DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4393#0338
320 A THOUSAND MILES UP THE NILE.
may have been the library of the Great Temple of Abon
Simbcl. This being the case, the absence of an altar, and
the presence of Ra and Amen-Ra in the two principal
tableaux, are sufficiently accounted for. The tutelary
deity of the great temple and the patron deity of Barneses
II would naturally occupy, in this subsidiary structure, the
same places that they occupy in the principal one ; while
the library, though in one sense the domain of Thoth, is
still under the protection of the gods of the temple to
which it is an adjunct.
I do not believe we once asked ourselves how it came to
pass that the place had remained hidden all these ages
long; yet its very freshness proved how early it must have
been abandoned. If it had been open in the time of the
successors of Rameses II, they would probably, as else-
where, have interpolated inscriptions and cartouches, or
have substituted their own cartouches for those of the
founder. If it had been open in the time of the Ptolemies
and Csesars, traveling Greeks and learned Romans and
strangers from Byzantium and the cities of Asia Minor
would have cut their names on the door-jambs and scrib-
bled ox-votos on the walls. If it had been open in the
days of Nubian Christianity, the sculptures would have
been coated with mud and washed with lime and daubed
with pious caricatures of St. George and the holy family.
But we found it intact—as perfectly preserved as a tomb
that had lain hidden under the rocky bed of the desert.
For these reasons I am inclined to think that it became
inaccessible shortly after it was completed. There can be
little doubt that a wave of earthquake passed, during the
reign of Barneses II, along the left bank of the Nile, be-
ginning possibly above Wady Halfeh, and extending at
least as far north as Gerf Ilossayn. Such a shock might
have wrecked the temple at Wady Halfeh, as it dislocated
the pylon of Wady Sabooah, and shook the built-out porti-
coes of Derr and Gerf Ilossayn ; which last four temples,
as they do not, I believe, show signs of having been added
to by later Pharaohs, may be supposed to have been
abandoned in consequence of the ruin which had befallen
them. Here, at all events, it shook the mountain of the
great temple, cracked one of the Osiride columns of the
first hall,* shattered one of the four great colossi, more or
* That this shock of earthquake occurred during the lifetime of
may have been the library of the Great Temple of Abon
Simbcl. This being the case, the absence of an altar, and
the presence of Ra and Amen-Ra in the two principal
tableaux, are sufficiently accounted for. The tutelary
deity of the great temple and the patron deity of Barneses
II would naturally occupy, in this subsidiary structure, the
same places that they occupy in the principal one ; while
the library, though in one sense the domain of Thoth, is
still under the protection of the gods of the temple to
which it is an adjunct.
I do not believe we once asked ourselves how it came to
pass that the place had remained hidden all these ages
long; yet its very freshness proved how early it must have
been abandoned. If it had been open in the time of the
successors of Rameses II, they would probably, as else-
where, have interpolated inscriptions and cartouches, or
have substituted their own cartouches for those of the
founder. If it had been open in the time of the Ptolemies
and Csesars, traveling Greeks and learned Romans and
strangers from Byzantium and the cities of Asia Minor
would have cut their names on the door-jambs and scrib-
bled ox-votos on the walls. If it had been open in the
days of Nubian Christianity, the sculptures would have
been coated with mud and washed with lime and daubed
with pious caricatures of St. George and the holy family.
But we found it intact—as perfectly preserved as a tomb
that had lain hidden under the rocky bed of the desert.
For these reasons I am inclined to think that it became
inaccessible shortly after it was completed. There can be
little doubt that a wave of earthquake passed, during the
reign of Barneses II, along the left bank of the Nile, be-
ginning possibly above Wady Halfeh, and extending at
least as far north as Gerf Ilossayn. Such a shock might
have wrecked the temple at Wady Halfeh, as it dislocated
the pylon of Wady Sabooah, and shook the built-out porti-
coes of Derr and Gerf Ilossayn ; which last four temples,
as they do not, I believe, show signs of having been added
to by later Pharaohs, may be supposed to have been
abandoned in consequence of the ruin which had befallen
them. Here, at all events, it shook the mountain of the
great temple, cracked one of the Osiride columns of the
first hall,* shattered one of the four great colossi, more or
* That this shock of earthquake occurred during the lifetime of