DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4393#0260
242 A THOUSAND MILES UP THE NILE.
vast, for his ambition. "As a child," says the stela of
Dakkehj " he superintended the public works and his
hands laid their foundations." As a man, he became the
supreme builder. Of his gigantic structures, only certain
colossal fragments have survived the ravages of time; yet
those fragments are the wonder of the world.
' To estimate the cost at which these things were done is
now impossible. Every temple, every palace, represented a
hecatomb of human lives. Slaves from Ethiopia, cap-
tives taken in war, Syrian immigrants settled in the delta,
were alike pressed into the service of the state. We know
how the Hebrews suffered, and to what extremity of
despair they were reduced by the tasks imposed upon
them. Yet even the Hebrews were less cruelly used than
some who were kidnaped beyond the frontiers. Torn
from their homes, without hope of return, driven in herds
to the mines, the quarries, and the brick-fields, these hap-
less victims were so dealt with that not even the chances
of desertion were open to them. The negroes from the
south were systematically drafted to the north; the Asiatic
captives were transported to Ethiopia. Those who labored
mouths, traversed the whole length of the Mediterranean sea, gone
out through the pillars of Hercules, doubled the Cape of Good Hope,
and arrived at the Somali coast by way of the Mozambique Channel
and the shores of Zanzibar. In other words, the Egyptian galleys
would twice have made the almost complete circuit of the African
continent. This is obviously an untenable hypothesis ; and there
remains no alternative route except that of a canal, or chain of
canals, connecting the Nile with the Red Sea. The old Wady
Tumilat canal has hitherto been universally ascribed to Seti I, for no
other reason than that a canal leading from the Nile to the ocean is
represented on a bas-relief of his reign on the north outer wall of the
great temple of Karnak ; but this canal may undoubtedly have been
made under the preceding dynasty, and it is not only probable, but
most likely, that the great woman-Pharaoh, who first conceived the
notion of venturing her ships upon an unknown sea, may also have
organized the channel of communication by which those ships went
forth. According to the second edition of Sir J. W. Dawson's
" Egypt and Syria," the recent surveys conducted by Lieut.-Col.
Ardagh, Maj. Spaight and Lieut. Burton, all of the royal engineers,
'' render it certain that this valley [i. e. the Wady Tumilat] once
carried a branch up the Nile which discharged its waters into the Ued
Sea" (see chap. iii. p. 55); and in such case, if that branch were not
already navigable, Queen Hatshepsu would only have needed to
canalize it, which is what she probably did. [Note to second
edition.}
vast, for his ambition. "As a child," says the stela of
Dakkehj " he superintended the public works and his
hands laid their foundations." As a man, he became the
supreme builder. Of his gigantic structures, only certain
colossal fragments have survived the ravages of time; yet
those fragments are the wonder of the world.
' To estimate the cost at which these things were done is
now impossible. Every temple, every palace, represented a
hecatomb of human lives. Slaves from Ethiopia, cap-
tives taken in war, Syrian immigrants settled in the delta,
were alike pressed into the service of the state. We know
how the Hebrews suffered, and to what extremity of
despair they were reduced by the tasks imposed upon
them. Yet even the Hebrews were less cruelly used than
some who were kidnaped beyond the frontiers. Torn
from their homes, without hope of return, driven in herds
to the mines, the quarries, and the brick-fields, these hap-
less victims were so dealt with that not even the chances
of desertion were open to them. The negroes from the
south were systematically drafted to the north; the Asiatic
captives were transported to Ethiopia. Those who labored
mouths, traversed the whole length of the Mediterranean sea, gone
out through the pillars of Hercules, doubled the Cape of Good Hope,
and arrived at the Somali coast by way of the Mozambique Channel
and the shores of Zanzibar. In other words, the Egyptian galleys
would twice have made the almost complete circuit of the African
continent. This is obviously an untenable hypothesis ; and there
remains no alternative route except that of a canal, or chain of
canals, connecting the Nile with the Red Sea. The old Wady
Tumilat canal has hitherto been universally ascribed to Seti I, for no
other reason than that a canal leading from the Nile to the ocean is
represented on a bas-relief of his reign on the north outer wall of the
great temple of Karnak ; but this canal may undoubtedly have been
made under the preceding dynasty, and it is not only probable, but
most likely, that the great woman-Pharaoh, who first conceived the
notion of venturing her ships upon an unknown sea, may also have
organized the channel of communication by which those ships went
forth. According to the second edition of Sir J. W. Dawson's
" Egypt and Syria," the recent surveys conducted by Lieut.-Col.
Ardagh, Maj. Spaight and Lieut. Burton, all of the royal engineers,
'' render it certain that this valley [i. e. the Wady Tumilat] once
carried a branch up the Nile which discharged its waters into the Ued
Sea" (see chap. iii. p. 55); and in such case, if that branch were not
already navigable, Queen Hatshepsu would only have needed to
canalize it, which is what she probably did. [Note to second
edition.}