NILE.
of the conquest to the accession of George II.* And yet
Khufu himself—the Cheops of the Greek historians—is
but a shadowy figure hovering upon the threshold of
Egyptian history.
And now the desert is left behind and we are nearing
the palms that lead to Memphis. We have, of course, been
dipping into Herodotus—everyone takes Herodotus up the
Nile—and our heads are full of the ancient glories of this
famous city. We know that Mena turned the course of
the river in order to build it on this very spot, and that all
the most illustrious Pharaohs adorned it with temples,
palaces, pylons and precious sculptures. We had read of
the great Temple of Ptah that Eameses the Great enriched
with colossi of himself; and of the sanctuary where Apis
lived in state, taking his exercise in a pillared court-yard
where every column was a statue; and of the artificial lake
and the sacred groves and the obelisks and all the wonders
of a city which, even in its later days, was one of the most
populous in Egypt.
Thinking over these things by the way, we agree that
it is well to have left Memphis till the last. We shall
appreciate it the better for having first seen that other city
on the edge of the desert to which, for nearly six thousand
years, all Memphis was quietly migrating, generation
after generation. We know now how poor folk labored, and
how great gentlemen amused themselves, in those early
days when there were hundreds of country gentlemen like
Ti, with town-houses at Memphis and villas by the Nile.
From the Serapeum, too, buried and ruined as it is, one
cannot but come away with a profound impression of the
splendor and power of a religion which could command
for its myths such faith, such homage, and such public
works.
And now we are once more in the midst of the palm-
* There was no worship of Apis in the days of King Ouenephes,
nor, indeed, until the reign of Kaiechos, more than one hundred and
twenty years after his time. But at some subsequent period of the
ancient empire his pyramid was appropriated by the priests of
Memphis for the mummies of the sacred bulls. This, of course,
was done before any of the known Apis catacombs were excavated.
There are doubtless many more of these catacombs yet undis-
covered, nothing prior to the eighteenth dynasty having yet been
found.
of the conquest to the accession of George II.* And yet
Khufu himself—the Cheops of the Greek historians—is
but a shadowy figure hovering upon the threshold of
Egyptian history.
And now the desert is left behind and we are nearing
the palms that lead to Memphis. We have, of course, been
dipping into Herodotus—everyone takes Herodotus up the
Nile—and our heads are full of the ancient glories of this
famous city. We know that Mena turned the course of
the river in order to build it on this very spot, and that all
the most illustrious Pharaohs adorned it with temples,
palaces, pylons and precious sculptures. We had read of
the great Temple of Ptah that Eameses the Great enriched
with colossi of himself; and of the sanctuary where Apis
lived in state, taking his exercise in a pillared court-yard
where every column was a statue; and of the artificial lake
and the sacred groves and the obelisks and all the wonders
of a city which, even in its later days, was one of the most
populous in Egypt.
Thinking over these things by the way, we agree that
it is well to have left Memphis till the last. We shall
appreciate it the better for having first seen that other city
on the edge of the desert to which, for nearly six thousand
years, all Memphis was quietly migrating, generation
after generation. We know now how poor folk labored, and
how great gentlemen amused themselves, in those early
days when there were hundreds of country gentlemen like
Ti, with town-houses at Memphis and villas by the Nile.
From the Serapeum, too, buried and ruined as it is, one
cannot but come away with a profound impression of the
splendor and power of a religion which could command
for its myths such faith, such homage, and such public
works.
And now we are once more in the midst of the palm-
* There was no worship of Apis in the days of King Ouenephes,
nor, indeed, until the reign of Kaiechos, more than one hundred and
twenty years after his time. But at some subsequent period of the
ancient empire his pyramid was appropriated by the priests of
Memphis for the mummies of the sacred bulls. This, of course,
was done before any of the known Apis catacombs were excavated.
There are doubtless many more of these catacombs yet undis-
covered, nothing prior to the eighteenth dynasty having yet been
found.