DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.5538#0026
0' PHARAOHS, FELLAHS, AND EXPLORERS.
habitants. "What the ancient Egyptians did for their dead,
Time has done for their cities. All who run and read have
heard of the mounds of Memphis, of Bubastis, of Tanis, and
of other famous capitals; but few have, perhaps, any very
distinct idea of how these mounds came to be formed, or even
of what they are like. To what shall I compare them ? I can
think of nothing which even distantly resembles them unless
it be an ant-hill. These giant ant-hills are scattered all over
the face of the country, and thickest of all in the Delta. They
are the first objects that excite the traveller's curiosity when
he turns his back upon Alexandria and his face towards
Cairo. He looks out of the window of the railway carriage,
and yonder, a mile or so off in the midst of the cotton-fields,
he sees a huge, irregular brown tumulus, some fifty or sixty
feet in height, perfectly bare of vegetation, which looks as
if it might cover fifteen or twenty acres of ground. This
strange apparition is no sooner left behind than two or three
more, some smaller, some larger, come into sight; and so on
all the way to Cairo. At first he can scarcely believe that
each contains the dead bones of an ancient town. When he
comes to travel farther and know the country better, he dis-
covers that these mounds are to be reckoned not by scores
but by hundreds. So numerous are they that many a dis-
trict of the Delta, if modelled in relief, might be taken for a
raised map of some volcanic centre, such as the chain of the
Puy de Dome, in Auvergne.
Some mounds are of great extent. The mounds of Tanis,
for instance, cover no less than forty acres ; but then Tanis
(better known, perhaps, by its scriptural name, Zoan) was
a very important city, and more than once was the chosen
capital of the empire. Others are so small that they can
scarcely represent anything but hamlets or fortified posts.
But why. it may be asked, have these places, instead of fall-
ing into heaps of ruin,become converted into mounds? Foi
the simple reason that the material of which they were con-
structed was mere earth, and so to earth they have returned.
Like the Arab fellah of the present day, the Egyptian of
habitants. "What the ancient Egyptians did for their dead,
Time has done for their cities. All who run and read have
heard of the mounds of Memphis, of Bubastis, of Tanis, and
of other famous capitals; but few have, perhaps, any very
distinct idea of how these mounds came to be formed, or even
of what they are like. To what shall I compare them ? I can
think of nothing which even distantly resembles them unless
it be an ant-hill. These giant ant-hills are scattered all over
the face of the country, and thickest of all in the Delta. They
are the first objects that excite the traveller's curiosity when
he turns his back upon Alexandria and his face towards
Cairo. He looks out of the window of the railway carriage,
and yonder, a mile or so off in the midst of the cotton-fields,
he sees a huge, irregular brown tumulus, some fifty or sixty
feet in height, perfectly bare of vegetation, which looks as
if it might cover fifteen or twenty acres of ground. This
strange apparition is no sooner left behind than two or three
more, some smaller, some larger, come into sight; and so on
all the way to Cairo. At first he can scarcely believe that
each contains the dead bones of an ancient town. When he
comes to travel farther and know the country better, he dis-
covers that these mounds are to be reckoned not by scores
but by hundreds. So numerous are they that many a dis-
trict of the Delta, if modelled in relief, might be taken for a
raised map of some volcanic centre, such as the chain of the
Puy de Dome, in Auvergne.
Some mounds are of great extent. The mounds of Tanis,
for instance, cover no less than forty acres ; but then Tanis
(better known, perhaps, by its scriptural name, Zoan) was
a very important city, and more than once was the chosen
capital of the empire. Others are so small that they can
scarcely represent anything but hamlets or fortified posts.
But why. it may be asked, have these places, instead of fall-
ing into heaps of ruin,become converted into mounds? Foi
the simple reason that the material of which they were con-
structed was mere earth, and so to earth they have returned.
Like the Arab fellah of the present day, the Egyptian of