Edwards, Amelia B.: A thousand miles up the Nile (New York, [1888])

250 A THOUSAND MILES UP THE NILE.

payment of wages, the sale and purchase of land for burial,
and the like. If any definite and quite unmistakable news
of the Hebrews should ever reach us from Egyptian
sources it will almost certainly be through the medium of
documents such as these.

An unusually long reign, the last fortyr-six years of
which would seem to have been spent in peace and out-
ward prosperity, enabled Rameses II to indulge his ruling
passion without interruption. To draw up anything like
an exhaustive catalogue of his known architectural works
would be equivalent to writing an itinerary of Egypt and
Ethiopia under the nineteenth dynasty. His designs were
as vast as his means appear to have been unlimited. From
the delta to Gebel Baikal, he filled the land with monu-
ments dedicated to his own glory and the worship of the
gods. Upon Thebes, Abydos, and Tanis ho lavished
structures of surpassing magnificence. In Nubia, at the
places now known as Gerf Hossayn, AVady Sabooyah, Derr,
and Abou Simbel, he was the author of temples and the
founder of cities. These cities, which would probably be
better described as provincial towns, have disappeared; and
but for the mention of them in various inscriptions we
should not even know that they had existed. Who shall
say how many more have vanished, leaving neither traco
nor record? A dozen cities of Raineses* may yet lie buried
under some of these nameless mounds which follow each
other in such quick succession along the banks of the Nile
in Middle and Lower Egypt. Only yesterday, as it were,
the remains of what would seem to have been a magnificent
structure decorated in a style absolutely unique, were acci-

tendante a eux. La chambre des comptes ne manque pas. Lea
domaines, les proprieties, les palais, et meme les lacs du roi sont mis
sous la garde d'inspecteurs. Les architectes du Pliaraon s'occupent
de batisses d'apres l'ordre du Pharaon. Les carrieres, a partir de
celles du Mokattam (le Toora de nos jours) jusqu'a celles d'Assouan,
se trouvent exploitees par des chefs qui surveillent le transport des
pierres failles a la place de deur destination. Finalement la corvee
est dirigee par les chefs des travaux publics."—"Histoire d'Kgypte,"
Brugsch; second edition, 1875; chap, v, pp. 34 and 35.

* The Pa-Kameses of the Bible narrative was not the only Egyp-
tian city of that name. There was a Pa-Kameses near Memphis,
and another Pa-Remeses at Abou Simbel; and there may probably
have been many more.